I chose more pairs of Australian fabrics for my Hunter Star quilt but couldn't get motivated to press them and cut the pieces. It was a lazy day yesterday.
I spent some time adding 3 new posts of items for sale to my Wandaful blogshop. I also lowered prices on many of the older posts.
Here are 3 photos of the annual Dianthus which is in its second blooming.
This is harder than I thought. I spread out the Australian fabrics and the assortment was a little overwhelming. This is about 2/3 of them.
One of the quilts I want to cut is Hunter Star. There will be 2 fabrics per block and they need to contrast.
I finally made the decision to work with the red/burgundy/black prints contrasted with the lightest fabrics. After I get some blocks made I'll be able to decide what else to add (or whether I don't need to add anything else).
These two fabrics aren't called Australian on the selvage but they work very nicely with the group.
I started yesterday by going to my granddaughter's house and her sister joined us to do some baking. I came home and mowed the grass, ate lunch, took a nap, and then went out and dug out a whole section of Lily of the Valley. In that spot I planted 4 Coralbells, 2 different colors and a Veronica/Speedwell.
Here is a wider view of the area. It was a beautiful day yesterday, low 80s, low humidity and a nice breeze. That is all going to change today as we go into the humidity and heat for a couple days. I had to take advantage of the cooler day to do my digging.
My next new project will be with my Australian fabrics. I haven't cut into them for a few years so there are some new ones that haven't been used at all.
This is the whole stack. The pile needed to be straightened but I decided it also needs to reduce in size. I will probably cut 2 quilts at once. In fact maybe I'll cut 3 quilts. I think one could be just squares since the fabrics have such interesting designs.
I was home all day yesterday and spent 3/4 of the time in my studio. I cut 41 more small squares for the Seed Packet quilt......I mean I fussy cut every square one at a time. No speed cutting there. If a fabric had more than one kind of flower I cut several from that fabric. I think I have enough now for the double row around the quilt.
But first I need to get this quilt off the design wall. I cut more pieces and sewed the rest of the blocks, moved a few around to new positions and started sewing it together. I have just four more seams to sew and the top will be finished...unless I decide to add a border.
I need to get this quilt off another design wall and I'm still undecided on sashing fabric. I put the one on the left up there yesterday. It is kind of an apricot/gold with a mum design on it. The one on the right is one of the original fabrics I tried and is a beige print. I'm still undecided.
I had cut a lot of triangles from floral fabrics for a friend and it was time to reorganize the floral fabrics. To organize I make a mess first. The fabrics were in the 2 big bins, the one on its side and the blue one. I divided them by large prints, prints to use for colorwash, prints to cut the small squares for my Seed Packet quilt, miscellaneous, and a pile to pass on to someone else. Next I need to cut all of the ones for colorwash and Seed Packet and then pack the rest back into the boxes.
In May and twice earlier I took pictures of the backyard in three shots going across it. Click Here for the post from the first week of May and in that post is a link to earlier photos if you are interested in checking it out. It goes from a bare ground view all winter to all of this lush growth in the summer.
I didn't get the shots exactly in the same places as last time but close. Click on the photos for a closer look.
The peony bushes cover about a fourth of the area. Five years ago we had an extremely hot and dry summer and this was major 4 ft. tall weeds all through the garden. Three years ago I started tackling the clean up and I'm really happy with the way it all looks now.
After looking through the quilt tops for about a half hour I decided on finishing this one. Click here for the post where the whole view is shown. If you noticed the date on that post this top has been waiting for about 2 1/2 years to be quilted. I got the batting cut and the seam sewn in the backing. I hope to load it and quilt it this morning.
Yesterday was dark and dreary in the morning as thunderstorms rolled through. In the afternoon it was partly sunny, partly stormy. This is the view from one of my kitchen windows. This view is to the left of the path to the bird feeders. If you click on it to enlarge it you will see things blooming. The tall plants in the center are orange Tiger Lilies which haven't bloomed yet. The Rudbeckia is all budded out but hasn't bloomed yet either.
Here is a closer view of the section I have been working on. I dug up the little Hosta that was between the Coreopsis and the Shasta Daisy and it is now planted to the right of the Daisy. You can just barely see tips of it. This shot taken from the kitchen window has a bush in the foreground. I planted a red Coneflower on the right. The last time I bought a red one it bloomed white the next year. I hope this one stays red.
This is the view to the right of the path to the bird feeders. The 15 peony bushes are in this section.
The new spring Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics are out. Kaffe did some recoloring of old favorites. I love the new colors of Paper Fans.
Dream is one of his newer fabrics and I think this is the third group of colors for it. I should be able to use some of these flowers in my Seed Packet quilt. I need to get that back up on the design wall.
I have been busy, just not much to show. I spent 2 hours yesterday going through two shelves of batiks to choose some to cut for batik colorwash kits to sell. This stack is 110 fabrics. I hope to have the rest chosen and all cut, sorted, and packaged by the end of the week.
I sewed on the binding and finished it by machine last night. It ended up 47" x 59". The source of the pattern is here.
I have a box full of 2.5" strips so I just pulled out nice intense contrasts to the yellows that would be the background.
I think the backing fabrics look good with the front. The binding is the same gold fabric that is on the back.
My granddaughter and two great-grandsons came over yesterday morning to bring me some Smores cake. It is yummy! She made it in the Rockcrock (by Pampered Chef) in the microwave.
Yesterday afternoon I pulled out large pieces of batik to find one to back the quilt on the left. I decided on the beige one with the circles. I got the seam sewn but haven't pressed it yet.
I'm using these 2 fabrics for the back of the spiral baby quilt top that I showed 2 days ago. I started piecing it last night but didn't quite finish it. That will be today's first job.
Yesterday was my eye appointment in Chicago to check if the injection into my eye will help regain some of my vision. I talked about it here on my 2016 final recap post. The good news is that the shot is working for me, my vision has improved and swelling dramatically reduced. I had my second injection yesterday and will go back in 6 weeks for another checkup. My eyes were dilated so I didn't do any piecing of blocks last night, just worked on that backing shown in this photo.
