Quilting and Handwork Projects

It continues to be a cool and rainy summer…that is typical weather for August. On one of the few sunny days, I washed the quilt from my bed and finished drying it outside.

I have done a tiny bit of quilting on my Nolting mid-arm…I’m still having a little trouble with my quilting mojo.

In mid July, I did a three-day retreat with a group I call the, “Sisters.” Three sisters set up 3-day retreats at our local quilt shop several times throughout the year and I am lucky enough to get invited to be a part of their family. Initially I said no way to their July retreat…no summer retreats of me. But our wet and dreary summer weather meant I was available.

Instead of starting yet a new quilt I pulled out a UFO.

I had fused all the pieces in place for this Nancy Halvorsen design in April of 2013, while we were living in Paris. 

I needed to do the blanket stitching around all the appliques.  I did it all on my Bernina 440 with foot  number 23 foot, which is a clear acrylic foot. 

I was able to finish five blocks in three days and finished the rest at home.  I need to add some simple embroidery to the blocks and then I can finish constructing the top. That will probably happen at my next Sisters Retreat in early October.

My next summer project, Chicken Salad, designed by Lori Holt. I've made all the appliques, now they need to be glued into place and topstitched. One block ready for topstitching.

Getting those feet in the right place was so tedious. 

My plan is to complete one block and if it all works out great I will get all the other blocks glued together and then topstitch all so I can minimize changing thread color a million times.

I completed the last two Mill Hill Christmas ornaments from 2022. Jim Shore's Gnome with Ornaments and Gnome Holding Holly. I made a major change to all the Gnome ornaments, the backstitching was supposed to have two strands of floss in most of the situations. I did the first ornament like that and hated it so ripped that out and did all the backstitching in one strand of floss. I never make changes to Mill Hill kits but that changed this year.

I just received the new Santa ornaments from Mill Hill...adorable Australia theme. Mill Hill just released the new Jim Shore series and it is again...gnomes...but in creamy neutral colors. No immediate plans to start the new ornament series. I like to work on those kits while traveling. 

I finished one more mantel series from Merry Stockings, their 2023 release.

Fire Station

Post Office

A big fancy house.

A cute red pickup.

And a Christmas Tree lot.

Adorable set. 

Now I am working on Halloween projects. I'm pretty excited about Merry Stockings July release, Halloween Village. I've started work on it but just a little embroidery on one piece.

And I also started work on a series of witches designed by Brooke's Books for perforated paper. I've had these patterns for several years and have slowly been collecting all the specialty threads.

This is Batty Belinda Witch. 

I am obviously an experienced cross stitcher on perforated paper but some of these specialty threads, like Kreinik #8 Fine Braid, were impossible to use with the paper. I couldn't even get the Kreinik thread through the eye of my needle. I bumped up to a larger needle and of course...that was too big for the paper holes. I had some Kreinik in the #4 fine braid that is a smaller size that I substituted. 

Some of the called for items were DMC Memory Threads which aren't available anymore. They are thread wrapped wire. The wires were used to make embellishments and part of the witch's broom. So...I'll have to figure out something else. I have some ideas for the broom...chenille stick in black as the broom handle...maybe some cute buttons from Just Another Button Company for embellishments. 

There are 14 more witches from Brooke's Books. I'm going to have to look at converting all the #8 braids to #4. Such a bummer. I didn't see any more Memory Thread used in the rest of the patterns.

I received so many nice comments about my landscaping.

 Thank You!

I did have a question about working with the metal tubs...yes...I do drill four holes in the bottoms of the tubs. I bought a half-inch drill bit for the job. Easily penetrates the metal. 

Sometimes I get a moose that strolls through my metal tubs when they are covered with snow. So far just a little bent edge that I was able to hammer into a decent edge which the plantings cover. 

I had a recent bone density test...all the weight bearing exercise I get with my "Rock Gym," has really paid off...I have nice strong and dense bones.

Summer Finally Arrived

 It looked doubtful during the month of June but we finally started to have summer weather in July. August is typically cooler and rainy but the first week was great. 

Unfortunately the forecast for the rest of the month is typical August weather.  

I’ve made great progress on my rockwork around the hill constructed as our septic drain field. 

Here is where I am as of this morning.

For me, this blog is a way to journal about my projects so I'm going to get pretty detailed about my rockwork. Below is Day 2 of my rockwork for 2023. I started at the tree at the bottom left and met up with the tree in the center…where I ended my rockwork in 2022.

Day 5 of the rockwork got me past two venting pipes for the septic system.

Day 6. My process is to scrape off the layer of grass and then lay down cardboard to block out the weeds. I have a great pile of gravel that I use as the underlayment for the big rocks. I had a blog reader several years ago suggest using the gravel as the base for my rockwork. She changed my world! So thankful for that huge tip. 

My personal goal is to move at least 10 substantial rocks per work day. The hardest part is getting started so I almost always start by just thinking...it's only 10 rocks. Of course...most of the time I move more than 10.

Day 7 and 8 involved a lot of pondering about how to add in a planting bed.

Just as I finished the rockwork for the planting bed my local garden nursery cut prices on perennials and annuals by 50-percent. 

This is a mostly shaded area and I wanted perennials here. I did a mass planting of coral bells. I had great success with this perennial at my last house...we'll see how it does here. 

The view from the bottom of the hill.

And another view from the bottom of the hill. This was all started just last summer. 

I set three tubs. I have a thing for using these metal tubs I get at Home Depot. These gorgeous hot pink impatiens are so fun and part of the big sale at my local nursery.

I don't have much rock left to work with this summer so my goal is to get what rock I have into place above the impatiens. 

And I just wanted to highlight a photo below from June 18th of one of my perennial beds.

This is the same area this morning, August 6th.

Maybe just one more plant photo. This is one of my planters on my deck. All of my deck planters are at their peak right now. Pretty spectacular. Our summers are so short but we get a lot of action during it.

Oh yes...I know you are wondering if we had any bear visits. But of course! I even managed a photo and a video.  I was sitting on my computer when I spotted this little black bear walking along the dog kennel that is outside my sewing room door.

My dogs were napping and had no idea we had a visitor. It’s so nice when critters cooperate for videos. 

I will do a post in a day or two that covers my progress on quilting and hand stitching. 

Handwork and Landscaping Progress

No quilting recently except for buying a few quilt patterns and a patriotic batik fat quarter bundle.

We continue to have a cool and cloudy summer. I remember a summer like this and looked up what year that was, 2009. It was the result of a local volcano, Mt. Redoubt, that spewed some ash. 

In April, the Russian volcano, Sheveluch, had a large ash cloud and at the time I read an article that predicted it would mean a cooler summer for Alaska. Looks like that particular article was right. (major sigh…) My veggie garden looks so pathetic. Last summer I was eating broccoli from my garden by mid July. This year, the heads on the broccoli just appeared and are about an inch wide. I’m so disappointed.

Kale and lettuces are getting to the stage where we can start eating those veggies. My strawberry patch is working on making strawberries and my blueberry bushes were loaded with flowers so hoping for a good crop this fall.

My perennial beds look wonderful…happy dance.

I am trying to stay focused on my huge landscaping project I started last year. 

I’m terracing this mound that is my septic drain field. After consulting with the engineer who designed our septic system, I was given a thumbs up to add whatever I want. We haven’t had a lot of rain days so even though it is gloomy…it’s decent weather for moving rocks. I’m planning to remove all of the grass on the sides of the mounds. This area gets decent sunlight during a normal summer so it’s a great place to plant some honeyberry or Haskap berry bushes and more perennials.

Last year’s layer of tiers constructed on the mound gave me a place to plant these gorgeous Columbines. I bought these plants last fall on a close-out sale. 

Below the Columbines, I created this niche for ferns several years ago by transplanting fiddlehead ferns from our surrounding woods. This area is starting to fill in…so satisfying. 

Next to the ferns is the start of last year's bottom tier. I filled it with perennials subdivided from my backyard perennial beds: Day Lillies, Irises and Little Princess Spireas. The red and yellow Columbines were another set of close-out sales last summer. I expect the Irises will get moved at some point but for now it's a place to keep them while I create more flower beds.

Below is where my rock work on the backside of the mound ends. This area was covered in weeds and scraggly grass as it is mostly a shade area. Too steep to mow...now it's a fun rock wall. My three-year-old grand daughter loves climbing on all my rock work in the yard...a great little bonus.

In the mornings when I am working in my studio, instead of quilting, I’ve been prepping to make more blouses for myself. The drawer full of batik rayon fabrics was really bugging me so now that I have a pattern I really like, I have cut out nine tops. 

It’s not often my cutting table is clear so I moved everything onto other spaces in my studio and spent several mornings getting nine tops cut out.

And I cut out one batik cotton top.

Onto handwork projects. 

I finished two cross stitch pieces in the 12 Days of Christmas series.

Ten Lords a Leaping.

And 11 Pipers Pipping.

I also framed the laundry room-themed cross stitch pieces I finished earlier this year.

It was a nice little challenge to frame these pieces. The top piece is a frame from Walmart that was a pale wood tone. Trying to mix my own paint color to match the cross stitch was tricky…but I did it! The bottom trio frame didn’t need any changes…just a fabric covered piece to mount the cross stitch pieces onto.

My latest felt kit project I finished is a mantel series designed by Merry Stockings.

These pieces came together pretty quickly. No individual stuffing of the applique areas...just a layer of quilt batting for the entire piece.

Mostly an outline stitch which is my favorite.

Such a great concept to make free-standing pieces.

I started the second kit in the mantel series. This is the Fire Station.

I also started a Bucilla ornament kit. Just a little diversion when I want to stitch on a little project I can finish in a couple of nights.

The only quilt related project I’ve worked on is my Bear Batik panel design on EQ8. 

There were several versions until I reached this one. It finishes at 74-inches square.

There have been plenty of critter sightings...mostly moose but black and grizzly bears continue to visit us...just haven't captured a photo of them.  My dogs, Gordon Setters which are bird hunters, flushed out a tiny bird from some tall grass on a recent dog walk. They then pulled the bird's tiny nest out of the grass...with two tiny eggs which were destroyed in the whole event. I'm not a big person and this nest would easily fit in the palm of my hand. 

It's always so interesting to read about the different weather conditions other bloggers are having this summer. I think weather is my major topic of conversation. 

Hoping you are having at least some great days of summer weather that are not too hot or too stormy.