Deck progress

There has been steady progress on our new deck, thankfully.

One young man was the whole demolition crew, and by the end of Day 1 he had removed all of the vertical metal bars from the railing, and nearly all of the flooring.  All the parts and pieces had been put into the trailer in our driveway for the trash and any mess was cleaned up. 

At the end of Day 2 (Friday) he had everything torn out and the space all ready for the building crew to arrive on Monday morning.

By the end of Day 3 (Monday) the 2 guys doing the building had fill dirt added along the house where things had been sinking.  All of the bracing was attached to the house, and the wood was cut for the underneath framing.

Day 4 (Tuesday) saw all the floor stringers done and the beginning of the actual floor of the deck.  

Day 5 (Wednesday) ended with the flooring completely done and the steps partially done.  One of the black posts for the railing is laying near the step area in this photo.  

Thursday was Day 6, and began with a light drizzle of rain.  I wondered if the crew would show up to work on the deck, but they did.  And the rain stopped.  The steps you can't see, but they are done.  And the railings began to go up.  The one lying by the house will actually be the gate.  We put a gate on the old deck to corral the little kids and the dogs, but found it also kept deer and other big critters off the deck.  The raccoons just go over the gate unfortunately.  LOL

Day 7 (Friday) has it all done except for some of the skirting.  The black railings look nice with the warm brown of the floor.  And there are lights on the post caps. The hardware for that gate, and the skirting should all arrive by the end of this coming week so they'll install that when it comes in.  

Now to get everything moved back onto the deck - the grill, the table and chairs, and the flower pots.  Yesterday morning Dave scrubbed the table and chairs so they are ready to replace.  He hasn't decided if he's going to replace all the bird feeders that used to hang just outside the railings.  

RSC26 - Week #24

Today is Saturday Sampler in the morning, and Sew Vintage in the afternoon.  It's my favorite Saturday of every month.

Most of my sewing attention this week has been on red, white, and blue but I did manage to get a little pastel into the mix.  The 6" Mardi Gras blocks came together in pink.  Last month I had cut a bunch of the black and white pieces from scraps, so these were quick sewing.  They are made slightly oversize and then "sliver trimmed" to 6.5".  

A couple of Hollow-9 blocks happened too.  

The Ticker Tape block was a new one last month with orange, so eventually I'll be adding blocks in the other months' colors.  Last week I did 8 pastel ones, and this week I just added these 4.  There were quite a few red, white, and blue ones added to the patriotic stack of blocks however.  For the patriotic ones I'm using white backgrounds only, but on the RSC ones I'm doing a variety of neutral prints as well as white and cream. 

Just a few more string blocks are needed to finish this quilt top. String blocks are so addictive to make. These finish at 6" and have phone book pages as the foundation.  Usually when I make bigger ones I use muslin. It will be 48 x 60 as I have it planned.  But maybe I'll should add more and make it 60 x 72.  I do have a basket full of string blocks in other colors.  Decisions, decisions. 

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

This has been quite a week!!  I'm tired out. 

Late on Wednesday afternoon I was honored to award a Quilt of Valor in Sioux Falls to a Viet Nam veteran.  We moved this award up in the schedule as the veteran is in poor health.  It worked out perfectly because I could go the presentation and then went to watch a granddaughter play softball in a double-header just a few minutes away.  He was so tickled to receive the quilt, and his friends set up a nice little party to celebrate HIM. 

Thursday turned into a long sewing day.  My husband left the house at 8 am to meet both sons-in-law for golf.  They were meeting at a course in between us.  I wasn't invited, so I spent a good share of the day in my sewing room uninterrupted.  Then supper was at a Jackrabbit alumni social event here in town.  It was a pretty good day.

Vicki pointed out yesterday that I've had "pedal to the metal" this week.  That is quite true, with that progress spread out over several different projects.

An actual finish can be reported - this small table topper.  It is the practice block I made before cutting into the kit I bought for a 3-block runner.  The kit project is something I finished right away, and this one was in danger of being set aside with orphan blocks.  But I added the red and white borders, quilted it, and finished the binding in the car on the way to a grandson's baseball game on Monday.

However, the 2nd 60 degree runner I wanted to finish this week didn't go as well.  Oops!!  It's difficult to see in the photo but I had it all quilted and ready to bind when I discovered 3 big pleats in the backing.  Those were completely due to my being in a hurry to get it done.  So I'll be picking out some quilting over the weekend.

Since I was in binding mode this week I dug into my leftover lengths of binding for some mug rugs that were quilted and then added back into the pile.  These little mug rugs are quick binding in front of the TV when I don't have a ton of time.

I did switch to block sewing yesterday after messing up that quilting.  From the RWB fabrics found in that drawer - a partial strip set left over from a previous rail fence quilt.  I added a blue strip to the red/white strips, and cut it into 6" blocks and have added them to a small stack of other leftover Rail Fence blocks in our QOV bin.  They will go into some future QOV.  And more fabric had been used up from the drawer. 

Four more RWB Ticker Tape blocks were sewn from the big collection of parts I cut a few days ago.  These are good Leaders/Enders.

Finally a few blocks were made for Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but those I'll share tomorrow on the RSC post.

For more finishes, please visit:  https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

Garden Stars and more red, white, blue

Yesterday morning I had some sewing time, and it was spread over multiple projects.  Another Quilt of Valor was washed and dried as well, making 4 done this week. 

I attached the binding to another Quilt of Valor.  Today I should have time to trim it and begin the hand stitching.  This is the quilt before it was quilted.  It was the most recent QOV sew along hosted by Alycia, called Marching Stars.

The quarter units for a second Garden Stars block were sewn.  The paper still needs to be taken out of them.  Two down and 10 to go . . . over the next 12 months.

The top for the second 60 degree runner is sewn and sandwiched with backing and batting, ready for quilting.  The backing is more yardage removed from the drawer this week, and there is still enough for at least 1 more table runner I think.  It won't take long to quilt so possibly today it will be at the binding stage.

Mid-week check-in

I'm happy to report that 2 placemats and 2 mug rugs have been finished from that first border print, along with the table runner.  That first border print is now all used up.  Yay!!

The 2 placemats are nearly identical, so I flipped one over to show that striped backing from Nann's surprise box of goodies.  It was perfect. 

Next up is the 60 degree runner from the 2nd border print.  This was a smaller piece of yardage, so there wasn't enough for any placemats, but I did cut 6 mug rugs fronts from leftovers.  Hopefully this runner will be sewn and sandwiched with batting and backing this morning.  The mug rugs may wait awhile.

My big task yesterday was reorganizing all of the Quilts of Valor tops, bindings, and backings we have collected.  There are 21 quilt tops in that big bin, plus a number of bindings ready to use. We have 6 patriotic panels to use in more quilts.  And there are some presentation pillowcases.  What you can't see - 6 more tops I paired with backings that are ready to be quilted.  We're fortunate that we have lots of tops ready, because we got 3 new nominations in just this week. 

We actually have an award this afternoon in Sioux Falls for one veteran.  It was a last minute arrangement as the veteran is in very poor health so it needed to be done now instead of waiting until later in the summer.  I'm going to go do that one myself on my way to my granddaughter's softball game.  

Red, white and blue

Another busy weekend, with guild on Saturday and tree trimming on Sunday - with plenty of sewing time in between.  And it's birthday time for both the oldest grandchild and the youngest grandchild.

The tallest one of these 3 teens is our oldest grandchild.  He turns 15 today.  Happy birthday to Mason.  He and his 13 year old twin siblings hauled a LOT of branches while their dad trimmed some of our trees on Sunday.  Grandpa paid them well for their labor.

And the youngest grandchild is Jack, who turned 11 just a few days ago.  Grandpa went to his baseball game that evening.  He had a good game, driving in 2 runs.  We both went to his baseball game last night, and he had another double.

One of the QOV members brought back the quilt she bound for us.  This was actually a top that I made from my own stash.  The Spool blocks were done with strips.  The 2 quilt top kits I put together were taken by 2 members to put together. I got home just in time for our state coordinator to drop off 2 more quilts she had quilted for us.  And yesterday morning our group received 2 more award requests through the QOV website. 

My post yesterday mentioned trying to clear up QOV fabrics.  One of my goals for the week was to make 60 degree runners with 2 border prints I have had for ages.  One of those runners was a finish already on Sunday evening.  These are so fast to make - it was all done on Sunday before and after the tree trimming.  

There was enough of the border print left for 2 placemats and 2 mug rugs.  The backing for these is from the box that Nann sent me last week.  I have them quilted but need to get them all bound yet.    

Design Wall Monday - June 8

The new paper pieced project - Garden Stars - from Carol Doak will have a star block posted each month, and there are also alternate blocks that will separate the stars.  She gave us the pattern for the 12 alternate blocks on June 1 so we can work on those through out the year.  I have my first one sewn, and am loving how it turned out.  I have 2 more of these ready to sew this week.  

The contractors that are rebuilding the deck on the back of our house arrived on Thursday morning, and by the end of Day 1 they had all of the flooring removed except that one little section.  Our very confused cats sat around on that section in the evening, probably wondering what the heck was going on. One guy was back in the morning on Friday at 7:30 and had that little platform gone.  By noon he had half of the rotten stringers removed too. By Friday afternoon it was completely gone and cleaned up.  Today they will begin to rebuild our new deck.   

I don't usually have trouble sleeping, but last Thursday night I woke up about 1 am when a thunderstorm rolled through here.  Then I spent the next 2 hours lying awake, listening to it rain and thinking.  My brain just didn't want to shut down - and it was mostly spinning about how much my sewing room needs some major organizing - again.  Friday morning I tackled one area to attempt to tame the beast.

Part of my problem is an over-abundance of yardage (and scraps) for Quilts of Valor. There is a 2-drawer (deep drawers) unit full of red/white/blue fabric, some of it yardage and lots of good size leftover pieces.  I pulled out one drawer and dumped the contents out on the floor.  In there were these 2 patriotic border prints.  I'm going to use them for a couple of quick 60 degree table runners.  It's time to use these pretty fabrics instead of storing them.

The larger pieces of yardage went into the big tote with other QOV yardage.  I did keep out some yardage that would make better backing than blocks.  Then I began with the chunks of yardage, cutting pieces for various QOV block sets currently in progress.  Depending on the size of the chunks I focused on Gleam, Buckeye Beauty, and Ticker Tape block parts.  Two new Gleam blocks were born from those scraps so far, and there are now 17 of the 30 needed for the quilt top.  And the parts above the block are for Buckeye Beauty blocks.  We already have nearly enough of the Buckeye blocks for a quilt collected from several members last fall, so now the parts are ready for 8 more.  Another step closer to a flimsy.  

And from narrower chunks of those scraps I cut more parts for Ticker Tape blocks. These use 2.5" strips.  There are parts for 24 new ones all clipped into sets, ready to be Leaders/Enders this week while I work on other projects.

The newly empty drawer is now holding backing for various projects I have waiting to be quilted.  There was even room for some leftover backing that will be perfect for smaller projects.  Instead of in a couple of piles on the floor it's now in 1 place.  It even has a label attached to remind me what's in it. Maybe in the next few days I can empty that other drawer, or at least get it better organized. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/