August FMQ Challenge

August is nearing an end, and we are beginning to see big changes in our daylight hours, and the sun is casting longer shadows in the garden even at high noon.  As autumn approaches we are finally beginning to see a few ripe tomatoes, though there may not be enough harvest for many batches of canned salsa and stewed tomatoes to set aside for winter.  However, what we lack in tomatoes we shall make up for with our bountiful harvest of berries; the freezer is nearly full with the abundance, which we will make up into jams and preserves as needed, and lovely warm berry crunch desserts.  We have made our jams and jellies for years using Pomonas low sugar pectin which we purchase in bulk.  Using very little sugar and adding a touch of lemon juice to the jam mixture results in heavenly fruity, not sugary jams.  No guilt in spreading generous amounts of these jams on our morning toast or biscuits!

On to the Free Motion Quilting Challenge with our August tutorial provided by Wendy Sheppard.  Wendy is an extremely talented and prolific quilter who generously shares her knowledge and tutorials for some of her signature quilting designs through her series of "Thread Talk" posts on her blog called Ivory Spring (link in my favorite blog section to the right of this post).  Wendy shared a design called "Jester's Hats" with us this month.  Another deceptive little design, looking oh-so-easy, but which many of us found a tad difficult, especially with moving the design around across a big square of fabric.  I found myself practice drawing this design on every scrap of paper on the desk, backs of envelopes, etc., before finally switching the machine over to quilting mode and trying it on fabric.  Here are a couple of views of my sample piece for this month's challenge.

I loved this design and the soft overall texture it provides, and plan to use it on my next grandchild's quilt to be layered and pinned in the next week or two.  Thanks Wendy, for all the tutorials you provide on your blog, and for participating in SewCalGal's FMQ Challenge this year!

Friday's mail brought a little package from fellow FMQ Challenge quilter Debbie at http://stitchintherapy.blogspot.com/ who recently celebrated her 500th blog post with a giveaway.  I was one of the lucky winners of a packet of lovely gift/care tags and lavendar sachets created by Debbie's daughter and available through her Etsy shop called PodBeLu.   Thanks Debbie!  These little care tags will be perfect for the gift quilts I'm making for Christmas this year!