Summer is in full swing and it has been like camp here the past week! Various family members have made the trek up and enjoyed the amenities for a few days each. We have the lake, an archery range, fireworks, grill outs, and, of course, the Craft Cabin!
Two birthdays were celebrated and the requisite Maine Lobster made an appearance.
I christened myself “Camp Director,” and took my job to provide the sleeping accommodations and camp food very seriously. Then after setting the stage, I just enjoyed stepping back and watching the play unfold. The principal actors are now my adult kids. I’m very happy to just play a supporting role-- it allowed the time to sneak up to the Craft Cabin for a few minutes here and there!
After vowing not to buy anything ever again, I realized I am "forced" to buy things to finish up the UFO list... it’s funny how that works, isn’t it? These items showed up in my mailbox while the festivities rolled on.
This is the finishing kit for the “Peach Preserves” project in the June Sew Sampler box along with a serious amount of yardage of Fig Tree fabric for a backing. Fig Tree fabrics are gorgeous-- it was totally irksome to get this 1-1/2” wide honeybun for the pattern which is then cut up into even smaller pieces and doesn’t showcase the prints at all.
It sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m really loving this project. The box included this diamond ruler which is a shape I don’t use frequently and it’s been a nice change. I really had to scant my 1/4” seam to get the right width, but now that I have that figured out, it’s been fun to produce these pieces-- we need 130 of them! All of the troublemaking pinked edges are trimmed off. Now that the company is gone, I’m hoping to advance this project quickly.
I also bought some fabric to make my Liberty box quilt. The finishing kit quickly sold out, but Fat Quarter Shop had other recommended fabrics to use. I’m not a big fan of panels, so this quilt is just getting the Marden’s special $6.99/yd backing, whenever I get down there again. I mean to look up if this would be big enough to donate to Quilts of Valor-- mostly I'm interested to practice free motion quilting on it with my newly reset longarm-- it's not a "keeper" in my eyes.
And finally, it stinks, but I was also forced to buy another Lori Holt stitch cards set to qualify for free shipping. hehe.
And wait! There’s even more happy mail! Three of my quilts came back from the long armer. Haberdashery and Dulce got the “Grandmas Roses’ pattern--
And this-- I LOVE-- my chatterbox got diamonds-- this quilt is just perfection. My favorite finish of 2024 so far.
So there’s quite a bit of hand binding to get done. I'm envisioning lots of rocking chair time on the porch this month.
There’s also two new starts-- because, WHY NOT?
I have missed out on the past couple years of Fat Quarter Shop’s FREE Halloween and Christmas projects because of our move. My last one was “Bats and Boos” which I loved-- this is the one that sadly was ripped off my longarm in the course of moving, but which I have now unearthed, like a mummy from its tomb, and is ready to go right back on! I loved making this thing, just with my own stash.
This year, Fat Quarter Shop is doing the free stitch-a-longs early-- we obviously all need time we can get to finish them, and the lazy days of summer are perfect. So July is "Christmas in July," so I’m going to try to keep up with “The Star of Wonder” cross stitch and quilt this month-- they had me at ‘STAR'! Release One came out on Monday.
The cross stitch seems very easy to keep up with-- I already finished my border. Oh, there are few things as satisfying as when you round that last side of a border and it matches up with where you started! I can’t help but thinking at this time of year this cross stitch would also work in red, white, and blue.
Today, I cut first Star of Wonder quilt block and hope to make it over the next few nights-- it is a beauty. Be sure to follow along with me in July and see how it progresses-- it it completely free, and you can use your own stash to make it.
Here are the links for the first part of the cross stitch and quilt patterns.
So that’s about it for the last ten days-- all the campers have now headed for home to nurse their mosquito bites and sunburns and for their own respective Fourth of July’s. I’m really looking forward to getting back to setting up my sewing space and settling in for a nice relaxing summer. Mr. SFO wants to see fireworks tonight and so do I-- as long as I can see them from the front porch!
You've made a lot of progress, even with company in and out. Love your finishes!! XOXO Dottie
ReplyDeleteYour Craft Cabin is glorious!!
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