Been busy

Work has been busy so by the time I get home from work I'm tired. I have stuff I need to get done so I think I need to remind myself as soon as I walk in the door what I need to focus on and get it done! I think I will make a list and post it where I will see it as soon as I walk in the door. I found a little cross stitch design that says Carpe Acus seize the needle that I want to make into little pillow to give as gifts. I started on the first one and it has been fun to stitch.

I had a haircut appointment yesterday afternoon. I had a few minutes before my appointment, so I walked over to the Polish pottery store. I always head to the 50% off shelves. The pottery is expensive, but it is so pretty! I bought the large oval dish two weeks ago and last night I bought the small oval and the round bowl. It is microwave and oven safe so it's fun to cook and eat out of a fun dish.

When I got home there was a package with my order from the Kitten Stitcher. She had some Blackbird Moda fabric marked down to five dollars a yard, so I bought two yards of three colors to make project bags.

I am going to pair them with the tan/goldish bolt of fabric I bought a while back.

You might not know that Blackbird Designs is a huge name in the counted cross stitch industry and their designs are beautiful. They have done a few reproduction designs and do lots of orginal designs. I wish I could afford to buy all the softcovered books they have published.

Project bags and Lenten roses

I needed some project bags. I gave the majority of mine to the lady at work that took them to the retreat to sell so I had kitted projects all over the place needing a bag. I got 8 large bags and 8 small bags that were partially sewn together finished.

The rest of the weekend was going on a road trip to get my prescription sunglasses that had to be remade, laundry, cleaning, cooking, and cross stitching this tiny carrot for fun.

Whenever I went upstairs to the kitchen I checked to see if the zucchini needed turned. They have really grown. I can see some of them are starting to get their second leaves. Here what they looked like Friday and what they look like now.

I did weed for only about 15 minutes last evening just enough so I could show how many Lenten Rose seedling have popped up. There are hundreds of them! I think since we had such a warm winter more survived. Now I have to figure out what I am going to do with them.  They are everywhere!

Bands are done

It was a bit fiddley, but I got the bands sewed together. The glue worked out perfectly to hold the elastic together while I had to stretch it to get them sewn. I also made the boxy pouch to put them in. I'm glad that job is done!

When I first got home from work I decided to cut back the ornamental grass I had planted along the property line. Here is what that looked like.

This is looking up the hill after everything has been cut.

This is looking down the hill after I did the initial clean up with the leaf blower. I still need to give it a good rake; everything is still muddy so I will wait until it dries out a bit so maybe this weekend.

This morning I went into the kitchen and was surprised on how much bigger the zucchini seedings had grown overnight. I have to keep turning them because they do bend toward the light in a matter of hours. Here is what they look like on Wednesday and what they look like this morning.

I need to get back to the Harley quilt this weekend. Other than a quick trip to pick up my prescription sunglasses that I have been waiting on the corrected pair for a month, I plan on staying home. Have a great weekend.

Hit the ground running

There was no messing about when I got home from work yesterday. The elastic for the bands came. Yeah!

But the first thing I did was to plant the zucchini. They are now sitting on the kitchen table. I did push the table closer to the sliding door so they would get the morning light.

After I got the mess cleaned up from that I headed out to meet a coworker for dinner. She is the lady that took the project bags to sell and works out of the office 2 1/2 hours away. She was staying in town for meetings so I offered to take her someplace for dinner. She was hungry for Italian so I took her to a local place. She had baked spaghetti and I got a pizza big enough for leftovers. Here is what was left of my pizza.

When I got home from dinner I needed to get a start on the bands. I cut the lengths of elastic 5 1/2 inches and marked a line at 4 1/2 inches for my overlap.

These bands are so small I knew there would be no way to hold the layers in place while I sewed them. I decided to run a bead of glue in the overlap area, fold the elastic over, and clamp it with a binder clip. I didn't know if this would work, but I went ahead and did all twenty I needed to make.

This morning I had a few minutes to try and sew one of the bands and I was successful! It is a bit fiddley to get the elastic under the presser foot, but it didn't take too long to sew. These just seem so small, but they are elastic and they need to hold the wireless transmitted tight to the guitar strap.

I decided to quickly cut out and prep fabric and interfacing to make a boxy pouch to put the bands in. Much better than using a plastic bag in my book! I will whip that together tonight so I can hand these off to my brother tomorrow (this would be another brother not the one who needs the bands).

In my package from Wawak with the elastic, they tucked in a sheet of stickers. This is the first time I have ever received these. This is the same place I bought that thread and zippers for the project bags.

I had to stick the SEW one on my Yeti I carry every day with my water.

Still busy.

I had an appointment yesterday afternoon so I did a couple errands afterwards so my evening was short. I did get a bit more stitched on that little sampler

I need to get my zucchini seedlings planted. It has been only a couple weeks and they are going crazy in their plastic bag greenhouse.

I promised one of my readers that I would post pictures of the yarn winder my Dad make me. She knits beautiful sweaters and had shown on her blog how she loops her yarn around a thread cabinet so she can make the hanks into balls. I don't even knit that much so I feel like this winder is a waste on me! I bought some yarn a few years ago with intentions of knitting myself a sweater so I grabbed one of the skeins to demonstrate how the winder works.  The X piece turns as the yard is pulled. 

I got a message that my elastic has arrived for the wireless bands. Yeah!

Sampler and more sewing for the band

Yesterday I had such a busy day at work I was dog tired by the time I got home. It was all I could do to get a bite to eat and just sit to try and get a second wind. I did finally stitch a bit on that small sampler. Here is where I was, where I am now, and what it will look like when it is done.

You see that phone holding down the linen in the second picture? That is my new work phone I had to go and get set up yesterday. It is an iPhone 15 and I have to learn how to use it. Everything is swiping, but there are no directions on what to do to get things to work! I don't use my work phone but for phone calls, texting, and going on the internet so I should be able to figure it out or ask someone who can show me. The phone is 6" long. I did get a phone call on my personal phone from my brother. His buddy on tour needs some bands made for holding wireless transmitters on the guitars he is the tech for. I don't know which fellow in the band, but I will find out. It will be another piece of Patty on the stage! My brother thought I had made the ones his buddy had, but they had rivets holding them together (really? they used rivets?). I did not make those. They got me some measurement so I order the elastic last night which will arrive tomorrow so I can get started on them. My nephew is going to the Springsteen show on Sunday in Columbus so I can send them with him. I need to make twenty. Here is what the band looks like.

My brother said if his buddy likes them, he will want more. I did get a good night's sleep so I do feel better today.

Harley quilt progress, stitching, and yardwork

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, I have just been so busy. I got a bit more done on the Harley quilt this weekend. Only 7 more shirts left to quilt.

Saw momma in the backyard. She looks pregnant. I saw her and her twins she had last year on Sunday. Her daughters didn't look like they were expecting.

I bought a new fry pan from Lodge. It is carbon steel. I tried it out and it worked well browning some chicken and it cleaned up easy. I bought the 10" pan; I think I should have bought the 12".

My order came from eQuilter. I bought fabric that was on sale and had a ten dollar coupon. This fabric I bought for the back of a future Harley quilt. They didn't have enough of the white with the black skulls, so I bought a piece of the dark with the same skulls on it. It is really hard to see the skulls.

To fill out the order so I could get free shipping, I bought some fabric for project bags.

I finished stitching this sampler. I am going to overdye it to age it.

Here is the next piece I am working on; another small sampler. It was very hard to put down and work on something else.

Saturday I spent a few hours outside doing yardwork. The front yard was looking like a hay field! I got the debris from the ornamental grass cleaned up, trimmed, then mowed. I got in about an hour of weeding and cleaning up the center bed; there is more to do. On Sunday, I helped my neighbor cut down her two big ornamental grasses. She hasn't done it before and the plants just look awful. Between the two of us it didn't take too long to get the plants cut and the mess cleaned up. I then decided to shovel for ten minutes to move the dirt from next to the garage to the fill in the tracks left by the skid steer when the fellow pulled out the steps and landing. I figure if I just shovel for 10 minutes I won't overdo it physically. Shoveling is hard work! LOL!! The dirt is fairly loose, but I have to keep picking out bricks and chunks of concrete. Here is what it looked like before I started. I forgot to take an in progress picture. Once I get the ground leveled out, I can finish painting the foundation that I couldn't reach because of the steps.