Finishes

 And not all of them are quilt related.

I had a landscape crew out last week to do some major work. Sorry, no before pics...I always forget those. It started out that the drip line to the shrubs down my driveway wasn't working and I was having to hand water.  Of course, when the landscape guy checked them out they worked fine.  GRRRR. I had some changes made to the drip lines so that everything should now get the appropriate amount of water. Plus everything was trimmed.

Much better.

They also removed all the dead grass (weeds) from the front. 

Now I have to get busy and put some weed barrier and tan bark down.

The best part was clearing out the old, ugly, half dead shrubs growing in the rock in front of the house. There were also blackberry bushes, very VERY tall weeds and when cleared out a small pine tree.

So much better! I also had them remove the drip lines that were watering everything so hopefully nothing or not much will grow back.

While they did the hard heavy work in the heat, I finished up the gold cat quilt.

Bella approved.

I have this gold flannel in my stash. It would work for a back but isn't my favorite. I'll decide when it comes time to quilt it. Both are hanging in the to-be-quilted closet.

I put together this table runner from some extra blocks Stephanie gave me.

I like how it turned out. The back and binding are made and it is hanging in the to-be-quilted closet also.

I also finished quilting and added the binding to the guild community service quilt.

My to-be-quilted count was 30 at the beginning of the week. Minus one plus two...31. :o(

To cheer me up I took this picture of Bella.

So petite and lady-like. ;o)

More Ruler Work

 I have not been in the mood to sew. I haven't touched my August UFO or my Aunt Daisy projects. I did get the binding sewn on the two quilts I quilted last week.

Yesterday afternoon I was determined to do some piecing, so I got July's UFO out and started working on it about 8 p.m.  At 2:30 a.m. I got this far.

I still have to add the borders. Unfortunately, I cut the borders out, per the pattern instructions, in the beginning at 6 1/4 inches. When I squared up the blocks, I squared them up to 6 inches. The border is pieced so the strips have to be trimmed before I can add them.

Saturday, I loaded a guild community service quilt onto the frame. It sat there until the afternoon.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to quilt. I kinda wanted to play but I also kinda wanted it done. So I did both. The block frames have meandering in them and I'm using two different rulers to do some in-the-ditch quilting around the blocks and the curves in the stars. I'm not crazy about the design. I feel like it needs more...some filler or something. However, I don't feel like doing more so it will stay like this. 

Normally I hate quilting batiks, but the tension is perfect. The Moxie doesn't like the thick seams even with a size 18 needle. I'm about 1/3 done and will be replacing the needle before I start up tomorrow.

Bella has been staring at the pocket door for the last three days.

Turns out there was a lizard in there. She managed to catch it today, and I managed to catch her before she killed it. I also managed to catch the lizard and get it alive but tailless out the door. Yuck!

I Used to Like Ironing

 The fabric I brought home last week had all been washed then stuffed in the tote boxes. Some were so wrinkled I had to wash them again. I spent four days ironing. After ironing and neatly folding everything there was a box of yardage, a box of flannel, a box of fleece and a box stuffed with less than one-yard pieces. I ended putting a lot of the fabrics I had originally picked out for myself back and kept mostly the 30's reproductions and some yardage for backs. Most of the fabric was from the 1990's and early 2000's. It was fun to go through, but I was very happy when Joann came by yesterday and took everything.

My quilt top count was up to 32 so the last two days I have been busy loading and quilting a couple of small donation quilts. I did not make either quilt.

Both are a little wonky, but I think they turned out cute. Double loops in the above quilt. I love the flannel I found for the back. 

Simple meander in the second quilt, Another fun flannel back. Both still need binding attached. Both will be donated on Friday.

Now my count is down to 30. If I quilt one top a week, with a few weeks off for the holidays, and not finishing or getting any new tops, I should finish this group sometime around March 28, 2023. Yikes!

Quick Trip

 I took a quick trip to California over the weekend.  Long drive but had lots of fun.

I visited Angela. She picked up 9 tote boxes of free fabric at an estate sale a couple of months ago. We sorted through them and divided them up: fabric Angela wanted to keep, fabric I wanted to keep, fabric for the Goodwill, fabric and other odd stuff for a charity thrift store, and fabric I will donate to my Quilts for Kids group. 

I ended up bringing 5 tote boxes home. One of them has my fabric in it, one has flannel, one has polar fleece, one has novelty fabrics, and the last has miscellaneous fabrics including 4 finished kids quilt tops that I will finish and donate.

I also brought home 3 of Angela's finished tops to quilt. I'll show them when I finish quilting them.

I visited Stephanie also. We set up and organized her sewing space one day. The next day, she sewed while I played with a bunch of excess blocks she made and gave to me to make donation quilts.

This is the quilt top she finished while I was there. So pretty! She started off making a rail fence quilt but then decided to change it up. So creative!

These are the "extra" blocks she gave me:

These will be fun to finish.

I'll end this post with the ugliest / weirdest fabric I have ever seen. In was in one of the tote boxes.

Hahahahahaha. Don't you wish you could unsee that. Hahahahahaha. 

Bits and Pieces

 Or maybe odds and ends. Or just plain old miscellaneous stuff...

As predicted, it was HOT all week. I went through two boxes of frozen fruit bars (yummy and cold). Last night we had a thunder and lightning storm - scary. There were several lightning fires in my area. All were quickly put out. We also got a little bit of rain which helped.

I've never seen Bella hide from loud noises before. She came out after the thunder stopped.

This is not fog, it is smoke from the McKinney fire in California, just past the border. Per Cal Fire it has burned over 55K acres and is zero percent contained.  Sad and scary.

I did get a bit of sewing done.

I made lots of progress on my July UFO Challenge quilt. The pattern is called Four Patch Charm by Kathy Schwartz. It is a free pattern that can be found here. I like the pattern but the method she uses to create the blocks you end up with all bias edges. I have about 8 rows sewn together so far. It shouldn't take long to finish the top.

My August UFO Challenge project is last year's Project Linus mystery quilt Oliver in the Doghouse. Good timing since the new mystery will be starting the end of this month. I have over half of the quilt done so hopefully I can finish the top this month.

Do you use leader-enders? I've gotten so that I really like having a leader-ender project or two. I put the placemats together as a leader-ender.

I think this will be fun to quilt. Now I need to find a back for it.

I picked up a bunch of 1.5 inch squares at the guild last month and put these 4-patches together as leader-enders.

I'm going to continue using them as a leader-ender as I sash them with a narrow 1 inch strip of white. Unless I add a border, it should end up measuring 12 inches square.