The middle of August....

 Still working on outside stuff and sewing.

These fabrics were in a tub together. Never had a plan. Yesterday Karen told me about a pattern from cluck cluck sew. Fat quarter shuffle. I cut all the strips I would need and started sewing blocks.

Hmmmm. Not very impressed. 

I did all of the blocks of this type and started to like it better. 

Today I will sew the other set of blocks and see what I get. 

The hydrant before the new pavers.

The hydrant with the new frame put around it. We were able to just pick it up and move it to where we wanted it. 

The pavers in place. I put locking sand between them the next day. Went with rocks around all the pipe things sticking up. No need to go shopping, all this stuff was piled up in different places here.

The pickets are up. They haven’t seen the light of day in years and years. First in Aunt Meta’s garage and then in a shed here. My mom remembers them from when she was a little girl in the 1940’s. She wasn’t sure when they came out. 

Maddie and Kyle were married on Saturday. We were the only aunt and uncle going to the reception. So before the aunts headed back to Minnesota we stood around and had a visit with them. 

The newlyweds leaving the church. 

We put up a bunch of corn. Mostly freezing it. I’m told that there is a shortage of lids! You can’t find them anywhere around here. I’ve got a small supply of wide mouth, so that’s what I used. We had one last night. Tastes like a can of corn from the grocery store. Nothing spectacular, just the satisfaction of knowing we had put it up ourselves. 

Okay. Back to sewing. 

July stuff...

Gwen mailed her blocks to me. Max finished hers, but we haven’t gotten together yet to switch. Soon we hope. Very soon. 

This was a glass top table. I didn’t really like it. Went to the wood shed and pulled out some of the old wood there. Tractor joe did a fantastic job of putting it together and attaching it. 

Years and years ago I said “sure, I’ll take some pickets” that were in my great aunts garage. 

They received a good cleaning and scraping. Eventually they will get put up in the new location. 

Alley (Zander and Luke’s mom) fell in love with our new table top. They also had a glass top patio table. 

She didn’t like hers either.

The next day we were out getting wood to make over her table. 

I made some log cabin blocks and don’t really love them. So they are just a stack for now. 

Still using the small scraps up. I’m loving these. Still have a ways to go until it is baby quilt size. 

I’ve had this bundle of fat 8ths. I came close to opening it. But then I looked at my log cabin blocks, the pile of them continues to grow. The bundle was put back. They will be my reward for actually finishing something. 

Long Time Gone is a top. It’s ready to go to the quilter. 

Wow. I had more than I thought to post about!

the pedal tractor

This pedal tractor is about 30 years old. We aren’t sure when we bought it, we only know the boys were little at the time. The steering wheel wasn’t working. The back tires were cracked and the chain was a frozen mess. With grandsons around now, it seemed like a good time to fix it up. 

A fresh coat of paint! It’s was already looking better...

New...

back wheels 

hubcaps 

bolt to hold seat on

chain and guard 

pin to hold on the steering wheel

decals 

The decals are my favorite part. Luke came over to try it. His legs are still too short. He sat on, we pushed it around some too. In the end he climbed on to the plastic airplane and pushed himself around on that. Zander is at his dad’s this week. So, this weekend he will get to try it out. 

Baby quilt blocks from the temperature quilt leftovers. Next time I blog, I hope it’s about Long Time Gone as a top. I’m sewing the sections together now. 

barns and the temperature quilt...

When I finished all the months and laid them out, I decided just to sew them together. It is ready for a trip to the quilter. There is left over cut pieces. They might become a baby quilt. 

Now the barns....

My three barns

Max has two done! 

Gwen has two done!

Things are moving right along. 

May is moving right along...

Finished quilt pictures!

I didn’t count the blocks correctly when I laid these out on the floor. I thought I had enough for 8 by 8 house blocks. But when I started sewing the rows I discovered only 7 rows. To make the quilt longer I used progressively wider sashing between the rows. That worked and quilt has been delivered. 

Bonus triangles put together for table topper. 

Moonstruck. My nephew who grew up raising cattle will be getting married in August. They haven’t changed any plans yet. Wait and see.

This is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern. Bricks and Stepping Stones. It is this size because that is how many black and white checks I could make with my left over Moonstruck fabric. 

New project...

I have two quilting cousins. Gwen in New Mexico and Max in Minnesota. We are making a cousins quilt. We picked a barn from Farm Girl Vintage. 

We picked colors for the barn several weeks ago. Each of us will make three blocks using  our colors and any 6 inch block to fill it. My barn colors are brown, green, and pink. 

I picked the flower block for my cone flowers, the John Deere for our mowers, and the birds for the crows I need to chase away from the garbage bag when we put it out. Today is garbage day so I will be on crow patrol. My blocks came from the Farm Girl Vintage 2 book.

The bowl and spoon are Gwen’s. She makes a lot of bread. Max hasn’t had a chance to start any blocks yet. 

This will be the third summer working on Long Time Gone. It’s time to get it done. After breakfast I will look at the book and put some more pieces together. 

Or go pick rhubarb and make something. 

It is still April......

Why has April seemed so long? I’ve been putting off blogging because there was always something to do instead. Except today I planned on doing some binding. So blogging is better than binding, I guess. 

I made these yesterday. I had a choice, try out some new to me blocks or bind. These won out. In my defense, I was able to reorganize a pile of scraps. Things ended up in three boxes. Chunky scraps, skinny strips and fatter strips. 

I started with 1 3/4 cut squares with all these. Adding two more 1 3/4 strips and three 1 1/4 strips OR two each of the 1 3/4 and 1 1/4 strips and two 1 1/2 strips. There was a method to the madness, while achieving a variety of looks. They will finish at 6 inch blocks. 

I babysit about 3 days a week. Right after they called off the schools, the daycare closed. That keeps me busy. 

For the record.... I did not put Zander in the dog kennel. He did this himself. He thought it was great fun. 

I’ve been doing jigsaw puzzles too. I bought a bunch in January, at first I thought I might have over done it, but it turned out to be a smart buy.

It started with this....

I love all of them. There were more, but you get the idea. 

Moonstruck is quilted and ready for binding. We went up to Minnesota to pick it up. I prepaid for it. So when we got there I had to call and tell them I was there. Without getting near each other, they came out with this quilt, and grabbed two more that were ready for quilting. Then off she went back inside. We packed a lunch that day. We didn’t even do any drive-thru eating. We also stopped at my cousin so we could trade puzzles. 

The mini houses were put together and quilted. Ready for binding. 

This is ready for binding...

All of them will get the same black and white stripe binding. The fabric is sitting right there. I have no reason NOT to start. 

It’s way too cold and windy to mow, or transplant some things, or clean some old pickets for a fence.

So it’s best to stay inside and work on the dreaded binding. 

Heavy sigh.

One more thing. This is June July and August. Only four more months and 2019 temperature quilt with be done!

Well at least the months will be done. It isn’t clear to me how I will actually turn it into a top. I can think about that later.