Crazy weekend

Friday after work I decided to weed wack and mow the front yard. It was so freaking hot! I didn't get the weeding done because it never did cool off even in the morning. Sunday at 7:30 am it was between 78 and 80 degrees. It is suppose to be a little cooler this week with less humidity so maybe the weeding will get done then.

I got a last minute e-mail that my nephew's band, Retro, was going to be in a battle of the bands on Saturday so of course I had to go. It was suppose to be outside, but it rained so they held it inside at a library - yes, a library! The room was only about 50 x 30 and it was hotter than haities in that place. We couldn't open the windows - they had latches that could only be opened with a key - and it sure didn't feel like the place had any A/C. I stayed until Retro played, helped pack the equipment and left. My sister-in-law called to say Retro made the cut to advance to the next round.

Sunday I spent pin basting the baby quilts I had previously shown. I got three done and the fourth one is on the table ready to pin. After I got them pinned basted I hung them back up on the design wall. In the afternoon I had a visitor that needed a backpack fixed and help with threading a sewing machine.



And I thought it was going to be a quiet weekend!

Up to my eyeballs in ...

Crabgrass! Because of the hot and humid weather the crabgrass has gone nuts! My poor flower beds are a mess. It has been too hot to work outside in the evenings, but right now my plan is to get up very early tomorrow morning - maybe about 6 am - an attack it.



I want to get the pink whirley gig quilts pin basted and start quilting them this weekend. It is suppose to be hot and humid so I will stay indoors and sew except for the crabgrass eratication.

Binding and dry erase surface

I sewed on the binding on the museum piece last evening. I wavered between regular binding or facing binding and I decided to go with facing. One of these day when I have a lighter colored piece I will put together a tutorial on how I do this. Tonight I will hand stitch the binding down. I want to take it to the museum Thrusday evening since that is the last Downtown at Dusk event. I won't be back to the museum for volunteering any event until the wine tasting in October. I won't have all the hand stitching done, but at least it will look like a finished piece.

I found these wipe off calendars at a area chain called Marc's. They are a cross between a discount grocery store and a Big Lots. You just never know what you might find. A few weeks ago I found these dry erase calendars. They cost one dollare for three of them. I bought three for work, but then I thought I wonder if you could write on the back and erase? Yes, you can so I bought three more to make my to do quilting and sewing lists. I have a small framed dry erase board, but it is too small.

(Oops, sorry this is sideways!) So here are the sheets hanging on the closet door right next to my quilting studio. I walk past them all the time so with a quick glance I have a remindered of what's next.

Thank goodness for leftovers and a stash

I made this quilt this weekend as a substitute for the one I showed last week that had the blue and yellow striped bindng. I ended up with more time than I frist thought so I wanted to make this more personal than the generic blue and yellow one. I had strips left over from another zig zag quilt I had made a few months back and had the yellow and black stripe fabric in my stash. Now all it needs is a label and I may throw it in and wash it so it gets all wrinkly. I need to have it dropped off by Wednesday and I don't see that to be a problem.

It's twins!

Look who I saw in my backyard when I got to the house from work. I got a pretty good picture of one of the fawns, but at first I did not see the other one. I can't get over how big its ears are! This is just the second time I have seen the twins this year. They are old enough now that they wander off by themselves. I am assuming the mother was down the hill in the more wooded area.

I know this is a terrible picture - I took it thru the window and the screen, but you can see both of them. After I took this I went outside to the backyard and they took off into the wooded area behind the house. I had another set of twins about 3 or 4 years ago that spent a lot of time in my backyard during the day napping. They are cute, but they eat my plants!

Quilting challange

I started the hand quilting on the museum piece. I am using pearl cotton. The challange was finding a needle with a big enough eye. I found one and it is pretty long. All the fabrics I used are batiks so they are a little tough getting the pearl cotton thru, but I love the results. I am starting to get a system going so the more I work on this the easier it will get. I had to figure out another way of securing the ends - a knot will not pull thru the batik.

Machine Quilting done on the museum quilt

I finished the machine quilting on this piece this weekend. I plan on adding some hand quilting with some pearl cotton. I managed to get most of the fabric I bought last weekend washed and pressed. I still have two pieces to wash - one piece is over 8 yards and I think the other was over 7 yards.

The last two weeks at work have been crazy. We had someone leave their position for another company and since we are slow right now I was elected to learn the job. It is hard to learn from a scattered drama queen, but now she is gone and I will manage with everyone's help. I was asked to write work instructions for the position for the next person. I know my estimating position will come back and I will be busy with that so they may need to hire someone for the contract administrator job sometime in the future.