Teal and Black Quilt done; Outside work is moving along

All projects seem to be moving forward around here.

First is the Teal and Black Quilt. I really like this and at the moment, it resides in my living room so I can look at it. Will it end up as a donation quilt? I haven't decided yet.

I saw this on Facebook one day and knew I had to make it. I found the pattern at Quilting is more fun than Housework. I used leftover squares of blacks and brights. The teal blue fabric was in my stash and really pops with the black. 

The quilt is 48 1/2" by 64 1/2". I used Dream Cotton for the batting and Aurifil thread for the piecing and quilting. The quilting is squares echoing the parts of the large square blocks. 

The back is black with a small white dot. I added the leftover teal blue to add a little interest.

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Our concrete guy, Alan, worked so hard to get our project finished. The concrete is done! Alan was constantly working around rain storms. Once he dug up swampy dirt and replaced it with dry stuff. More than once, he replaced very wet gravel with dry gravel. He hand troweled every inch of our new concrete and there was a lot. 

front view

We have had inches of rain since the concrete was put down by the house (way at the back in the above photo) and we haven't had any water in our basement. Before, when we had a lot of rain, we always got tiny rivers in the basement of our 100 year old house. I've wondered many times if the concrete near the house was causing water to run into the foundation. Now we know it was and we know it's been fixed - YAY!

Back of house view

The drain in the garage (middle of the standing water in the photo) gets uncovered tomorrow. 

We are now in the concrete curing mode meaning we wait. In 2 - 3 weeks when heavy vehicles can safely drive on the concrete, the work on the garage will begin. Until then, Ray will spend lots of time in the yard trying to figure out how he wants to redo the gardens and the parts of the lawn that have been destroyed. 

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Ray signed up for a photography workshop in Kansas City in another week or so. I thought it sounded wonderful because we could stop at Missouri Star Quilt Company on our way home. Well, the workshop was cancelled. We were able to cancel our Airbnb rental near Kansas City but we weren't that lucky with the VRBO rental near Hamilton, MO. So instead of forfeiting our fee, we're going to go to Hamilton and shop at MSQC. I think we really did get lucky with the VRBO rental's refund policy!

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I noticed this today. 

Ray was photographing flowers (lilacs) last night while I was gone. Guess he needed a black background. The black fabric is from my stash - he just finds whatever he needs. Most of the time I don't even know he's used something because he puts it back before I miss it.

I think I'd better work on my list for Missouri Star...

Hope you all enjoy the weekend. 

Happy Mother's Day

Small Quilt, Featherweight Bag, Rain Delay

This small donation quilt is 30" by 42". The fabric for this quilt was gifted to me as part of my friend Nancy's stash. The top is a small panel made of soft flannel.

The middle of the panel has butterflies and fireflies so I free-motion quilted a stipple with butterflies and fireflies - a first for me.  I quilted straight lines in the borders.

The animals around the edge of the panel match the animals on the back - they are obviously the same fabric line. The back is also flannel.

The binding is a green cotton from my stash. I used Dream Cotton batting and a turquoise Aurifil thread to quilt this.

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I decided to make a bag for my Featherweight sewing machine. I've been told that one should not carry the case around as the handle may break. So I bought a pattern and some gorgeous fabric. The outside of the bag is a Kaffe Fassett fabric which I love. 

The inside of the bag and the trim are bright coral. The two pieces were quilted before I cut out the bag. The pattern asked for high loft batting - I used two layers of Dream Poly. I free motioned a three petals with echoing motif.

The inside of the bag has pockets all around.

The outside of the bag has pockets on one side. I made the straps a little longer than the pattern said so I can carry it over my shoulder. 

The bag is done except for a piece of wood to put in the bottom - I'll get that one of these days. I'm happy with the finished bag but I'll NEVER used that pattern again. Sometimes it's a little hard to sew two quilted pieces together but the pattern had seams sewing 5 quilted pieces together. And when sewing one seam I had to sew across 7 layers! I tried various machines - none wanted to sew that many thicknesses but I did finally get the job done. I made a few changes to the pattern: the length of the straps, the trim on the pockets, and a case to hold the piece of wood. I wish I had realized the thickness problems before I made the bag; I would have redesigned the bag.

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The rain delay on our garage seems to be over! We lost well over a week but now things are moving forward again. The concrete for the garage pad was poured this morning. The apron and walkways are next followed by the driveway. The building of the garage will begin as soon as the concrete cures.  I think this project is going to be more involved that we originally thought - we will have a LOT of landscaping to do when the garage is finished...

Fish Sticks, A Sweater, and A Mess!

Fish Sticks is a fun, small, donation quilt. 

The fish fabric was gifted to me as part of my friend Nancy's stash. I loved the colors so I pulled fabric from my scrap stash and made this little quilt that is about 42" square.

I used Dream Cotton Batting and orange Aurifil thread for the piecing and the quilting. The back is orange with yellow dots.

I think you can see the quilting - gentle waves crossing the quilt. I used my quilting rulers to quilt this. The binding had all the colors of the quilt - it also is from my stash.

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I finally finished the sweater that I began in January. I used Ann Budd's book, Top Down Sweaters, and made a generic raglan sleeve sweater. 

I used gray Coffee Beenz yarn by Plymouth. I think I figured out some things that should help me with my next sweater.

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We Have a MESS here! We are building a new garage or more accurately: we are having a new garage built. The driveway is being replaced too. We spent a few days emptying the garage and shed. Our screened porch is FULL of stuff. The workers began Saturday - 3 days ago. The old garage is down and gone. The driveway has also been torn up and hauled away. A couple of trees have been removed 😔. The shed will leave within the hour.  A few truckloads of gravel have just arrived and are in the driveway. If the rain will hold off, we might get forms up for the concrete tomorrow. 

Some of the driveway rubble:

The driveway before gravel:

We've had lots of BIG trucks and equipment it's very exciting and VERY dirty and dusty. We've also had LOTS to traffic on our quiet, little street - people are checking it out. I'm glad that we now have gravel - it should help with the dirt. 

On Sunday, we dug up and gave away all of the day lily plants that were along the driveway; we'll be able to enjoy them in neighbors'  yards now. Ray is concerned about our lawn and garden next to the drive. I guess we'll take care of that when this MESS is gone.

New Appliances and Socks!

Our new stove and microwave finally arrived today. We bought them a month ago and had to wait until late last week to get the gas line run to the kitchen. 

This is a picture of the north wall of our kitchen this morning, aka BEFORE.

And this is a picture taken this afternoon, aka AFTER.

I'm excited to have a gas stove - I haven't had one since 1978. I feel like Santa's been here - or maybe it was the Easter Bunny!

For the time being, the other appliances in the kitchen do not match the new ones but the appliances on each wall do match! When the refrigerator and dishwasher need to be replaced, they will be.

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I have a knitting finish! I made these socks with Zauberball sock yarn using the pattern 8 Stitches per Inch Socks by Ann Budd. 

The socks are knit with size 1 needles.

I do love wearing hand knit socks although I'm looking forward to warmer weather and not wearing socks.

My first Kaffe Fassett quilt is done

That's right, my first Kaffe Fassett quilt is done - I'm sure there will be more! I began this one last fall prior to my clean-out-this-stash project. The top was pieced but needed quilting when I put it aside for a while.

You may remember it from a July, 2016 retreat. It needed borders.

I put on the borders in August.

Then I finally began quilting it at the end of March. Now it is finished! The quilt is 73" square. All fabric except the white and the  'plain' blue are Kaffe Fassett fabrics - all purchased on trips with some being from the Oregon coast and the rest being from Maine. The 'plain' blue fabric - centers of small motifs, square corners of larger motifs, and the binding - is from Delve in Cedar Rapids.

I'm not sure if you can see the quilting. It is all feathers in no real pattern. There are a few pebbles filling in various spots.

For the piecing and the quilting, I used Aurifil thread. Of course I used Dream Cotton batting. The back is another Kaffe Fassett fabric - orange with purple polka dots. This piece came from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

We are keeping this quilt - I love the color and it is my first Kaffe Fassett!

As I was outside in 60+ degree weather this afternoon taking photos, I decided to include a picture of part of our garden by our drive looking towards the neighbor's yard. 

Spring really has arrived! Happy Easter!

Something New on a Beautiful Day

The sun shone today! That is unusual around here lately. It was a great day to do something new so we went to Nicholas Conservatory and Gardens. Ray wanted to take pictures of the butterflies. They have a Simply Spring Butterfly Exhibit right now.

It was a fun day. Here are a few of my pictures from the day:

Some of the many butterflies

Beautiful flowers and colorful 'totem' poles

Gorgeous orchids

Kids loved the water features

Nothing is blooming outside yet but we were walking in the  gardens when Ray just started laughing.  He saw this sculpture...

so I asked him to pose with the resident photographer.

Was Ray their model???

A couple more photos from outside:

We talked with a lady working at the Conservatory and she suggested the Prairie Street Brewhouse or Octane for lunch. We headed to the Brewhouse, another new place for us. We enjoyed a great meal, some of their fantastic root beer, and a tour of the place - it is pretty phenomenal. Next time we'll have to check out Octane.

Then it was time to head towards home. We will definitely be returning to Nicholas Conservatory and Gardens when the flowers start blooming. 

Annual Spring Retreat

The Lucky Charmers once again met at the LOMC in Oregon, Illinois for a few days of fun and quilting. We decided that this is year 7. I missed the first year because I was having back surgery. 

It is so nice to spend quality time with dear friends, many of whom I don't see often. We were missing two of our group this year - both were traveling home from points afar.  

The staff at LOMC fix all of our meals and clean up afterwards. We can sew as much or as little as we want and we enjoy rooms with private bathrooms in a beautiful setting. Saturday was beautiful - a few of us spent a little time outside walking.

As usual there were lots of projects, food, and visiting. I took a few pictures.

Betsy's table runner really looks like spring.

Polly spent some time working on her 365 Challenge blocks. Here are two finishes.

Barb's beautiful quilt:

Krista made the same quilt but in different fabrics.

Polly was working on one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt patterns - it has lots of pieces.

Betsy was working on this colorful quilt - it just looked like Spring.

Krista made a very cute table runner.

Sandy made this gorgeous flannel quilt.

Saundra was working on this striking Jacob's Ladder quilt.

I worked on blocks for my teal and black quilt until I ran out of small squares.

Then I put together Fish Sticks.

I already had the blocks made so putting together Tamarack went fairly quickly. I think it needs something more so I'll be adding another border.

I also had the HSTs made for Emerald Isle. I decided to try color bands and I'm pleased with the outcome. Now I need to figure out borders...

I also made great progress with my leader/ender projects. We all enjoyed a very productive few days.