HAPPY NATALIE

I received a photo from Natalie whom I gifted my Pi quilt to.

She's taken it to college with her.

She loves it.

This makes me so happy.

 

NINE-PATCH PI QUILTED

 I finally finished the quilting on the Nine-Patch Pi Quilt.

It's fabulous!

QUILTING FM PI

 I finally decided on how to quilt the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

I'm doing a totally free-motion curvy, loopy line from bottom to top.

P.S. we got this Monday off from Jury Duty for some reason, but it's back at it tomorrow.  I probably won't be able to get back to quilting this.  I hope I can pick up on the same rhythm and motion so it looks consistent.

NINE-PATCH PI BACKING

 I started yesterday and finished up the backing for the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

It's almost too small, I think I'm going to have to add some to the length.

MONDAY MADNESS

 It was a busy day.  First a nice morning walk - it was almost 60 degrees this morning and no rain.  First, it was get a package ready to ship (a return) and take it to UPS in Burien.  Then off to Tukwila to deposit all that money from the sale of Eduard.  109 Benjamins, 4 Jacksons and 2 Hamiltons.  

Then on to Renton to Sewing Machine Service from where I'm purchasing the new Q24.  I needed to drop off some paperwork and see about a new fancy magnetic metal bowl - but they don't make them.  Boy, downtown Renton is a mess with all of the street re-construction going on - neverending.

On my way home, I made a trip to Harbor Freight where I could buy a new magnetic metal bowl for my longarm straight pins.  It wasn't until later, after I bought the fancy red one, that I began to think the reason Bernina doesn't make one with their name on it - like all of the other manufacturers do - is because the longarm frame is aluminum and the rollers are a hard plastic.  No sticky.

After lunch with D, I went up to the studio to visit with my Brave Patch friends.  We had a nice talk while I was working on my old Pi project - Clocks.

BACKING PROBLEM

I ordered three yards of black and white fabric with numbers for the back of the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

It arrived with a small hole in it.

I thought about complaining since I wanted to use it in one piece for the backing.

But, I will be piecing parts in because there isn't enough for the complete back.

I don't need to worry, they would probably only send me a quarter yard anyway to make up for the hole.  More trouble than it's worth.

I MADE A LEGEND

 I made a legend for the back of the Nine-Patch Pi quilt so, hopefully, folks will understand what I've  done on the front.

As I was sewing it all together, I see that the 'four' has a stain on the white fabric [this is one of the reasons I hate working with white - I almost always manage to smudge it up].

I took it all apart and replaced and redid the white part.

LAST OF THE NINE-PATCHES

I've been working on making the nine-patches for the Pi quilt on and off the last week or so.

Today I made the last of them.  Yoo-hoo!

The last few rows still need to be sewn together.  

I ordered some black and white fabric with numbers for the backing.  It should be here soon. In the meantime, I think I'll make a legend to go on the back to explain what's happening on the front.

ALL THE COLORS

Jelly and I went for a nice walk in Lincoln Park this morning.  We started at about 7am and it was dark. There's not too many folks in the park at that time of the day either.   I had to use the flashlight for the first half.  On the way back I encountered a suspicious young man acting strangely so I turned around and backtracked.  He gave me a good scare.  He didn't follow me, but it made me think again about being alone in the park like that.

 Back at the studio, I cut and arranged the rest of the colors for the last of the rows for the Nine-Patch Quilt.

Now it's just making all of the number blocks...

ROWS 11 AND 12

 These last two rows, in blues, are rows 11 and 12 of 18.

I sewed them on and then folded the quilt up and moved it up on the design wall so I could work below it.

I've cut and added the blues and started into the blue-greens.

MORE ROWS

 I cut a bunch more colors to add to the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

WAIT A MINUTE

 I started working again on my Nine-Patch Pi quilt a few weeks ago.  I had put it away months ago into a project box.  When I pulled it out, I was surprised it wasn't farther along.  I could have sworn I had more colors laid out and ready to go.  But, I went ahead and started working on it.

It continued to bother me, so I went back on the blog and found the last posts.  And, lo and behold!, it was farther along.  Now, where to find it - why wasn't it in the project box?

I finally got around to looking, and I found it in another project box.  OMG.

So, now I'm working on the right one.

NINE PATCH PI AGAIN

 I've taken the Nine-Patch  Pi quilt parts out of storage and started working on it again.  I'm starting to realize why I put it away earlier.  It's a bit of a pain and slow going.

58/100

I couldn't do much of the work that needed to be done on the deck, so Darrell was again, on his own.  He made a template to cut the curve into the ends of the deck and then trimmed them and routed a round-over on the ends.

The dogs really like the new deck.

I was busy in my studio, first I spent a little time making more triangle blocks from my scrap bucket:

Then I made the binding for and sewed it onto the Baby Pi quilt.

The back of Baby Pi

57/100

With another half day of sanding on the deck, he got it done.  Now we need to wait a few days for the sun to darken it up some before we put the sealer on.  We need some sunny days for that to all happen.

I finally finished the quilting on Motley Quad, the scrappy quilt.  

I also made the binding and sewed it on - the quilt is done.  It's very wavy.  I might wash it and see how that makes it look.

I got few more triangle blocks done, too.

53/100

He got pretty much all of the boards on the top of the deck today.  They only ones left are the little pieces around the posts.  He had me gluing plugs into the screw holes.

As soon as I cleaned out the bird bath in the front yard the crows were waiting for me to clear out.  When I moved away one came in a started drinking.  It's nice to see it's of use.  

Jelly likes to chase the crows.

I also saw a hummingbird come in to check out the pond.

I got a couple of the triangle blocks done, then finished up the quilting on Baby Pi.

51/100

Today was finally a nice day.  Beautiful morning!

After a morning walk, Darrell got to work on the steps of the deck.   By the end of the day we had steps and the ramp can come down.  The dogs are very happy.

There wasn't much I could do to help, so I watched and sketched.

I went upstairs and got some more work done on my 100dayproject2020.

I also got the Little Pi quilt loaded onto the longarm.  I want to download some numbers to use as a quilting pattern.  I'll do that tonight and then start quilting on it tomorrow.

We finally got our 'Stimulus check' today.  The rest of our family members got theirs weeks ago.  Darrell found out he needs some dental work, a crown, that will cost about the same as his half of the check.  So, that's where that will go.  The rest will end up in savings, I guess.  (If we black-out that horrible man's name on there will the banks still honor it? - I don't think I'll try, but I'd love to make that statement!)

17/100

I took the Pi quilt off the wall after I had sewed all that I had up so far to make room for this green Churndash quilt with no name.

I have been making parts and pieces for this for a while now.

168 HSTs

My original plan was to put all of the parts up on the wall and arrange the colors in a pleasing order.  But, that seemed like too much of a chore.  So, I took everything down and am going to make blocks and then arrange the blocks.

MISTAKE?

Today I was contemplating whether it was a mistake to change to one white for the Pi Quilt.  I was able to order more of the 'daisy' white and black fabric and it's on its way.  But, I didn't think about whether I'd have enough of the black fabric to remake the first four rows.

I think it might be close.  If I run short, I could always cannibalize some of the first four rows (which I was planning on making into another small Pi).

I've gotten alot of the pieces of the white cut out.  I sewed together some of the 8aat (eight at a time) squares for the many, many half-square-triangle squares that I will need.

Today I cut and trimmed some of those.  I like the idea of doing just one row at a time, this is just too much - the brain starts to check out.

Stix has set up a cot in my studio - he's working in Darrell's shop for several days this week.  Jax found it very nice.

CHANGE OF DIRECTION

Jeez Louise.  I had started out with a stack of white and black fabrics, gradating from light to dark.  And as I've gone along, I've had to reject and replace a few because I didn't have enough of that particular fabric.

It happened again today, when I started on the fifth row.  I didn't have enough and just went with the next one from the stack.    So, after I made the fifth row with this fabric, I re-assessed and realized that some of the upcoming rows I didn't have enough of the fabric I had picked, so this problem was going to just get worse!  I went through my stash and come to the conclusion that I didn't have the fabric range to do this right.  I've even been thinking it would look better with just one 'white'.

I decided this last one would look great for that.  I had recently bought it at Quilted Strait, so there should be more of it out there somewhere.  But, I need to make sure I can get some more (enough) to finish the project before I commit and do something stupid.

But first, a really nice walk in the park!

Here's how it looked at five rows (soon to be redone).

I erased some of the trees in this painting and lightened the sky.  I'm still not happy with it.  Is it the colors?  I'm beginning to think I hate this palette.  The trees are all the wrong colors!  But, what do I want?