Thimbleberries Sew Day!

I just joined this group. If you have read my blog for long, you know I love Thimbleberries. I have made many of Lynette Jensen's patterns. I did not think I would have time to do anything this month, but the deck went better than we thought. I will do a separate post showing it. We finished today.

Anyway, I drug out my Thimbleberries books and decided to make something from Pint-Size Traditions. I also have Pint-Size Traditions II and love both of these books. While it is so  hot, I like to stick to small projects. This book never fails me. (grin)

I chose to make Sunflower Glory. What better time to make a sunflower wall hanging than the dog days of summer! This little quilt should only measure about 15" square when done. Perfect to work on in this heat.

Then I headed to my stash to come up with the fabrics for this cute little quilt. Here is what I have chosen, but I can always change my mind. Happens all the time. LOL

Now I need to get it cut out and ready to sew on the next Thimbleberries Sew Day! I'll try to figure out how to add the button over in my sidebar later. Sometimes I can figure it out, other times I can't.

Thank you all for the happy anniversary wishes. We had a good day. I think we will be going out to eat in the next day or so. Just didn't have time on Monday. I bought myself a few goodies for my gift. Kevin got wood clamps. His cost as much as mine did. Those things are not cheap. Anyway... I received a 50% off coupon in my email box from Joann's. I decided to treat myself to a new quilting book. I found Fat Quarter Quilting by Lori Smith. I really ohhed and ahhed over these little quilts. So I decided to get it.

I was ready to go, then, what is this? Pat Sloan's Redwork with a Twist. Oh my goodness! I had to have it! Ok, I also had a 40% off coupon. Kevin wouldn't mind. I got both of them. (grin)

I have spent the past 2 days drooling over these two books. They are magnificent! Now I need to decide what to make first. That may be hard. LOL

After buying two books instead of one, I decided to just go all out. I stopped by Hobby Lobby and found some cute fabrics that needed to come home with me.

Rhonda is sharing a cute as can be BOM  called 'When Nature Calls'. I think I can use some of these fabrics in it. Rhonda just posted the first block this morning, so hurry on over and check it out. Again, if I can figure it out, I will put the badge over on my sidebar. After Hobby Lobby I went for a haircut. My dh says I was scalped, but I like it short in the summertime!

Well, that is it for me this evening. I was going to post about our deck, but I think I will save that for tomorrow. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a good night.


Winona

It's Our Anniversary!

Thirty Four years ago Kevin and I were married in the Methodist Church. It seems like a life time ago, yet I still remember it like it was yesterday. LOL I  still love him and he still loves me. What more can you ask for out of life? (grin) We don't have much planned for today. We are building a deck on the front of our house. We have the posts all set. We have to stick around because Menard's should deliver the deck lumber today. Then tomorrow or Wednesday we can start putting the deck up. I am quite excited about this. It won't have a roof right now. Just can't afford it. Things are just so expensive right now. Eventually we hope to add a roof so we can sit out any time we want to.

Since I don't like to do a post without any pictures, I will share the first four Farmer's Wife blocks that I have done. I did a couple of these by paper piecing. I hope I get better at that. Let's just say I became reaquainted with my ripper. LOL
Here is block #1, Attic Windows....

Block #2, Autumn Tints....

I skipped #3, Basket, because I didn't want to deal with the handle, but I will eventually do it. Here is block #4, Basket Weave....

Block #5, Bat Wing.....

Here they are together.....

So far I have enjoyed the ones I can just rotary cut and sew together, the paper pieced ones, not so much, but I want to practice my paper piecing. I can just use templates on these instead of doing the paper pieced version, but I'm not really crazy about templates either. So this quilt will probably have the blocks put together in a variety of ways. I guess that is how you grow and learn,  right? (grin) Kevin is on vacation this week, so there probably won't be much sewing for me. I just hope we get the deck finished. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a wonderful day!

Winona

The Garden Is Producing.

It is hot, hot, hot here! But I think it is about like that everywhere in the USA right now. We are in a major heat wave. I am ready for fall, but I am enjoying our garden. We have been getting some produce. I went down early this morning and picked 2 chore buckets of green beans and our first tomato! That first tomato is kind of puny, but it is always a big deal around here when we pick the first one. (grin) I have the beans all snapped and in the fridge. I will probably cook them this evening after it cools down a bit. Kevin suggested I wait, since it is so hot. No point in making the a/c work any harder than the poor thing already is. I snapped a picture of the produce from the garden.

The peppers aren't huge yet, but peppers are still $1 a piece at the store, so I decided we might as well be eating our own. I planted 9 and they are loaded. The hail we had a few weeks ago, made some bad spots on some of them, so they need to be eaten anyway. Our onions did not do well this year, but I will pull them this week. We'll use what we have. The deer have enjoyed my sweet potatoes. I planted 16, and now have 6. I hope they decide to leave those for us. (grin) The muskmelon and watermelon, that I had given up on, are finally up. Not sure if they will have time to finish, but we will see. Our pumpkin is starting to bloom and my lonely little cucumber vine is blooming as well. The corn is a tasseling and the potatoes are dying back. So things are going pretty good in the garden area.

I know of a couple of babies that are due towards the end of the year. I have a thought running around inside my head. I have been playing on EQ7 to come up with a design. I picked up a couple of fat quarter packs at Walmart. I think these will make great baby quilts. The first one is kind of neutral, so I am thinking it could be used for a girl or a boy, but preferably a boy. 

Now this one is more girly. I love these colors together.

I am spreading my wings. I used to only choose Thimbleberrie like colors to work with, but I am trying to stretch out of my comfort zone. I have become quite fond of some of the brighter colors. Can't imagine a quilt on my bed made from these colors, but for babies and children, I love 'em. Now to decide on a pattern in my EQ7. I worked on it a bit yesterday, but have not come up with a definite plan. I'll add borders and sashing from my stash.

Last week I decided to make a bag for a young woman who lives in my mom's apartment complex. She is very good to mom and always doing favors for her. I decided to make a bag for her to thank her. I chose the Phoebe Bag. This is a pattern by Rebeka Lambert and was really easy to make. I used some of the fabric that my friend, Cyndi sent to me. The young woman who this is intended for loves cats. (grin) 

Isn't this cute? I did not have a magnetic fastener, so resorted to the old standby...velcro. It works. LOL Here is the inside. I still need to hand stitch the lining together at the bottom, but otherwise, it is done.

Here is a picture that shows the gorgeous outer fabric a little better, but the first picture is truer to the real color.

Don't you think she will like it?

Well, Kevin just stuck his head in to say he might need my help in a bit. He is getting ready to build a small deck onto the front of the house. So I am going to help whenever I can. (grin) Everyone have a wonderful day. Thank you for visiting and please come again. Stay cool and hydrated. Fall is coming. LOL


Winona

Henrietta Whiskers 6 and 7

This has been a busy weekend. Remember, I told you about our tick infestation? Well we declared war on them this weekend. LOL I bought a good pair of clippers and gave Buddy a close hair cut. Poor guy doesn't look as cute, but he is cooler and I can find ticks much easier on him. Then on Saturday, I mowed and Kevin weedeated. Everything around  us is now cropped close to the ground. Then we kept the furbabies in so Kevin could spray the yard. So far, so good. No ticks on either of us today.  Kevin  also used the chainsaw to trim up some volunteer elm trees.  Did I say how hot and humid it was this weekend? Oh my goodness, I about got too hot Saturday, so had to sit and cool down.(Honey's orders) Today I got the laundry done while Kevin was piddling on some stuff. Then I cooked him the first zucchini of the year. I forgot to take a picture of it, but you all know what zucchini looks like.

I am caught up on Henrietta Whiskers. I am loving this BOM. Here is block #7. Isn't it cute?

It isn't really this yellow color. I took it last night with my light on. I don't think I ever shared block #6, so here it is.

The purple  you see across the pumpkin is just a stray thread that I neglected to get off before taking the picture. Sorry.

I decided to add the red borders to my Raggedy and Friends quilt. I have them ready. Just need to sew them on. Hope to get that done tomorrow. I picked our first green beans a few days a go. Oh my goodness, they were so good. It only took us a couple of days to eat a whole gallon. Of course I cooked them with a hambone, some onion, and sea salt. Eating just doesn't get any better. Look how green and pretty they were before I cooked them.

While I was down at the garden picking beans, I took this picture of our tomatoes and corn. I wish they would hurry up and get ready. I love tomatoes and corn. LOL

Well, that is it for me tonight. Kevin has already gone to bed, so I guess I might as well go too. I have to get up early for a walk, or it will be too hot. We are under a heat advisory for the next few days. I believe it. LOL Thank  you for visiting and please come again. Have a wonderful week.


Winona

Raggedy Annie and Friends

I spent today working on some things that I want to get done. I really want to start my Farmer's Wife blocks, but feel I have to get a few things finished first. I guess I am kind of making a deal with myself. LOL Anyway, I got the Birdie Stitches #7 ready to stitch and block #7 of Henrietta Whiskers done. Then I decided to finish putting my Raggedy Annie and Friends together. I just needed to make the sashing and cornerstones and sew it all together. What do you think?

Sorry about the quality of the picture. Kevin isn't here to hold it up for me, so it is stretched out on the bed. I will share a few closeups of some of the blocks.

 I am debating with myself on whether to call this done or to add borders. I have enough of the red fabric used for cornerstones (not sure if that is what they are called when it is in sashing). I actually have it cut. I only had enough to cut them 3 inches wide. It is 57" X74" right now. With the added borders it would be about 62"X79". What do you think? Should I call it done, or add the borders? Here is a picture with the border fabric kind of laid out around it.

I love how this quilt turned out. Thank you Kaaren for generously sharing the pattern with us. It will go in my pile of quilts to work on this winter.

Do you all have problems with ticks? I hate those critters. We are having such a hard time with them this summer. I took my walk this evening. Since I have come back into the house, I have picked 6 ticks off of myself. (Shiver here) I hate them! We have sprayed and they still are thick. Maybe we need to get some more guineas. They are known as tick controls.

We had about 2 1/2 inches of rain this morning. Not good with the horrible flooding we already  have. I think most of the rain is out of the forecast now, though. I'm just praying the levees can hold out.

Well, I need to get my grocery list ready. Tomorrow is town day. Everyone have a good one. Thank you for visiting. Please come again.


Winona

Happy 4th of July!

I know, it is about over. Most of  you are probably enjoying fireworks about now. I can hear the neighbors shooting off stuff as I type. I am not a fireworks fan. They are pretty, but I hate the noise. So I am content to sit in the a/c and just piddle while everyone else is out watching the fireworks and getting bitten by mosquitoes. (grin)  We have had a very nice three day weekend. Saturday, Kevin got the garden tilled while I did laundry. Sunday, we went to town and got a few things. Then Jon and Kim came to visit that afternoon. We so enjoyed spending time with them. Today I got up with the urge to use my JoAnn coupons. Now the last thing I need is more fabric, but I had that urge, don't you know. So I am sure you can guess what I did this morning. LOL
I visited JoAnn's. I saved more than I spent. Woohoo!  Here is what I got today. I laid it out on the red fabric, because it didn't show up very good on my quilt. I also bought a couple of packages of sewing machine needles.

Now I know this looks like a lot of fat quarters, but I have a plan for them. My dear friend, Teresa sent me this for my birthday. I plan to use these fat quarters to make the 111 blocks. (May have to add some. I'll see.)

I started working on this using scraps, but became frustrated when my blocks were not turning out the right size. I did a silly thing. I printed each of the 106 templates out without checking to see if my printer was set on 'no scaling'. It makes a difference. LOL So now all of these templates are too small. Chris helped me out with it, so now I am going to try again. I am debating on whether to wash the fat quarters or not before I begin. I don't usually wash, but this will be a long project. My gut is telling me to wash. What do you think?

While I was in Walmart the other day, I noticed they had a clearance on some of their precuts. They are getting another style in, so want to get rid of these. Of course, I had to help them out. I only paid $.75 each for the fat quarters and $7.00 each for the bundles of 7.

I also picked up a pretty cutter, some circle rulers, and a couple of magazines.  I think Kevin wants to keep me away from Walmart and JoAnn's. LOL

I also received these in the mail last week. I love prim, but haven't done much of it. I found this site and just had to order some of her patterns. This  is Meme's Quilts. I love her patterns. I am sure this will have to be a winter project. I am getting in over my head again with projects. LOL

Well, that is about all for me right now. Kevin has already turned in, so I suppose I should consider doing the same. We are such party animals. NOT! LOL  Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a great week.


Winona