Rainbow Rose QAL

Saturday was sunny, hot and muggy, and I had the day open to work on my Rainbow Rose top and hoped to complete all the quilting.  The ditch quilting was finished and I had just begun the FMQ in the white areas.

A bright flash of the overhead ceiling light, then darkness descended over the needle area and the sewing machine stopped humming ... a power outage ... for the next six hours!   When the power was finally restored it was time for dinner and our daily evening watering chores in the gardens.

There won't be another six-hour block of time to complete the quilting this week before the final link-up ends, so I'm linking up with Modern Quilters Ireland today to show my progress to date.

The completed top before quilting

The back, ditch quilting completed

Progress to date!

I've had fun working on this little quilt so far and hope to have it finished soon.  Looking forward to seeing how the other participants have finished their versions.  I'm still mulling over how the star segments will be quilted.

According to our local weather forecasters the last time our area had more than one inch of rainfall in a single day was October 15 of last year!   Our last soaking rain occurred before the last snowfall this past spring.   We are currently in a severe drought, as are other major areas of the country.  We are fortunate to live in a valley and have a fairly deep well that has no recent history of running dry, but we are still watering our three gardens very sparingly, hoping to achieve at least some harvest.  Many others on the hillsides are not as fortunate, their wells are running dry.   Many of the farms in our area are small subsistence farms, and it is heartbreaking to see the crops so withered and their growth stunted by the relentless heat and drought.  We are praying for several days of slow soaking rain to replenish the earth, fill the streams and begin to restore the water table.  

Westering Women #6: Hill and Hollow; Mail Call

Finished my June block for the Westering Women BOM.  Barbara named this block Hill and Hollow, and her historical references for the block cited the change of topography when one reaches the Nebraska panhandle. Having traveled across Nebraska many times over the years, I can imagine by the time many wagon trains reached that area it was mid-to-late summer, hot and dusty, and those hills and hollows, not to mention ruts in the trail were dusty and brown - much like the trail across each quadrant of my block. Dark distant hills, and flowers along the trail dry and their colors muted by the layer of fine dirt covering everything along the way, kicked up by thousands of pack animals and wagon wheels passing by.

While stitching this block I had lamented my choice of medium values for the hills and hollows, but now I'm rather liking the effect.

I wonder how many of us today would be sturdy enough to endure that long, long journey without any of the comforts of home and family, neighbors and their sisterhood of quilters.

We are now half way through this BOM celebrating the women who took part in this westward migration.  I am in awe of their courage and steadfastness in the face of incredible hardship and danger.

Over the past few days the mailbox has once again been filled with sweet surprises. A copy of Julie Sefton's new book Build-A-Barn, No Pattern Construction arrived via a blog giveaway from Cathy who blogs at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting whose unique barn was featured in this post.  Cathy is a charter member of Julie's Secret Society of Barn Builders who tested the process notes for Julie's book and are featuring their barn creations at an ongoing blog hop.  You can visit Julie and learn more about this fun new book and the blog hop at Julie's blog here and her new book's very own blog here. I've been collecting photos of barns during our travels, and with fall being my favorite season, and New York being a big apple-growing state, I think I just found the perfect fabric to accessorize my first barn-building attempt.  The question remains, will I find any maple sugaring fabric for a springtime barn?

Last, but certainly not least, yesterday's mail brought this bundle of mini-charm packs from Sue Brain who blogs at suebee's World.   My first thought was a doll quilt for these cute little prints, but a set of special placemats for the grandkids' visits might also be in order.

Many thanks to both Julie and Sue for these very special giveaways!  Seems like a lot of new fun projects are on the to-do list.

We've had a little much-needed rain last night and earlier today, but a few rainy days would be more than welcome in these parts. Still, we have much to be thankful for, as we have not experienced the intense storms and flooding many are enduring.

Quilty 365 - June

Ah June, a month for falling behind and staying behind.  While there should be a total of 235 circles completed by June 30, as of today there are only 23 totally finished for June and my total number is 228.

Though there is a lovely little stack that will take me nearly through the end of July awaiting their turn for stitching.  What can I say except like many others, sometimes life just gets in the way of even a little bit of evening stitching.

Hoping to be caught up once again by the end of July.  Linking up with Audrey at Quilty Folk.