Blazing heat, computer crashes, secret stitching,

and did I mention blazing hot? LOL
With the temps in the high nineties, 
and the heat index to be well above 100 degrees each day this week,
THAT is a little much.
It does probably mean a little more stitching time indoors 
in the air conditioned coolness, though, and that is good.

My computer has been in the shop.  Again... Which really is a blessing in disguise; being able to have it repaired means I didn't have to purchase a new one.   I'll try to take a few minutes at lunchtime each day this week and visit all my blog friends and try to get caught up on all the fun.

Secret stitching:
Sweetie's nephew asked me to create a quilt gift for his wife, in honor of their 12th anniversary.  They are such a sweet couple and family, and I'm proud to claim them! lol
He told me the some of her favorite colors, I chose the fabrics, sent secret messages and pictures back and forth, and got to work. Delivered ahead of schedule, so just had to wait out the gifting before I could share with you all.
Their anniversary date has passed, so I won't ruin his surprise if I share now.
Queen sized, teals and corals, Crazy 9 Patch pattern:

Hard to make out, I know, but he asked for his/hers initials with wedding date, enclosed within a heart:

 I also made a couple of large pillowcase/shams with leftover fabrics:

 And probably my favorite picture - the trimmings from squaring up the blocks:

 Binding time:

I'm off to have some lunch and do some MORE secret stitching! 
Hope your week is wonderful!!!
 

quilting to share

Here's another baby quilt that
I didn't get shared in the last couple of months
(when I was having blog-access-troubles).

Well, actually, it was TWO baby quilts that I was
able to meander over...
But since the two were exactly the same, 
I guess I didn't think I needed a picture of BOTH of them. LOL
So here's a picture of the ONE that I did photograph!!:
THE cutest little Owl families!!!

Just adorable fabric! and wonderful piecing by Janet, too!

I've also been working on a couple of commission quilts -
so no sharing those right now...
One for an June anniversary gift, 
and the second for a wedding in August.
Such fun sewing and quilting!
And a little pool-side fun with the Grands, thrown in also!

I've been a blog slug

The busyness of Summer-time hit me the last few weeks,
and I've been having fun, fun, fun.

After a really nice family vacation and 
then three really, really nice family reunions
(two of them held here at my home)
I'm about family reunioned out. :)
For the past three weeks,
I didn't even take the time to visit my favorite blogs.
(I miss you guys & gals!)
 
I was past ready to start this week with some meandering!
I did some free-motion climbing roses
on some great floral fabrics:

on a lap quilt that Vicki made,
for her daughter's 50th birthday:

Isn't it a beauty?
Just the break that I needed!

Now, I off to 'put up' some more squash,
as this week I've been zucchini-ed. 
:)

(Zucchini-ed: VERB - the act of dropping an abundance of squash, or other vegetables, off on unsuspecting neighbor's porches.

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!

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.

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! 

a few blocks and half of '15

If you recall, I was being taunted by the
stack of fabrics and the Farm Girl Vintage pattern book
for a couple of months or more.

Yesterday I did meander over a baby quilt for a friend, 
and I'll share that another day,
but, as soon as I finished up those 
four quilt tops/works in progress of mine
(that I'd promised myself I'd do before starting something else),
I headed to the sewing room and got in my sewing fix!
Yay!!
I didn't stay there long each day,
but it was just enough to settle me down
(if you are a quilter, then you probably understand that).

I'd decided to start with the 6 inch blocks,
but I may eventually add some of the 12 inch blocks, too.

So, in four days, with just a little stitching time here and there,
I have these five blocks sewn:

So soothing, just that little bit of stitching.

Then I looked at the calendar and realized that 
it's almost the end of June already.
That's half a year gone!  
Boy, oh boy, it seems like time is flying.
Or is it only me that thinks this?
I sure had big ideas about things I wanted to accomplish this year, 
and I'm not half finished, though the year is!!
Guess I better get cracking, yes?
Focus, focus may become my mantra. :)

Hopefully, like me, 
you had some stitching/calming time this past weekend also.
Happy end of June!

Oops!

I did it again...
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Sorry to put the lyrics to the Britney Spears song 
into your head for the day,
but, I did it...
I've started another quilt project.

I think it's a problem condition that I have...
this start-another-project-thing.
(: By the way, I don't think I'm the only quilter that has the same condition. :)

I promised myself that 
I WOULD NOT START ANOTHER QUILT PROJECT until 
I had finished up some works-in-progress (WIP).

Please note the word 'until'.
 
It was a difficult few weeks, 
but because I am aware of my condition  and I'd promised myself,
I DID quilt some commission quilts;
I also started the PROMISED working-through-the WIP-stacks
on my sewing table and ironing board.

As an example of a WIP, 
I had cut out a stack of red, white, and blue tumblers last Summer.
I don't know why they were never sewn together. 
But that's the first WIP that I attacked:

After I finished piecing the quilt top, I readied the backing.

Then, I finished piecing two baby quilts  -

the one on the left for a little boy (already a month old) - it just needed the rows sewn together, and the one on the right for a little girly (that will be here in August) - (it needed it's borders):

I went ahead and prepped the backings for them.
Lastly, I finished piecing the wedding quilt
that I've had in progress for at least two years

 and made the backing for this one, too.


That is four, yes I said four!! 
quilts ready to quilt!
The tumbler flag quilt will be layered, pillow-case-turned and then quilted.
The two baby quilts and the large blue/brown star quilt will all go into my queue for BigDD, the long-arm machine. 

Which brings me to this: 

Farm Girl Vintage and my chosen fabrics
[the bundle is Sprinkles by Red Rooster Fabrics, 
across the top is mostly Swiss Dots/Riley Blake for backgrounds, 
and other fabrics (from various lines) that will be my piecing fabrics]

Like I said, :)

Oops, I did it again,  
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Hope you are getting some of your projects tackled also,
and Happy Thursday!

raining indoors and lunch with a friend

We have had rain, rain, and more rain around here.
Not as badly as some have had,
but just over 4 inches in one 24-hour period last week was plenty.

And, when it's raining indoors, you know you've had enough rain. :)

I didn't take a picture,
but I am so glad that I collect antique porcelain wash tubs...
I had e. v. e. r. y.  wash tub that I own
parked around my hearth and wood burning stove in the living room.
In between showers on Wednesday evening,
my Sweetie was on the roof,
with my warehouse-sized jumbo roll of plastic wrap.

Yes, he wrapped the chimney in plastic wrap.

(We didn't have a large enough tarp on hand.)

We were laughing at ourselves and our dilemma...

 with a ladder up to the roof edge, 

and a ladder ON the roof against the chimney, 

and the warehouse-sized jumbo roll of plastic wrap in hand

and wrapped around and around and over the chimney.  

We were laughing at ourselves, laughing at ourselves.

 

He promises that the plastic-wrapped chimney is only 

until the rain stops long enough to get a roofing guy out here 

to see what's up.  Or off.  Or something. 

The rain continued Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 
so I was still drip-catching through the weekend.
Thankfully though, not as much rain indoors those days.
 
Raining indoors day 
was supposed to be the day that I went to lunch with a friend.
We'd talked about going a week or so before,
but something came up then, so we changed it.  
Then we changed it again when it rained indoors.
Anyway, we finally made it and it was so nice and relaxing...
Good company, good food and a nice place to visit.

We lunched at the Morgan House, in Dublin, Ohio.
Morgan House is huge - with different sections that include:
restaurant, gift shop, home decor and furniture, and gourmet foods.
We were seated in the original dining section of the restaurant - the log cabin.
It truly is an old log cabin!!! - 
it was erected from the original log cabin
named after famed Civil War Veteran John Hunt Morgan.
Shortly after the Civil War, the log cabin was dismantled and reassembled on Glick Road, here in central Ohio.

This picture was taken with my phone, so not the greatest picture.
(: Or maybe operator issues :)
But hopefully you can see the original log cabin wall in the background, with a great quilt hanging on it, and yummy lunches on the table.

Thankfully, the raining indoors has ended, 
as I'd rather be stitching than catching drips. :)

Hope you are having as wonderful a start to your Summer
as I've had!

Summer busyness already,

and it's not even officially Summer! 

Not just the busyness is here already, but
the four H's are here, too...
Hot,
Hazy,
Humid,
Having Summer-time fun.
The humidity, for me, makes it a little hard to breathe, so that means that little is happening outdoors around here, so it's a good excuse to have some indoor fun!

I found a yummy sounding cake mix...
I've heard that there were limited edition, seasonal, flavored cake or cookie mixes, but I've never seen them in the grocery before.  
Until last night!

Since I love mango-flavored anything,
this one will be made for Sunday family dinner.
(: Oops, didn't realize that my salad dressing photo-bombed until I inserted the pic! :)

More fun:  I meandered on one quilt for a friend - 
the pretty purple one on the left is done:

and in the right background, 
a little girly quilt I'm making that is awaiting borders and then off to the long-arm (this is the third [I believe] of five baby quilts that I need for this Summer of coming babies). 

Also fun in the past week:

I finally got these stars & nine-patches pieced 
for a wedding quilt gift,
and am now auditioning borders (2); backing is off to the right.
I've been working on this one for a while.  
More correctly:  I've not been working on this for a while,
as I cut all the pieces and sewed about half of the star blocks 
last November and then put it away.
When I got all it all back out recently, 
I didn't have enough of the light, solid corner squares 
cut for the star blocks...
but I did have extra dark squares.
(insert 'things that make you go hummmm?' here)
Reviewing what I'd sewn with the pattern instructions, 
I'd mistakenly put in light fabrics on both opposite corners of every star block I'd made.
So I had a little time spent doing some un-sewing, re-sewing, and re-pressing.
But it's finally coming together, and I'll be able to gift it, only a few years after the wedding.   Better late than never, right??  :)

Hope you are having a wonderful start to almost Summer, too!

the quilt I sent for the swap has arrived

This is the little quilt I sent to JoAnne:

Not great lighting for the picture  
(at least it stopped raining long enough for me to take an outside picture), 
but it finished at 17 inches square; 
I used some of my favorite scraps for the four-patches, 
and reproduction shirtings for the setting squares.

Because I was late in sending it off, I added a little something extra 
- a little pincushion that I made:

I made a small block with scrap fabrics, stuffed it with cotton wadding, and put it into an individual, antique salt cellar, then made a decorative pin to go in it.
The picture, below, shows a corner of  the backing of the quilt and 
one of the corner pockets (for hanging) with labeling:

(I guess that's the only shot I got of the backing that I used.)
Finally, here's a shot that shows my hand quilting just a little better:

I haven't hand-quilted in quite a while, and though I was certainly rusty, I did enjoy the hand-stitching time.  
I was down to my last hand-quilting needle 
when I started the quilting, 
so when it bent toward the end of the quilting process, 
I had to switch out to a needle that was bigger, 
and I was worried about the hand-quilting stitches 
in the center of the quilt
looking different from the outside, lastly stitched areas.  
But, JoAnne wrote on her blog that my hand-quilting stitches were
"tiny", so I guess I shouldn't have worried. :)

I so enjoyed participating in this swap again 
(thanks, Lori for coordinating over 70 quilters and the swap!).  
I didn't realize when I first was assigned JoAnne as a swap partner
that I was already a regular reader of her blog: The Patriotic Quilter.  
If you have a minute, click over to see JoAnne's blog and see the quilt that she made to swap, too.

Happy Monday!

Lucy Boston POTC - end of June progress

Summertime fun
has really been curtailing my Lucy progress...
I even waited to share and post this until AFTER
the 4th of July long holiday weekend,
hoping I'd get some more stitching done,
but alas, it did not happen.

So, for the end of June,
I didn't get my sixth row attached - Bummer!
Remember when I warned that
if you are doing Lucy Boston
that you should not wait until the end
to make all the 'extra' pieces
for your honeycomb borders and connecting squares???
Well, that's what I've been stitching...
all of those border and square pieces, very slowly.
(It's much more fun to do the fussy-cutting!)

Anyway,
I do have a couple of blocks to share
that I don't think I've shown before:

My Life Is A Stitch. BlogSpot.com

My Life Is A Stitch. BlogSpot.com

They are going into the middle of row six -
as soon as I get all those outside connectors on :)

Hope your weekend was great, and
Happy Stitching!

hot, steamy meandering & FREE water

So - a couple of days ago we had 4.2 inches of rain...
Yes, you read that right.  
That much rain in one day causes problems.
Just sayin'.

So in six days, we've had over TEN inches of rain.
Yep, problems.
Maybe I should consider taking up boat building instead of quilting?

One of my brothers put a picture of his flooding
(yard, fields, road, etc.)
on facebook and was offering
FREE WATER -bring your own containers for hauling.  
Funny, huh?  And he didn't want any of my extra water.

Also, the temps have stayed in the upper 80's,
so we are still steaming here.
Which means that in between storms,
I have done some more hot and steamy meandering!!

Blocks and o's:

I quilted spiraling squares and o's on this beautiful quilt of Colleen's
and I can't wait to see her scrappy binding on this finish...
(I made her promise to send a pic before she gifts it).

Don't you love those colors?? I know I do!

My next quilt I got to work on was a baby quilt made by one of my paternal Aunts:

(I did the quilting and binding for her great-grand baby that is coming soon.)

She wanted to keep it simple with the quilting,
but I did add a little pop of blue fabric as a flange at the binding edge.
Here is the last picture before I finished the binding:

Don't you love the traditional nursery rhyme fabric?

Perfect for a great grand-baby from Great-Grandma!

Both beautiful quilts and it was another pleasurable (but hot) week of quilting here.

Hope you also have a little stitching time this week!



Hot meandering! Change of seasons & routine

Do you change your routine of quilting/stitching
with the changing of the seasons???

I've shared before that my long-arm machine
is set up in my back sunroom.

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
BigDD in the sunroom
with my Great-GrandmaB's and Grandma's aprons
clothes-pin clipped as curtains on a clothesline.

It's a very nice sunroom,
with two walls of windows - southern and western exposure,
a cooling slate floor and a ceiling fan. 
Having my HQmachine - Big DD, in this room is wonderful!
Lots of room, with plenty of space, great lighting and breezes.

So when the summer heat
(high 80's  to low 90-degree temperatures)
hit our neck of the woods a few weeks ago,
well before the official start of summer,
I knew it was going to be a long season of
HOT meandering!
(Meandering, in my world, is also known as quilting.)

That early Summer heat turned my beautiful, relaxing, calm and cool quilting environment into a red-hot, blazing KILN!!

Then, the last few weeks we have had
heavy rains 3 or 4 days of each week - just to add some humidity.
Now my sunroom is feeling more like a kiln-fired TERRARIUM!!!

So, I've had to change up my routine...
which I don't usually have to do until late August:

I now head out EARLY morning
to do my meandering...
turn on the ceiling fan, and start meandering away. 

As the angle of the sun
reaches my sunroom windows about late lunchtime
and starts heating the back of my legs,
I close it all down and retreat inside.
Inside to do some hand stitching or machine piecing.

So THAT is my 'change of seasons & routine' story.
Do you also change up your sewing/quilting routines seasonally??

Happy Summer Stitching to you!

Summertime fun

 Somehow, I've gotten myself into another stitch-along.
Does that statement ring a bell with you, too?

Memorial Day has passed,
and though not officially Summertime yet,
I've found some Summertime fun to get into!
Another quilt to start...
yes, I said START!

Just like you,
I have all this extra time, you know,

so I'm joining in on 

Lisa's  10th anniversary stitch along.

(click on the link above to take you to the block pattern)

It's only a new applique block every couple of weeks. :)

I figure I'll do them when I can,
& save the patterns when I can't get to it.
I really can't resist,
since it's a free pattern and
I can use up more of my cotton and wool plenitude!

Are YOU also going to join in on this Summertime fun??

Happy Stitching!
Debra

p.s.
Congratulations, Lisa on your 10th anniversary!
Thank You So Much
for the great, new, free design,
& for letting us help you celebrate!!

summer time & quilting

Well, the weather sure took a turn to the HOT here!!!
Summer has arrived, right on schedule and let us know it!
And "DD" - the long-arm machine, is in the sun room.
The sun room that faces the southwest...
you can guess what that means, can't you?
I've been doing some HOT quilting :)

Quilting for other folks, not for me...

(good for them, not so much for my stash-shrinkage).

Here's Elaine's log cabin table topper:

52" square

(No, I have not started mine yet :), but I think I've quilted five of these now.)

 



And four more hot pad blocks for Sharon:

each 14 inches square

 

Sharon is in her first applique class and is up-to-date now with her three blocks each month of this "Our Flower Garden" class at The Good Wives Co. in Marion (and, again, you still can't tell she's just a beginner quilter - it's pretty amazing).

On the note of cherry-picking - this could be the best crop we've had in over a decade!  I'm almost tired of pickin' :0 but they are so deliciously tart! and will be oh, so good this Winter.
Happy last week of June to you!
I'm off to do a little stitching of my own.

zucchini-ed

"You wake up early in the morning and
see a middle aged man
running away from your house...

You then
find a pile of
zucchini on your porch,
and think nothing of it ; ) "

You have been zucchini-ed.

A sure way to tell that you live in the country!

Thanks, brother, for the laugh!

heat wave

108 degrees today with heat index...

If you like saunas, welcome to the Midwest today...
It's been a while since it's been this hot here in Ohio.
And steamy...
And with bad air quality...

So, today's high heat/bad air quality event was a test of many things:

1. Heat endurance: getting from car to quilt shop aka work
2. Patience:  for people who don't have working air conditioning in their vehicle
3. Meds:  asthma doesn't like the combo of really high temps and really bad air quality.
4. dress code:  sleeveless is in

And, I guess I passed the above tests -

1. Got there early before the temps peaked, left after the sun dropped, & working at a quilt shop really isn't considered work, is it?
2. Just got out of the way of those folks who where driving faster and faster, trying to create their own cooler breeze
3. Still breathing, no extra meds, so must have stayed inside during the worst time, and thankfully, working air conditioning
4. Guess my sweat glands passed, too - gross!

I will tell you -
I am not working with my wool this week!

Happy Stitching though!