Winding up June

It has been an odd month for June.  The weather has definitely been atypical.  The only warm/hot part is when I was traveling to Canada.  Last night we again had rain and really loud lightning. Even the tornado siren went off for high winds. And it has been cool all week: I find I need fuzzy socks  to keep my feet warm and even a sweater during the day.

I had the joy of being with my grandsons this morning while Mama went to the doctor for a check up.
They were cuddly and fun. There is nothing like hearing them giggle or say," I really love you, Nonny!" I feel so very lucky to be a part of their lives.

I had finally gone in to see the doctor last week for a sinus infection that wasn't horrible, but wouldn't go away for 3 weeks. The cure is worse than the infection. I am on amoxicillin with augmentin; it gives me stomach issues and a headache by the afternoon.  Oh, well 3 more days.

But instead of sewing yesterday I cut out lots:  Both my latest Blockheads are cut out and ready to assemble.

Done:



Then I cut out 2 colors of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge getting ready for the rest of the year. Two yet to cut, but are pulled and ready in a pile ( And I need a few more blues and browns.)

I felt lucky to find the missing red pinwheel for my Dresden quilt; even located a brown piece.  All that is needed are background triangles and 1 more brown.  Not bad for an old project.


And I found this with it.  Bonus! It is pieced and in rows.

Spring flimsy and more

So excited:  this is in the flimsy stage.  Hooray.  I need to adjust a few seams at the edges of the piano key borders. But I really like how it added to the quilt. It looks like tans, but is really yellows and peaches.  I ordered the backing so it is all I can do for now.

I had fun with the piano keys and didn't realize how many colors I had.  I could go 18 keys without repeating.  That doesn't include some of the layer cake squares.  Here are the corners ( another pinterest find.)

 

Next up:  Dresden Beauty;  This is an old UFO.,. at least 10 years. It began with the Dresden pattern from Edyta Sitar. I had purchased it at Rosemont's quilt show and even got her templates which made it easy. 

 The stars were put together at one retreat and a few more nights. Then the setting was a quandary but wanting to go with the scrappy theme. 

I carefully appliqued each star to a background square:

 

And it has sat.. waiting for the finish.  Notice I am missing a few squares.  Ugh..  will keep searching. But I finally decided to invisible machine applique the points of the center star points. 

Now I will finish the quilt and send it off to be quilted. I want something more than an overall design, but am not comfortable experimenting on this one. 

It feels good to get things done. 

"Go 4 it" together!

My goal last week had been to get this together and I did!  And now it even has a good press.

So now the piano key border is cut:  Time to assemble and attach.

The end of the week was spent with my grandboys. We had lots of fun playing. 

Ever the teacher, I worked on potty training, vocabulary with the little one and having fun with toys,

The 3 year old is getting good at putting our wooden train set together; it is a box found at a rummage having a conglomeration of  Brio, Thomas and similar pieces. Completion of the design is done by Grandma, but hey, I can have a little fun,too.

Then we all went to the Strawberry Festival in Cedarburg:

I will have another UFO to show progress on tomorrow.

Finish gold RSC and panel 1

I finished the last of my gold/yellow for RSC for June. Here is a picture of the last 4 although I have made 7 others, totaling 11 golds.

For the year so far: 8 purple, 8 teal, 12, red, 13 rainbow, multicolor, 12, green and 11 total.  

SUM  64 blocs,  Plus  2 half square 3 inch blocks for each color.

My goal is to finish the last fence row on this panel today!: 

The decision will be to do the panel with only the wording, or the one with the most to do?  Hmmmm.

Going 4 first border

Thanks to Ramona, Roseanne, and Marsha for ideas.

My decision is to do the green border but with triangles in the corners to finish the pattern . This still gives a nice break from busyness.  ( Gotta love Pinterest for visuals and ideas.)

Next up: piano keys for the last border.

Also  long overdue, THANKS to Sarah Craig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. She recently held a   challenge for Hands to Help Charity.  I completed my Squarely Red  ( if you want to see it)  for the Lakota Indian Tribe for my church who supports them and wanted warm things for winter.  I think the homespuns and flannels will fit the bill.

And here is what I got as a reward.  Remarkable! I feel blessed!

Now to be inspired to finish my Quilt of Valor.  ( peek if you want) The top is done. The fabrics are pulled for the back, but need to be combined to cover the back.  It will be a bit of a puzzle.

Going to get "Go 4 it" done...

Monday funday: when there is no school.

I made my list for the week, already getting side tracked by other projects.  No, not the quilting: the cleaning and organization.  Who would have guessed ?

So 6 donation bags later, I have a Closet and book shelf cleaned... more coming.

Need I digress; this is about quilting.

So I finished the blocks for a layout.        

Notice I need one more:

Now decisions ??? Borders, for sure But What?  I have more of the green.  For that matter , I have more of almost everything else, too.

Ideas anyone?  It is only 4 feet by 4 and 1/2 feet currently. It is just for a throw in my bedroom.

Toes showing, ooops.   Yep, the floor is  my design wall.

 

Saturday play day

I am finally stitching  away at my yellow/gold Rainbow Scrap Challenge for June. As my colors are muted in hue, I am going with golds. My fabrics are mostly Thimbleberries. 

So here are four blocks.

I am still working away at my Go 4 it I GO.  Six more blocks this morning: total up to 62 blocks and counting. Too bad they are only 6 inch blocks.

Summer fun

I am back home and getting to the new groove.
Project list made for cleaning, t to did around the house, and sewing.

So far, keeping on track ; Car cleaned, fridge sorted and cleaned, and a few errands.  ( Quilt blocks for stash bee finally mailed.)

And back to go 4 it. 50 blocks made so far.  Woot. Woot!

I am even caught up with my blockheads. 14 and 15... DONE !

Little by little. But by bit...

Little by little. But by bit...

Things are progressing.

Even had some fun with this guy at the library and then playground.  What fun!

Slow stitching in Canada

School's out for summer! Today is my first official day off. Hooray!

My first trip is/was to visit my mom who lives in Canada. After driving through Chicago and around the bottom of Lake Michigan II met my sister in Detroit and  we finished the trip up through the peninsula of Ontario together up to Bobcaygeon.  It has been hot as is much of the Midwest. But it is the first heat for them in Canada ( in the 30s Celsius)..

We visited my favorite lake: Stony Lake near Lakefield, Ontario. My family had a cottage there and we would go up for the summers. So beautiful, so peaceful...

Just love the view of the islands and trees; there is nothing like it. Here is my sister and mom where we ate.

        I miss these tall Northern pines. They peek out above the rest of the trees.

So in between going here and there, I have been doing lots of embroidery all weekend.  I almost have this panel finished.  Making HUGE progress.... almost finished with this first of 3 panels. Crabapple Hill design.

Here is a greatshop in Bowmanville, Ontario.  Very cute clothes, gifts, jewelry.  Loved it! 

AND in the back was a quilt store... what a surprise!

 My sister found the store online.  She didn't know about the quilt store. But I was thrilled. And I found some wonderful fabrics and a pattern for the  150th celebration for Canada rock Inuits.  They have 3 locations: Campbellford, Peterborough, and Bowmanville. 

UFO: Go 4 it

So it's Sunday. And I felt like working on  something different. The bag with the pieced squares was sitting on the side of my sewing table and it called my name.  The project was inspired by American Patchwork and Quilting several winters ago.  There were many layouts from Lissa Alexander, April Cornell, Edyta Sitar and more. O.K. it is from 2015.   NOT to long ago.

I have not been able to work on any UFOs since January. And I have been ahead on a few other piecework projects.

     

These are colors are from the leftovers of my summer quilt.   Of course, I purchased a few more Fig Tree prints to increase the variety of scraps. Love the buttery  yellows, peaches, and greens. One of all time favorite fabric lines was Dandelion Girl also  by Fig Tree.

I am playing with the layout and what to do with it.  Lots to still piece.
14 blocks of 16 patches of 2 inch squares.   12 blocks of the criss cross  

But it is pretty and refreshing. And I hope to finish it this time.

Zentangle experiment

My quilt group has a challenge each month. And this month is zentangle inspired quilting. So a searched pinterest, found this basic design, traced it and had a go at it with various stitches. The block is 9 inches.

Now, what to do next with It? 
Maybe a pot holder?

Finishing Green

Thursday was a productive evening for sewing. (So much for the cleaning projects on my list.)

I finished all the rest of my green rainbow scrap challenge blocks totalling 12 for the month.

Another finish: Blockheads number 13. This is 4 bow ties put together in a ring. My knot in the center of each had only used 1 inch squares; if I were to do it over again , I would increase the size.  Looks good though.

Show down for squarely red

It has been bad timing/weather for taking  my outdoor photos. I finished the binding Sunday night. And I finally can show you this comfy quilt.

I really like how it turned out and hope that whoever receives it will snuggle in it ion cold wintry days.

After work, I saw the new stash bee design and quickly whipped up two blocks. The colors are classic and will make a great quilt. So easy.. These are 16 inch blocks.  They look quite orange on the blog, but in person are much redder.