Still plugging away on the Improv quilt

You are probably tired of me posting about this quilt, but I am nearing the completion of it. I finally started quilting the borders. I have one border done except for the accent quilting in the contrast colors. I wasn't sure at first if I would like it, but now that I quilted a couple of area I like it. I am quilting the contrast in narrower rows than the rest of the border to add even a little more interest.

This is all the Connecting Threads Essential thread in the color Blue Moon I have left to finish the other three borders. I had two spools when I started this project and I thought for sure it would be enough to quilt the all dark blue fabric. I don't have time to order another spool and get it by Monday so wish me luck that I have enought thread.

This weekend will be busy again. Tonight I have a friend coming over for some quilting/sewing help. Saturday I need to head south to Dover, an hour away, to get my taxes done and to visit the twin girls. I will then meet my Dad and some of my siblings to take him out to dinner for his b-day. He live 1/2 hour south of Dover. Sunday will be all about finishing the improv quilt.

Have a great weekend!

Beer and sewing

Here a a couple pictures of the crowd at the Art and Beer event at the Akron Art Museum Friday night. I had a good time talking to people and pouring beer. I am not a beer drinker, but I enjoy the social aspect of voluneering at an event like this. The hardest part was smelling the perrogies the lady next to me was cooking. She had a flat grill that she was browning potato and cheese perrogies in butter. I managed to snag one and they were so good!



On Saturday I started the day on alterations - hemmed one pair of boy scout pants, one lined skirt, and two lined jackets. Then I moved to quilting.
I accomplished a lot on the improv quilt on Saturday and Sunday morning. I have about 75% of the center done. My plan is to get the rest of the center quilted after work this week and then quilt the borders and bind it this coming weekend. I need to have it done by the 22nd so I am still on track for making my goal. I had to switch gears and go back to alterations Sunday afternoon. I shorten the sleeves on two lined jackets and shorted the lenght of a lined jacket. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would, but there was a lot of hand work that had to be done. When I called the client to let her know her stuff was done, she said she had a couple more pairs of pants for her daughter that needed hemmed. Oh well, all the money I make is going into my spending money pot for the Sewing and Quilting expo at the IX center in Cleveland March 25.

At least the rain stopped!

Ok, so the rain turned into snow, but at least the rain stopped! I woke up to 3" this morning and that is a lot less than what some areas received. THis is what the front yard and gardern look like this morning.



Tonight I am volunteering at the art museum's beer fest. I will be spending 3 hours pouring beer at this fundraiser. The snow is suppose to stop early this afternoon so hopefully we will get a good crowd. The rest of the weekend is alterations and quilting the improv quilt. I got an emergency alteration phone call last night so add another pair of pants to the alteration list - I just couldn't say no to a boy scout who needed official pants or he would be in hot water with his troop.

Have a great productive and safe weekend!

Thread and more rain

I received my thread order from Alanta Thread last night. Now I have the green thread I need for alterating a skirt and jacket this weekend. I hate to go to the store so I am so glad I could just order this on-line and it was on sale.


The rain is in it's third day non-stop and now it is suppose to snow tonight 3-5"! Crazy weather!

Last night I ended up doing two loads of laundry, looked at library books that need to be returned, downloaded some music, and watched the 4th stage of the Paris Nice bicycle race and the season finale of Southland so no sewing again.

Cotton or not?

I was crazy busy last evening - made meatballs, did a weeks worth of dishes, and took out the recycling for pick up today. I am having sewing company March 18 and I need to get this house shoveled out so I am trying to start now and do some every night so no sewing is happening. I did watch the 3rd stage of the Paris Nice bicycle race that I had taped as I was picking up.

I finally checked to see if some of the fabric I got last week in the suprise bag was cotton or not. I didn't have the patience to try and scorch the fabric so I just stood over the laundry sink and took a match to it. The blue and green are cotton, the stripe is not. There is 1 3/4 yards of the blue and 2 yards of the green so that is a great score.


Yesterday afternoon one of my clients picked up the alterations I had done for her - the two jackets and 3 pairs of pants. She brought me - UGH!!! - a couple of repairs. They are easy fixes, but it is still taking time away from the improv quilt.

Hatching a plan

The snow we recieved on Sunday melted off in the grassy areas so I knew I needed to do something about the daylilies. I found some mesh at a local discount store and I think it will work great in preventing the deer from eating the dayliiies while they are first coming out of the ground. This mesh will make it so I don't have to cover and uncover them all the time and yet the rain snd sunshine still get thru to the plants. I cut the mesh longer than I needed it to allow for growth and staked it down with wire coat hanger and rocks. The garden was like walking on a sponge - very squishy - but the daylilies are now covered.


As they grow I will adjust the mesh. Once the daylillies get to be a foot high I can remove the mesh until the flower head start to come. Then I will have to cover the plants again because the deer will eat the flowers.


I had one of my clients/neighbors pick up her pants last evening and bring me a jacket that the sleeves need shorten. I thouhgt I was making progress.

It's Monday already

Here is the quilting on the back of the improv quilt thru the band of color that we added to the back using the scraps. I quilted for about 7 hours on Saturday before I left for the battle of the bands. My nephew's band did not win this year. The winner was to get a spot playing at Ripper Owens Tap House (Ripper sang with Judias Priest). After the winners were announced Ripper came up to my nephew and told him he wanted them to play at the Tap House and they would be playing there in the future even though they didn't win - Cool!


Here are some of the alterations I completed - hemmed 6 pairs of pants and shorten the sleeves on two lined jackets. I still have three more jackets that need work and a skirt that needs hemmed. I am waiting for my thread order to come from Atlanta Thread so I can fix the skirt and one of the jackets. They are green - I'm mean St. Patrick's Day green - and I don't have any thread that color. Atlanta has their 1100 yard spools of Guterman on sale for $1.86 a spool for the month of March.