Other Things on the Homefront

I have been busy with other things besides quilting stuff in the Quilt Studio. I am making jelly roll skirts for my grand daughters.

This is Aurora and she picked out all the fabrics for her skirt. She is so happy.

She really wanted the bottom fabric because it looks like flames. She likes the bright and unusual and has asked for this fabric ever since she first saw it last year.

Sophia and Liliya have chosen their fabrics and now I need to get busy to cut and sew them up.

My garden is growing very tall. At least the tomato plants are. They are as tall as me.

Of course I am not very tall, 5' 5" but I have gotten the first tomato off of these plants and it was wonderful!

I have also picked the first acorn squash off this plant.

This plant looks pretty good even though it is right up next to the air conditioner.

I hope this squash is ripe. It looks like it is but time will tell.

Well, enough for this week.

Last Saturday in July-Red

Well, the summer is flying by. It is now the last Saturday in July and I have almost finished my Craftsy blocks in red.

This first one I hand stitched it to the background and now all I have left is the circle in the center.

This block I stitched around by machine but will hand stitch the center circle and then I will have them both done by tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I will be linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today and the Slow Sunday Stitching tomorrow.

I am Back Again

I have been absent again. We have been vacationing again or I should say we had a family reunion on the 4th of July and was out of internet reach.
I was able to do some things in the Quilt Studio the week before the 4th but wasn't in town to blog about it on the week end.
We had a wonderful time up American Fork canyon and enjoyed the beautiful camp site with all of our children and grand children but one family that could not come up from Texas. We had 18 of our 21 grand children in attendance. They had fun swimming in the very cold river and also fishing in the same river. Our group site was located isolated away from other campers and so all the kids could wander around and we didn't have to worry about even the little ones getting run over by any cars. Fun! Fun! Fun!
I have been very busy working on the color red this month. This is a great time to work on my red and white quilt that has been languishing in the stash room for over a year. I have decided this is a perfect time to put this top together and have it completed by the end of the month.
I had all my red fabric tied up in making this quilt and so I wanted to free them up for all my blocks I have going for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
This is what my design wall looks like this week as I am putting the red and white quilt together.

These are the blocks I have completed so far this month.

This was my set up for the string blocks.

These are the string blocks I have done. There are 10 blocks along with the 2 1/2 by 6 1/2 leftovers.

I have also completed my 9-patches. There are 10 of these also.

I have yet to make my Craftsy blocks and will show them later but I have also completed many of the green 9-patch blocks as leader enders. Here they are.

I will be linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today. Please click here to see all the lovely projects that everyone is working on.

Vacation and Panquitch Quilt Walk

We have been gone on a vacation and this was the first time I have been to the Panquitch, UT Quilt Walk. I signed up for one class, an applique class, and I have learned quite a bit.

This is the bronz statue for the Quilt Walk. To see a video of the reason for the Quilt Walk you can click here. It is an inspiring story of those early pioneers.

I took this class in order to learn a new method of applique because I have not been happy with my applique work in the past. I have done machine applique and have done one project with needle turned hearts. I have not been pleased with the results.

Here are some pictures of my progress.

This is a picture of the block along with my set up.

Here I have 3/4 of the work glued on the background fabric and I have started stitching.

This picture shows the second layer to the large flower.

This is a close up of one of the 4 flowers that I have completed. I have all the stems and leaves done also.

This was my start for the bias stems.

This shows how the teacher had us make the bias tape needed for the stems. She had us place 2 large pins spaced just over 1/4 inch from where the pin went into and out of the ironing board. The two pins are an inch apart. I threaded the tape folded in thirds under the two pins and laid the iron on top and gentley pulled the tape thru as I folded the fabric before going thruugh the pins.

This is the other side of the iron with the finished tape. I have enough bias tape for a whole quilt worth of stems.

I am linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching today. Be sure to hop over and check out all the hand stitching going on today.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge-Yellow

I have been able to finish my blocks for June. Yeah! I have two blocks to show from my Craftsy class.

 This block is the Greek Cross .

This block is the Octogon.

I have also made three more of my green 9-patches as leader enders while making these blocks.

I will be linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today. Hop on over and check out what others are working on.

Design Wall

I put up some string blocks today on my design wall. I have been working on these string blocks since last summer and today I decided that maybe I better see how many I needed for a twin size quilt.

I have 27 sets of 2 over the amount I will need for this quilt. I will just continue making these string blocks for a future quilt.

Here is how it will look. I have all the sashings cut and ready to go.

The corner stones are blue plaids and strips. The sashings are all different dark blues.

This quilt is a great example of using up all my scraps. I am using all pr- cut squares and strips for the corner stones and the sashings. I feel real good about getting these old fabrics into a quilt.

School is Out - Summer is Here

School is out and summer has began. The kids are all excited about all the summer things to do. I have 5 grand children that live with us and they are so enjoying their time this week since school got out last week.

I have been able to work a very small amount of time in the Quilt Studio this past week and I have a few things to show for it.

These are my yellow string blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.

When I cut the string blocks down I had some left over that I decided I could not throw away so now I have these. They are 6 1/2 by 2 1/2. I haven't decided where they are going but I am sure something will come to mind when it comes time to put the string blocks together at the end of the year.

These are my 9-patches. I have made 10.

I have also completed another one of these blocks. I have 4 more to go. These blocks will be a Quilt of Valor quilt.

I have a few more of the green 9-patches done this week. I have over 60 9-patches made now.

I plan to link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week. Many are working on some very nice projects. Click here to see all the wonderful projects going on this month.