Table topper.................

Since I hadn't finished any small projects in April, I decided to finish one table topper.  Last night I got this one ditch quilted.  I have another one like this with some of the same fabrics that I will probably finish in May.  To the left of this piece is 2 choices for binding.  They look a little darker in real life.

I'm using the same backing on both pieces.  I think gray is a good choice for the binding and looks good with both sides.  I like the stripe but I'm leaning toward the cheetah print for the binding.

I was checking my front garden and saw that my red Coneflower with the fluffy center is starting to grow.  I hadn't seen any sign of green and thought it had died over the winter.  I hope it continues to grow.  I had another of these about 3 years ago and it started growing but then died.  I am thankful for any plants that survive the winter.

 

Triangles......................

 Early in the day yesterday I sorted all of the floral triangles by how many of each there were.  There were 26 sets of 4 dark and light.

Six of the sets have 8 dark and light triangles.

During the 2 hours I watched TV I sewed 20 sets of four, 80 total.  I don't know what I'll work on today and how I want to end the month for my recap.

Tilda 2 finished......................

The Tilda Whimsey quilt is finished, pattern on Tilda's website.  It's so hard to get a good photo of these soft color quilts.  It is prettier than this photo shows.

This quilt is 56" x 74" and has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.

It was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

I love the bicycle print on the back of the quilt.  It isn't a Tilda fabric but I thought it was a good choice for this quilt.

I found a pile of light value floral prints so I cut more 2" triangles to match up with darker floral prints.  I think I might start sewing these tonight while I watch the NCIS shows on TV.

I had 4 dishcloths started, all at the point of 44 stitches and ready to start the decreasing of one stitch each row.  This is the second one, finished last night, 2 to go.

My new neighbor mowed my grass yesterday.  I am so fortunate to have good neighbors all around me. 

Lots of pink......................

I have 6 Redbud trees in my backyard and I didn't plant any of them.  This is from the north end of my backyard looking south with my house on the left and garden to the right.  My backyard isn't very deep and half of it is garden.

This is south facing north.  The farthest Redbud on the right is the only one left from years ago.  I think it was here when we moved here but I'm not positive it is that old. (I have lived here 53 years).  The one in the middle (which is actually 2 trees) started growing when my parents lived next door in 2000-2003.  My dad was helping me dig up little volunteer Redbuds and he decided to plant one right next to a tiny one that was already growing there and they both grew.

There are two Redbuds by my driveway.  I didn't plant those either.  I dig out a lot of the volunteers but occasionally I leave them, like these 2.  My neighbors to the north like them because they provide shade for their driveway and they park in the shade in the summer.  There is one more tree not pictured that is along this same edge of my property but back by my neighbor's garage, another spot of shade for them in the summer.

I finally finished cutting all of the pieces from a stack of batik strips that ranged from 3" to 6" wide and 45" long.  I spaced out the cutting time over a week.  There are 99 different fabrics here.  Next I'll sort them into color groups.  There are anywhere from 2 to 6 pieces of each fabric.

I put a few stitches in the binding 3 different times yesterday and have all 4 corners done and about 30" left to stitch.  I will probably finish it tonight.

 

More hand stitching................

I have 3 more hours into the hand stitching of the binding on this Tilda Whimsy quilt so I have 2 1/2 sides done.  Maybe 2 more evenings and it will be done.

I did more die cutting yesterday on the batiks strips that are between 3" and 6" wide.  I'm cutting 2" x 3.5" rectangles, 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles and 2" squares.  The piece that is leftover on most of the pieces is large enough to cut two 2.5" squares or 4 triangles.  I'll do them later.  This is the group I cut yesterday.

I have talked before about the invasive Lily of the Valley in my back garden.  Here is one large patch of it.  It is choking out other perennials that I have back there.

Here is another large patch of it to the left of the tree on the right.  It's also coming up all through the shredded bark mulch that I spread on the path through the garden last year.  It's impossible to dig it all out.  I have seen a new weed killer advertised that isn't toxic to animals so I may need to check it out.  I know I can make my own weed killer but it has salt in it and nothing will grow where you spray a salt mixture.

Binding started..............................

The binding on this Tilda Whimsey quilt might take about 5 nights for the hand stitching.  That will still make it in as a finish for April.

I had several balls of cotton yarn in this coloration but in the others there was a wide stripe of coral color next to the brown.  This one looks like they ran out of dye when they were making it.  This is a strange one.  There is enough yarn left to make one smaller dishcloth but I may just use some of it in a multicolor one where I'm using all of the short leftover ends.

The earliest Hostas are filling in fast.  This one is a fairly small plant so it is close to its full size now.

It got up to 80 yesterday.  I'm starting to see more birds now after a winter with very few.  I checked out the back garden and lots more Hostas are coming up.  The lilies and Peonies are getting tall.  More 80s predicted at the beginning of next week. Spring is definitely here. 

Little things.....................

I spent time outside doing more garden clean up and didn't get a lot done in the studio.  I found a little pile of batik triangle squares and since there were 4 matching of each, I made 20 little Broken Dishes blocks.  Sewn together these would make a placemat size piece.  I could just save them in the batik orphan block box and use them as filler blocks.  I'll press them and then decide what to do with them.

I also cut all of the Kaffe sewn strips into segments for 4 patches and sewed them together.  Another pile to press.

I brought the Tilda Whimsy quilt and binding strips up from the basement, but no progress there.  I have a flare up of my sciatic nerve that has me moving around to calm it down.

If you look to the left of the rocks, Chippy is back this year.  I only noticed chipmunks around my front porch last year.  This year they are back going for the birdseed.

The Redbuds are getting pinker by the day.

the Lenten Roses are larger.  All of the green leaves around the bricks are the invasive Bellflowers that are coming up everywhere.

All of my violets are in the backyard....except this little volunteer that showed up in the front flowerbed.

There are two volunteer Columbines in the front garden too.  This one is over by my mailbox, the other is by my Hydrangea bush.  I need to move this one because it will start leaning over the sidewalk and get trampled if I don't.

First Tilda quilt finished........

The first of 2 Tilda fabric quilts is finished.  It is a little brighter in person.  It ended up at 55" x 70" and has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.

The backing fabric was purchased in 1975 or 76 at a fabric store in my town.  They were selling clothing fabric since quilt shops were really rare at that time.  There isn't any name on the edge of the fabric.  It was only 38" wide and that was after being washed so it might have been 40" to start with.  The quilt was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

The redbuds are getting ready to bloom.  The buds are nice and fat.  It got up to 73 yesterday and today is supposed to be warmer.

I went out to take pictures of growing things and met my new neighbors south of me.

This is the white Bleeding Heart plant.  I'm happy to see it back again.

This is one of the largest Pulmonaria/Lungwort plants in the back garden.  The leaves are so tiny while the plants are blooming.  Then they get huge for the rest of the summer.  I love the spots.

One large Brunnera plant is blooming in that same area.  The tiny blue flowers are similar to Forget-me-not.

I have some more plant photos that I'll post tomorrow after I edit them.

Trimming................

I usually stay in the basement while the washing machine is running so I can transfer the clothes to the dryer before I go back upstairs.

Yesterday while I was down there I decided to trim the Tilda Whimsey quilt and cut the binding for it.  Also, look at that cute backing fabric.  I bought it on sale a while back thinking it would be perfect for some future quilt.  The background is gray and the bicycles are so cute.  It is not a Tilda fabric.  I couldn't see spending the money for a Tilda fabric backing.

I have about 10" left to hand stitch on the Tilda 16 patch quilt so I'll probably get it photographed today.

This is a collage from 2017 but it is still representative of my back garden now.  These photos were taken 8 days apart so you can see how the ground goes from practically bare to recognizable Hostas.  The photo on the right is just a little ahead of the way the garden looks today.  As much as I love the rocks around the edges of the gardens, they have become a tripping hazard so I'm removing them little by little.

This is another angle of the path that goes through the garden when the garden is grown at the beginning of July last year.  

I think I lost a couple plants in my front garden because we had the big freeze in the winter without a snow cover on the plants.

I put my rain gauge out Sunday near the end of the afternoon rain.  We had more rain at night and when I checked it yesterday morning there was 3/4" of rain in it. 

A day for binding.....................

I decided to spend all of my sewing time on the binding on this Tilda quilt yesterday.  I made it around to the 4th corner and a few more inches.  I have 40" left to stitch on one short side.

I realized yesterday that the backing fabric looked like a black print in my photos.  I put it under my Ottlite and took a close up.  It is medium blue and navy blue on a cream color background.  It goes really well with the blue Tilda fabrics.

We got some rain yesterday and I didn't get my rain gauge out until most of the early rain had stopped.  I'll check today and see how much rain we got in the later storms around 10 p.m.

Making progress................

I needed to clean off the top of my sewing cabinet so 11 Broken Dishes blocks got sewn and the rest of the triangles went back into the 3" Kaffe fabric parts box.  I will probably put these blocks in the Kaffe orphan block box for now.

Next up was trimming the Tilda 16 patch quilt and cutting the binding strips.

The backing fabric was a purchase around 1975-6.  It was 38" wide.  I always liked the woodblock type prints and the color of this one went well with the Tilda fabrics.

I always start my hand sewing a few inches before a corner.  I got 2/3 of a long side stitched last night.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.  I gave all of my 100+ year old postcards to a cousin but I had this photo from several years ago to share today.

 

Spring taking its time...............

I checked my post from a year ago today and we were way ahead of this year's growth in the garden.  I still have bare ground in some backyard gardens and last year it was almost half filled in with large plants.  The Redbuds show progress but it will still be a week or more before full bloom.  That is really the normal time for them to bloom so I think last year we had an early spring.

The earliest peonies are about a foot tall and I can see lots of the other ones starting to grow too.  It got up to 74 yesterday but now we will be back in the 50s for a few days.  

I cleaned the leaves out of one more front flowerbed where the Columbines and Cranesbill are.  They should grow faster now.

I really didn't do much yesterday but play with some of the triangle squares that I had already sewn.  None of these blocks are sewn, just pieces laying there.

Shopping and designing...........

I had a gift certificate to use at a local garden center so I made a trip there yesterday.  I got Pansies for the pot on my porch.  I was disappointed that they didn't have any orange ones since they are the scented variety.

I also got a 4 pack of tiny tomato plants for $2.39.  I will plant them in the next size containers and keep them in my garage.  I'll might then move them up to another size container before they get planted outside.  It will depend on how fast they grow.  these are the Rutgers variety which I really like.

I kept moving pieces on the Kaffe colorwash but it still needs more work.  I looked for 2 pink fabrics to fill in the last 2 spots.

So far I have only found one that is the right value.  I will continue to search today.