Springtime

I have been a terrible blogger lately.  Springtime is always busy with family events and this one has been no different.  Trying to squeeze in time for stitching proves difficult.

My BIL is so good about saving his shirts for me when he is finished with them,  As a small token of thanks to him and to my sister I used some of his shirts to create a scrappy quilt for them.  The pattern is a variation of a  Bonnie Hunter freebie, Scrappy Mountain Majesties.

The gals in the family are in charge of a big dinner dance and auction tomorrow night.  They asked if I would make a table runner that reflected a "vintage-y/romantic" feel to go with some dishes they also have.  I added a hint of lace without the real lace by stenciling a lace motif on the linen looking background fabric.

This month for our Spelling Bee Carla requested words that had a knitting theme.  She has just opened up a knitting shop and wanted to reflect her love of quilting and knitting.  These are the words I sent off to her.

A dear friend whom I have known for years came up for a few days visit.  We had such fun reminiscing and visiting the Reagan Library.

The gardens continue to bloom beautifully.  My orchids and Epiphyllum (orchid cactus) are the show this week.

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The other excitement in the garden was the arrival of the tortoise eggs.  She laid them a month earlier than normal, but I assume it is because of the warm winter we had.  This is an all day process.

Monday Madness

Monday mornings with construction in the house is always madness.  The weekends are always so peaceful and then the noise and activity starts for another week.  Another couple of weeks (I think) and I should be able to spend my time cleaning every nook and crevice. 

While I continue to dig up the “oldies” in my sewing haven, I did have fun with a new project this week.  I had a charm pack of Market Road by Windham and loved the colors.  I decided to make a few flying geese and then just started building on them until I got a nice size for the table.  It is 16”x40”. 



I used the rest of the charms for the back.



Now for the oldies……another table runner that I finally quilted and bound.



Remember the fusible grid Happy Jack from my last post?  I finished him AND make another one just like him as a gift.  I really like the way these turned out.



The little ones have all headed back to school for the upcoming year, but we had fun celebrating the end of summer.  Little says summer like watermelon.



Why is it that little girls love to dress up?????



When Benartex had their Christmas in July Blog Hop I was the lucky winner of one of their bundles from My Fabric Relish.  Included in the bundle were two great patterns from Cherry Blossoms Quilting.  I have made several of Cherry’s patterns and they have become some of my favorite projects to display at Christmas.  I’m thinking that this darling Christmas tree skirt might need to be the next addition.  Be sure to check out Cherry’s fantastic designs as they will also become some of your favorites. 



Do you have a fetish for pincushions?  I have way more than I actually use, but they are so addictive.  If you love them as much as I do, please link your pincushion love up at the My Sister Made Me Do It linky party.  It starts on September 2nd and runs through September 9th.

Unscheduled Days

My scheduled days this week got canceled which allowed for me to have a little fun in the creativity corner.  Don’t you love it when that happens?  No guilt allowed!

One of my DILs asked me to come up with a spring table runner.  My thoughts immediately went to flowers.

 

The exceptionally talented Wendy at Ivory Spring blog had a fabulous Thread Talk tutorial on what she calls her Riley Blake-ish quilted flower.  I thought this would be a perfect time to give it a try.  They are not nearly as perfect as Wendy’s, but they were quite fun to stitch. 





I also finished up my mini quilt for the ALQS9 swap.  I am calling it "Loose Marbles" because it reminds me of spilled marbles.  I have participated in this swap for many years and LOVE the way this one is handled.  The deadline for participating was extended to April 20th in case anyone is still interested. 



The other day I popped into my favorite “fun” shop (Home Goods) and saw this great storage box.  How could I pass it up?  I can think of a million things to store in it.



……and it is big!

Weekend Finish

I was really excited about finishing the table runner using the beautiful embroidery designs that I showed in my last post.  Sunday was a quiet day around here and I was able to spend the afternoon working on the project.


It’s hard to get the real colors to show, but I just love the depth that doing the trapunto outline on the designs makes.




These designs can be found at patsy@patsythompsondesigns.com if you are interested in sewing some out.  I can tell you that they stitch out beautifully….and quickly.

I'm linking this up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

August Goals

I'm a tad late in getting my August goals set.  It's not that I don't have a million items that I could list for the month, but the time is going to be short for sewing.  I need to keep my goals realistic if I want to have a finish.  So.....I have decided to finish up my Easy Street from last winter's QAL.  I loved the project and I really can't wait to finish it up.   I am linking up to A Lovely Year Of Finishes.

With August already in full swing I am noticing the trend towards fall.  I am seeing a definite change in the daylight hours and we have had a hint of fall in the air.  Some of the trees are actually changing their colors already.  How quickly the summer has slipped past!

I saw a quick and easy table runner in one of the quilting magazines and thought it would make a nice gift for a friend whom I am going to visit.  I may have to make one for myself too.

My Kindle died a quick death this past week - in the middle of a good book.  You can actually trade your dead ones in for a discount on a new one.  Who knew????  The problem is that the new one is much smaller than my old one so it did not fit into my handy case.  To protect the new one, I made a padded case to store it in when I am through reading.  It works great.

We had a fun weekend attending a Diana Ross concert at the Hollywood Bowl with some friends.  The concert was wonderful and she still has an amazing voice. 

Yesterday I was able to attend our granddaughter's dressage lesson.   I think if she ran away from home she would go live at the stable.  She just loves the horses.