In my quest to increase my quilting skills I did break my no buy for one fabric.   I purchased the One Block Wonder books years ago and put off making one as it seemed time consuming and difficult.  So this is the fabric I ordered for my one block wonder quilt.  You need 6 of the exact fabric pieces so instead of trying to get exact on my first try, I ordered 6 identical panels.  Pretty soon I need to stop and quilt the tops I have ready.

Starting in June, I am working to see how many quilts I can finish without buying fabrics.  My goal is also to push myself to learn new techniques and forge ahead into more difficult quilts along with finishing planned or started projects.

So, this past weekend I just grabbed the first project that was in my started/planned closet.  It’s a blooming nine patch that I started years ago.   I made the pieced blocks a few years ago and packed it away as I realized it was sewn in diagonal rows and I struggle with keeping those organized and the end triangles turned in the right direction.   Not to mention, it had to all be laid out at once before you could sew the rows.  So I pulled it out, cut my 150+ solid squares and started laying it out.  First I spent a half hour or so laying it out on the bed to find it wasn’t a large enough space.  I moved it to the floor and it took over 2 hours as I had to move it twice to fit in the area I had to work with.  Next I sewed both the corners of the quilt and I am pleased to say I only had to unsew 3 of the end pieces because I turned them the wrong way.

I took a break to make dinner and failed to close the door so of course Merlin found the pieces and rolled around in them before I found him.  Shannon was kind enough to crawl around on the floor with me and it took us 45 minutes to rearrange the rows.   I stayed up till after midnight Sunday piecing the final rows as I was not going to lay them out again.  Still needs borders then to be quilted but here’s my progress so far.

Merlin is my mostly quiet one.  He’d be happy to just sit on your lap and love you forever.   I worry sometimes because he seems depressed and he hides in a corner of the bedroom.  I’m hoping it’s just a phase and passes once baby dog gets a little older and less crazy.   This is Merlin’s new sleeping habit.

We talk all the time about how big baby dog’s head is.  You really notice it side by side.  Argus is 11 months old and baby dog is 4 months.  If you look at his feet they are already as big as Merlin’s so I hope he grows into that head.

A storm was coming in and cooled the air down so it was at least breathable.  The boys enjoyed the few minutes of cooler weather playing in the yard.

I absolutely love teaching people to look at a fabric and be inspired to make something beautiful.    I pulled some teals and chocolate for one and yellow and blues for the other out of my stash.  Turns out both Kennetha and Marilyn loved the teal and chocolate.    As luck would have it, I have exactly enough to let them both use the same fabric.  We will have to find a coordinating color for their binding.  So while they practiced making accurate 1/4″ seams, I cut pieces.   The first picture attached is the fabric both ladies are using and since I had the yellow and blue already cut up, I spend Sunday sewing it up and I’ll donate the quilt.  I’ll repost it once it’s quilted.

When you’ve spend over half a day cleaning your house because you have a quilt class to teach the following day.  This is when you have to decide love them or kill them?  You will notice baby dog isn’t innocent.  His head is just barely in picture on the right.  He’s smart enough to run when the front door opens.   And they wonder why they have to stay gated in the play room when I’m not home.

I will be starting a new monthly quilt group at my house this Saturday.  We’ve had to put it off so long for one reason or another but we’re finally starting and I’ll post pictures of what the ladies are going to learn.

 

In case the sod, umbrella and mulch wasn’t enough, Robert also got my custom birdhouse put up.  Yes that’s a jeep with an actual mud hole on the house.  It was custom made by a friend.

He also replaced my toilet while I was gone and since the garbage men won’t pick up a toilet, we made it a garden.  Now I tell people look for the house with toilet in the front yard.

Wow talk about being blessed.   Robert and I went to Lowe’s Sunday to see if any chance we could get decent sod and try and fix where dogs have eaten my grass.   Left so much black dirt the pups just stay dirty all the time and muddy when it rains.   We found a bunch of veggie plants for Robert but no sod.  He went back Monday and they had a new load so he was able to get enough in the jeep to do half the yard.     He added new layer of black much, chairs and it looks awesome.  The cushions arrive tomorrow now that we have a container to store them in.  Can’t wait to get another load and finish up the yard.

Hard to believe he got 40 pieces of sod and 5 – 50# bags of mulch in the jeep.