Knitting and pounding

I needed to catch up on some shows I had taped so I knitted last evening. I need to get this scarf done for Christmas so I need to make sure I take it everywhere with me just in case I have some waiting time. I think it is going to be a cute scarf.

Pounding - what? At work. They guys are driving pilings into the ground to bedrock. These will be for building a bridge. Where they are pounding is probably 30 yards from the job trailer. They pound a section in the ground then weld on another section and pound some more. These pilings will go down 90 feet.

See all those stakes with the orange tips? Each one of those is where a piling will be pounded in!

Once all the pilings are in then they will be filled with concrete. After that a concrete footer will be formed on top of the pilings. Next will come the concrete columns that will hold up the bridge deck.

Across the street is where more work is going on. They keep having to install these odd shaped pieces of metal that are used to hold back the dirt. They vibrate these into the ground.

We were digging for storm sewers and found water. So to work in the area to try and resolve the water issue they are having to hold back the dirt so it won't collapse into the hole.

I am looking forward to the weekend! Mostly I plan to quilt baby quilts. Have a great weekend!

Making progress and strange packages

I got a good start on quilting quilt top number 4. I thought I would try out using some blue thread and see how I liked it. Quilting these giveaway baby quilt tops opens the door for some experimentation with colors I may not have tried in the past.

I have been getting packages at the house with my name and address from Amazon. It is stuff I never ordered and my credit card has not been charged. In mid-November I received a pair of windshield wipers; they are not the right size for my car.

Then Tuesday I got a pair of noise cancelling headphones.

Both times I got on Amazon's website and chatted with several people trying to figure out why these items end up with my name on them when I didn't order them. No luck figuring out why. I told them next time they could send me a diamond necklace! LOL!!! I will end up donating the wipers and give the headphones to my son.

Back to working on quilts

I now have the fourth baby quilt top pin basted. I can start quilting it tonight.

I had a bit of time this morning so I got the next quilt ready for pin basting.

I am going to quilt all nine of the baby quilt tops then I will work on binding them.

Here are some pictures of the progress that has been made on the operating rooms we are building. There is still a lot to do. Once the floors are installed - epoxy terrazzo - a plastic sheeting material will be installed on the walls over the drywall. The seams will be welded/sealed so no air migrates and the walls will be easy to clean. There is a lot of mechanicals that go in the walls and ceilings - fire sprinkler pipe, HVAC, medical gas (5 different lines), domestic water, medical vacuum lines, electric and low voltage for the technology - that is what I can think of now.

At my other job they are install piling - for what? I have no idea! All I know is that our parking lot is getting smaller and its is a muddy mess! As they pound in the piling it makes the job trailer shake. It is like getting a massage! Here is a truck that delivered piling yesterday. The arrow points to my car and the next picture is them driving the pile this morning.

Then right across the street we have it all torn up too. I think they are putting in storm lines before the new road goes in.

The last five days was a real mix of doing nothing because I was tired and getting lots done. Here is a quick recap-
Thursday - tired. watched Fast and Furious movies and made pizza
Friday - pin basted and quilted two baby quilts

Saturday - visited family and did a bit of shopping.
Sunday - spent 4 hours and 20 minutes moving stuff out of my brother's basement. The mold remediation guys were coming Monday so I had to get the stuff moved. I made at least 47 trips up and down the steps. When I got home I was so tired and my calves were killing me. I did managed to get another baby quilt quilted.
Monday - I had to get back over to my brother's to finish up moving stuff. Only 12 more trips. I let the mold guys in and they moved a few things that were too heavy for me. I left there, went to the grocery store, then headed home. I had some cooking to do, laundry, and dishes. I had moved my haircut up so I left early afternoon for that.

My calves are still tender, but they will be ok in a day or two. I was glad to have the five days off.

When I was with family I was requested to knit a scarf. We went into JoAnn's and they picked out what yarn they wanted it made out of. It will be a Christmas present and I got it at least started.

Using up those batting scraps

Out of that pile of batting scraps I managed to get batting pieced together for 7 of the 9 baby quilts!

I have one lap sized quilt I will have to cut from my bolt of batting, so I will use the leftover to piece another baby quilt sized batting. Here is the pile of batting I still have.

As I have been cleaning up piles here and there, I spied this yardage that was under a pile. This will be going on the back of one of these 16 patch quilts. It was funny that not that long ago I was digging thru my stash trying to find fabrics that might work for the backs not sure if I would find enough. Now I have more than I need between the fabric I brought home from my friend's yard sale and what I had in my stash.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am taking Monday off to so that is a 5 day weekend for me.

Tutorial - how to machine sew a mitered corner

Years ago when I bound a quilt I would overlap my corners. My Mom told me (we're talking about the 1990's) I needed to up my game and miter my corners. I found a plastic guide for making a machine sewn mitered corner. It came with instructions and it took me an hour and a half to sew the first corner! I can now sew all four corners in a half hour. Yes, thank goodness, I got quicker at it! LOL!!! It makes such a beautiful corner so here is how I do it.

First I sew my binding strips on each side of the quilt, sewing to 1/4" from the corners. In this example I had cut my binding 3" wide, but any size will work. It is a bit harder the narrower the binding gets. I don't measure or mark my 1/4" from the corner. I just go for it.

Sometimes I get the stitching just right, but most of the time I get close then need to fix it. This picture shows that the stitching doesn't come to the corner.

What I do to correct this is to tear out a few stitches, get the binding strips going the correct direction and restitch each side separately from the back side. This is what is needs to look like.

Next flip the quilt back over to the front and now it is time to make the stitching line for the miter. 1. center the measuring device between the stitching line and the edge of the binding

2. make sure the edge of your measuring device meets up with the end of the stitching.

Here is my corner marking device that I have had for years. I don't think you can buy these anymore.

but you can mark it just as easy with a small square ruler. The diagonal line needs to be parallel to the edge of the binding and seam line, and I make sure that the measurement at the corner is the same on both sides of the diagonal line. Make sure the ruler is just to the end of the stitching line.

Draw a line around the end of the ruler or tool. This is your stitching line.

With the quilt to your left, take the east west side and fold back the quilt and seam allowances. I kind of hand press the right side along the binding stitching line.

Then take the north south side of the quilt and fold it over to the east west side to align the bindings. You will make a triangle shape with the quilt.

Coax the seam allowances away from the binding and pin the corner. I also take a peak under the top binding to make sure the bottom binding is nice and flat.

Wrestle this under the sewing machine foot and sew from the inner corner to the outer edge. I definitely backstitch and when I am about halfway to the point of the miter, I change my stitch length to 1.5. Here is the sewn miter.

Trim the excess fabric. Yes this is kind of scary but you can't have to much fabric or the corner won't turn nicely. Now you can understand why you have to switch to a smaller stitch length.

Now that the sewing is done I trim the quilt, press the binding so it is nice and crisp at the sewing line, then using a pointy tool push out the corner. See what a nice corner you get?

Again, the first time you do this you will be asking yourself "why did I think this was a good idea", but after some practice you will get much faster at it.

The original direction had you line up the binding first then mark the corner. That was much harder to line up to mark the corner dealing with all those layers of batting. I figure out to mark the miter before folding; it is much easier to get an accurate corner. Let me know if you have any questions!

15th finish of 2019

I am so glad to have taken the time to finally get this one done. It turned out 88 3/4" x 99 3/4".

Next I need to get it shipped to Texas. We has some supplies show up at the job trailer and there is a box that is just the right size.

I spent the rest of the weekend cleaning, doing laundry, and I made banana bread to take to the guys at work. I should have baked the little breads another two minutes. Even though some of them sunk in just a bit, the centers were baked.