Crazy weekend

Friday afternoon Momma duck was walking around in front of the office. We are still not sure if she has a nest in the junipers or not.

Then it was onward to the museum. The was a good crowd, lots of beer, and lots food. There were pulled pork sliders, goat cheese, pierogies, olives stuff with cheese and baked, 10 flavors of popcorn, and sausage sandwiches. Here are the stuff olives.

Saturday I ran to the grocery store and then worked on the I Spy quilt the rest of the day. Here is the top done. I had enough of that yellow fabric for the border - yeah! It turned out 56" x 70".

Sunday I decided to work on the brown and green blocks that I found last weekend when I was gathering blocks up.

I chained pieced 79 blocks! I had no idea how many were in the pile to be constructed. I just had cut out pieces. After the blocks are sew together and the tops and assembled, if I need a couple more blocks I will just cut what I need them.

So with 79 blocks I will be able to get four baby quilt tops with just making one additional block. Here are two laid out on the design wall ready to sew together.

These are the rest of the blocks. Some still need trimmed.

It was nice and warm Sunday afternoon so I went outside and attacked one of the flower beds. I cut down the ornamental grass, pulled the weeds, cleaned up the rest of the dead cannas left from last fall, and raked the leaves. I hauled out four big wheelbarrows of debris that went into the compost pile. It took me 2 1/2 hours to clean out this bed. I have four more flower beds to go. If it stays nice this week I think I will spend some time after work cleaning them up to get a head start on the season.
Before:

After:

I threw in some California poppy seeds to add a bit of early color to the bed. Here are the daffodils ready to bloom. It is suppose to be warm this week so maybe they will bloom.

I didn't know the time changed this weekend. I finally figured it out at 6 p.m. the old time!

One more row and chili contest results

My chili was not the winner. I came in 5th out of 7. Mine was the only one without onions so I don't know if that had anything to do with the results or not. Regardless, I like my chili and the guys at the office eat it without complaints. The event raised $210.00 for the AmVets which is wonderful. The president said he would match whatever was raised. The event was a lot of fun and everyone was full!

I was tired and busy last evening so I did not get much sewing done. I did go thru a stack of fabric in the stash looking for light novelty fabrics and came up with this pile.

I cut out the 4 1/2" squares and sewed together another row. (the top row is the latest row)

I did get my back order from Hancocks's of this Michael Miller print I have been wanting. I am going to use it in a gray and yellow quilt for Peg's room. One more thing to add to the to do list!

Tonight is Art and Ale at the Akron Art Museum so I have volunteered to work the event. I will leave right after work and head about 1/2 mile up the street to the museum. This is at least 4 or 5 years of working this fun event and pour beer for 3 hours. The rest of the weekend is me time. I want to get the I Spy quilt ready for quilting and if the weather is nice maybe do a little yard work. My flower beds are shameful with all the weeds left from last year. The daffodils are shooting up flower heads and I think I need to get my coneflower seeds started. Sounds like the weekend is going to go by fast!

Does it smell like a Mexican restaurant in here yet?

I got talked into participating in a chili cookoff at our home office. It is a fundraiser for the AmVets. I made the chili last eveing and it has been cooking all night in the crock pot. Now it is cooking still here at the office and it does smell like a Mexican restaurant in here! Wait until the other lady brings her's and plugs in her crock pot!

Between making chili and watching two bike races, I did manage to get a little sewing done. Here is where I am at on the I Spy quilt.

You can see the top row is a single row, then the next two rows are sewn together, and then the bottom four rows are joined. Tonight I will need to dig for a few more light colored novelty fabrics and put together a few more rows.

Light I Spy patches

Last evening was busy! I had to watch the third stage of the Paris-Nice bike race, gather up all the garbage and recycling and take it out to the curb, and clean up the kitchen (it was bad!). That did not leave me much time for sewing. I did manage to find 5 light colored fabrics that would work in the I Spy quilt. I am going to have to dig a little deeper in my stash and try to come up with a few more pieces. Since this child is a little older I am putting in shapes and geometrics - stripes and polka dots for instance.

Starting to piece that pile of patches and blocks

Hello Charlene S.! I did indeed find something to do. Since the wool quilt is on hold until I get the measurments from my brother and no amp covers to make at this time, I decided to start working on the the group of patches/blocks from yesterday's post. I started on the I Spy patches. I sewed two 4 1/2" patches together - a dark and a light. I am going for a checkerboard look.

I don't have enough light colored patches for sure and I don't think I have enough dark patches to make a decent sized quilt. This will be for a four year old girl. I will have to go thru my stash to see what I can find. I have bought some fabric since I cut these patches out so I may find a few pieces that will work. Here is the start of a the first few rows.

I did hear from my brother that the amp cover fit great so that is a relief! I asked him to send me a picture if he gets a chance.

Snow today

We have not had much snow this year, but it snowed yesterday and is still snowing today. Better on a Monday than on the weekend.

I worked on making labels for all the baby quilts I had to get ready to give away.

The quilts are all labled and ready to be handed out.

Most of Saturday was sitting over at a local high school watching the battle of the band my nephew's band was in. There were 14 bands plus a couple other acts performing. I got there at 3 pm and left at 10. It was a long day. I took my knitting so I could at least not waste the whole day. My nephew's band came in second in the youth catagory one point behind the band that won which were all high school kids. Michael is 14 and in the 8th grade. Michael did win a backpack that was raffeled off.

Sunday I spent the day doing a little of this and a little of that. I needed to clean out my backpack, sort out my stuff from my brother's mail so I could see what needed taken care of. I watched two bike races - the first stage of Paris-Nice and a one day race in Italy. During commercials I went around gathering up blocks for baby quilts that were all over the place.

At the lower left are patches for another I Spy quilt, green and brown pieces that needs sewed together, brown, pink and white pieces for a whirley gig quilt, red, cream and blue for a simple rail fence, and the back row are blocks for scrappy zig zag blocks. The box of fabric is scraps that need to be made into zig zag blocks. I would say I found something to do!

Weekend plans

Last night I decided to sew the rows together on the wool quilt. I still add on to the sides or the lenght once I get the measurements from my brother. Once I got the top done I was suprised at the weight. Even as lightweight as most of these wools were the whole top together is heavier than if it were made with cotton.

This afternoon I am headed to Dover to go to a wake for my friend's husband who died January 2. We are suppose to record a funny story about something Russell did. I haven't got mine done yet!

I need to get labels on all these quilts. They are all going to babies born to co-workers. I will be at the main office next week participating in the chili cookoff to raise money for the AmVets so I will see many of the new parents. I have 3 boy and 3 girl quilts here. I haven't figured out exactly what I need, but this is at least a good start.

Saturday my nephew's band, Retro, is in a battle of the bands. The event starts at 3 and ends at 10. Retro plays at 5, so I don't know how long I will stay. I plan on taking knitting and a book just in case I stay for the duration.

Sunday will be about relaxing and doing some regrouping. I need to gather up all the blocks I have in different places around the house for baby quilts. There are blocks in the fabric storage room, in closet inPeg's room and in my studio. I am going to have to replenish my stash of baby quilts after the big giveaway next week. If the weather is decent I may try to get some yard work done also.

Have a great weekend!