July is passing us by

I have been a little remiss in blogging and for a while not quilting much. Little projects here and there and nothing to really show for it. 

I finished all the outline and basics of these small wool appliques for bowl filler pillows. Then I checked the pattern and I have some "fireworks" to finish the 2 bottom ones.  I think I will put them aside for next year. 

I made another "curved" log cabin out of dark blue scraps for Rainbow Scrap Quilts July color. 

These are out of 1and 1/2 inch strips of the color and 1 inch strips of the white. This block comprised of 4 smaller blocks is only 11ish inches. 

We had our first guild meeting back in our high school. But not many members showing up yet. And then last week we had a Quilter's rummage sale and boutique to compensate for the loss of revenue due to the canceled quilt shows for the past two years. Tables of books and magazines and fabric, oh my! Some came home to my house 😍! Funny how other people's fabric looks so much better than yours. Fortunately, my donations outweighed my additions. We made a few thousand dollars. Not bad for a couple of days work for some fabulous friends. 

Sewing like crazy this week. 

I have been working many hours on a lovely quilt for a graduate.  I love, love, love the fabric line of Springbrook by Corey Yoder. So soft and fresh.  These are the individual blocks of which there are 20, each in a different fabric in the line.

These are 16 put together. Last night after midnight I was putting on the last sashing strip and realized it was on the wrong side.  I took it out and went to bed.  Now to finish it up today before sending it out to the quilter.  I am so tired of fold over triangles in corners in the center of each block and the lattice corners and even the leaves: hundreds of them!   

But I love how it is turning out and am so happy to get it to this stage. It needs a good pressing, too. 

Enjoy the summer weather!  We are!

How to stitch when you have grandsons?

 As the title predicts.  It is hard to do any stitching of any sort while having the boys with us for two full weeks. So, you don't. I just enjoyed having them with us and planning all kinds of activities for us to do.

We visited lots and lots of playgrounds.  They have not been able to do so at their home.  In fact, at school they didn't even use the playgrounds for recess until April. Poor boys.

We spent time swimming.  And the last week we were at the beach three days. They loved digging and making ponds and castles. And they totally become comfortable in the water. They became 2 brown boys who made their mother jealous upon return.

We visited the zoo and loved really seeing all the animals this year.

We went to the library and read tons. The older one is into the Bad Guys series by Aaron Blabey. This is a 13 book graphic novel series predicated on the premise that the Wolf, Shark, Snake, and other characters become good guys who fight to save the world.  Great sarcastic book my grandson loved as well as more books about  volcanoes, bones, ocean animals and more. 

We built with blocks, and marble games, and train sets, and wood. We found their dad's old Legos and built some more. We created with playdough and tried some paper activities.  But they were not into it much. 

My day started with them and ended when we all went to bed. Happy!  Tired!  And so many hugs and lap times.  

I miss them already.

As for stitching.  This is what I have done since they have been gone:

I finished this cross stitch.  Now just need to frame it.

And although purple is not for this month on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I needed to finish this block.

Back in action

  I have had the most wonderful time not sewing.  That seems like such a harsh statement for someone who always has so many projects in progress and enjoys the process so much. Really!  But how could I possibly say such a thing?  It seems like blasphemy. 

Actually it was easy.  I got to spend wonderful time with my immediate family: husband, daughter, son and wife and their 2 boys.  We rented a condo VRBO in Branson, Missouri.  I had never been there and it was a great time together. We were there for a long week. 

My daughter brought her camera and we got a family photo.  And the boys were boys hard to pose using a timer. 

First of all, Missouri is a very different kind of terrain.  Oh, the enormous hills, valleys, and turns.  Beautiful countryside! But were it not for Google Maps, we would not have found our way to a bathroom, let alone any of the variety of locations we enjoyed. I can't even imagine driving with a paper map. 

We enjoyed many wonderful places: the Aquarium, the Outlet Mall, Silver Dollar City and the cave within, Dolly Parton's Stampede, and more. The weather was HOT as in the 90s, which was a shock to my system that had only been in the 50s a few weeks before. So every day, we went to the pool. And it was the perfect temperature.  Plus it had food. 

Great vacation!                 

We then took the boys home for 2 more weeks of fun

                Next installment fun with just the boys!