It's time to share my PHD progress for the month.
This month I finished two items from my list, the Julia Quiltoff appliqué quilt and the Melodic Mystery quilt. That means I've finished six UFOs so far this year.
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| Melodic Mystery |
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| applique a la Julia Quiltoff |
Looking back over the PHD list, numbers 4, 6, 7, and 10 need to be quilted and bound. I still want to custom quilt three of the four. Fun fact: #10 is my oldest un-quilted top. I probably have a few other UFOs from that era (late 1990s), but none that are fully assembled.
Numbers 8 (alligator quilt) and 11 (race car quilt) are partially pieced. I'm wondering if I want to tackle these or switch them out for other quilts in progress. I think I'm going to power through #11 just to be done with it. It's destined to be a donation quilt. I like #8, but I have been dreading the appliqué for years.
Number 9, one item of clothing, is not yet complete, but I've been making steps towards achieving it. I've taken two classes on how to use the additional feet that came with my serger. I've enrolled in Cashmerette's sloper school that started this week so that I can better understand how to fit my body and make pattern adjustments. This week's class is all about how to properly take your measurements and determine your size. I've already had a few surprises with my measurements. While the class is specific to Jenny's patterns and fitting methods, I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to take what I learn and apply it to other designers' patterns as well.
If you're wondering where my own sewing is, I haven't had the time. I think, besides finishing the two quilts above, I've made one quilt block this month. No further sewing other than binding a bunch of quilts. I understand that a lot of people don't like that I haven't been sharing my own sewing, but you know what, that's life. Things aren't always what we hope they'll be.
In work life, I've been working on Jeri's quilts. I bound the one I shared last week and then moved on to the others.
She picked Fusion for her Jolee quilt (pattern by GE Designs). I agonized over thread color. Luckily she was much more decisive and selected Glide Peach from the options I sent. It was 100% the right choice. I bound this quilt.
She picked Good Vibrations for this quilt. This quilt pattern is called Scruffily and was found on the Moda blog. Again, I bound this one.
And Rosemary for the final one, made with GE Designs' Aria pattern. More binding. 😏
Then I moved on to Linda's quilt. This one is quilted with Gulf Stream.
Out in the garden, I sowed the cool-weather seeds: peas, lettuce, kale, carrots, and beets. We promptly got tons of rain. I guess this is okay because we don't have a water source near the garden at this point--remember, the water company turned down our request to hook up another meter on our second lot--so we've been dragging hoses across the entire yard to try to reach the garden. For real, the spigot is on the opposite end of the house from where the garden is, so it's the width of the house and garage plus the width of the driveway and then some. We planted the asparagus starts over a week ago and I don't see growth yet. I do see some kale sprouting. We were able to stretch the fencing onto the poles over the weekend; my husband just needs to build the gate and then we'll be fully enclosed.
I was weeding the side garden again over the weekend and broke my gazing globe. 😭 And when I broke it, I mean I shattered part of it. It was hard to get all the tiny glass bits out of the lawn and garden. And then I was mad, so most of the little weeds in the bed are still there. I don't know what that stuff is, but it is really hard to pull out. It's probably an invasive. That garden also gets a lot of thistles, which I try really hard to stay on top of so that they don't spread further.
In things that make me ridiculously happy, we have a few Baltimore orioles and Rose- breasted Grosbeaks. No hummingbirds yet. I did see a gorgeous Indigo Bunting along the edge of the lower garden. We used to have tons of them when we first moved here, but once all the lots got purchased and built up, the buntings' habitats were reduced and they are rare now.
I've taken a side quest investigating whether specific bird names should be capitalized. According to the American Ornithological Society, they should unless you are referring to a type of bird in general. According to the Chicago Manual of style, they should not be. What do you think? How much does this matter?
I canned some pears. It took several hours since I did it all by myself. The pears make me happy. The amount of work it takes, eh, maybe not so much. My younger neighbors, who I am so thankful for, have expressed some interest in learning to can this summer.
We've had many errands to run lately, so I've been out and about much more than usual. We were behind this clever person.
I saw this one in the grocery store parking lot and it made me laugh.
I'll be back tomorrow with the May OMG link up.
