It's been a long dry summer

 It's been a long dry summer, 

full of dire portends for the future and 

small signs that "crazy"season may be on the wain

One can only hope.

Meanwhile there are things that need to be done

That all seem to be stuck somewhere in the middle

We started to cut down a few of our "inconvenient" trees this year back in may.

Intending to get them down and dusted by the end of June

Which didn't happen

What did happen was we discovered the poplars on the north side of the property are dead, 

getting punky and need to be torn down 

before they fall down.

Note to self; More plants may be satisfying for a while

and gorgeous 

but they do need to be watered every day

Sometimes twice a day when the weather doesn't cooperate,

Which it hasn't

So we galloped off to get us some estimates

Easy-Peasy right?

no 

You see the poplars are close to 80' tall

3 of the tree guys wouldn't even give us an estimate

the other 3 were varying degrees of almost $10,000 per tree.

because they would have to rent the equipment.

I'm sorry, what, what now?

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

This in turn triggered the insurance company to decide they wouldn't renew our insurance based on a fuzzy satellite view google maps pictures, 

so now (mid July) they want us to do their job with aerial photos to prove to them our house isn't a fire hazard    -.-

Throw in moss remediation on both roofs, ugh. 

and ick,   there is now dust and moss crap everywhere, 

Making sewing outside is impossible. So much for my happy spot this year

I sublimated my rage at the wood pile ^

It now stretches the length of the house and

Is about shoulder height

Since the insurance was being a prat we decided 

in addition to the front trees 

We would get down all the dead branches in the cedars along the western fence.

there are 25 of them so it took a minute.

The wood pile grew to a second wall along the driveway

which isn't finished yet

< this used to be a nice little cedar privacy wall,

40+ years ago.

It also started out on the neighbors property....

Guess who's problem it is now.....-.-

Anywho, we finally got the insurance company to renew,

 We have found a tree guy who already owns a ladder truck for the poplars so it doesn't cost the world to remove, yay!

Both my yards are still full of 

tree limbs and brush but that will be removed soon too. Also, yay! 

My inner German was beginning to despair of it ever getting tidy again.

On the good news front we have plenty of wood for us and the kids to run the fire place for the foreseeable future, if they would only come get some of it.

And my mulch pile is about to get epic.

RSC Light and dark Blues

So the new batch of Spools and birds are in blues

Confused Geese

Many spools

2 birdies

Anyone know what a ganglian cyst is and why it attacks? I had one, which I don't recommend, took 2 weeks to calm down!

More Birdies

I dislike when my body decides to misbehave on a whim......

It's all better now but damn that was inconvenient. I am starting to embroider beaks on my birds with a blanket stitch as there are about 50 of them at this point it's going to take a while.

Irises are happy

though if it keeps raining It may take shorter than I think!

There are Beezzzzz

This one is so dark!

 

The last faerie and other stuff

 It seems I am not done with the faeries yet

I found 3 more panels digging around for something else,

I'm sure some of you can relate

I've been a berry busy bunny this summer

lots to sew and do and wow It's August already?

How'd thAt happen?

Anyhoo

there were birthdays in all of that mess too

the Peacocks were made for my dd#1


Good long arm practice they were too!

Then there's the help/nothelp

Napping on the job as usual








I'm kinda proud of the quilting on this one

Its a panel so again so I'm cheating but It was to much fun to pass up!











I'm getting better!

I can see it in my swirls

















This is the back to another one

you can see the front when I give it to it's intended





Then there is this quilt, I was given 3 donor flimsies by Susan the owner of Gathering Fabrics

It seems these poor babies were the last made by one of her ladies before she died and donated by her husband as "I don't know what to do with these ones, please find a home for them." Quilts

My working theory, now that I have done this one is that it was an early quilt made with 30's fabrics and originally made into a tied quilt with synthetics taken apart that she meant to "Do something" with and never got around to.

I loved working with this one even though I had to pick out the old bits of synthetic yarn that was used to tie it, yech.
I also had to do some spot repairs because many of the seams were splitting due to uneven seams and the age of the fabric.

I used what was left of the extra yellow and green and added some pink from my own stash to finish the backing.

I'm following Angela Walters Swirl-a-long on youtube and am getting much better as I go.

I love the different looks that I got from the different style of swirl

The top 2 differentiation's let the fabric lie flat
they are the swirl echo and swirl in swirl

whereas the feather swirl all over is "lumpier"

And the obligatory Vegi garden for this year

I'm going to have hella cucumbers!

I paired the zucchini down to 2 plants this year and they have started to produce as well as the tomatoes but those I can preserve if I need to.

What do I do with cucumbers?

I obviously did not think it through well enough this spring as they have never gotten big enough to produce more than 3-4 misshapen cuecs in previous years, eep!

the end

scrappy flowers test block#1

Scrappy flowers test block #2

of 2017 at least
Its been a challenging year
The boogar in chief notwithstanding

scrappy flowers test block #3

 I have made a total of 12 quilts this year!

Not all full size mind and not yet all finished but still impressive considering my usual 12-9" blocks and a few side projects

the quilting

  Most have been given to their expected recipients and I have fallen down hard on the picture taking,

which is ironic as i got a new phone with a fabulous camera in it this year.
So piece of coal in my stocking there.

the three scrappy flower quilts were the first to be quilted on my new bernina and for pracrice quits are not to shabby

all the Blue scraps quilt

they are all lap size and done with 1/4yds of the state flowers fabric from last year.

It's amazing just how far a few 1/4 yards will go!

woodland animals

the blue scrap quilt was done using all the blue and tan scraps i have been squirreling away for the last 25 years, lord only knows why.
its a full size quilt made of 1/2 square triangles and wild geese.

it's the first big quilt that bernie has done and came out a little wobbly but nice.

 

 

the quilting, I am liking my new machine

then the woodland animals for my dd#2 I still havent managed to get a binding on it,hopefully that will get done before new years.
as usual if you put it on the floor the inspectors come out to make sure your doing it right....

garden

Spring and summer were taken up by the usual garden stuff

Green house

plus I FINALLY got off the stick and built myself a greenhouse.
I used the old sliding doors from the deck and a slide window

It took till mid september to make it leak proof but that's just because it didn't rain until then and then rained for 2 weeks!

Machine quilted, I may have gone overboard

Now I just need to find it a proper door
I'm using an old rug right now but that wont last

I've only been planning on doing this for 8 years so its so nice to have gotten it done

French store quilt half applique, half machine

the French store quilt was done with remaining tan and all the red and green scraps from the basket of doom

Center French store quilt

because why not finally empty the silly thing out?
what am I saving them for anyway if not to use in a quilt
besides 25 years 4 homes and 2 husbands is long enough don't you think?



 this one is made from Julie Paschkis Russian winter folktales fabric

 aand scraps from the basket, are you noticing a theme here?


this last one is still in the works but its coming along nicely I have 3 more rows of 4 blocks and the outer border to put on, nce I can wrest it away from the minions


Then there was my early prezzie of a surprise gallbladder removal for the holidays, yay. -.-
I'm doing just fine but if this is anything like getting shot in the belly, TV and movies have been lying to us for decades!

You do not bounce up to finish the job, with  great sopping hole in your tum.
If you are in line for one of these it's not that bad, you're belly will look like a bowling ball after and the first few days are owchie

but they give you the good drugs to get you over that part and hopefully, those around you are inclined to spoil the invalid.
Happy Holidays to all and a happy new year!

what i did on my summer vacation and beyond

This is going to be a long post so fair warning.

i havent been sewing much but I have been busy.

 I now have pictures to go with the synopsis of last month.

I "fixed" the march block, I wasn't pleased with the big blank spot in the green on the bottom. I thought (at the time) it looked too bright so I added, what turned out to be a very fat hedgehog.                          Now, I'm not terribly pleased with the result but have it on good authority (Helen Thorkleson, I'm throwing you under the bus here) that he's adorable.                 Note to self #542.67 sew critters on a separate piece of felt then sew down.          I also added some greenish lace to extend the color upwards as it needed to travel a little. it doesn't look like it's stuck in that spot anymore and lets your eye travel into the block more.

 Here Is my lovely Dear daughter #2 with my mother both look rather pleased with themselves.
and no wonder Mara graduated with honors (one of them Presidential!)
and mom behaved herself even though  she had to endure an entire roman catholic church ceremony for the graduation sans commentary.

we are not religious and neither is my x husband but for whatever reason he felt it necessary to send DD#2 to a catholic all girls HS. I have pointed out a better use of that money would have been college but what are you going to do?
here we are at mom's house out front
before making the trip back to Seattle

my new "helpers" this is Violet. we decided to name her this, after the theory of black body radiation only being seen in the ultra-violet. As she is completely black this seemed appropriate

And here is Molly, her momma. Nothing special with he name its the one she came home with and she seems to like it just fine

old window

new window

 have I mentioned just how much I love my new windows?




 It's so lovely to be able to see clearly what is outside and not just a smeary blur




  also had to get busy with the garden as I missed most of my usual planting window in may.





 then there was buying a rental property  and getting that ready  for inhabitants




I also had another Witchy-Poo hat up my sleeve





 I still need to put it together but the hard part is done



the brim





 and the top



and since I was doing another hat





I could make a few more casket tops too




I still have to put those together too


 but I'm on it!

 sort of




christmas is right around the corner................