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.

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.

Midweek Update

I decided this would be a good week to work on a scrappy placemat in yellow for August.  My goal this year is to make a placemat every month out of my scraps in the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - you can see the ones I've finished in this post.

This month's placemat is inspired by two quarter star blocks from the orphan block drawer, and since two wasn't enough for the design I had in mind, I made two more!

Thinking I would surround this center star with crumb blocks in all my yellows, I pulled everything out to see what might work.

My goal is a 12.5 x 16.5 inch slab, so I just sew and press and trim and measure and sew some more until things start to take shape.

And I ended up with this!

Hopefully I'll have a finished placemat to share for Saturday's RSC link-up.

This kind of project is a good one for using up a few partial spools of thread, too - this week I've finished off four of them!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Slow stitching this week...

 I am most definitely a slow stitcher!  It took me all week - Sunday through Friday evening - to stitch the sunflower in Hello Autumn.  First it was taking care to make sure I didn't mess up the petals.  They look like random shapes, although it turns out they do have a pattern.

Then it was filling in the center - those full coverage areas 

always feel like they are taking forever!

Not much left to do now, though - just the rest of the border motifs.   There are some cute little acorns at the top, above "Hello" and simple flowers in that opening at the bottom.  I'll be working on those today for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy's Quilts.

Jacob's Ladder blocks for August

After sorting through all the yellow scraps and stash earlier in the week, I decided these would work for this month's Jacob's Ladder blocks.

Some bright, orangey yellows (with sunflowers!) 

and some in the mustard yellow shade.

And I think these worked!

This is a happy group of blocks!

Along the way I made a few tiny yellow 4 patches that will end up as one more Gameboard block.

It has definitely been sunny in my sewing room this week!  

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilters at SoScrappy.

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

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #495

We enjoyed an amazingly cool day on Tuesday - only 70° at 1:00 in the afternoon, and I think the high was 76.  It was so pleasant!

But we can't have nice things for long - here's the rest of the week for us.

🥵🥵🥵

These petunias don't seem to mind the heat, though.  They make me smile!

We went up to Estes Park again for the day yesterday.  We played golf and ate lunch at our favorite winery.  It was a beautiful day!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about ice cream - cone or cup?  And what flavor?  I always go for chocolate, and usually one scoop in a cup will do.   Here we are with friends in Charleston last May.  It started to rain one afternoon, so we ducked into an ice cream place to wait it out.  Yummy!

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

Midweek Update

As soon as Angela announced that the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in August would be yellow, I was ready to pull out my yellow stash and start sorting.  There's everything from very pale yellow to very bright - and sunflowers! 

🌻🌻🌻

As I sort, I'm thinking about the blocks I want to make, 

and what will be needed for those.

• Jacob's Ladder blocks - need the largest pieces and shades that will work well with the ecru background
• House block for A Year in the Neighborhood - needs smaller pieces - maybe a pretty floral
• Scrappy placemat - anything goes in that one!  Maybe I can work in those two quarter star blocks that are leftover from last year's project
• One more Gameboard block in yellow - I'll look at the two I've already made and try to pick some different scraps for this one

Okay - I've got a plan for the month!

Then I spent another day finishing up the quilting on row 4 of Patchwork Hearts.  One section happened to be the yellow heart - it's one of my favorites!

There was also time to do all the trimming and get ready for the step where I join the sections.  That won't take too long to do - I was just waiting for some cooler weather to be messing with these bigger sections!

Next there'll be time to work on some RSC blocks - more about my progress there in my Saturday post!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

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.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

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.