July!

June is now only a memory.  July has arrived.  I didn't get one post done in the entire month.  I have contemplated giving up my blog with the changes Blogger made.  I enjoy blogging and I really love the rapport between bloggers.  Many "friends" have followed me for years, and I them.  Without getting notice in my inbox of incoming comments, it has become so time consuming to reply to them.  Maria has sent me e-mails with all sorts of hints for settings, etc.  Nothing I seem to do will change the situation.  I can only see comments if I sign in to my account and may times I cannot retrieve an e-mail address to reply.  I just do not feel it is right to not reply to all of the kind comments that I receive.  Thus, Blogger has been a thorn in my side when life is busy.

I haven't accomplished a lot of sewing for the month.  I have one near finish that I will show when I get done, but my fun quilting this month was receiving the blocks from my bee mates.  June was my month to be queen bee and it was great to see exciting mail arrive along with all the adds.  The block that I selected for my month was a freebie found HERE.  I made out a master plan and mailed it to my beemates.  Although I only expected one block from each, every person did TWO blocks!  Our Gridster Bee has been an amazing group of gals.  My blocks finish at 12" so the quilt went together quickly.  This is where I was earlier this week.

July means there is a new queen and these are her blocks.  I love all the scrappy goodness.

The beginning of June was for family celebrations.  Our children took us out for a day of surprises, end with a lovely dinner for our 50th anniversary.

The same weekend we celebrated the wedding of our eldest granddaughter.   This is a phot of our son and his family.

What would summer be without preserving?  The apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums have produced a massive crop this year.  I have been lucky to have these two delightful helpers to assist with canning.  We have done it together for so many years and I am sure they could do it without any guidance, but we so enjoy our canning days together.  One day we just baked without canning.  Their favorite was a Nectarine Vanilla Bean Scone.

We've also spent many hours at baseball fields and equestrian cross country meets.

There was also Father's Day and a well deserved celebration for the six great fathers in our family.

Finally there was July 4th.  We had around 80 people this year for the festivities - lots of great food and laughs.  I didn't get many pictures so I hope others have some to share.

Summer Has Arrived

Summer has finally arrived and it is packing a punch.  The high yesterday was 107* and is right up there again today.  The heatwave is suppose to break this evening and take us back to more seasonal temperatures.  I finally get to add those red fabrics to my Temperature Quilt.

It has been a busy week.  They were suppose to start on refinishing the wood floors on Friday, but that got postponed until Monday.  The closets, drawers and curios are now all emptied in anticipation.  Lots of purging has gone on here.

As well, we had the big July 4th party on Wednesday.  We do the BBQ and everyone brings side dishes so it makes it easier.  Games are played during the day and then the little ones light sparklers when it gets to be dusk.

My cousin's son is in L.A. for a summer internship so he and his friend joined us as well.

June was my month to be queen in our Gridster Bee.  I just love seeing the variation of the fabrics.  I'm looking forward to getting all of these together.

Several years ago I participated in the MCM Bee.  For my month I chose blocks to create the Woven pattern.  The blocks had been boxed up for too long.  I pulled them all out and added some more to create this layout.  I am calling it Sand and Sea.  It will be fun to get this one finished.

One last bit of sewing here.  While these little ones were staying with us this week, we had a chance to make some pink polka dot pajama bottoms.  The girls both loved them and didn't want to take them off.  Win/win!

I'm hoping to get some good sewing time in the next few weeks while they work on the floors.  I certainly won't be cleaning house!  That will come afterwards.  SIGH.

Mid July

I really didn't plan on being away for two weeks.  Life just seems to have something new and exciting every day.  I feel out of the loop as I have been off of the computer much of the time as we entertained company, celebrated the 4th of July and started the busy season of canning.  Two peach trees are done and one to go.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was the recipient of the June blocks for the Gridster Bee.  They have all come in and I just love the way this is coming together.   I'll add a few more Confetti Stars and get this put together shortly.

Meanwhile, as we move on to the next month's Gridster Bee blocks I completed my August block for Debbie - IG littlebirdquilts.  I have seen this quilt popping up on the different blogs and think Debbie's bright colors will look so nice.

Our July 4th party was loads of fun.  I always feel so blessed that the children have been able to grow up together.  Their cousins are their best friends and they always have someone to join them in whatever they do.

Pre sparkler instructions.

Serious yearly Corn Hole tournament.

They just look mischievous with those water balloons.

Master chef!

For Father's Day the kids gave their dad a Sous Vide immersion cooker.  We finally had a chance to try it out over the weekend and loved it.  We did a pork loin on Saturday night that was so moist and tasty.  Sunday we did a steak and it was also fantastic.  It is an interesting concept in cooking as the meat and herbs are cooked in a sealed bag and placed into warmed water (thus the ping pong balls to reduce water evaporation).  It is then finished off by searing a few seconds in a hot skillet.  It is great for timing the meal to be done at a certain time.  We were both very impressed and will be using this often.

I recently was selected as a winner of this beautiful Mulberry Lane jelly roll from Cherry Blossoms Quilting.  I just love the colors in these fabrics and look forward to making a quilt with it.  I have followed Cherry for many years and love her creative pieces.  One of my favorite quilts that I hang each year is a pattern of hers - the Feathered Christmas.

Tomorrow the girls and I start the pickles.  I'm looking forward to the fun.

Whoa

I could be saying that to slow the summer from speeding past, but it really has to do with a quilt that I am working on for our granddaughter's 16th birthday.  I made all of the children quilts when they were born, but each of the girls has requested a "grown up" one when they turn sixteen.  This one is for the horse owner/lover in the family.  It will consist of blocks with horses for the centerpieces.

We had a great July 4th party here.  There really wasn't much time for picture taking, but I did manage to snap a couple.  We had about 125 people here with several guests visiting from quite a distance - Chicago and Austria.

Meanwhile, I managed to get my bee blocks completed for the Mid Century Bee that I am in.  I love Sherrie's choice of log cabins.

Having finished my large cross stitch project, I started a smaller one.  It is stitched in a single thread over one stitch on Laguna 25 ct. so these stitches are tiny.  Can you guess what it will be?  I love having a slow stitching project to pick up and enjoy some quiet time.  I'll be linking this one up with Kathy for the Slow Stitching Sundays.

I'm off for more horse stitching.....

Friday Wrap Up

The busy week is coming to a close.  They just seem to go more quickly with each passing week.  We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July here.  We always have a large crowd and everyone brings side dishes for the BBQ so it isn’t too stressful, but I really didn’t have much time to get photos.  The little ones always enjoy the sparklers which is about when I remember to get the camera out.




Then on Sunday the girls wanted to have a tea party.  We made fresh scones and graham cracker cookies.



The boys were banned from the tea party, but found ways to entertain themselves without “bugging” the girls.



Since we babysat little ones for a few days we went to see Inside Out.  It was such a cute movie – for kids and adults.

After all of the cleaning, I managed to slip into my quiet space and sew my blocks together for the flag quilt.  It is currently 60x78”, but when taking the pictures of it I realize that the picture angle can make a huge difference.  Look at the square vs. the rectangle.




I guess the next picture will have to be of it all quilted and hanging to get one straight on for a true representation. 

Have a wonderful, summery weekend.

Another Week Along...

Wow!  The summer is just zipping past.  I should be used to it by now, but it never ceases to amaze me the rate that time flies.

The Fourth of July in the middle of the week just really played with my mind.  I kept thinking that Friday was Monday since DH took Thursday off and it got worse from that point forward.  I am glad that it is back to a normal Monday today.

I enjoyed the jam and bread making with the grandaughters, followed by some good games of jacks.  Does anyone else remember playing jacks by the hours when you were young?  It's a lot little tougher to get down on the floor in the right position at this age.

We got 6 batches of strawberry and one batch of peach jam made.

This past week we've had birthdays and a wedding - all fun family times filled with happiness. 



Such fancy red boots!



We had a terrific celebration on the 4th with the families all here.  Our crowds are quite large, but everyone pitched in, brought food and helped to clean up afterwards.  Our youngest son and his family were here for a few days so that kept life jumping.

While many of you have had terrible heat, we have been exceptionally cool.  Notice all the sweatshirts at the party on the 4th of July?  This was our forecast for the week and I have to say that we were thrilled to actually see a couple of 70s in the forecast.  Our high on the 4th was 67*!!

The weekend was rather quiet and allowed me time at the sewing machine.  I'm still working to catch up on the Takes 2 blocks.  I have put off the applique long enough and the last two blocks that I needed to catch up were both applique.  One is now finished and one more to go.

Yesterday we went to see the new Coke machine at our son's restaurant.  It is called a Freestyle machine.  Have any of you seen it before?  It is like a smorgasbord of selection for your drinks.  You can get well over 100 drink choices all from this little machine.  It is whatever your mind can imagine.  He was telling us that people are coming in to the restaurant just to try it out and to take pictures of this fancy machine.  Fascinating!

This is a crazy week ahead for us.  Our son and DIL are off for a few days in Hawaii and we are helping out with the ten children.  It will be fun and busy at the same time.  Let's pray for no broken arms this year!!!

I'll leave you with a picture of the baby quail waiting to jump down and devour the garden sprouts.  See what a good daddy the babies have?  He watched until each one had managed to get into the garden.