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! 

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.

Midweek Update

I realized over the weekend that my sister's birthday was coming up this week and I wanted to make her something for a gift.  I pulled out this Kathy Schmitz embroidery that I did a few years ago and decided it would be fun to give her because my sister and BiL are huge gardeners.

I looked through my stash for something that would go with the color of the clay pots, and found a batik left over from this year's SAHRR that was fall-themed.

These simple borders and straight line quilting, plus a brick red binding made this a quick finish - thank goodness!

I gave it to my sister yesterday and she liked it!  

I meant to take a picture of her with it, but we got busy visiting and 

I never took out my phone.  Oh well.

Once that was done I could start playing with some ideas for my August house for A Year in the Neighborhood.  I loosely base these blocks on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month - yellow - and something that's going on around my house.  Here are a couple parts I've been working on!

I should have more to share in my Saturday post!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

And at Rebecca Grace Quilting for TGIFF

Changing seasons...

Once I finished stitching the sunflower in Hello Autumn, there wasn't much left to do, so it is now finished!  I thought those little acorns were pretty fun to stitch - they were a new motif for me.

So, seeing as how it is still most definitely summer here, I went back to the Summer embroidery from Gail Pan.  Enough of it is completed that I was able to move the hoop to the very bottom section.

Yesterday we had a cool, rainy late afternoon, and it made me feel like pulling out an older project that still needs more hand quilting to finish it up.  Remember these spools?

This will be a good project to work on for 

Slow Sunday Stitching!    

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

A scrappy placemat finish!

It didn't take long to finish up the yellow placemat that I started earlier this week!  Layering it up and then quilting was one sewing session.  I was happy to find just the right backing for it in my stash!

Binding it took up part of another afternoon.  Making small things always gives me a chance to play with a quilting design.  For this one I tried to emphasize the sunflower star.

How about a yellow table for August?

And here's the whole rainbow of placemats that I've made so far this year!  It's been a really fun monthly project - I just need a purple one now.  Maybe I'll make holiday placemats to end the year.

Sharing at: 

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

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 I Quilted This! 

I Like Thursday #496

There's been some sourdough baking going on at our house the last couple weeks.  Younger son has made waffles and zucchini bread with his starter - both yummy!  My "aha" with sourdough baked goods is that they are lighter than a similar thing made the traditional way.  

For a couple years now, I've followed the Big Bear Lake bald eagle nest camera in California, and watched the pair of eagles, Jackie and Shadow, raise and fledge four eaglets.  It has been fascinating and soothing to watch nature up close like this.  Unfortunately, the female eagle, Jackie, recently got very sick, and in spite of being taken care of at a raptor rehabilitation center in the area, she died.  So very sad.  But it is the circle of life.

The nest cam will go on, and I imagine Shadow will find a new mate.

It will be interesting to see what happens as the time for nesting comes around again.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about what we're reading this summer - books, magazines?  My answer is some of each!  I've been a reader my whole life and always have a pile of books ready to go.  Here's the current pile!  At the moment, I'm reading Project Hail Mary.  There are also a couple of ebooks loaded on my Libby app.

I do also like to read magazines, although I don’t currently have any subscriptions.  One favorite has always been People magazine.   I find it at the hair salon I go to!  Travel magazines are fun, too - we usually order some from whatever destination we're thinking of heading to next.

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