Miscellaneous.................

As promised yesterday I took a photo of the lock screen on my cell phone with my Canon camera.  This is the close up photo of one of my Peony blooms.  Before the last update on my phone I didn't see the possibility of using one of my own photos.  Now I can enjoy the Peony year round.

For several years I have been dropping photo Christmas cards, loose photos, folders from funerals, obituaries cut from the newspaper, etc. into the top drawer in the guest room.  I wanted to find my grandparents' obituaries to see how old they were when they passed.  By the time I was done I had everything out of the drawer and sorted on my guest bed.  I have a little more sorting to do plus figuring out a system for this drawer so it won't just be layers and layers, and layers...............

Outside yesterday, I planted my little cucumber plants in a large pot and also one more tomato plant in a pot.  I cut lots of leaves off Burdock plants.  I don't have the energy to dig out their huge roots.  I also cut down the new branches of a Tree of Heaven.  I have to cut it down at least twice in the summer, sometimes 3 times.  I haven't had any luck trying to get rid of it.

I only cut a few more floral squares for the current project.

I checked out a 2 tier box as I was cleaning off a table top and it has 2.5" batik squares in one layer and 2" batik squares in the other layer.  Nice seeds for a new project.

The weather people say we might get rain overnight into this morning.  I'm hoping we get some but I think the bulk of it will go south of us and into Indiana.

Showing the quilts.............

I was showing someone my recent finishes yesterday and I left the quilts out overnight on the couch, coffee table and bench.  They are relaxing.  😊

Here is another batch of them on the love seat.  It's fun to see them all out together.

Today is a big day.  I made it to 85!!  My goal at 80 was 83, my goal at 83 was 85.  Now I have to pick a new goal.

Looking through things....................

I love the designs that look woven.  These are all free patterns on the internet.  The one at the bottom left is called Simply Woven (by Moda Bakeshop) and you can find it by doing a search for 'Simply Woven quilt pattern'.  I  made 2 out of 3 of these.

This is a pattern I purchased and I made this one too.

I'll be thinking about one of these as a project sometime this fall.

Here are the 3 I have made so far, from left to right, Simply Woven (batik), Jelly Roll Jumble (Kaffe), and Matrix (Kaffe).  The only one of the 4 I haven't made is Cut Loose quilt which is a fussier cut quilt than the other 3.  

Plants are definitely starting to look like autumn is here.  This is the Compact Flare Hydrangea which started flowers but didn't tolerate the hot and dry summer very well.  I should have watered it more often.

It is next to the Yellow Coneflower by the corner of the house.  The largest bloom of the hydrangea is at the right side of this photo.  I will continue to water these 2 plants all month to be sure they survive for another year.

 

Playing with orphan blocks...........

I took a day off of working on current projects and went through the orphan quilt block box, regular print fabrics. (other boxes are Kaffe and batik)  There are some nice blocks in this box but what I was looking for was small projects.

I found enough blocks to make 2 small pieces which will become table toppers.  The one on the left is 15" square and the one on the right is 12".  I thought maybe I would look for backings and cut batting but decided to just have a relaxing day.

It got up to the mid 40s yesterday.  A week ago we were starting out close to 0 in the morning.  Today we may get up to 50.

 

Where this year stands..................

Eleven of the quilt tops that I finished this year were WIPs with either some or all of the blocks already pieced or pieces already cut.  I have made 26 quilt tops so far this year, and I'm sure there will be more.

I have finished 28 quilts so far this year, just 2 short of the number finished last year.  I gave 2 to my longarm friend last week so potentially I can tie last year's total without finishing any more for the rest of the year (but I hope that I will get more finished since I still have 38 tops waiting in line).  I'm limiting the amount of time that I stand on concrete floors in the basement to keep hip pain at a minimum, 0 pain some days, mild pain some others.  Lots of hours down there = discomfort.  I have the foam puzzle piece flooring in many of the areas down there and that helps a little.  I have anti-fatigue mats in key areas, by the ironing table and by the die cutter.  So, on I go, making more quilts.

Yesterday and today are baking days, once again anticipating the family visiting from a state away this weekend. 

Short sleeves..................

I like short sleeves in the summer and I don't wear knit shirts so it has been hard to find what I need.  I finally decided to buy long sleeve shirts and cut the sleeves to the length I like. 

Yesterday I mowed half of the lawn in the morning and the other half at 7 p.m.  The rest of the day was spent sorting through the Cherrywood hand dyed fabric and grouping it  for my second destash sale this month at Wandaful Quilts.  I also moved the remaining 4 items from the #1 sale to the new post.  This will be the last sale this month.

A day of rest.............

We had rain off and on the last 2 days, only .8" of rain here, but 5+" just 60 miles east of us in an area that has been hit with heavy rain more than once this past summer.  It was overcast so this photo is a little off in color.  I love both of these quilts so I have them both on the bench by the fireplace.  Fall starts at 2 a.m. Saturday so I guess I should look through my favorites for one with fall vibes.

I did spend some time going through things on the dining room table. I have been trying to clean it off for several weeks but keep getting sidetracked.  Today I need to press my 16 patch blocks so I can put them all up on the design wall.  I have a quilt loaded on the longarm too so there isn't a lack of things that need to be done.  I'm looking forward to some sunshine today.

Busy day...............

Yesterday morning I planted my three porch pots.  I did them almost identical, with 2 having one color of Petunias and the 3rd one with a different color Petunia.  I love red Geraniums but decided on all pink and purple for most of the plants.

The box of batting cut away pieces was still sitting open in the basement so I opened the other box that has narrower pieces in it and pieced 3 more battings.  These will all be for quilts around 55" the long direction which will mostly be baby quilts.  I will go through the pieces one more time and see if there are any I can add to make some of these pieces larger. 

In the early evening I dug out one Sedum plant and enlarged the hole and planted my 2 new Columbines.  To the right and front of them is the burgundy color Columbine that was in a container for many years and finally planted in the ground last year.  It is doing well and has buds already.

For the last 3 years I have planted one tomato plant for the little neighbor girl who loves tomatoes.  I bought 3 larger plants, one of which is hers.  There are 2 little tomatoes on this plant.  I set them outside every day to let the insects do their job pollenating.  Then I bring them inside the garage at night.  We are supposed to have rain today so that should make the soil easier to dig in so I can get them planted.

Making blocks.....................

I started sewing some blocks together last night and had to stop when I ran out of large pieced blocks.  I think I am going to like it with the fabrics I'm using.  I want to add a few more dark fabrics though so I don't get bored with the same fabrics over and over.

I sewed some more large blocks after I took the photo above.

They are made in sets of 4 so there are 4 center pieces the same shape.  I'm trying to make as many different size centers as I can in the 9 sets of 4.

I have been seeing macramé again in decorating.  I'm wondering if macramé jewelry will come back in fashion too.  I bought these from an artist back in the 1970s. 

What did I do all day Friday?............

It was one of those days that slipped away.  I know that in the morning I finished packing a box and took it to the post office.  While I was there I bought these cute stamps.  I bought 2 sheets of them and I feel like I might want more they are so darned cute.

Since the grocery store is right across the street from the post office I went there too and got the 8 things on my list.

I sewed a couple blocks while I watched the noon news and weather.  The rest of the day....I don't know other than I went through a box of "stuff" that I cleared off my kitchen table before my grandson visited last week.  I had him remove my wobbly kitchen table that I bought 11 years ago, one of those you have to assemble yourself and if you tightened too much you stripped the screws and if you didn't tighten enough they worked their way out and fell on the floor.  I kept the 4 chairs but am glad to see the table out of here.  The next thing I knew it was 11 p.m. and time to write my blog post for today.

Today I really need to get busy and accomplish something.

One more photo...........

I forgot to add this photo to the post yesterday.  This rose print is an older Kaffe fabric and I have about 7 yards of it.  I thought it would make a nice back for this star quilt (made with Bear Paw die cut pieces).  Here is the post where I started this quilt.

There are shelves under the center of my cutting table and I hadn't looked at the things on the back side of it for a long time.  Way back in the shelf were these 3 boxes of "stuff I don't need".  It is from another time period when I thought I would make embellished wallhangings.

I can see why I bought this trim with the cute elephants.  I like it.  Will I use it?  Probably not.

I dusted off several years of dust and now have a space to store things that I will use.

3 blocks.............

I love these Winged Square blocks so much I had to make some more.

I love this one, red violet with lime green.  It's pretty obvious none of these have been pressed yet.

This one has a strange mix but it still works, periwinkle blue with pink and yellow orange and yellow.

I needed to drive to the post office and mail some letters.  When I got home this was my odometer reading.  I bought this van on March 31, 2004 so it took me almost 18 years to reach this number of miles.  I don't have any dents yet unlike my previous van that hit a deer and was rear ended.

Good intentions............

I had every intention of cutting some fabric yesterday but in the end I just had fun in my personal library.

Late in the afternoon I mowed my grass.  I thought I was going to just mow the shady backyard because that grass has stayed green and is growing fast.  In the end I mowed the front too which still has a lot of half brown sections.  I watered all of my pots.  I see a squirrel has been digging in one of them.  

Today is the last day of a short stretch of beautiful cooler weather with low humidity.  Humidity will start rising Tuesday and will increase our chance for rain at the end of the week and we need it.

 

Too hot............

My two new window air conditioners are doing a good job and inside was the only place to be.  It was still 83 at 7:30 last night with a real feel of 89 with the high humidity.  No planting got done yesterday.  I did do some sewing, 8 more Economy blocks.  I haven't pressed them yet so they aren't up on the design wall.

I looked through a box in the basement yesterday that hasn't been opened in a long time.  I started this project at least 15 years ago.  I have 72 more squares already sewn with 2 triangles and all of the strips are cut for the 4 patches.

I still love all of the fabrics in this so I think it will become my mindless night sewing project.

 

Big Hosta and large quilt tops...............

 

I have more of these large blue/green Hostas than I have room for right now.  I need to find someone who could use a couple of them.  They are mostly 3 feet across.  I have an area on the north side of my house that I'm going to clean up and one of them can go there.

I have made twice as many new tops (16) as quilts finished (8) so far this year.  (There were 3 table runners finished that aren't in the count.)Three of the new tops are now finished quilts. Last year 6 of the 7 large quilts that I finished were done in the first 6 months of the year (They were from 84" long to 98" long).  This year only one large one has been finished (99" long).  Last year 13 total had been quilted by June 30 compared to 8 this year.  Conclusion: I spent a lot more time outside digging out plants to save in the landscaping project this year.  To top that off June was tied for the 4th hottest June since 1878 in Chicago.  Without adequate A/C I didn't have a lot of energy.  That's the first half of the year.  The second half will be better.

So after all off that rambling I know you want to see what I have in the large category (81" or longer on longest edge) still waiting to be quilted.  These 4 are my favorites so I am the most intimidated about quilting them because I don't want to ruin them.  I know this is a common feeling for people who quilt their own quilts.  The shortest of these quilts is 81" and the longest is 100".

Here are three more, the longest is 100.5" and the shortest is 88".  The one on the left is the next to be quilted.  Backing is chosen, batting is cut.

There are 7 more in this large category.  Time to get to work.

8 more masks...............

I intended to sew some more strips on the pineapple log cabin blocks but in the end just made masks.  That is mainly because of the thread colors on my machine.  5 have a really soft denim on one side.  The 3 on the top left have the same red flannel on the other side of all of them.    Two have the same olive green with red flannel that was on the masks from the day before.  One of the masks is for me.  Is it obvious which one that is?

Pressing and cutting...........

I had a cutting and pressing day yesterday.  The pieces here are flannel for masks.  I think cold weather walkers will enjoy them.  I used several plaids and some prints left over from other projects.  

I pressed all of the Bear Paw blocks and measured them to determine the length of the sashing strips and then pressed the center fold out of the strips I will use for sashing.  Now I just have to finalize my layout and I can get the Bear Paw all sewn together. 

All was well until..............

The 4th live broadcast went well and I usually watch part of the recording to check the quality of the video and audio.  I decided I needed to straighten the screen and when I moved it the whole monitor screen turned white and there was no sound.  I thought I would try turning it off and then back on and that would fix it.  Now I can hear it running but the screen is black...........  It's lucky that I own more than one laptop so I can hopefully just switch to another and be up and running again.  I just hope I can recover a few things off the hard drive or get the screen issue fixed.

Taking inventory..............

I cut all of the rest of the black and white triangles for my current quilt and then spent a couple hours putting away piles of fabric.  I cut pieces for a baby quilt too. I sewed a few triangles onto the Marcia Derse blocks.  Nothing that warranted getting out the camera.

Later in the day I took inventory on my progress this year.  I quilted 13 of the tops on these lists and sold 3.  I have added 14 new quilt tops this year with 2 more close to finishing.  The largest number of unquilted tops fall in the 'longer than 80" on the longest edge' category.  Without central A/C the basement this mid-summer just hasn't been cool enough for me to want to quilt a large quilt.  We need a week of temperatures around 70 for it to cool off sufficiently.  

At the beginning of 2015 I had about 50 tops waiting to be quilted.  Right now I have 27 tops so I have made progress.  It sounds like next week might be a cooler week, but they will probably change the forecast in the next few days.  I am so tired of hot days.

More masks............

All of my sewing time yesterday was masks for the cancer patients, 10 here in child size.

I used some of my least favorite batik fabrics for the 16 adult size masks.  Now I need to get them ready to mail so someone can get them to the post office for me.

My daughter in law was my grocery angel yesterday.  I was out of all of the fresh veggies.

I haven't had a salad for several days so it really tasted good.