A Hummingbird is back!

After not seeing any hummingbirds for a while, one lonely one is back this morning! We are so happy to see this one.

In the garden we have planted many more plants, including the red flowering haricot beans. These little birds love those flowers. Spotted the first flowers on the beans the past couple of days. It is still raining here, so we are indoors again until the rains stops. Walks in gentle rain happens, we need our exercise.

Quilting continue on Tahoe. It is very addictive, one do a little bit and then some more and more. One has to pace yourself and not over do it.

Got to do a chunk of housekeeping done and started to catch up on some Netflix series as well in the evening.

Kitty was keeping me company while I was doing this.

Hummingbirds have disappeared.

We have a few hummingbirds which arrived like clockwork at the beginning of the season. They have just vanished, not one have been seen in over a week. The Baltimore Orioles come for their grape jelly each and every day. Our hummingbirds are just gone.

The quilting on Tahoe continue, the next round is done. The aim at the moment is to quilt the lilac and purple. The whites and cream with florals will be done once all the pins are removed from the quilt top.

The back of the quilt show the quilting perhaps better.

Our Sugar plum tree has a sugar plum berry on it. This is the first one since we planted the tree quite a number of years ago.

Kitties and quilts.

Cats are attracted to quilts like magnets, they are not fussy. The quilt does not need to be quilted yet, just layered and basted.

Our cat knows when a quilt has reached this point and without fail she arrives to come and cuddle under or on top of a section of it. Here she is sleeping on our son's bed. Yestesday she tried to get herself on top of Tahoe. It will show cat hair and make the quilting a messy business. Needless to say kitty was not happy with me.

It is basted and the hand quilting got started.

It required the fluffy polyester batting for this one, something a longarm quilter would not use. It is neccesary for two reasons weight and the destination in the world where it will be going. It needs to be light and be able to breathe well, it gets hot in the southern hemisphere for nine months of the year!

Winnie the Pooh blanket.

The new binding is on the Winnie the Pooh blanket.

Got that done this morning.

Nothing fancy, just functional and very practical.

Winnie the Pooh.

As far as blankets go, this one has been going for a long time. About twenty six years.

The binding on it is showing wear and tear, it needs to be replaced. In this case, another binding will be sewn over the old one, just like our ancestors did with patching and fixing parts of quilts that needed to be fixed.

If you have ever sewn with minky fabric, the edges are tricky. The same with this much loved blanket. It needs to be repaired before it can be washed again.

Some parts is in much better shape than the rest.

Leftover binding from a wedding quilt for our eldest son and wife. It is perfect and just enough for this blanket.

Tahoe is bigger.

Pink it is.

The peonies has all opened.

This is Tahoe where the original pattern finish. The point will get hidden in the binding, to prevent this from happening an extra strip of fabric has been added alround the quilt top.

Keeping a quarter inch seam.

By adding this narrow strip, it will make the design shine once it is quilted.

One will be able to see the points.

The binding is done.

WIP’S.

Flowers are blooming in the garden. We are enjoying the blue skies and sun shine.

On Father's day we had two old planes fly past, a bi and tri plane. Unfortuanetly I missed them up close.

Stitched outside in the garden, the plate of pumkins are done. Next the mushroom needs to be picked up again.

Will work on that, before starting the last piece which is a squirrel on a broom.

Magic binding for Tahoe is made as well, want to sew and extra strip of fabric onto the top to make it a little bit bigger.

A friend send an SOS, can I walk this little guy? He has beautiful eye lashes and he loves to be outside.

Tahoe is a top!

Tahoe is a finished top. It is ready to be quilted, not perfect but done. This is a quilt for my eldest sister.

The pie piece segments get sewn into squares, then the squares are sewn together to create a half.

It got placed on the trusty sheet on the floor to keep track of where each part needed to go.

Needless to say this one got started late last summer, many things happened and it got placed on the back burner for a while. It has been the most difficult pattern I have ever tried and the starching of all the fabrics made a big difference to it being flat and the fabric keeping its shape with all the 45 degree angles.

The seams are all ironed open.

24 Diamonds done!

The last set of diamonds are sewn.

The puzzle can now be assemble to create the eight pieces which makes up the quilt top.

Following the instructions, to get these done to this point. That is when things went sideways. It did not work, the unpicker came out and everything was unpicked to the big diamond stage, with sets of four diamonds.

Next a sheet was ironed in to quarters and then into a half, from corner to corner to create the creases for the pie segments. This is shown in the layout of the pattern. Then the puzzle building started.

This worked, so now the process has started all over again to sew all the segments together. Made a great start yesterday, got the backing for this one from The Sewing Cafe. Managed to get a nice walk in yesterday and saw trees in bloom, have no idea what they are called.