Summer is Here

Tomorrow may be the official start of summer but the summertime heat is here with a vengeance!

So how do you keep cool?  The swimming pool feels like warm bathwater and you hope there is a slight breeze to cool the droplets on your skin.  Or you towel off and go inside to air conditioned coolness. In my case, I work during the day in 68-degree-Fahrenheit air.

Anyway, the weather isn't the only hotness around here. My sewing machine and fingers are hot from finishing up a variety of projects.

First, my longarmer finished custom quilting Mesa Valley and it turned out fantastic!  I am nearly finished hand stitching on a wider-than-normal teal binding. This one will hopefully grab a shiny ribbon in the next quilt show.

Second, I free-motion-quilted a tablerunner and finished hand-stitching on its binding.

I even added some stitch-in-the-ditch lines on a table runner from a couple years ago (*now* it is finished).  This is a Connecting Threads kit.

Third, ummm....I started two new projects. Yeah, I know. I have plenty of UFOs that I need to concentrate on completing. But both of these called so strongly to me. While searching for images of a different quilt block, I came across an image from a completely different quilt. It was a quilt someone had made from blocks received in a block exchange. I had participated in that exchange, hoping so hard that I would be the winner. Alas, I didn't win, but the idea of making my own set of blocks had been percolating in my mind. Seeing that example was the inspiration to finally make my own. I now have eight blocks for the planned 20-block setting, all from my own stash.  It's so nice to shop your own stash!

 

The other new project is from a recent Sew Sampler box. My daughter's boyfriend really liked the quilt pattern. I figured it might be one more incentive for him to stick around for a while if I made this quilt (lol-if my daughter is reading this post, maybe you could curb your morning grouchiness so he will stick around longer than your previous boyfriends).  I finished cutting the fabric last night. It is an easy pattern so should go together pretty quickly.

Last week my hubby and I spent time visiting my parents and helping with home renovations. It was great to see them again, along with my brother and niece. We took a drive around the town and the nearby lakes to check out all the changes that have occurred in our home town over the past few years. It sure was nice to get back home again, though.

Where have you gone on vacation this summer? Or where would you recommend we check out on our next vacation?

Royal Morning

Like nearly every woman around the world, I watched the royal wedding this morning. Lady Di's baby boy got married!  I still remember the incredible wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles, and yes, Prince William and Kate's wedding where her sister Pippa got so much attention. Today Harry and Meghan had their own gorgeous wedding, filled with touching moments and surprising aspects.  A gospel choir? Wow!  And I definitely enjoyed the musical interludes such as that 19-year-old who played cello after the vows were exchanged. I cried right along with Meghan's mother, imagining my own little girl in her future wedding. Great pics in this article.

Then after doing some housecleaning chores, it was time to sew.  I finished the cutest little baby quilt made solely from my stash. Each square has a story and most of these fabrics are in other quilts I have made or play clothes made for my little girl (who is now 21 - lol).  Pattern is a tutorial from, fittingly, Wedding Dress Blue.

On a higher note, my hubby and I flew my little airplane to Savannah last Saturday. We had a great time walking around the historical district. The night before our flight, we watched "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" for another perspective on Savannah. Of course, we had to walk through Chippewa Square, the park featured in "Forrest Gump".  And a Forrest lookalike was sitting on a park bench as we walked by.  We saw Juliette Gordon Low's house, the Mercer Williams house from "Midnight...", and the Owens-Thomas house. No we did not tour any of them because the entrance fees were way too high.  After lunch we walked by the water for a bit then drove around the old Bonaventure Cemetery and Forsythe Square.  Soon it was time to head back to the airport.  Late afternoon rain showers delayed our departure a bit.  That's what happens when flying in the summer time.  Once up in the air, we passed a dark storm cell which I later found out dropped large hailstones in Augusta, Georgia.  As we lined up with the runway at home, we were greeted with this lovely rainbow.

Merry Month of May

There are many articles about setting goals, promising that you will accomplish more when striving toward a goal. So very true!  I set a goal this year of finishing at least half of my UFOs. According to my tracking sheet, I am almost halfway to my goal.

This weekend I made great progress finishing a really old UFO.  Around 2014, I had made made several disappearing 4-patch blocks, then put them away to focus on other projects.  This year in February I made enough blocks to create a throw-sized quilt.  This weekend I sewed the blocks and added a couple small borders to create a flimsy. Thank you to my readers for chiming in on how to arrange the blocks. I opted for a standard layout and it looks pretty, if I do say so myself.

The light outer border is a red-on-white print from Joanne's.

Next it was time to make my RSC blocks for May. This month's colors were pink and rose, very merry colors (and that's the tie-in with this blogpost's title).

Here are all the RSC blocks from January through May. I hope the next color is red, but it doesn't really matter because we will eventually work through all the other colors.

I Love Spring

What's not to love about springtime? April showers lead to flowers even before May. The trees are beginning to leaf out. The weather is warmer. And vacation season is beginning.  <sigh> I need a vacation.

As for quilting, this is what I accomplished since my last post:
1. Dropped off two quilts to be longarmed (Sapphire Stars and Mesa Valley).
2. Began binding my Grand Illusion quilt.
3. Finished the flimsy of Autumn Stars from the November 2017 Sew Sampler fat quarter pack.

Also, I'm ready to begin work on a quilt guild challenge "A traditional block in a non-traditional way". I went searching and decided on Grandma's Flower Garden SPHERE.  This quilt can be found at HERE.

Philosophical note of the day.... In a book I read recently, I saved this quote:  "I believe that our actions affect every person we met, even those we encounter only briefly. The sum of all our actions, good or bad, is our legacy." So true.  It may be your smile that brightens someone's day. It may be your "Hello" that chases away someone's loneliness. Or your impatience creates frustration which snowballs into an argument with a family member. I think our actions bounce into people like that little ball in a pinball machine.

On a higher note, springtime showers have prevented me from flying the last few weekends, but Sunday evening was perfect.  Low wind, deep blue skies, and mild temperatures made it perfect. So I went flying around the area, landing at several local airports. My first approach was low and the landing rather hard, but the other two were great. I blew the spiderwebs off the plane and now it's time to plan a longer trip for my next flight.

So what are you working on this spring?

April UFO Update

Hello!  Spring has sprung and it's time for some spring cleaning ....cleaning out more old UFOs.  April has been a productive month in my sewing room. This is what has been accomplished so far in April.

1.  I finished the flimsy for RSC 15!  (Or nearly finished--needs just a little white border and a new picture).  Finally I have a quilt worthy of some custom quilting!

2. RSC 18 "Squared Away" blocks for April are done. Isn't Yellow a happy color?

3. I cut and sewed the blocks for the Autumn Stars pattern from my November 2017 Sew Sampler box. The borders are ready to apply.  This one will not land on my UFO list at all. Whew!

4. Sapphire Stars is a flimsy!  It's going to the longarmer tomorrow.

5. My version of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion will be picked up from the longarmer tomorrow. The binding step will go quickly and that means one more UFO checked out the list.

What's up next?  My quilting goals for 2nd quarter are to sew a quilt for my guild's challenge (a traditional block in a non-traditional way), finish more UFOs, and make a baby quilt for my daughter's friend.

So.....
Which UFO should I work on next?  Please leave a message with your vote.
1. Assemble those red/white disappearing 4-patches into a flimsy.
2. Assemble my old Floribunda blocks (another Bonnie Hunter pattern) and finish up the piano key border. 
3. Free-motion quilt the Little Fox quilt.
4. Work on my En Provence quilt.

On a higher note, the weather looks great for this weekend so I am expecting to fly circles in the sky in my airplane. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful sunshine this weekend, too.