DWR quilt, the garden, and 16 patch blocks

Ok here is my update on the DWR quilt. I now have 11 melons and 8 centers left to quilt! Each take about an hour so that is 19 hours of work left.

Friday morning I was up early and spent three hours in the yard pulling weeds and planting some squash in the garden area that were still in pots. I don't know how those squash had even survived in those little 6" pots! They looked a bit sad, but after two days of rain maybe they will come back. If they don't it is no big deal. There are two butternut squash plants and either another zucchini or yellow squash.

I picked another zucchini. It was the one I showed last week. It must have grown 4" in the last two days! It was 10" long and will go into a stir fry tonight.

I was surprised to see that there were two yellow squash hanging on the plant on my deck. When I looked closer there are at least three more forming! Wanda had recommended some fertilizer since the squash would shrived when they were not very big, and the fertilizer seems to have helped!

My one pot of bok choy had been attacked by something. The leaves are chewed up. I will just let it go and see what happens.

When I was weeding, I found a start of a new lavender plant. That was exciting!

I have a little coneflower plant that didn't come up the same time as the rest. It was planted at the same time, two years ago, but something were awry. I have been watering the heck out of it and hopefully it will come back. Here you can see it's size in relation to another plant I had planted at the same time two years ago.

I spent at lot of time this weekend sewing together strips and cutting them into pieces for 16 patch blocks. I am trying to use up all those strips I had hanging on the design wall. So far I have enough pieces to make 150 16-patch blocks. I went thru my solids and cut up a variety of pinks where I only had less than a yard of the fabric left. I have enough blocks for 3 pink and taupe quilts, one with blues, and one with the yellow and taupe. It is nice to have them ready for turning into blocks when I have a few minutes to sew.

Here are the strips left. I sure had cut a lot of strips! I have enough here for probably two more 30 block baby quilts.

I also spent some time cleaning up my fabric storage room. When you start tripping over stuff, it is time to clean!

DWR progress

I had another good day quilting on the DWR quilt. I got two centers quilted. So currently I have 10 more centers to quilt and 14 more melons. The last day of August is 32 days away. With only 24 elements to quilt, I should make my self imposed deadline easily. I do still need to make a label for the quilt.

I went outside to give the plants a drink since it got up to 89 yesterday. In the side garden, I tied up the squash plants and took a picture of the zucchini growing. Since I tied up the plant the zucchini is no long sitting in the dirt.

I am taking a day a vacation tomorrow so we will catch up on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Progress on the DWR and squash

I got two more melons quilted yesterday. So I am now down to 14 melons and 12 centers left to quilt in 34 days which would be the end of August. Slowly, but surely I am getting this done.

I took my trash bin to the curb for pickup today and noticed that the humidity had dropped. Yeah! Since it wasn't muggy (which makes me want to run back into the A/C!)I went to the back and looked to see how my squash plants were doing. I found a zucchini! It was just the right size for picking and it will end up in my next batch of stir fry. I looked at another plant and there was another one about 4" long. Last year I think I only got one zucchini so I already have doubled my yield! The plants look healthy and I owe that to working organic lime in the soil when I planted them. Last year at this time the leaves had a whiteish/grayish film on them I think from the soil being to acid.

DWR quilt progress and cooking

I got one melon quilted yesterday on the DWR quilt. So now I have 16 melons and 12 centers to get done in the next 35 days to meet my self-imposed deadline of having this quilt finished by the end of August.

I spent most of my evening cooking so I would have something from breakfast and lunches. I made kind of a stir fry with the yellow squash from my deck garden and cooked it with organic broccoli and cauliflower, kale and bok choy leaves from my deck garden, and organic noodles. I threw in some garlic powder, paprika, salt, a little olive oil and butter, and finished it with soy sauce. I had some for breakfast this morning and it is really good! I should have cooked a piece of salmon to toss in. I sure hope I get another squash soon.

While I was making the stir fry, in the oven was a blueberry crumble. I had the A/C on full blast but I was still sweating. The oven sure heats up the kitchen and boiling water to cook the noodles added to the humidity!

Yesterday at work I cleaned the upper cabinets in my cubical. The stuff was left by previous inhabitants of this cubical. Here is the before and after

I ended up with 7 bags of trash.

A bunch of 3 ring binders that can be reused and binder clips that I tossed in the office supply drawer

I did find some quadrille pads, note pads and cards, and post it notes buried in that mess. I will put those to good use.

and there was a book that I want to read, since I am Irish, and a tin that can be reused for a gift card.

I don't know how long I will be occupying this cubical. It all depends if the company gets another project that they can put me on, but at least the cubical will be ready for the next occupant and in the meantime I have someplace to put my stuff.

We got a half inch of rain yesterday so I didn't have to water last evening. There was a tree that fell across one of the streets I take on my way to work. The wind was blowing hard at times when the storm came thru. I had to make a detour around the block. Let's see if it is gone by the time I go back thru that area to the house. This is the cloud that rolled by my office window yesterday afternoon. No rain from that cloud.

6th, 7th, and 8th finish for 2020 and DWR progress

 

Friday I started quilting on the three baby quilt tops I had made. I finished up quilting the third one on Saturday morning and then got them all bound.
The two with the blue squares finished 40 1/4" x 48". The blue and yellow squares were cut from my scraps and no, it made no difference in the amount in my scrap bins! LOL!! I quilted one of them with yellow thread and the other with white.

I pin basted the marron top and finished it. It turned out 40 3/4" x 49 1/2" I quilted it with a golden tan color thread.

I now have a stash of 10 boy quilts and one girl quilt.

I am going to have to get some girl quilts made. I have the leftover strips from making the 16 patch quilts which I will pair with a solid pink.

I will have to buy more pink fabric because I don't have enough for 16 patch blocks and for binding. At least know what color to buy since last year when I bought a bunch of solid Kona fabrics I cut a little sample of each color then taped and labeled them in a notebook. I have four pages of color samples.

I made nice progress on the DWR quilt too.  Monday I had 15 more centers to quilt and now I have 12 to quilt, which means I am 70% done quilting the centers.  For the melons, last Monday I had 25 left to quilt and now I have 17 left to quilt, which means I am 82% done quilting the melons.  My goal is to finish this quilt by the end of August. I have 36 days in which to quilt 29 melons and centers.  Looks like I am going to make my self-imposed deadline!

 

I am a bit wiped out still today from mowing and trimming Saturday evening.  The heat and humidity were awful and it just took the life out of me.  I didn't feel all that great on Sunday and I still feel the effects today a bit.  One more day and I should be good.  I watered my plants after I got done mowing; they really needed a drink.  The darn chipmunks had dug up two of my liriope again.  I stuck them back in the ground and gave them a big drink of water so hopefully they survive.   

DWR quilt, minion on a bike, and scrap wood

I got three more melons quilted on the DWR quilt. I forgot to take a picture of the third one.

At work a couple of us got together and had a discussion about minions and all the little minion figures that the one fellow had. He got many of them in those Kinder eggs. He had a bunch of eggs and another woman and I got to open one to get the minion toy. I got a photographer and she got one riding a bike wearing a beret. She traded with me since I am such a huge TDF nut. Here is my little fellow who now sits on my window ledge at work.

Last evening my neighbor called me and asked it I had any scrap wood 4" wide by 1/2" deep and 42" long. He is finishing up installing his new kitchen and needed the wood for something he was doing. I went out to the garage and low and behold I had two pieces that were the right width and long enough, but they were only 1/4" thick. He came over and said he would just layer the two pieces to get the 1/2" depth. So now there are two less pieces of scrap wood in my garage! LOL!! This is the fellow that helped me clear the bushes in my backyard. If he needs to borrow a tool or some other construction item, he calls me. I have only once not had what he needed which was a butane torch.

I am taking vacation tomorrow so it's another 3 day weekend. I would like to get at least one baby quilt quilted. I do need to mow and go thru all the flower beds and check for weeds. It is going to be hot and I would guess humid so the mowing might have to be done in stages. Have a great weekend!

Progress report

I got two melons quilted yesterday. 22 more to quilt.

I also managed to get the 16 patch baby quilt top sewn together.

I didn't want to spend time last evening watering the plants. I was banking on the forecast delivering some much needed rain and it has already today! There is a chance of rain all day today so I am hoping more will fall at my house.