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!

Graduation!

Well, it’s not an exciting graduation, like a grandkid graduating from high school or anything, but I did make it through all my physical therapy sessions and “graduated” from that. I got a hug from both physical therapist Mark and his wife Laura, and I brought them some homemade raspberry jam as a thank you.  I’ll be continuing the home version of my exercises as well as adding some simple exercises to strengthen my core, promote balance and doing some light upper body weight training. I have everything I need except some small weights and a timer, which will arrive tomorrow. I’m excited!

It was another busy week, with a big summer HOA BBQ here at the condos on Wednesday evening. I was on the team to help pull that off, and between set-up, food prep and cleaning up (plus I did the signage and helped transport our most elderly attendees), it was hectic. But what a fun time, even though I may or may not have had three cookies! 

On Friday I made up for eating cookies when my friend Joan, who is moving back to Massachusetts, gifted me her outdoor raised planter. In her courtyard I shoveled out the soil and wheelbarrowed it to our place. Then I went back and we loaded the planter into my SUV. I set the planter up at home and re-shoveled the soil back in. All of that was done before 10am to avoid the heat (although I did work up a sweat and was a filthy mess). But it was fun, and it was great to feel strong and able-bodied again! Here’s the planter. I do plan to visit some garden centers or big box stores to see what’s on clearance. I just want some color (and more soil) in there for the next three months!

I’ve been terrible at sharing garden pictures this year. I planted only a few pots and this vertical garden before my mid-May knee replacement, and just had Bruce watering them while I was unable to work in the yard. 

I never got pictures of the lilies blooming, and the recent record-breaking heat absolutely fried my hydrangeas. I didn’t plant any new shrubs or perennials this year because we’ve been asked to conserve water (and, again, the knee surgery). Mostly these days I’ve been babying my Japanese maple, giving it extra water and iron treatments. Poor thing. The top of the leaf canopy froze and defoliated after a late freeze this spring, and now the scorching heat has it gasping for water! I’m afraid it will be toast when the huge honey locust tree outside our courtyard in the common area is removed this winter - it’s heaving sidewalks and the neighbor’s driveway. The bigger tree provides protection for our Japanese maple, which is typically an understory tree. 

But let’s talk about sewing which is why, I’m sure, you’re here.

July is the month of aqua, teal, and turquoise - and all their blue-green and green-blue variations -  in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge group. 

First up are the two gameboard blocks I sewed, which will finish in a quilt at 8”.

And we can’t forget the Rolling Stone blocks. Only two of those as well. I love these blocks! 

And finally some crumb blocks (6.5”). I had a few on hand and hoped to finish additional blocks to round out a set of 15, but the scraps didn’t stretch that far. So these 7 blocks will join the others and wait until aqua month in 2027 to recruit more friends for a set.

My friend Ruby quilted two more little quilts for me to bind for Quilts for Kids, so I do have two finishes to share once again. First up is this turtle-themed Strippie. After I pulled the fabric and cut the kit, Cousin Kim sewed it up (we joke and call her my “stunt sewist” as we try to churn out lots of these Strippie quilts from my stash). Then Ruby quilts them and I bind and label them. 

The Turtles quilt isn’t all that exciting, but I’m sure there’s a kid who will love the turtles.

The colors are truest on the above photo and the backing photo, below. This little number finished at 39.5 x 45.5”.

Ruby quilted leaves on it, but we think they rather look like they could be patterned turtle shells. 

The second finish was inspired by three cute elephant fat quarters that Ruby gave me from a yard sale find. I had to design something around that amount of fabric, and came up with this. The solid pinks and yellows are pastels, although the camera distorts their intensity. I’ve tried to color-correct it as best I can.

The Pink Ellies quilt measures 40x46”. I’ve got more FQs of this print in a blue and yellow colorway, but there are 4 FQ’s of those. I’ll tackle those later this summer.

Once those little quilts were done and dusted, I could begin working on the fan blocks that were given to me with the Quilts for Kids scraps to “do something with”. See the post here where I first showed them. I call them fan blocks because someone just sewed blades together, not sewing the tops to make a point as for Dresden blades. I had to add another blade to each block to cover at least 90 degrees of a square block.  

Anyway, I found a medium brown fabric on which to appliqué them. The background squares are cut 14x14” (the largest size I could get from a width-of-fabric cut) and I appliquéd the first 3 (of 12) this week. The fans were fit over the corners of the background square, then the outside blades in each block were trimmed to fit. I’m using a blanket stitch on my machine to appliqué down the fans and the inner circle.

I’ve been excited to play with these because the colors go perfectly with the 2-yard cut of book fabric I have. I was originally thinking I’d use the fabric for a backing, but instead I’ll use it for wide borders to bring the 3x4 block setting up to something over 50x60”. That size and these colors will be better suited for an older kid quilt. 

This will be my primary project to work on in the coming week.

Today I need to do some grocery shopping, and then I’ll visit some big box stores to see what kind of flowers (or herbs?) to plant in the new planter. Perhaps next year I can rig up some drip irrigation, but for now the planter will be hand watered. 

Is anyone else watching the new Little House on the Prairie series on Netflix? I absolutely loved those books as a girl. We are really enjoying it, and I find myself thinking and daydreaming about the Ingalls family and their adventures, just as I did 60 years ago! 

Have a great week!

What Day is it?

I missed my weekly blog post last Saturday. That’s because for some reason, I was disoriented all week. I kept thinking Thursday was Wednesday, Friday was Thursday, etc. So I didn’t even realize I’d missed writing a post until Saturday afternoon when I went into my sewing room to work and snap some pictures. Yeah, aging lands hard when you’re not expecting it. 

Nevertheless, it’s been a busy two weeks. Doctor and pre-op appointments for me (Monday the 18th is the day I go in for my LEFT knee total replacement) and routine periodic exams for hubby Bruce. We had our HOA’s Cinco de Mayo party, with good food and the best turnout we’ve had in at least a couple years. 

I’ve gotten my courtyard cleaned up, and the new patio furniture has been delivered and assembled. A late freeze took out half of our Japanese maple tree (and another half dozen maples within our complex). I had to rake up all the fallen, dead leaves (it was November in May). But I’ve given the poor tree some iron treatments and plenty of water, so we don’t expect any lasting damage; just half the shady leaf canopy for this season. Bummer. I hope it doesn’t hurt the shade plants below the tree. 

Since this picture, I’ve planted my vertical planter on the left and added a couple more colorful pots. I won’t be adding a lot of new perennials or even annuals this year, because we are under drought conditions, and new plantings need to be babied with lots of water. Also, my knees won’t be in any shape to do a lot of gardening. Hopefully next year’s situation will improve. 

On the sewing front, I’ve completed most of my blocks for Orange May in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’ll show some this week and some next week. 

Four Gameboard blocks, measuring 8.5”: I absolutely LOVE making these blocks!!

And two Rolling Stone blocks that will finish at 12”. 

Next week I’ll show the string blocks and crumb blocks, which are boring. But hopefully I can remember to snap pix of the three most recent Blocks of the Month in the class that Ruby, Cousin Kim and I are taking so there will be something interesting sewing-wise. 

And speaking of sewing interest, my friend Sandy who heads up our Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids, dropped by some scraps for me to play with. She suggested that I could sort and pet them during my convalescence. The only catch is that I am NOT allowed to return them except in quilt form. Hehehe. Challenge accepted! Here they are, stacked in the family room. 

There are two bankers boxes on the right, with a smallish black tub mashing down the contents of the bottom box, a green-lidded clear tote bin, and a garbage bag full of 2.5” strips, ranging from WOF (width of fabric) to potato chip size (2.5x4.5”). 

So, do you think I could wait to dig into these? Well of course not! I allowed myself to sort the contents of the white bag. And I’ve incorporated all the WOF strips into one tote where I can easily rifle through them to add to Strippie or other tops. Most of the rest were trimmed to varying shorter lengths, depending on what I could get out of them. They are sorted and stacked in piles. Eventually I’ll match the measured piles to the pattern(s) I can make with them. 

Then I went through my big ol’ box of self-made kits; the ones that I had numbered 1-36 and were made from previously-donated scraps. At least ten kits had been sewn up, so I combined some remaining kits where fabrics could be matched (by either color or theme), or where a “kit” had been raided and was only a partial. I was able to add in some of the new strips to those kits that could use them, and now have about 22 kits in that box. Additionally, though, I have at least another dozen kits that are in the process of assembly. The difference with this dozen is that I’m actually doing the planning, designing and cutting for Kim or Ruby to sew, along with some rudimentary sketches and instructions. Once I finish bagging those up, it will free up a lot of space in the sewing room (along with passing on the Pfaff in its huge rolling case). After peeking in the newly-donated scrap boxes, I know there are at least three sets of blocks ready to be assembled into flimsies. I’ll do those as soon as I can get back to the machine. 

Ruby, Kim and I will spend my first Sunday post-surgery sorting the remaining scraps by color for my scrap buckets. The multi-colored bits will be cut up for Zipper or string blocks, or used in crumb piecing. Larger chunks and small yardages will be measured and labeled, and paired up with pieces in my stash to make backings. So, there is a plan to FINALLY - now that my obligatory sewing is complete - tackle all those wonderful donated scraps and sew away to my heart’s content. That is, once my knee allows me to sit and sew again. I would love to spend my summer alternately sewing and swimming!

*********

The sale of my late brother’s home is now complete, and the new Estate account has been funded with the proceeds. There is a waiting period for a number of months to allow any potential creditors to come forward (possibly some medical charges?) Then come September, the funds can be distributed and the Estate tax return filed. It’s been a long, arduous process. The only thing I’m really pleased about in the short term is that all the money we’ve personally paid for making the house and utility payments for six months - to say nothing of the cremation and attorney fees - have been reimbursed. **sigh of relief **

Today (Saturday) is a Quilts for Kids workshop. I’ve got several sets of string blocks and some fabric yardage to donate. Our chapter has also agreed to accept the Pfaff Grand Quilter machine that my friend Pat donated. See this post about that machine.

That’s about it for now. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll post next week because of the surgery. But we can all just go with the flow, right? Have a great week!!