Yesterday, I worked hard on my tumblers piecing and had my 16 rows all assembled. The day was far too breezy to use my driveway as a layout, so I condescended to actually make up my bed neatly so that I could use it as a design board. The bed is upstairs. The sewing machine is downstairs. I got lots of exercise!
Here is where it was spread out in unjoined rows.
I needed to jockey the rows around, trading one for another to try to prevent like pieces from sitting right side by side. At one point, there was an unfortunate clumping of lights that I wanted to break up a bit. Once I got them all arranged to what I liked, I'd sew two rows together as a paired set.
Sewing the rows was fun but a bit time consuming to match the seams as best that I could and try to get the rows to nest seams.
By suppertime, I had sewn the last center seam of the two halves, but it was already too dark to take a picture for you outdoors. This morning the light was perfect, so here it is, all together!
It measures in at 58" x 70" and I'm counting that width with the edges trimmed as they will be soon. That might be a good project for tomorrow where I'm heading out to the Alton Senior Center. I've been asked by the director, Amy Braun, to lead a group of interested quilters in a sit'n'sew on Fridays. It should be fun!
In the meantime, I am breathless at the beauty of the lupines that I planted years ago on our un-mowable slope right beside Route 140.
Every year, after the lupines have finished blooming, I collect the seeds from their seedpods and plant them an inch or so deep in a new area of the hillside. Because they are a biennial, it takes a while to get an established plant that will bloom nicely. And this soil is awful, too!
You can see the rocky, sandy, clay-bound soil where even weeds won't grow. But it is sunny!
Every year the State of New Hampshire Department of Transportation brush-hogging truck comes by and grinds everything up. They also use a back hoe to dredge the drainage ditch that goes under my driveway via a culvert. They always dredge up and kill the bunches of blue flags that I've planted there. But the last laugh is with me! The blue flags are now growing where the dredgings were piled and they are blooming, too!
See? Good will triumph over evil after all!
Happy sewing!
Here is where it was spread out in unjoined rows.
Sewing the rows was fun but a bit time consuming to match the seams as best that I could and try to get the rows to nest seams.
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| This has a big lupine at the base of the sign, click to see it. |
Every year the State of New Hampshire Department of Transportation brush-hogging truck comes by and grinds everything up. They also use a back hoe to dredge the drainage ditch that goes under my driveway via a culvert. They always dredge up and kill the bunches of blue flags that I've planted there. But the last laugh is with me! The blue flags are now growing where the dredgings were piled and they are blooming, too!
Happy sewing!
6 comments:
Your tumbler looks great as do the pretty flowers.
Love your tumbler--great colors!
How fun to have the sit 'n sew group on Fridays!
Love lupines! Tried growing them in my yard, but the bugs always found them.
The tumblers are looking good. Congrats at sticking with them and getting them done to flimsy stage :)
... forgot to say good luck with you sit'n'sew day :)
Your tumbler top is beautiful Vic. So colorful. Are you putting borders on it?.....Good luck in Alton at the sit n sew. .....Your lupines are so pretty. I just planted one last week.It's 2 tone pink & white. I'll have to remember to collect the seeds this fall.
The tumblers are great, Vic. I chuckled at your description of "a clump of lights." It can be hard to distribute values or prints or colors--not evenly, really, but well, just not clumpily!
Lupines are wonderful flowers. Have you read Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney? A "Maine-stay" of a book about a real woman who planted lupines.
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