July Stitch Along Post

I can not believe that we are more than halfway through July already. At the end of June I had almost finished the fronds on the palm trees.

 Despite being away for a week. I can now say that those fronds are filled in and I have started working on some of the pretty sky below them.

 This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

256 blocks completed!

Yes, you read that right. I have finally finished piecing all 256 blocks for the Log Cabin star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline) that I am making for my daughter. This is what my second floor landing looked like this morning.

 I laid out two of the borders and the center 4 blocks first and then started playing around with all the other blocks. I came up with a few options. My daughter likes this one...

and this one:

Personally, I think the corner stars will get lost on the sides of the bed.

She asked me to tweak the one below for another option which I will work on Sunday. She wants to see what it would look like with the stripes repeated from the outer stars to the corners instead of the repeat of the center. It's funny, I had set that up, but never took a photo. Darn. 

I sent her this one from the internet as another option. 

This is too busy for my taste.

The reason I was able to get all the blocks pieced is because it has been too darn hot to do much else during the day. Hubby and I visited the local beach and walked the boardwalk one night. On Friday, the heat and humidity finally broke a little bit and we were able to visit the local county park, walk the pathway near the water and look out over the bay. It was low tide and a bit smelly though. We didn't sit all that long. 

You can see the Jones Beach water tower and theater in the distance below.

I have also spent a little time working on the gingerbread man ornament. I am getting ready to add the green buttons.

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Another finish!

I have finished Overall Sam! Before we went on our California trip, I managed to finish the quilting. This week I looked to see if I had any of the red fabrics from the appliques to use as binding on this quilt. There was just enough of one of them to make the binding. This is all that was left of the red fabric once the binding was attached.

 I made a label and have been sitting in the evenings stitching the binding to the back. I love this quilt. 

I may still want to add another button for the upper left Sam to hold and maybe a hanging sleeve, but I am declaring this quilt finished! 

I did say that I would show you a few photos of our California trip. We were visiting our son, DIL and grandson from the first to the sixth. The weather was sunny and warm while we were there. We all visited the Birch Aquarium one day. This is a fairly small aquarium, but it was perfect for a short outing with a 13 month old. He enjoyed looking at the fish with Grandpa.

There were penguins to see.

This was the view from a little patio area where our grandson ate his lunch. The adults ate later when we returned home.

Our grandson also went to the local kiddie park for the first time and got to have a dip in the pool with his dad at their apartment complex for the first time while we were there.

It is a really pretty pool area. 

We had a wonderful time.

On the 5+ hour plane rides to and from CA, I spent a little time working on this Prairie School Santa. It was a small, easy project to travel with. I made good progress on Santa's coat. There is a lot more red stitching to be done.

Now that July is here, I have started on the two ornaments I want to make for my grandchildren. I had to sort the floss (black is missing) as well as the sequins and beads. I cut out the gingerbread man first and have a small start. 

I have also been working on the Log Cabin Star quilt for my daughter. I am happy to say that all 28 of the "W" border blocks have been completed. 

Next I am working on the 28 "X" blocks. I have the first log sewn together. These blocks are very similar to the "W" blocks except the long and short green logs are reversed. I hope to have them completed by the end of next week. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Anniversary

Hubby and I are celebrating our 39th anniversary today. Weren't we cute? 

We just returned home last night from a week in California visiting our son, daughter-in-law and grandson. No photos yet. 

Since we were traveling across the country, I needed a craft to work on during the trip. When I wrote this post....before we left...I had yet to decide whether I should bring a small whole cloth quilting project. Only one thread to deal with, but a 16.5" by 16.5" pattern. 

Believe it or not, this photo is after I gave it a good, dry ironing. The pattern is water solulable so I can't steam it. 

My other option is to work on a Prairie Schooler Santa cross-stitch project. I'm planning on stitching the top one with the quilt. I think this was probably what I choose to travel with.

I had started on the border blocks of the Log Cabin Star (Judy Martin's Timberline) quilt before we left. Each block has seven logs and each log has two pieces. These do not sew up as quickly as I had hoped. I decided to work on all 28 of the "W" block at once to ensure that all the fabrics are random. 

Since this phote was taken, I have added that fifth log to all 28 blocks.

We are now in the month of July, so it is time to start working on my grandchildren's ornaments. I will be making two of the felt ornaments in this kit.

I think the gingerbread man and house will be made this year. Or maybe the candy cane instead of the house. I haven't decided yet. 

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Second June Stitch Along Update

After several days of no air conditioning on our second floor, it was finally fixed on Tuesday. I sit on the second floor landing, in front of a large window, when working on Three Boats. It has great light and I can place the lap stand on the loveseat to work on my stitching. 

 Needless to say, it was way too warm up there to work on Three Boats for any length of time. This is where I was with my stitching three weeks ago. 

I tried to make up for the lost stitching time this week and added quite a bit of stitching since Tuesday. Of course I was able to stitch in the week before the A/C went out. I like my progress so far. The fronds on the palm tree on the left are almost finished.

I hope to be able to finish this page by the end of July. I think that should be easily doable. 

This Stitch along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. We are welcoming Helen back after a brief break.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Two finishes

What a week this has been. First, we finally got the central A/C for the 2nd floor fixed on Tuesday morning. It turns out that the on/off electrical control switch within the unit was corroded and had blown apart. Thank goodness it didn't go on fire. It was a quick 15 minute fix and all is well now. 

On Wednesday night there was another thing that broke....the water main in the street in front of our next door neighbor's house. A man walking his child in a stroller stopped to inform us that there was a small river of water flowing into the drain in front of our house and coming up through our street. Hubby contacted the local water district and they came immediately to assess the situation. Work started within the hour, but then had to stop due to a hour of thunderstorms coming through. 

Our water was turned off for about 3 hours or so. Work was completed around 11pm. The hole is filled, but the road still has to be repaved. It has collapsed a little around the repair site as of today.

I do have two finishes! Several of you guessed that my crochet project was a little lamb. Isn't it adorable.

It has been given to my friend to pass on to her infant grandson. Those books you see in the background were my own children's board books from 30+ years ago. They are nice to have when the grandkids come to visit.

I also finished Pumpkin House. 

I have ironed it since this photo. I think I will make it into a small pillow.

Hubby and I took a break on Thursday and drove to the North Fork of Long Island to enjoy lunch at a local vineyard - Terre Vite Winery & Vineyard. There was a pretty patio with a great view of the vineyard. 

Hubby had a glass of chardonnay and the Caprese panini. I enjoyed a glass of the Mercato Red Blend and The Figgy panini. 

The weather was beautiful and the food and wine were delicious. 

I have a bunch more flowers in bloom now. My coneflower is putting on a show.

The lavender is in all in bloom with the butterfly bush behind it soon to follow.

The hydrangeas are flowering also. One pink/purple....

and two blue.

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

This and that

 Last week's blog post was written early in the week as our daughter and granddaughter were visiting from Wednesday to Sunday. There was absolutely no crafting completed during those days. We went to the local park and to the LI Children's Museum. There was a Thomas the Tank Engine room, music room, bubble room, and more. Outside there was even a sand area that our granddaughter enjoyed digging in.

We had a whole lot of fun together the whole week.

This week I have slowly gotten back to crafting. I am still working on Pumpkin House. I have completed part of the top border and am working on filling in the final motifs.

Can you guess what this may be? I have been working on it on and off for several weeks and now just have to assemble it.

I will post what it is when it is completed.

I have now finished quilting six of the nine Overall Sam blocks. I am still looking for a couple of novelty buttons to put in his hands. I have a baseball and a pencil. I wanted a watering can, but all those that I have found have the orientation backwards from what I need. 

You are probably wondering if I have finished the 21 Log Cabin Star blocks. I am happy to say that they are all done.

Now that they are completed, there are still 60 more blocks to be completed for the borders. 

 

Since I had to refill the bobbin when I finished the last Log Cabin block, I decided to change the thread to black and sew a couple of sample snowball blocks.

I have had this soccer ball fabric for ages. Our school district's colors were red and black and both my kids were on the school soccer teams. I made water bottle covers with this fabric. I think it is perfect for the I-spy quilts. If anyone has any tips on making snowball blocks please leave a comment. I can see these are going to take some time also as they are made with four small black blocks attached to a 3 1/2 in block and then trimmed. I need 120 of them for each I-spy quilt. 

I have been spending a good deal of time at my sewing machine in our basement as our second floor central AC unit stopped working on Thursday and repairs will not be until Tuesday. The basement is nice and cool. Our first floor AC unit is working fine so that is cool also. It is just where the bedrooms are that is quite warm. Thankfully the temps have dropped to the 70s at night and we have scrounged up a box fan and oscillating fan for our bedroom. It also has a ceiling fan so we have been able to sleep decently at night.  It got to 89 degrees here on Friday. We are glad that we aren't having the 90+ temps that most of the Northeast is experiencing. 

My daylilies are blooming.

So is this pretty yellow tiger lily.

Well that is all now for the weekly overview. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!