Hello August!

It's hard to believe, but here we are at the beginning of August already!  This morning I changed out my little display chest to show the August decorations, which include a lot of sunflowers.   If you've read my blog for awhile, you probably remember I love sunflowers!

Even this week's slow stitching includes versions of sunflowers!  The Gail Pan Summer embroidery has red flowers with gold centers.

There are red sunflowers, and you can even get seeds for them,

but this might be the closest I've ever gotten to growing something like that.

Last week's Hello turned into Hello Autumn, complete with a crow friend and a heart of gold!

That top left corner contains a sunflower which I will work on today for my Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy's Quilts!

This and that...

Once I finished my Bells tabletopper early in the week, I couldn't seem to settle on what to work on next!   There are plenty of "should-be-working-on" projects on my list, but nothing I was in the mood to tackle.

So, I ended up jumping from "this" to "that" and adding blocks to the Parts Department.  First there were these bonus HSTs that have come from the trees I'm making to go with the house blocks for Year in the Neighborhood.   Maybe I'll end up using them in the final layout of that quilt?

Then I made a few of these 2.5 x 6.5 rectangles using the Sprinkles print and a couple pieces of every color we've worked with so far this year.  Not sure how I feel about these yet - a whole quilt of them would be really busy!  Unless I grouped them by color?  Still thinking!

And then, I got started on some string blocks.  I make these periodically when I need some sewing that doesn't require a lot of brain power!  I have some stored away in multiple colors, but for now I'm just showing the aqua, light blue, and neutral ones.  

I'm liking the beachy feel of this!

There are even some seagulls flying around in a couple of the blocks!

Eventually, I was able to get back to one of the "should-work-on" projects.  I filled up a bobbin, changed my needle, and started In quilting again on Patchwork Hearts.

It was a fun week with a finish, and then just playing with some scraps,

and eventually I worked my way back to getting some work done toward another finish.

Very satisfying!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #494

It has been ice cream weather here!  Yum!

Last week I decided to harvest my pumpkins because I didn't want them to be sitting out in the heat any longer.  I got three this year - all about the same size, but definitely different colors!

Meanwhile in the garden, these volunteer marigolds are very happy to be out from under the pumpkin vines.  And two more volunteer pumpkin plants are growing!

Today (Wednesday) was my favorite volunteer activity of the year - stuffing the backpacks that are given to kids who help getting their school supplies.  We did somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 of them this year!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about a favorite vacation - and what made it memorable.  We seem to enjoy vacations that involve boats and bridges, and one of our favorite bridges to visit is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  We've been there quite a few times, but two favorite trips really stand out.  One trip was with both of our kids, and I got this picture.  Probably my favorite family photo of all time!

Everyone always asks why I think of this as a family photo - and

it's because I took it - so I was there, too!

Another favorite trip there was when took the "Bridge to Bridge" ferry tour around San Francisco Bay which went from to the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate, under it and back around.

My happy husband, on the boat ride with his camera 

and his favorite bridge in sight!

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

 

Midweek Update

I have a finish to share - a Christmas in July finish!  This is Carole's tabletopper design from her Christmas in July event at From My Carolina Home.  In last week's midweek post, I had just started this project, but it didn't take long to move it all the way to a finish.

Blocks made and setting triangles all laid out -

Top sewn together - 

28.5 inches square

Everything in the top comes from my stash, but I didn't have anything that seemed right for the backing, so I went shopping.  This one turned out to be perfect - red, green and gold stars!

And ta-daaaa!

I loved Carole's finish with a gold binding, but ended up deciding that mine needed more of the green and red holly print, so I bound it with that.

You can see the quilting on the back - 

Such a fun project, and it came right at the right time when I didn't have anything else I needed to work on.  

Thank you, Carole, for all your inspiration and 

for sharing the directions for this sweet tabletopper!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Still stitching...

I only put a few stitches into the Summer piece this week.  After showing the gold bees last week, and thinking about where else I could use some gold floss in this one, my friend Miss Pat suggested French knots in the center of the red daisy-like flower.  And, yes, that works!  Can you see them?

Now I am stitching my way up to the next 

flower center above that one.

I've spent most of my slow stitching time this week on starting "Hello Autumn," a free stitch for Primrose Cottage newsletter subscribers from last year.   

The gold floss from the bees in Summer (above) was used to stitch a beautiful fall tree - I'm thinking it's got to be an aspen tree which provide Colorado with lots of golden color every fall!

It's time to stitch the word "Autumn" - that will be today's Slow Sunday Stitching!  

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

A hummingbird house...

My last Rainbow Scrap Challenge block for July is a house for my Year in the Neighborhood project, and this one is inspired by our trip up to Estes Park last week.  We really enjoyed seeing the hummingbirds up there, and Mike got some good photos.

We also went to the quilt shop there which is a really nice one - Peak to Peak Stitching.  And look what had to come home with me!

Hummingbirds!  On an aqua background, too.

I decided I wanted to make a house for the neighborhood inspired by the hummingbirds.  Looking around in my stash for what to put with the hummingbird, I found this pretty purple.

And together, they became a house!

With a garden of columbine for the hummingbirds to feed in.

I made a tree for the hummingbirds, too - if you're able to watch hummingbirds for long enough, you'll see them go rest on a nearby tree branch.

The Neighborhood is coming along!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting Learning Combo for the Quilters Cove July link-up later in the week.

Also at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #493

I really think orange should be the color of the month for July!  I finally have marigolds starting to bloom, along with pumpkins that were planted in the same garden that are starting to ripen.

Plus my Sungold cherry tomatoes are also coming along!

We've been having lots of bird visitors in the yard lately, too.  A crow decided he wanted to hang out here, and we've seen him on the fence, in the bird bath, the fountain, and in all the trees.

And a young red-tailed hawk who thought Mike's pick-up would be a good place to land!

It's no wonder the smaller birds have been making a ruckus!

I've been enjoying this book recently - it was recommended by Carole in her most recent book chat post.  Two families who have owned a Catskills resort since the 1960s have to decide what to do about an offer to sell.   

LeeAnna's question of the week is about journals - do we use one? did we write in one when growing up?  I really have never been a journal person, although having this blog is a bit like journaling a few times a week.  I do like keeping a book journal, which I've been doing since 2017.  It has a list by month and year of every book I've read since I started it.  I even made a special journal cover for it!

Hope you're having a great week!

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