DECK TABLE IN USE

Coco approves of her new hangout under the Deck Table.  It was designed with her comfort in mind after all.

 

SATURDAY IN SF

 Darrell would be teaching all day at Shaper Origin and I'm on my own in San Francisco.

I took the #5 bus to Golden Gate Park with the idea to go into the Conservatory of Flowers and do some sketching.

It was a beautiful morning.  I decided to not go into the conservatory (it was too hot inside) and instead walked down to the McLaren Lodge to sketch.

As it got close to lunchtime, I took the bus back to the downtown area and had lunch.  After walking around a bit and a quick stop at a big Blick Art Store, I went to SFMOMA.

I sat in the lobby of SFMOMA for a while and enjoyed the music and space.  I tried to do a little of the embroidery on my Rooted project.  But, it wasn't a very comfortable place to sew.

Darrell stayed at Shaper for dinner.  I got something from the restaurant in the hotel.  It was a long day.

Nicole has been staying at our house to keep the cats and Jelly company, making sure they are fed and loved.  She sent me this picture.

THE LEAF AND THE CAT

 Here are two more Art East Quilting Mini Charm blocks:

The Leaf and The Cat:

ANOTHER FINISH

 I got the Puzzle Box quilt binding on today.  It's done, too.  It is a free pattern from ChristaQuilts.

My buddies on BP suggested a teal blue binding.  But, I thought that since there are so many different print fabrics in the quilt, I should use a print for the binding as well.  I found something in my stash.

I spent the morning putting more perennials in the front garden and trying to remove some of the ground cover.  Darrell moved the stepping stones out, so now there is a path to the bird bath.

All the dogs and cats were out in the front yard with me, but none of them helped.

What is it with cats and boxes?  

DAY 15

 Today's prompt for #30daysketchbookchallenge is "Bones."

Finally, a chance to use my collection of skulls.

GRANDMA'S BED RE-DO

 Darrell's Grandma's bed frame had it's original finish on it and was in need of some love.  We want to use it in our new spare bedroom downstairs.

We took it to a refinishers, who sand-blasted it clean and then powder coated it with a satin black.  Darrell made some 'feet' for it, too, with his CNC.

LATTICE WALK

 We put some lattice brick pavers down at the bottom of the new deck.  They were quite heavy.  We used ropes under each side to move them.  That worked pretty well so we didn't have to bend over to place them.  

And the cat slept on...

I got some ground covers and put them in the spaces.  It will take a few years for them to fill out.

FARMERS MARKET

 We went to the West Seattle Farmers Market at the Junction (California and Alaska) this morning.  We were looking for another Siberian tomato plant like the one we got here last year.  It was a great producing plant with some very tasty tomatoes.  Alas, the seller that had them last year was not here again this week and we haven't been able to find one anywhere else.

I sketched while he looked for the tomato plant.

The day warmed up and it turned into a very nice Mother's Day.  It seems that half the people leaving the market had a bouquet of flowers.  It was pretty crowded there, they were trying to control how many people were allowed in at any one time.  And everyone was wearing a mask.

Back at home, it was all about the comfort of the cats.

CAT ON DUTY

 

NEW CAT PERCH

 We got a new cat perch for the front window.  It has cushy pillows in rattan baskets.  I think the cats approve.

We gave our old one to Nicole and Victoria.  They have a new condo and a new kitty.  Here is Yuki and Theo enjoying their perch.

QUILTED YUKI

 I got my order of Hobbs Tuscany Cotton/Wool blend batting.  I thought I'd try it out, it sounds interesting.  I set up the Yuki quilt on my longarm and quilted a pantograph.  It didn't take long. I was done before lunch.  But, it did take longer than it should have.  My machine kept losing it's mind and not understanding where it should be when I'd roll the quilt.  It did it three times.  I had to shut everything off and clear it then restart and reset it up.  Luckily, I had picked an easy panto that didn't need a lot of tweaking.  It's called Ginger Snap.

SEPTEMBER ONE

 What a beautiful morning.  We went for a walk in Lincoln Park.  I left a few of my painted rocks out in the wild.  I also noticed that the snail is not where I left it, too.

Back home, Yuki has discovered the fish in the pond.

FLOWER DOODLE 2

 I put some color on a watercolor page last night:

Today I used Walnut Ink and a bamboo 'pen' to imagine some flowers onto it.

Yuki found a hiding spot from where she could ambush Bentley and the dogs.

CORRECTED CATS

 I took the bottom border off and inserted some black bits and put it all back together.  Much better.

Since it has little white cats running about I decided it should be named after Victoria's new kitten, Yuki.  Yuki is very curious and loves to go where she has never been.  They've been keeping her confined to the house and not letting her outside until she's older and neutered.  She's not totally happy about that.  There have been times when we are all chasing her about the garden trying to entice her with treats.

So, here's the backing and border:

PUTTING SQUARES TOGETHER

 From last Saturday's Quilt Freedom Workshop, the little black and white project is coming along.  I finally figured out what I didn't like.  I had cut strips for the border from the black and white cat fabric.  The cats were evenly spaced and running around the edges.  That was not the look I was after, so it occurred to me to cut them into squares and rotate them to break up the pattern..  It looks a lot better now.

Before

After I cut the border fabric into squares.

Sewn into rows.

All sewn together...

After I got it all sewn together, I realized that I had, somewhere along the line, lost the black pieces in the bottom border.  Tomorrow I'm going to take that bottom border off and add some blacks to it.

SATURDAY WORKSHOP

 I'm signed up to take a monthly zoom workshop with Joe Cunningham called Quilt Freedom Workshop.  This month was about two color quilts, or two fabric designs.  I started out thinking I would use black and white.  Then when I saw the project I changed the black out for a print with black and white.  (it's not actually white, it matches Kona Oyster which I used as my white).  

Here's how it ended up at the end of the day:

I want to spend more time moving the pieces around before I settle on the final.

FINISHED PRINT

I finished up the carving on my print for the Kindness Puzzle Collaborative Print.  I think it turned out pretty good, with a minimum of mistakes.  The dogs enjoyed hanging out with me out by the picnic table.

Then we moved up onto the deck and continued with the napping, until it got too hot to stay outside.

Once inside, Jax continued with his nap.

It was a good day for dogs.

FISH MONDAY

I went to the pet store today to get a plecostomus.  Maybe he can help with the build-up of algae in my poor little fish's tank.

It was too hot today, didn't do much - watched this happen:

That was about it.