Butterflies finished..............................

I got busy early in the day yesterday with the binding on this quilt.  It is all done by machine.  I'm going to round off the numbers and say this is 35" x 44".  Most of the fabrics are from the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s.

I think the backing fabric is from the same time period.  Most of the butterfly blocks were made in that time period too.  There were line drawings of them in a book but no patterns or measurements if I remember right.  The little hourglass blocks were used as fillers to put it all together.  Here is a post from October 2024 when I was getting ready to assemble the blocks in a quilt.

I finished knitting this dishcloth last night.  They always look like a wonky shape when they are finished but they square up nicely with the first wash.

 

Quilting finished, binding choices.....................

After looking over my bright stripe collection, I brought these over to the trimmed quilt to audition for a binding.  It has to look good on both front and back of the quilt.

These were the best choices with the backing fabric.

This one is okay with the front too although a little bold.

I think I prefer the narrow stripe since the quilt is small, about 34.5" x 44.5" (I think that is right but wasn't going to go back down to the basement to measure it).

Radar showed that we were in a storm area for about 40 minutes late yesterday afternoon but in the end there was only a slim coating of water in the bottom of the rain gauge and the whole driveway never got wet.  There are more hopes of storms in the next 6 days so I hope we get more rain that that in at least one of the storms.

 

Quilting and nature.....................

I have continued quilting on this baby quilt and am almost finished.  It is all ditch quilting and I just need to put a few more stitches in the background.  I hope to get it trimmed today and choose a binding fabric.

I went out early yesterday morning and watered everything and cut some volunteer tree/bushes that have been bothering me.

These are the Creeping Bellflower spires.  All of these are in the grass line along the edge of my back flowerbed.  It will be a mass of purplish blue flowers for a couple weeks and then they will be pulled out.

The Annabelle Hydrangeas in the back are doing fine but the bush at the front of the house is really in heat stress.

This is the stage of the buds on the Purple Coneflower plants in the back garden.  They are native prairie plants so they are drought tolerant.

The tomatoes have grown a little.  They don't like temperatures in the 90s.

The Evening Primrose was just starting to close up when I checked on them in the early evening yesterday. 

Hot, hot, hot............................

I know most of the US is under this heat dome and it isn't fun.  It's the humidity that is the worst part.

I spent most of the day working slowly, some quilting, some knitting, a little organizing in the basement.  One good thing happened; I found my missing Kaffe Quilts in Italy book which has been missing for several months.  I sewed 2 pieces of batting together with the triple zig zag for a piece 48" x 58".  I will check and see if that works for any of the small tops waiting in line.  If not, I'll add one more strip to it.

Last night I decided to check out what's in this box.  I cut most of these strips 15-20 years ago.

This is the top layer.  It looks like I have a good variety cut.

Yes, there is another layer below, more light fabrics under this end of it.  There are probably enough strips to make a couple king size log cabin quilts.  No, I'm not making any more king size quilts!  I made some 3" nine patch blocks last year.  I could add to that pile.  I'm trying to come up with some easy night time sewing.

More nature.........................

I went out to see if anything needed watering and the cucumber plants have almost doubled in size since yesterday.

This is the tallest of the volunteer tomato plants.  No blooms on this one yet.

The smaller of the 2 volunteer tomato plants has 2 blooms on it.  Soon I should be able to tell if it is a Sungold plant.

I put the rest of the volunteers in small pots.  There are 2 in one of the pots.  I should have separated them. 

I found one tomato started on one of the Rutgers plants.  It is a little larger than the 4th of July or Early Girl so it will take longer to ripen.

There are lots of Evening Primrose mixed into the bed with the Stella d'Oro lilies.

Just past them is the Annabelle Hydrangea.  It is actually at least 2 bushes, maybe 3.  The blooms are white right now.  They look like green and yellow with the sun shining through the trees on them.  Every year I think I'm going to dig out the small bushes but I think of it too late in the spring and by fall I'm ready to ignore it.

I cleaned my sewing machine and wound bobbins so I am ready to start quilting a baby quilt.

Crooked Cobblestone finished..............

The binding was finished around 7 last night.  I think this is #13 of the total Crooked Cobblestone wall hangings and #12 of batik ones.  The blocks in this one were made in 2016 and this was the selection left after making #12.  I finished designing and sewing the top in January 2024.  I started quilting it in March this year but put it aside for awhile before finishing it this week.  It is 36.5" x 57.5".

I took my camera outside yesterday afternoon after the sun came out.  We had rain in the morning, but only enough to wet the bottom of the rain gauge.

This is the first Ox-Eye False Sunflower bloom.  It is small, about 1.5" across.  There will be lots of them soon in the back garden.  This one is next to my garage.

Also along the garage, and all across the back garden are the invasive bell flowers.  Yes, they are pretty, there are just way too many of them.  I have already pulled lots of them but the rest will be pulled out after they bloom.  Even though they come out bare root, there will be lots of them next year.

Going around the corner of the house I checked out the tomato plants.  Two of the 4th of July variety tomato plants have little groups of tomatoes.  The largest are no bigger than a ping-pong ball.

This is the group on the second plant.  I also saw 5 little tomatoes on the Early Girl plant.  Altogether on 6 plants I counted at least 35 tomatoes.  These photographed here will be a little larger than a golf ball when ripe.  I like the small tomatoes better than large ones.

Continuing on by the backyard garden, there are still lots of Evening Primrose blooms.  I just let them grow wherever they want to be.  You can see they are surrounding the Hosta plants.

The pots in front of the garage are doing well.  The Coleus won't like the high 90s so I may shelter them inside the garage starting on the second day of the heat wave.  I think the petunias will be ok as long as I keep them watered well.  

More of the same.................

Are you tired of seeing this binding?  Me too.  I didn't spend much time on it yesterday but did get a little over half of one long side stitched.  That leaves half of a long side and a short side left to stitch.

I checked the rain gauge yesterday morning and it had .6" in it.  Not enough for our suffering lawns.  Now we are in for a week of mid to high 90s, cooling off to mid 80s, all starting tomorrow.  Also very high humidity will accompany it.  

Meanwhile the basted, next in line to be quilted is laying on the sewing table.  It will be a good project during the heat wave.

I saw one Ox-eye false sunflower blooming yesterday and didn't have my camera with me.  I forgot to go back out with it later.  Maybe I'll take some nature photos today.

 

Binding more................

My binding choice is looking good on the Crooked Cobblestones wall hanging.  I finished the long side and also finished one short side and turned the corner onto the next long side.

While my daughter and granddaughter were visiting we went over to the next town to the furniture store and sat in many recliners to choose one that fits me perfectly.  My old recliner was at least 31 years old and just not comfortable anymore.  The furniture store is family owned since 1886 and they offer free delivery and free removal of the furniture you are replacing.

We finally got some rain, all day yesterday and into the night and there was still only a little less than 1/2" in the rain gauge.  Towns only 20 miles away got over 2" with some getting 3".  I'm hoping when I check it this morning that it will be over 1/2".  

Binding started......................

Yesterday afternoon I put the very first Crooked Cobblestone quilt on the design wall and put the new one next to it (before binding was started).  I was pretty sure the new one was longer.

Later in the day I sewed the binding on and started the hand stitching.  I have one long side almost finished.  It will probably take me at least 4 nights to get the hand sewing done.

I checked my tomato plants and there are 22 little tomatoes on the three 4th of July variety plants.  There are blossoms but no tomatoes on the Rutgers or the Early Girl.  Rain predicted for late last night into today.  I hope it is only rain and no hail.

 

Binding choice....................

I searched through my green batiks and none of the darker ones that I thought might work looked right.  This one ended being the best choice.

I only got one corner trimmed because I had company yesterday.  This gives you a little idea what it might look like.  I'll know for sure if it is the final choice when I get the rest of the trimming done.

I watered all of my flower pots and tomato plants yesterday morning.  We had mid 80s yesterday with 90 predicted for today.  We have hopes of rain tonight and tomorrow.

I finished the dishcloth made with end pieces of several balls of yarn while I watched the 10 p.m. news.  I love these multicolor ones.

 

No more markers......................

Do you see any safety pins marking centers not quilted?  No, I don't either.  I finished all of the quilting yesterday.  Now I need to trim it and hopefully the piece of fabric for the hanging sleeve is still where I think it is.  Right now I'm thinking some shade of green might work for the binding.  That would go well with the backing fabric too.

I found 2 more small Peony blooms while roaming through the backyard garden.  I didn't remember that I had a white one over by the southwest corner.

I'm seeing buds on the Purple Coneflower plants as well as the Oxeye (false sunflower).  

 

Prepping...................

I went through my Marcia Derse fabrics and pulled a selection for the next quilt.  I cut a 7" strip off each of them since that is what I need for the die I will be using.  Now I need to press all of them, and then cutting can take place.  Actually I think I'll be cutting for 2 quilts which both use the same shape.

I checked out my tomato plants and there are 10 tomatoes now.  The largest ones are about the size of a marble.  Three cucumber plants are up but are taking their time growing.  After 2 hot days with A/C running we have had 2 cooler days and windows open.  It looks like we are in for some really hot weather soon.

On the Crooked Cobblestone wall hanging, I stitched around 17 more centers, 35 to go.  Maybe 3 or 4 more days and I'll be ready for binding.

Errand day....................

Sorry, nothing to show for yesterday.  I did grocery shopping and watered the volunteer tomato plant at my neighbor's house because she is out of town for a few days.

I had 2 sessions of quilting around the centers of the Crooked Cobblestone blocks, 23 for the day's total.  52 to go.  

We had something between a mist and a drizzle yesterday.  There was enough to wet the grass and the leaves on the plants but not enough to measure.  We are in a moderate drought area and towns just 30 miles away have gotten rain when we didn't get any or very little.  We keep hoping it will be our turn soon.

A little progress.................

A friend came over yesterday and we planned a quilt that we have both made before, both of us have gifted the quilts, and we both want another that we can keep.  We  had Subway sandwiches for lunch and had a lot of fun. 

I got 8 more centers quilted after I wrote yesterday's post and then got 10 more quilted last night.

I'm just adding 3 closeups of some blocks in the quilt because there isn't much else to show.

Now I have more than half of the centers quilted, 86 done, 76 to go.

I took this photo a few days ago and forgot to post it.  The roses have already died and I think the peonies will get tossed today.  That's the end of the peonies for another year.
 

 

Quilting and digging in dirt.................

I was spending a lot of time looking for the centers of blocks that needed to be quilted around.  I decided to mark all of the unquilted ones with a safety pin, all 94 of them.  Then I counted how many I have quilted around and there were 68.  I'm not even half done; I'm disappointed by that for sure.  Those numbers were after I quilted around 8 centers last night.

When I dug up the largest of the volunteer tomato plants yesterday, I found out it was 4 plants growing very close together.  I also dug up some of the small volunteers and ended up potting 4 of them and replanting the 2 largest ones.  I went out as the sun was setting and put the 2 tall cages around the 2 that I had planted.  Then I saw there was one more volunteer that I missed and it's not in a good spot so I'll put that one in a pot for now too.  My neighbor is gone for a few days so when she gets back I'll share some more with her.  We planted one volunteer in her large pot 2 nights ago.