Category Archive: quilts
Irish meadows
It seemed like a great day – sunny and cool for eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant – The Rio Blanco – a nice little family owned restaurant. Bill had a vegetable burrito wrapped in corn tortillas plus rice while I had an avocado vegetable tostada. We really enjoyed it. Then we came home so I could finish this top.
I wasn’t sure how I’d like this, but I do like all these greens in a random mixture. So it will get quilted and bound and given. I have used a good share of my green scraps now (I hope). I found that some of the other drawers in that little drawer stack have other colors, so there will be other striped quilts coming up. I like them as they always seem so cheerful.
It seems the quilt tops are stacking up a bit faster than the finished ones, so may have to switch jobs for awhile.
Surprises keep coming
It’s hard to believe that these green stripes have been evading me. They are scraps from several years ago and I don’t even remember the original intention – hopefully this was it. However, I opened a small drawer to put something in and these begged to come out. They are now a new quilt top just waiting to be quilted. It measures 41 x 48. I really don’t know what is about these greens as green has never been my favorite color, but I do like it for quilts.
I also worked at moving a box in the hoop house. We have to move it over about 18″. So I’ve been clearing where the new side of the box is to be – digging the dirt from the left side, tossing it onto the right side. The post on the right side will eventually be in the middle. I still have a couple weeks before planting the tomatoes so I’m okay.
And here is the point from where Lacey enjoys watching the most. No one can come or go without her watchful eye. However, usually she must be in the pasture with the animals. (The alpacas were allowed out to eat weeds today, so she was able to watch from here.)
More green squares
There are now 10 green squares consisting of 25 squares in each. All of these have been out of remnants from other projects. I haven’t decided if I want to put anything between them, or just sew them all together for one big patch. Any suggestions?
Some of today was spent outside, taking inventory of what needs to be done. Then daughter, Jen, came to visit with her two sons and DH. We had a great visit.
More green blocks
Today I accomplished 3 more green blocks. I’m still deciding whether I want to separate them or not.
I find that making sure the seams all go the correct way on the back to be the most challenging part of these blocks.
Food!
Have you ever thought about how much time we spend on food? Now if we could just eliminate that little detail, we’d have more time for other things. This morning we went to the grocery store, came home and put all those items away………..after, I washed all the fresh food, made about 4 gallons of fresh salad, which will only last a week. I was so hungry for fresh greens. Then it was lunch time and we ate.
Someday, I want to move, so I’ve evaluated what would be the most difficult in my sewing studio to keep straight in a move. All these bits and pieces would. So this afternoon, I sewed many strips together and then cut them with the above June Taylor ruler.
It has nice slits to guide the rotary cutter. So after the pieces were 5 strips wide, I just put this ruler on them and cut away.
Then I started assembly, which is going to take a few days. The strips are only two wide at this time.
Refusing to work
My body was refusing to do more manual labor today, so we headed out to get a supply of animal feed. Look who had run away. I don’t know who he is or where he lives, but he is quite away from home as he doesn’t live in our area. The truck on the right is following them so cars don’t sneak up on him. Grain purchased and in the proper containers, it was time to make lunch.
After lunch was a good time to go into Seattle, which was more than a 3 hour round trip. We went to REI as I purchased a red jacket there which was great in every way except color. The more I looked at it, the more I realized I wouldn’t be wearing it as I wear mostly red and pink shirts and would feel like the colors were clashing. And DH had a jacket that he wanted to trade for one with a hood. They didn’t have any blue ones in the store, but will be mailing me one next week, which is fine. It is a type of shell, so more rain and wind proof than warm, which is what I need.
After all of that running around, I took two hours to finish this scrappy top. Animals are now fed and put to bed, so I’m taking some time to help my brother on the family genealogy. If you’ve never worked on one of these, you have no idea how much time and effort goes into it. He has spent the last two years rounding up photos, flying to where the oldest people are that still might have information etc. With all this work, you did up a lot of interesting stories and get to know your ancestors. Hopefully he will publish this in the summer.
Striped quilt finished.
This quilt has been finished, washed and dried. The washing was because I tried pasting and pressing the binding down before sewing it. I liked the ease of sewing it then, but some of the glue did get on the fabric. Fortunately Elmer does wash out. I was a bit leery because not all the fabric had been pre washed. But it washed and dried very good. It is lying on the coffee table as it was still a bit damp.
We mixed pre plant fertilizer and our growing fertilizer so we are all ready to plant the peas on Sunday, after removing weeds. Hopefully, we’ll have enough energy left over to get some onions and greens in the ground as well.
Here’s wishing each of you a great weekend.
Experimental quilt
Today, I decided to see how it would go if I could sew and quilt the strips at one time. Using left over heavy batting I pieced it with a wide zigzag to make a section 44 x 54″.
Then I took some of my cut strips from days past that were the full width of the fabric. If they weren’t, but there was more than one piece, I pieced them to get the width I wanted.
I laid out the backing and sprayed it. Then put the batting on top of it and marked it so I’d have some type of guide. The first piece was put right side up on one edge and the second on top of that piece, but upside down. Each piece had to be pressed before the next one was added.
I continued in that way until I had enough pieces to cover the batting.
Even with having marked the batting, I had trouble keeping straight rows. I’m not sure how much the heavy batting had to do with that and how much was just me.
Now that the rows are together, I squared it up and it is ready for binding. All finished in one day. But I think I would rather spend a day sewing rows together for 2 or more quilts and then spend the time quilting them. I think it would be faster and neater. However, I do have another quilt nearly finished. at 42 x 51″.
“On Grandpa’s Pond”
