Slow stitching for a Sunday

For most of this week I've focused on the Sunflower Sampler from Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  I enjoyed stitching the alphabet, and got some of the sunflower - stem and partial leaves - completed.

Until Friday, when I got the binding machine sewn onto the front of Patchwork Hearts, and started hand sewing it down to the back.  There's 250 inches of binding to stitch on this quilt, and I've done one side (65 inches), so there's a ways to go yet.

This will keep me busy for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

Almost there!

Hello from this little penguin!

This photo might not look much different from the one I shared in my Midweek post, but there's a huge difference to me - all the seams are sewn to make this a completed quilt (well, without binding yet!) - finally!   I quilted this "as-you-go" using a row by row method and then joined the rows with front and back sashing.

60 x 65

A light blue binding was sewn on Friday afternoon, and I'm ready to stitch, stitch, stitch all weekend long until I have a finish!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Also linking up at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #498

My sunflower bloomed!  Here it was on Tuesday -

And then on Wednesday (yesterday) - even better!

Also this week I got some happy mail from Nancy at Grace and Peace quilting!  She sent me her scraps of little penguins left over from the Ikea duvet cover and pillow cases that she's been using to back the sweet baby quilts she makes.  Thank you so much, Nancy!  I will have fun figuring out where to use these penguins!

Our favorite summer outing has turned out to be driving up to Estes Park for a round of golf at the course by the lake, and then treating ourselves to lunch at the winery.  We went again on Monday, and it was a beautiful day up there.

School has started here, and that brings on many memories for me.  LeeAnna's question of the week is about the beginning of the school year - did we look forward to it?  And, yes, I always did - as a student, as a mom, and as a teacher.  When I was teaching, we had just spent a good week in meetings and planning for the school year, and I was so ready for the kids to come and to get going on the year.  I miss that - a little bit - but I'm too old to go back there now, lol!  

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

 

Midweek Update

My number one goal this week has been to finish the quilting on the final row of Patchwork Hearts, and I did it!

The final two rows are trimmed up and ready to connect to the first three.  I've spent the last couple days sewing on the sashing that connects the fronts of these rows to each other and to the top section.

Only a few more long seams now!

But you know me, I need a break from this kind of quilting task every now and then, so I decided to try a few of Melva's blocks from her Lala's Irish Chain sew-along.  The Irish Chain design has always intrigued me, but I've never made one before.  

When I saw that Melva was using the same print for one of her versions of this quilt that she had sent me for participating in the Little House log cabin sew-along, I was inspired to start cutting into it and making these blocks, too!

The blue print I'm using for the chain also has darker blue, red, yellow, and white dots, so that's how I chose the other colors to use.  It turns out there's a bit of an art to choosing and placing the "scrappy" parts - you want them to support, but not overwhelm the chain design.  And I'm not sure about my red squares.   Are they too much?

These are 10 inch blocks and I'm committing to making 

nine of them which will make a small quilt, but will be fun

to play with as I finish up the much bigger Patchwork Hearts! 

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This!

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday 

Slow stitching this week...

I got on a roll early in the week, and got the Summer embroidery from Gail Pan completely stitched!  It did turn out to be fun to add the gold accents here and there to complement the bees.

Three of the four seasons are complete now!

Sometime in the next week or two, I'll prep and trace 

the Autumn design that completes the set

so that I can get going on the final one.

That left me a little time to get some quilting stitches into the spool mini quilt.  Lots more to do there.

And, silly me, two new cross-stitch starts happened this week as well.  They are both from Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  First I started the Sunflower Sampler, and then on Friday Melisa shared Bee the Sunshine, and I couldn't resist it.  Neither one is a huge project, so it doesn't really matter which one I work on first.

I love stitching letters and there are lots more to do!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

An August house for the neighborhood...

Looking through my yellows for something to make this month's house out of, I decided this one would be perfect!  For some reason, the yellow didn't photograph well in this picture, but I had to share the selvage.   Let your light shine!

I think it's a Bonnie and Camille print.

It made a fun house with red accents!

I also decided to play with my tiny Dresden ruler to make a sunflower, and it worked pretty well.  

As you can see in this photo, my sunflower is one of those giant ones, as big as the house!  We saw some of those in the neighborhood the other day - probably 10 feet tall, as compared to a 6 foot fence.

In my rabbit-ravaged garden, I've been able to keep one sunflower alive to the almost blooming stage.  I've been sweet talking it all week -"please bloom for my Saturday blog post!" - but so far it hasn't cooperated.  I know it will bloom any minute now!  🌻🌻🌻

We have it surrounded by chicken wire fencing, 

even over the top (which I took off for this photo, 

to keep the squirrels and rabbits out.  So far, so good!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Quilting Learning Combo for the August Quilter's Cove link-up.

I Like Thursday #497

Happy 95th Birthday to my dear mom!  I'm going to have lunch with her and will take her some flowers.  This picture is from Valentine's Day this year.

Speaking of flowers - I could swear I only planted white petunias this year!  

I guess this one is a little confused, lol!

This week's read is an interesting and different one, for me.  Lady Tremaine is a retelling of the Cinderella story, from the point of view of the stepmother, who does not seem wicked at all!

Goodreads

LeeAnna's question of the week is about school supplies.  What's our favorite type of school supply?  As a retired teacher, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for school supplies!  When they start to appear in the stores in July, there's that bittersweet feeling of "summer is flying by too fast," but the appeal of all the fresh pens and markers and notebooks.  I will probably never lose that feeling when I see school supplies.  The hard part is that I don't need them anymore!  Probably my favorite most recent school supply purchase was a spiral notebook of graph paper.  I've used it to plan out lots of quilt projects since retiring.

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