Finishing the Month with a Mini

 Behold, an Almost Rogue Amish mini from Lori's 2019 fall quilt-along, is finally well and truly finished! Binding added this morning after some hasty sparse big-stitch hand quilting last week before the grands arrived on Friday evening.

Most of the predicted storms never materialized and the kids were able to swim in the creek, climb the mountain on the other side, have their requested campfire with S-mores, and more importantly, keep the dog well exercised and totally exhausted by the time they left!

Seven-year-old version of King of the Mountain

 the Energizer Bunny culprit!

At the other end of the house  another Swiffer Box Quilt  was in its early stages, designed from leftover orphan blocks, strips and squares, this time by our 9-year-old granddaughter.  Guess I'll have my work cut out for me in the coming weeks, but that many leftover scrappy hunks I won't have to deal with later!

After the busy weekend, it was nice to walk around the property taking in the last of the summer flowers.  

Interesting how the orange binding appears yellow where the sunlight hits.

We're still harvesting an abundance of summer squash, and the winter squashes are getting there.  Something is attacking our few butternut squashes, most likely deer, but the Delicata, Carnival, and Spaghetti squash seem to be undisturbed so far. The roma tomatoes are getting there, we should harvest the first few by weeks end for our first tomato-basil pie of the season.  The last of the green beans will likely disappear with dinner tonight.  Fall is quickly approaching, my favorite season.

Linking to Wendy's post at The Constant Quilter where you'll find many other wonderful minis.  While you're visiting her blog, be sure to check out her previous post showing her fabulous Community Supper quilt.  It's amazing!

August Doings

 This month seems to have flown by with what seemed to be little accomplishment, but this morning I managed to stitch the last long diagonal seam and "Lines and Boxes II" became a completed flimsy. 

This is the second quilt made from a big box of scraps cut for a quilt several years ago, which was donated to our camp auction.  The first one was called Lines and Boxes and this one is Lines and Boxes II.  Both named for a comment my young, probably 4-year-old son at the time, made.  One night at supper he asked his dad "Why do you always wear lines and boxes (stripes and plaids)?  That innocent question has stuck in my memory for over 40 years, so it seems appropriate that this last quilt from that box of squares and rectangles should be named in his honor and given to him when it's eventually finished.   The top currently measures 86x96 inches and uses up a lot of semi-vintage 1980s and forward fabric scraps.  

It began with laying out the pieces on the floor of the church foyer at one of our quilt ministry get-togethers earlier this summer, since there is no place for anything this large in our house. The alternate nine-patch or puss-in-the-corner blocks were sewn during the first few weeks of our lockdown last spring.

Then the long days this month sewing all the diagonal rows together, trying to keep everything in order. Only a few of the shorter rows fit on the design wall.

So happy to finally finish this morning and the impending rain/wind storm has held off long enough to snap a few quick photos outside.  I'll be machine quilting this later this fall or over the winter as time allows.  But in the meantime, my sewing room will be occupied by three grandkids over the weekend so everything needs be put away to allow for all those air mattresses, duffel bags, etc. etc.  I'm so looking forward to their visit since we haven't seen them since Christmas!  Their mom and I will be busy sewing more masks for the beginning of school year (mom is a high school teacher), so there will be plenty to keep all of us busy.  Good times!

And now there is a nearly empty tote to fill with another future project.  Thinking about turning the few remaining blocks from this project into a couple of utility placemats for our table.  That should finish them off completely.  Yay, so good to have one of my oldest PIGS on the road to completion and the bin of scrappy pieces finally gone!

After the Storm and First Fruits

 Early one evening last week we had a freak storm that began with thundering hail for several minutes, followed by gentle rain that lasted until nearly sunset.  When it subsided, this was our view from the back porch.

And then there was this little guy, one of several who provide a daily flying circus in and around the porch for our continuous entertainment.

Over the weekend I completed the quilting and binding of a lap or wall quilt destined for this year's camp auction over Labor Day weekend.  The top was appliqued/pieced by my friend Lois a few years ago. Finished size is 40x46 inches.  I've had the top hanging in my closet for two years or so, but never was able to work up any enthusiasm about quilting and finishing it.

When preparing the donation label for the quilt I decided to name it First Fruits. Though not depicting the first barley harvest of the Biblical feast of that name, the name stands as a reminder that God's blessings span the harvest throughout seasons and years.  The stars and moon of creation, the kitten representing the animal kingdom, the squash/pumpkins symbolizing the first fruits of autumn gathered for our physical sustenance through the long winter months, the hearts for the love that sustains our spirit.  Thinking of it in those terms my attitude toward it has changed.  

Perhaps what we all need in this year of our discontent is a change of heart.  A new, hopeful, and positive way of looking at the blessings that abound all around us, and less on fear, anxiety, hatred and hopelessness.  

May your week be filled with hope and joy!

p.s.  At least temporarily I've changed my blog settings to only include comments from google accounts. This is an attempt to reduce the abundance of filthy spam comments since the new 'improved' blogger was initiated.  Although I've always had comment moderation in place and hopefully nothing like I've seen recently has ever shown up on the blog itself, I've grown weary of having to see them myself.  I may or may not change the setting back, depending on whether it makes any difference in the spam received.  Please bear with me, and know that I appreciate all your kind words and encouragement.

Also, if anyone knows how to get rid of the "Redirect notice" every time I click on others' posts in my blogger dashboard, please let me know.  It should be obvious that if someone clicks on a blog post, they really want to go there, but blogger apparently thinks we need protection from the good guys while allowing the spammers to get through.  Sounds kind of familiar doesn't it.