Partially quilted.........

The ditch quilting is all done in the center of this wall hanging and now I'm working on the border.  It may be a first finish in July instead of the only finish in June.  I don't have the speed I used to have.  

I watered the tomato plants yesterday morning.  We haven't had rain since Saturday when we got 1.15".  The tomato plants need about 2" of rain a week and those in pots need more.  I have 3 volunteer plants in pots as well as the gold cherry tomatoes and the paste tomato.  We may get rain Friday morning if the storm doesn't fall apart before it gets here.

 

Basting and sorting............

I finished basting the African colorwash wallhanging but didn't start the ditch quilting yet.  I have to clean off the top of my cabinet so I can quilt it with my Pfaff.

I'm back to finish sorting the light batik fabrics that were on 2 shelves that I showed a few days ago.  Most of these are quite large prints or multicolor or dark cream background colors.

Here is a look farther down this stack.  I need to pull out any I think I will never use and restack ones that can be used together.

I cut straggly tree branches yesterday and watered all of my pots of flowers.  Also did a load of laundry.  Not a very exciting day to write about.

 

Basting day..........

I finished this quilt top at the end of December 2020 and I'm finally getting around to basting and quilting it.  It is about half basted at this point.

My niece is in town for a few days so she came over for a visit and brought me a bouquet from a bridal shower on Sunday.

We masked up so we could have a long visit while she chose some quilts for some of my great-nieces and a great-nephew.  I also gave her a quilt I had used on my guest bed.

These are the quilts that left my house yesterday.  Since I am not doing trunk shows any more I just can't keep storing the quilts.  I want my family to have them.  The one in the top right is one of the charm quilts (961 different fabrics in it, none repeated) and it hung in the Paducah quilt show in 1992.  I really wanted a family member to have it.  We had a great time chatting while I showed her quilts she could choose from.

This is the quilt I gave to the great-niece for the shower (and wedding) gift on Sunday.  It is one of my very favorites and only fitting that a family member should own it.

And, just because they are so beautiful and fragrant, a close up from the bouquet.

 

Produce..........

We had beautiful weather yesterday and it is supposed to last for 3 days.  I have been picking the tomatoes the minute they show color so the squirrels won't take one bite out of them.  My son brought me lettuce yesterday and I gave him most of these tomatoes.  While he was here he cut down the last of the Rose of Sharon bushes on the north side of the house right next to the garage.  I went out later and pulled weeds and cut down volunteer trees.

I looked through some fabrics but was really lazy and didn't cut or sew anything.  I need to consider quilting something in the next few days.

A better photo...........

I finished this quilt in January 2010 but the photo on my blog was from 2 cameras back and not a great shot.  I took it to the basement and hung it on the double design wall and set up my auxiliary lights and this is much better.  I quilted lines in both directions on my longarm and then stitched in the ditch on my straight stitch machine.  It is 73" x 96" so it would fit a twin bed.

The quilt was made with a combination of batiks and regular quilting cottons, some of them Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

The inspiration quilt was in a Kaffe Fassett book but mine is made with a different number of squares in sections behind the vertical rows of small squares.  It resembles a beaded curtain and also reminds me of the argyle pattern.

I need to show a few quilts to someone so I'm adding them to this post.

Marcia Derse tall triangles, about 70" x 90".

Batik Trip Around the World. 66" x 91".  120 different batik fabrics.

All 1930's reproduction prints, Trip Around the World, 69" x 92".  24 different fabrics.

All purple quilting cottons, pattern from a Karla Alexander book.  Her name for the quilt was Out of Line.  61" x 88".

 

Between projects.............

Even though I have a long list of quilts I want to start, and an equally long list of tops that need quilting, I always have this lull after I finish a project, or in this case 2 quilt tops.

So what do I do?  Look through some Kaffe books that I have bookmarks in to see what I can add to the list.  This one is my favorite in the Quilts in America book.  But then I looked at the cutting directions and it requires 1296 light triangles and 1296 dark triangles.  I think I'll pass on this one for now.

The piles of switchplate blocks are laying on one of the tables in the basement.  320+ of them.  I'm paralyzed at where to start in the layout so I walked past them and vacuumed the living room.  Then I attempted to clean off a table so I have a place to start a new quilt.

Then I looked up at the 2 shelves of light batiks and I am rarely pulling any off of the piles to use.  I started sorting them, you know, does this one give me joy?, destashing routine.  I have one shelf done and I'm restacking with like types together, gray print, beige print, multicolor print.  Now maybe I'll get excited when I look at the shelves, or hopefully only one shelf when I'm done sorting.

 

Little zig zag..............

Another 88 degree day, hot sun blazing.  Today is supposed to be 92, not a lot of difference, both very hot.

I got the little zig zag baby quilt top sewn together, 30" x 36".  I think that might be a nice take along size for the baby when visiting others.

So you can see the difference in size, here are the 2 together.  The large one has 8" quarter square triangles and the small one has 3" half square triangles.

Speaking of perspective, my friend planted some tomato seeds and gave me this little plant on the left which is in a 6" pot in the photo.  It was less than half this size when she gave it to me in a tiny pot.  Now, the photo on the right is that plant exploded to huge height and it is finally setting buds.  It is quite bushy and is doing well in the big pot.

One quilt top sewn...........

I got this quilt top pressed and measured yesterday.  It is 56.5" x 72.5".  The colors are more true in the photo below.  The camera wanted them to look more gold here.

I thought I would finish the zig zag too but I have one more row to sew on to it.

I picked 3 more little tomatoes to finish ripening in the house.  I'm not planning on sharing with the squirrels.

 

All seams sewn...............

After an hour and a half of power outage late in the day yesterday (94 degrees), I had to wait until it cooled off again in the studio to finish sewing the quarter square triangle quilt top.  The studio has 2 windows facing west and it is the farthest distance from the window A/C units.  I have a fan blowing the cool air in that direction. The good news is I did get all of the seams sewn and I will press it today.

Monday I showed the pieces for this quilt with each fabric as a group and now I have mixed the fabrics around for a much better layout.  I still need to make 12 more squares to finish the layout.  I think the butterfly print I showed yesterday will be the backing for this small (30" x 36") baby quilt.

It was still 85 degrees at 11 p.m. yesterday and today's high is supposed to be 86 with lower humidity.  Next week is our cool down and I can't wait.

 

A miracle......

I should have waited a little longer before I wrote that last post.  Power is back on.

Power outage.....

Power went out 5:15 p.m. today (Tuesday) and first estimate of repair was 7:30 p.m. 

Now that has been changed to 5:30 a.m. (Wednesday).  I'll be posting in the morning unless a miracle happens and they really get it fixed tonight. 

Final layout.............

I finally decided on a final layout, trying to spread out the darker colors evenly as well as the backing fabric which is in half of the blocks.

Last night I started sewing it together.  I have 5 rows webbed so far in this photo.

Earlier in the day I sewed all of the rest of the triangle squares and just put them up on the design wall as I finished each matching group.  I haven't decided if I should mix them up or leave them matching.

Here is one more fabric I haven't used yet.  I think maybe it should be in this zig zag quilt.

The stinking little squirrels took a big bite out of one of the tomatoes that was ripening so I picked this other one and brought it in the house to ripen a few days ago.

I checked the other plants last night and found one more to bring in to ripen.

One more Lily bloomed yesterday, the Stella d'oro.  I saved this one from one of the front gardens that got dug up last year and planted it in a backyard garden.

Starting the baby quilt.............

I now have 234 three inch triangles cut from the yellow leftovers and the first pile is sewn.

I pressed all of the quarter square triangle blocks so they are ready to put on the design wall today.

There is lots of yellow outside too.  I kept looking for this Asiatic Lily and didn't see it and then suddenly here it is blooming.

There are lots of the Evening Primrose plants too (see the lily in the background) and they aren't affected by the hot weather.

I love this Hosta.  I need to do a lot of clean up in that flower bed.  The Evening Primrose is considered invasive and if I didn't like it so much I would probably pull out a lot of it.  

Cleaning up...........

When cutting quarter square triangles on my die cutter it leaves a triangle at each end large enough to cut a 3" finished half square triangle.  I was able to cut 149 triangles yesterday as I cleaned up the table.  The little metal bin has all of the tiny scraps for the whole quilt plus these triangles.

I sorted the triangles into stacks of like fabrics.  I have some long strips wide enough to cut more triangles so I may do that today.  I'm thinking about making a zig zag baby quilt with these triangles.  I need to cut more white background fabrics too.

Yesterday was a glorious 76 degrees with low humidity and a little breeze.  I finished mowing the lawn in the morning and then watered the tomato plants.  After the sun moved away from my front garden I spread a bag of leaf mulch around the plants closest to the sidewalk.  I really need to put a bigger plant in the center of one of the beds but we have an extremely hot and dry week coming up so I might have to wait on that.  The humidity is supposed to stay lower for a few more days so that should keep it from becoming oppressive outside. 

63 blocks sewn..........

I cut 12 more triangles and sewed the last 7 blocks and then put all of them in a stack to take to the basement to press.

I mowed part of my yard at 7:30 last night but it was still pretty warm so I'll finish that this morning, the coolest day we have predicted for the next 10.

I was feeling pretty lazy most of the day and did some knitting.  I get all of them up to the last increase row and then no matter which one I pick up to work on, they all will have a decrease in every row.  That way I don't make mistakes and the variety makes me happy.

This is another pot I spray painted and then planted.

I'm hoping these plants will fill in nicely.

My Cannas are looking pretty healthy.  I really like them in pots up by my garage.  The squirrels haven't bothered them so far.

I have baby bunnies under my Hydrangea bush.  I was pretty sure they were there because a momma rabbit seemed to be always close by guarding the area. When I was mowing near there I saw the little bunnies running back under the bush.

   

56 blocks.............

I'm getting down to decision time.  I have 56 blocks made, 7 across, 8 down, not a good proportion for a finished top. (56" x 64")  I have enough pieces cut for 5 more blocks but not a good variety of prints.  I have plenty more fabric so I guess I might be cutting again today.

I watered all of my pots and the tomato plants yesterday morning and watered the whole front flower bed last night.  We only got a tenth of an inch of rain.  Last night when I went out to check on the tomato plants this is what I saw.  Our weather from today through Sunday is perfect ripening weather.  Then we go back into upper 90s again at the beginning of next week.  Tomato plants don't like it that hot.....and neither do I.

This is the larger of the 2 volunteer tomato plants that I put in pots.  It has a bloom on it so there is hope it is going to produce fruit.

One of the Hostas in the front garden has sent up a flower stalk already.  It seems early for that but I have about 20 or more varieties and they all bloom at different times.  The last to bloom is close to the first of September.

The new Hydrangea bush behind it has the first sign of a bud.  I'll be checking to see if there are more today.

 

More variety................

I cut a lot of triangles from the backing fabric and now this has some life to it.  I cut triangles first thing in the morning yesterday and when I got bored with the selection I cut some more.  Three times I was pressing and cutting yesterday.  I think I'll cut a few more new fabrics today.  I haven't pressed any of these blocks yet so I will likely take them all down when I have enough blocks and then start over with the layout.

It only got up to 94 yesterday and the humidity dropped a little more.  It was still 85 at 11p.m. last night so it isn't cooling off much overnight.  Saturday we are predicted to have low 70s.  How about that for a one day change before the heat rolls back in.

Experimenting................

I pressed 8 of my 45 yellow fabrics and cut some quarter square triangles with my Studio die cutter.  These are 8" finished blocks (4 blocks shown).  I sewed up a few just to get a feel for it.

I could also place them every other one with whole squares in the opening or I could find an 8" quilt block I like and use them in the spaces.  

As my post title says, I'm experimenting.  I have a lot more fabric to press and cut for the variety I would want in an all yellow quilt.

 I mentioned previously that I had spray painted some older pots that were looking pretty shabby.  The one on the left used to be pale pink and now it is rosy red.

The Annabelle Hydrangea blooms are getting big and one has turned white.  They will all turn white soon and then they go back to lime green as they mature.

It got up to 97 yesterday but the dew point dropped from 79 the day before to 72 so it didn't feel as hot as Monday.  Possible storms will go through after midnight and then the dew point will drop even more for a comfortable Friday and Saturday.  At least that is what they are telling us....and I want to believe them.