Summer Goes Too Fast!

It must be a good thing that one can be enjoying summer so much that taking time to stop and write a blog post seems impossible. When I realized how far into August we already are and then further realized that I'd not posted anything here since the middle of last month - what?! - well, I must be busy enjoying these wonderful summer days.

Hello August! And Wow, do you need to move so fast? Give me time to catch my breath!

The truth is that we've been doing a whole lot of things that keep me out of the sewing room, thus there's very little to write about for a quilting blog when no quilting is happening! For example, this lovely wooded path took us for a peaceful walk in Mansfield, OH, in the gorgeous Kingwood Gardens. We have made several visits to this gem of a place, and always look forward to going again. A day trip like this does wonders for the disposition, but very little for the quilting to-do list!

Since I haven't written in so long, let me share the July highlights collage, and then we can move on to more current sewing and quilting events - and yes, I will have a few! July was a month full of planning and prepping for the Honnold Reunion held annually here at our place. Always so much we want to do to prepare for it - but this year, we had to scale back quite a bit. With my knee recovery (it's doing really well) and DH's gimpy back (it comes and goes), we were forced to minimize our expectations of what we could get done. The reunion went well, and no one really notices all that stuff, anyway, right?

TOP ROW: Since the entire month seemed to hinge on working toward the reunion, I begin with the spread of food we had for said reunion. Certainly plenty for all. And lots of leftovers! Yum! One of the sweetest little girls in the world, Cate, is just growing so fast! Looking so adoringly at her baby sister, in the third picture, we had a wonderful day with them here. My pic of Annie isn't centered as well as it should be, but she is growing and developing all those fun smiling and gurgling milestones that are so adorable at the 3-4-5-month stage.

MIDDLE ROW: My mom gets here hair done over here at my hairdresser's, and it just so happened that our son Adam was home for the reunion, so the two of them got to catch up with one another. At age 89, Mom looks pretty darn good, doesn't she?! My middle pic is of the patriotic table runner I finished just in time for the reunion. (Remember, this IS a sewing/quilting blog, right?) The final pic in this row is of my Frienzies - we all had a fun day of sewing together at Susan's house.

BOTTOM ROW: One of the other sweetest little girls in the world is Reagan who, at 21 months, is really getting to be lots of fun. Her vocabulary is growing and exploring the world at Gramma and Grampa's house is a wonder to her! She was here with her big brother and sister for the July 4th festivities. We attend a multi-generational picnic and fireworks evening at a nearby friend's house. The last pic is of my Trip Around the World. I did so little sewing, that I figured it ought to be included, just to remind me to get back to work at the sewing machine!

With July finally put to bed, let's look to all that is on the books for August! With a quilting retreat in the middle of the month, I have been cutting for some very satisfying sewing time. Two projects are ready to go and I am making one block for each just to get a 'feel' for how speedily I can proceed. Details on those will be forthcoming, to be sure.

 Sometimes, I go to the sewing room with no actual plan in mind. I pick up whatever I find within arms reach and make up something. These 4 little subunits of red, white and blue are such a creation. I had a lot of patriotic colors out when preparing for the 4th and the big 250th celebrations. I put this picture into a photo editing app and came up with a potential future scrap quilt - Jacob's Ladder. It might come to fruition; it might not. We'll see how the wind blows.

I also have a crap-ton of leftover bits from the Trip Around the World quilt I made. Plenty of 2" strips and 2" squares. So I have an idea for using up some of that.

The way I am thinking right now, I am more likely to continue with these 2" strips and squares than I am the patriotic Jacob's Ladder. Given time, perhaps both will see completion.

My ongoing concern is for the long arm. I took it to a repair shop for a total cleaning, oiling and tune-up. I got it back home and DANG!! The thread is still breaking! I will stay in touch with my repairman (by phone and email; he's 3.5 hours away!) and see if I can work through it. I so want to get some quilting done!

Things are looking up for a productive month! I will definitely have two more items to check off my '26 goals! 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Hello August!

Whoa! How on earth did July slip past so fast?! It's shocking sometimes just how fast a month can come and go. I'm sure others experience this, too. Time does indeed fly.

For a lot of months now I have been making 9-patch collages that highlight the past month. I like doing them because it helps me remember all the fun, all the family, all the quilts, etc. that made the month special. This month, I couldn't narrow things down, though, to 9 images. Just impossible! So I ended up making 2 collages - one for quilting and one for family and friends. Let's review family fun in July!

TOP ROW: We had lots of FaceTime calls with Emma because Reagan learned to walk! Big milestone! Now 10  months, Reagan is toddling around and is so proud of herself! Two-year-old Cate had some of her own milestones, one of which was moving out of her baby crib and into a big-girl bed. And in the 3rd image, my 88-year-old Mom had a milestone of sorts - she watched a virtual reality presentation about a beloved high school that was razed about 15 years ago. She attended this school, all of us kids went there and several of the grandkids went there. The VR experience was awesome, and Mom loved it.

MIDDLE ROW: Cate moved to her big-girl bed in conjunction with her family's move to the suburbs. After downtown living in a condo, the time was right to move to a house with a yard. They moved to a great neighborhood that will fit their needs as a family for years to come. The center picture is the Moonrise gang - the core group of friends we hang out with in our Florida resort. We met for dinner and spent a fun evening catching up with everyone. The last picture shows our sweet Reagan with a boo-boo! She'd taken a spill and had scraped her nose, sort of like a rug burn. Baby skin heals quickly, and she was good as new in no time.

BOTTOM ROW: Cate took a ride in the wagon on a warm Sunday afternoon when the family celebrated her cousin's 3rd birthday. Reagan has step-siblings who adore her. Here she toddles to big sister Harper as big brother Kellin looks on. And Uncle Adam finally met his new niece at the reunion we held here last weekend. 

Now, let's see what transpired in the quilting room. 

TOP ROW: I returned to Grandmother's Flower Garden to tweak the outer edges. I wanted to fill in the curves to created more uniform edges for attaching a border. The first two pictures show how I am accomplishing this. The next picture features the two throw pillows I made for the screened porch.

MIDDLE ROW:  I have not shared the ideas brewing with my 2 Irish Chain quilts, but they will soon be quilted and gifted to a very special niece. As I get going on that effort, I will share more. The center picture shows my design wall with long-forgotten blocks. They'd been hidden for months under the Autumn Leaves quilt which you see in the next photo. I do have some plans for those random blocks on the design wall, so stay tuned. And, yes, I did quilt Autumn Leaves; it is fully bound and ready for the change of seasons.

BOTTOM ROW: I became quite an expert at trimming HSTs (half-square triangles). The sawtooth borders on Cotton Ridge Farm required a bazillion of them, and all had to be trimmed. It is now a finished top, which you see in the final photo. The middle bottom row pic shows my quilting Good Life Tag Sale, a quilt I put on the long arm and finished off just before doing Autumn Leaves.

In a post coming soon, I will share full reveal photos of Cotton Ridge Farm. I'll tease with this one. I did finally make and attach all those sawtooth borders. I finished it right at the end of July.

After this rather exhaustive review of July, what will I do in August? Of course, I have some ideas. 

👉 I hope to quilt on the long arm quite a bit. I have several rather urgent quilts needing done. 

👉 I have a 4-day retreat coming up, and I think I want to work on Wensleydale. If I do, then I need to get my parts cut out. 

👉 Sharon and I have talked all year about making an around-the-world style quilt using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, so I could see that becoming a fun project, too.

Regardless, August will be busy. And productive. I hope.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Hello August!

Welcome August! How you have arrived so quickly absolutely amazes me, but here we go with a brand new month.

Over the last week or so, the time I’ve had for either quilting or blogging has been minimal. But it’s all good! This particular whirlwind was fantastic!

We hosted the 6th annual Honnoldpalooza last Sunday (picture us cleaning, prepping and cooking), and then we turned around Monday morning and left for a 4-day vacation to Michigan. 

Niece Julie, grand nephew Alex, niece Lori and great-grand nephew Milo.

 

Pleasure boats lolling on Lake Superior.

 

So let me do some housekeeping and catching up. Or catch my breath, maybe. The easiest way to start is to review last month's highlights.

TOP ROW: Temecula Baskets was in the binding stage as July began. We enjoyed fireworks at a 4th of July picnic hosted by friends Gary and Cheryl. They go all out, and have been hosting this event for probably 20-some years. The master bedroom remodel was mostly finished by mid-month, although we are still tweaking things.

MIDDLE ROW: The first quilt top to be photographed on the new bed was Tiny Nine Patches. Believe it or not, this quilt is now loaded on the long arm and is waiting for my attention (soon, I hope!). Darling Cate gets the center spot, as usual. She is 22 months now! Growing and talking and running. In that next picture, she enjoys some Graeter's Ice Cream with her papaw.

BOTTOM ROW: A random picture from the Honnoldpalooza; this one features Christina, Jamie, Lisa and Eric. The middle picture is from the northern shore of Lake Michigan looking toward the Mackinaw Bridge in the distance. And finally, there's DH and I posing in front of Tahquemenon Falls near the town of Munising, MI.

Not a lot of quilting, was there? Seems like this entire calendar year has been rather limited on productivity. With the bedroom refresh, I've instead been sorting and purging and organizing with hopes of utilizing my upstairs spaces more efficiently. We shall see how that continues. We really needed to do the refresh, but it did create quite a lot of off-shoot projects for me. 

Plans for the month are firming up. I have a 4-day retreat mid-month, which you will be hearing more about. And currently, there are not one, but two quilts laid out on the floor - one upstairs and one downstairs. Yes, I am dabbling in a mix of new stuff and UFOs.

With that little tease of future posts, I will leave you for now.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

July Collage and Happy Little 9-Patches

Busy, busy, busy in the quilting room the past couple of day, and what a joyous feeling of accomplishment! I will tell you all about my progress on Posies and Polka Dots after we review July's highlights.

TOP ROW: All three pictures across the top are from our 2-day mini-trip to Akron. We visited Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, home of Goodyear co-founder F.A. Seiberling. It is a magnificent Tudor-style manor, so beautifully preserved and maintained. Then we located the magical quilt shop of fiber artist Sue Spargo. Learning of her work has opened an entire new realm of needle craft to me. We topped off the day by having dinner with my first cousin Sam, who lives in nearby Hudson.

MIDDLE ROW: Mid-month, we took a day trip to our college alma mater. In the distance there is THE Bob Evans Farm, where the two of us met on a September Friday night, nearly 48 years ago. *wow* Center stage is our darling Cate asleep in Gramma's arms. And on the right, a hand-quilted finish - Fall Foliage.

BOTTOM ROW: Cate is crawling now, and seems pretty excited to be mobile, it appears. She also had her very first taste of a family delicacy - home made ice cream! Her initiation to this traditional summer treat was met with eager enthusiasm. Finally, one additional finish was the Kaffe Fassett panel that I turned into a lap quilt.

Now, let me show you these 9-patches! I began with about 40 total  - 20 with blue backgrounds and 20 with white backgrounds. Then I decided that I really ought to have a sketch of what I was attempting to achieve, so I drew this diagram. 

I need LOTS more 9-patches. Making those has been my task today. I have them all ready to stitch and press before day's end. I have also cut out some of the squares needed to make the HST setting blocks, the side triangles and corner triangles. This resulted in my needing to go to Etsy to order another yard of the blue - Moda Essential Dots, it's called - which will be here next week. I was gonna' be short about 7 inches. 

With the blocks I'd already made, it was plain to see that my quilt was not going to be big enough. That's when I decided I needed a diagram. My mock-up has 5 blue columns with 4 white columns. I also added a row to the top for more length. Making it bigger might have resulted in the hassle of buying more fabric, but I have made quilts too small for bed use, and that's no fun at all. I won't be sorry for this extra fussing.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Hello August!

Recently I had the pleasure of reading The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath. Actually, it was audio-reading, but that's beside the point. (Why do I always feel obligated to clarify that listening is not reading?) This book struck such a chord in me that I listened twice.

This book validates my tendency to treat each new month as a mini-version of a new year and its accompanying resolutions. One section in The Power of Moments is devoted to explaining our need to start fresh and slough off the old with brand new plans for a brand new year - or month, in my case. I found so much good information in this book and have recommended it to several family members and friends. One good friend (actually she recommended it to me! Thanks, Pam!) has indicated that she plans to gift this book to newlyweds and graduates. Smart idea! It's just a really good examination of how we can make our lives richer and more full of memorable moments.

This new month is screaming out two things to me: 

1. start something new!

2. long arm some quilts!

Before getting too far into what I have on the August agenda, let me first do a wrap-up of July. I tell ya, I had a great month, but so very little of it was spent sewing and quilting! We were on the go, enjoying family and friends. 

Yesterday, we hosted 15 here for the 4th annual Honnold Bash. My DH's side of the family is so spread out, and our opportunities for get-togethers are few. We sorta' live in a centrally located spot for many of them to come here, so we began having this reunion in 2018. We had to skip the pandemic year, but have continued with our late-July bash since then. Above are our 2 daughters Erin and Emma, and Kevin's sister, Kellie. 

My July collage contains very few sewing highlights, and many more family fun highlights. Ahhh, the fun of summer!

Row 1: The finished re-fresh of the front room; we took out the 30-year-old carpet and put down wood flooring. My little patriotic vignette to salute the 4th of July, features a pillow I made in May. Niece Mary Jean came to sew with me and went home with a new stash of yarn and needles, since she prefers crocheting and knitting.

Row 2: Niece Anna Rose, twin of MJ, actually did sew at the sewing machine, and ended up getting her own machine. She had really taken to sewing and as an aspiring actress, hopes to sew costumes and accessories. The center pic is from Anna Maria Island, where I vacationed for a week with 4 girlfriends. Another niece, Abby, welcomed her first child, Boone, on July 20.

Row 3: My one flimsy finish was my Double Irish Chain. Technically, it is still waiting to have borders attached. I plan to do those tomorrow when Sharon is here to sew. The middle bottom pic is from yesterday's Honnold Bash - niece Julie and her DH C.C. enjoy visiting on the screened porch. My final pic is of Lake Effect, which I have been feeling a strong desire to lay out in full so I could see my progress. Gosh! I have more done on it than I realized! This gives me a very strong nudge to prioritize this quilt more than I have lately.

What will August bring? You know I have some plans. I will work on pulling some ideas together and share those with you tomorrow.

I hope your new month brings you happy, carefree days and lots of sunshine! Let's make some memorable moments!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

July Wrap-Up

Looking back on what I accomplished and seeing a few highlights of the month is a nice way of keeping myself in check that things are actually being done around here. Some months are chock-full of sewing highlights; others not so much. July was one such month with stuff other than sewing to highlight.

TOP ROW: The Frankfort Girls had a field trip to Vinton County for lunch and a tour or the beautiful residence and retreat center of Kathy Skinner. I wrote about it in this post. I prepped some leaves for my 10-year-project, Lake Effect. And the flimsy for my red and white stars finally became a reality.

MIDDLE ROW: I began a new scrappy quilt called Scrappy Trip Around The World. A family piece of furniture came into my possession and I am attempting (very slowly) to sand it down. Dear son Adam sent this picture of a beautiful cloud in Oregon; however, it is not a cloud. It is the smoke from a wildfire in his area.

BOTTOM ROW: I've begun the process of making new pillows for the front room sofa. The first one is done; the next one is cut out, but sits waiting for a pieced batting and an interfacing. Also waiting are 45 more Ohio Star blocks like those in the center. In the final picture, my two daughters Emma and Erin sit poolside at my sister's for the first of two big family events held in one weekend, one for my side of the family, and one for my in-laws.

I could create an entire collage for July's mini-vacation. After the in-laws were here for the family get-together, DH and I took two days to go to South Bass Island/Put-In-Bay in Lake Erie. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable mini-getaway. Here's one pic of the Perry Monument on the island.

Let's have a fantastic August, what do you say?!

Happy Quilting, Friends!