Here is the proof, all four corners done. Finished photo tomorrow. Yesterday I finished vacuuming the attic. It was too hot to finish the other day and yesterday was nice and cool. I had the area by the whole house fan to finish up. Lots of weeds got pulled. The ground was soft enough they came out pretty easily. I wanted to get all of the ones that have burrs on them pulled before they dry up and are a real nuisance. It is going to be warmer and more humid on Sunday and Monday so I'll probably go out and pull more weeds today.
All of a sudden I realized the end of the month is almost here and I don't have the binding done for a finish this month. I have 29 inches left to hand stitch and I'll do it today so I can get the quilt photographed before midnight tomorrow. I have to take all of the blocks off my design wall that has the best lighting so I can hang it there for its photo.
I live in a one story ranch style house but I have a stairway to my attic. Yesterday morning while it was cool I was up there vacuuming up all of the grit from the roofing job. My house was built in 1953 and they used tongue and groove boards on the roof instead of plywood so there are cracks between them for the grit to sift through. Late in the afternoon I mowed the grass since it was still comfortable out. Last night I cut 30 more fabrics for my colorwash360 kits. It is pretty obvious that I have lots of values missing for a smooth blend. Also I'm running out of space on this small design wall.
My zinnias are doing well even though I planted them really late in the season.
I think I should plant zinnias in my raised bed in the backyard next year instead of tomatoes. I'm having better luck with the tomatoes in a partly shady area.
I knew my granddaughter was stopping by to pick up some things yesterday morning so I opened the front door before she got here and this is what I saw. Mr. Squirrel brought his walnut all the way from the back of my lot to my front porch to chew off the outer coating ...... and of course walnut leaves a stain so I have some dirty looking steps now.
This is not an extra large Milkweed leaf, it is a teeny tiny Monarch caterpillar. I didn't see him later so I'm not sure if he is in a safe place or not.
There are 2 caterpillars in this photo and the bottom one has fallen down onto a hydrangea leaf. Now he is going to have to travel aways to get himself back onto the Milkweed which is the only plant they eat.
Here is the third large caterpillar on the edge of a leaf. I hope they find a safe place to form their Chrysalis. I was busy with many things around the house yesterday so I didn't get much sewing done, just a little of hand stitching on the binding.
I have all of one short side and half of one long side of the binding hand stitched. This fabric is a lot easier to stitch through than the batiks that I use so often.
I finally sewed the cross seams last night on this postage stamp block and noticed the poor frog lost his head into the seam allowance. I also made one of the 6" hole in the barn door a/k/a churn dash blocks for my Farm Girl Vintage quilt. We had rain off an on for a good portion of the day yesterday and we really needed it.
I decided I needed a day of rest so I sewed the binding onto the x and + quilt and have started the slow hand stitching.
When I went out to get the newspapers early in the morning I saw the 2 Monarch caterpillars munching away on the remains of the milkweed plant nearest to the house. The bottom one is on the remaining center stem/vein of a leaf that is totally eaten.
I cut the 42 pink, red and burgundy fabrics for the 24 kits. This photo shows 132 squares so far.
I continue with a mock up to see what is missing as I continue cutting.
This is all of the left over end pieces so far. I have several little bags full of the leftovers from previous kits I have cut.
I will be sending the skinny little leftovers from die cutting to a friend who needs them for a project.
I gathered and pressed the fabrics for the 6" hole in the barn door a/k/a churn dash blocks for the Farm Girl Vintage quilt but didn't get around to cutting them. Still beautiful cooler less humid weather here. It's almost chilly as I sit here typing. I just checked the weather on the phone and it says it is 56 degrees so I guess that is why it might be called chilly.
Since my straight stitch machine is so quiet I decided to finish quilting the Kaffe x and + quilt while my 2 friends were here working on their projects. I also got it trimmed and cut the binding strips. I thought I would be Superwoman after they left and make 8 six inch blocks for my Farm Girl Vintage quilt and also cut 42 new fabrics for my batik colorwash360 kits.
Instead I did go to Walm*rt and walk 3200 steps and picked up a few groceries but then I came home and just spent some quality time with my new Kaffe book. I will do the other projects today. Reality hit: I am not Superwoman.
The only sewing I got done yesterday was this postage stamp block sewn in one direction while I caught the noon news and weather.
In the cutting category first I cut the grass. I had to move my blade up higher because the grass was so long. The humidity level dropped a lot so it was a good day for mowing. Then I cut red, coral, pink and burgundy fabrics for the colorwash kits for my Colorwash360 class. Each of those fabrics is on a stack of 6 layers. My 2 friends are coming over to sew today so I may take a break and work on something else.
I had to go shoe shopping yesterday, shoes for my granddaughter's wedding next month. I found a pair that is so comfortable....and so expensive. They will be my dressy shoes for the rest of my life. I sewed the last batch of Hunter Stars and put the last 2 batches up on the design wall with the first group. There will be lots of rearranging and in fact the blocks will probably come down off the design wall because this is a long range project. There are 64 blocks here and I need about 130.
I got the yellow postage stamp block sewn together. I hope I can get one more sewn this week.
I continue a little each day cutting the kits for my next Colorwash360 online class. I have 90 pieces in each pile so far.
I did purple and turquoise 2 days ago and green yesterday. These are the waste pieces at the end of the cuts.
I set up a 30" x 40" foam core board covered with flannel on my long arm table, leaning against the top rail. I am doing a quick check on values this way and will be able to judge what is missing when I get all of the colors cut. Today I could do yellow and orange into rust or pink into red.
Last night I sewed some Hunter Star half blocks. I will have the iron on today and then I can press them and sew the half blocks together.
I kept thinking the half blocks look like fish so I laid them out in vertical columns to see how the dark and light halves of the blocks would work together. I think it might work better if all of the lights were a consistent value. I have worked mediums in as both lights and darks as I am making the star blocks.
It's time to start cutting colorwash kits for my projected Sept.-Oct. online Colorwash 360 class. (Details coming soon) First I cut a piece off yardage 8 1/8" wide, then trim the fold line off.
That is then separated into single layers of each fabric, 6 fabrics deep.
Then with 3 passes through the die cutter one of those piles of 6 fabrics is cut into 24 kits. I will be spending at least 3 hours a day every day until the kits are all cut. I don't work 8 hour days anymore....
I put the end pieces up on a design wall so I can see which fabrics I have cut and what I need to add to each color group. I cut 36 fabrics yesterday.
I have milkweed coming up all over in my front flower gardens. There are 2 Monarch caterpillars on this plant but the one on the top leaf must have ducked back behind it when I snapped the photo. They have really eaten a lot off these leaves.
I'm about 2/3 done with the quilting on the X and + quilt. I should finish in a couple days.
When I was filling the bird feeders I saw a stem half broken off of one of my Brown Eyed Susan plants so I broke it off the rest of the way and brought it in the house. I never think about picking a bouquet of these and there are certainly enough that I could and it wouldn't look like anything is missing on the plants.
I couldn't seem to stick with just one project yesterday. I did a little more ditch quilting on the X and + quilt, cut pieces for the Hunter Star quilt and cut more squares for the postage stamp blocks.
I got one block sewn in one direction, ready for pressing.
I laid out the next one to sew today. We finally got some rain and the grass is getting tall but it is still dry and brown in lots of patches. It seems like such a long time since I mowed last.
This is the season where Kaffe just recolored some of his older prints but Philip and Brandon came out with some new designs. The 2 black and white are Brandon's and the one on the right is called onion rings. These designs are huge!
Philip Jacobs Geodes and Brandon Mably onion rings.
These are Cactus Flower by Philip Jacobs and I think it is 2 new colors of an older print.
I got some small pieces of Kaffe's recoloring of Spot and paper fans.
I finished thread basting the African fabric quilt. Now I need to finish quilting the X and + quilt with my straight stitch machine so I can start quilting this one.
I pressed the last batch of scrappy batik Hunter star blocks and decided to see how they all look up on the design wall. This is a long term project started last year and in no hurry to finish this year. I'll keep cutting blocks as I have batiks out to cut for other projects.
I washed the black and white quilt that I used the Warm and Plush batting (by the Warm and Natural company) in and it shrunk quite a bit. It was only 44" x 68" when I finished it and now it is 42" x 64.75". That is more than Hobbs Heirloom shrinks. The quilt is definitely crinkly.
Last night I pulled out my smallest Kaffe scraps and cut a bunch more squares for the postage stamp quilt. This is only 6 pieces more than I need for ONE block.
I planted some zinnias late and they are just starting to bloom. Only about a dozen plants grew from close to 30 seeds.
