Rearranged

Since I started my year quilt I have been trying to work out the best way to use the empty corner blocks for explanations of the colours used and the layout of the rosettes. Today I realised that by unpicking one block and moving it, I could give myself a bigger space to play with:

So week six moved from the second row up to the first, and I constructed a colour legend for the top left corner:

It's not attached to the rest of the quilt yet, as it still needs the numbers either inked in or embroidered.


Linked to Sarah's Weekly Weather Report, just because it's about the temperature quilt. I'll link again when this week's rosette is finished on Friday.


Happy last day of summer!

New Shed

This happened this morning:

It's the beginning of a shed for all the tractor bits. I wasn't very complimentary about it. The word "eyesore" may have been uttered. I hadn't realised it would be so tall. But apparently it has to be so that the tractor can fit into it to collect its attachments. Once it is finished it will probably look better than having tractor attachments spread all around.

And in case you think it's been forgotten:

The pizza oven got another coat of render tonight.

Not Much

Nothing much has been happening around here - but here is a lovely gladdie stem I brought inside to save from the hot wind:

Here is the pizza oven with its second coat of render. I missed the first coat because I was out yesterday.

There are a couple more coats to go, and some more tiles to go round the edges.

Lots of Orange

A geum:

Runner beans:

A canna:

A graffiti geranium:

And several days of temperatures in the high 20's:

Week 39! The year is flying by.

23/02/2018    32.5    red
22/02/2018    23.9    yellow
21/02/2018    27.8    orange
20/02/2018    26.2    orange
19/02/2018    18.1    green
18/02/2018    28.1    orange
17/02/2018    28.6    orange
Temperatures are degrees C, so these are warm days. And even though it was rainy and overcast when I took the garden photos this morning, today ended up being a red day.

Linked to Sarah's weekly Wednesday Weather Report, here. And there is a sign that the seasons are beginning to change; one of Sarah's days this week was warmer than my coolest day!

Outside and Inside

The pizza oven is now wrapped in a couple of layers of ceramic fibre blanket, held in place with chicken wire:

There will be render over the top of that, once the tiling is done.

Meanwhile inside I did some quilting practice:

More visible from the back:

Trying out a meander for the background - it's not something I've done before. Inside the squares will be something else. I needed to make a quilt or two for the guild's "Quilts of Love" program, so this panel I found on sale was the perfect solution. The panel made two tops, and the backing is left-over from one of my recent finishes.

Pink and White Naked Ladies

My pink belladonna lilies (Amaryllis belladonna) are starting to flower:

These came from the old garden in the city. Last year we bought three white bulbs, but they only grew leaves, no flowers. A couple of weeks ago we took them out of the pot they were in, and planted them in a new garden bed. And they must be happy there:

Flowers from two of the bulbs. Pretty! I think I like the white ones even more than the pinks. They might form more of a clump next year; I noticed as I transplanted them that the original three bulbs are now at least four.

And meanwhile at the pizza oven:

The flue piece is now in place above and behind the door arch. And the hole in the top of the dome (which I originally thought was for the flue) and the joints between the dome sections have been filled with a "refractory castable".

Door Arch

This is inside the pizza oven:

It is a car jack holding up a disk covering the hole in the top, so that when that hole is filled with concrete, it stays where it is meant to. I originally thought the flue went through that hole, but it doesn't.

The jack went in yesterday, but this is what happened today:

The laying of the bricks which form the arch around the door. The black piece in the middle is part of the kit - it supports the arch as you assemble it, and holds the bricks in place while the mortar sets. Very clever!

Yellow

Lots of yellow for the 38th week of my temperature-based year quilt:

Here are the temperatures that determined the colour of each hexagon:
16/02/2018    22.0    yellow
15/02/2018    20.8    yellow
14/02/2018    21.1    yellow
13/02/2018    28.2    orange
12/02/2018    21.5    yellow
11/02/2018    20.2    yellow
10/02/2018    30.2    red

And a beautiful yellow rose in the garden, Friesia:

Linked to Sarah's weekly weather report, where she is planning another temperature quilt when this one finishes!

Dome

These pre-cast pieces become the body of the pizza oven:

They've been sitting outside for a couple of weeks, waiting for today.

However hiding in the garage are many other components I wasn't aware of, such as these fire bricks for the floor of the oven:

They appeared yesterday.

Today's job started with some heavy lifting:

It's that tractor being useful again!

Then a bit of mortar:

And the first section is up:

Then the other pieces are added one by one:

Which sounds easy enough, but is not fun when being constantly harassed by march flies. Thus this photo was taken from inside, behind the screen door. My role in the process was to help position each piece, then run inside squealing like a girl until the next piece was ready to go.

The last bit's the trickiest.

 We won't go into why there was a 90 minute gap between this photo and the next one.

Eventually all was good, and with a bit of a clean-up,

It looked like a pizza oven!

But no pizza yet, there is still a long way to go.

Shubie

This is Shubie, my niece's assistance dog:

Today I took the two of them to visit my mother:

Because I'd run out of things to talk about during my daily visits. Mum has been at the rehab centre since being taken to hospital last Friday. I think she was happy to see her youngest grandchild and Shubie today, and hopefully she will be going back home some time next week.

Slab

The first bit of concrete for the pizza oven base:

Smoothing it off an hour and forty minutes later:

Formwork

Preparation for the concrete slab the oven will sit on.

Quilt Barn

Went with a couple of friends to check out a new business venture in a town not very far away:

It's a quilt barn! Well, it is a barn-like building, which has been set up as a venue for workshops, sit & sew days, or retreats (although there is no accommodation on the property), or in this case, a fabric sale:

I didn't buy any quilt fabric today.

There's also the chance to feed ducks:

We enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. It would be a lovely spot for a workshop or get-together.


Added later - The website.

Thirty Seven

Fortunately it is only week 37, not days of 37 degrees. We came close on Wednesday, but all of this week has been below body temperature:

9/02/2018    28.1    orange
8/02/2018    29.7    orange
7/02/2018    36.6    magenta
6/02/2018    30.5    red
5/02/2018    30.3    red
4/02/2018    28.8    orange
3/02/2018    24.7    yellow

This week could be titled, "I get by with a little help from my friends", as the two red fabrics were given to me by Sharon, and the magenta and today's orange came from Jeanette. Thank you both!

Linked to Sarah's Weekly Weather Report, where there has been a lot of purple weather amongst the northern hemisphere folk. That's cold purple, not like me who put purple at the hot end of the scale.

Pizza Oven Progress

Block-work:

Noisy petrol-driven cement mixer borrowed from neighbour:

Mixes everything up very quickly:

Still a bit of manual handling needed - pouring the mix into the block-work:

A Start

This is where those little square-in-a-square blocks are going:

First border of a medallion-style quilt. Haven't decided on the corners yet. And in fact haven't sewn the centre panel onto the background fabric, either.

If the panel looks familiar, it is because it has been on my blog before -way back in May last year. And at that stage this quilt had been on my "To Do" list for a while already, so it shows you how long I think about things before I actually do anything!

Useful Gift

Last Christmas one side of the family ran a Kris Kringle instead of gifts for all. Our price limit was $5 to $10, so it wasn't an expensive activity! As the presents were opened in turn, we played one of those "steal the gift" games which can be so frustrating. I took along some Lindor balls, which one of the nieces was very happy to end up with. When it was my turn, I stole this gift:

I thought a little light box could be very useful for tracing patterns and the like. Of course it was stolen off me later, but by someone else who lives in this house so I ended up with it anyway! Whoever contributed it to the game over-spent - these cost $15 at Kmart.

Today I found another handy use for it. I started working on a project which includes some paper foundation piecing. Placing the papers face-down on the light box:

 Made it easy for me to put a dab of glue behind piece 1, then position the fabric:

 Thirty-six times!

Thirty-Six

This week has been all over the place, weather-wise:

2/02/2018      22.5    yellow
1/02/2018      18.8    green
31/01/2018    15.8    green
30/01/2018    16.9    green
29/01/2018    33.0    red
28/01/2018    37.1    magenta
27/01/2018    32.6    red

Linked to Sarah's Weekly Weather Report here.

Little Pieces

Last Thursday at the CBD meeting I was talking to a couple of people about my temperature quilt, and mentioned my dearth of red fabric. One of them offered to send me a few pieces - and look what I have now!

I think that might be enough red to take me through to the end of summer. Thank you, Sharon!

A couple of days ago I bought this:

My first fabric purchase of the year. I'm not sure what they call these packs - but it has 42 pieces of 2.5" square fabric. I've never bought something like this before. I'm not sure what people usually use them for. But the squares are big enough for my temperature hexagons, and just about every colour I'm using is included:

There are 2 of each of these. Plus there is black as well, in case we have any days over 45!