Here I am, almost missing another week of blog, but truth be told, my last minute outdoor projects have sucked up a lot of time with not a lot of sewing happening. I think yesterday was our last day of summer... we had temperatures in the 80s for quite a few days, but this morning it is blissfully cool-- I needed a jacket to go out and feed my chickens. I am starting to really look forward to snugging in for long winter's sew.
There's always something to talk about, and this is what I have accomplished in the past ten days:
The Moda Love Layer Cake quilt is finished. It doesn't look finished here, but photography has also gone by the wayside! I cannot recommend this pattern enough-- it is FREE-- and it is just one HUGE quilt block-- the same amount of sewing you would do for a 12" block. The HSTs are HUGE-- I have had the thought that you could take any of your basic HST block patterns and make them HUGE with these 10" layers cakes and come up with a quick quilt. I noticed in Lori Holt's upcoming book, she has some HUGE churn dash block quilts and HUGE Ohio Star blocks. They are super modern looking. Consider HUGENESS for new, quick project. Just pick a favorite quilt block.
The Moda Love quilt is for a wedding at the end of October-- I'm hoping to load it to the longarm tonight. If you are fond of Apps on your iPad-- get Procreate for $9.99-- you can take a picture of your quilt and audition quilting ideas right over it, if you have the Apple Pen! I want to do something quick for this-- I'm practicing drawing leaves and flowers in triangle shapes. (This couple loves nature.) I can't wait to do it-- I am just in love with my beautiful Innova right now.
I also took pictures of my sixteen, beautiful patriotic basket blocks and cut them out so I could just lay them out on my cutting mat and arrange them. These blocks are HUGE-- (a theme here, lately) at 16" finished. It's based on the Summer Memories quilt by Susan Ache, except bigger. heehee. Way too big to lay out on a design wall if I even had one. So this is the layout and I really want to finish this up. It's too HUGE for my long arm, 100" x 100," but could I do it in two pieces and then sew them together, like a giant quilt as you go? Or just send it to my longarm person and do allover flowers for the win. I clearly need to sew it together before any of those things can happen.
Then I pulled out my Dungeness Crab piece. I made this embroidery design, seriously years ago, when we were in San Fran and loved it so much, I designed a small quilt. I checked, and I have blogged about finishing it more than once! So I'd love to have a large and small quilt in next year's Maine Quilt Show and I'd love to wrap this up and have it be the small entry. I left extensive notes on what I wanted to do, yay!, including sewing tiny little seed beads in for some sand texture. And the fabrics are all still together. Is this the year? I hope so.
In farm news, the DD and I have canned more that 100 jars of stuff from the garden. We are novice gardeners-- the whole thing got totally out of control and there are tomatoes of all kinds, everywhere. My father--in-law, the Civil War buff, used to call the ones that just sprouted up from year's past "volunteers." Well, we could have put together an entire army based on all the varieties that raised their hands. DD thinks we have to use every one of them, as in "no tomato left behind," but this is what we get about every third day:
Can you hear "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" ringing in your ears? We had a big argument over which would be faster: whether to continue making sauce, or just throw them in the jars whole. I won, and into the jars they went. We can make sauce out of them this winter. The hot spell has been of no help in slowing things down and the battle rages on.
Next up--apple picking. Fun, but I now have a peck of apples to deal with!
You are SO productive - definitely a great way to get a good night's sleep. Looking forward to the BEAUTIFUL new table runner - it's ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!! XOXO Dottie
ReplyDeleteIt’s Cheryl 😁 you’ve got me ready! I love the new table runner. The large quilt block has caught my eye. Oh how I remember tomatoes from the garden, which we really can’t do anymore, since they ripen after we go south…lack of sun. Have fun, enjoy your nights of solid sleeping.
ReplyDeleteOh my, those tomatoes are fabulous! I didn't grow any this year since I was at our Arizona home (versus the Texas house where my garden is) for the summer. But we are blessed with an organization called Borderlands Produce Rescue: they 'rescue' produce that is not selected for sale at stores or restaurants and distribute over 70 pounds for a $15 donation. They never know exactly what they'll get, but they have gotten LOTS of tomatoes (and squash, eggplant, watermelons, bell peppers, and SO much more). Sometimes we have to cut out soft spots or they might look ugly, but for the price it's well worth it (otherwise the produce would be sent to the landfill). They provide a lot to local food banks as well. Anyway, we have many pounds of tomatoes 'put up' for the winter - my current favorite way to prepare them is fire roasted (done in the oven) and then frozen. We can pull out a few at a time for beans, pasta, pizza, or whatever and the flavor is out of this world! I usually eat several right out of the oven, they're so good. Not much sewing progress for me still - we've been working on some big house projects at the Arizona house (termites, yuck!; plumbing, landscaping, etc) so it's at least not an unproductive summer altogether, lol. I am a warm weather girl for sure, but I'm ready for our pleasant fall temps - warm days, and cool nights. I love those fall designs - looking forward to seeing how you put them together :-)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, what a full post. Where to begin? I'll start with your tomatoes I think. We have not had much luck growing them, so I am so envious of your crop! Not so envious of the big canning job ahead of you though! There is nothing so lovely as tomatoes from the garden. We have a guy named Fast Eddie near us who grows fabulous tomatoes and opens up a stand to sell them on Saturdays. For us, that works! Your humonguous layer cake quilt is amazing. When I first saw it, I thought "Oh, what a cool table topper", um, I had the scale all wrong obviously! Next, your Summer Memories basket quilt is going to be incredible. What a marvelous idea to take a picture of your blocks and play around with the layout the way you have done. My version of that quilt is at the quilter's now and I am so excited to have it back to use on my bed next summer. You have inspired me to get back into my sewing room today. I have had a few days out of town, and have also been dealing with a sore hand, so I've taken time off from quilting. Time to get back to it!
ReplyDeleteNice stitches.
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