The sun made me do it!

But I am not complaining! I have been wanting to get out and get some yard work done but it is hard to get motivated when it is cold and rainy! The sun finally decided to hang around this month though until this week it has only been a day or two here or there. This week I have been working on eradicating some of the weeds from my life. I think I am about 3/4 of the way around the berry garden perimeter and I have done some in the rhody/lilac/hydrangea bed. I have also used about 3 pints of white vinegar on some weeds popping up around and in the barked area. A cheap and fairly effective, non-toxic method of killing weeds. Smells a little but seems to be working. This afternoon I am enjoying having the windows open and loving the scent of the 'Mexican Orange' bush that is blooming outside the living room window! I checked my veggie beds today and my carrots, kohl rabi and chives are all up. I think I might plant my pumpkins and squash soon. I am not going to try for much more since we have had another cold spring.


On Tuesday at craft night I was able to get this picture of the purple quilt on the design wall. It is very cool and I am not a huge lover of purple!

I also took pictures of these two baby quilts that I am working on. A friend has commissioned a baby quilt for a friend who has a new baby girl and I often make two at once so I have a spare.

I have added a 1" green border and will a 4" print border also to finish them off. I ended up with 120 HSTs from the corners of the blocks so I might add some squares and make another baby quilt from the leftovers.


I hope to get some quilting done over the next few days as we are supposed to be getting some rain again, but maybe the weathermen are wrong about that?

Better late than never?

Here is my tally for April. It is pretty bleak! I thought I did better but as I looked back through posts and pictures I realized I was a bit of a slacker. I did get my stash restocked so I can get lots of sewing done now and I got a new serger but this is all the creativity I managed:

APRIL TALLY

Quilt tops - 1 - the beach quilt
Finished quilts - 1 - the spider web
Blocks for exchanges - 15 (I think)
Mittens - 5 pairs
Hats - 2 Owl hats for 2 of my nieces

See! That is pretty bleak!

Yard work and a finished top

I have been working on the quilt that I was commissioned to make but we got two days with sunshine so I had to take advantage and get outside for a while. With the help of my friend's 19 year old son I got one row of my strawberries dug up, thinned and replanted. I also got some mowing done and some other weeding. Late yesterday afternoon the rain came back with a vengeance so I am glad I got done what I did.


This week I have worked to get more of the 'blocks' for the quilt finished and by Wednesday I had them done. So Thursday and Friday I worked to turn this:

and this:

into 35 rows and Friday, Saturday and today I put those together into this!

I am going to set this aside to get a couple of other projects finished but I hope to have this one done by the end of the month.

Keeping busy

just not blogging about it!

I finished the beach quilt. I am pretty happy about it and am excited about making at least one wall hanging using the same fabrics.

I also finished up two more owl hats that will be available for sale or gifts as needed!

My big project right now is another quilt like this one. It is going to be in purples, lavenders and cream. First there was a lot of cutting and then I got started on the sewing and this is where I am so far.

I am hoping to have all the 'blocks' done today and maybe tomorrow morning I can get the top together. Probably not but I can hope!

A finish and a start

When I last wrote I was waiting for my new serger so I could get my fabric in the washer.

On Thursday I got a back ready for the Spider Web quilt and got it basted and first thing Friday I got it quilted and got the binding sewn on. I finished the hand sewing over the weekend and it is ready to take to the guild meeting next Wednesday.
The package arrived on Saturday morning and I went to work on getting it threaded and running. It is very easy to thread and works like a charm. Here is the pile once I was done!And here is the fabric on Monday after it was all prewashed and pressed.
Yesterday I pulled out the batiks I bought for a quilt I have been commissioned to make. The customer wanted a beach and ocean quilt using strips. I talked her into using curved seams instead of straight and I got the beach and ocean parts done yesterday. Today I went shopping and bought some fabrics for the sky - a sunset. This is what I came up with.
Tomorrow I hope to get it trimmed even and straight and maybe I will go and buy the border/frame and back fabric so this one can be finished soon!

Then it will be on to the next commissioned quilt...

Here comes the sun...

...okay, just sunbreaks but it is a start. I have gotten out in the fresh air a couple times so far but not nearly enough! Still working on apple tree pruning when I should be planting and weeding. I am not going to be doing that for a while though because the ground is just too cold and wet! Here is a picture of some of the daffodils that are blooming profusely right now.


I am finally getting things accomplished in the sewing room though. I got blocks made for 5 people in the round robin I am in. We only have 10 in our group so we decided to make 2 blocks per person so that means I got 10 blocks done this past week and they are in the mail to the next person! I think I have done 7 of the 10 backets (including mine).

Last Saturday my niece, Katie, and I made the trek down to Fabric Depot in Portland OR. We spent about 5 hours in the store filling our cart 4 times! From most of the bolts I only took 1/4 - 1/2 yard but it was still quite the pile! Halfway through we took our load out to the car and ran over to Burgerville for lunch. It is just across the street and not available around here so it is our favorite restaurant on fabric buying trips. I was able to get fabric for two quilts that I have been commissioned to make (and hope to get started on soon) and also fabrics for my neighbor for our quilt exchange. Sally has asked for neutrals for her quilt so I went to the cutting table with a wide range of neutrals. The cutter said "You are making a quilt with just whites?" In reality, none of them were white, more a range of creams to dark tans. Obviously , this woman has never seen some of the stunning quilts made with only neutrals!

So Sunday I started serging the edges of my fabric in preparation for prewashing and my serger just gave up the ghost! I got it third hand probably 20 years ago in a joint purchase with my mother (we each paid $25!) and it has served me well all these years. I went online to see how much new sergers are running these days and was pleasantly surprised to find that the prices are much lower than they were years ago! I checked reviews and decided to purchase the Brother 1034D. It should arrive on Monday. I am planning on taking the old one to my local sewing machine repairman to see if it can be salvaged or maybe just let my husband play with it and see what happens.

So my sewing room is full of piles of fabric waiting to be serged and piles on the floor waiting to be prewashed and I can't get started on those quilts so it forces me to get some other things finished. Yesterday I got the borders on the spider web quilt I am putting together for the quilt guild for a foster child's graduation quilt.


Today I hope to get it basted and quilted so it is finished before Monday when my new serger arrives!!!

Catching up...

...but it isn't too hard! I have had a woefully scantily productive first quarter of 2011 both in blog posts and sewing/crafting!

It has been so busy around here...

Two weeks of the granddaughter visiting,

One week of watching both grandkids at their house,

One quilt show,

One quilt retreat,

One year of appliance repair business records that needed to go into the computer...

and that is just the big stuff!

I did get...

33 pairs of mittens crocheted,

2 owl hats made for the grandkids,

1 binding done on someone else's quilt,

Seasons of Hope Relay for Life quilt finished,

6 quilt kits made up for retreat (finished the tops from 5 of them at retreat),

2 wall quilts/table toppers finished,

2 baby quilts finished,

2 block exchange blocks made and mailed,

2 quilts quilted and bound for other quilters,

20+ stemware coasters made,

120 spiderweb blocks finished and trimmed,

6 tops quilted and bound

...so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I am hoping to do better for the rest of the year but I am sure it will never be as much as I am hoping to do!