Lucy Boston

Friday, July 31, 2015

needle turning time

Yep, I've done it again.
Signed up for another sew-along.
Happy time!
Or, maybe crazy time. :)

Karen (at Log Cabin Quilter blog)
asked if anyone wanted to join in, (and there were takers)
so she organized a Sew Along.
The book being used is by Jeana Kimball
called Old Voices New Impressions.
I think most of the gals joining in 
are going to do the quilt on the back cover -
called Cranberry Album.
And the so-called rules for this sew-along are to
just share four blocks you've made, the end of each month.

Of course, I really wanted to start another project!!
I already had the out-of-print book...
Well, I had lent it out a long time ago, 
so I really didn't have it, have it.
But after some searching and asking around,
it's come back home, so I DO have it now.
AND!, I already have my sashing/border fabric:
The picture, above, shows my border fabric, 
some snowy-white muslin,
and the Cranberry Album quilt pictured on the back of the book.
I was going to use the above white muslin for my background fabric of the applique blocks,
but I did just restock (while on vacation) my light-colored repro-print background fabrics:
(Pardon the green campfire/marshmallow/s'more fabric in the above picture,
that's for the grandkiddos eye-spy quilt stash)
So, for the July-end-of-the-month sharing in the 
Old Voices, New Impressions Sew Along,
I don't have four blocks stitched,
but I do have my fabrics chosen! :)

Happy Day!

goodbye July, goodbye beach

July has flown by already!
I had 10 days (with most of the immediate family) at the beach,
and that also flew by.
I took along a whole tote bag of quilts that needed the
binding hand-stitched, but with the sunny beach calling my name,
just a little stitching happened. :)
My tote of quilts awaiting the hand-stitching binding
This is nearly the same 14-hour driving trip 
I've made three times in the last year and a half,
and this is the FIRST time 
I've been in a quilt shop on the way back or forth!
Some might say I have great restraint, :)
but in reality, it's just been a timing thing.
Anyway, this time I passed a Tennessee quilt shop during open hours, and found these:
Civil War reproduction lights for an upcoming project,
and a piece of cute campfire/marshmallow/s'mores 
to add to the eye-spy stash.

Now to motivate myself to get back to the
house cleaning and reunion prep!
Oh, and a little more stitching, too.

Happy Friday!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

I had mail!

I so look forward to getting
'squish'y mail!
Don't you love the cover girl? :)
And now I can dream about more great quilts to make!
Because I don't have enough ideas of my own already!! haha

Oh, and look at those new fat-quarters that were packed into my envelope.
Drool!
Not a single one of them has a selvage with maker or designer though, 
so I don't know what they are. Yet.



Monday, July 27, 2015

meandering love

Meandering after the lightning and thunderstorms have passed:
The quilt that I had loaded on BigDD (the long-arm machine) last week
was a BIG one!  Big and beautiful! 
Bev did a wonderful job on this one for a Granddaughter's wedding gift.
It was king-sized, all batiks and perfectly pieced!
The colors reminded me of the ocean.
 So much fun to quilt for others!  I do have a hard time not wanting to make my own quilt exactly the same after I see how beautiful these quilts are that I get to meander over for others!

I hope you are enjoying your stitching time also,
and happy Monday!

more making hay while the sun shines

Last week when I shared my lack of
accomplishments I made in the sewing department
during all the bad weather we've been having,
I forgot to share that I did get another quilt loaded onto
BigDD - the long-arm machine:
The long-arm is one of the machines that I don't plug in while the electrical storms are visiting.
But, when the storms left town,
I was ready to start meandering.

Monday, July 20, 2015

making hay!

It's Summertime,
weather-wise, finally. :)
Hot, muggy, steamy, and even sunny!
Just the way it should be for mid-July.

With the last few weeks of nasty weather -
thunder, lightning and heavy rainstorms, 
you'd think I'd be so much further along with my
indoor activities, aka:  sewing, than what I am. 
But since I don't plug in my computerized electronics 
(sewing machines included) during such bad weather,
I don't have much to show in the way of progress...

Between storms though, I did sew this Farm Girl Vintage block:
Yep, I sewed ONE little six inch block.  

Oh, I also did cut out more fabric for my Farm Girl Vintage blocks...
but I only have a picture of one of the groups:
Above, that's six blocks, in six little piles,
on one of my portable design boards.
And below, is my method of organizing
the bazillion little pieces of each six inch finished block, 
on one of my design-boards,
readying them for sewing.
(: OK, really, this block only has 37 pieces. :)

My design-board organization 
is similar to that which the pattern designer 
(Lori of Bee in My Bonnet) uses,
except my little design boards are not as cute as hers.

I made my design boards by wrapping a scrap of batting
around the included plastic divider sheets from my ArtBin box,
then secured that batting on the back with painter's tape.
I'm pretty sure that Lori/Bee In My Bonnet didn't use painter's tape. :)

I'm off to make hay blocks while the sun shines!
Happy Monday,
and hope your day is sun-shiny, too! 

Thursday, July 16, 2015

rain, rain, go away...

Here in central Ohio, we are enjoying 
(I use the word 'enjoying' very loosely)
more heavy rain, lightening and thunderstorms.  
Again.
Yesterday we had another 2 and a half inches of rain!
I don't know about you, 
but when those electrical storms are ongoing
(like they have been here recently),
I don't plug in any of my computerized machines,
like my sewing machines or the long-arm machine.
I figure it would only take one hit to electrically fry
the components of one of my favorite machines!
Are you the same way?


During the stormy days here, 
I have pre-cut and prepped many blocks -
ready to stitch anytime the storms are not visiting.
I've only stitched together ONE of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks this week!!

I have done some hand-stitching...  
I'm still whip-stitching together 
more of the potholder blocks of
my Flags of the American Revolution quilt.

Also, I've worked on binding another of the baby quilts to gift...
(I know some will notice and ask about the area that's not quilted in this picture... the bottom, left.  I left it un-quilted, so that I could later quilt/stitch in the baby's name and birth date!)

During this rainy-so-far-Summer, 
I've taken some time to visit some blogs -
to live vicariously through others' pictures of 
sunny days, trips and vacations.
 
My favorites are ones that shared their travel photos.
Not just any photos, but specifically 
to the New England Quilt Museum
and the Sister's Quilt show to name a couple.
But the one that has stuck in my head the most is
Wendy's, The Constant Quilter blog (link here),
from her trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival.
So many great pics of wonderful, vintage quilts.

All of those travel photos makes me want to do some traveling!
SO inspiring!; 
But all of those quilt-y photos also cause me a little trouble,
as it makes me really, really, really
want to start another project!!
I do remember my promise to myself 
to finish up some Quilts already In Progress...
I will finish another QIP first. 
I will finish another QIP first.
I will finish another QIP first.
:)

Hope you are having sunny, stitching days!

Monday, July 13, 2015

flower fun and another meandering

I recently saw this great display at a local nursery, 
and had to share the smile:
Makes me want to go round up all the old wagons I have stashed in the barn, and find a place to hang them! :)

Also, I got to meander over another baby quilt,
this time for Bev:
 
I think she chose great colors and prints along with a whole bunch of white-on-white fabrics.
I really liked the fabrics and colors and will have to remember this color scheme for a later date!

Thanks for visiting!
Hope your day is great!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

more Farm Girl Vintage blocks

I'm continuing stitching and trying to finish up some
long awaited UnFinished Quilts/Projects...
which I shared about previously, here.
But, I also worked on my NEW project last week,
as I sewed together six more blocks for my
Farm Girl Vintage quilt!

I'm really enjoying making these blocks.
The book (by Lori Holt) 
has patterns for both 12 and 6 inch finished blocks,
and I'm making the six-inch square blocks,
so there are some really tiny cuts of fabric.
On the canning jars block (above, top-right),
the bottom of the jar corner-pieces are only cut at 3/4ths of an inch!
In my excitement of making these blocks,
I did have a little problem with the block called Corn and Tomatoes:
Yep, see the pieces to the left?  
I stitched the red polka-dot onto the background fabric
at the wrong angle.
Oops! had to make some new units.
Maybe, hopefully, these wrongly-made pieces 
will go into another block at a later date.

In regards to the UFQ/Progress:
I'm binding the next to last of the baby quilts that I need for this Summer gifting, and I've finished quilting the wedding-quilt gift, so it's ready to trim and bind.

Feels good to have progress -
progress on new and old projects!

Hope you are having a wonderful, happy day!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Baby quilt meandering, and a party without rain!

Last week, I got to meander over
a baby quilt that Louise made for another
great-grand baby:
Such cuteness!
Here's a closer picture of the fabrics, 
her perfect piecing, and my quilting:

On another note, 
the party I spoke of...
that's what the grandkiddos called the
local village's Independence Parade on the 4th-

'It was a great party!  And it didn't rain.'
(You know it's been raining too much, 
when even the little kids mention that it wasn't another wet day!)

'Where did that tractor go?'
I say it was a great party, too!  
A great salute to America.  
And the rain did clear - for TWO days!

We are back to another seven days 
of forecasted showers and storms.  
I feel sorry for the local farmers and their crops (or lack of).
Though that does mean for me
another indoor day of fun - 
sewing and quilting.

I hope your parade didn't get rained on

and you had a nice weekend.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

parade, ice creams, and stitching

Happy Independence Day America!!

I didn't get out all of my patriotic decor this year, 
but I did pull out a couple of pillows and quilts to throw on the couch:
 The pillow that I made years ago from an old and faded, red woolen blanket.
This morning, Sweetie and I will head north a few miles 
to attend our local village's Americana celebration.

Sweetie always finds a place to park 
so that we HAVE to walk past one of the local churches' 
homemade ice cream fundraising-stand.
He eats his ice cream as we head to 'our corner' - 
the traditional place where we stand to visit with 
neighbors and extended family that are
gathered along the main streets of the village... 
awaiting the parade.
Our parade is usually about an hour-long...
with bands, bicyclists, 4-H clubs, youth groups,
multiple township's fire equipment, 
politicians, business floats,
horses, antique vehicles and antique tractors.
Rain or shine!,
a little piece of Americana in our little part of the country. 

Afterwards, we will (OF COURSE)
walk back past the homemade ice cream stand
for Sweetie's second serving before
heading home for our own picnic lunch.

This year, Sweetie has to go to work 
(his turn to cover an event from 2 to 11 p.m.)
and I'm planning (and so looking forward to) 
a nice, quiet day -
just sewing and stitching!! YAY!!!

One of the hand sewing projects I'm planning on attacking is this:
my Flags of the American Revolution quilt.
I made these quilt blocks in the Hot Pad or Pot Holder style (where each individual flag is a mini quilt), and I have them about half whip-stitched together.
Every time I have it laid out, 
I think it looks unfinished - like it still needs borders...

What do you think? 
Does it need borders added?  (I'd appreciate your input.)
Since each block is already individually quilted, 
they would have to be border 'blocks'
(which is doable and I already have the fabric)


Anyway,
I hope your holiday weekend is safe, relaxing,
and wonderful!!
With homemade ice cream and/or stitching time!! :)