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.  

Let's get physical

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! LOL!! I have just been so busy. Work has been physically demanding with all the shipments of stuff we have been getting lately. Yesterday a truck pulled up with two large crates that had tool storage boxes in them. Because of something else on the dock, I couldn't use the dock plate so the driver and I had to drag the smaller box off. It is the one in the picture with all the stuff on top. The other tool box was so heavy! I cut the cardboard off of it so we could see what we were working with. Between the pallet jack and me pushing, we got the thing turned around in the truck so we could open it. Inside was all the other stuff that had been ordered. No wonder it was so heavy compared to the other tool box! We had to unload the tool box before we could drag it onto the dock.

It took us about a half hour to pull the stuff out of the tool box. What wouldn't fit on top of the smaller box, I put here circled in green.

They call this a 6" bridge clamp, but it is really overall about 12" in length and weighs at least 25 pounds! We only received part of what we ordered so there is another 44 coming of this size. There were 4" ones too.

Then a fellow dropped off a bunch of safety supplies - gloves, vest, glasses - from the home office. Thanks goodness I had ordered myself this two-wheel dolly or otherwise I would have to try and drag all these boxes all the way to the safety supply room. Let's just say I was tired when I got home from work!

I was so tired when I got home I fell asleep in my sewing chair. I did do a couple things around the house once I woke up, but no quilting happened. I have been working on a sampler. I don't remember where I got this picture, but I am stitching it just off the picture. I don't get too concerned with exactness. Here is the picture and where I am right now. Once I get it stitched, I will over dye it to age it.

Spectacular!

That describes the total eclipse I saw yesterday. My neighbor took some fabulous pictures

Here is when we were in total and it was as dark as night. There was no light whatsoever! I know you can hardly see anything, but there was a silver of light and two solar flares!

On a not as exciting note, I am now more than halfway done with the Harley quilt. 14 of the 25 shirts are quilted. I was glad to get the middle one quilted.

I did get the ornamental grass cut down that borders the front of my property. There are 7 plants and I ended up using my little electric chain saw to cut them down. The stems get so woody! I still have some cleanup to do, but I was glad to get them cut back before they start to grow.

The home office had some eclipse treats and the boss man who was at a meeting there brought a few back to our office. Unfortunately, I threw the cookie in my bag, and it got broken. I should have taken the picture before I put it in my bag. It was a cute cookie.

One more done

I got one more shirt quilted last evening. It had a lot of detail outlining so it took a couple hours to quilt.

Bag has been repaired

I used the sewing machine as much as I could, but there was still some hand stitching I had to do. I could only get so much of that case under the presser foot. I found a piece of UltraSuede that worked perfectly for replacing the shredded fabric. UltraSuede is strong and doesn't fray so a single layer works great for repairs. Here is the before and after

Now I can get back to the Harley quilt.

Quilting and quilting

I worked pretty hard on the Harley quilt, but I don't think there is any way I can get it done by Sunday. It took me all day to get five shirts quilted! I now have 8 quilted and 17 to go. If I just didn't have a job! LOL!!

Friday on my way home from work I just turned onto my street spied something I could use for a plant stand at work. I had just told someone I needed the neighborhood to gift me a plant stand and it did! It wasn't just ugly, it was fugly!

I slapped on a couple coats of black paint and found a piece of wood to make a larger top. That will work!

One of the guys carried it up the steps to the office. I glued the top on and now the plants will have a little distance from the glass so they don't get fried this summer. Once the adhesive sets up, I will put the other smaller plants on the stand.

I went to my brother's house for Easter and I got a lot of goodies. The box has a magnetic closure; I am sure I will find a good use for it! The pink bag has Easter bread in it.  I took taco seasoning to pass out.

While I was there my brother handed me this case to see if I could fix it. What a mess! LOL!! He needs it for next week. I figure it is going to take a couple hours to fix it so that will be an evening of not working on the Harley quilt. I have told him don't let things get so bad, but maybe this just ripped.  He said he didn't care what it looked like when I was done as long as it worked.  He uses it for something for the keyboard.  There maybe a few swear words involved!  LOL!

On schedule and the tree is gone

The quilt top is sewn back together and trimmed. Whew!

I got the backing washed and here it is in the dryer.

When I got home from work, the tree was gone. Yeah! Here is what it looked like before and after. The tree was not in good condition and the needles were very sharp! It was a lot easier to remove it now with the skid steer than me having to cut it down! Getting rid of it will make it easier for my neighbor to regrade the lawn from removing that abutment. There was some weed barrier fabric under the tree with junk growing on it left in a wad in my yard. I told my neighbor I would get rid of it, but I got too busy last night with the quilt to deal with it. So, I got out there at 6 A.M. this morning, rolled over the trash bin, laid down the bin, and shoved the stuff inside the bin. I had cut down the ornamental grass - you can see the tan debris laying in the pictures - so I cleaned that up while I was at it. It reminded me of a R.E.M. song "Gardening at Night." LOL!! I wanted to get that cleaned up since guys were coming today to spread topsoil.

Have a great weekend and have a wonderful Easter!