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

The rest of the triangles were sewn for the zig zag baby quilt last night and this is the final layout.

I started the webbing process last night and have 4 more vertical seams and 9 horizontal seams to sew.

I have 30" more to hand sew on the binding of the Winged Square/Cut Glass Dish quilt.  It will be on my monthly recap tomorrow.

I didn't pick black raspberries on Wednesday so this is a 2 day yield.

We had a severe thunderstorm watch yesterday midday but as I watched the radar the storm moved farther south and I only had a few drops of rain in my rain gauge.  The mid section of IL got hit with a derecho and rain.  Some areas north-east of me and closer to Chicago had over 1.5" of rain too. Humidity is sky high right now so hopefully we will get some of the rain predicted now through Sunday morning.

And on to binding................

The quilting was finished a little after noon yesterday.

The thread color matches well, so well that I couldn't tell where I had already quilted.  It is definitely done by a human being, not a computerized quilting machine.  In fact my long arm is so old they probably don't even offer the computer setup for it.

I auditioned several binding choices and wanted one with some coral/pink if I could find it.  What looks like yellow or beige as the lightest stripe is actually a salmon or coral, then orange, and finally deep rose in the center of the stripe sequence.  I finished hand sewing one long side and 15" on the short side.  About 86" done in 2 hours.  That means I probably have at least 3 hours left to hand stitch, maybe 3.5 hours.

I pieced another 1.5 rows on the green zig zag.  Two more rows to go.

I'm getting a couple tomatoes a week right now.  Two of the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes ripened so the 5 year old neighbor girl and I each did a taste test.  They are really good.

 

All ready to quilt...............

I sewed the seam in the backing, cut the batting and chose the thread.  It is loaded on the longarm but I haven't taken the first stitch yet.

I stitched some more pieces for the baby quilt while the noon news was on.

In the early evening I dug out some giant weeds growing in the lawn, cut volunteer trees and suckers and picked black raspberries.  This is actually 2 nights of picking.  The berries are small because of no rain for 5 weeks.  There were volunteer trees in amongst the raspberry canes so they are gone now and I can get in there more easily to search for ripe berries. 

A nice cool day................

The first thing I did yesterday is turn on the iron and press all of the sewn parts for Fonthill.  Then I pressed 2 of the large pieces of fabric for one of the backings I showed yesterday.

I counted all of the pinwheels and the triangle squares that I have already sewn and then sat down to figure out how many I need and how close am I to the finish line.  IF my calculations are correct I need 150 pinwheels and I have 65 sewn, not quite halfway there.   I have 41 of the 112 center panel squares sewn.  I'm planning on having this top sewn together by the end of July.

I sewed another bunch of triangles for the narrow border strips in the afternoon.  I have 135 out of 160 sewn.

Then I switched projects and sewed the pieces for one row of zig zag for the green and white baby quilt.

The Annabelle hydrangea by my front door did OK after the rain we had Saturday night into Sunday morning.

This is the one in the back, beaten down by the wind and rain. The stems for the blooms are pretty fragile so they usually bend or break if I try to lift them up after a storm.

My tiny yellow Coneflower made it through the winter and although it is less than a foot tall, it has a couple more buds to open too.  I kept it watered well during our month without rain.

The red one like this that I planted last summer came up this spring but it looked like bugs were eating the leaves and then it disappeared.  I decided to get another one to plant in that same place.  I have been waiting until the ground softened after rain to plant it.  We have more rain predicted for Thursday through Saturday so I think I'll wait until next week to plant it.

Use the pretty ones..............

We finally got rain overnight Saturday into Sunday, 3/4".  That is the first rain in 5 weeks.  It turned cooler with quite a breeze yesterday.

My task yesterday was to find backings...and yes this is a pretty one.

I'm going to put it on the back of the Winged Square/Cut Glass Dish quilt which is mostly light colors.

Next was the backing for the Snail's Trail quilt.

The stripes in this quilt run vertical and the backing will be turned so the leaves run vertical too.  I should have refolded the top for this photo.  This is one of my favorite batiks and one of the few that I had a 6 yard piece.  This is a big quilt top.

Then I cut all of the triangles for a baby quilt to get the fabrics off the ironing table.  The white with dot will be paired with all of the other colors for a zig zag small quilt like the yellow one I made last year.

To end the day I made more pinwheel blocks for the Fonthill quilt.  I need to cut light blues next for pinwheels.

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the 70s, a pleasant change from the high 80s - 90 and A/C running.  All windows will be open for 2 or more days.

 

It was hot..................

Yesterday was the first birthday party for my newest great-grandson.  It was an outside party and they only time I checked the temperature it was 90.  The only thing that made it halfway comfortable was the low humidity and a very light breeze.

The heat hasn't bothered my hanging pots in the back yard yet.  I water them when I water my tomato plants back there.

My native Purple Coneflowers are getting ready to bloom.  There seems to be a lot of them in the back garden this year.  This photo was taken at 8 p.m. so the color is pretty subdued.

I was wilting however from the heat so I didn't get very far in my fabric sorting adventure.  This purple bin is next in line.

This is one of the fabrics in the bin.  It was the Hoffman Challenge fabric in the Turquoise colorway in 1988 or 89.  Here is the post with my entry in the contest.  

 

Checking the proportions............

The center panel of the Fonthill quilt will be made with lots of miscellaneous leftover triangle squares so I took a pile of them and did a mock up on the design wall to check out the proportions.  The center panel will be 16" x 28", a 12" difference in width and length.  All of the rest of the borders will add 24" to each side and top and bottom for a 64" x 76" quilt top.  If I decide I want it 80" in length then I need to add 2 more squares to the length.  Meanwhile I keep sewing triangles into squares.

When I leaned down to take a photo of the volunteer tomato plant I see there are 2 side by side.  I wasn't going to dig it and transplant it but now I think I will need to.

The other volunteer tomato plant is tiny.

Yesterday was grocery shopping day and a little garden work, pulling weeds and watering.  I didn't have time to move a quantity of fabric to a new shelf, so maybe today.

 

Black and white day............

The black and white fabrics needed to be in a place where I could see them better.  They were in a hard to reach place before and had become very unorganized.  

Top shelf left to right: stripes and checks/plaids (and a few graphic prints); large prints; dots, spots and circles; large yardage.

Second shelf: Positive/negative (black with white and white with black, the same print); miscellaneous; miscelaneous; animal print (mostly zebra and giraffe).

What isn't shown here: a pile of black and whites that read as gray (approximately equal amounts of black and white in the print) and a lot of fat eighths of white with black prints.

That was about 2 hours of fun 😊, and then I needed to water plants and do a little shopping online for things I can't get locally.  A lot of pacing and thinking later in the day trying to decide which fabric is next for a new location.

I pulled the fabrics I need to add to the 4.5" I Spy pieces to make a twin size quilt and I will press them and cut the pieces today (maybe...).  I found my pack of 6.5" I Spy fabrics and there are enough to make a 60" x 84" quilt without adding any other fabric.  I sorted them into dark and light stacks.

The good and bad about sorting stash.............

Yesterday's task was to go through the big bin that had the pinks in it.  There were a lot of miscellaneous light fabrics in it too.

I separated the pinks by peachy pinks and true middle pink.  The good thing is I have the pinks sorted and in nice even piles.  The bad part?  I want to start a quilt right now with the peachy pinks.......but I must continue on with my current quilt project and choose something to finish this month.

I would like to add some soft oranges to this group for a future quilt.

This pile is mostly true pink like the ones I used in several quilts in the last 2 years.  There are a few large prints in this group.

Yesterday I watched a Free Spirit interview with Kaffe about some of his older fabrics that are going to be reprinted for December delivery.  Last year he did some for his 85th birthday.  This one #11 Flower Lattice is one that is being reprinted.  I have these 2 colors of the original printing.  There is a beautiful turquoise or blue that I had never seen.  I had some of one of the green colorways but didn't see it in my search.

Another to be reprinted is Grandiose by Philip Jacobs.  This has always been one of my favorites.  The deep toned colorway is my favorite.  I must have used the pink one on the bottom right as a backing because I have a long narrow piece of it.  An Etsy seller has 1/2 yard of the deep toned one priced at $38.99.  That's almost $78 a yard................

My Sun Gold cherry tomato plants are getting tall and leggy.  They have several groups of green tomatoes on them.

Yesterday morning a friend stopped by and I dug some Coral Bells for her.  The soil is so dry they came out bare root.  We are down 7" of rain since April 1.  The temperature on our first day of summer was 88 degrees and it is going to be in the 90s over the weekend.

Still moving fabric.....and planting...........

Two more decisions were made.  The top shelf is batik fabrics that I use in colorwash which I keep separate from my other batik fabrics.

The next shelf down is my Australian fabrics.  I can see them so much better here than where they used to be.

I finally planted some of the Petunias I bought last week.  There are also 2 kinds of sweet potato vine in the pot.

Some of the Petunias were in tiny 3 packs and they were looking pretty sad.  I expect them to perk up now.

The three bargain priced tomato plants are growing nicely in their pots.  All three have some buds on them.

I have also spotted 2 volunteer tomato plants in the raised bed.

 

A little sewing, a little doing nothing..........

Before the sun came around to the west side of the house, I sewed some pinwheels from the group of triangles I went through yesterday.

Then I baked some Aunt Ethel's Kringlas and shared with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  We had a nice chat on their screened in porch with a nice breeze flowing through.

I find it kind of strange that in a very dry early summer I have the earliest tomatoes I've ever had.  The large one is an Early Girl and the small one a 4th of July variety.  It was in the mid 80s, maybe warmer and I don't have the A/C running because it is not humid.  I may have to change my mind today because I didn't have much energy yesterday.

 

Triangle boost...................

There is a 3 tier storage box in the basement where I put leftover triangles and squares sewn.  I have all sizes and 2" finished has the most pieces in it.  I sorted through them yesterday and pulled out matching sets of 4 sewn squares and also sets of 4 triangles to sew that I think might work for the Fonthill quilt.  I found enough suitable fabrics for 18 pinwheels and a few singles that might work in the center panel.

This is the section where I added 3 plants.  The one on the bottom left doesn't show too well but It will probably get as large as the one on the right.

My garage pots are filling in nicely.  This group is between the 2 overhead doors.

These 3 are at the right side of the garage.  I have never done all Snapdragons in a pot before so I don't know if they will bloom all summer.

I love this Coral Bell plant.  The flowers are so delicate and it looks so great next to my huge green Coral Bell.

I love these two next to each other too.

 

Kaffe corner.............

This is my Kaffe fabric set up in the corner of my bedroom so far.  This is just Kaffe, not Kaffe collective which includes Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs.

I decided to stick with my previous storage method in the basement with the fabrics in numerical order. Those white sheets hanging from the corner of the rack on the left are the list from #1 all the way to present.  I can use it to check where a certain fabric is.  I'm pretty familiar with the order of the first 70 fabrics.  I have just lost track in the last 5 years and need a cheat sheet.  

On top of the rack are Tiddlywinds and Strata which I decided to keep out and available.  At the left on the bottom shelf is all Spot, his polka dots, so they aren't in the numerical order either.  The box to the left on the floor is all Aboriginal Dot.

  The purple box on top of the shelf with the green baskets will be removed.  It is full of miscellaneous that used to be in the white shelves (need to make decisions on the contents).  The green baskets are for pieces that need to filed back into the piles and the reprints in the 85th birthday group.  Two of the narrow crates on the floor are empty.  They will be fit into the mix at some point.

This is all of my Kaffe's except the light (low volume) ones I showed a few days ago and lots of the larger yardage pieces that are for borders and backings.

To the right of the white shelves is a 24" x 36" table that is about counter height, which came with 2 stools and meant to be used in a kitchen.  I will put an Olfa cutting mat on top of it so I can cut off chunks of fabrics that I want to use as they are needed.  To the right of that is a lawyers bookcase with 3 sections that I'm hoping to empty out and then I can bring the light fabrics up here too.

I planted the 3 plants in the center section of my front garden at 8 p.m. last night so I'll take a photo of that today.  I still have a coneflower and a Columbine to plant as well as all of the new Petunias.