Row By Row Finish

Last year I was a member of a Row by Row swap with four other gals.  This past week I have had the chance to finish it and I am so pleased with the way it turned out. 

I used the signature blocks on the back.  I'll try to post better photos of it when the days are not so overcast. 

The weather has been cool, but it has not stopped the orchard from producing.  The first peaches have finished and the apricots are just starting.  This was today's haul - cherries, boysenberries and the first apricots. 

Now....I would appreciate some heat so the tomatoes will start ripening.

Driving down the street the other day, I saw these happy sunflowers and had to stop for a photograph of them.  They just say "summer" to me.

I'm looking forward to our quilt guild meeting in the morning as we have Bonnie Hunter as our guest.  I've done several of her mystery quilts so I will be glad to meet her in person. 

May is in the Bag

May is now finished and "in the bag".  Welcome to June.

June means another 16th birthday for one of the granddaughters.  As I have said in the past, several of the girls have asked for a grown up quilt for their 16th birthdays.  I guess that means they want to tuck those baby quilts away.  As hard as I have tried to keep them little, they are not listening to one word of my begging.  ;-)

So....this is the newest 16th birthday quilt all finished except for the label.  I love the texture that the quilting adds to a fairly simple design.  I used a lavender thread and quilted a pantograph with birds, butterflies and flowers - perfect for a young lady.

We have slipped into our June Gloom weather pattern here which means overcast mornings and sunny afternoons with a very monotonous temperature - mid 70s.  My temperature quilt is reflecting the boredom.  We had a couple of warmer days mid month, but there is not a lot of excitement towards the end of the month.

I even added  a little turtle this month on the day when our momma tortoise laid her eggs. 

This is what the year looks like so far.  I hope the reds start to become more frequent visitors. 

I don't know about you, but I am always wondering the best technique for washing quilts where I worry about the dyes bleeding.  I recently came across a method that sounds really interesting and I think I am going to give it a try.  Here is a link to it.  Has anyone else tried it, and if so, what did you think? 

We spent a couple of days last week at the beach with my sister, brother and their spouses.  While there we took a walk around the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens.  The gardens showcase all of the native plants and it was a great time to see so many in bloom. 

I loved this scalloped rock.

We also visited a local nursery and enjoyed seeing the orchids and begonias.

My sister and BIL brought along a box of the local chocolates.  Aren't the pieces fun?  They are all handmade on the premises and you can watch them making them.  Is life like a box of chocolates???  They say "you never know what you're gonna get".  I could make bets on a few of these. 

May was a crazy month and I welcome a, hopefully, quieter June.  Happy June to all!

Midweek Roundup

It has been a crazy week here, but I am determined to try and get a post off before the week is completely gone.  We've actually been home for dinner only one night in the last 9 days! 

Needless to say, there has not been much sewing time either, but I did manage to get my mini pineapple quilt done for the Minis and More monthly project.  I love making this block.  Eventually I would like to make a quilt full of them, but this month we just made a mini. 

I also was able to sew up three Spoke blocks for Block Lotto for this month.  I hope to do more, but time will tell.

I am part of a small group called Sewing With Friends.  Last year we did a row by row robin and my returned quilt has been languishing in my UFO pile.  I finally dug it out to work on it.  I wanted to add one more row to make it a nice sized throw.  I will add borders and finish it up, but this is where I am with it at the moment.  The end row of stars is the row that I just added.  LOVE the colors of it. 

While gardening this past weekend, we came across this little surprise in the geraniums.  The baby bunny did not stand much of a chance.

Since there is not much sewing going on here, I'll share some of the blooms in the garden. 

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all those in the United States.  It is a time to remember all of those families who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms.  I am humbled and thankful.

Spring or Winter?

DH and I decided to slip away for a few days and hit the open road - one of our favorite things to do.  One of our favorite roads has always been the 395 with amazing scenery and little traffic.  Spring weather can always be risky and this time was no different.  Once we hit the Sierras we were in snow flurries - in mid May!  It was not sticking to the road, but it made for such pretty sights around us. 

We drove as far north as Walla Walla, WA.  Delightful spring weather surrounded us there with everything in bloom - tulips, iris, dogwoods, lilacs, azaleas everywhere.  While in Walla Walla, I had a fabulous day spending time with Stephanie (IG sadunphy) of Loft Creations and Candace (IG mrssquash).  We had lunch, visited their local quilt shop and then I was treated to a visit to Maple Cottage.  It was such fun to see it in person after following the progress on IG and her blog AND I got to meet the well loved Abby.  Following that we took a short drive to Candace's and saw her beautiful home and stunning gardens.  She and her husband have amazingly green thumbs.  Those two gals have so much fun together and I discovered they are both black licorice lovers like myself.  Who knew???

Leaving Walla Walla, we headed east to Stanley, Idaho.  The scenery was glorious with lots of full streams and rivers, snowy mountains and lush meadows. 

At one of our nightly stays, this greeted us on the tub.

What stress???

 

Heading back south through NV, we enjoyed still more open roads and a desert in full bloom until we reached the I-15.  UGH.  It was back to the dreaded traffic again. 

What we enjoyed for five days!

UGH!!!!

We arrived home in time for Mother's Day weekend where we celebrated with everyone here for a BBQ.  Even momma tortoise laid her eggs for Mother's Day.

We always need a "grandchild fix" when we get home so it was nice to have a few little ones come visit. 

Pretending to sleep.

While in the car, I was able to hand stitch the binding down on En Provence and get a photo of it with a snowy mountain backdrop in Idaho.  Of course, the wind was blowing and DH and I were laughing at ourselves trying to grab the picture while it was calm.  He eventually stabilized it with rocks but it was still blowing. 

The only other sewing that has gone on was my Mother's Day postcard for my mom.  I am hoping to make my way to my sewing machine later today.

Happy May

Here we are in May!  How did we get here so quickly?  May also means that my month for being the queen bee for our Gridster bee is NEXT month.  That means I need to get my act together and make a choice as to what I want my fellow bee mates to stitch for me. 

I have so enjoyed each of the blocks that have been chosen this year.  We've had pigs, bees and pineapples in the mix.  Such fun!  I've been playing around with a couple of blocks that I thought might interest me.  I admired the kaleidoscope block from Crazy Mom Quilts and made a few to test them out. 

Crazy Mom Quilts Kaleidoscope free block in her Craftsy shop.

Next up I tried a Confetti Star block that was a choice in our bee from last year.  I loved it when we did it and found all of the completed stars stunning together. 

Confetti Star free block by Amy Friend, duringquiettime.com

I finally tried a totally scrappy strip block, but it did not do much for me.  I think it would be a fun strippy block pattern, but not for my bee choice.  In the end I decided that I will use the Confetti Star block.  It will be fun to get different stars from fabrics not in my stash.

One more month of geese is completed for my Temperature Quilt 2017.  As you can see, there were no blues in this month - definitely a warmer month.  May is also looking good so far with the oranges in there, but today is cooler and drizzly.  ;-(

Temperature Quilt 2017

I managed to finally get my En Provence top quilted this week.  The binding is stitched down and I will now spend some quiet time hand stitching it down.  This was such a pretty Bonnie Hunter QAL this year. 

May is always such a busy month in our household with seven birthdays, Mother's Day and our anniversary.  There will also be five graduations as well as a Confirmation and First Communion.  It will be endless celebrating here.