8 of 16 Snail's Trail blocks.........................

All of the blocks have been pressed now and this is one of each fabric combination.  There are 10 more combinations of 2 fabrics left to cut and sew.

This is the previously posted photo of all 18 combinations.  I didn't have much energy yesterday so I didn't get any more pressed to prepare for cutting.  I plan on cutting 4 more pairs today.

This collage shows the previous Snail's Trail quilts that I have made.  The one on the left was made in 2017 and I experimented with alternate plain blocks in 2 different fabrics.  The one in the center was made in 2019 and is also brown fabrics but paired with mostly beiges instead of gold and rust like I have in the newest project.  The one on the right was made in 2023 and is proof that this isn't just a masculine quilt block but could be made in any type of fabric.  These were cut with the 12" GO die.  I also have the 8" die but haven't used it yet.  

6 blocks times 2....................

Eight more fabrics got pressed yesterday and four new blocks were sewn.  Since there are two alike of every combination, I'll just show one of each from now on.  I will be able to design one half of the quilt and then repeat the same fabrics for each row for the second half, usually in a different order than the first rows.  The basement is warming up since we haven't had a cool spell so ironing the fabrics has to be done in short sessions, in this case 8 fabrics at a time.

As I go around the corner of the house on the way to the backyard I pass the Weigela bush with the red flowers.  There are always a few branches of stragglers after all of the rest of the bush is done blooming.

This is the latest start I have had for ripening tomatoes.  These are Rutgers which usually ripen after the 4th of July and Early Girl varieties.

These are on the second Rutgers plant.  

The Jack be Little pumpkin plants are growing.  These are the little decorative pumpkins.  I was too late to plant big ones.

The spotty rain showers missed us yesterday and there is a small chance of some rain today.  I think I'll be safe setting up my design walls again.  I have to put a clean flannel covering on one of them and then tip them upright.  It sounds easy but I'm short and the foam 4' x 7' sheets are tall. 

Done but no formal portrait..................

I finished the binding yesterday morning but my design walls in the basement are still on their sides, leaning against a table.  The design wall on the main level isn't quite large enough to display it.  Rain is forecast for today so I'm waiting to see if more water seeps into the basement before I put the walls back in place.

I cut 8 of the blocks for the Snail's Trail quilt and got 6 of them sewn yesterday.   Most of these print fabrics are from the 1990s.

I noticed the first bud has bloomed on the Tiger Lily so went out to take a few photos.

This is the section that is all False Sunflower and Purple Coneflower.  It is just getting started with all of the blooms.

This section was in the shade and the coneflowers are more vivid here.  I had to cut a lot of bindweed off the plants.  It was strangling them and tying them together.

The Hosta bed is partially in the sun but by late afternoon is all shade.

This was my treat last night.

I like to put the colors in rows and I hit the jackpot in this package with all 6 colors.  I'm not so OCD that I need all of the little m insignias turned the same direction.  Do you line yours up too, or just eat them?

 

Finally sewing again..................

I did some die cutting and then came up to the studio and started sewing the binding on the Marca Derse Other 16 Patch quilt.

I was thinking about hand finishing the binding on this one, and then I asked myself, do you really want to do that?  The answer was no, so I have 2 sides finished and 2 to go today.

I ran into an old friend I used to share plants with and she mentioned she had a bunch of hostas die.  I had been looking for someone to come and dig out some hostas because they are crowding each other in my back garden.  They were covering part of my path through the garden too.  They purchased bags of topsoil to fill in the holes where they dug out some plants.  I used to dig them up myself and pot them and give them away.  This time I didn't have to do any of the work.

Pressing...........

I had to turn the iron on yesterday to press the binding fabric for the current finish so I paired the fabrics for the Snail's Trail and got 4 pairs pressed while I was at it.  Hopefully I'll get some blocks cut today.

While outside checking on my tomato plants I noticed some of the buds on the Tiger Lilies are turning orange.  It won't be long now for the first few blooms.

Thanks to a friend, I had blackberries on vanilla ice cream last night for dessert.  Yummy!

I got the binding strips cut yesterday so I hope to get the binding sewn on the quilt today.  Maybe I'll hand finish this one.

 

Tiring day..............

I trimmed this quilt a few days ago and yesterday chose the blue stripe at the left edge as my binding.  I'll get it cut today.

I didn't mention on yesterday's post that after getting 8.25" of rain in 3 days I had water seeping in along my south basement wall.  I mopped up some Saturday night and then checked it again yesterday morning.  There was more.  I started working on it, making a little progress.  My son and daughter-in-law stopped by to drop of my 5 gallon water bottle and I asked my son to go to the attic (I have a stairway) and get my box fan.  When he carried it to the basement for me he saw what a mess I had.  I have a small wet/dry vacuum but had never used it for water before.  He vacuumed it all up for me and we set up 3 fans to dry the floor.  This is in the area where my double design wall is and the water was soaking up on the flannel on one of the panels so we moved both and I removed the wet flannel and washed it.  Both design walls are on their sides and leaning against tables, what a mess.  I was up and down the basement stairs at least 10 times yesterday and was wiped out by 10 p.m.  I'll need to run the fans for one more day.  More rain is predicted for Thursday and I'm hoping it will only be a small amount.

My blackberry lily is blooming. That is the name that the lady selling the plant to me said they were.  When I look that up on the internet, none seem to look like these.  Maybe I'll use my plant identifier app today and see what it says.

There is one large and one small cucumber on the largest plant.  The ones I started from seed are about a foot tall now but don't have any blooms on them yet.

I have one tomato ripening on the plant.  This is the 4th of July variety and I usually have ripe tomatoes on this variety by now.  There are lots of tomatoes on the plant so maybe I'll have a bunch ripening at once.

 

A collage and the garden...................

 I wanted to have a collage of the finished quilts for the first half of the year, so yesterday seemed like a good time to do it.  They aren't to scale, just tossed into the collage.  It's fun for me to see them all together to recap the first 6 months.

I took a few photos in the garden just before the rain started...again.  We have gotten 8.25" of rain in the last 3 days, 2.75" yesterday afternoon.  My north neighbor has a lot of standing water in their backyard.

This is the Zinfin Doll Hydragea before the blooms start turning pink.

There was one Black-eyed Susan plant 2 years ago.  I counted at least 7 this year.  Since I haven't been able to do much gardening, I haven't removed any of them, but I will need to move them after blooming season.  Those are Coral Bell plants behind this one.

There are lots of blooms on the yellow Gloriosa Daisy now.

I coudn't resist a photo of the front porch on my way past it.

Over by the corner of the house the yellow Coneflower is doing great again this year.  I really should get those weeds pulled while the ground is wet.