August Accomplishments....

Even though it was a crazy month for me, and I felt like I wasn't making any progress on my many projects, looking back I guess I didn't do too badly! 

My August UFO was finished the first week of the month. I realized that if I got it done, I could take it along to my Bonnie Hunter class for what she calls Show and Share. Easy Street was my August One Monthly Goal project. 

In my rush to get it finished (and because I didn't look forward to having a huge quilt on my lap in the August heat) I finished the binding with a blanket stitch rather than hand stitching it in place. 

Yes, I did the old standby super fast quilting.....Cinnamon Rolls! 

These are the three fabrics I pieced together for the back. I strategically placed the blue where I would be able to salvage most of it for later use--lol! 

I almost forgot about my Primitive Garden Facebook block until the middle of the month.  I wasn't sure I would have time to finish this one, so I planned to just ink in the words on the seed packet. The applique went pretty quickly, so I had plenty of time to do the embroidery. 

I worked really hard to hand piece and set in the half stars for the side edges of my Texas Star quilt. I wanted so badly to get this all together and it finally happened--yeehaw! 

And thanks to a very rainy weekend, I managed to hand piece the last corner of Border 10 on Mrs. Billings. Those corners were crazy! I'm soooo happy to have this round finished--on to the next one!!
I had thought to have time this month to work on my blocks from the Bonnie Hunter class and also to make a few more 4"x5" Anthology blocks, but there's always next month! 

No Green Thumb Needed

Here's something you don't know about me...at one time, long, long ago, I had over 100 houseplants that I was happily nurturing. Most of them were cacti, succulents or bromeliads, so it wasn't super labor intensive, but it still took up a lot of time. Eventually I developed other interests--like quilting!  One by one, all of my plants fell by the wayside until I had not even one plant left to water. 

That doesn't mean I don't like having some greenery around though! I love the look of the olive branches you see in so many Farmhouse style decor photos, so I was drawn to these olive trees from Commercial Silk--very life like with the silvery leaf backs and woody twigs.  

My first intent was to have them on the mantle (I've been looking for some greenery to put there forever!), but I think they get a bit lost against the brickwork.
(I confess, the clock hasn't been hung back up since day light saving time started--my bad!)  

So... I moved them to the dining room sideboard. Much better! 

You could literally spend hours on the  CommercialSilk.com site--and I did! I'm thinking that I may need to order some of the  outdoor plants or boxwood hedges because of my deer problems--lol! It would be pretty cool to surround my entire back deck for privacy too.
And, of course, I'm still thinking about that mantle.... 

The olive trees were provided to me by Commercial Silk in exchange for a review. 

   Check out Commercial Silk on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google

Quilting with Bonnie Hunter

I guess it's about time I posted a couple photos from my class with Bonnie Hunter before I forget that it even happened....

The night before the Jamestown Landing class, Bonnie did a lecture/trunk show. Afterwards, members of the audience showed their "Bonnie Hunter" quilts. It was really fun to see so many variations!
The best part of the day: my on-line friend Sandi Tundel and I met in person--finally! She kindly offered to pick me up at the hotel for dinner and the trunk show. It's been so funny to compare our interests as we both seem to have done, or plan to do, the same projects--even having read the same books. Turns out we drive the same make and model car--how crazy is that? 

This is a closeup of the Jamestown Landing quilt.
 I'm sure you can figure out why I wanted to take this class!

There were lots of Jamestown Landing variations--these are from just about everyone in class. We made string block units in the morning and broken dishes units in the afternoon. Then we put the units together into blocks. 

I loved this quilters block made from plaids.
I really need to start collecting old shirts! 

This is what I accomplished in class. I'm thinking I need to set this block aside and start making the string units with less contrasting fabrics. I'm worried they will detract from the design that the broken dishes segments make. I've only made about 15 of the string blocks, so it wouldn't be a big deal to set those aside for something else. What do you think?

I haven't accomplished much this week.
Not to overshare; I had a hard time bouncing back from a "medical procedure" I had on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll be back to "normal" soon. In the meantime, I'll be doing some stitching on the last Primitive Garden block before starting on the borders. This is the first time I've used my Apliquick tools I purchased at a quilt show in June. So far, so good. I especially like the glue stick!

Linking with Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

Dogs on Quilts

The Pets on Quilts parade has been going on for several years at Lily Pad Quilting. It's always so entertaining to see the photos of sweet critters on quilts. They aren't always dogs and cats like you would expect--that's part of the fun! 

In past years, I didn't have a pet to put on a quilt.
I never really thought about posing Kylie (who we adopted last September) on a quilt in anticipation of the parade, but it turns out that I do have several photos of her on them. She was my sewing room helper and it seems she loved quilts as much as I do. 

Any time a quilt was available for snuggling, she would be on it.
 Here she is avoiding eye contact, as she knew better than to be on that bed--lol! 

It didn't matter if  the pile of quilts wasn't folded to dog size, she would be on them anyway. 

Oh oh! Caught you again, you little stinker! 

Of course, now that we have lost her to illness, she would have free reign to be on that bed anytime she wanted.  

 See the parade HERE! 

An August UFO choice on a Slow Sewing Sunday!

I had a hard time deciding what I should choose to finish this month--unfortunately I have lots of options! 

Since I will be starting a new Bonnie Hunter top on Wednesday, I thought this may be a good month to finish Easy Street. I found that I had already made the binding (yay!) and had some backing fabrics chosen (but not sewn together--boo!). I think I can get away with an edge to edge design, so it should be a pretty simple finish.
I'm feeling a bit of trepidation on starting a new Bonnie Hunter project. It seems like most times I have an issue like I did HERE and HERE--lol!

I also seem to have another group of UFO's--or maybe ULO's (unlistened  objects). I've had a bunch of Audible books on my phone that I had purchased years ago. I've been trying to listen to them during my daily walks rather than finding something new. I really enjoyed The Snowman. The entire time I was listening, I was thinking how the story would make a great movie. I've just learned it is going to be a movie, released in October. This isn't the first Harry Hole mystery, and there were a few personal threads that probably overlap from the other HH books, but I don't think you need to have read the other books to enjoy this one. Now I want to read the rest of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books!  Anyway, if you liked the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, I think you would enjoy this one-it has that kind of feel.
 
Now I'm on to State of Wonder. It starts out in Minnesota but quickly shifts to  Brazil where it's hot, hot, hot.  Maybe not the best thing to be listening to when you are walking in humid summer heat--unlike The Snowman, set in Norway during the winter. I'm not too far into the book yet, but there are some very interesting characters and I'm intrigued.
You've probably read these books long ago, but if not, this was my two cents!

On the bus trip, I finished hand piecing the half stars that go along the vertical edges of my Texas Star quilt.

And I only have this one seam left to finish the top--yee-haw!!
If I knew how to do the Texas Two Step, I would be doing it--so excited to see this so close to the end! I think my Slow Stitching today will see this one done!

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE and 

Slow Sunday Stitching HERE