Anticipating October's Bright Blue Weather

 Hi, I hope you all are experiencing an extended summer as we are, with mostly sunny warm days, near frosty nights, the beginning of the autumn colors, pumpkins, mums and everything else that sings October is near!

Being the last day of September it seems like a perfect time to show my latest finish, a little girl baby quilt.  Once again I wasn't entirely happy with this group of photos, they seemed a bit blurry (and maybe they are). But, this morning it occurred to me that the pink print fabric bordering the center panel and near the outside edge is the likely culprit.  It's a perfectly lovely little print in person, but the pattern just doesn't photograph well...that's my story anyway!

I'm setting this one aside for a future great-grandbaby, or possibly even another granddaughter as it seems that there's a possibility of both in our near future - color me delighted!!

The next two photos show that pink fabric in a bit better detail - you can click the photos for a larger view if you wish.  

Love the little teddy bears in each corner!  They're the last pieces from some yardage in the baby fabric bin for the last umpteen years.

This little quilt finished at 36x36 inches - a bit on the small side but easy for a toddler to drag around.

A question for all you bloggers out there - do you ever check your blog stats, particularly how many "views" each post received?  It seems entirely out of the scope of reason that my last post should have received over 14,000 views (according to Blogger) when for the life of this blog I rarely exceeded 3-400 views!  So, what do you suppose?  Anyone seeing anything similar?  

I'll close with a photo of my view from the kitchen window this morning as the sun shone brightly on our side porch.  When the cold wind blows in another month or two I'll remember this morning and those sunflowers glowing in the early morning light.

Til next time, listen with intention and understanding, speak softly with love, and cherish the Light!

Another baby quilt finish

This is the final baby quilt finish for the summer, and the first for September.  It might also be the fastest quilt I've made, five days from start to finish late on Labor Day. Photographed in the early morning sunshine yesterday.  It will soon be making its way to a neighboring state with the happy grandparents, and we are so delighted for them as they thought they would likely never have grandchildren - this baby is a tiny miracle!

This quilt is very similar to an earlier make this summer, except this time it's for a baby girl.  

The loft of the 80/20 batting and the Jester's Hat free motion quilting makes those cute quirky animal faces hard to discern, especially the bunny in the top center block.  He may show up a little better in subsequent photos.  

The back is totally feminine!

While outside I couldn't resist a couple photos of these glorious zinnias in the early morning light, quite possibly the best we've ever grown.

I love the deep shades, coordinating so perfectly with my "Almost Amish" mini from Lori's quiltalong of a few years ago.

Now that all the obligatory quilts are done and dusted, I'm looking forward to getting back to quilting and hopefully finishing another oldie, my historic panel challenge quilt.

We had an early light frost a couple nights ago, thankfully the tarps covering all the tomato plants saved them.  Our large romas are nearly ripe, so salsa canning will be underway this weekend.

Til next time, hoping you are enjoying these beautiful early fall days.

Two Finishes for July

 Almost forgot to post my finishes for July - two children's quilts, one for a newborn and the other for a toddler/preschooler.  You'll have to excuse my lousy photos, the lighting was less then optimal every time I had a chance to get outside for photos, or maybe I've just forgotten how to photograph properly, it's anybody's guess.  And, the quilts were washed and boxed up and shipped to their new home before offloading the photos from my camera.  

First up, the baby quilt, completed the evening before he was born.

 

And the back

I love the sweet gentle expressions on all the faces on the front of this quilt!  Happily I have nine additional blocks to finish a second quilt for a baby due around the end of September.  

I had a blast with the toddler/preschooler's quilt, made for a big brother.  The front is fairly plain, a panel of two brothers surrounded by several borders, the fun began with the back.  (sorry about the back shadowing in this set of photos).

 

I wanted this to be an I-Spy quilt that he could have fun with, after I'd had my fun putting it all together, from bits and pieces of previous quilts, leftover half-square triangles, a strip of Lizzy's wonderful beachball fabric from her Bramble Blooms 1 (thanks Lizzy!), etc.   I also appliqued his name in big 4-inch block letters, blurred out in the photos.  

The back before layering and quilting

and after quilting, unfortunately a bit washed out in this photo

I'm closing in on another finish with the Oriental Brambles quilt, hopefully by next week so it can be turned in to the quilt coordinator for the upcoming camp auction.   Hopefully the blueberries will all be harvested by that time too.  My daughter and grandson are coming this weekend and hopefully they can harvest the remaining berries to take home.  We have already put 39 quarts in our freezer, given away some, and there are still a ton of nearly ripe berries out there.  The most we have ever had in one season.  They will be most welcome come winter, but at the moment I'm ready for the tomatoes to begin ripening! 

Gibbs says Hi!  Til next time, enjoy these lovely summer days while we have them!

Busy Week - Some New Tops Completed

This past week has been extraordinarily busy with miscellaneous appointments and other obligations, but I did manage to wrangle a few quilts to the finished top stage.

First up, a quilt I'm calling Oriental Brambles (not BB-1 or 2) because the floral branches in the center just look brambly to me!

You may recall a couple months ago I showed the feature fabric, a decorator fabric of undetermined age found in a bin of miscellaneous fabrics in our quilt ministry stash.  No selvedges, so no identification, it had been cut into on all sides, but I loved the print and the possibilities, so it came home with me and straight into the washing machine on delicate setting to see if it would behave in a quilt.  It did, no shrinkage and no color bleeding, so it was a 'go.'  My inspiration for this medallion quilt was a quilt by Gwen Marston that she actually made twice with her same feature fabrics (decorator and chintz) and different border fabrics.  The earliest one I found appeared in her book with Joe Cunningham Quilting with Style, page 148, made in 1981. Her later version made in 2003appeared in the book Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again, page 22.  Some fabrics just age so well that we love coming back to them again and again!  

A lot of practice making flying geese.  By the time I got to the final border, I had absolutely no fabric in my stash large enough to create a lovely wide border in a colorway that would blend in nicely with the center of the quilt.  The dark blue piano key border seemed like the only viable solution since there were only bits and pieces of 8 or 10 dark blues, all less than a fat quarter.  Now, if I can get the quilting finished by the end of August this will be donated to the local camp benefit auction over Labor Day weekend.  And my sweet hubby loves this top (dark blues!) and wants to buy it back from the auction!  We'll see how that goes.  

So now I find myself in the middle of making two baby quilts and a "big brother" quilt for a 3-year old.  The first is this panel I bought years ago (around 2009 as I recall) and never had the opportunity to use it until now.  By the time my grandson had a little brother he was too old for a panel like this!

The quilt top is nowhere near as somber as it appears in this next photo.  The border prints are quite bright and cheerful.  I had in mind to add applique letters spelling out big brother's name on the back (not yet made) but now I'm considering adding them across the bottom of the front.  We'll see when I get the pieces cut out.  

Little brother's baby quilt top was completed a day ago, and the back finished up last night. No photos of the back as everything is packed up to go to the church for layering and pinning Wednesday morning.

Colors are a bit off in this first photo.  A bit better in the next two.

As soon as these are finished and in the mail (by the end of July?!) I'll be starting yet another baby quilt, the next one for a church family. Thankfully, I'll have until the end of September to get that one finished!

That's a wrap for tonight!  Hope you are all recovering from last week's sweltering heat dome!  The lower temps and humidity were most welcome this morning for sure!

Two Friday Finishes

 I don't think I've ever posted a first finish for the year this late, but life just moves slower the older we are. Anyway, earlier this week I finished this little doll quilt made of leftover sashing pieces from a camp donation quilt a few years ago.

The backing came from a donated piece of fabric that was once the beginning of a shirt for a young child, and the binding from the ministry bins.  My friendly giraffe will accompany the quilt to its new home on Sunday, when it is given to a little girl in our congregation.  

And, finally, finally, the Circus Animal baby/toddler quilt is a finish!  

My file indicates that this was started in 2021.  I chose to hand quilt this one, such happy blocks how could I resist.  Unfortunately I chose to use up an older (no label) piece of cotton batting that turned out to be a bear to needle.  Had to work on it in short stints, with several other larger quilts being finished up in the meantime.  By the time the last block was quilted, there was no way I wanted to continue hand quilting all the sashings, so earlier this week the Janome came to the rescue with serpentine stitches and last night the binding was completed.  Still, I'm so happy to have put in the effort to hand quilt the blocks since this is such a bright, cheerful quilt.

It may be a bit easier to see the quilting from the back.

This quilt will be saved in the blanket chest for a future great-grandchild, and I hope to have a couple more added to the pile before they are needed a few years from now.  

In the meantime I'll be concentrating on finishing up Bramble Blooms 1 before Audrey posts the starting prompt for the second quilt in the series.   Meaning, of course, I'll need to figure out and actually make the blocks for the second border before the end of the month.

We are still having snow showers every half hour or so, and hoping the skies clear for the eclipse.  We'll be staying home for the event, figuring it wouldn't be worth facing all the traffic to get to a place of totality.  Where we are located it should be about 99 percent - good enough for me!

Enjoy your weekend!

When the back becomes the front ...

 Great-grandgirl's quilt is finished at last, I'm happy to say.  A bit of angst in the making, but I think it has turned out all right in the end.  Here is the original front of the quilt after quilting:

I have to say when the top was complete I hated it.  Totally meh.  But there was hope in the remaining fabrics I'd selected for the back, and with a few additions from the scrap pile, and  careful placement and pinning of the layers I was able to turn the back into the new front!

Way more fun, don't you think?  Quilted very simply following the  lines of the blocks of the original front.  Done and dusted and awaiting baby's arrival in the fall.

Then in other quilty news, my version of Vintage Spin is a top!  This was totally fun in the making, and I'm thinking of making another using my tote of batik fabrics, if my eyes begin to cooperate again.  Been having some real issues, doctor's appt. next week and hoping for a resolution.  Right now I'm typing with one eye closed since the two eyes are not syncing at all and much blurriness and tearing much of the time.  Pressing onward, here's Vintage Spin:

I found this large print fabric in the totes, which is just quirky enough to become the major part of the backing for this quilt, I hope!  

This is surely a vintage fabric, thin but still sturdy enough for a backing.  It measures 38 inches wide.  There is only a little over 1-1/2 yards so will need to be bordered.  I'd love to know more about this fabric's origin and age if anyone out there has any ideas.  Here's another photo with the selvedge label.  I tried googling the name but only came up with totally irrelevant responses.

I'll close for now, hopefully back soon.  Keep smiling, keep stitching, and enjoy the rest of our summer months!  The temperature dropped to 44 degrees early this morning, a rather ominous sign for the first week of August!