quiet day

Well, here it is after supper and I have yet to break out the rotary cutter or mat but that's okay. After sewing like crazy for 3 days, a day off is good. It is as my husband says too often to me "who gave you all these jobs?"

This morning I watched him---and our neighbor--- work instead, LOL. DJ has been slowly and surely getting rid of the overgrown bushes out in front. We want to replace all the black plastic stuff and plant something low maintenance that will stay small. Whatever that might be. He recently tore out the boards that were out there as edging when he discovered some insect infestation. It was on!!! For the last week he has been out there for a bit while the sun is on the back of the house pulling up roots, torn black paper and getting the wood chips out of there.

There were two huge "not a foundation" shrubs flanked by two "growing far too big" needle point holly bushes. I don't what the heck those things were/are but we have more on the side of the house. I took a picture of those so you can see what happens when they are unattended. In the picture above, you can see part of the latest holly bush that he severely cut back on the left. There WAS another just as bad down there by the down spout at the end of the patio. Three more holly bushes remain and really the largest one on the end of the house is indicative of just how badly overgrown they can get.

Anyway---DJ has, over time, gotten rid of two of them---stumps and all. It wasn't easy for him cutting it manually, using some heavy duty loppers, a pry bar. Two stumps remained that would have to dealt with if we are going to do the job we want to do. The neighbor came over with the backhoe/end loader and ripped those out in no time. There will be a few spots in the yard to patch up with some grass seed later but it was SO worth it. Robert does concrete work professionally and has a big pile of dirt from his recent driveway expansion and other work on their acreage. He brought back a couple loads of dirt to help fill the stump holes along with a low spot we had in the yard by the back gate. He even hauled off the stumps for DJ.

And here are the "whatever they are" bushes. Does that look like it should be a foundation planting?? The leaves are a little thick, glossy and smell a little lemony. Any ideas what they are? See the little one off to the right? That is one that DJ had to cut back a ton because it was getting into the down spout in the back. I hate these things! There is another little one on the other side of these two, not in the shot.

So what did I today instead of sewing? Last night I decided to clear a little space in my quilting/sewing book library. By the time I was done (or near done) I had two good sized stacks of books to donate and another pile that I thought my friend Teresa might be interested in. I also organized and moved some of my quilting magazines to another book shelf. I am not quite ready to go thru some of them and keep just the most interesting bits yet. Some did though so I had some filing to do back into the clipping notebooks.

Teresa is recuperating from some recent surgery and talked to me about doing some redwork while she is recovering. You are talking to the right girl there! I printed off some of the patterns from my files that she might be interested in. Later this week I will help her get a few traced off and get her stitchin'.

I have been asked to give a program on "finishing quilts". I probably will do it but could that topic be any more broad, LOL? Ada thought I could show how to pin a quilt---and I could but there is so much more to it than that. I wonder if they wouldn't be better served by talking about what you need to do to prepare a quilt top to be quilted---whether you are doing it the quilting or taking it to a long armer. I had read an excellent article in some magazine, not all that long ago on this very subject. But which one??? Had I already clipped it and filed it? Don't think so---and I looked thru several of my notebooks. I did google for some online materials which probably cover much the same territory.

In my search I found something "interesting". I knew there was something very familar about my Disappearing 4 patch (d4P). Well, the end block called "Knots" and I had it printed off as a block of the month when the Belles and I were exploring all manner of 9 patches. HERE is a strip pieced, scrappy colored one on quilting arts forum. Also there are a ton of blocks in their archive that will keep you busy clicking for awhile, LOL.

I also was reminded that I wanted to try a floating eight pointed star I had spotted at delaware quilts--try this link if you want to give it a whirl. (Another printout--can you tell?) My friend Jane had lent me her Jody Barrows book Advancing on with the square in a square technique and she has one on her cover quilt---not floating. You can see the cover quilt HERE. I think Jane needs me to figure out how it works so I can show her. Do it both ways, LOL and then show her! Floating is always good so you don't have to worry about cutting off points especially 54-40 or fight type pointy ones.

I may have this particular block on the brain because I saw a gorgeous version in Quick and Easy Quiltmaking last night as I was looking at some of the books trying decide to keep or not. Mary Hickey designed it for use with her bi-rangle ruler but it could be done by other methods and eliminate some extra seams. It used the same block but with placements of HSTs in some corners and the chaining 4 patches of the 54-40 or fight block it formed a circular shape around a plain Sun Ray Star. I doubt I can find an image to share with you, short of scanning the page in the book. It is on the back cover of the book even if I could find that image, LOL. Maybe it is one in your quilt library or your guilds. Oh wait, I found a baby quilt version of one HERE that will give you a vague idea of what I am talking about.

So I guess even if I don't sew I keep quilts and quilting on the brain. Hey, I don't necessarily need anyone to lead me astray ( do I, Norma?) "I can do bad all by myself", LOL.

And sew it goes-------thanks for stopping by.