Here is the progress the last three days. The one on the right is the final layout except for one top row square which I changed at the last minute. Maybe you can spot the changes if you click on the photo to enlarge it.
I made the decision yesterday that I would rather complete this top than do any more finishes for the month. I got 8 rows sewn by last night. Rows 9 and 10 are laying by the machine. Then I had to switch over to some sewing that I need to deliver to my church today.
The rest of the rows have been removed from the design wall and marked for position.
I have a little more tweaking to do but I got the top and bottom edge filled in with squares. I changed out 3 pieces and still have another 3 or 4 that I would like to replace.
As the end of the month is near I have to make a decision whether I can do some more finishes in 2 days. My plan to finish 4 this month started out great but all of the nice weather had me working outside a lot.
I finished mowing the backyard before lunch. Then I cut off the damaged branches on my middle lilac bush. The heavy wet snow bent the branches down to the ground and several were partially broken off and others just bent totally out of shape. Brush pick up it is next week so it was time to do it. Last night I dug out the rocks that were edging the garden and placed them farther out. A lot of plants had jumped over the rocks and were growing in the grass. Now I have a little less to mow and a prettier edge.
The Heliotrope is in bloom. It is just as fragrant as the lilacs and peonies. I have been breathing scented air at night for two weeks.
It was another beautiful day although a little warm in the afternoon. I was gone in the morning and after lunch mowed the 2 side yards and part of the back before the mower battery ran out again. I hope I can get the rest mowed today before it rains. When the sun was setting I went out to cut volunteer trees and dig out big weeds.
I sewed the rest of the 16 patch blocks so now I'm ready to play with the design wall.
My third Weigela bush is in bloom now.
They are a unique shaped flower.
My tomato plants have doubled in size in one week in the ground. I just buy the little plants that are less than $2 each. I have room for one more so I have been thinking about buying one larger plant. I read that you should plant flowers near the tomato plants to assure pollination.
I helped a friend baste a quilt yesterday morning. Then I planted some Canna bulbs and dug out some big weeds in the back garden. I mowed the front yard until the battery ran out. Then I worked on the colorwash. I only changed one piece in the yellow/gold area and worked on adding rows. I added 2 rows to the bottom and one to the top. Now I need to get out the trays of squares and fill in the holes. After that I will tweak the flow of values. I can see several trouble areas in the photo that I couldn't see while staring at the design wall.
Yesterday my cousins and I got together for lunch to celebrate one cousin's birthday. When I got home I dug up a couple more hostas that were too big for the area they were in. I pulled off the babies and returned the main plant to the original spot.
Last night I finally made it to the basement to fill in the last few spots. A couple of the fabrics aren't working very well so I'll look for replacements. I may add another row top and bottom too and then fill in with squares.
I have received lots of comments from no reply people lately. I thank you for your comments but I can't reply to you. Don't think I'm ignoring you or unappreciative, I just don't have a link to get back to you.
A few days ago I started a colorwash with 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles. This is all regular quilting cottons, no batiks. I have a gold and orange area to fill in as well as 2.5" squares to fill the gaps on top and bottom. Then I will look at it for a couple days before sewing it together and possibly move a few pieces.
I sewed 4 more sets of fabrics so I have 40 blocks now. When I make all of the duplicate blocks I will have 80 and then I'll play with the layout and sew it together.
The rest of the day was relaxation.
I had a couple more photos from Saturday that I didn't post. Here is the Spiderwort again.
This was in the area where I dug out lots of the day lilies. I ended up digging out most of the little star flowers too because they were mixed into the roots of the lilies.
I made 4 more light blocks for a total of 36 so far. I have another of each of these combinations to sew so there will be 72, 8 blocks x 9 or 64" x 72". If I do 4 more combinations I will have 80 blocks or 64" x 80". I did a tutorial in July 2013 for the 16 patch quilt. If they are all in the same position (all with light in the top left corner) the seams will go in opposing directions at every intersection with my directions.
I needed to tackle this flower bed yesterday. The day lilies have crept forward again and were crowding out the hostas.
Here is the after photo. My sister in law gave me some bleeding heart plants so they are way over to the left along with a coral bell. I can see my rock edge again.
I dug out the hostas and reset them with a little different spacing. They broke into many sections as I dug and this is the leftovers. I tried to offer them on Freecycle but my posts are held up by a moderator that must not be home. I offered the day lilies and hostas. I hope she/he does the moderating today so it will be posted.
I have 32 sixteen patch blocks sewn and now that I see them on the wall I know I want to make some more lighter ones. I also see I have the top right block and third one in on the bottom row turned wrong. I have 32 more identical blocks to sew too.
A second peony bush has a flower almost opened. There are lots of big fat buds ready to pop. I have about 30 peony bushes in the back yard and 2 in the front garden. There were 43 bushes in the back yard when I moved here 43 years ago.
I needed some instant gratification last night so I sewed the first nine 16 patch blocks.
Here is the next batch ready to sew.
I was outside most of the day yesterday so I only sewed 2 more sets of strips together.
I planted my tomato plants in the raised bed and the whole time I could smell the lilacs at the other end of the house. They are one of the Korean varieties so they are late and not especially pretty but very fragrant.
The first peony bloomed in the 70 degree weather with the sun shining. What a difference from 47 degrees the day before.
I also planted 6 more pots with flowers. Oh, and I mowed the back yard and side yard. I think I got my fresh air and exercise yesterday.
I wore a jacket while mowing my grass yesterday. It was 47 degrees! I also emptied 10 bags of dirt into my raised bed in the backyard. Then I went inside where it was warm....the furnace running in mid-May.
Last night I decided to do some strip piecing for a 16 patch quilt. I have hundreds of 2.5" strips of batik cut so I just chose some summery looking colors and got 20 sets sewn. That will be 40 blocks so I need to sew more.
I inventoried my Nancy Crow fabrics. She designed for 3 different fabric companies back in the 1990s. I want to cut for 2 quilts at a time so I will be thinking on this for a couple days.
I bought 2 hanging baskets for my back garden. I forget what the flowers are called but the tag said hummingbirds like them.
It is supposed to be warmer today so maybe I can get the rest of my pots planted.
While my 2 friends were here yesterday I finished quilting this wallhanging and sewed the binding on. Last night I did the hand sewing on the binding and hanging sleeve. It is 40.5" x 40".
The binding is a black and white stripe made of dashes.
I am really feeling lost and indecisive without my triangle project. It is the journey that I love the most: the process of choosing fabrics as I go and cutting and piecing little by little, experimenting with fabrics and finding out if they are going to work. The end product is nice but the process is wonderful. When the process is over, the last seam sewn, it is like I have lost a good friend. I can visit the quilt top and enjoy it, but I miss the journey. I hope my next project will be as much fun.
I counted fabrics in it last night and there are 100 different fabrics with 2 repeats. I didn't have to go shopping, the stash was there for me to play with. Here are 2 collages of the quilt progress.
Here is the post with the inspiration for this quilt.
Even though I had made a list of quilts to work on when I finished the triangle quilt I just couldn't get inspired to work on any of them yesterday. I was outside moving bags of topsoil and building a raised bed for my tomato plants instead. This photo is the blooms on my Viburnum bush. Only one branch has blossoms and it is a big bush.
I have a little patch of Spiderwort.
A second Weigela bush is blooming. I cut this one back severely last fall.
I have Red Penstemon in 3 places. It is such a nice contrast of color with the other plants.
A friend gave me some ferns last year and they are doing well.
The larger patch of dark Jack-in-the-Pulpit is all in bloom.
The lighter color Jacks are also in bloom. This patch has about 10 plants.
My two friends are coming over today to sew so I will be inspired to get started on something.
It is finally sewn together! I'm so happy with it. For new readers here is the post with the inspiration. I worked on this quilt over a 6 week time period. I planned on using all different fabrics but in the end I repeated two.
There are a couple older rare Kaffe fabrics in the project. This is one of my favorites.
Here is another rare print.
It ended up about 79" x 95" and it was a challenge for me at 5'1" to get this up on the design wall for its photo session.
I took a few more nature photos but I'll just show one today. This is the third color Columbine that I have. This color is growing in a couple different places but I like the backdrop of the stone on my house for the photo.
My daughter's property with a named waterfall in NC is going to be on a TV show. Here is a link to the Facebook page for all of the details. You don't have to have a Facebook account to read it. I will be going out there for the reveal date.
This has been my project the last couple days. All of my pots were old and faded. I bought spray paint for plastic on sale last month. First I had to get down on my hands and knees and scrub all of them before I could paint them. Then one of the cans decided to stop spraying before I could finish them. I bought another can of the same color and finished up yesterday. For the price of one new large pot I freshened up 16 pots. Now I have to fill them....starting today.
My blue Columbine are blooming. I have 2 plants of this color now.
Here is a close up. This is the common variety, nothing fancy, just pretty.
The pale pink Columbines are also in bloom. These and the blue ones have both gotten so tall this year.
Another variety of Cranesbill is blooming too.
I finished sewing all of the pieces for the triangle quilt and sewed all of the vertical seams. I started sewing the 96" seams and have 3 more to go for a finish. I hope to have the finished top on my blog Monday.
