Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Bordered

Borders are finished and the quilt is ready to go to a machine quilter. The batik fabrics are really beautiful. I'm going to need to look around for a new machine quilter, so it will be a while.
Jeff would like me to make one of these for his birthday, so I'm going to have to shift gears for a while.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Batik Quilt Progress

It just needs the border, and then the quilt top will be done! I kept taking progress photos during the last week but then was too busy sewing to post them.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Quilt Progress

I'm making pretty good time on the latest quilt project. I've been trying to work on it for at least a couple hours a day.

It took an entire week to get the green batik from eQuilter so I was stuck at the point where I needed the green until it had arrived. It finally came on Monday so I've done little else since Tuesday.

I completed one block so I could test the pieces and make sure I was ironing seams correctly.
I really prefer making quilts with good plans like this. I know exactly how much to cut out and I can build the blocks assembly-line fashion.

Tonight I've finished making the last of the components, so tomorrow I should be able to start assembling the blocks.
As a reminder, this is the plan.


Thursday, October 17, 2019

Fall is Here!

It's not just a clever name. There are so many leaves in our yard right now. I hope we have another couple dry days so we can clean up the yard. As the outdoor season draws to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back at the progress we made in the yard this summer.

In May/June, Jeff planted the parking strip.
This is how it looked when initially planted
This is how it looks today. The plants that lived seem really happy.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Cutting My Losses

I decided I don't like the last quilt enough to finish it. I don't even want to spend more fabric finishing the border. Maybe I can find a charity that wants it.

Instead, I started a new quilt. LOL
This one I did much more planning. While the arrangement of blocks is likely to change, I suspect the colors will be pretty similar. I might add a couple of fabrics to get more variation in the flower petals. I need to dig around in my fabric stash a bit more to see what I can find.
This one is made with all batik fabrics.

I spent the afternoon cutting out many of the weird-shaped pieces that you can't just cut with the rotary cutter and a ruler. My right triangle ruler came to the rescue again. I'm really glad I got it.

I didn't have enough green batik so I had to order some so it will be a few days before I can really get rolling with this project.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Blocks Assembled

They're assembled. I still need to make the rather complicated border, but this part is finished.
I wish I'd done a better job at planning the arrangement of colors. It is pretty and bright, but I had rather hoped for more purple. :) I just needed to stop adding non-purple colors sooner.

Sadly, Electric Quilt doesn't give cutting instructions for the border so I'm going to have to figure it out. I've had enough time at my sewing machine this week, so I'm going to take a day or two off. My poor old back needs a break.

Friday, October 11, 2019

So Close

I'm probably only a day away from finishing now.
Actually, I'm wishing it was a little less scrappy, but I do like it. It's been a bit of a challenge to get blocks arranged so there aren't too many pieces of the same color next to each other.

Our bulbs finally came from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm today and they were large and beautiful bulbs. They looked really healthy. The bulbs are already in the ground which I believe is a record for us.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

When it Rains, I Sew

I've made some good progress on the Queen's Jewels quilt I started last fall. This is what the finished design looks like.
This is the design of the finished blocks.
When I resumed work on it again last week, I went through the pieces I'd cut out before I got the right angle triangle ruler and I checked them to be sure they were cut out correctly. Anything that was too small, I trashed. It wasn't worth the time to fudge the seams.

I've got a bit of an assembly line going now and I'm making pretty good speed assembling these pieces which will then be assembled to make the block. I believe I need a total of 144 of the triangle units for the entire quilt; I now have 79 finished and 30 more nearly finished.
At this pace, I should finish these triangles in another couple of days.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, I finally finished Jeff's turtle potholders. I started these in February 2018. :)
My sewing tables are much cleaner this week. I had so many projects kicking around on them.

Monday, October 7, 2019

Project Updates

I was really psyched when Jeff found a Crandall Clove Currant I wanted for the Hidden Garden at Portland Nursery this past weekend — on clearance!! It was marked down to $13 from $26, but when we paid for it, it was an additional 50% off. We only paid $6.50 for a 2-gallon pot! It was the last one, so its shape was sort of ugly, but I am hopeful that next year it will fill out and Jeff will be able to prune it into a better shape.
As we were leaving, I spied a clearance area. I didn't know they had a clearance area! I found a whole tray of unusual ferns for $3/ea in 4-inch pots. Yeah, we took those home too. And three bleeding hearts that were also marked down 50%.

Most of the ferns went in under the black walnut tree which has now been double dug. (The ugly blue tarp is covering the last of the black walnut mulch that the guys still need to finish spreading around the shed.)
The black walnut pruning really opened up the planter to more sun. I do hope it lasts for at least a few years.

Yes, that is sun you see so we did some painting on the shed. It's not done, but it's close. Yesterday, Jeff finished painting the brackets while I did the first coat on the door/window trim.
Today, while Jeff was doing a big cook day, I finished the second coat of green on the windows and a second coat on the white trim. Jeff still needs to finish painting the edge boards on the roof line.
We need one more day of dry, reasonably warm weather to finish. Tomorrow the forecast is rain, but hopefully, the weather forecast will be accurate and Wednesday and Thursday will be sunny. I'll be so relieved to finally finish this project.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Hidden Garden Done

Well, done for the season anyway. There are still some plants we want to add in the spring when they became available again. And I'll be starting some annuals over the winter and I'll get those in next spring as well.
As a reminder, this is where we started in May 2019.
Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with how the garden turned out.

Technically, this is the before photo. This is how the area looked when we bought the house during 2010. Sadly, I don't have anything with a wider view.
I did an obsessive list of plants over at Jeff's garden blog if anyone is interested in what we actually put in the ground.