Category: UFO

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Some X & + Progress and Some Home Grown Stuff

It was good to have a weekend and I did enjoy it. Sheep herding with Rico Saturday morning. A wonderful lunch with friends in the afternoon. And a Sunday full of pickleball. But back to work today. Then another long weekend coming up since my workplace celebrates Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. You can read about Juneteenth here.

I didn’t get any sewing at all done on the weekend. And I’m ok with that. But I did hit my sewing room after our evening walk tonight and got a little bit done. I trimmed and sewed one more row of the X & + blocks and then sewed the two completed rows together.

It’s really fun to see all the Xs come together in the corners and see the secondary patterns emerge. I’m so glad I decided to deal with a little wonkiness in these blocks and not add sashing.

I love this more each time I look at it. The color combos are not something you see every day. And those little green triangles are magnificent! And the turquoise dots make me smile.

Look at this!

Despite being careful in pinning my blocks together, I seem to be destined to have the first seam every night be a little off.

OMG! That really bothers me. But not enough to rip it out and do it over again.

With the subsequent blocks I was more careful in pinning the seams and got a better result although not perfect. Oh well. Better luck next time.

One of the best parts of my weekend was my first strawberry harvest for the season. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this many strawberries in one picking.

And they were sooooo good! I just wish I could get better production. It would be great to get enough for my breakfast a couple days a week. But I don’t come anywhere near that.

I also noticed yesterday that I actually have some tomatoes on my plants. This seems a little earlier than normal. Maybe I’ll have ripe tomatoes in early July. That would be so wonderful!

And for my lunch today I picked a gorgeous bunch of lettuce. I ate it in a sandwich with some sharp cheddar cheese on good wheat toast. It was wonderful!

It’s so cool to go out into the yard and pick food! But I’d hate to have to survive on my meagre harvests!

On our walk tonight I was reminded of Wanda at the Exuberant Color blog and her post a few weeks ago about the golden hour.

The low evening sun was shining through the tall Douglas fir trees and lighting this little red tree on fire.

And this next photo doesn’t do this scene justice…. but I was walking on the shaded trail that we walk every day and it was like a tunnel… and to the west where it opened onto a round-about was bright sunlight.

I count myself fortunate every day that this lovely trail is so close to my house. It’s wonderful to have an easy opportunity to feel like I’m away from population.

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A Good Weekend with No Sewing, But Some Noodling

I think I felt such a sense of accomplishment by getting that Wensleydale quilt top finished that I deserved a break from sewing this weekend. So I got nearly nothing done in my sewing room since Friday.

Nearly nothing. I did stand in my sewing room and look at that Japanese X & + quilt a few times and noodle over the arrangement of the blocks, moving squares around to separate places where one fabric showed up a lot in different blocks, balance the darks and lights, and make sure my favorite blocks had prominent placement.

Here’s where I’ve landed as of tonight.

This is feeling pretty good to me, but I see at least one thing I want to fix.

My brain wants to make every other block brown, with the alternating blocks yellow. But I have more brown blocks that yellow blocks. So that just won’t work unless I make more blocks and that’s just not going to happen.

It looks pretty balanced in this black and white photo.

The bottom doesn’t look as dark in person. It’s all how the light hits it. But I am going to have to look at that lower left corner next time I’m in that rom.

I wish I had taken a photo, but I looked at this when I got up this morning and opened the blinds and saw it with the bright morning sun coming through the window. It looked so bright and cheery and makes me really want to see this done and on the bed.

Yesterday was pretty much a wash. I took Rico for his sheep herding lesson and we did some driving work in a smaller field. He was a good boy and his brain was tired by the time our lesson ended.

On the way home we stopped at the field with the creek so the boys could get a good run. I only walked about a mile but they must have run six or seven! They love running through the trees and bushes to get to the creek. Then they come tearing out all wet.

I love to play a hide and seek game with them when they tear into the bushes to get to the creek. I’ll hide and let them find me.

They usually find me pretty quickly! Rico is a little better at following his nose.

They do love a chance to run and having access to the creek is even better.

It was a gorgeous day and wasn’t too hot. But when they’re running they get heated up.

That walk in that field took me back to my childhood. There were wild roses all over the place. The air was full of their scent.

The hot air, the bugs buzzing, and the scent of wild roses reminds me of summers at my grandfather’s home in Hudson, Wyoming, when I was a kid. It brought back all kinds of memories.

Here’s my boys posing in front of some of the roses.

Other than taking the boys for a walk later in the evening yesterday, I really can’t remember what else I did. I think I probably wasted a lot of time.

Today I slept in a little and then went and played pickleball for 3.5 hours! I had so much fun! I went to a different place and there were more courts so that I got to play more ad didn’t have to wait my turn as much. I may go back to this place on Sundays. I’m pretty wiped out tonight, but I did manage to take my boys for a three mile walk after dinner.

It was a gorgeous evening. Our weather has been pretty perfect the last few days. With the exception of Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with temps at or near 90, the next ten days look amazing!

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About Time for This UFO

I’m glad today is Friday. I’m glad I have a four day weekend coming up. I’m glad the weather is lovely. I wish my knee didn’t hurt. So do my boys. Another day with no walk to let it recover a little.

I had a wonderful lunch with a former co-worker today. We talked for three hours! It was really fun to catch up. I had a couple quick meetings when I got back, then chunked through some email, then I was done for the day and the weekend.

After dinner tonight I had a nice phone conversation with a friend as I sat on the patio on a gorgeous evening. Then I decided to dig into the closet in my sewing room and pull out a quilt that’s been sitting unfinished for way too long. It’s a Japanese X and + quilt that I’m making for my guest room. I’m pretty sure I started this at least five years ago and I’m pretty sure I haven’t touched it during the pandemic.

This is made from all Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabrics. I was thinking I still needed to make four or five blocks, but in counting the blocks I found that I have 42 done. The blocks will finish at around 12.5 inches. I think that’s going to be plenty big for the double bed in my guest room. I was planning on adding substantial borders to get it up to size. I have lots of fabric for borders, backing and eventually pillow cases.

So now I’m motivated to finish sewing the Wensleydale blocks together so I can get that off my design wall and get this one up and decide if I have enough blocks.

Here’s the pattern I’ve used for the Japanese X & + quilt.

I did manage to sew two rows of the Wensleydale top together tonight. Since there’s only six blocks in each row It will go pretty quickly.

I’m taking the time to pin carefully so my points line up nicely from block to block. I don’t want to do all that work and have this last step look messy.

It’s worth the time.

I also decided to press the seams between blocks open because there’s bit of bulk where the points come together. I do not enjoy pressing seams open.

I stopped at two rows sewn together and decided to sit down and do some hand sewing on the binding for my NY Beauty wall hanging while I watched some TV and wound down for the evening.

I actually sat down first and watched a couple videos on how to hand sew bindings and they were really helpful. I got nearly three sides of this little quilt done and it was easy and pretty quick.

Of course, the KFC fabrics are really silky and soft so the needle goes through them nicely.

I’m supposed to go play pickleball tomorrow morning but I’ll play it by ear and see how my knee feels.

Sunday I’m heading up to Olympia, WA, for a sheep herding trial with Rico. The start time is 7:00 am, which means I’m going to have to be on the road at 4:30 am!!! I can’t believe I just typed that!

One of my boys is very farty tonight. I’m not sure which one but there’s a definite prolonged pungent pong around here.

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Wrapping Up Another UFO

I met a consultant I know through work for lunch today at a restaurant we love in Lake Oswego, OR, for some yummy tacos, chips and guacamole, and spicy Margaritas. We used to go to lunch at this restaurant every couple months before the pandemic hit. I saw her for the first time since the pandemic hit a few weeks ago when we had a lunch meeting with a vendor we both work with. It was so much fun to see her so we agreed to meet for lunch today. The food was so good. The margaritas were soooo delicious, and the company was wonderful.

After having a couple of cocktails with lunch, I wasn’t worth much the rest of the afternoon. So I spent a few hours catching up on emails and my to do list.

I’ve had a sore knee this week so decided to not walk today to give it a break. My boys don’t like this at all, but they got several play sessions in the back yard so that helped.

After feeding my boys dinner I hit my sewing room to make the binding for my NY Beauty wall hanging. You know how much I like making bindings!

It didn’t take very long because the quilt is only about 36 inches square. So before long I was wrestling it all through my machine.

Sewing this binding to this small quilt makes me really glad that I don’t have to sew binding to a big quilt!

Once I got it sewn on I had to find a video to remind myself how to join the two ends of the binding together. I do it so rarely that I always forget how to do it.

It’s really simple to do. I once purchased a special ruler to join bindings and this method is so much easier!

Once I got it joined I pressed and sewed that final section.

Then I pressed the binding and got it all clipped in place. I’ll hand sew it later.

I really like that pop of orange for the binding. It’s such a wonderful color with the blue border. It’s also in the quilt.

I’m not putting a sleeve or other hanging devices in this piece. I’m going to hang a small curtain rod on the wall above my sewing machine and will hang this using curtain rings with clips. That will make it easy to switch out different pieces when I need a change.

I didn’t walk today but noticed some lovelies on our walk last night.

More and more roses are blooming.

The peonies are starting to open up. Look at this gorgeous monster!!! It must have been more than six inches across!

I think this might be some kind of Lupine.

And the threes are showing all kinds of new growth…. so soft and so green.

I’m meeting a former coworker for lunch tomorrow. He retired at the end of last summer and I haven’t seen him since. I’m looking forward to it. But there will be no Margaritas tomorrow!

I have Monday off for the Memorial Day holiday, then I’m taking Tuesday off. Some friends and I are planning a get together here at my place on Monday.

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Wensleydale on the Design Wall and a Corgi Puppy

After dinner tonight I walked to a friend’s house to see their new corgi puppy and to take her a toy I whipped up for her.

Meet Bella. She’s just 11 weeks old.

It seems like it’s been a long time since I got to hang out with a little puppy. And I have to say, there is no puppy cuter than a corgi puppy!

She really liked the toy I made her!

And of course, I had to take a little video.

GAH! So cute! It’s nice to get a puppy fix.

After our evening walk I hit my sewing room and stacked all my value sorted Wensleydale blocks in preparation of getting them up on the design wall.

I like sorting by value or color, combining into a stack as it makes getting blocks arranged on the design wall easier. I feel like this first attempt is pretty good.

It always helps to make the photo black and white to just look at value.

I can see a couple areas here that I’ll want to adjust. But I’m really glad I made the last ten blocks really light and really dark. This quilt top needed those stark blocks.

Here’s an area that feels flat and too gray.

The entire column on the left side feels very gray and flat to me as well. It’s entirely possible that it’s just the lighting and photo. It very well may look completely different in real life. But this shows me areas to take a good look at.

I’ll leave these blocks on the design wall for a few days while I noodle over it and make some changes. But I’m not going to agonize over it. I feel pretty happy with this as it is.

And you shouldn’t be surprised that I put block #59 in the center of the quilt!

It’s likely I’ll have this sewn together this weekend. I’d like to check this off my list.

I think my next project will be a quick and easy one. I want to get the binding on this lovely that will hang above my sewing table.

That’s an easy evening’s project and it will feel good to finally finish this. I think I started this at least six years ago!

I’ve been thinking a lot today about this Magnificent Beast, Forrest. He was born 20 years ago today.

Most people I know have that one dog that was THE dog of a lifetime and mine was Forrest. He’s been gone for 5.5 years now and I smile about him often. It’s Forrest’s paw print that I had tattooed on my left arm a year ago.

One of my favorite photos of Forrest…

This photo was taken by my friend Heather during a hike in May. It was rainy and cool and I was going to leave Forrest at home because he was 14 at the time. He would have none of it… he wouldn’t let me leave the house without him. So I grabbed his little coat and took him along… knowing that I’d have to carry him for a god portion of the hike. I’m so glad I took him along. He had such a wonderful time… and so did I.

Forrest on the far left with Bender next to him. Rico is on the far right. He was only about six months old in this photo. His left ear hadn’t yet decided to stand at attention!

After the recent heat we’ve had, I had to break down and turn on my furnace this morning! I’m glad the heat is gone, but I’m not feeling positive that we’re going to have any delicious Oregon strawberries this spring.

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Chunking Away at UFOs

I had two long Zoom calls on the schedule today that involved a lot of listening and not much talking, so I planned ahead and made sure I had some sewing work ready to go to keep my hands busy while my brain was occupied.

So I pulled out my scrappy batik sixteen patch blocks and got all ten rows pinned together.

It’s funny to me, but I find pinning these blocks sort of meditative. And there’s something very satisfying about feeling those nested seams “click” together! I love it!

After our walk tonight I ran to the grocery store and did my month’s staple shopping. I like to go this time of night because there are so few people in the store. And now I’m set for a while.

When I got home I hit the sewing room and sewed together all those ten rows that I pinned earlier today.

They’re all numbered, stacked up and accordion folded. I’ll save pinning the rows together for my next long Zoom call. I have a few webinars coming up later this week.

Here’s all these batik blocks on the design wall back in January.

It was another nice day today but we didn’t have a ton of sun. “Fake Spring” is almost over. We have a couple more days of nice weather and then we’ll go back to rain for as far out as the forecast goes. The gorgeous weather we’ve had the last few days really has me hankering for real spring!

This time of year can be so beautiful in Portland. My flowering plum is blooming, as are my flowering pear trees. The bright yellow blooms on my forsythia are just opening and will be in their full glory in a few days. The first of my daffodils opened today.

Here’s my boys on our afternoon walk today… posing in front of someone else’s daffodils.

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And Just Like That, the Weekend is Over

It’s Sunday night at 10 o’clock and I’m wondering where the day went. Since I was up for herding lessons yesterday, I had a bit of a sleep in today. Then it rained for a good part of the day so I dug in and did some sewing.

I was itching to make two more Ruffled Feathers blocks because I wanted to see four of them together.

I’ve decided to call this my “Secret Purple” quilt. Before I started sewing these blocks I really thought that this would read as a green quilt. But to me, it’s purple! And I love it!

These blocks are really big. I think they finish at around 16 inches and I’ll need 20 blocks for this quilt. So I’m already 1/5 of the way done!

When I finished these blocks the rain had eased up a little so we headed out for a nice walk. I had planned to walk three miles, and then walk two more around 8 pm. It was really nice out so we kept on walking and ventured into a neighborhood where we don’t typically walk. It ended up being a five mile walk and we got pretty wet at one point.

Not really sure what this sign means. Apparently we weren’t welcome at this particular home.

After dinner I hit the sewing room again and sewed up the final four strip sets for my Ice Storm quilt and got the pieces cut for the final eight blocks.

I’ll try to get these final blocks sewn tomorrow night.