Summer!

Mid-July is the peak of summer here.  Little veggie starts have become a jungle and I've already picked three zucchini at the perfect size.

  I'm training the plants up tomato cages so I have a shot at seeing the fruits of my labor before they're the size of baseball bats.

I still have to really get in among the leaves to find them all as they like to hide from me.  Lock your cars up, folks, or someone will leave you a bag of zucchini!

I planted some dahlia bulbs this spring just to add something new to the front yard.  They're now big and bushy and just starting to bloom.  They seem to like my front yard.

I finished the top of another Blue Star Mothers quilt.  This one is square - 5 blocks by 5 blocks.  I actually started it last summer but then new Halloween fabric came out . . .  All the reds and blues were large scraps from the stash and toward the end a couple of strips and triangles got pieced.

 The challenge was to have the large red squares be the same fabric.

This seems pretty straightforward until you realize that the corners of that block are actually part of the block next to it.  So each block like the one below has four different reds and the red triangles have to be in the right place to match the blocks around it.

This requires a design wall (or really good notes) and paying really good attention.  Please believe me when I say that when I sewed when tired, I had to rip out the next day.  It looks kinda cool, so it was worth it.  I'll add it to the gallery on the website after it's quilted.  

The wedding ring quilt made it to the wedding.   Since I didn't want to mail it or check it, it had to be carry-on.  Actually, everything I took was carry-on.  In order to make it a manageable size, it spent a few hours in a space bag and went in my large tote bag.  Being vacuum packed for a day worked fine.  It came right back to its previous loft.  The wedding was lovely and we had a great time.  I'm ready for a few smaller projects now.  

Quilt because it's fun!

Candy

Something New, Blue and Finished!

The wedding quilt is finished.  There's nothing quite like the feeling of finishing a project before the deadline.  The lifting of stress from one's shoulders is a beautiful thing.

I'm currently finishing a couple of UFO's which is actually kind of relaxing.  One is a kit that I started (and almost finished) last year.  I like to design my own, but once in a while a kit can be relaxing.  It took me a long time to come to that as I had a bad kit experience many years ago.  I was given a kit for a baby quilt and I'm pretty sure that whoever cut the pieces must have been blindfolded.  When gingham is cut without regard for grain lines, you can be sure that gnashing of teeth cannot be far behind.  It took me a long time to try another one.  And the few I've done in the last 20 years have been great.

This leads me to a short commentary on attention to detail.  We're having a new roof put on the house this week.  The destruction phase is noisy, to say the least.  And the amount of debris is amazing.

This pile completely covered the kitchen window.  A pile of old shingles about 7 feet high is something to behold.

  The whole process kind of freaked out the dogs on the first day, but they've been amazingly calm.  I'm currently watching one of the workers put shingles on just outside my office window.  He's fast and efficient, yet matches carefully, staples accurately and trims as if he's done it a million times before, which he probably has.  It's actually pretty cool to watch.


The only casualty of the installation of the new roof is the mirror in the hall bathroom which fell off and shattered into about a million pieces yesterday.  It wasn't installed correctly when the house was built and apparently the dropping of a package of shingles on the roof was the final straw.  Luckily, nobody was in the bathroom at the time.  Shards of glass went everywhere, even out the door into the hall and across the hall into my office.  What a mess!  New roof checked off the list.  New bathroom mirror added to list.  Ahh, the joys of home ownership.

A great deal of what makes quilts beautiful (and wins ribbons) is attention to detail.  At first this takes longer, but as we practice both our sewing skills and patience with ourselves, doing it well becomes a habit and we become proficient at our art.  It takes time.  There will always be a story about a quilter who won a huge prize with her second quilt.  The rest of us continue to learn and practice and love the process of quilting.  A prize is icing on the cake.  The cake is color and design and the joy of doing what we love.


With Independence Day coming up, it pleases me so much to see so many Quilts of Valor being made and given away.  I made a red, white and blue quilt for my son while he was in Iraq some years ago.  I remember thinking that all the service members coming home should get one.  I did a little research on the net and found Quilts of Valor and made and sent them a quilt.  I actually have another top made and will finish it in the next few months.  As the mother of a Service Member, I'd like to thank all those who have given to Quilts of Valor.

Enjoy summer and take time to quilt.

Candy