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?  

FLOWERS IN WATERCOLOR

 Victoria was very thoughtful and brought me some flowers.  I had told her I'd like something more interesting than just roses to paint.  She brought a bouquet with these beautiful coral colored roses along with Calla Lillies and baby's breath.

I rearranged them into an arrangement with just those beautiful roses and took them out to the picnic table to paint.  Sorry Victoria, I guess I'm not tired of painting roses - maybe I'm just tired of painting red roses.

First, I had to make my way up to my studio to gather my materials and equipment for painting with oils.  Darrell was kind enough to carry everything down for me since I am still using a walker and can't carry anything.

[This was the first time to go upstairs since my knee surgery and my left knee was not happy about having to do all of the work going up the stairs.]

I started out doing a contour drawing with an ink pen.

It turned out really well.  Then the plan was to apply watercolors.  I was putting down just water first so then I could add color.  But, oh my!  the ink I had used was not waterproof.  I freaked out - I had ruined my beautiful ink drawing!

I quickly blotted it up with paper towel. 

 It didn't look to bad, kind of like an etching.  So, I made the decision to put water all over the whole thing and then blot it up.

Then I continued with the watercolors:

CAT PORTRAIT

Bentley was hanging out on the picnic table, snoozing.  So, I did a sketch of him, of course.

He stayed there just long enough for me to finish then he was off.

He was hot, but enjoying being a cat:

91/100

I sat out on the new deck and sketched in my journal.  Bentley was napping under the crocosmia.

88/100

I finished the back for the Ribbons quilt, too.

GOOD CAT/BAD CAT

We had the dog door closed last night so V's new kitty Yuki could run around but not get outside.  I looked out and saw Bentley out there wanting in with his little friend.  Nope, it was still alive.  Nope, you can just stay outside with that.

 Click here to see what we found in the morning.  I made Darrell clean it up.  Gag.

60/100

Wow, 60 days of working on my #100dayproject2020!  

I'm enjoying seeing my Covid-19 on the design wall, it gives me an idea of what I need and where to go from here.  

I got 7 more blocks made, all on the reddish scale.

But, before I did all that, we decided to go ahead and seal the deck this morning.  It's supposed to start raining Saturday afternoon, and not stop for a week or so.  So, it was either wait the rains out or do it this morning.  We just want to get the deck done, so we went for it.  I was fine with the color the deck is now, Darrell wanted it to get a bit darker (the sun will make it darker).  Once we seal it with the UV protectant, that process will slow down.  Putting the sealer on it, darkened it up quite a bit, so I think he ended up okay with the way it looks.  I think it's great!

First, he trimmed all of the posts to height.

Mixing up the sealer.

He painted the sides of the boards and I rolled it onto the surface.

We locked the dog door with the dogs and cats inside.  They were confused and not happy.

After it set up a bit, then he wiped it down. 

It's beautiful!

33/100

I didn't make anymore squares because I'm all out.  So, instead, I sewed together a few rows.  I need to get them sewn together as soon as possible, before they fall off the wall.  Especially now that I have all of the windows open.

But, before I did that, we worked some more on the deck.

PUTTING IN POSTS

Real work began on the deck today.

Darrell began setting the posts, which is much easier said than done.  Since the deck is not square, where the posts should be involved a lot of measuring and head scratching.  But, once we figured things out and set the first one, the next few were not quite so difficult.  And, after all, it's not a piano, it's just a deck.

On the last one of the day we discovered there was a buried chunk of concrete right where we needed to put the new post.  We dug all around it, decided we couldn't lift it out of there and just pushed it to one side and set the post and re-buried it.

Mr. Bentley supervised.

I had bean soup cooking in a slow cooker all day and made some flat bread.  It was a great end to the day.  (I'm sore and tired).

Didn't have much time for my 100dayproject2020:

BENTLEY PORTRAIT

SUNDAY SEWING

After our regular grocery shopping in the morning... 

then the dog walk in the park, where they left me behind...

 I got busy on my project.  I'm thinking of calling it Helter Skelter.

 It's coming along.

I make these pieces first, then cut them to the proper shape...

I'm not sewing the parts together yet in case I need to change a color...

Mr. Bentley was sitting on the table, which is under the umbrella, where he is out of the rain...

PAINTING

I donated my 97th pint of blood this morning then came home and did my Monday morning cleaning (always fun - not).

After lunch, I went up to the studio and painted a bit, some for my homework - she wanted me to re-do this one by moving the teapot of flowers to the right, in order to make the 'triangle' more pronounced.

Original 

Re-done with flowers moved to the right (it needs more work).

This little painting is of some of our garden tomatoes, painted in one of the Etchr sketchbooks I recently bought for a lot of money.  They are nice though. 

After dinner, I painted the cool Mr. Bentley.  I traced him into the sketchbook from a photo and then painted with watercolors.  I mixed Cadmium Red with  a lot of Cerulean Blue and a touch of Hansa Yellow Medium to get this grey.

HARVESTING

We've been eating green beans for a few weeks already.  Today we harvested the squash.  Not as many as last year, but their are all our favorites - Buttercup, Acorn and Danish.  

Mr. Bentley is such a cool cat.