agilejack

After some gorgeous, sunny and warm spring days, we’ve had rain the last couple of days. But after all that sun the trees in my neighborhood are exploding with blooms. My flowering pear trees and forsythia are gorgeous right now.

The air is filled with the lovely aroma of blooms.

The ornamental cherry trees around the neighborhood are in full bloom and are so incredibly gorgeous. They are the palest color of pink.

This small cherry tree might be new this year.

The blooms are so pretty.

I’m also starting to see the first tulip blooms!

And this is just the start! I just love this time of year in Portland. With all the water we get throughout the winter, when it warms up in the spring the blooms are so spectacular.

I’ve puttered a little this week in my sewing room but haven’t accomplished much until this evening. After our early evening walk followed by dinner, I hit my sewing room to finish up the 12 low volume nine patches I needed to wrap up this green quilt. I had already cut the strip sets into sections and matched up the sets of three sections for each block the other night.

It didn’t take long to get them all sewn and pressed.

Then I tossed them up on the design wall, moved a few things around, and decided that this might be the final design.

I wanted to add the little squares at the intersection of each row that will allow me to trim this up once it’s sewn together.

So rather than cutting more squares, I picked out the seams of some left over sets.

I soon had a little pile of squares and tossed them up on the design wall.

I’m thinking I can get this all sewn together tomorrow, then maybe add the borders on Sunday. We don’t have a sheep herding lesson tomorrow because it’s lambing season. I am playing pickleball in the morning, but then I’m free the rest of the day so can dedicate some time to this.

I played a LOT of pickleball this week. I played where I have my new membership on Tuesday morning and had a blast. Then I played outdoors with my club on Wednesday evening and had some really fun and competitive games. Typically, games go to 11 and you have to win by two points. We had one game that ended at 18 to 11. I was on the winning team!!!

Then I played again yesterday morning with my membership. There are four lovely indoor courts and we usually have a full house. But there were only four of us yesterday and I had a blast! We played for a solid two hours, just me and three guys. It was fun to get more accustomed to the playing styles, abilities, and weaknesses of each player and be able to take advantage! Most of the games were close and really fun. And I was exhausted by the end of it and really needed today to recover! It was so much fun that I just can’t stop thinking about it! This is so true!

Today I received some fabric I ordered last weekend. One is for the border for my current green quilt.

I’m thinking I might use that black and white stripe with my left over Brandon Mably fabrics. This will likely be my next project.

The idea is still formulating in my brain, but I’m close to knowing where I might go with this.

It’s getting warm enough that my dogs feel the need for water part way through our walks. There is a nice little park on the trail that we often walk that has a doggie drinking fountain. Bender was so disappointed yesterday that they haven’t turned the water on yet!

We had light rain most of the day today. But after work it stopped raining and we got to enjoy the sunset and some time outside together.

I’m so happy to see the weekend. Next week will be a short work week because I’ll be helping with lambing on Thursday and Friday! I can’t wait to get my hands on some lambs!

Yesterday was a full day. After breakfast a colleague from work came over with her lab-border collie cross puppy for a play date with my boys. They had a great time.

My next task for the day was to head out to my favorite local quilt store to drop off my quilts to get the bindings done and I wanted to buy some fabric…. the Climbing Geraniums fabric I need for the border for the green quilt I’m making and I wanted to pick up some of the new collection of Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabric.

I picked out some of my favorites. I bought a half yard of each one except for he green in the upper right. I bought one yard of that because I love it so much.

With the exception of the two rainbow fabrics, those are all part of the most recent KFC collection. And I love them!

Here’s all the step towers prints, designed by Kaffe Fassett.

I really love that design. And I REALLY love that design in the green! It’s so good!

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the border fabric I need. They have that design in several different color ways, but not the one I need. So I ordered some online yesterday, plus one other piece of fabric that I’ve wanted.

After that visit I played pickleball for two hours. then I hightailed it home so I could make it to my friend’s place for a St. Paddy’s day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. I took my boys with me so they could have a play day with Bella the Corgi.

These are the friends I stayed with during my power outage in January. I told them that came for dinner I felt like I was moving in for four days!

It was a great dinner and it was fun to catch up with my friends. The boys were happy and worn out.

I did hit my sewing room tonight to do a quick assessment of how many more blocks I need for my green quilt. And I decided that the basic size I have on my design wall will be it. Once it’s all put together and the borders are put on, it will be a nice size throw quilt.

I did need to make two more green blocks tonight to have all I need.

Then I wanted to decide how many more of the low volume blocks I need, and it looks like a dozen is the magic number. So I cut more strips from my white with black fabrics, but them all paired up into trios, then sewed and pressed the strip sets needed for 12 blocks.

I’m playing pickleball at 8:00 in the morning so didn’t work too long in my sewing room. I should be able to finish up these nine patches tomorrow night. Most of the work is already done.

It was another glorious day in Portland today. Gorgeous spring sun. the air is filled with the aroma of all the trees in bloom. My daffodils have opened up and are in their glory!

I messaged my sheep herding teacher today to see if she’s had more lambs, and she said she’s up to fifteen or so! I can’t wait to get my hands on some lambs in a couple weeks!

I got up early this morning and was on the sunny and warm pickleball court at 8:30. It was so gorgeous! Everyone was so happy to be out! It was such a great way to start a beautiful Saturday.

I took the dogs with me to pickleball because when I was done we were on the road to Molalla for Rico’s weekly sheep herding lesson. It was so gorgeous and Rico was a good kid! And there was such a surprise! Fresh lambs. Less than a day old!

You know what that means! It’s almost time for me to spend a couple days with my herding instructor during lambing season! It’s just two weeks away and I’m so excited! This will be our third year hanging out with fresh lambs for a couple days in the beautiful Oregon spring time. Truly the best two days of my year!

When we got home I spent an hour on the sofa with ice in various places. I’ve played a good deal of pickleball this week and I’m trying to make the habit of icing after I play in order to stave off issues. I’ve been feeling a bit of a twinge in my shoulder and ice really helps. I felt great this afternoon following my icing session.

After dinner I hit my sewing room and wanted to finish up the green blocks for the remaining 12 centers I made a couple days ago. It took me about 90 minutes and I got them done and all squared up.

Then I tossed them up on my design wall. I’m getting really close to having all the blocks I need for this one.

I think I’ll need another full row of the green blocks to make this the height I want. it will be a throw size quilt. I’ll lose quilts a few inches in height when all the blocks are sewn together. I think I need seven more green blocks and around 20 additional low volume blocks. I’ll finish the green blocks first and get an accurate count for the low volume blocks once it’s all up on the design wall.

I auditioned a little strip of the black and white stripe with the border fabric and I really like it.

I think it’s a nice little detail. I’m pretty sure I have enough of that strip for the binding as well. since I have no plan for this quilt it may be some time before I get it quilted, so I’ll just fold up that striped fabric with the quilt top so I don’t use it on something else.

The last few days have certainly felt like spring. And the plants are responding. My daffodils have finally opened up. My forsythia is exploding with blooms. And my flowering plum tree is looking and smelling wonderful!

I love that my dogs so enjoy days like today that they are happy to hang out in the back yard all day long. . . just enjoying the lovely day.

This is the face of expectation that something fantastic might happen at any moment.

What a great way to go through life!

The evening sort of slipped away from me. I had thought I’d get a lot more of my green quarter log cabin bocks done but I only managed to finish up four of them before I felt tired.

So that means that I have 16 blocks completed. I really have no idea how many I’ll need of finish this quilt, but I’m guessing I’m somewhere around half way done, maybe a little less.

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to finish the edges of this quilt. I really don’t want to have a wide void of the low volume fabrics on the edge so I’ve decided that I’m not going to make setting triangles for this. Rather. I’m going to add small squares in the corners where setting triangles would go.

And then I’ll trim off the edge of the quilt along the diagonal of that small corner block. this tape measure is representing where the edge of this will be trimmed.

Then I’ll add a green border all the way around… maybe four inches or so. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be this lovely little number. And I’m pretty sure I saw a bolt of that fabric at my local quilt store.

That photo is much darker than this all is in reality. I like this fabric for the border because it’s got all the colors… dark, medium, and light green, with a little teal and lovely pops of orange and pink.

Here’s a bigger view of what that will look like.

That photo seems to be a little more true to color but is still a little dark.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll add a thin border of the black and white strip between the whites and the outer border. I’ll have to play around and see how that looks but it might be a really fun idea and will tie the blocks to the border. Just a touch… maybe a half inch of the stripe showing.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today. I had my annual furnace/ac maintenance check today and the dogs were relegated to the back yard for two hours while the technician was here. They were so happy out there that they stayed out there most of the day. So much glorious sunshine and lovely temps in the mid 60s. I’m pretty sure my grass grew an inch today!

My daffodils are finally opening up and the first blooms on my flowering pair trees (I have planted 11 in my back yard!) have just opened up.

My boys and I took a nice walk in short sleeves late this afternoon. There were so many people out walking and so many dogs. They also got several sessions of frisbee in the yard today. The more action they get, the more they want!

After dinner Rico was anticipating that action was imminent!

Rico RARELY gets up on the furniture. He was so intent on convincing me to go out and play that he had to get close to be the most effective in his plea!

I’m going to do all I can to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend. I’m heading out early tomorrow morning to play pickleball, then Rico’s sheep herding lesson. Sunday morning a colleague from work is bringing her puppy by for a play date with my boys. Then I’ll head off to deliver my quilts to the binding aficionado and will stop on the way back for a couple of hours of pickleball.

I’ll wrap up Sunday with a dinner of corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Paddy’s day with the friends who took me in during my power outage in January. My boys will get to come along and play with their corgi. I’ll be sure to get some photos of their shenanigans.

I got up early this morning and was on the pickleball courts with my new membership at 8 am. And I had a blast! Really fun and competitive play. I was well exercised by the time we finished at 10. I also played pickleball at the same place last night. The play was not quite as robust as this morning, but I had a good time and took the opportunity to practice some skills I don’t always get to use.

And it was a gorgeous day and my Boys, of course, demanded some action and attention. So they got several sessions of frisbee in the back yard sunshine and we took a lovely three mile walk in the late afternoon sunshine. I was in my shirt sleeves!

So with all of that in mind, I’m pretty worn out tonight.

I did want to work a little bit on my green blocks but didn’t think I would be able to stay with it for very long. So I decided to whack out a bunch of centers for my green blocks. I cut one strip of the Sand Dollars fabric, sub cut it into 2.5 inch squares and started adding the black and white accents. Chain piecing is my friend!

It may seem odd to have the strip on the top and the separate pieces on the bottom, but it works better for me. It’s easier to keep everything aligned. I just keep my little pile of centers to my left and slip them under the strip as I reach the end of the previous block. Then when I have a long strip done I snip them apart. I leave about 1/4 inch between the blocks so I have a little bit of room to trim accurately.

Then I cut them apart and press them carefully. I find that If my blocks are wonky it often happens with careless and aggressive pressing.

I managed to get 16 centers made so when I hit my sewing room tomorrow night I can just fly and maybe get these all completed.

You might remember that last fall I traded some quilt tops for long arm services with a friend of mine. I gave her six quilt tops to quilt for herself and she quilted six more for me. One of those quilts was gifted to my pickleball coach in December. My friend sewed on the bindings that I provided but I was left to finish the bindings. I hand stitched the binding on the quilt for my coach and my thumb is still bothering me. I have five more quilts that need the binding finished. I prefer a hand finished binding and do NOT enjoy machine-finishing bindings. I just don’t like the wear and tear on my hands. I need my hands for pickleball and sewing!

So when I was in a local quilt store when my friend was here last month I asked the woman working there if she knew anyone who could sew bindings for me and she said that SHE provides that service. So she called me a few days ago and I’m going to take my five unbound quilts to her at the quilt shop on Sunday.

You can see all these quilts here.

I don’t have any plans for these quilts, but since they’re mostly done, I might as well get them bound.

And what makes this especially fun? The shop where I’ll take my quilts has the new Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics in stock and I’m really excited to get my hands on some!

Today was the most amazing day! It really felt like spring has arrived in Portland. The glorious sun shined all day long and it got up to over 60 degrees! These boys definitely noticed how nice it was.

they were outside almost all day long as I worked.

My forsythia blooms have been trying to open up for over a week and they have finally decided it’s time!

Forsythias always remind me of my mom. Their blooms every year were a sign for her that spring had truly arrived. And now it’s the same for me.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this in its glory this year. Last year my yard guy cut it back in the fall so its bloom was a little underwhelming. I love to have it all sprangly and crazy when it blooms. Is “sprangly” a word? It’s definitely sprangly this year.

My first daffodil blooms have also opened up. It will be a few more days before they are in all their glory.

It’s so wonderful to have spring finally arrive. I know we’ll have more rainy and dreary weather before it’s all over, but the next week is going to be so glorious!

I wasn’t crazy about these blocks last night. So I gave it some thought today and came up with a couple ideas to fix them after I identified what I didn’t like. Here tonight’s version on the left and last nights on the right .

Here’s what I changed:

I used just the sand dollar fabric for the starting square. I think it’s cleaner and doesn’t compete with the stripes… it lets the stripes shine.

And speaking of stripes, I used the narrower stripe that I had purchased originally for this before I thought the broader stripe would be fun. I think the narrower stripe is soooo much better! It reads as a stripe where the broader stripe reads as squares.

Here’s a clear picture of the different stripes.

I also made the white chicken feet fabric a quarter inch wider so you see a little more of that white fabric. And the white is more prominent with that narrower stripe.

I made 12 blocks assembly line style tonight and I was a little surprised I got them all done. Of course, I didn’t stop sewing until around 11:30 pm.

I got twelve green blocks made, squared them up and tossed them up on the design wall with the white nine patches.

I have to say, I’m liking this a lot better! I think part of it is that the stripe, one fabric for the starting block and the wider strip of the chicken feet has made a big difference. These little changes have sharpened the design… made the design less muddy… it feels more focused and organized, while still having lovely variation from block to block, which I love!

I have put the four blocks I made last night aside and will use them in a bag some day. I will proceed with this new design and make more of these blocks.

I’m having a hard time getting a photo of these green blocks that shows them in their true colors. I’ll have to try to remember to get a photo tomorrow during the day and see if the natural light makes a difference.

Here’s some eye candy.

That photo looks a little more true in color but is still a little dark.

I love all the little pops of colors in with those greens!

And finally, today was a gorgeous day! The sun shined almost all day, except for a rainy period during my lunch break. But it came out at the end of the work day and I got my pathetic boys our for a nice 2.5 mile walk!

This was their first walk in a couple days. Once they saw me getting my shoes and coat on they sort of went a little nuts! There were so many people and dogs out walking! I think everyone has been feeling a little cooped up.

Work tomorrow and then pickleball with my new membership tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see how the play is in a different time slot.

I was scheduled to play pickleball tonight but after playing for almost five hours yesterday I decided to pull my name from the schedule. Yesterday’s play session was the BEST I’ve had in months! It was so much fun! The games were real battles and so much fun. I knew tonight couldn’t top that. Plus, I’m tired and I need some recovery time!

My coach was there and I haven’t seen him for at least a month. He just came back from out of town. He was very complimentary about my playing and told me that he thinks I’ve reached a higher rating level than I was aware of. So that was really good news. Let’s see if I can keep up that level of play!

It rained all day today. My poor dogs are so bored and need some action. The only thing that is keeping my head up is the forecast for this week.

It’s hard to believe this is actually true! I’m really looking forward to some sun and some outdoor time this weekend! I’m also looking forward to opening up all the doors and windows to let the fresh air in!

I had to make a trip to Costco tonight to pick up some of Bender’s anti-epilepsy medication and there’s so much construction around here it took a lot longer than I hoped.

I’m pretty sure I sat in that spot for a full six or seven minutes. Luckily I figured out a better way to get home so I didn’t have to wait again. (and yes… it’s time for an oil change.)

When I got home I hit my sewing room to whip up a few of my green blocks to get a feeling for how this new quilt will feel. The green blocks are basically a quarter log cabin block with a little twist. I saw a quilt on Pinterest years ago that sparked this idea. I never did find out who made it. That’s one of the problems with Pinterest.

The twist is that I’ve inserted a small strip of a bold black and white stripe with an accompanying mostly white fabric right next to it.

I love those little chicken feet! It’s a little bit of humor in these blocks!

That little bright green square in the lower right section of each of these blocks is a Brandon Mably design called Sand Dollar. It’s been out of print for some time but I have a few tiny pieces of it in my stash. I thought it would be fun to use a small piece as the starting piece for each of these blocks.

After the black and white rows, I continued on with varying strips of the green prints. And, of course, this happened.

I continued to add strips to these blocks until they measured a little more than 8 inches, then squared them up.

The color in the blocks above is much truer on my computer than the photos that follow.

And hmmm. that one in the lower right is so wonky! That’s why I love wonky quilts. Wonky is my super power!

And now it’s time to combine these blocks with the low volume black and white nine patches I made a few days ago.

My original idea was to set these blocks straight, alternating the green blocks with the white blocks.

I’m not loving these blocks set this way. I think they really need to be set on point.

It’s hard to get a real feeling for this with only four blocks. I think I’m going to like it but I’m not sure I’m going to love it.

I’m wishing I had planned a nine inch block instead of 8 inches. But since I made all those nine patches, I’m going with the original plan.

These blocks took longer to make tonight than they should have. I’ll have to get more efficient and quicker for the upcoming blocks. The good thing is that I’ll only need to make about 40 of these blocks.

I need to get moving because I have a lot of ideas going on right now!!!

I posted some photos of my Brandon Mably Interweave quilt on the Kaffe Fassett Collective page on Facebook yesterday. And today Brandon Mably, the fabric designer, commented on it! Here’s an image capture…

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What an amazing honor to have the fabric designer say such wonderful things about what I made and about me as a creator! I’ve been smiling since I saw this!

I’m laying on the sofa winding down at the end of the day. It’s around 10:30 and I’ve already taken Advil PM so I can get to be early since I lose an hour of sleep tonight. Have I mentioned before that my favorite day of the year is the day in the spring when we go to Daylight Saving Time? I just LOVE having that extra light I the evening! I’m so excited.

You might be laughing that I’ve Taken an Advil PM at 10:30 and am planning an early night. Well, I typically stay up until 2 am every night. I’m a died I the wool night owl and at 10:00 at night I have hours left!

I started out my day at 8:30 for pickleball. Only six people showed up but I got a lot of play and had some good games. After that I high tailed it down to Molalla for Rico’s weekly sheep herding lesson. He was pretty wild today! I think the rainy weather this week and his lack of activity may him especially enthusiastic. The weather was nice…

Toward the end of our lesson a wild squall came through. The rain was falling sideways while the sky was blue in the background. Luckily it didn’t last very long. Good think Rico doesn’t mind if he gets wet.

Our drive home was lovely. I just love winding my way north through farm country after our lessons.

We drove through a few little squalls on the way home.

When I got home I did a little sewing and put together about ten more of the low value nine patches. After a walk with my boys and a good dinner I was back in my sewing room making bland nine patches. I got everything sewn that I cut out last night. I think I have a total of 30 nine patches. I’m thinking I’ll need 40 for this quilt top.

Since I’m using strip sets there are going together quickly and easily.

I might make a few of the green blocks that will make this quilt interesting. I still have a little planning to do, but not much. I’m pretty much ready to start cutting and then get sewing! Can’t wait to see how this looks.

I got invited to play pickleball tomorrow. It should be some good games.

I toyed with the idea of taking tonight off from sewing but I’m pretty excited to get moving on the quilt I decided to make next. I wrote a little about this new project in this blog post.

Since I made my Ice Storm quilt that I gave to my pickleball coach, I’ve wanted to do another low volume project.

So I pulled out the box of fabrics I had put together a month ago or so and started pressing and cutting. The first thing I need to do is make a bunch of low volume 9 patches that will be 8 inches square before they are sewn into the quilt top.

I cut three-inch wide WOF strips from 20 different low volume white and black fabrics.

Here’s a bunch of them, but not all.

Here’s all 20.

There’s a good variety of prints and values here. And aren’t those little fish adorable?

Then I sliced these strips in half and sorted them into groups of three to make strip sets.

Once the strip sets were sewn and pressed I sub-cut them into 3 inch pieces.

Here’s all the sets I got made and sub cut tonight.

I combined some of these into four groups of three and sewed those groups into nine patches.

These are not my typical colorful approach to quilting. But fear not. That part is coming. These will be combined with these lovely Kaffe Fassett Collective greens.

I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing with those green fabrics. It will have to be a surprise. Maybe I can share photos tomorrow if I’m able to get some stuff done.

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in Portland today. I spent an hour or so this afternoon with my sliding door open to let in the first warm spring air. It was sunny and over 60 degrees. I just love the first day when I can open up all the doors and windows in the house and let in some lovely fresh spring air!

And the rain comes back tomorrow and stays for four days. Next weekend we’re supposed to be up to 70 degrees with glorious sunshine! I can hardly believe it!

I did get outside today and get some photos of my two recent quilt tops. It’s nice to see them in the sunshine.

This dark one was hard to get a photo of because it’s too big to hang on the fence without it dragging on the ground. It’s still really wet so I didn’t want it to get muddy.

The colors are so pretty, but that is one dark quilt!

I love my Interweave quilt. It looks so happy and looks like spring.

I really enjoyed making that quilt. It was a bit of a puzzle and demanded some attention to keep everything in the right place to maintain the weave pattern. But it was so fun to see all those colors, designs and patterns come together.

Bender, of course, was happy to participate in the photo session.

Here’s my five quilt tops finished so far in 2024.

With the warm temps coming up everything here will be blooming before long.

It’s the weekend so that means sheep herding, pickleball and sewing. I will be doing all of those things tomorrow!

I had a moment this evening when I thought I would park my butt on the couch instead of finishing this quilt, but I decided to push myself and get it done. There wasn’t much left to do.

A reminder… this pattern is Interweave from Springleaf Studios.

All I had to do was sew the borders for two sides of the bottom portion of the quilt, sew them on, sew the stabilizing row of stitches around that section, and then sew the top and bottom sections together. Oh, and press it all. It probably only took me an hour to get this done.

What was my real motivation? I’m itching to get started on a new quilt and promised myself I wouldn’t do that until I wrapped this one up. I still don’t know what I’m going to do next. So many options!

I always love the final press of a quilt top because I love seeing all the fabrics together, all the seams, all the wonderful things and all the flaws.

I do miss having my friend Linda here to do that final pressing because she would keep a snipper handy and snip all the threads as she pressed. I didn’t take the time to do that tonight, but I should have. There are a LOT of threads on this quilt top.

I really liked that I sewed the final stabilizing row of stitches while the quilt top was in two parts. I’m going to do this from now on. It was so much easier to do and didn’t make me swear at all!

Here’s a little eye candy…

That yellow is so gorgeous!

Mmmm. Green.

So much color!

The Brandon Mably fabrics I ordered a few days ago arrived this afternoon. That seems really fast!

I sort of want that green stripe on the far left in every color way!

I’m going to try to get a photo of this quilt top outdoors tomorrow. Oh, and I need a good photo of my Flower Baskets quilt too. I’m glad I thought of that.

I played pickleball this morning at it was a great session! I had some good play and some really good and fun games. I also found out today that I’ve been given membership in a local pickleball facility that is really hard to get into. I’m so excited and it will revolutionize my ability to play during the winter months! It was such a wonderful surprise!

Tomorrow is Friday. It’s supposed to be another gorgeous day. And I’m so excited about the time change this weekend. The day the clocks change in the spring is my favorite day of the year!

One last thing tonight. I have scheduled my two days to spend lambing again this year. I’m so happy I get to get out there again, and the extra fun thing is that there will also be puppies there! they should be around five weeks old at that time, which is a really good age for puppies!

You can read about my lambing experience last year here and here.