Here in California, the summer colors are tan and brown. In May, the greens are peaking and by July they are done. The pretty hills are golden with the occasional live oak tree dotting them, and it’s dry. I just got back from visiting the east coast, where I was rained on during tropical storm Elsa. I even got to see a lighting storm, and local street flooding, good to be home now though.

Yesterday I worked on getting the snails trail blocks together to make tops, I decided on two small quilts as the pastel colors are so light I feel that a larger quilt would look more like a color wash. I will add a 4 inch border to these, one pink and the other mint, just waiting for it to get here. I have a large selection of batik fabrics, but it is mostly blues and earth/jewel tones. I also cut up all the scraps from the layer cake pieces I used with the accuquilt die. There were enough HSTs to make a doll quilt with.

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I got another row sewn on the two quilts on the long arm as well. I don’t remember if I posted about these two, the bee quilt is from last year, and the chickadee quilt is from the left overs from the larger version. I am doing an Ivy leaf panto on them and just to make it more challenging, I resized it for the bee quilt. It takes a long time to stitch out one row, as there is a lot of back stitching. I like doing two quilts at once, a 108 wide backing and the same thread colors makes it a bit easier.

I am getting more stitching done on the Newcastle Bouquet cross stitch. The last picture I have is from June 30, I stitched a lot on it before I went away, and completed a few more leaves and such in the past two days.

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I wonder if I can finish it before August when I start the Changed World SAL. I got my pattern and floss, I had eight of the required colors in my floss collection, Yay! Today I want to serge the edges of the linen, I have a few other pieces of even-weave that could use an edge finish too. The edges don’t seem to be much of a problem with the scroll frame, but once I use the hoop to stitch, there is unraveling. I’m going to do the outer border of Newcastle in the hoop, too many color changes to be flipping the piece over and back.

This week I am starting a new quilt top, using Sew Kind of Wonderful’s Creative Curves ruler. I have a fat quarter bundle and some scraps of a R. Kauffman line called La Scala I want to use in the pattern called Posh Snowball. Test block done, I like it, not too much of a learning curve.

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Be Kind.

A few weeks ago I was shopping at Fabric.com (Amazon really) and got four things. They were on sale, a ten FQ pack of Liberty of London prints, two Timeless treasures Tonga treats 10″ batik and a Hungry Animals panel from Riley Blake. I have been wanting to make a snails trail quilt since I got a Block-on-Board die from Accuquilt last year. The 10″ Tonga squares were the right size to stack 6 at a pass on the die. I had some Snow color batik yardage in my stash that has a bluish tint to it, that became the background. It took me about an hour to cut the pieces for forty 8″ blocks. Most of that time was ironing the squares, for some reason, they fold them into quarters to package them. I think it maybe to differentiate their 10″ stacks from the Layercake branding. The colors of the Tonga treat are sherbet pastels, it’ll be a soft looking quilt. I am chain piecing these, step by step, but I had to make one as a guide. Not sure if I want to make two small quilts or one large.

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I think I had a pretty productive June this year. I had three completely finished quilts, three finished tops, a finished shawl, and finished all the appliqué and corrected the errant block for Halloween figs. I also finished the quilting on Hampton Square and squared it up, no binding yet. Oh, and I sold four quilts this month too. Phew. I hope July works out as well.

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The stitching on the Newcastle Bouquet is progressing, last night I got one of the flowers finished and the second bird started. I am thinking about how to do/start the borders. I might just leave them until last, stitching them around the finished center. I am worried that I’ll be off a noticeable amount on one side if I stitch them in sections (top, bottom and sides). Is it silly to have thoughts of the stitching lines not meeting after sewing them around for weeks? No amount of fudging or adapting the design can hide that. Ripping out stitches on 40 count linen is not for the timid. Believe me there are already enough smudges/fudges in this project that I have forgotten about them. I recently saw a new sampler, ‘Changed World’ by Scarlett house. I think it sums up 2020 pretty well. Judy at Patchwork times is going to start it as a SAL in August. I bought the chart and the called for linen, I’m going to stitch it in DMC colors, which I don’t have yet. Well, I may have some, but I’m not sure until I get the pattern listing. Did you know there are 489 different DMC colors? I think I have about half of them, why is that I never seem to have the ones I need?

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Off to stitch a few more snails.

Be Kind.

For the past few days I have been working on a commissioned quilt. It is to be a gift from a proud grandma for her grandson who is off to college July 1. I finished the top yesterday, much thanks to: choosing simple pattern (double Irish chain), Accuquilt strip cutting die, strip piecing and chain sewing. 25 blocks done and assembled. The quilt could only be 55″ square as that was as big as the Minky backing supplied. Today, I am going to quilt it, I have a simple panto I like called Bayside, it does not take an hour per row. I will be taking the current quilt, Minuet, off the frame, I am using a strawberry and leaves panto on it that takes an hour to do one pass. In reality it takes even longer, due to thread breaking and bobbin changing. I don’t know what it is about that quilt, but it is trying my patience. Once I get the school quilt done, I’ll put the baby boy quilt (DH’s friends) on and then contemplate finishing the last three rows of the strawberry minuet.

In between speed piecing, I finished the ten pumpkin seed blocks I needed to finish putting the Halloween Figs BOM together. Forty seeds, it took longer than I thought it would. I may put some buttons over the centers of them, as I’m not really happy with the way the points look. I was able to put the top center together last night. I put it up on the design wall to admire it as I sewed all the scalloped blocks together for the pieced section of the borders.

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That’s when I saw it, argh! I can’t leave it that way. Maybe today while I am watching the panto stitch, I’ll hang out with Jack and try to fix the block without tears and swear words. Other than that, I really like this quilt. It is a bit smaller (66×72) than I thought it would be, the Christmas figs version is a lot bigger (78×98). The soft grays and mellow oranges don’t scream Halloween, maybe I’ll add a hanging sleeve. It’ll be a while before this top is quilted though. My “to be quilted” pile is getting too big, to the point where I was thinking I should stop making tops and get it caught up. I can think of ten off the top of my head, five are queen bed sized. No time like the present.

Cross stitching is progressing too, I am branching out to the left side as I would like to stitch the other bird. While looking for something unrelated to sewing, I found this small cross stitch piece. It is the first one I made, a dimensions kit, that used wool and Aida cloth. It looks pretty good, I re-framed it. I have made a lot of little X’s in the past 35 years.

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Be Kind.

I worked on a new quilt pattern yesterday, made 20 blocks in two sessions. I did take a break to do some errands, including going to Costco. I haven’t been in the store for almost 18 months, I had been using InstaCart shopping service though. I was very excited to see they have finally added self checkout! After the excursion, I came home to put it all together, today I’ll add the borders. The pattern is available in three sizes from Elizabeth Eastmond at Occasional Piece Quilt . Its called Sun and Sea, I did the 10 inch block version, called Summer Snowcone, being that hers is red white and blue. Remember the “Bomb Pop”, the RWB ice pop that made your mouth blue? I think I may have some novelty fabric around here with bomb pops printed on it.

Since I had enough Halloween fabric from a recent trip to LQS, I used it. The line is called ‘Ghouls and Goodies” by Stacy Lest Hsu for Moda , I added white, black and acid green Moda solids. The border will have the pumpkin print with white and green triangles.

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The fabric for the commission quilt came in yesterdays mail, pretty quick too. Maybe USPS has gotten their act together in Texas. Things I had ordered from shops there previously had taken two to three weeks, even with priority mailing. Lots of cutting today, the finished quilt will be 60″x 60″ – 25 blocks in Irish chain.

Time to get moving.

Be Kind.

Due to the very hot weather last week I was able to complete a few more things. Staying inside with the air-conditioning and sewing was very appealing.

Not the best picture, but I completed the Chickadee panel quilt. I had to draft a slightly smaller block for the border corners, fortunately I had enough solid fabrics to do so. I think it looks like a tapestry, its large enough for a twin bed. I should iron it too.

Next up is an Irish chain top for a friend of my DH, who is going to be a father in the beginning of July. While I was finishing the Chickadee quilt, my DH passed by and told me that this friend’s wife was going to have another baby. I told him that was nice to hear, he then came up with the idea that I should make them a quilt. Hmm. I had just committed to making a graduation quilt for a friend of a friend, which had to be done on July 1. I had just ordered the fabric for it, so I did have a few days “open” so to speak. I “whipped” up this quilt top in a few hours, strip piecing and chain sewing to the rescue. I also used up some backing scraps, the dark blue small squares. I think the farm animals are really cute.

Last up, I finished the Curling Mists shawl Thursday night. I still had to block it and let it dry, so I didn’t quite make my finish and ship date of Wednesday. I figured that was the latest day that I could ship it and have it be received by the birthday. I did send a card though, that will get there on time 🙂 . The next shawl in the series was revealed, in the Curious Handmade shawl knit a long. It’s a half circle shawl with stripes of star stitch and stripes of garter stitch. I’m not sure I want to make it, I’m a little tired of garter stitch right now.

Next week, the fabric for the commissioned quilt should be here, and I can get that done, I have a quilt (can’t remember the name) on the frame right now, that I made in august 2019, as a mystery quilt. I chose a cute strawberry and leaves panto for it, unfortunately it takes about an hour to quilt out a row. I have seven more to go.

Be Kind.