Progress on the Dutch wax quilt and a good day in the saddle

I worked on the bottom 6 rows last evening while I watched the Tdf. They are all sewn together. Now I need to added the extra pieces on the upper right section and then I will be able to do the final assembly of the top. Then it will be on to the back of the quilt. I don't know how much I might get done this weekend since I maybe with family all day on Saturday.

Stage 6 was won by Hagen, a Dutch rider on team SKY. Thor is still in yellow. No major crashes yesterday - just a few involving one rider here and there. It rained on and off during the stage and Levi Leipheimer from team RadioShack slid on the water laying on top of the road paint and hit the floor, but did not get hurt. It was near the end of the race and there was not enough time for him to catch up to the main peleton so he lost some time on the race leaders.

Progress on the quilt, a win, and the TdF update

I sewed together and trimmed the bottom two rows last evening. I then rearranged the strips so I could get a better idea of the porportions. I needed to add a few more pieces to the dark and light stripes. These pictures are on the dark side.

Here I have pinned up pieces that I will sew at the ends of the rows. I have the 7 rows of stripes in the upper right side already sewn together so I will have to do a little ripping. Overall I like the look of it better with the added width of the piece. The finish size will be approx. 78" x 96".

Bubba and mom Wednesday evening

I won these two charm packs from gatherhereonline.com. One is xmas fabric and they are both beautiful!

The boys had a rough go of it yesterday. Lots of crashes with the high winds and narrow roads. I just hate seeing the riders get injured. They work so hard to get in the kind of physical shape that is needed for this race and it can all be over in the blink of an eye. This is Janez Brajkovic from team RadioShack. Look at his hip right above the 54.0 MI label - his shorts are black in color so then you see his skin and that pink area is minus skin OUCH! He also had a severe head wound, skinned up elbow, broken collarbone, and a concussion. He was off to hospital and is out of the tour.

This is Tom Boonen. See the dark area above the 122 tv graphic? That is a severe bleeding contusion. He also scraped up his elbow and appeared to have hurt his shoulder. The race doctor gave him cooling spray for the pain on his hip and Tom managed to finish the stage. I am guessing he went to hospital after the race to have his shoulder checked out to make sure he did break his collarbone.

There was another rider that had to leave the race due to a broken collarbone and there will be many riders trying to get themselves patched up for Stage 6.

Congratulation to Mark Cavandish for the stage 5 win and to Thor who is still in the maillot jaune.

Just so you know, the quality of the pictures are not great - I take them while I am watching my VCR taped version of the race.

Where do I begin part 2

Day 3 Sunday - Stage 2 of the TdF - the team time trial. Garmin-Cevelo came out on top, won the stage, and the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) went to Thor Hushovd (in the team picture he is on the left in the white rainbow striped jersey).

It was very humid again - a great excuse to stay indoors and sew. I did see Bubba and mom out back, and another doe with a set of twins. Here is the dutch wax Day 3

I did end up going outside at 7 p.m. and mow the grass. I was drenched after an hour and a half of that!

Monday - Day 4 - Stage 3 TdF - a stage for the sprinters and it was exciting. Thor remains in the yellow and Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo (same tear Thor is on) won the stage. Tyler is from the USA - Thor is from Norway.
I spent some time sewing together the sections and trimming the strips on the bottom half of the dutch wax piece. I still have two rows to sew together and trim. I should have finished this, but I was just dog tired.

I took a couple of Excedrine and watched Hoarders and American Choppers for a couple of hours. Hoarders made me want to get up and clean house so I did get the vacuum out and vacuumed up the sewing studio and went upstairs and did the kitchen! I did some laundry and made cheese ravoili from scratch, watched MasterChef and went to bed at 9.

I still have to get to the weeds - they are unreal - and I didn't get any alterations done either. I need another 4 days off!

I watched Stage 4 of the TdF last night and here is a picture of the result for the stage win after 107 miles:

Here is the stage winner Cadel Evans team BMC

and the GC leader in yellow still is my man Thor who is leading Cadel by one second - yes, one second

The commentators thought Thor would lose the yellow jersey on yesterday's stage, but I knew from seeing him ride in past races that he had the strenght to keep up. He didn't need to win the stage, he just needed to finish in the same group with Cadel and he did.

Where do I begin? Part 1

I had a busy 4 days and I am happy with what I accomplished. Friday I worked in the studio all day except to make a quick trip to the library. Here is the dutch wax piece I am working on as of the end of what I am calling Day 1.

On Saturday morning it was all about watching Stage 1 of the Tour de France, sewing, doing dishes, making banana bread and turkey meatballs. I decided to spend 4 hours in the afternoon in my hot and humid garage cleaning up and sealing cracks and crevices. Here is the before

and the after. I still have more I need to do, but it was an improvement. I vacuumed up all the grit and just put stuff back where it belonged.

Here is the is dutch wax piece at the end of Day 2

Tomorrow's post will be part 2 of this 4 day weekend's events.

I pulled out my dutch wax and batik African fabric which are going into the project I am working on over the 4th. I am taking tomorrow off so it will be a nice long 4 day weekend so I plan to have this top done and ready to quilt by Tuesday.
I have been prepping for the Tour de France which starts July 2 and I will be spending time this weekend making and freezing food so I don't have to cook during the week.

Tonight I am working at the art museum serving beer and other beverages again so it is going to be a long day. I go to the museum right after work - it doesn't make sense to drive to the house and 20 minutes later turn around and head back downtown to the museum. I will go see Paula Nadelstern's quilts again with the extra time - no crowds and I pretty much have the place to myself except for the security people.

Have a wonderful and safe 4th!

Finally I can post

Blogger is just not cooperating today in posting pictures! So finally here is my post.

Last evening my friend came over so I could help her with the baby quilt project she has been working on and that I have been guiding her. We first had some vegatable soup that I made on Sunday and hot homemade cheddar biscuits fresh out of the oven. We then headed down to the studio. First we trimmed the blocks and cut the strip sets, arranged them on the design wall, and then she started sewing them together. We ended up having to change the quilt from the pattern because the daisy blocks were too big to cut down to match the size of the bug blocks, and the strip sets were not measuring the correct width. She was concerned, but I said "trust me". We played around withe wide daisy border until we were satisfied with our solution. The botton border is sewn on and we quit at 10:15 p.m. She had arrived at 4:45 p.m. and had a hour trip home. I think it will be cute when it is done.

Moving ahead

I spent some time last night and this morning getting the house cleaned up for company tonight. The woman that I have been helping to guide her in making her first baby quilt is ready to have another session of instruction. I have no idea where she is at in the construction, but we will work with whatever point she is at. I got the table cleared off and have my next project sitting on the table and ready to go.

Here is some fabric I received in the mail yesterday. It is 100% cotton and made in Hawaii. It is part of the project I am going to be working on over the 4th.

I need to vent. Blogger is a pain since they changed it. I will go thru the process of uploading a photo and it doesn't appear so I have to try again. I had gotten use to writing my blogs in reverse so now I have to re-adjust my brain as the pictures now load the opposite. My brain is slow in the morning and all the extra thinking is hard early in the morning! I guess I will get use to it eventually until they change it again! :)