Busy Saturday

Tomorrow it is supposed to start raining and keep going all week. I really want to get this garden going this year and really am lazy. I had the bags of manure in the backyard and the dog had helped me by tearing some of them open, so I told myself that I would work out there for 5 minutes and at least dump some of them where I want the garden to be. I had called two different rototiller ads in the paper this week to see if I could hire someone to come out and do the work for me. The first guy never called me back. I guess he is either too busy or doesn't want to do such a small job. The other guy called me right back and quoted me $200 to till in the ground with the weeds there, or $300 if he took the weeds out first. This is for a 10 x 40 foot piece of land. I just laughed and said, "No, thanks." My friend and I were going to rent a tiller for $150 and split the price and do the work ourselves, but we don't have a trailer hitch to haul the thing to our houses.

So, I think what I will end up doing is use my pitchfork digging thingy and make some holes and then put some weed cloth over it and plant through that. I did that in the front yard when I had the garden out there and it worked just fine. I haven't had any weeds come up out there where the weed cloth is for 4 years now. Of course, where I didn't put weed cloth, the weeds are growing like weeds. I guess that is a good thing. If they were growing like anything else, I would start to worry.

So, I worked for about 20 minutes and the dog helped me by digging in the freshly dumped poo. When I moved the bags of manure, there were about a zillion earthworms under each bag. That was exciting to see.

Then, I came in and rested up a bit and quilted a quilt.

I fixed the poles on the quilting machine. I have the Handi Quilter frame and it has telescoping poles that you can extend to 10 feet. I have it set at about 7 feet right now and the poles warp when I pull the quilt tight to quilt it. So, I was doing some some thinking and researching and someone online said to get some metal poles used for the top rails on chain link fences. I was at the hardware store today, going to buy more poo for the garden, and looked at these top rails. They were about $11 each and were very heavy and big. I would have had to drill into them and do a lot of work to make them fit the quilting frame. So, I walked around and around the store, looking for other ideas.

I came across some electrical conduit that is 1/2 inch in size. It was only $1.39 for 10 feet. It is rigid, but lightweight. I bought two of those and cut them with a hacksaw and taped those to the first and last poles of the quilting frame. Now, I can quilt away without it bending and warping on me. I think I will get another one for the middle pole, later. It took about an hour to undo the leader fabric, tape everything together and put the fabric back on. I had to cut and sew a new piece for the front bar because the fabric on the front was so twisted and warped from being stretched. But after 100 quilts, I guess that is ok.

It worked very well and I am happy with the results. Now I can really get back into quilting again!

Here are some pictures of other projects I've been up to this week. You thought I was just sleeping all week, didn't you. These are burp cloths I made for my very pregnant friend. She is due in about 2 1/2 weeks and very excited to be having this baby. I don't think she will make it to her due date. I hope she does, because I'm taking over one of her classes, which will make my day even longer :)

And also a picture of the quilts I got bound last Sunday.