Hello July.
Can you believe the days are already on the way to being shorter?
Typically, I celebrate this with great relief and planning for fall
kicks in but so far, our summer hasn't been too bad.
We've gotten an unusual amount of rain (w/damaging storms) so,
while I have had to do lots of weeding, other hours normally spent
watering the garden have been free'd up. The humidity is killer but
I'm outside so much (chugging water/electrolytes) that I can deal
with it pretty well. It helps when there's a golf club in my hand.
Happy cabbages
And so the days continue fly by. I just saw that my last post
was 6 weeks ago and I'm making a mental note to make sure
I do better in the future. But I have been sewing between
all the time on the courses, in the gardens and traveling
so I have some fun progress to show today. Let's go...
1) Gift for a friend
Pattern: "Star Chain" (Material Girl Quilts)
Fabric: "Chickadee Landing" by Kansas Troubles,
supplemented w/scrap KT fabrics from stash
I didn't want this one to get too big as the recipient is
rather petite and battling cancer. I struggled to leave it
borderless (I'm a border person) but once the binding
was on, I stepped back and realized the size is just right.
When a quilt gives me too many pieces, I'd rather put them
to work than in a drawer so on the back they went. I was
cutting it close with the backing anyway so it all worked out
but I sure prefer a pattern gives you a heads-up about extras.
3) Get caught up on the 2025 Unity QAL
A growing mountain of triangle paper sets ready for trimming
Some progress but still way behind. I'm making my thousands
of HSTs but everyone else is putting blocks together.
Will I get caught up by the time I visit Primitive Gatherings!?
I also haven't picked out a background fabric yet. I need 8 yds
so there's little choice in my stash. Do I go with solid cream?
(leaning here)
Or do I buy? Still thinking on it so to tbd at a later date I guess.
4) SQUIRREL!
Winter Stars (76x76)
I wasn't sold on how they were working with the chosen pattern.
A few hours later and a long story short, I ended up going right
back to my Plan A with these things and though I'm still not huge
on it, I think it worked out just fine.
Pattern: "Twinkle" by Villa Rosa Designs
Fabric: "A Very Wooly Christmas" (Benartex)
(Reg cotton fabric, not wool or even flannel).
Quilting design: Winter Tempest (My Creative Stitches)
This one is going in the shop.
5) Knitting: progress made--one of three finished and hopefully
the next two go much faster! Gifts, so sorry, no pics.
6) Golf, Travel etc
Just a quick trip with hubs down to Georgia again so I got to the
First Lieutenant (for all of a couple hours) and play a couple rounds
at my fave course down there (Bull Creek: East and West).
100 degrees and humid? Whatever, I'll play!
It's just so pretty!
When not golfing I had time to kill so I checked out a local favorite
that my son has been recommending--Iron Bank Coffee Co.
Don't you love it when a business works with the original designs and
purpose of a building?!? The Iron Bank Building was built in 1860
and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Two vault rooms had been turned into little meeting rooms.
I enjoyed hanging out for a bit in the mornings when I had time
to kill, posts to work on and apparently, daily deals to check out.
It's good to be back home and in the studio again. Having knocked
out these last 2 quilts, I feel I have a more manageable list. That is
not to say I don't have a bajillion plans going on in my head!
I'm currently working on my mid-year check-up post, taking a quick
peek at the last 6 months' progress and then spell out the quilty plans
for the next 6. But for today, we'll just look at my plans for next week's
quilty adventures. Actually, I've had enough adventures for awhile.
Let's just keep it to some simple "to-do's".
Looking ahead:
1) Continue working on two requested pumpkin quilts
I don't do special orders but I do get requests that I can't say
no to. Fall quilts always get me, and scrappy ones help to thin
my stash. Maybe not a noticeable difference but it does make
small pieces go away. I also make mental notes of what I have
or don't have for the fall shop hop while tidying up the stacks.
And fall colors/fabrics are my fave so, yeah, I'm a sucker.
No matter what it says in my shop description apparently.
After spending lots of time cutting squares, I have more than
enough for one of the two so I'm moving on to sewing for now.
2) Other things this week:
Golf: The rescheduled tournament. Can't let my team down
(extra pressure as the only woman) so lots of practicing
will ensue. A rough job that I guess I'll step up to...
<wink>
Garden: It's time to plant pumpkins! Hallelujah! I'm waiting on
the latest rain to dry so I'm pinpointing today as the happy day.
I pray I've successfully eradicated the squash bugs and
vine borers. It's not likely, but a girl can pray and hope.
So the quilting, July 4th celebrating, gardening and golf are
all going to keep me hopping. Fun things but I'm looking
forward to next week when it should all start calming down.
Of course the fall quilt season is RIGHT there so I take it back:
It'll actually be time for things to get even busier!
Happy quilting!
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