Almost finished...

with Hello Summer, that is!  Just three more rows for the watermelon and this will be done.  

I did rip a little something out and make a change to the design.  In the pattern, the little bees at the very top had antennae made of cross-stitches, and I had stitched mine in pink so they would stand out.  See below from last week's photo.

But that just didn't look right to me.  So if you look back at the top photo,

you can see that I took those pink stitches out and just made smaller straight stitches 

that look more like antennae to me.

A nice change in our weather has it feeling like there's a hint of fall in the air, and that has made me feel like starting some new with a fall theme!  This is from Gail Pan's book, Patchwork Loves Embroidery Too.  I've stitched this before, but gave it away, so now I want to do it again to keep.

The directions say to stitch this in a variegated red-orange pearl cotton, which I don't have, so will have to go looking for some this week.  Meanwhile I can get this all prepped and ready to start!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Making progress...

As I've been working on Blueberry Taffy this week, it's been fun to revisit all the scrappy blocks that are going into it.  The aqua blocks are some of my favorites!

I've been slowly measuring, cutting, and sewing the sashing strips that connect the rows together.  Since I decided not to add cornerstones, I needed to mark where the seams were between the blocks so they could match up from one row to the next.

It's all been going together nicely!  Just one more row to do, and the final outer borders.  You might notice that the top border was already sewn on - that was a bit of a mistake, lol!  I originally flipped the orientation of the first two rows when I laid them out to work on sewing them together, and then realized something didn't look right.  Good thing I planned to use the light blue for the outer border, too - no seam ripper this week!

And along the way I sewed up two more Gameboard blocks - the dark blue and the aqua ones in the bottom row.  

                                       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. 

I Like Thursday #448

Today is my dear mom's 94th birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I'm going to take her some flowers a little later this morning and have lunch with her.  The folks at her place were asking what she would like for a special birthday lunch, but Mom can't answer questions like that anymore, so they asked me, and I decided on something Italian because she's always liked that.   And ice cream for dessert because that is a favorite of hers also.  Who doesn't like ice cream?!  

We have a favorite local ice cream place here and we try to go a few times every summer.  It's owned by some people we knew when our kids were all growing up.  They have yummy ice cream there!

My favorite flavor is always something with chocolate in it - 

this time it was mint chocolate chip.

Look what I grew in my garden!  I try to grow a pumpkin or two every year, but this is the first time for four of them.  It has been so hot here that the vines have just been wilting, so I decided to cut the pumpkins off and bring them inside where it's cooler.  The parts that are still green will ripen on their own.

And another good book this week - this is an entertaining story with lots of things in it to make you think about the times we're living in.  I'm really enjoying it!

Hope you're having a great week!

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

    

 

Midweek Update

Thanks to all my encouraging commenters from last Wednesday's post, I've stayed faithful to my plan, and made some good progress on the Blueberry Taffy project!  I had some decisions to make first - sew all the blocks together by themselves or add a sashing strip between each block and each row?  One way would make for a faster finish, but I thought I would probably like the finished look better the other way.  So I decided to add the sashing, and that meant going shopping!

I came home with this Riley Blake Confetti Cottons solid 

in a shade of blue called Breeze.

Then you know what's next - squaring up the blocks, measuring and cutting strips, and sewing, sewing, sewing!

Although this is not the most exciting of quilting tasks, it has to be done!   I do enjoy looking closely at the blocks again, and seeing all the scraps that were used in making them.

I Spy a little penguin!

And here's where I am now - 20 blocks with sashing turned into five rows.  

Next step is to add the sashing between the rows - that is my job for the next few days.  But first, I'll be linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss!

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Slow stitching this week...

I've been so excited about the sunflower blooming in my garden this week that I decided I had to finish the Old Crow Salt Box House cross-stitch piece.  And I did!

I was having so much fun stitching that last sunflower that 

I almost forgot to add the chimneys to the house.  

Good thing that didn't take long!

This fits right in with my other sunflower pieces on display for the month of August.

So now I'm back to working on "Hello Summer!"  

There really isn't too much left on this one - just the bottom row of motifs -

some lemons, another watermelon piece, and finish the border.  

I can have this done before fall comes, right?!

I'll be stitching on this today for my Slow Sunday Stitching - 

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

More with aqua...

It's been a busy week getting ready to host my quilt group, but all went well and there was lots of fun show and tell.

Quilty friends in the house!

I did manage to get the two 16 patch stars sewn up, and I'm happy with the mix of darker and lighter aquas, too.

Sixteen of them now!

Leaders and enders this week were a tiny aqua 16 patch, and pieces and parts for a blue Gameboard block.  

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

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

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #447

Tuesday is my regular golf day with friends that I have been participating in for years.  This week it was such a nice day - a cooler temperature after weeks of heat, good friends, and an osprey soaring above us to provide distraction from bad golfing skills! 😜   This guy must have been feeding a young one because he came back and caught a fish three times and then would fly off and take it somewhere.

Not my photo - I borrowed this from allaboutbirds.com

The sunflower in my garden that was just starting to open on Sunday is fully open now, and so pretty.  The bees have discovered it, too!

And more zinnias, too.  I've never grown zinnias before - I'm so excited about these!

I've been reading a good book this week.  It's a WWII historical fiction story that takes place on Martha's Vineyard, so I love the setting, and it involves several interesting storylines, too.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about fudgesicles vs orange creamsicles.  Which would we choose?  Ordinarily, for me, chocolate is always the first choice.  But then - orange creamsicles are so yummy - now I want one!  

This afternoon I am hosting my quilt group, so I've been busy getting ready for that.  It only occurred to me yesterday afternoon (after I'd done all the grocery shopping!) that I should have gotten cold treats like fudgesicles and creamsicles for the treats to serve because it is so hot here.)  Oh well - we're having cookies and grapes instead.  At least there will be chocolate!

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