Quilting at last

I didn’t get as much sewing done this past week as I wanted. We had some really nice weather and spent a lot of time outside doing  yard work. Some of it easy, like picking vegetable, some of it arduous. That would be clearing the weed trees and brush from the property lines. When we bought this place it had been allowed to get very overgrown. And what it is overgrown with is an invasive species of shrub called Buckthorn.  Here’s what Ontario Trees and Shrubs webpage has to say about it:
 Notes: Common Buckthorn is a very invasive alien plant, originally from Europe. It can grow up to about 20 feet tall. Please help to slow the spread of this plant by pulling it up whenever you see it. However, please be sure that you're pulling up the right plant, as it can resemble native Dogwoods. The thorns are wicked - watch out for them!
I can attest to the wickedness of the thorns. Tried to grab a pile of branches without my work gloves and got a 2 inch thorn in my finger. Ouch indeed.
After three days of chopping this stuff down, we still have lots of it out there but I was totally worn out. I called a halt and went back to sewing.
And here it is, Bohemian Rhapsody on the basting wall finally. I thought long and hard over the back. It was really difficult to bring myself to actually cut the Polish fabric I had ordered for this. It was just so lovely. And I didn’t want a plain ordinary back with these spectacular fabrics, it had to stand out. So this is what I came up with.
A lot of math when into it. Including adding extra to the side pieces so there is overage for the quilting process.
Perhaps I was patting myself to hard on my back because several hours into the quilting this is what I came across.
See that big blue triangle…it shouldn’t be a triangle. It should have a floral corner. I put the brakes on and decided to sleep on the decision. Do I try and add the floral piece that is missing? There is only one seam to undo since it an edge piece. And if you look in the big picture you can actually see it. If you follow the vertical centre line of the squares, the bottom right one.
While I think it over, I’m off the walk the yard looking for things that need to be put away from the rain coming today, like the box of potatoes I dug.
And a bonus of the lumberjack work, I actually got to see one of the elusive tree frogs that have been so annoying to listen to all summer. I hope you can see him here on his tree. ( and no, I didn’t cut his tree down). Now to connect up with Jo and her UFO progress update

A busy August

is finished and now that all the socializing is over with I can settle down to quilting. That was my thoughts as September started. And it has worked out, mostly.  I quilted a baby panel that has been kicking around in my stash for a long time. No picture as yet, still has to get the binding on.

I also got the Bohemian Rhapsody blocks together. Have had a hard time trying to get a good picture of it, my design wall isn’t big enough for it, my basting wall room had poor lighting. So I thought outside on the clothesline would be perfect to bring out the colours. A little too much wind, but hubby was kind enough to hold it down for me.

After this, we took off for a trip across the border to pick up fabric from my US mail box.  Some of which was destined to be the backing for this quilt.

Aren’t they great ? This is some of the Polish fabric that the fabric store half of the Quilted Twins brought back. I was bumbling around trying to think of what to use for a backing when Rachael put these up and the light bulb went off in my head. My niece is part Polish on her mother’s side, since this is a wedding gift for her, Polish fabrics would be perfect.

One of the other packages to pick up was the box of shirts from Jo.

Isn’t this great, a box just stuffed with goodies. Thanks so much Jo, I’m going to love using these. After so many quilts with my stash of shirts, I was starting to get tired of seeing them. In another attempt to use them up, I started a Spider Web quilt.

Surprisingly these use very little pieces. The longest strip is only 5’’, so it is going to take a while to work through my pile of shirts.

And the other packages? Well, while I was waiting for Jo’s box, I did order a few more packages of fabric from the Quilted Twins

With prices so good, I couldn’t resist.

Now to link up with Jo’s UFO Progress