Still nothing too exciting

I have been busy around here but not much to show for it. Just finished a week of having my daughter and her fiance here along with my sister's youngest daughter (17) and her older sister (just part of the week). My youngest niece, Brita, and I were busy in the yard and got two large sections of grass turned into nicely barked areas. This involved using a rented sod-cutter, hauling said sod, digging up the sod that the sod-cutter couldn't get, laying down landscape cloth and spreading the 7 yards of bark around. We were very lucky that my wonderful neighbor brought over his tractor and moved the bark from the pile to the areas we wanted it. One of the new spaces has three trees planted in it and a fence around to keep the deer out and the other surrounds some small plum trees that have been there a long time and my small raised bed garden area. Here is the one across the driveway from the house.
And this is the one further from the house with the trees.
Brita and I also picked some blackberries and did a few other jobs around here but after all her hard work I took her to the county fair, for a pedicure, garage sale-ing and she even got to come along for wedding apparel shopping.

Before this batch of company came my husband and I went to a few garage sales and got two old dressers that I am going to be using in my sewing room. I need to rearrange because I ordered my new quilting machine and it should arrive tomorrow so things need to change. I took down my big sewing cabinet and it will go to my sister and in it's place will be the two dressers. I also have to take out the computer desk and computer and probably some other stuff that just needs to go away! I hope to have some pictures of that makeover tomorrow or Tuesday.

Sparse

My posts have been few and far between recently. That is mostly because it can be hard to post something when I have no pictures of finished projects or even WIP. I am working away at the wedding quilt but last week was full of my grandkids followed by a weekend full of other family.

This week I am adding in some painting. My husband is doing repairs on the garage roof so it is ready for someone to come and put a new roof on it. He is replacing all the fascia boards all the way around so even though I painted the garage last year I get to repaint the trim this year. I will still have more to do on one side of the garage next year but it needs to be pressure washed first.

I had to take my desktop computer in to find out what was wrong with it (it needs a hard drive) so I also got my haircut while I was in town today.

Tomorrow my niece and I are heading to Fabric Depot for their monthly sale. I need a roll of batting, thread and I will, of course, get some fabric while I am there! So hopefully, I can share some pictures over the weekend.

Oh, I almost forgot! I sold two of my quilts over the weekend! Both were Christmas quilts and are now traveling around the country in my father-in-law's motor home.

Short List

It is time too look back at July and see what I accomplished. The list is a bit shorter that other recent months but I have been busy.

July Tally

WIMM QBRR 2010 - 5 blocks

Red/Black/White Baby Quilt - finished

Western Washington Shop Hop 2010 - 21 blocks

Wedding Quilt Top

I have also been working on a couple of other projects but they can't be discussed or pictured here for the time being.

I bought some fabric the other day to make a pair of wrap pants to see how I like them. My daughter let me try hers on and one of the bonuses of them is that as you lose weight they adjust to your size. This is handy for me as I am working on that right now!

Getting there

So in spite of being somewhat handicapped by my right hand I managed to dig out that forsythia bush. Here it is so you can get an idea of its size.

The house we live in used to be owned by my great uncle. It was built in 1910 and he moved in sometime in the 1940s. When I was a kid we used to come over to visit Uncle Ted and Aunt Lydia frequently from our home about 50 miles away. They were much like grandparents to us. We were spoiled with a candy dish that our parents had no control over, Eskimo Pies, milkshakes and Schnapps (glasses of 7-Up!). The house is out in the country so there were gardens, room to run and cows. There were also two small cement ponds with goldfish back then. Later, they were just home to pollywogs that we would catch and release each week to see how they were developing. The ponds were next to trees and not surprisingly, as the trees grew the roots caused the ponds to crack so shortly after we moved into the house I filled in the ponds with dirt and planted flowers, etc.

One of those ponds was where I have been digging and I used a sledge hammer to break up the edge a bit and that is the pile in the foreground of this picture. Back under the tree are the rocks that were around the edge of the pond.

My plan for this area is to take out the grass between the chairs and the house and put in a patio of some sort and extend that under the chairs. Then our picnic table can go in the area which is shaded nicely in the evenings.

I have been diligently working on the quilting on the wedding quilt and no other sewing so still no quilty type pictures. This week I will have the grandkids again so I probably won't get much sewing of any kind done but you never know what might happen during nap time.

Just when you think things will calm down, they don't! Last week went by so quickly with going to work 4 of the 5 days. Saturday I did manage to get the wedding quilt basted, in spite of not having good supports for the frame. I also got some work done in the yard, starting to prepare for the two Sky Chairs that will be delivered on Thursday by Oli, our UPS guy. Here you can see where they will hang from the flowering cherry tree.
Since this picture was taken I have whacked back the forsythia bush there in the middle but I still need to dig it out. I might try transplanting it elsewhere but we shall see! The large clump of day lilies on the right will be dug up in the next couple of days by some friends for their yard.

My husband is continuing work on the garage roof and on Sunday we took a trip to the dump with the final load of roofing and the 5 cans of junk I didn't want out of the greenhouse. We got rid of a total of 1320 pounds! On the way home we stopped at Home Depot for plywood for the roof since we had the trailer anyway. Once we were home I got busy outside and mowed some grass and took care of whacking back that forsythia and then I cleaned out the flower bed around our little wishing well. I dug everything out so I could get rid of the weeds and just put back the peonies. It looked pretty sad so I ran into town and got some pansies and violas to fill in.

Yesterday I had an appointment at the doctor to get some warts removed that have been driving me nuts on my right hand. He froze off all 13 of them and boy did my hand hurt yesterday afternoon and evening! Even though I am left-handed, it is amazing how much I use my right hand! Today it is doing better as long as I don't touch any of the spots. I am hoping I can do some hand quilting while I watch TV today! Unfortunately it is cooler out today so it would be a great day to dig out that forsythia!

No Breather Yet!

So I got home at about 8 on Sunday, went to bed at about 10, got up a little before 7 and out of the house by 8 to drive for my husband, home about 4, worked on watering the yard, went grocery shopping, did a little hand quilting, in bed about 10 again.

Up a little before 7, out the door by 8, worked until 4 or so, made dinner, made chocolate fondue for craft night, gorged at our fondue night, in bed by 10.

Up before 7, out of the house about 9:30 to take the dog to the groomer and start the hunt for backing fabric for the wedding quilt. Got it and another larger piece for another project, came home and got some sewing done on some small projects, picked up the dog, had dinner, a little more sewing then a little TV and bed.

Today I am on the road again with Larry by 8 for another long day. There is always a week or two in July that is just crazy busy!

I hope to post pictures of the two little projects in the next day or so. I am hoping Saturday to get the quilt basted and ready for quilting.

OMG!

What a whirlwind weekend! My niece and I had a good drive to my sister's on Wednesday and bright and early on Thursday we started deciding on fabrics (the bride and groom chose brown and robin's egg blues/teals for the color scheme) and then cutting. Everything was cut (as we thought) by 11 or so and we got started with the piecing. At one point we had three sewing machines going with one designated presser! We had all the blocks finished on Thursday evening and Friday morning we started getting it together. I was hoping to have the border on by lunch but I miscalculated a little on one piece and put one side on backwards so it was delayed a little. A couple of quilting friends stopped by for lunch and to see the quilt and about that time my oldest daughter and her two kids arrived and things really got crazy!

On Saturday, the bride and groom and one of my sister's sons arrived for the day. Some biking, walking, shopping and yard work got done amid the visiting and relaxing.

Katie and I headed for home a little before 11 on Sunday after coffee and pastries in the back yard. Unfortunately there was a good bit of traffic so our 6-7 hour trip took closer to 9 hours!

I can't show any pictures of the quilt until October so make sure you come back. I will be spending a good bit of time until then working on the quilting and finishing once I get the backing!