Another finish!

I was going to get this done last weekend, but made the mistake of thinking I’d just pull the ragweed out of the asparagus.  And this grass that’s going to seed.  And…  several hours later, one side of the bed is done.  And my wrist and shoulder were not up to handling the quilt.  I still have one side of the asparagus left to do.  And while reading a garden blog, I realized what I should have done with the garden sections I left empty this year – flowers & herbs for butterflies and birds.  Oh well, next year, unless my garden mojo returns, which I doubt it will until I retire. 

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A quilt finish for me!

Finally, a long term project is done.  Is it perfectly done?  Oh heck no, I had many sessions where I told myself “done is better than perfect”.

This quilt is very loosely based on a quilt I saw in late 1990s perhaps.  It was gold & black, with square quarter-log cabins and a border print sashing between the blocks.  It was the use of border print sashing that really caught my eye.  I saw this rose fabric in Cottage Rose quilt shop in Marion, Iowa (no longer a physical store presence), loved it, bought it, and had no clue what to do with it, until the memory of that gold/black quilt popped in.  After several rounds of thinking, drawing, using EQ,  this is what I ended up with.  I modified that gold/black quilt to use diamond shaped blocks, hoping it would look more like rosebuds, and used the border print  only between the columns of blocks.  I only have selvedge from the dark green fabric and it’s dated 2004, sadly I don’t seem to have saved the rose print selvedges for some reason.

QOV top #6 finished

and ready to be turned in for quilting and binding.  In real life, the white isn’t quite so white, i has red stars on it.  I’m always puzzled by how different many quilts look in person, vs. how the camera sees them.

QOV top #6

QOV #6 Progress

Here’s QOV #6, the blocks are sewn, but not to each other yet.  I’m debating whether to put sashing between them, or not.  I kind of like the blue.  This particular red is too dark, maybe lighter red?  But no sashing and just a border to bring it to size means it will be finished and turned in for quilting faster.

June Shop Hop & Cute Trouble

I hope all had a good July 4th.  And a good Canada Day for anyone reading from up there.

I started writing this June 18th, and never got it posted, so if it rambles and wanders about, apologies.  I’ve been using vacation days this week.  As usual, way too much on the to-do list, not enough done.

I’ve started QOV #6 this week, another kit from the group.  I think I need to move the controller on the Necchi from the cabinet to the floor.  After spending an entire day sewing, my sciatic nerve was giving me fits for the next 2 days.  Or just not sew all day?  I got the blocks about 2/3 of the way assembled, and need to press before continuing to finish them.  Then there’s putting them all together, border, etc.

A few things done

but not enough it seems to me….

June?!?!   Yeesh.

The 2 quilts are still at the machine quilters.  Wait – I know I showed the American Jane last post, did I ever show the pink/red/green “rose” quilt top?  Maybe not, I can’t even find any photos of it, odd, I could swear I took some.  They probably will not be done until end of the month.  Or did I tell the one quilter end of July would be fine?  Oh well, they are not gifts, and there is no need for them until winter anyway.  This time of year, the machine quilters around here are kept quite busy with graduation present quilts.

QOV #3 came back from quilting & I did the binding and turned it in for laundering and presentation.  QOV top #4 got turned in a few weeks ago for quilting, I don’t know if I’ll get it back to do the binding or if someone else will be doing it.  Here is QOV top #5,

Quilt tops DONE!

News from the sewing front –

The American Jane quilt top is DONE!  I wish I knew when I started it.  I got the pattern and jelly rolls and started sewing the blocks fairly quickly to the half hexagon stage.  Then they sat for a few years because I had no good place to lay them out.  Needless to say – I am so happy I made the design wall.  Any way, here’s the completed top, the colors are truest toward the bottom left –

In the last 2 months…

I’m not doing so great at the blogging again!   I had no idea it’s been 2 months again already.  I can see why so many formerly frequently posting bloggers are moving to Instagram.  A quick snap, a few lines, and hit a button.  I’m working on not over-thinking my writing, as that’s what takes so long for me to get something written.  The sewing one day every weekend is working well.  The house is suffering, but I’m getting sewing done.  Except this weekend, yesterday I HAD to buckle down and get my part of the tax stuff done, which I did, and turned the envelope over to DH to do his part.

OK, let’s see, where did I leave off at the last posting?

Didn’t think you’d hear from me so soon, did you!

WOOT!   I have an unexpected day off.  I got up, checked the weather and road conditions, and sent email to manager that I’d be in closer to noon-ish.  He emailed back work is closed?!  I never even thought to check the closures, they close so rarely.  Maybe 4 times in almost 40 years?

A bit of news on the sewing front…

Since the last post, here’s what I did the rest of the time I had off in January –

I heard back from Union Special, they said it’s an 1800AA or AG, for sewing bags, made in 1915.  Also attached to the reply were 3 files of manuals.  Sweet!  At first, when I saw “for sewing bags” I thought handbags, but then saw in the manual it’s for sewing things like feed, flower, sugar bags and such.  Now I can try and figure out what needles it needs.  Even if I only ever give it a spin or two by hand, it would be nice to see it actually make stitches.