Stories from the Sewing Room

I've had a different sort of week. I wrapped up my scheduled quilting last week and then took some time to decompress, catch up on paperwork, and work on a batting presentation that I presented Saturday morning. So far this week I've had nothing but appointments and events. In fact, today is the only day I don't have anything besides work on my schedule

I was able to take some time Sunday afternoon for personal sewing. I started  assembling the Athena bag. I am struggling to understand the instructions and I haven't found a video tutorial. First I made the adjustable strap.

Then I started assembling the back panel. It had a cloth pocket on one side.

And a mesh pocket on the other.

I have to insert a zipper into the front(?) panel next and I don't understand the instructions. You can see the zipper in the pattern cover in the strap photo above.

I got frustrated and set it aside. I decided to work on month two of the Kaleidobloom quilt course that I purchased last year from The Crafty Nomad. Month one was fabric selection and general information and instructions. Here are my completed month 2 blocks. They went together easily. The colors didn't photo well, but they are Kona Celestial and Kona Maize, dark teal and stick-of-butter yellow.

I've printed out the remainder of the templates and will get back to piecing this as soon as possible. There are eight groups/months of lessons in total. The course is self-paced.

I have just a few quilts to share this week. First is Trudy's, quilted with Ocean Waves.

Next is Teah's, quilted with Creeping Fig.

Finally, Elaine's, quilted with a large-scale Soho.

Out in the garden, things are going fairly well. There are a lot of watermelons. Can you see any?

We harvested three coolapenos, seven tomatoes, two zucchinis, and just over two pounds of mostly pole beans. Unfortunately, it looks like the zucchinis have been hit with squash bugs.

We have pumpkins growing outside the fence. I'm hoping these don't become the next target of the bugs.

In the weird category, the other night I was walking back up the driveway from the mailbox and happened to look over at the vegetable garden. There was a rabbit inside the fence. I yelled to my husband. We figured it had squeezed in between the door/gate gaps. He opened the gate and noticed that there were actually two rabbits in the garden, which he proceeded to chase. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't see it with my eyes, but both of them exited the garden straight through the fence, which is an approx. 2" x 4" grid. So when I was blaming squirrels for biting the blooms off the zucchini plants, maybe it was actually some stealth rabbits. We're considering adding some tighter chicken wire fencing along the bottom.

In my front garden I have zinnias blossoming. Since we were rebuilding this bed after the porch incident last year, I put in a few roses and some small perennials. I added two geraniums that I was gifted and threw all sorts of leftover seed packets in for good measure. The only thing that germinated from the seeds are these zinnias and they are all the same color. Weird, but fine.

I love the colors of the Gaillardia and geraniums together.

The only other thing of note this week is that when I returned from my annual exam yesterday morning, all I was thinking about was eating breakfast and then I saw this in my parking spot. 🤬 I'm guessing it was drawn to the wet concrete. We have two temporary AC units in the garage that have to vent, so that is what you are seeing under the door. I parked in my husband's spot to the right of this and crawled over the console and out the passenger door to avoid it. My husband asked if it was the same one as before, but I don't think so since the previous one was over five feet and this one didn't look quite so long. Yes, I know it's harmless. I don't care. Don't like, not approaching.

I'll be back Saturday with the OMG link up.