Banner Day

 

One of the things I grabbed last year from my parent's house before it was sold was this Giants yard flag. Mom had proudly flown it for many years, and I replaced it for her with a brand new one for her new Mom-do. I really should have just bought myself one as well, but I wanted to see if I could refurbish this one well enough to use for at least this baseball season (starting this week, yay!). I am my mother's daughter after all.

So, I put on an audiobook to finish (All That She Carried) that was due back at the library today, and got out the Sharpies and worked with them for as long as I could because of the fumes. I'm doing the next session outside on the deck in the fresh and very warm air. My plan is to spray this banner/flag with a UV protector spray. 

Here's how it looks after being completely Sharpie'd. Definitely too streaky for me.

Even after doing the whole thing, I think it's too mottled,especially out in the light, this picture is in the shade.

Out came the Tsukineko inks in orange and black, and oh yes that's looking so much better. The inks really flowed nicely and smoothly on the nylon. Also, a whole lot faster than the Sharpies! The audiobook is over and returned to the library, and the flag is in the sun so the ink can dry. Next step is to fix up the degraded SFwhite machine-embroidered stitching and it will be ready for the UV spray and to put out in my front yard before the Opening Day game tomorrow night on Netflix, SF Giants vs. NY Yankees.

Sun Break

 

 

No sewing pictures today as I am too busy being outside enjoying the sun. We had lunch outside on the deck which was quite lovely. Now I'm going around checking on all our deck succulents to see how they're doing with all the rain. Some are just fine, some have nearly drowned.

Two new additions to our exterior decor.

The bird feeder which has now been discovered by a squirrel for the first time. Now it will have to have security measures installed or maybe even be moved elsewhere. This morning I heard a commotion out there and it was a squirrel vs. blue jay battle which was quite entertaining. The blue jay temporarily won, and Meg got to bark at the squirrel, but I'm sure he'll be back.

Swing Swang Swung

More on the completed swing refurbishment, specifically the two new long cushions I was set on making. The sewing was quite simple and pretty easy. The fabric is a Sunbrella type, so it has a very strange hand compared to quilting cotton (duh of course).

It was nice that there was a very distinct right side and wrong side. The fabric I used for the bench seat cushion for my mom was very close so it was a little harder.

I took it slow to do the corners, did it several steps, individual lines of sewing and I think it paid off.

Pretty good corners. Or good enough for me.

Here's how they look out on the swing

Ahhh, very cushy. I like the feel of the memory foam, I hope it lasts awhile.

The Swing Thing

Well, it's been a week of not sewing because of the ultimate give-a-mouse-a-cookie situation. I recently started making outdoor cushions as you'll recall. I finished my mom's (yay!) And I just received the fabric for the cushions I'm making for the  porch swing in the picture above. That's where this starts with the swing. The swing needs to be repainted, specifically with spray paint, which means it has to come off the deck. And that's a big deal, a bunch of stuff has to be moved out of the way. More importantly, the deck itself really needs to be stripped and re-stained/re-sealed. It needed it last year and probably the year before. And the weather was forecasted to be over 90F on Thursday which meant the wood would dry in time to be re-stained on the weekend. All of these things added up to a Whole Thing.

So, after reading my DH in on my give-a-mouse-a-cookie thinking, and securing his promise to do the deck staining work on the weekend, I moved everything off the deck myself. Whew! Everything except for two very heavy planters. My son helped me with those two.

Then when the sun was beaming down and heating everything up on Thursday, I plugged my AirPods in my ears, turned on some podcasts and used the pressure washer. It went pretty quickly, but boy are my arms tired. At one point I was holding an umbrella for shade in one hand and the pressure washer in the other hand. Quite the workout. But Julie's Deck Services are now closed for the year. And we have way too many pots of plants. 

All of which I, of course, have to move back onto the re-stained deck next week before the neighborhood deer gang catches on and they help themselves to a driveway buffet.

There are some spots that still need to be sanded, but otherwise, it's ready to be stained tomorrow. 

And I got the swing painted too. That was the main thing after all, I really miss sitting on this swing, it's going to be really nice to have it back again. And I'll have avoided having to throw the old one out yet (at least for a few more years).

Cushion Cutting

Welp, I've gone in on cutting the first of the outdoor fabric for one of the cushions I'm making. It was much easier than cutting the foam, well it involved a whole lot less knives and only a rotary cutter. This first one is going to be for a garden bench that my mom has. The original cushion it came with is pretty much done in and just not worth having on the bench. This is going to be super deluxe in comparison. It will likely look a bit wonky, but it'll be much more comfy and inviting.

 So far so good. The fabric is easy to cut and sew and handle, it's not too stiff or ravelly. The outdoor thread I'm using is so thick that the auto thread cutter on my machine is balking a bit at cutting through it, so I have to remember to not automatically push that button and cut it myself with scissors. It's harder than you'd think to not automatically do that!

Time for Replacements

 I'm finally starting in on making some replacement outdoor cushions for our deck swing and for my mom's out door bench. This is my cutting out diagram for the foam that will hopefully actually work.

I've had this full size bed sized memory foam mattress topper for ages, it was bought expressly for this purpose. But it's been taking up a chunk of real estate in my workroom, but now it's opened up and the foam is slowly spreading out on the deck and will soon be ready to cut up. 

I think it's remembering!

It's almost there, c'mon remember your size...

While I'm waiting for the foam to finish stretching itself out, here's what will be covering it. The outdoor fabric I have is this, bought from fabric.com ages ago. It is some sort of Sunbrella type stuff, I think so? And I also have outdoor sewing thread too. It's supposedly treated with something that's going to resist rotting in the sunshine.

Wandering Wednesday - Scott Creek Beach

 

We actually wandered! After an errand in Santa Cruz this weekend instead of driving straight home, we went up highway one. 

There was enough wind that the clouds were different in nearly every picture.

The fields of sour grass were beautiful.

The colors of the creek flowing into the sea were changeable and kind of hypnotic.

It was a fairly clear day between rain showers so it was very fresh but not overly windy. 

There was a lot of stuff washed up on the shore as per usual, and this delicate crab shell was only complete on one-side.

This red claw from a crab was really eye-catching.

This was my first view with my own eyes of the devastation from the CZU fire on the coast side of our mountains. Looked like an eraser wiped it all out, just awful. We didn't drive back through Bonny Doon like we usually do because I was too freaked out about seeing the damage up close. I'm just not ready yet.

My Home Office

When it's not raining, I'm lucky enough to be able to say that this is my home office:

1. Comfy cushions - ✅
2. Charged up laptop (that is gets a better wifi connection outside than in for some reason?)✅
3. Cut up Cara Cara Orange- ✅
4. Nail Polish because I need some color on my toenails -✅
5. A beautiful day ✅✅✅✅✅✅

Will I get anything done? Well...that's a topic for another blog post I suppose.