It was a busy weekend, but I felt like I got nothing done. I have all the pieces cut for the I Spy quilt, but didn't have time to sew anything together. I may move a few pieces around to get a better checkerboard look. 

Friday I took a road trip to Broadview Heights and The Crafty Ewe cross stitch shop. There is a Tour de Stitch going on. I only found out about this shop recently so I thought I would check it out. It took me an hour to get there.

I was interested in checking out what linen they had. I found 6 pieces on their scrap rack and a pattern in the sale bin. It is a very nice shop. I was hoping to buy a couple bigger pieces of linen, but they didn't have what I was looking for.

Saturday was all about the errands. Went to the East side in the morning then hit the west side in the afternoon. When I was coming out of Whole Foods I saw a double rainbow.

One thing that got finished was the stitching on the Lincoln sampler. Now I need to get it framed.

Sunday I decided to go to another one of the shops on the TDS list. I headed to North Canton to Little Creek Needleworks. Another lovely shop with lots of charts and models, but little fabric. I circled the 32 count that they had.

I bought a couple sale patterns and a corner gauge that was made by the husband of one of the ladies that works there.

There is one other shop that is only about an hour away that I may go visit later on this week. I have never been there before. The other shops are too far away.

Two more things I worked on that are not done - a project bag for a SIL and a lightweight jacket for me. I cut this jacket out years ago and I need to get it made.  I also have laundry that is not done and dishes too!  I never made it out to the garage to get another area cleaned up since I got rid of those boxes of stuff Wednesday night.  Oh well, I will keep on plugging away!

Progress on the I Spy quilt

More pieces were fussy cut and added to the design wall. I am almost getting to the point I need to figure out how big I am making this. LOL!! I will be digging around more to find more novelty prints to add.

I got a package in the mail with more sale fabric I had ordered. These will be for project bags.

I will use this for binding.

I bought plenty of this newspaper print for the back of the I Spy quilt. With tax all this fabric, 12 1/4 yards - averaged out to $7.42 a yard. Not bad! This newspaper print has an especially nice hand to it. I have one more shipment of fabric coming.

It's going to be a busy weekend. I have made a list and let's see what I can get done. Have a great weekend!

They ate cake!

After work I headed to the birthday party. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get there - it's an hour's trip one way under normal traffic conditions - because as soon as I got on the interstate traffic was down to a crawl. It took me 32 minutes to go 6 miles. Geeze! There wasn't an accident; it was just too many cars trying to get on. With the construction - yes, the company I work for is doing the construction - going from 3 lanes to 2 lanes makes a huge difference and it wasn't even rush hour. Once traffic got moving, I drove to the next town to the charity thrift shop and dropped off some stuff I had quickly gathered up that morning that was in the garage. I am so glad to get rid of that stuff.  After that I headed to the party. The cake went over well.

I didn't get home until 8:30 so no sewing happened yesterday. I did get a load of laundry done before I left for work Wednesday and in that load was the fabric that arrived the other day. It is ready for me to press and cut tonight.

Let them eat cake!

I spent my evening making the birthday cake I have been practing for. I am still not 100% satisfied, but it is acceptable. The crumbs tasted good!

Yesterday morning at work I did some landscaping. I was asked to get some signs made because people are having trouble finding our office. I needed to clear the vines off this fence for the one sign. I will clean up the debris this morning - it got too hot yesterday to do that. Here is the before and after.

The signs are suppose to be ready for pickup this week so at least the fence is all ready.

Sampler Tuesday and more novelty prints

It was too hot to work in the garage after work so I sat and stitched a bit. Besides that I was tired from a very busy day at work. Here is where I am with this sampler. I only have 5 more letters to stitch, add the year and my trademark skull and it is done.

I did dig around in my stash a bit looking for prints to use in the I Spy quilt. I found quite a few prints on the shelves and in the Halloween bin. I still have more places to go thru and hopefully find a few more novelty prints.

I've been busy!

I forgot to post Friday. I just got too busy and forgot. What I would have posted was I got most of those novelty print fussy cut and up on the design wall.

I practiced making another bundt cake on Thursday night and learned a few things. I changed the recipe because I didn't have enough batter to fill the pan the last time. I made the mistake of testing the cake 10 minutes too early and it fell. I let it cool, threw some glaze on it and it tasted fine.

I have two succulents that have been outside for several weeks and Thursday night something got into the one of them and ate part of the leaves. GRH! I will continue to care for it and we will see what happens.

I needed to go to the grocery store on Saturday morning, but since the marathon was happening I walked. I hit the grocery store and Whole Foods for the cannellini beans, pasta, and kale I needed to make a pot of Stanley Tucci's pasta fagioli soup. It was a 3.68 miles round trip and I was a bit tired when I got home. The soup was fantastic and after having a bowl and resting a bit I headed out to the garage to attack a project I had been planning. I had posted this picture a week or so ago

I moved everything out of this area, found the studs and attached 2" x 4" pieces, primed and painted them, painted the wall, cleaned up around the garage while the paint dried and called it a day.

Sunday I started installing the hardware that I had to run to get that morning along with a stop at two grocery stores. Once I stated hanging up the items I had in mind, the hangers were bending at the attachment point. So I took the hangers back down and scoured the garage for some scraps of lumber. I found a piece of 2" x 6" and 2" x 4". That will work!

Attached those, painted them, and here is what the finished area looks like. I plan on moving that table into the house once I finish sanding and varnishing it.

The area to the left of this was a big mess!

So the chairs are now hung on the new hangers, straightened out the shelves to make room for a bin to put plant pots in, and get the boxes of binders for jobs I still have open at work up on the shelves. I would sure like to get those jobs closed and get rid of those, but that's a whole different story. The area it a lot better. I will need to make a run to the charity thrift store as I am trying to get rid of things that I haven't used. This little project took a lot longer than I thought it would and had a few mor hiccups than what I thought, but overall I am glad I am making use of the vertical space and those chairs are no longer blocking the shelves. I have more I want to get done before the cold weather sets in so get ready for some messy garage pics and hopefully some great afters!  How does this mess happen in the first place?  LOL!!

I have been on a fabric buying binge lately. So many great sales! I got this bolt of Moda which came to $5.00 a yard! Lots of project bags in the future.

Then I bought some novelty FQ's for the I spy quilt.

Striped for binding baby quilts and Halloween moths because I like the print

Then I thought these two pieces would make pretty project bags.

I Spy quilt

I got started on rough cutting pieces of novelty fabric for the I Spy quilt. This will be for my grandnephew. This pile came from my shelf of novelty fabrics.

At first I was going to cut the squares 3 1/2", but I was cutting off too much of the images. I decided to cut them at 4" and here is what I have cut so far. I just put them on the design wall as I cut them.

Next I will start going thru the stacks of fabric I have arrange on my shelves by color. I know there will be some prints that I can use for this quilt. I also have a tub of Halloween fabrics I know I can get some good bits out of and then there are several scrap bins to look thru. I am on the prowl!