Happy Birthday America!

The last quilt from the long armer is finished. Yay! Time to prepare backings (ick!) and send more off. I'll get right on that.

Another mini is finished. I really like using linen in quilts. It's a little stretchy, but the natural color is really nice with brights.

It's been rainy here, so the outdoor photo ops are few and far between. The teen sunbathing has taken a hit too. Oh well, it's bad for you anyway and there are toilets to scrub. ;) The grass is growing like a weed. Or maybe they are weeds.

Here's the staghorn fern I ignore terribly. My aunt gave me this plant years and years ago. And it's still alive! I know. The poor fern has been through several hurricanes and neglect, but it's hanging in there.

I hope your weekend is full of barbecue and fireworks. I'm looking forward to the long weekend and lots of patchy rain.

Miscellany

I found some quickie projects in blogland to get me motivated this morning. This is a cute headband tutorial. I stole one of Inspector Gadget's 2,000 T-shirts and hacked it up. He'll never miss it.

Or how about this tiny pincushion? You can find the tutorial right here.

I decided to make a mini out of my string blocks. It's supposed to be crooked. Really. I wanted to do spiral quilting, but I wimped out. My free motion foot mocks me.

One wonky house block made into a mini. I did try a little free motion quilting on this piece. I still stink at it, but I'm not going to let that stop me.

This laundry tag made me laugh. Ain't it the truth? I've been teaching Laundry 101 to college boy (ironing included). About time, huh? Inspector Gadget is getting the class next. If all goes well, I might be mowing the lawn and doing oil changes soon. Fun.

Look At My Garden Grow

Whew, I'm exhausted! I've been working out in the heat in my garden. Ha ha! Actually, it's my husband's garden. I'm not even allowed to look at these plants. I am a major plant killer. I don't like to look at gardening blogs for fear I'll kill something.

See that little basil plant in the lower right hand corner? Hubby rescued that from the trash. I buy grocery store plants for cooking and they die rather quickly. They start looking sickly as soon as I put them in my grocery cart. The other two plants are peppers, jalapeno and habanero. We've already harvested one jalapeno. I'm going to buy Inspector Gadget a tomato plant for our anniversary.

There's not a whole lot of sewing going on this week as I've been busy. This little pouch was fun to make. Zipper practice, baby! The lovely Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt has a great tute. The pouch matches the tote I made a while back. Now if I could find a farmer's market nearby. Wait, I have a garden now.

I've always loved string blocks. This technique was fun to try. Have you tried making half square triangles by sewing all four sides and chopping on the diagonals? Works like a charm.

My single bowl of watercress salad from last night. I can't get anyone in this family to eat it. My mom made this salad all the time when the watercress was good. So simple, too. Watercress, good tomatoes, red onion and vinaigrette. Delicious!

This is where my husband thinks I get watercress. Down by the pond or out by the big lake. Now wouldn't that be handy? Anyone hungry for duck? I can hook you up.

Sunday Stash #28

I found this little sign somewhere in blogland. Not that I'd like to rule the world or anything, but I thought it was cute.

My friend Rene' gave me gorgeous fabrics and quilty earrings for my birthday. There are Kaffe Fassett charm squares too, but I'm already playing with those! I keep petting the ones above. Hopefully, I'll be brave enough to chop into them!

Free motion quilting practice on a 2.5" x 3.5" finished piece. I think I drank too much coffee that morning! ;) Happy Sunday!

Ticky Tacky

Little boxes, little boxes, do you know this song? Mine aren't made out of ticky tacky, but I did find some charm packs to chop up. Now I'm bored with them.

My new phone case. This one fits very snug. Super easy, too. Here's the pdf tutorial.

I tested a friend's pattern for a chair pad. This will come in handy on the hard chairs at Sew Day and the itchy chair in my studio. I'll let you know when the pattern is available for purchase.

A lovely swapper sent me this cute apron. The embroidered design is adorable. I shall only make meringues, white gravy and bread in this pristine, white apron.

My Doll Quilt Swap buddy Dotty's latest selvage creation.

Longest Day of the Year

Look at me! Another baby quilt finished! This one is so old I can't remember if I made the top or just added borders. The pieced backing is somewhat familiar and I had pre-cut strips leftover for binding, so I'm not entirely crazy. My bag o' bindings is almost empty! Two more to bind, and then maybe I'll get brave and count up the quilt tops that need to be quilted. I don't think I'm that brave.

Insalata caprese bruschetta. Instead of the big slabs of mozzarella I usually use for insalata caprese, I grated a much smaller amount of the cheese and toasted it on the bread. Add fresh tomatoes, capers, parsley, sea salt, pepper and drizzle the entire mess with good olive oil. Dinner is served! As much as I love cheese, I didn't miss the calories. It's bikini weather you know. Ha!

Blue suede Elvis selvage. Hope gave me this awesome selvage. It came from Graceland. I love how selvages tell a story.

I used this retro gingham and daisy cotton canvas to make a a small shoulder bag. The wonderful tutorial from Lime Gardenias is really adorable and includes an apple applique and a clever pocket for a library card on the strap. I just wanted to try the pocket and French seams! ;)

I helped college boy assemble his new fixed gear bike. I loved the typo on the shipping box. I'm afraid to ride the thing. No brakes, no coasting, teeny tiny seat, and you can ride in reverse. I'll stick to my regular bike until they get me a three wheeler with a basket.

Friday Finishes

Scrap busting again. I stumbled across this great tutorial and whipped up a new potholder.

I can't even remember when I pieced this small quilt. I had it quilted by a longarm quilter and finally finished the binding and label this week.

And another finish! This coin quilt was probably made the first year I started quilting. Before I sewed, I collected fabric. I know. Crazy. I've always loved old linens and vintage textiles. The quilt has some interesting vintage cotton prints mixed with newer fabrics. There's even some tie-dyed fabric my daughter and I made. It too went off for longarm quilting and sat around waiting for me to bind it. Procrastinate much? I have three more to bind.