I sewed something! Actually, I sewed several things! I attended the small guild retreat on Friday and Saturday. Usually I only can sit for four or five hours before I'm done. Much to my surprise, I made it around eight hours each day. I think it helped that one, there were only a few people there, and two, no one was at home.
The first day I started working on Range (pattern by Modern Handcraft). I've had the fabrics washed and pressed for ages--like so long that Nicole has since created an updated version of this pattern, now called Ranges, that includes other sizes. I cut the fabric last week and started sewing Friday morning. I got four columns done and joined together. Then I realized that I hadn't cut enough of the white fabric, so I had to set it aside.
I moved on to a dinosaur quilt. I used a free pattern called Charm Squares from Elizabeth Hartman. This was a really quick sew that I cut and completed in just a few hours.
After dinner I left and got a few groceries since I was expecting my sister and her kids to arrive at my house Friday evening. They were staying with me and traveling to their water polo tournament in Indianapolis Saturday and Sunday. The original plan was they would arrive by 7 pm. They ended up arriving around 12:30 am. I was long since asleep. Oh, before bed I cut the few missing pieces of the Range quilt and put them in my purse so I didn't forget them.
I briefly saw 3/4 of my family Saturday morning before I had to leave to get back to the retreat before our class started. Funny aside, before I left my niece wanted to feed my chickens and check for eggs. My sister went out to assist, as did my older nephew. They didn't know to throw the scratch out into the run and my nephew claimed I'd told him to put it in the feed tube. LOL. I had to give updated instructions via phone call on proper scratch dispersal. My sister thought she wanted to give the chickens some dried mealworms, but didn't like how they felt. Plus the chickens were pecking at her as she tried to stick them mealworms through the fence. 😆 I think she dropped most of them outside the run.
Last note about the chickens: one of the Barred Rocks had been pecked near her eye by Peanut. It looks very swollen now and we had to order antibiotic cream. This should be interesting to apply. 😬
I arrived back at the retreat with a few minutes to spare. Our instructor, Alice Ridge, was teaching a four-hour class on New York Beauty blocks. I did piece all four of the foundations. I only fully completed one block because I was struggling with her assembly method. Yes, my block is pretty wonky. You're supposed to go oversized and then square up before final assembly. I'll eventually finish the other three blocks using a more standard curved piecing method.
Since Alice had left, I finished the one block and then went back to working on Range. And can you believe it? I hadn't cut enough of a second color. Ugh. I decided to sew everything that was remaining and just leave notes for myself on which row was which and which color was missing.
I left a bit before dinner since I thought maybe my husband and son would be returning for dinner. And my back hurt from sitting on a folding chair for two days. They weren't, and who knows where my sister was? I ate dinner on my own. My family arrived back in time for me to get in my evening walk. My sister and kids decided to stop at the grocery store before returning to my house. They were in there for like an hour and then she decided to start cooking dinner at 9:45 pm. 🤷🏻♀️ I went to bed a bit after 10 and left them to it.
Sunday they were up early to make it back to Indianapolis an hour before the earliest match started at 8:20. The three of us went to watch, but left later. I have never watched water polo before and didn't really know what was going on, but it was nice to be able to watch the kids do something since we live too far from each other to attend their events. I kind of understood what was going on by the end of the fourth match and enjoyed it.
I finished Range after they left. It's now moved from my purchased to my to-be-quilted list. I enjoyed sewing this one and would consider making a second one.
Work-wise, I feel like not much is happening as I've run into a few stumbling blocks. Looking at my photos, I remembered that I was very productive last week, not so much this week.
I quilted Cakewalk 2 on Ann K.'s quilt.
I quilted Loop the Loop on another of Ann's quilts.
And finished up with Lloyd on her last one.
I need to attach binding to all four of her current quilts. I attached binding to the front of Ann L.'s quilt from last week, but I neglected to take a picture.
I also quilted Lovely Roses on Pat's quilt.
I've started working on Connie's custom quilt. I have stitched the Viceroy design on all of the green background. I will go back and stitch straight lines on all the brown bits. Normally I would have done the background last, but I couldn't get my ruler foot over the seams, so I need to use an alternate method. I think I have to bind this one too. This is probably the last custom I'll agree to do.
I started on another of Ann L.'s quilts, but ended up with a tuck in the backing, so I need to rip out the stitching. Sigh. I've found that for every 10 minutes I've spent stitching, it takes an hour to rip out that stitching. I was 40 minutes in on this one.
Yup, sharing my mistake. I am very human. Thankfully, tucks in the backing are extremely rare for me. I had one other small one earlier this year and it had been four or five years since the last time. I don't know why, but solids seem to be more prone to tucks than prints in my experience. And this is a spectacular tuck.
I'd like to share a project that my friend Marsali has been working on. It's called Quiltacy. It's an online legacy archive of all of your quilts. I haven't personally used it (it's brand new), but I like the concept and the level of detail she's added to it. Check it out here!
Out in the garden, the last few days have had really gorgeous weather with lower humidity. I weeded the upper garden and my husband mowed the yard. I went out to the vegetable garden and harvested the peas. I truly thought I'd planted purple peas, and the blossoms were pink, but every single pea is green. Oh well.
Most of the things are looking good. Here is the zucchini.
Here are the green beans, both bush and pole, along with some sparse watermelon plants. I might need to add more strings for the pole beans to run along. When I grew pole beans in my old garden, the tank was close to the fencing and I just let them run along the fence as they wished.
Much to my surprise, the lettuce is growing. This is the second planting since the first didn't germinate.
Here's the tomatoes and peppers and a small bin of rosemary and thyme. The thyme isn't doing much yet.
And here's a daylily that I don't remember buying. 😂 When we had to tear off the porch last year, my husband dug out and relocated as many plants as he could. As a result, I have several relocated daylilies that hadn't bloomed in years that are doing well in their new locations.
One last thing before I go. When I was at the grocery store Friday night, not only did I see someone with their bicycle inside the store, I also saw this Chrysler/Maserati in the parking lot. I sent a photo to my son because I thought he'd enjoy it. I called it a Dodge Maserati and he corrected me and said it was a Chrysler. I did look up the pentagon shape badge and it was indeed used across Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth back in the day, so I wasn't totally crazy. Anyway, I thought someone had just added the Maserati badge and rims, but my son informed me that this mashup is a real car. Who knew? These days we'd call it a "collab".
