How to lose half a day without even trying hard..

Pintrest !!!.  That’s how.  It is always with good intentions, of course we know where they led.  I thought I’d just look for a few pictures of Double Irish Chain quilts to see if anyone had ever put a border on one.  Several hours later, the answer was “yes”. And at least a dozen ideas on how to do it.  Plus ideas for other quilts.

It’s a wonder I managed to get any sewing done. At least I got myself to my mani-pedi appointment on time.

And I got all the Easy ST blocks sewn into rows plus the first three rows sewn together.  And of course that means more pink blocks done.

  

 

 

 

 

 

One more row on this then I’ll border it.

Back at it again

 

I did step away from the machines and get some housework done and we had a lovely time with our friends. Although I think I might have been a little over caffeinated most of the time, I was jumping around pretty hyper like. So now back at it again with the addition of a new commission to add into the worksheet. this one is for two boys quilts for bunk beds. On the plus side, she doesn’t want them until December, lots of time.  Since I don’t have to start them yet, I’ve been working on getting Easy Street together.

This is at the half way point.  Don’t know if it is obvious, but the last row is laying about 3 inches on the floor, my basting wall being not quite tall enough. Should be a great time getting this one basted, going to have to lay it on the living room floor I think.

For leaders and enders while I sew the rows together, I’ve been doing a scrappy/pink Irish Chain.  This has two purposes. One is as a sample for a client who wants a pink/white baby quilt and also to give to a co-worker of my husband who just had a baby girl.

I keep dithering on whether to make it 3 X 4 or go bigger. Mostly because I don’t think I’ve seen a border on an Irish Chain and without one it would only be 30” across, a little small.  Then again, Easy St. makes everything look small, maybe 30 X 40 is big enough.  I’ll just keep sewing blocks while putting Easy together and see what I get.

Playing Catch-up

I have had the feeling for the past week that I am running behind and trying franticly to catch up.  I thought it might be because I had some quilts that were over-due for delivery.  There was one co-worker who was asking everyone when I would be working so she could get her quilt. Quilt finished and delivered, forgot to take a picture of it when finished. Here is is before binding is put on. .

 But even after I delivered it,  the feeling remained So I opened up my spreadsheet of quilts in progress and did some updating.  Sorted things around and added some that hadn’t gotten recorded. Then for fun I thought I’d sort by finished, date and total it up. Grand total: 17 quilts finished so far this year. DH says it should be more because I didn’t count the tops I sent to the Calgary drive but they were only pieced tops not quilted. And no drastically overdue requests or gifts.

So the unsettled feeling must be from the dinner party this coming weekend that I am so totally unprepared to host due to spending so much time sewing.  To help with this, I started putting the Scrappy Trips together.  And once it was off the wall, I put Easy Street up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much better. I can always clean house tomorrow, right?

A Sunny Sunday

and very little quilting going on.  It was so gorgeous out today, we spent the whole afternoon in the backyard. We got a lot of necessary yard work done.

And our reward for this? Eight bags of yard waste ready for pick up tomorrow.

 

 

And a rose garden all weeded and mulched.

 

And if that wasn’t good enough for a day’s work.  The deck in front of the roses used to hold a wood-pile. Not any longer. Relocated to the side of the shed.

 

And lest you think the rose garden was weedy enough for all eight bags,

 

 

The cedar hedge received a trim on  three sides ( well, two sides and the top if you want to get picky)

 

So all of that is why the Princess quilt is still waiting for binding even though I finished quilting it yesterday. (when it was rainy and yucky outside).

A brief garden interlude

I took my coffee out to the back deck this morning, something I haven`t done in a long while. The conditions were perfect for sitting there enjoying a moment of tranquility amidst the chaos that is our mornings now.  As a bonus I now have a beautiful view of my hostas in bloom.

Yesterday was taken up by a trip into Toronto for a family funeral so no machine sewing but some time to hand sew hexies during the drive.

Only four hexies left to finish the blocks for Collaboration Celebration. Yippee ! Progress made.

And some pondering time. We have a friend getting married in October and DH asked if I would have time to do a quilt to give them. I have been undecided on the pattern to do. Last week I was sure I wanted to do the Rectangle Wrangle from Bonnie`s book, so cut up a bunch of 2.5 strips and started sewing.

This is the block I have finished so far. Singular, one block, in a week. And it needs many, many more ( I think 72).  While pondering this on my design wall, I noticed the box of Scrappy Trips blocks that I have been accumulating and thought, why not.

It is a bigger block and goes together much faster than this one is taking.

 

I have this many blocks done already which will speed things up. Just have to find something to do with all the 2.5``by 10`` strips I have already cut.

Nothing finished yet

It has been 3 weeks and some since I finished a quilt. Not that I haven’t been sewing but nothing is finishing.  I’m still working on the hexie portion of the Collaboration Celebration quilt. Using it as a hand-work project while we are traveling. To get familiar with my new Janome, I dug out a deep down UFO.

 I had these blocks a quarter done so finished the edge stitching with a simple satin stitch and explored the needle up, thread cutting a various features new to me. Next I’ll sandwich this and use it to try out the quilting abilities of the machine.

Then I went on to trying other stiches and finished the daisies on the Shades of Black quilt top. It is now ready to sandwich and quilt.

 

 

 

 

We also spent a day driving back to Hamilton to get the extension table. And considered taking the custom Janome table but decided this one we found at Costco is working well enough. The last thing I need here is more furniture. The house is still in disarray from DD2’s move. We’re working on fitting things in but it’s taking time.