Outside and In

I have been slowly working on things outside and things inside. 

Outside I've been weeding and mulching.

Yesterday I saw this Monarch caterpillar, the first one this summer. Fortunately I saw it before I pulled this clump of grass. 

We had heavy rain - 1  1/2 inches - during the night and I haven't been able to find it this morning. Hopefully it is hiding somewhere safe.

The area I found it in is right next to the apple tree. 

This tree is loaded with tiny apples.

We needed rain, but 1  1/2 inches is too much.

We now have water standing in the fields again. It is quite breezy today so that should help dry things up some. Husband has yet to be able to mow hay because of this wet weather.

Inside I've been trying to get the tension right on the Ultimate. I need to name this machine. Any suggestions? I'm pretty frustrated with it right now. 

I discovered the bobbin in the machine had some rough spots. When I switched to a different bobbin the tension issue seemed to be resolved.

At least as long as I didn't stop during the entire pass. But, then I practiced with a board that I will be using to finish a quilt for someone. I have only purchased 2 boards which is not enough length for the whole quilt (usually need 4) so I will have to stop and move one board to the other end several times. When I stop and start up again, the thread breaks. This machine is one of the first ones manufactured and does not have the needle up, needle down function. I don't know if that is the problem, but I will figure it out, somehow. 

Monday Again

Go to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts to see what other people are working on.

Since last Monday I have been a little busy.

I finished piecing the T-shirt quilt. 

Now to quilt it.

I pieced my block for the Exchange.

My block

Debbie's blocks so far. One of her fabrics is a beautiful print with birds and flowers that is being used by some as fussy cut centers.

There was tree removal happening. Two large trees on our property had or were dying. The largest one was close to the house and we worried every time it stormed that it would come down on the house. No more worries.

I did not expect this many vehicles to show up, but there was the boom truck, two trucks to hold the shredded branches, the shredder, the stump picker-upper thing, and the stump grinder.

Cutting 

Shredding

More cutting and the stump picker-upper thing. I really don't know what it is called, but you can see the bucket and claw used to pick up the large branches and trunk pieces. The bucket/claw part could be rotated sideways to grab onto the branch or trunk before it was completely cut through.

A stump before it was ground down. Notice the huge pile of cut up tree in the back.

It was a four man crew and they worked very well together. They even relocated a Dove's nest. Sadly, the nest fell out of this tree and the eggs broke.

Husband got all his crops in the ground.

That cloud of dust, that's him. 

I got the yard mowed.

Beautiful blue sky with puffy white clouds.

My front garden bed is blooming with purple Spiderwort and Clustered Bellflower. The yellow lilies are just starting to bloom.

The mail carrier was so excited about the Bellflowers that I have dug some up for her. You can see them waiting in bags by the mailbox. 

I know I still need to do a LOT of work in my yard but that will get done. I did spend some time this morning pulling weeds. It was pretty easy since the ground is soft from the rain we got over the last few days. Not huge amounts like earlier this spring, but just enough to help the crops in the fields get going.

Now on the finishing laundry, cleaning floors, and some sewing/quilting.

Monday Quilting

On this Monday I am working on a T-shirt quilt.

before trimming, fusing and adding sashing

Not my favorite thing to do but it is for a family friend's daughter's son. 

left side, trimmed and fused, no sashing

right side, trimmed and fused, no sashing

I have 3 of the 4 rows sewn together with sashing. However, I noticed that I will need to rearrange at least a couple of blocks. I think I picked them up in the wrong order. 

Tomorrow I hope to get the remaining sashing and borders added after mowing.

I also have taken on a small job. I was contacted to quilt the borders on a quilt that has been hand quilted. 

Her husband would like 'to sleep under before he dies' she said. She has decided that she will not be able to finish it by hand quilting and is acceptable to it being machine quilted. It will be a new experience for me, but I like a challenge of the quilting kind. 

To see what other quilters are up to go to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Relocating

I have no pictures but I helped my SIL with relocating yesterday. Last weekend her outside, porch, barn and basement things got moved to her new house. This weekend the inside stuff got moved. Well, most of it. All that were left was small things needing to be boxed and freezer/fridge food. She is not listing this house until early July so she still has time. And, she will still be spending some time there because she to be within 30 miles of the hospital as she will be on-call some until she changes to a different department which is happening soon. So a bed, fan and necessary items were left there. 

Another type of relocating involved plants. I was able to dig up some prairie wildflowers from the prairie that my brother planted. Not a lot, but enough that I will have a little bit of him here. These are the plants I brought home. I was just too tired last night to get them in the ground.

So this morning I got them planted. I hope I have identified them correctly.









To the right is Fleabane and Dianthus Armeria, also known as Grass Pink. 




The Grass Pink is so tiny. This is for size. It is a blurry picture because my phone would not focus on the flower. 

Here is a better picture found at FloraFinder.org
https://florafinder.org/Species/Dianthus_armeria.php

A couple of Coneflowers. I am guessing they will be purple, but I guess I will have to wait and see.


A Foxglove Beard Tongue

All planted in a row. I have planted some sunflower seeds behind them and scattered some other wildflower seeds throughout. 

You might notice there is a gap between the two plants on the right. I had planned to evenly space them, but realized that a rose that I thought was removed has started regrowing from the old root! 

Hey, I am all for letting nature take over and see what happens.