Midweek Update

There's been a little of this and a little of that in my sewing room the last few days.  I have been wanting to make some blocks for the current Many Hands Many Hearts block drive, so I started with those.  They need a 4.5 inch center square and six 2.5 x 4.5 inch border rectangles, like this:

I ended up making four of them so far in reds/greens and blues/oranges.  The other color combination is purples/yellows, but I don't have many purples so may not make any of those.   As soon as I make a few more, I'll send them off to Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  She's collecting them until the end of August.

Making these reminded me that I also needed squares and rectangles for the Gameboard blocks, and another one of those in red would a good addition to the collection.  So I cut more!

It's so interesting to me that these two blocks are made basically the same way, but just changing a couple design elements gives a whole different look!

Along the way, I came across this sweet selvage to share with you.

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Slow stitching this week...

Just in the nick of time, on Friday night, I fully finished this little summer design from Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  She calls it Summertime USA, and you can find the chart for it here.  I actually stitched this one last July, and left it to finish up this summer!

Happy 4th of July!

Also this week I stitched up stamp 8 for Melisa's Summer Stamp SAL.  I enjoyed all the bee related items on this one!

Just one more to go!

And a little more work was put into the Summer embroidery from Gail Pan, too.  

• Red strawberries ✔️
• Red flowers ✔️
• Red bird ✔️

But red bees?  That sounds like something from a scary movie!  Maybe I'll take a hint from the apiary stamp in Melisa's design and add some gold and black to this design.

Plenty to stitch on for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

Getting started with aqua...

This happens to me every year, when it is aqua month.  I have scraps in so many shades of blue-green that I can't decide quite where they fit.  So I googled and found this - 

Source

I think my scraps fit all the shades!

For block sewing, I started with the Jacob's Ladder project.   The darker block was hard to photograph - that solid is more in the Teal shade, and pretty dark.  See the top left grouping in the above photo.

Fourteen 12.5 inch blocks now!

July is on its way!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #490

Remember my baby cucumber from last week's Thursday post?  It was harvested this week!  It is tasty, too - and more are coming.

Mike and I played golf at a favorite course in the next town to the north of us the other day, and I discovered they have some beautiful rose gardens there.

Younger son and I went to a neat event at the library the other day, too.  The local Astronomy Society members brought their telescopes with special filters on the them and you could view the sun!  In a couple you could even see solar flares.  It was very interesting! 

The gals at my mom's place never disappoint with their holiday decorations.  I particularly love the gnomes!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about the 4th - describe a particularly memorable 4th of July celebration you've had.  This made me think of when we were young married and didn't have kids yet.  We went with some friends who had a jeep, up into the foothills west of us to Horsetooth Reservoir - and you could see the fireworks in at least three different towns down on the plains below us.  It was pretty neat!  

I wish I had a photo of that, but too long ago!  But since I love fireworks, there are plenty of photos of them in my archives, so I will leave you with this one.

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Midweek Update

To end June, and begin July, I have a small finish to share!  Over the weekend I was still in the "just playing" mood, and inspired by the small bit of that white floral on the left side of this photo, I pulled some reds, yellows, greens, and a blue Grunge to play with.

They turned into eight small string blocks... 4 inches finished...

Which turned into this little tabletopper... 8 x 16 inches.

I found the cutest fabric in my stash for the backing!

This is perfect for the top of the little chest that I decorate for seasons and holidays, and just in time for July!

Now, back to my regularly scheduled projects!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

At Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This, and at

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday. 

More summer stitching...

I've continued stitching along with Melisa's Summer Stamp SAL, and making progress.  This week I finished up Home Tweet Home and started In the Apiary.  Melisa has revealed her finish and you can find it here.  I'm getting close!

I was trying to make the bird look like a house finch because we see them at our feeders all the time here, so I stitched his head in red.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I also got started on the Summer embroidery for the Gail Pan Changing Seasons project.  I decided to stitch it in red because that feels like summer to me.  It is definitely hot here right now - we had a couple cool rainy days last week, but are right back up in the 90s this weekend!

So there's plenty of slow stitching to be done here this Sunday!

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts. 

Just playing...

It's been a pretty productive June in my sewing room.  Two RSC blocks, Lyra, a placemat, and the finished top for the Little House sew-along - that's pretty good for me!

So - the last few days I've been playing with a new block.  I first saw this one on Gail's blog, The Cozy Quilter, back in March, I think.   I was drawn to the circular look of it, and that it was made out of quarter star blocks - one of my all-time favorites.  So I asked Gail for some pointers on how to make it, and she kindly sent me some!  (Thank you, Gail!)  There's also a short video tutorial about it on YouTube - just search for "Going in Circles Quilt Block."

I started by making eight quarter star blocks...

which was actually a mistake!

Because when I got everything made for the block and laid it out, I realized I was going to have to sew it together with partial seams.  Now that's not a deal-breaker, but I thought there was probably an easier way.  

After another email to Gail - how did you sew this together?! - and watching the YouTube video - I figured out that I only needed to undo two blocks to get this together.

Next time I make one of these, I won't sew the squares and HSTs 

of the quarter stars together until it's time to make the rows!

The quilter in the video made his block with all two inch squares.

I used a 5 inch square in the center and 

2 x 3.5 inch rectangles for those corner pieces.

I have also spent some time quilting on the never-ending Patchwork Hearts project.  It's going to be finished one of these days!  This is row 4 of 5, so I'm getting there.  

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.