Big Book Summer Challenge Progress and More.

I could not remember if I had quilted my last Mourning Crosses quilt (made with bits of my Dad's clothing) so I searched my blog and saw that I never posted it finished, but I it was finished and in my cabinet.  So here it is.  

For my "Christmas through the Year" challenge to myself, I made two more stockings to go to Norway to my honorary daughter Rachel's new step children.  Made both with leftover bits and love the one on the left so much I do not want to send it!

These are all my books read in June.  Twenty-four.  My favorites "I Must Betray You,: "Passing," "The Sun Does Shine," and "The Hidden Girl"  A True Story of the Holocaust."  

My big book summer challenge hosted by Suzan at the Book by Book blog is going well. Apparently, I like big books because according to my StoryGraph these are all over 400 pages and read since the start of summer.  Really enjoyed "Young Mungo" and "Persuasion" the most of these.  I did my first official Buddy Read with Sandy from Ms. Reads Alot on Youtube and we had such a great discussion on Voxer.  We read "The Robber Bride" and the first two thirds of it was amazing and then the end just fell off the tracks.  Very disappointing, ack! 

 

Three Quilt Finishes, a Clue and some Reading!

Pine Tree Point made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge made its way to Arizona to Melissa who quilted it (and the B2 quilt) in a jif and mailed it back to me!  I love how both quilts came out.  This one is for my daughter and her hubby.  It is quilted with stars.  Linking up!

We got our little tree up last weekend and so far the cats and Hazel are leaving it be.

I managed to get clue 3 done for R Trail.  Pretty happy with it so far.  Clue four is out and I just made one test block which turned out great, but no energy to cut all the parts for it...we have over a week for this clue though so no worries.

I finally finished up my Mourning Crosses quilt with my Dad's shirt pieces.  I made three others for family and just never got to mine.  Luckily I quilt better now than I did then, so this one has baptist fans all over it.

I stuffed and sewed up both Hazel's H is for Happy pillows for her baby dolls, but tucked one away before getting a picture.

My book secret Santa sent me this book and I have read the first couple stories.  Strange!

Here is the BQ2 quilt I made for Rachel and Bryan.  It is quilted with flames.  They will love it!

Had a doctor's appointment for bloodwork (they are testing me for Lyme) on Thursday so since Kathy took the day off to use up her PTO, we stopped at a Goodwill nearby.  I found these books, yay!

Finished this one this morning.  I enjoyed it, but will not plan to read the sequel.  

This was the latest Once Upon a Book Club selection.  I did not really like it.  It is about a cop shooting a black boy and tried to get to you see both sides I guess.  Just too close to home and not at all "entertaining" though an important topic.  I cancelled my membership since it is expensive and I mostly resell the boxes after (though several have not sold).  I am still getting the Halloween box (shipping issues) and the special Christmas box that I ordered, but after that will only get a few here and there or used.

I listened to this book and really enjoyed it!  
 Hazel is signing and saying words like crazy now!  She is starting to put two together.  Her latest signs were TIGER, STAR, COW...she also is waving at me for attention which is super cute!

A Winner and a few flimsies!

Decided to make the Red Button Quilt Co. freebie this month--Welcome May.  I do not have much wool and wanted this to be colorful so with the current budget I went with what I had.  I pulled out my bag of already backed with sticky stuff and cut what I could from that.  I had to make brown but otherwise this was already in the bag!  I also pulled out hst's from my bin that were the right size and did a bit of squaring up where needed.  That made this project go fairly quickly!

Next up, figuring out how to quilt it.  

I also cut out a bunch of fish from felt that I had.  I am planning to make some fish beanbags, etc. for Hazel and Saxon for Christmas.
 

I also FINALLY got around to making Crosses Mourning for me from my Dad's clothes.  I made three of these and sent them to my sister, Margie and my Uncle Jim not long after my Dad died.  I always planned to get around to making myself one and even saved some of the border fabric to do it.  Now to quilt it...I think I had Ros quilt the others, I would have to look back at my blog but I am going to do this one.  I also put some of Limbania's fabric in here and some of the civil war prints are June's.  We lost touch awhile back and she moved to Oregon.  I looked her up a few days ago and discovered that she died in November 2018.  She was a great sewing buddy and I am super sad that I did not even know she passed away.  Her ashes were brought back to Mesa and she was placed near her hubby Herve....we drove past there not long before we left and waved at Herve but I had no idea that June was there too.  

I only had two folks who commented to win my mini quilt so I rolled a dice and got a 1, so my first commenter THE JOYFUL QUILTER is the winner!  Send me your address and I will get it out!  

Arizona Sunshine goes to Minnesota!

Here is my Uncle Jim (my Dad's brother) in Minnesota.  I sent him some Arizona Sunshine in the form of a "Flock of Triangles" quilt this week and he like it.  I made this quilt two summers ago and couldn't part with it...sometimes the right person or reason comes along and then my heart just tells me where it needs to go.  My Uncle is going through some health stuff and we are praying for his speedy recovery and all of the sudden I knew this sunshine quilt needed to go to him!  All that worked out well since I finally got the "Mourning Crosses" memory quilts sent off to him, Margie and well my sister's is still in my car!  His is backed with camping fabric because we went to Canada--the Boundary Waters with him and my Dad and my cousins several times as kids.  I should try to find those pictures and scan them in.  The four of us girls (Me, Carla, Tina and Tricia by age)  always had so much fun and have so many memories of those days with our Dad's.  My cousin Brian didn't come along until later so I never got to go with him...now he is all grown up with two daughters of his own!

 Bonnie motivated me (on webcam) so I did get the backings done for two quilts (CJ's and a Schnibble from two months ago) and Kathy helped me cut the Bread and Butter "Jelly Stars" mini that I bought at the quilt show...two years ago I think it is now.  I did some pinning...

Then I sewed up these four blocks for it.  I started on the stars, but we had a tiny cutting error that affects each star so I may need to do some recutting.  Oh well, won't be the last time I am sure.  At least it saw some progress!  

Both Kathy and I are incredibly tired tonight so it is time to climb into bed and watch TV for a bit.  So glad I don't work til 10:30 tomorrow.  I didn't get enough sleep last night, that is for sure.  

Weekend So Far...

After work Friday Kathy, Bug and I drove north to spend the day with mom for her birthday.  We got pedicures again (usually I wait more than three weeks, but it is fun to go with mom!) and then we met a few of my mom's friends for drinks and eventually met up with my dad and sister and more friends to dance at the Station.  I had never been there, but the band was pretty good and it was nice to see some of mom and (step) dad's friends again.  We spent the night and dad made us all breakfast and then we headed home.  On the way up there we stopped off at Olde World Quilt Shoppe and I bought the only three double pinks they had for Hawaii Sunset 1848.  I also couldn't resist the fabric with the anchors on it..it was on clearance (along with four others from that line--I made a Schnibble in it awhile back) and I thought it would make a good background for a QOV down the line.  

 On the way home we stopped at the rug store that has fabric for 2.99 a yard to see what they had.  This pictures isn't so great, but I got one yard each of two light fabrics and two yards of the one with the blue flowers...thought it looked like a shirting and would wind up in a Bonnie Hunter quilt.  All for under ten bucks, yay.  Notice I didn't tell you the total for the earlier purchase, lol.

 I could hardly wait to get home to start working on the bindings for the quilts that Joanne quilted (over at http://insanelycheapquilting.blogspot.com/ ) which came in the mail the end of last week.  I am SO excited to get all three of my Dad's memory quilts (Mourning Crosses Quilts) all bound and labeled and in the boxes to be mailed!  WHOOT.  This first one is for my Uncle Jim in Minnesota.  He is going through some medical stuff right now and so the timing of this couldn't be better.  I also decided to send him my yellow Flock of Triangles quilt that I made the beginning of the summer two summers ago.  It is the quilt I was making when DJ and several other Deaf people were staying at my house (long before we got together) and it has alot of sentimental value for me for some reason...it was also the quilt that almost hung in the quilt show the first Christmas DJ and I were together and so I have resisted getting rid of it.  I decided my uncle needs a blanket of sunshine because he is truly the light of our family.  My Dad was a better Dad because of him and his unwavering faith has been an influence in my life.  I hope it helps heal him and lifts his spirits.  For this I can let it go :)

 The back of his quilt has a camping theme and is one I bought just after my dad died in the Trego quilt shop.  My Uncle Jim and Dad took me, my sister and my cousins, Carla and Tricia to the Boundary Waters several times when we were kids and we have so many good memories from those trips.  Learning to dig a trench (in the rain since us girls didn't think we really needed one) while our Dads watched from their own two man tent was one of the highlights.  They let us set our tent up on a hill with a slight incline once and we rolled downhill and kept taking turns being at the bottom of the tent all night too.  So anyway, that is how I decided on his backing fabric.

 This one is Margie's.  She is a serious flamingo collector and so that and bits of one of my Dad's shirts is on the back of her quilt.  So this little quilt is soon on its way to Spooner or Trego--wherever Margie decides to hang it.

 This one is for my sister.  Next trip North I will pass it one to her.  I love that the pocket is there from one of Dad's shirts and know my sister will love that too!

Here are all three of the labels, they are now all handsewn on too.  You can see the camping fabric a bit in this picture.  I used some of the leftovers to make a bow tie too.

 Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll is also quilted...still needs binding (the only one that didn't get done in the box of six completed quilts!).  Just had to add a picture of it though.

 I also did the binding for Kathy's NYE Mystery.  We used the backing fabric for binding and it looks great. Not sure, but this may wind up being a Christmas gift for Kathy's niece Ayla.

 Here is Lincoln Schnibbles all quilted and bound.  This one will be a Christmas gift for someone.  I really like this one, but I have a red, white and blue one already so may have to part with this one!

 Here are the four boxes and Rachel's baby gift to go to Norway (still needs a box, but this one also got a label).  One of these boxes has Kathy's Irish themed mystery quilt for her dad.  She actually sewed her own label (dog) on too.  Her dad is in ICU in Mass. so hoping this quilty hug comforts him.  There is a Monday trip to the post office here!  So happy to be able to truly cross so many close finishes off my list!

I managed to make one bow tie block...have a whole stack of the little bow ties just waiting to become another row...if I get to sew tomorrow that is what I am shooting for.  August is almost over...where does the time go?  

Tomorrow we are supposed to go to a Hunger Games movie party with some fun friends.  Is it awful that I almost just want to stay home and sew?  I think it just recharges my batteries in a way nothing else does.  Kind of crazy, but right now I live to quilt!

Three Mourning Crosses Flimsies are Done!

Didn't have much sewing time all week or today and I have been fighting a migraine...not to mention I suddenly am hearing a weird noise (sounds almost like a super windy day in my right ear) which is apparently tinnitus (usually I get ringing which is far more tolerable than this noise) and may well drive me insane. LOL. Getting old is getting to me! It could be a side effect of one of my long term migraine meds so I am going to have to look into that.

Anyway will be sewing at Ros' tomorrow with her and BJ and whoever shows up from the Huggy Bunch! I already packed up Orca Bay since that is what Judy pulled for UFO's..so much for letting that baby get dusty!

Mourning Crosses No. 1 is a Flimsy

The border fabric I ordered for the three Mourning Crosses quilts arrived today. So after a long day of work and twenty minutes on my bike (I am trying) I cut some and sewed one together just to see how it looked. I like it!

In other news the Schnibbles for this month is I.S.T.H and my Small Quilt Group on Yahoo is doing Broken Dishes for February. Add to that Judy pulled Number one for the UFO...and wouldn't you know it, that is my Orca Bay. Dangit I don't know how all this is going to happen this SHORT month, lol. I am going to give it a go, but maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew here!

Can't wait to get started, but I better get to bed...working in about 8 hours..ugh!

A Little of This...A Little of That!

Randy gave me this audiobook for Christmas so I have been listening to it while I sew (un

less DJ is hanging with me and then we were watching Firefly). The story is alright but not great. Good thing Randy doesn't read my blog, lol.

I started out by finishing up the Mourning Crosses quilts. I wanted to get three made for sure and I accomplished that! They all need the last outer border which I ordered from Thousands of Bolts last night. Can't wait to see how it looks on these! For the second and third quilts I put my Dad's shirts in a cross pattern...second block in the tow and bottom row and the first and third block in the middle row.

So that is what three of them look like so far. I can't wait to finish them up and send them out.

Made and attached a border to Lil' Twister Valentine too. And I cut and made my bow tie blocks with my Dad's shirt fabric too! The golf block and the plaid next to it are really from the quilt I made him...the leftovers pieces of fabric I had from that. But all of it reminds me of Dad.

While digging around in the flannel bin I again came across a bunch of these blocks sewn into long rows by the kids (about ten years ago) and decided to pull some apart and turn it into a doggy size quilt. No sense in it sitting in the bin any longer.

And decided to jump on one more bandwagon...Christmas Through the Year. This is the first thing I made for it. Two dolly buntings (I made about four or five of these and gifted them last year, so here are two more for this year!) are ready for Christmas. Feels good to get a jump on it! I just hope I can keep it up each month!
Back to work tomorrow, but a little bit of this and a little bit of that meant A LOT got done today!