Monday at Sharon's

What began as "Tuesdays With Sharon" has, out of necessity, been moved to Mondays for the summer. Sharon's daughter will be taking classes through the summer, and grandson Reilly needs a place to hang out. Sewing is a very boring thing for an 8-year-old, you know.

That said, even with the change of days, Reilly joined us for a bit yesterday as we sewed at Sharon's house. He came through the sewing area at one point with a penknife - he was going out to find a stick and do some whittling! When writing stories, riding a bike, doing summer enrichment papers (pints and quarts - ugh!), watching cartoons, reading and playing on the computer just won't fill an afternoon, a resourceful boy turns to whittling, of course.

Whittling is best done with good whistling, so I've heard, and Reilly put the technique to good use as he worked. I couldn't discern the actual tune, but there was definitely whistling as the wood chips flew.

About a half an hour after beginning, he pronounced his effort completed! Behold! I give you a light saber!

While Reilly went off to attack myriad bad guys with his light saber, Sharon and I worked on our projects. She is making yet another quilt with her Aviary fabrics. They are just so luscious; I can definitely see why she can't get enough of them.

These blocks are so simple, yet so gorgeous - rail fence. They go together effortlessly. I believe Sharon got about 4 rows completely done; with very little effort, this top will be in the finished stack. What satisfaction!!

Faithful followers here will recall that a few months back I was working on a quilt called Long Road Home. (Click here to see Sheryll's finished top.) Well, it got put aside in order to make the prom dress, then the porch accessories, then the Bento Box. Finally, I've come back to  Long Road Home.

I had gotten this far: 120 blocks.

 I needed to make the next step:

And I did, but I didn't make enough. Oh well, I wanted to make some blocks, so I went with what was done and got about 20 completed. A quilter has to see results sometimes, right?

Okay. I love intricate quilts. I love scrappy quilts. And I will really love having this quilt completed. But, what I have here are blocks that measure roughly 4" square, and there are 17 pieces of fabric in there!!  Agh! This is a lot of work to get a 4"square!

So go ahead, quilty friends, and tell me that the fun is in the process. Tell me that I love these fabrics, and tell me that this quilt will be SO worth it!

I'm telling myself that, too, but it's easy to get bogged down with the enormity of the project's involved nature. I shall persevere!! Bit by bit, I will get it done, and I will be glad I did.

Right???

Completed Top - Bento Box

Bento Box is one of the easiest quilt tops I've ever made, and one that is lots of fun to put together. I really enjoyed picking out the purple and gold batiks, and seeing how the various combinations worked. I really love this quilt top.

I now need to figure out what fabric I will use for the backing of this quilt. I've sort of been making this up as I go, and consequently, using the 2.5-inch strips doesn't give me a large piece of fabric for use, so I will have to sift through my stash and see if there's a suitable fabric there.

The pattern does not call for a significant border, just a binding, actually. I think that will be fine. Doesn't this sorta' make your eyes go all goofy??

Remember, when I decided to make this pattern, I had to alter everything - the pattern called for 3" strips, but I intended to use 2.5" strips from two Bali-Pops packs. I had to supplement with additional fabrics, as there were not enough purple and golds for the quilt I wanted to make. It was easy enough to adjust the measurements.

Emma, recent high school grad, asked for a quilt in her high school colors, purple and gold. I've worked on it for about 3 weeks, with a week off when we were prepping for the graduation party. I put the rows together yesterday.  So glad for another finish!!

Is Blogger Acting Up Again?

I'm getting a late start this morning. Just now dressed and downstairs. Have looked at exactly 2 blogs and tried to leave comments on each - ppffsstt! Round and round I go - log in, go back to comment page, log in, etc, etc. It's a vicious cycle!

What's the matter, Blogspot?? Whatever it is, please, just fix it already!!

I'm sure I'm not the only one becoming aggravated.

Mission Accomplished

 The first big event of our summer is now behind us, and (if I do say so myself) it was a huge success. The graduation party was well attended, we had enough food and beverages for everyone, and we had the chance to visit with loved ones. DH worked mighty hard making our yard and flower beds look great, and he received many compliments. It's always nice when hard work is recognized.

Here are few of shots from the party:

Today, I have most of the food cleaned up and put away, dishes done, tables and chairs returned to their owners, coolers cleaned and trash removed. The tent is still up - I don't know when the rental company plans to come for it. I have some dishes to return to friends and family and some thank yous to write. We had a lot of shredded chicken left over, as well as barbecue wings. Guess what's on our menus this week?

I did get to take a few hours this afternoon to get some sewing done. Back to work on the purple and gold Bento Box for Emma. These are all batiks. Isn't it surprising how many different shades of purple and gold there are? I think Emma will like the look.

Here are most of the blocks laid out on the bed. Tomorrow is sewing with Sharon, and I'd really like to have the top stitched together by day's end. Might as well aim high.

Here's one more pic from yesterday. We had a guest cat - our DD Erin's cat named Rocky. And we had a guest dog - my FIL's dachshund Isabella. Well, look at how they entertained themselves:

Blogging Curiosities

I've just spent about 45 minutes reading through all the blogs I generally follow, and have decided to ask a few questions to the great world-wide web. I'm just needing a bit of enlightenment, I guess.

1. Why can I post comments on some blogs, and not others? I know Blogspot had issues about a week ago, but I thought everything was fixed. One blogger in particular (Hi, QuiltSue!) I cannot get a comment to post for any amount of effort. This is not a really big deal, but I do like to leave an occasional comment.

2. What does having "followers" do for a blogger, besides letting us know that we have readers? How do some people have hundreds of followers? I have become a "follower" on many of the blogs I read, but I can see no benefit either way - being followed, or being a follower.

3. I learned awhile back that if you click on "reader" while in gmail (that's where my email account is), one can also find followers there, who are different from the followers on the actual blog. This totally confuses me.

I think that's the extent of my curiosities. Maybe those of you who are less technically challenged than I  can try to teach this old dog a few new tricks. (I am a willing learner!)

Quilting with the Girls

The Frankfort girls were here this morning for our bi-weekly quilting get-together. The weather is so pleasant right now that we convened on the screened porch where we were serenaded by songbirds and the soothing sound of the water fountain.

JoAnn finished off a little wall-hanging she'd been working on. She is the queen of using up scraps. Nothing goes to waste - that's JoAnn's mantra.

Sheryll is doing this incredible applique quilt. I admire her ambition. I love applique, but have not gotten to the point where I would entertain the thought of undertaking a project of this size. I do have a couple of applique UFOs, however. (Note to self: I should get those out and share them here on the blog.)

Sharon worked on a little cross-stitch teddy bear for a new grandbaby coming soon to her family.  She plans to make a baby quilt using the teddy bear motif. Planning ahead! It's a completely foreign idea to me, but I think it must work.

Terry ironed stars onto squares for a quilt she's making for her son and his bride-to-be. She (Terry, not the bride-to-be) has just had a cast removed after carpel-tunnel surgery, so she's slowly regaining use of her hand. I didn't think to take pictures of her work until after she'd put her stuff away. I will get pics of it at some point.

I finished the binding on my little Thimbleberries table-topper. It perfectly covers the chest that we use as a coffee table in the family room.

Graduation party countdown: yesterday was cleaning day; man, did I tear into this house! It's amazing the dirt I found. I was wiped out at day's end!

Today, after quilting, was grocery day. One cart barely held all the groceries I bought. And I think I saw smoke coming out of the checkbook as I signed the check. Whew...do I need to say anything about the rising cost of groceries??? Also, today the tent was delivered and set up.

Tomorrow is cooking day. Whoo-hoo! Things are coming together nicely!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

It's June!

And summer has definitely arrived! Springtime this year consisted of days upon days of rain and clouds and cool temperatures. For the months of April and May, we had more than 10" above normal rainfall. Definitely soggy.

Then, the jet stream decided to move north, and VOILA!! Our temps have been in the 90's for about 5 straight days now. Humidity came, too. Instead of complaining about the rain, now we are too hot!

Mother Nature can't win with us finnicky humans.

Here are some pics around our house as the graduation party countdown continues. DH has been doing an amazing job with the mulching and yard.

Yesterday was Tuesday quilting with Sharon at her house. I finished hand-quilting the table-topper, and applied the binding. It is ready to be stitched down. I will do that on Friday morning with my quilt group when they come here. I then made about 3 Bento Box blocks out of the purple and gold batiks. Sharon finished the border on her Layer Cake quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends.