Park of Roses

 

I took some weekend time off from work and went to the Park of Roses with my family. It was a lovely day and many roses were in full bloom. These tiny roses made a very nice hedge.

These Flower Girl roses were bundled quite nicely for a wedding.

This is a Dawn Redwood. It is the tree I chose with just a picture of a young tree and a couple of reviews. It has really soft leaves. This is a really old tree. I don't think my backyard tree will get this big in my lifetime.

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 23

 

I made time to work with fabric this week. Since I only had little bits of time, I simply continued with the trimming of the flying geese I did before the lull. All the geese have been trimmed now and I did sew a few into pairs. We won't mention that the flying geese were the month one block, and we are now several months into the blocks. I am not worried about it. I knew when I chose to join this BOM that I would not be able to keep up, and chose to make a big quilt anyway because I think that is the best way to showcase this block combination.

15 minute days these three weeks --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 115 out of 156 days

Success rate  = 74%

 

During the lull, I bought some fabric. I didn't have the same number of pieces of fabric as there are blocks in the quilt. Although I know that I can use the leftover fabric for the remaining blocks, I really wanted to make sure I had the flexibility of using a separate fabric for the remaining blocks, so I found some on sale. It was a big relief. I know that the quilt will be fine with whatever solution I worked out, but having extra fabric gave me extra options of making this big quilt the best I could make.

I also some backing fabric for the Sunshine in Winter quilt and a few extra pieces because they were on sale.

Unfortunately, the package never made it. I got an email that it was delivered, but when I went out to look for it, it was not there. I don't know if the post office didn't deliver it or if a porch pirate got to it first, but several of my neighbors were out and nobody saw a delivery or a porch pirate. Since they were sale fabrics, they were out of stock when I tried to repurchase them.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Weeks 20, 21, and 22

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Weeks 20, 21, and 22

 

I haven't found time for quilting the last few weeks, so here is another sorry report. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you. We still have lots of available overtime and lots of work that makes us feel obligated to do the overtime. There is more yard work.

15 minute days these three weeks --0 out of 21

15 minute days this year -- 108 out of 149 days

Success rate  = 72%

 

I think this is a record low since I joined the challenge, and things do not look very promising for the next month, but I am getting better at balancing my time so there will be some positive numbers for this coming weekend. The Memorial Day holiday helped. There was a graduation and a memorial day picnic. We planted a tree in my back yard and put Zeus' ashes underneath it. I planted a few vegetables, and added watering them to my calendar to give me a better chance of having a good harvest this year.

Quilt Reveal: Be YOUnique

 This quilt was inspired by a quilt I saw in Quilts for Kids Nepal. It isn't affiliated with the U.S. version of Quilts for Kids. I wanted to make a folk art peacock quilt.

 

I won't show you that first progress picture, because you have seen it twice already. I started with a background that feels Indian to me, and I added a green strip to add some interest in the background. I love that they both echo the shapes even though the mood of each fabric is very different from each other. 

The original quilt had piecing in the border. While I liked the idea of adding piecing to my quilt, I wanted to do something that would get me to a finish faster, knowing that I have only small bits of time to quilt this month. I am also working on a full size quilt which should remain my main quilting work.

 

I cut out the peacock freely with scissors. I noticed that the thick legs looked like the chicken or duck that I had seen in a folk art quilt and decided to let them remain thick. It would be easier to sew it down and it retains the folk art aspect of the quilt..

I cut yardage to cut out the triangles for the tail, to avoid going through the rabbit trail that is the scrap fabric boxes. Plus, I am trying to use the good stuff.

I added some applique around the peacock because I can't keep things simple. 

I echo quilted it. I knew that I wanted to add some bling to the quilt, but decided to bind it first to keep the bling from getting in the way. I have bling so I have to use it.

 It was scary to do since the quilt looked fine as it was, especially since it had a binding, but I like the crown. I put sequins on the wing and there are some on the tail feathers too. When I was looking for quotes for a peacock, the only thing that I saw was about being unique.The sequins on the tail certainly make it unique.

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 18 and 19

 

I haven't found time for quilting the last couple of weeks. We have been offered overtime. Normally they say unlimited, and this year there is much more work to do, but this year, we have to ask for each little bit at a time.

15 minute days these two week --0 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 108 out of 128 days

Success rate  = 84%

 

I have a silver dollars plant that decided to have purple flowers this year. They are normally white. So pretty.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 17

 

 Work has been really busy and I have only managed to eek out small amounts of time to make my mini quilt of the month. It is truly taking a month to make it.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 17

I know you have seen this photo before while you wait for a big reveal.  I have been enjoying making this peacock mini quilt, so like last week, I didn't have any trouble finding tiny bits of time to sew every day to work on it. Last week, I added some applique in the background. During week 17, I chose to add some bling to add to it, and quilted the piece.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 108 out of 114 days

Success rate  = 95%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 16

 

 

Happy Easter!

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 16

I have been enjoying making this peacock mini quilt, so I didn't have any trouble finding time to sew every day to work on it. This photo is of its early stage, so that the reveal will have a bigger impact.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 101 out of 107 days

Success rate  = 94%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 14 and 15

 

I have been making an effort to make sure that I spend time quilting and doing things that are calming to me the last two weeks. This means I have been putting more stitches to make the double flying geese and trimming them down to size. I will count them after I have them trimmed to see if I need to make any more.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Weeks 14 and 15

I also sewed and trimmed more of the quarter square triangles. I do not like trimming and usually cut pieces exactly so trimming is not necessary, but since this quilt has a lot of sharp points and I make a lot of improv quilts, I decided to follow the instructions to cut big and trim. The blocks do look much neater this way.

15 minute days this week --14 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 94 out of 100 days

Success rate  = 94%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 I added this list to show the status for the end of the first quarter. Even though there weren't any changes from the last time I showed it, it was good for me to keep in mind. I started a mini today so it is no longer current.

 

Rest in Peace, Zeus

 Zeus passed away on Monday.

 

He joined us in January of 2011 and completely changed our lives. Taking care of him was a big learning curve for me because I did my best to stay away from dogs before I got him.

His main job was to make sure I got exercise every day, but he took on a lot of other responsibilities as well. He kept me company after my daughter went to school and out in the world on her own. He ate the crusts from my toast. He took a control of my schedule, making sure I woke up on time, ate on time, slept on time. He also made sure that I took breaks from work. 

He was very eager to please but he had his ideas about what he wanted. He liked waking up early, especially when I stayed up late. He regularly changed his communication with me. Sometimes he would just sit beside me when he wanted something, other times he would whine, other times he would pant impatiently, so I did not learn what each communication meant. It took me a while to figure out what he wanted. He also had a certain order he wanted things. Feed him before letting him out. He wanted to go out but only if the neighbor dogs went inside. He wanted to go out but only if I walked with him.

 

About two years ago, he was diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy. DM is a spinal condition that impacts a dog’s ability to walk and stand independently, He lost feeling in his back legs and struggled to walk. He was very independent and found solutions for each new issue he had. He had arthritis so he was in a lot of pain even from walking a few steps.

Rest in peace, my dear Zeus. Thank you for the last 10 years. I love you. I miss you. I will never forget you.