Two More Finishes and Big Tree Removal

I’ve got a long and picture-heavy post for you today, so sit back and relax. It’s been one crazy week (in a good way), and I remembered to snap some photos along the way.

My first quilt finish of the week was this quilt made with some of the 2.5”-width strips that I was given by our Quilts for Kids chapter. I decided that I would make a few quilts that are larger than the baby sizes so we could address the needs of some older kids. This is one of those quilts, and it finished at 48x60”. 

My friend Ruby quilted it in what we call a square stipple. I’m sure it has a more official name, but who knows (or cares)? 

The backing was an old shirting print, so the whole thing should be suitable for either gender. 

Then there was this little Strippie quilt that was a collaborative project again. The fabric came from my stash, and I cut it out and drew out a pattern for Kim. Kim sewed it for me (my “stunt sewer”), then Ruby Quilted it and I bound it. And yes, we realized too late that the top half was sewed wrong. The red and navy section was supposed to be next to the center large stars. Oh well, it’s not going to be changed now!

This “All Stars” Strippie measures 40x47”.

My friend Kris from Weight Watchers asked me to quilt another table topper for her, which I happily agreed to. This was a pattern from one of the quilt stores on the Utah Shop Hop a couple years ago.

I typically put more effort into quilting personal and friends’ things than I do for donation quilts. My quilting is done on my Bernina 570 domestic machine. 

I’ve been watching and practicing along with Angela Walters’ new Feathers quilting series on YouTube, and I’m learning a lot. Angela is one of the most talented and recognized quilters in the industry. And while I only incorporated some “half feathers” in the outer borders of this table topper, the class gave me the impetus to search for other designs, study, practice and gain more confidence in trying new things. 

In the center area, you can see some dot-to-dot quilting in the squares and half-square triangles. 

In the four white corners I did my variation of “E’s and 3’s”. 

The outer border was the aforementioned half feathers (or half hearts). 

I’ll return it to Kris on Tuesday and I hope she likes it. We’re also going out to lunch, so that will be fun.

The final nine blocks of the “Library” quilt - so named because of the book print fabric for the sashing and borders - were appliquéd to their background blocks. I’ll begin the assembly on Monday. Ish. Everything is already cut and waiting to go, but top assembly is my least favorite part of the process…

Last Monday, one of my sweet friends here in the condos, Joan, moved away. She sold her condo and moved back to Massachusetts to be near her five daughters. Joan is the one who gave me her outdoor planter (shown empty last week and newly planted, later in this post). She loves blue, so I’m going to surprise her with a blue and white quilt. It will be nearly identical to the wedding quilt I recently made my grandson and his bride. The fabrics are different, but the color scheme is basically the same. 

Joan’s quilt will be smaller than the first one I made. These blocks finish at 16”, and will be set 3x4 for an approximate 48x64” size. The blues in this block are the closest I came to sewing aqua this week for July’s color of the month in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

And speaking of Joan, here is the planter she gifted me. I planted it last weekend (sorry for the lousy shady photo) and will have to tweak it later today because the soil has settled. But I love it!

So the reason I was out early in the morning taking pictures while the courtyard was still shaded is because I wanted to get some “before” photos. We learned on Monday night that the big tree in front of our condo was being removed on Thursday. While we’ve known for over a year that it needed to be done because its roots were destroying our neighbor’s driveway and courtyard, it was still heartbreaking. Obviously, someone planted the wrong tree 40 years ago, because honey locusts are shallow-rooted and not good for planting in parkways and such. 

Above: the tree and our condo at 9:15am.  Below: our front gate with bunting and shade from the big tree. The smaller tree in our courtyard, a Japanese maple, is already stressed from the late spring freeze and now scorching hot summer. I’ve been watering it copiously and giving it iron treatments, but it is a tree that thrives best with protection. I’m afraid we may not be able to save it when it doesn’t have the bigger tree to protect it. Time will tell. 

Here’s a “before” panoramic shot of our courtyard with the morning shade

The felling begins.

They really made quick work of it, and were very professional. Below: Still Life with Chainsaw.

Now in the courtyard there’s bright sun where there was once deep shade. Later that evening, I transplanted the three brunnera plants to the clubhouse, back to deep shade.

We’ll have the arborists out in September to trim the dead branches out of the maple and give it a good overall pruning. That will give it the best chance for survival going forward. 

At 11:15 am, there was no sign of the tree (or the arborists for that matter). 

The rest of my week can be summarized in a few sentences. Continued with my knee and overall fitness exercises; played cards (Hand and Foot) at the clubhouse on Thursday afternoon; State Holiday (Pioneer Day - statehood) on Friday - didn’t do anything except grocery shopping and sewing. Life is good. 

Have a great week friends!