Garden Time...and oh yes, more pinwheeling!

Today I spent some time out in the yard moving hoses around to try to get things watered. I try to deep-water once or twice a week rather than do a more shallow sprinkling, because I think it probably is healthier for the plants.

The rosebushes are having another bloom cycle. I love this deep red one--these top three pictures are the same bush, with the top one being a little more true to the actual color of the blossoms.

 I really need to get out there and do some pruning. It's hard because I am still not able to stand for very long at a time--even on the grass. Plus, the back yard gets morning sun so by 8 am it's hot out there and I can't stay out very long.

Yes I am a delicate flower! Actually, two of the meds I take specifically say to avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight.  Plus, I don't like being hot.

Oh well. Maybe just a few snips at a time and eventually they'll look a lot neater! Plus I could cut some flowers to bring inside.

I only have a couple of hybrid tea roses, though, and the David Austins really are better enjoyed on the bush rather than in a vase. 

I spent a lot of time on line tonight trying to get the right variety for this bush. I have two of them--one red, one pink. They have small leaves, exceptionally thorny stems, and fringed petals.

It makes me sad that I can't remember the name of the variety any more, because I had made a point of getting these two bushes because they were fairly rare.

 This pretty pink charmer is a David Austin called Sceptered Isle. Yes, I've taken a lot of pictures of it, because I really really like it!



The white bush is Iceberg, which is a very popular variety out here--it seems to thrive in this climate. I have this one and a climbing Iceberg which isn't too happy with me at the moment.

Well, neither of my climbers are. They should have wire or something to support them.

When the old fence came down, so did the wires for the roses. I haven't replaced them--it's one of those jobs I can't really do myself.

Oh well.

Last rose picture is the little pink thorny one. I am going to find my Sunset garden book tonight and see if it has any information.

 

 

In between moving hoses around and doing some laundry, I finished pressing the first half of the pinwheel blocks, and spent some time trimming them.

I couldn't resist--I had to count to see how many blocks I have! Care to guess?

No?

Well--this batch, the ones that spin in this direction, numbers 537.

 So double that, because of course there are just as many that spin in the other direction too.

That makes 1074. Wow.

One quilt takes 200 of these squares, to make 50 blocks. So I can make two quilts from each directional spin, plus another one with 34 blocks.

All because of my little math fail a few weeks ago. Let that be a lesson to me, I guess.

So the quilt I really wanted to make for all this time, has now become 6 quilts. Sigh. Yes, I will go ahead and make them all.

Remember I'm the woman who has 7 kids, 6 kids-in-law, 8 granddaughters, 5 grandsons... and 3 great-grands as well. I don't think there will be a problem finding homes for 6 quilts--and if one or two go unclaimed, well, there are lots of charitable groups that will be happy to have them.

Of course my Quilt Supervisor has his own opinions on the matter.

He really believes that the proper use of my time is to feed and pet the cat. That's why he parks his furry self on my projects.

In fact, right now I'm getting The Glare because apparently blogging means less time to pet the cat. He's curled up where the hot air blows out of the laptop, and has to keep turning around because he overheats.

Guess I'd better go pet the cat before the laptop overheats!

A Finish, and Some Progress

 So the pinwheels are coming right along. I had pressed a bagful on Friday night and clippied them into groups of 25--I have a total of 225  from that bag.

What I've done now is sorted the ones that you can kinda see in the bin into bags as well--there's one bag of pinwheels that turn in the same direction as these, and two bags that turn in the opposite direction.

Tonight I finished trimming the last 100 blocks. It was a quiet night at class, just right for this kind of activity.

Here's a quickie view of the ruler I'm using. You can see how the diagonal lines up with the seam line on the larger half triangle; I just trim away everything over 4.5".  Not too difficult.

Even the blocks that I had paired with the 5" precut squares have enough leeway to let me square them up.

Next task will be to press and square up the rest of the baggies-full. It actually goes pretty quickly, and I'm planning to set up my little video player and then I can watch a movie while I press and cut. I can also do some of my exercises while sitting there--so definitely multitasking!

 The Tumblers quilt is done. The first picture was taken just before its bath, which happened today.

The next two show it laid out across the guest bed.  I haven't measured it, but I think, based on the width of the mattress, that it's probably 60" wide and maybe as long as 90" or a little more.

So an extra-long twin, or a throw on a larger bed.

I admit to being a little surprised that it came out so much narrower and longer than I expected, based on how it looked on this same bed before quilting.

But, it's still a pretty quilt and should be fun to use. I'm hoping it will find a happy home soon!

There are a LOT of different prints in it!  Probably a few more duplicates than in the pinwheels, but still an enormous variety. I love it!

And yes... I did start sewing down the binding on another quilt as soon as this one was done. I'm working on the Lily of the Valley quilt now, which is quite a bit smaller. It's the third of six that need binding.

What's In A Name?

Another day when Blogger is playing with my pictures and my mind... I may need to redo some of this post because it's not going to make much sense otherwise!  Oh well... forging ahead!

I read an article this morning (can't find it right now and not sure I want to give it more publicity) talking about blogging which made some rather condescending remarks about "personal" blogs and how, of course, anyone can write a blog to express their personal thoughts, but no one really wants to read those. The key to identifying "those" blogs?  They have "musings" in their names.

So tell me, please--do you get turned off by my blog name?  What else could I have called it? Am I wrong to feel this was a put-down?

Okay, moving on to happier things. Just in case I haven't Double Wedding Ring'd you to death, here's another in-progress photo that my son found and scanned in for me. This was taken at a friend's "cabin"--two story, five bedrooms, not exactly "little cabin in the woods"--back around oh, 1988 or so. Four or five of us had gone for a sewing weekend away, and I got the first strip of rings assembled.

This quilt was done using a pattern that Mary Ellen Hopkins had done, and it had you setting the corner squares into the spaces after the rings were added, rather than making them  a part of the melons as most other patterns do. It actually worked very well, because it was pretty easy to make them fit.

I even had hair back then...

Fast forward to this weekend, which had some good grandma-time for me.

Started on Friday with N8's preschool "graduation" at his daycare. He's been in with the kindergarten class, although he'll be starting "real" kindergarten at the local elementary school this fall.

Had an interesting conversation with G, because I tried to tell him he's now a second grader, and he kept insisting that he wouldn't be in second grade until fall.

I love talking to the kids. They have such a unique take on things.

Sunday was Father's Day and a great day for the beach. So  I got to accompany these two cuties and their parents.

Lots more pictures on Flickr if you want to see more sun, sand, and fun.

I discovered that I can apparently walk barefooted in beach sand without too much pain, so I enjoyed that part of it particularly.

The water was cool but not uncomfortably cold. No, I didn't go in any deeper than my knees. That would require that I actually own a swimsuit, which I don't currently.

May need to remedy that soon. One thing at a time. I have new shoes, and am now working on breaking them in for my upcoming trip. And, you know, that thing called "walking" that I need some practice doing.

Ready for another update on the pinwheels?

Here it comes, ready or not.

The supervisor kept insisting on helping as I was trying to finish sewing the last of the blocks, so I tried draping them over him.

It was a cute effect, and it didn't discourage him. I didn't really think it would!

So at this point, all of the blocks have been sewn and they've all been cut apart--in other words, each "square" is now two blocks.

I spent most of my time on Friday night at Quilknittys pressing one stack and trimming them.

I didn't bring all of them with me--at that point some of them were still not cut apart.

I'll try to get a picture later today when I set up the workroom to get going on the rest of them. I've been clipping them together in groups of 25 just so I can keep track somewhat of the ones that are done.

I have 75 pressed and trimmed. Of the batch I brought with me on Friday, there were 204 blocks of one direction, which means there should be over 400 just in that group.

It takes 200 to make one (large!) quilt. I have no idea how many are in this second grouping, but I think I'll be making at least 4 quilts out of all these pinwheels--maybe more, if I make them a little smaller.

I guess I;d better stop blogging and get busy with the iron and the squaring up, huh?

Class and Critters and More Pinwheel Palaver

Tuesday night quilt class is always fun. I call it "quilt class" but it's really kind of  a free-for-all, do-your-thing kind of gathering.

Case in point. These lovely people are Pete and Marietta, who have been coming to my class for mumble-many years, and their granddaughter Lauren. Lauren needed a dress for her part in her school's graduation ceremonies tonight; the girls were given a pattern number and general guidelines, and turned loose.

Well, here is the finished garment, all ready for the big night! Grandpa Pete cut it out, and Lauren really wanted to sew it herself, so over the course of a couple of sessions she did just that. The last part was accomplished in a session with Louise, who taught sewing in the L.A. district for quite a few years.

So much love in this picture! Next week P & M will be back to work on a quilt they've got in process.

These pictures give you a pretty good idea of how inspiring our classroom is, too!


This is a baby quilt Ethel finished this week. She made a "sister" quilt--not identical but using some of the same fabrics. That one's already gone to its new home and is, I hope, already being loved and used!

Anne's going to have a new great-grandchild (at least, I think it's only one great; there's at least one great-great, but that's a long story and I'll let her tell it!)

The baby's a girl, so the hearts seemed appropriate. Pink was going to be the first choice but then it got vetoed as the mom's favorite color is purple. Purple and green are a great combination!

I especially love the green hearts in the corners of the border. Just that great touch of "different" that makes it stand out!

She made this all from stash fabrics. Have I mentioned that she probably outdoes me in the stash department? She sews most of her quilts from stash these days--that's what we do! She's the one who turned me on to the Stash Busters online group and web ring.

Rochelle has been working on hand appliqueing some little bear blocks for a baby quilt for a family member. She's using solid color bears and polka-dot backgrounds, and doing a blanket stitch around the bears. Also, the little guys will have embroidered faces.

The quilt behind her is from Sam Hunter--patterns are available from Sam or from New Moon Textiles (where this picture was taken).

We also had another young lady last night who was making her first quilt. Big blocks, and by the time she left she already had two halves of a quilt top! She'll be back in two weeks to finish the top, put a border on it, and then add batting, backing, and do some quilting.

I promised some critters--and, for a change, none of them are Hi Hi, aka my  quilt supervisor.

This charming lady is Mae, who belongs to my friend. Her "sister" in the next picture is Missy, who is also a Border collie but much smaller.

They go everywhere with their owner, and are generally very well behaved girls. They'll all be headed north soon for another summer of traveling around, quite likely stopping off in Oregon to do a little sheep-work along with some of Mae's siblings.

It's a dog's life, and I think they have it pretty good!

I keep trying to get pictures of Shyla that aren't blurry, but she moves so fast that they're almost always as fuzzy as she is.

This is her "waiting under the computer" pose. When I sit at the desk, she's usually pretty close by, comes over for pets and skritches and loveys. Of course, if HiHi is anywhere nearby, there's likely to be a flurry of hissing and what is undoubtedly bad language!

You'd think two cats who share food bowls and cat boxes could get along, wouldn't you?

Pinwheels are progressing. I had to cut more squares for the last two colors of half-square triangles--those yellow and green ones in that picture down there.

Still sewing... but these are the last of them. These have all been sewn in one direction, and I'm hoping to get the second line done tonight so I can sit and cut them apart tonight while I catch up on trash TV, my favorite kind!

Well, not really trashy--I have yet to watch a single housewife of any variety,  I stay off the Jersey shore, and the Kardashians have to do without me. But I enjoy things like the next Food Network star, and some of the other FN shows; I'm a sucker for the bride shows, too, and I'll say yes to all those dresses!

Pretty weird considering I got married in a green wool suit and have never been sorry. Never wanted to be a princess bride, but have been happy to make sure my daughters and sons could have the weddings they wanted.

Anyway, I think that when I press and trim the pinwheels, I'll try to keep some kind of count of them. I'm currently thinking that using clips would work well... and I have a basketful from my paper piecing class!


Last bit for tonight. I frogged the Denver Cowl I had started in Miss Babs' Yowza in the Day at Powell's colorway. Some day I will get to Powell's Bookstore but until then I have to be content with knitting with this yarn.  Which, like all good books, is black and white and re(a)d allover...

Progress, or It's A Good Thing I'm a Process Person

 The first two photos here are an experiment for today's Photo A Day challenge. The prompt for the day was "below."

So I tried taking a picture of the jacaranda tree from below the pergola--that's the fence-looking thing in the lower right corner. Looking up from that is the house front.

I had a pretty hard time keeping the sun from glaring through--you can tell where it is by looking at that really bright area over in the left center.

 This is a more straight-on shot of the tree. It's much thinner than it was before the big windstorm in December of 2011 took out the whole top of it and a couple of main branches.

But, it's back and blooming and seems pretty happy. Which makes me happy too!

I'm pretty sure it was planted by the original owner as part of the landscaping. It, the Italian cypress at the corner of the property, the crape myrtle tree, and one old (enormous) rose bush in the back are almost all that's left. There is a concrete curb that runs around part of the back yard which we've been told was originally the perimeter of a croquet lawn. The garage sits where part of it would be, and the neighbor's garage sits on the north end of it. 

When the boys were younger, Jeff and his friend Gregg dug an enormous hole in the back yard and came upon the remnants of an old fish pond, about 5 feet down. Cruel parents made them cover it up--it was right in front of the utility pole and we really didn't want to be liable for some poor lineman breaking a leg in a hole in the yard!

So, back to the pinwheel quilt. Are  you sick of it yet? I'm not, but then I really am a "process" person rather than a "product" person. I'm enjoying the process.

This picture has  some of the "parts" in it. The half-square triangles on the left side are sewn down twice and ready to be cut apart into two mirror-image pieces. The raggedy looking stacks at the back of the picture are the ones that have already been cut--I'm making two piles as I cut. The right side of the picture--with the ruler and rotary cutter--is the stack of squares ready to be sewn onto the rest of the half-square triangles.

This is what it looks like in progress. I didn't really pose that piece in the middle, it just fell that way, but that's what the blocks I'm making will look like when I'm done sewing and cutting and pressing and squaring them up.

I decided that I'd better sew some of the ones I'd been sending through the machine, on their second side, because they do get wrinkled when they pile up like this. Also they have a tendency to tangle together, and then I have to snip threads.

Luckily the second side goes really fast, because I'm not stopping and making pairs. I try to be somewhat random but I can't be totally careless with the pairings, because some of them look really barfy together. I mean, really look like the dog's breakfast. Or whatever your favorite expression for a curdled mess is!

So on this side of the machine, here are the rest of the pairs all ready to be matched up. I counted (first time in all this that I've counted much of anything) and there are 18 different fabrics here. There are at least 6 of each color, but some have a few more. I'm pretty sure I have enough squares (you know, those ones under the ruler in the other picture--the ruler is so the cat doesn't mess them up trying to get comfy in them) to match up to all these.

Which brings up the question of why I'm sitting here blogging instead of sitting at the machine. Hmmm. Maybe it's time to go back there. Or pour a glass of wine and go watch the Tonys. Have I mentioned I love my DVR? Because I do.

Over and out for tonight!

Saturday Summary

 One of the participants in a Facebook group posted a picture of a little quilt very similar to this one, which prompted me to dig around a bit in the linen closet and get it out. I think it needs to go into the trunk that holds a lot of other "family" needlework pieces.

My mother-in-law embroidered this when she was expecting my husband, and passed it along to me when I was expecting my first baby. I'm pretty sure, from information on the FB list and other sources, that this was a kit, with the muslin pre-stamped and the applique pieces either pre-cut or printed ready to sew on. Where a couple of stitches have come undone, you can see the blue printing.

Most of the embroidery is done in running stitch, although there's some lazy daisy stitches in there too. It amuses me, because looking at it closely, I can tell that she made her stitches match the printed lines exactly.

It's bound in  a light blue calico commercial binding, which is the same print as the blue appliques.

I had thought over the years of doing something with it, maybe layering it and turning it into a "real" quilt but now I'm kind of glad I didn't, since it's (as far as I know) the only piece of handwork of hers that we have. I never saw her working on anything, but I do have a trunk full of things her mother, aunts, grandmothers and other relatives made. I'll share them in other posts.

These two knitted squares--which I photographed while they were blocking--are for a fund-raiser afghan to benefit The Ships Project.  This is sponsored by NETA, the New England Textile Arts group, to help provide postage and other associated costs incurred by The Ships Project in sending hand-made hats, scarves, socks, helmet liners, etc, to our troops.

Even though I'm not in New England any more, I have still managed to make a square or two every year and thus feel as if I'm a part of the project.

The one on the right is The Anchor, from Barbara Walker's First Treasury, and I think it's a pretty appropriate pattern for a Navy (ret.) mom to make for the Ships.

If you're in or around New England, or will be traveling in the area, do check out the blog. There's a wealth of resources there ranging from fiber festivals to shops and farms and vendors and meetups and...

Back to the pinwheels! I was cutting the completed ones (only about half of them) apart when I found this. Yeah, sometimes it's not a good idea to keep sewing when  you're tired or when the cat is being particularly pushy.

Right sides together. Repeat the mantra, right sides together.

Otherwise, Jack the ripper has to come out and separate the pieces.

I found a few more pieces of 30s prints so I cut a few dozen more squares..

Not without help, though. Note that furry butt and rather large paw holding down the rule.. Ain't no cutting happening here.

And he's ignoring me.

I was doing laundry at the same time, so when he would get in the way I'd get up and go wrangle a load or two.  Usually when I got back, he'd have left.

Look at how cute the selvedge is!

 He doesn't like laundry, once it's clean. He loves to sleep  in my dirty-clothes basket, though.  I do not question the ways of cats. Tache used to sleep exclusively in baskets of all-white laundry (diapers were her favorite) probably because, being all white herself, she thought she could hide.

Yeah. Not so much. Her name, which is French for Spot, refers to a little black spot that she had between her ears, on  the top of her head. We think Noelle got carried away washing her head and washed it off completely.

I did manage to get some squares cut, in spite of the help from my supervisor.

Then it was back to the assembly line. I've already cut a few more strips and made more squares, because I had run out of both yellow and green ones.

There are still a lot more squares to sew. At this point, I have no idea how many blocks I'm going to end up with.

I just keep sewing and sewing and sewing. Every couple of bobbins, I clean and oil the machine, and I even changed the needle today for good measure.

I think the message I got loud and clear was, time to stop for the day!

It's okay. I frogged another project and cast on for another HitchHiker scarf, because I really needed another semi-mindless travel/group project. Got a couple of doctor visits this week so must be prepared!

I'm also working on binding quilts. Still working my way around the Tumblers, but I've only got one more corner to go (and two long sides, but I'm focusing on corners...) and it will be done. Then on to the next one, and the next, and...