Lots of progress

Look who is back - the ducks!

After starting a load of wash, I went out to work on the rest of the center flower bed. It is suppose to rain the rest of this week so I wanted to get this done. This bed got totally out of control since it was so hot last summer. I was still not 100% from surgery and the heat was awful so the flower bed suffered. Now it is time to get it back in shape.

Here is the mess under the plastic. Maybe if I would have put down paper underneath I would have gotten less weed growth, because where the leaves were thick the weeds didn't grow. Thank goodness I left all those leaves instead of raking them out before I cover the bed with plastic last fall.

So here is the bed with at least a couple of layer of weeds and grass removed. Now it will on to planting and mulch. I plan on filling this bed with coneflowers because the deer do not eat coneflowers and the flinches love the seed heads. I did find a couple daylillies that I missed digging out last fall. I dug up most of them and gave them to a co-worker's husband who wanted them for their drainage ditch. I asked if they were coming up and they were!

Next was working on the gray and pink quilt for my neighbor's baby due shortly. I managed to get about 40% of it quilted.

I don't even know what to say about the events yesterday in Boston. Prayers to all. Let law enforcement find the scum that did this.

1st finish of 2013

Yes, finally my first official finish of 2013! I am very happy with the way it turned out. I ended up using almost a whole 1200 yard spool of Essential Meadow thread to quilt this. I am glad it is done - now on to the next one!

The back.

I made the lable with some of the fabric that was used for making shirts for the musicians in Jimmy Buffet's band. This is the same fabric that I used in a couple of the blocks in the quilt I made brother for wedding gift.

Here is the Yo Gabba Gabba fabric I just received. Yo Gabba Gabba is s kids TV show. These will be for birthday quilts for the twin girls.

I spent some time Sunday afternoon pressing all my recent fabric purchses. So that is a good job done and they are all put away in the fabric storage room ready for the next project.

I went outside at 6 p,m. to start working on the center flower bed. I figured out real quick that the black plastic worked great on killing weeds over the winter, but the semi-opaque did nothing but act like a greenhouse. I have lots of grass and weeds to pull in that area. I worked on the bed for 2 hours.

I more than half way done with this bed thank goodness! I am going to try and finish is tonight because they are calling for rain the rest of the week.

My fabric present came

My brother sent me this fabric he bought for me when he was in Australia for three weeks touring with Bruce. Is was so nice of him to get me this, but I find it pretty funny that he goes into fabric stores at all!


He was in Alaska several years ago and sent me fabric that had moose, bears, and native American symbols. He asked them for fabric that was more local in flavor. It is nice to add these fabrics to my stash!

This weekend I will finish up the Buffet baby quilt and who knows what else. I have a bunch of stuff I would like to get done this weekend and of course my list is bigger than what I could possibly get done.

Progress, progress, progress! Yeah!

First on my list after work was to get the tools and workbench out of the bedroom so I could get to the windows. Done!
Here is another shot of the back of the Buffet quilt. I have worked my way around to the other side of the quilt where I used this cool shark fabic to make the backing wide enough. Since the satellite kept going out last evening with the thunderstorms we had I spent more time quilting than watching TV so I went thru 3 bobbins last evening. I am almost 50% done quilting this piece.
Here is the way I machine quilt an overall design like I am doing on the Buffet inspired quilt. I start at the side and work my way back and forth.

I do all my machine quilting on my faithfull Pfaff 1475.

Cindi asked how I keep my stitches so even. I think it is all a matter of foot pedal speed and how fast you move the quilt. Yes, it is all free motion. I wish I could go faster and sometimes I have the foot pedal all the way to the floor so I can move the quilt fast, but mostly I work at what I would call a medium fast speed. I also have had a lot of practice which helps with getting consistent stitches. I find I do have to concentrate not to move my hands too fast. I have gone thru 75,000 yards of quilting thread in the last 2 1/2 years so that is a lot of practice!
Here you can see my set up. I have tables my dad made surrounding the sewing cabinet that my dad also made. I put my quilting station in the corner so the quilt would not fall off the table because of the walls. This works great even for big quilts. Sometime I do put another table beside me on the left when I quilt a big quilt to support the quilt from falling on the floor.


Remember these sad diaffodils that were all yellow from being under the black plastic?

Well, look at them now! Two weeks later and some sunshine and they are beautiful!

The papers have been signed!

My appointment to sign the papers for the refy was suppose to be at 1 p.m. yesterday, but the paperwork was slow getting to the title people and the appointment was delayed until 5. The problem with this was that they were suppose to met me at my office, but instead we switched it to my house since we were not meeting until 5 and the house was a wreck! I left work a few minutes early so I could attacked the kitchen. I had to clean off the kitchen table and the countertops. Let's just say I haven't done the dishes in a few days. Now where do I put the stuff? I know the oven! I packed as much as I could into the oven, then stuffed some stuff in the cupboards. If I had run out of room the fridge would have been next! I just got the countertops wiped off when the fellow showed up. The signing went quick and smooth. The notary was a very nice fellow and very professional. This long drug out process is now over! YEAH! I feel free and like I have my life back except now I need to find all those dirty dishes I have squirrled everywhere!

I ran thru two more bobbins last evening working on the Buffet inspired baby quilt. It is coming along quickly! I think I will have this done this weekend. I think that shark fabric is so cool!

I picked up a couple more Holloween fabrics for the quilt that I am making my brother. I need to get the top made so I can quilt it during the June Quilting throw down Glen of Quilts and Dogs is having. I love the dancing skeletons!

Tonight one of my goals is to get this workbench and all these tools moved so I can get to the window in the bedroom. I had set up this area while Mike and I were working on the bathroom. Last night it was very warm and I opened the other window that faces the neighbor's house, but my neighbor was outside talking on his cell phone several times between 1 and 3 in the morning and woke me up. The window in the picture faces the backyard so if I open it and close the other window which faces the neighbor's house maybe he will not wake me up.

Update on the Buffet inspired quilt

Yesterday I decided I am going to go walking down at the towpath as much as I can. The weather has finally warmed up. Here is one of the two Canada goose that were chillin' out.

Here is the one window treatment hung up. I lined these with room darkening lining to keep the sun at bay. Stupid me I forgot that the windows in this room are not the same size so I will have to take the other curtain partially apart and make it smaller for the other window.

Here are a couple more pieces of African cottons I bough from Becky at St. Theresa's Textile Trove in Cincinnati, Oh. She emailed me and told me about these pieces so I just went ahead and bought them. You never know ......

Here is what the back of the Buffet inspired baby quilt looks like with some quilting. I like the look of the pale green thread. I ran thru two bobbins before I called it quit and went to bed.

Quilting the Buffet inspired quilt

Saturday I had to get my taxes done and I decided to check before I left that I had everything I needed. Last year I forgot something and what a pain. When I checked I didn't have my W2. Crap, where could it be? For a half hour I tore the house apart. I finally found it and took off for my appointment. Guess what I had to do when I got home? Yes, clean up the mess I made looking for the W2. I was tired so I worked on cleaning up between resting. I took a bag and bucket of papers out to recycle and had a pile for shreding.
Here is the quilting on the Buffet inspired quilt. I am using Connecting Thread Essentials in Meadow. It feels good to sit down at the machine and do some quilting! I haven't quilted since December! This will be my first finish for the year. I am not counting the polyester quilt since I did not construct the top. Oh, by the way, I met up with the lady on Saturday morning and she loved it!

I managed to get one of the pink and gray quilts layed out and ready for pin basting.

I finished the window treatments for the office, but I needed to touch up the paint on the window frames so I couldn't hang them. I will post a picture tomorrow.