Stories from the Sewing Room

I finally got a break from all the binding and got some of my own sewing done! 

I made the backing for Forever Neverland. I cut and applied the borders correctly for the quilt top. I got fancy and tried to match the print as best I could across the top and bottom borders.

It's ready to quilt!

I sewed more of the stitch-and-flip corners on the race car quilt blocks. 

I made good progress on Nancy's quilt, though all those foundations are going to take forever to trim. I have trimmed eight of 40 pieces so far. 

Meanwhile, I have spent a number of hours trying to figure out why I can no longer email people with Yahoo email addresses from first my blog domain and now my business domain. Ugh. No great resolution, but hopefully I can figure out something soon, especially for my business, where it's pretty critical. 

I've quilted a few things since last week. I love the variety of quilts that come through my door. 

First is Carol's, quilted with Cassava.

I quilted Radio Waves on Shelly's quilt.

Marsali picked 60s Mod Butterfly.

I had a great moment when I advanced the quilt and saw that the backing and the quilt top centers matched up perfectly. {She had requested I center the middle piece of fabric she used in her backing as closely as possible and I nailed it.}

I started quilting Diagonal Plaid Bias on Kayle's quilt. 

I quilted Paw Prints on Jae's quilt. 

Moving over to the rest of my life, the perimeter of our house has now been treated for termites. The porch is formed and ready for cement. Because the volume of cement for the porch isn't enough for a cement truck, my husband has been prepping a covered parking spot on the end of the barn as well. Hopefully those two together should be enough. 

We had a bit of a surprise when my husband fed the chickens the other day. 

Apparently none of us had checked for eggs in a week or so (or maybe four days if they both laid). 😳 I really thought I had checked, because I usually do when it's my turn to feed them, but I guess not. They haven't laid since then. LOL.

The garden is still hanging in there. I was sad to discover that all the cucumbers I harvested recently are inedible--super bitter. I think it's due to the crazy water fluctuations, but maybe the soil quality too. I have a ton of tomatoes; the picture shows only a fraction. The carrot tops were looking pretty raggedy, so I grabbed a couple and pulled out little carrots! This is the first time I've successfully grown them. I was super excited about that. 😄

We have a pumpkin that is growing up in the air. This picture isn't the greatest, but you can kind of tell. My husband put a block of fence post under it to support it. 

Here's a few other pictures I took the other day. 

Beyond that, my eye doctor and I have settled on a contact lens combo that is a good compromise to real the issues I was having. Not great, but good. I've been there three times in three and a half weeks. I still have the follow-up foot appointment next week. 

My son's developed an open bite over the last year, so it looks like we might have to do another round of orthodontic treatment. The poor kid already had braces for like seven years and his teeth are still totally straight and he wears his retainers as directed. We are switching providers since we weren't happy with the one who took over his original orthodontist's practice after he retired. I felt comfortable with the first place I called other than potential cost I was quoted was shocking. I'm debating calling a second as well. None of us is thrilled with this, but we need to fix it. 

Meanwhile, he has completed and submitted his application for next summer's internship. He's going to retake the SAT on Saturday. He's interested in a high-value scholarship where he has to apply to a selection committee at school with the hopes of being one of two who are picked to advance to the actual application at the college. He dropped the ball on that and it's due Monday, so not only does he have a lot of SAT studying to do, he also has to write three essays as part of the application. We haven't even made it to the actual college applications yet. It's going to be a busy few weeks.  

In other random news, I saw that Hulu now has Bewitched available. I thought it would be fun to watch--I used to watch it as a kid--but my son kind of pooh-poohed it. It turns out he really enjoys the show. It also turns out that the actor who played Darren lived fairly close to my aunt and my grandfather and is buried in the cemetery behind Grandpa's house. Who knew? 

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.

Here we are at the start of another month. It's time to pick a goal. 

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

Looking at what I would most like to get done, I need to choose between making additional progress on the race car quilt or binding my Pink Grapefruit in Blue. 

I still need to make all of the outer border blocks and add one more border in between the existing top and those pieced blocks on the race car quilt.

I have most of one side stitched down on the binding on the Pink Grapefruit in Blue quilt. It's hard to find motivation to sit there and stitch in the evening after I've worked all day. My goal this month will be to finish stitching the binding. 

Now it's your turn to link up. The link up will remain open through September 7.

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on September 24.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just copy and paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal September Link Up

I'm sticking with my to-do list format for a while until I feel like I have things more under control. 

1. Forever Neverland 🔜

I attempted to finish this over the weekend, but I neglected to read the instructions. As a result, I messed up the outer border fabric and had to order more in order (an ordeal in itself; not everyone shares my shipping timeframe standards) to get closer to the look I wanted. You know what happens when you assume...🤦🏻‍♀️

2. Race Car quilt 🆗

I have created all the strip units and paired them with their stitch and flip corners. I'll start on these after I finish all my work binding.

I did watch more of the video content from the class. I have one video left to watch plus all the tweaking of my own sloper. I don't mind the sewing part as it goes pretty quickly, but getting the muslin ready to cut each pattern version feels like a lot of work. 

4. Work on the postcard from big guild 🚫

5. Cut Meadow Mist Magnificent Mystery quilt ✅

6. Figure out the Beach Bumz class quilt 🚫

7. Continue working on the behind-the-scenes tasks for business 🚫🔜

I have found a plug-in that should do what I want for one of my more major tasks. It does cost money, but on the plus side, it's not subscription-based. I do have to learn Java and/or CSS in order to use it. It will probably take quite some time to implement, but it will be easier (I think) than what I was planning to do as a work-around. I have a few smaller tasks to complete too.

Here are the quilts I've completed for work over the past week:

Annie's, quilted with Hopscotch. It looks like I used a light thread, but it's actually 60 wt. Bottom Line Tan, which is a light gold color. 

April's, quilted with loopy meander.

Sara's, quilted with Unwind.

Leslie's quilt, quilted with Diagonal Plaid Bias. I need to fully bind this one.

Mary Ann's quilt, quilted with In the Swirls. She wanted fuchsia thread to match the cornerstone fabrics that are not pictured. 

I started quilting Box Tie on Sonja's quilt. This is a more advanced panto that requires care to align, particularly since there are so many seams to take into account. 

I have completed the binding on one of Gina's quilts. 

I have 2.5 more quilts to bind at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting them finished so that I can sew my own things.

If you're wondering about how my podiatry appointment for my injury went, I ruptured/tore my plantar fascia. I should have been in a boot at the time of the injury (late May), but it's too late now. I have various orthotic options to explore, some stretching exercises to do, and have been instructed to buy new shoes as well. I already had a new pair of shoes, but hadn't switched over yet. I had been feeling pretty good, but all the prodding of the foot hurt and set me back a bit. Additional shoes and various orthotics have been ordered and a follow-up appointment scheduled. 

Meanwhile, the optometrist has me trying some different contact lenses that I'm unsure about. I have a follow-up on these this week. This middle-age vision change stinks.

Out in the garden, we had a surprisingly large harvest of cucumbers and tomatoes. The cucumber plants are burning out. The tomatoes all appear to be intact, so maybe we really did have just the two hornworms? Seems odd to have just a few, but I'll take it. We also harvested one green pepper and have one other that's just about ready. 

The pepper looks somewhat like a cucumber in the above photo. 😄 I actually have about two pounds of tomatoes, but they didn't all make it into the picture. I added two pounds of grocery store tomatoes and made spaghetti sauce. It turned out okay, but not great. It's very bland. The grocery store tomatoes probably didn't help. They were labeled on the shelf as local, but when I got home, I saw that they had product of Mexico labels. Oh well. We did not starve.

We have four watermelons that look promising. I'm super-excited about this because I don't think we've ever successfully grown a melon. Two of the three pumpkins are already changing color and we found a fourth start that might make it. I might get one more zucchini. I've harvested six this year, which is a record for us. I grated the three I had in the fridge, made a loaf of bread, and froze the rest.

My husband has thankfully cleared the debris (all the damaged wood and foam insulation boards) out of the front garden, so I have to weed that part in preparation for the termite treatment. He finished the last of the house repairs over the weekend and is moving on to prepping the porch for new cement. Hopefully this nightmare will be over soon. That being said, we will still have to replace the drywall in the dining room and office once the outside is done and that will be a different kind of dusty nightmare. 

A few other, random things that made me smile:

I caught my car's odometer at just the right moment. Don't worry; I was sitting in a parking lot and happened to notice the mileage. My car needs to be detailed. 

This hummingbird sitting on a hummingbird. Sorry it's blurry. I was taking the picture through the screen.

Two female hummingbirds sharing the feeder instead of fighting each other. 

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts. 

Guess who almost forgot to make the link up post? Yup, that's me. 😅 Coming in on time, but at the last possible second, here is the post!

This link up will remain open until August 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

I have counted out the number of units and corners needed for each color way of the blocks. If I ever complete all the binding that's in my work queue, I'll start working on these. 

I'm feeling frustrated by technology. I currently cannot email anyone with a Yahoo email address, which includes ATT and SBC Global amongst others. I have a general idea of what the issue is, but without spending a lot of money for additional email services, I can't fix it. I will post responses directly on my blog post if I can't get my email to go through. I am sorry. 

In other news, I have done some really boneheaded things in my sewing lately. Somehow I managed to suck a piece of batting off a table and get it stuck in the long arm bars while I was loading a quilt backing. Sadly, this is not the only dumb thing I've done.

I decided to take a break from all the binding and spent an afternoon working on my own things. Here's how my updated to-do list looks.

1. Add last two borders to Finding Neverland quilt. Seam backing. 🔜

I have the inner borders on. One more set of wider borders and the backing seam to go!

I forgot to unfold a strip set I was sewing and then realized I had been sewing without bobbin thread for like 100". At least the fix was easy. 

3. Fix the elastic in the gingham skirt. ✅

Of course this didn't go smoothly. I put a safety pin in one end of the elastic and forgot to do the other. The safety pin opened while in the waistband channel and hooked in the lining. The other end shot way back in the channel. I had to undo more seam to be able to fish both out. It was not fun at all, but I stuck with it and got it done. 💪 I removed 4.75" of elastic. 

4. Resume work on the sloper. 🚫

5. Work on the postcard from big guild. 🚫

6. Cut Meadow Mist Mystery quilt. 🚫

All the fabrics are washed now.

7. Figure out the Beach Bumz class quilt. 🚫

8. Continue working on the behind-the-scenes tasks for business. 🚫

Like I started off with, I am feeling very frustrated with technology and the services I use right now. I'm waiting a bit til I cool off, plus I have other things that are more urgent.

Out in the garden, there's more weirdness in this odd growing season. I had harvested enough cucumbers to make a batch of freezer pickles. {Link to recipe. Note that it says they keep only 6 months in the freezer, but I haven't noticed much degradation in a year.} I had part of them laying on the counter because they had a ton of dirt on them. I had the cleaner cukes in the crisper drawer. The ones in the crisper drawer got moldy and had to be discarded. 😫 I did have enough to make a half-batch of pickles, so I guess it turned out okay. 

My daughter was home over the weekend and I asked her to go out in the garden with me Sunday morning to plant another crop of peas and lettuce. We had heavy rains Saturday night into Sunday and the soil was too wet to also plant lettuce. I was looking at my tomato plants and I discovered hornworms. 😫😫 She got the two I found onto the shovel and fed them to the chickens. I couldn't bring myself to look for more. 

After she fed them to the chickens, she looked them up and discovered that they grow into hummingbird moths. She was sad to have destroyed them. I was not. There are also army worms on my vegetables. 🤮 We think we found a few spongy moth caterpillars on the road. I really hope Google's ID was wrong. No more scourges!

On the plus side, we are growing several baby watermelons. 

We have three pumpkins growing (that I can find).

Several of the sunflowers are blossoming. Most of them got eaten by the deer and the ones that are blossoming are plants that regrew after being nibbled. They are resilient.

I wish I was wealthy enough to hire a gardener. I don't do well with bugs and critters and snakes. I can't keep up with my big flower garden by myself. I haven't even tried to deal with it since I hurt my foot in May. Speaking of the foot, my podiatry appointment is this week, three months after the injury.

Most of the repairs are complete on the house. My husband is now moving towards re-forming the front porch. The step heights will be different than before and we're trying to wrap our heads around how they should be spaced. We can't actually have the termite treatment done until all repairs and porch forms are done. 

In the quilting area, I have stitched Good Vibrations on Jeri's quilt. 

I also bound this one. I like this backing fabric.

I bound both of Jeri's quilts that I shared last week.

I quilted Moons and Stars on Shirley's quilt.

I quilted Hopscotch on Gina's quilt. I will fully bind this one.

I quilted Squatty Squares on Gina's quilt. Another full bind. 

I'll leave you with this cool sunset from Monday night.