Slow Sunday Stitching

It's been a busy week once again, and time to check in for Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy's Quilts.  

This week I have been trying to catch up.  It is also the end of the quarter for the 2020 Finish-A-Long, and I looked at my list sort of late in the game and realized I am nowhere near close to being finished.  

This week I finished another block for the QAL by the Sea, the Mariner's Compass designed by Kathleen McMusing.

It was paper pieced, and not as bad as I thought it would be.  Paper piecing is not my favorite thing to do.  It looks pretty good with the other blocks for this section.

I also got my Ella Maria Deacon blocks done for last month.  This also included a paper pieced block!

I also got the newest block done for the Pieces From the Past Sewalong on Melva Loves Scraps.  This block is called the Rolling Stone, and was published in 1936 in the Kansas City Star.  This will be my grandson Jaeger's graduation quilt next year.  

This week also found me adding some patches on Jaeger's letterman jacket.  I told him last week I didn't think I could go down any further on this sleeve, but I did manage to add one more star on, plus on swimming guy.  He said there might be one more star at the end of the year.  I think it might need to be glued on.  

I also managed to put a border on this scrap quilt I made during the Star Kissed Quilt Along @Wedding Dress Blue several months ago.  I didn't have enough of the pirate fabric for all four borders, so I added some leftover sailboat blocks to the corners, and cut out some sea creatures with my Accuquilt die.  This will be my One Monthly Goal for October to quilt this.   A former roommate and bridesmaid of my younger daughter Katie is having a baby boy anytime this month.   I plan to try some of my FMQ skills I am learning on the FMQ Academy at String and Story with HollyAnne Knight.  I also am going to try out my newly returned Juki that has been on an extended stay in Texas for warranty work.

What I will be working on for my Slow Sunday Stitching will be my Cassandra's Circle block for September, and maybe stitching on this little redwork piece.

I'll be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.    Head on over there and see what everyone is up to! 

Yesterday was grandson Keaton's BD and we had a family dinner at Spaghetti Factory.

I've had some lovely things to look at in my garden this week.   This plan, a dahlia I had planted in my new garden out front several months ago.  This was in a pot in my backyard for at least 8-9 years, and never bloomed.  In fact all it ever had was leaves and I wasn't sure what it was.  I usually only buy plants that have flowers, so it was a mystery until this happened!  It grew huge, and bloomed!

I have also had some beautiful sunflowers happening.

Lastly I have been having a heck of a time with critters around here.  I have had a mole problem for at least two years.  First in the back yard, then they moved to the front.  I have tried these stake things you put batteries in and it is supposed to drive them off, I have tried bait which they push out of the holes.  I have tried to drown them with water down their holes.  They moved to the front yard about a month ago, and they are going crazy and making me crazy,  I think there must be a whole commune. I have even tried Siracha and castor oil.  I just wish they would leave!  I would welcome any suggestions!

The past month or so, I have been trying to clean up my gardens, trim bushes, and get ready for the winter, and when we hopefully get our rain.  I cleaned out this area, trimmed back some bushes, and lavender, gotten old leaves out, planted some sunflowers, and put down some fresh bark, really fine stuff.  We have a circular driveway, and this area is between the driveway and sidewalk.  We have a 3 acre park across the street, where a bunch of wild turkeys live.  

The turkeys usually make their rounds each day around the neighborhood.  Today I found about 5 of them out there sitting in my bark, swishing their tails around like they were getting comfortable, leaving big mounds and indentations in the bark, plus finding a bunch of bark in the driveway.  I ran them off, but I am sure they will be back tomorrow!  

Well that is all for today.  I have had to put in comment moderation, as I found about 50 spam messages in various posts this morning, all from the same entity, Apna Showroom which is on Amazon.  It took me awhile this evening to delete them all.  They come across as a no-reply commenter.  They did all this in about 10 minutes this morning!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been really busy the past week on various projects, part of which I can't show because of two upcoming blog hops. 

The Color it Red Blog Hop starts next week and I did finish my project yesterday.   This is hosted by Carol @ Just Let Me Quilt.    I can't wait to show this one.  I spent the past couple of weeks hand-quilting the project.  It is small, about 15 inches square.





Yesterday I started my project for the Dust of a Quilt Book Blog Hop which is the first of March hosted by Bea @Beaquilter. 



My project comes from a book published in 1990.  I have dearly loved this quilt for years, and it is a theme both my husband and I love.  The trouble I ran into yesterday was that I needed to cut 12 backgrounds 4.5 x 8.5 inches, and I had a strip of fabric I thought I could get them all.  I don't know what my problem was, but I cut the first strip too narrow.  Then I only had one strip left, and I cut the 4.5 right, but cut the 8.5 too short.  So I ended  up with 4 pieces and am having to use something else too.  This quilt has a LOT of little pieces, plus a Y-seam.  It will be challenging.

Okay on to what I can show.  My niece sent pictures of the baby on the quilt I made, and Lucy carrying her little bag.

Yesterday afternoon after I messed up my cuts on my Dust Off a Book project, I decided to move on to something else.  Grandson Jaeger brought over his Letterman jacket for me to add/fix some patches.  He just received it several days before.  My daughter sort of knows how to sew, but it is not her thing.  She tried to attach the patches by  hand, and the sleeves are leather so it was hard. 

Apparently Jaeger didn't tell her, like he told  me that the lining could be unzipped.  Or she didn't realize you could pull it away from the sleeves too.  It was a big mess.  I took all this out, pulled the lining off the sleeves, and attached all the patches.  Part of the big ones had been attached by the jacket company.

Now something I can show.  My One Monthly Goal for February is to put 15 swap blocks from long ago with others, make a quilt I am going to make into a slipcover for the chaise part of my couch.  

I did get the quilt part done.   I have one on my poorly lit design floor, and Jaeger kindly held it up across the street at the park.

Now I just need to quilt it, and assemble it into a  cushion cover.  I measured it and it is going to fit.  

That's it for now.  Let's see if I can cut accurately today!

Thanks for stopping by!