Quilt tops, cross stitch, and mowing

I got the long, black insert pieces sewn together and cut last night then hung up the interfaced sleeves to get an idea of how the border is going to look. I think I have gone as far as I can for now on this top until I can cut up my yellow shirt.

So in the meantime, I will go ahead and finish the odds and end top. I dug thru my vintage fabric bins and came up with 4 options for the filler/joining pieces I need. I am leaning toward number 2. It is a slightly heavier piece of fabric that has a narrow hem. I am thinking it was used as a tablecloth in it's past life.

I watched the last hour of yesterday's TDF stage, sewed a little, then headed out to mow. I got the front mowed and the one side. I was interrupted during mowing with texts from one brother, a phone call from another, and talking to the neighbor. I need to trim badly so maybe I can tackle that tonight. Here you can see how tall the grass was at the side. I hadn't mowed the side in two weeks so it was long!  It wasn't quite that bad in the front. It was very warm and humid even at 7 -8 p.m.

I made some progress on the deer cushion top over the last couple of days. Here is where I was on Monday and where I am now.

I am taking vacation tomorrow. The band has two shows this weekend. Friday's show is local and Saturday's show is 55 miles away which isn't too bad. Have a great weekend!

T-shirt quilt progress

I got the other shirt I found cut up and interfaced. I rearranged the pieces a bit and here is what it looks like currently.

I will continue to sew improv units for the borders and to join the shirt blocks together, but this top is going to sit for a couple weeks. While we were riding home from the show in Warren, I expressed my concern that we were going to run out of shirts to sell in the next couple weeks. I sold a lot of shirts in Warren, we have two shows this weekend, and two shows next week. Next week we go to Lorain, Ohio and always sell shirts like crazy! I remember selling out of shirts twice in one season at Lorain. Michael sent me the design for the new shirt so I could see it and I know it will be a big hit. Meanwhile I will keep selling the new gold ones he bought for this year. I know these gold ones will sell out in the next few shows so that means that I will wear the new shirt at the booth and can add the gold one to the t-shirt quilt. Here is what the gold shirt looks like.

I had to go and check my coneflowers out after I got home from work and they are blooming like crazy!  The California poppies are surrounding the coneflowers and they have slowed down blooming or else all the rain has just knocked off the flower pedals.  

Next project

I don't have anything with a deadline right now, so I hung up some t-shirts from the band that I had interfaced a while ago. These are the shirts I had worn working at the merch booth. I only wear the current shirt that is being sold at the booth. This is how far I am on making a quilt out of them.

I was looking around for something else this morning and found another shirt so I will cut that up, iron on the interfacing and add it to the design wall tonight. I also received another package with more flannel solids. I am happy to have the brown and indigo! I had forgotten I ordered the gray and bought all that other gray on bolts! Oh well, it will get used.

The pastels are for a pastel flannel quilt for a Xmas present. I only have one pastel plaid right now so I will be looking for a sale or if I get a coupon from eQuilter. eQuilter had a bunch of pastel plaids and that is where I bought these solids.

14th finish for 2021

What a weekend! I did get the flannel quilt done on Friday. It turned out 75" x 90".

Here is the fellow that received the quilt. He helps out with the band. Since he started out helping with loading and unloading the equipment, I don't have to do that as much and sometimes not at all. He also helps my brother out setting up the equipment.  He now lives in a cabin so if you live in a cabin you need a flannel quilt, right?

Before the show a wedding party from a church close by walked over to have pictures taken. Her dress and veil were beautiful, the bridesmaids were stunning, and the men were all so handsome.

The venue had catering for us. There was chicken, pasta, and the most wonderful meatballs with the most delicious sauce I have had in a long time. I didn't think to take a picture until I had already eaten two meatballs. I was hungry! At the end of the evening there were only 5 meatballs left out of one of those big tray with the sterno flames underneath it. I was not letting those go to waste so I took the foil that had cover the meatballs under the lid and made a little nest to hold them. I held those meatballs and sauce in the van all the way back to my brother's house. If we ever play there again, I will make sure I bring a zip lock bag next time! LOL!!

Here was my view from the merch booth. I was busy and sold a lot of shirts and CDs.  We opened for for Van Halen tribute band.  The place was packed and I heard a lot of great comments.  

Michael wore these orange shoes with his orange jacket and pants. This is one of his jackets that he had me add the darker orange accents and the embroidery accent pieces on.

I had left the house at 12:15 p.m. to head to my brother's house to go to the show and was in bed at 12:15 a.m. I was tired, but I woke up at 6:30 so I got up and worked on tote bags for the merch booth. I used quite a few Saturday so I needed to get more made. I had a bunch more already cut out and I ended up getting 30 made while I watched the TDF. I decided not to box out the bottoms which saved me several hours of work. I am just giving these away so flat tote bags are good enough

I cut out 14 more bags and will work on them when I have a few minutes here and there.  Most of this fabric was material that was given to me or left over from another project.  It will now be out of my fabric storage room and put to good use.  Several people did ask what they owed me for the bag.  

I got a bit more done on the deer cushion cover. I got to stitch for a bit before the show on Saturday so here is where I was, where I am, and what the design looks like.

Binding progress, deer pillow, deer, and zinnias

The corners are mitered and the quilt is trimmed. I have tonight and tomorrow to get the hand stitching done then sew on a label. I am taking a vacation day tomorrow so getting it done won't be an issue.  I will have it done to gift on Saturday.  The band has a show on Saturday so I am taking vacation so I have some time for myself.  Saturday will be a long day.

Here is the progress on the deer pillow top - picture of where I was and where I am now. I have eight more of those motifs to stitch and then I can turn the corner. Wanda, yes this is 14 count. 

Speaking of deer, when I opened the garage door to take the trash bin out to the curb there were two fawn in the front yard! I couldn't get my phone out fast enough to take a picture before they scurried off to the back. I walked toward the back and saw the bigger of the two in the neighbor's backyard which I am guessing is a male. When they were near each other in the front the was a very big difference in their size.

I walked back to the garage and stuck my head around to look in the back and saw this. The smaller fawn was sticking close to Momma so I am guessing this is a female.

A moment later Momma was looking to see what was going on

I did get a picture of my zinnias last night. How did that pink one get in this group?

Binding that quilt

My evenings sure go fast. After cooking some food for lunch today, stripping the bed to wash the sheets, and vacuuming the studio, I turned on the TDF to watch the first hour and the last hour of the race (Stage 10) while I sewed the binding on the flannel quilt.

Tonight I will miter the corners and get it trimmed. I got my next cross stitch project started yesterday at lunchtime. I had a huge piece of Fiddler's cloth that I have had since the late 80's. Fiddler's cloth is an Aida cloth that is a heather oatmeal color. I really don't like stitching on Aida, but I thought I would make a couple pillows for Xmas gifts and use up some of the cloth. I found a design in a book from the library. They had stitched it in a dark green.

I am going to stitch one in black DMC and the other one in this variegated thread.  Even with cutting two 18" squares from the Fiddler's cloth, I still have more left!

This will be a good project to take with me to work on at the merchandise booth when I have no customers since I won't need a chart to look at to stitch the border. Here is how far I have gotten in 1 1/2 hours.

Then speaking of deer - last night I saw the doe and her fawn in the backyard. I hadn't seen them for a couple weeks. The fawn is eating vegetation, but is still nursing too.

Progress on the flannel quilt, stocking done

It was a busy four days! I have the flannel quilt all quilted and ready for the binding. The TDF and a two day Miami Vice marathon kept me company. I will have no problem getting this done by Saturday.

I did spend some time Monday with other sewing projects. I fixed a shirt for a woman I work with, sewed a patch on my new t-shirt I wear for the merchandise booth and stamped my name on the back, and repaired another item of clothing. Then I finished the Xmas stocking! I washed and blocked the cross stitched piece on Sunday then stitched it on Monday. There were over 200 French knots on the tree for the popcorn!

Friday morning I took a road trip to Berlin, OH to Zink's to look for flannel for the back of the quilt. I scored a great deal on full bolts of 60" wide flannel solids - the two gray pieces were $1.99 a yard and the off white was $3.00 a yard! I rooted thru the pile of bolts to find the nice stuff; there were bolts mixed in that were yucky fabric. The dark gray that I used on the back of this flannel quilt washed up beautifully.

I found this 60" wide yellow that will be the back for a flannel quilt that will be a Xmas present

and I dug thru the bolts of solids to find some nice pieces.  Now I am set and have something to work with!

I didn't buy any plaid flannels; they quality of the fabrics they had was not very nice. It was worth the 3 hour round trip rather than take a chance on ordering on-line since the quality of their fabric varies. I made a couple other stops on my way back at places I only get to every few months to make the trip even more worthwhile.