Hot, Hot, Hot!

Like most of the country KC is in the throes of a heat wave. I am so ready for autumn! Not much sewing this week. DH had surgery for removal of his left thyroid and drainage of his right one. The surgery went well. The final pathology report did show microscopic cancer cells but the surgeon is certain he got all of it. We are hopeful.

I did get this little tomato block done for the Farmer's Market quilt we are doing on Pat Sloan's Yahoo group. Such fun! I love to go to local farmers markets. There is always such yummy fresh produce and lots of nifty little things to see, like homemade crafts and kittens in boxes. I especially like them in the fall (did I mention I am ready for autumn???) with all the gourds and pumpkins and Indian corn and bittersweet bunches. Bring it on!

In A Bind

Spent a morning recently making binding for the three quilts. I always manage to make way too much LOL --and I even measure! But it is okay to have some leftover for craft projects. Aren't toilet tissue rolls just the handiest for rolling the binding onto! They kinda look like flying saucers from this angle...

Done Done: Two donation quilts for Quilts in Force and Scrapbag Explosion!

It was a busy weekend trying to get these UFOs all finished and out of the sewing room. I must, must, must tidy up the area. It is so hard to concentrate when there are things piled everywhere--especially things that should be done and out the door!

Next up for finishing: Twelve Days of Christmas and Chocolates & Cherries. It still won't be a completely clean slate, but getting close. Sometimes UFOs don't bother me and other times they drive me up the wall. This is one of those "other times"!

Monday Miscellaneous

I worked on pinbasting much of the weekend. Here is one quilt that now has the walking foot grid quilting done and is ready for the freemotion. Scary. This quilt will go to our guild's Quilts in Force (quilts that are donated to the local police forces to distribute to children in traumatic situations, often domestic violence.) It is suggested we donate at least two a year to the cause. I have one with teddies almost done and this one will hopefully be finished in the next week.


I found this backing fabric with the flying cats and dogs on sale at Hancocks and just loved it. I went through my stash to find some coordinating novelties. Hopefully it will be loved by some little person. And, thankfully, little persons aren't too picky about freemotion quilting!
One of my longterm goals has been to improve my freemotion quilting. I know I need to practice, practice, practice!!! One book that has really been helpful is Pat Sloan's new book. I probably have 7 or 8 other books on machine quilting, but this one has been the best so far. In addition to the book, Pat has been offering tips on her blog since early July. I've been printing those off and keeping them alongside the machine. I love Pat's down-to-earth machine quilting--well, quilting in general. She gives such practical tips. And I especially like her no-mark quilting suggestions. I have always hated marking my quilts and have had a couple of bad experiences with some marking tools that were "guaranteed" to wash out.

On Saturday my LQS had a little Christmas in July thang! Kits for ornaments and pins could be purchased. Since I was looking for some handwork to do while my husband has a thyroidectomy next week (I am always a nervous wreck in such situations), I purchased two cute stitchery kits and a yoyo wreath ornament kit. Will be so cute when done! And I couldn't resist the Thimbleberries charm packs, Mr. Halloween's Party--I bought two! I would love to have a Halloween wallhanging for the dining room. I'll look for a pattern--or maybe devise one. I have quite a bit of other H fabric so hopefully some of it will "fit in" with this. Oh, dear, more projects.

The Kindness of Blogfriends

What a lovely surprise landed in my mailbox yesterday afternoon! From Finn came this adorable piece of vintage fabric and 2 little quilty hearts! The fabric is 36" from selvage to selvage so you know it is old!!! And kitties and yarn??? Two of my favorite things. It will probably be too hard to cut into it though!

And wanna see some more eye candy? Hop over to Libby's blog and look at that gorgeous box of wool roving. And, of course, I'm gonna have to order some.

This morning I am pinbasting three quilts (well, if my back holds out that long!) so hopefully next week I'll have something quilty to post. I am"forcing" my DH to take me to see Hairspray later today LOL! Love to see John Travolta dance.

Have a terrific weekend, blogfriends!

Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Remember Scrapbag Explosion, my fun little 2" squares playtime guy? Well, he was in queue to be sandwiched and pinbasted when he started talking to me. "Hey," he says, "I'm not done. Give me more!!!!" Not being one to ignore talking quilts, I drug out the little plastic drawers full of 2" squares and started playing around on the design wall. I'm not sure how these new borders will eventually end up, but it did give me an excuse to do that mindless chain-piecing that I am so fond of!!!! Of course, there is one small problem. I have just a bitty-bitty amount of the tan solid left in my stash. This may entail a shopping trip.....

For a walk down memory lane, go on over to Knot Garden's blog and look at her wonderful hollyhock photo! Made me remember making hollyhock dolls with a friend's two darling girls about 25 years ago. I did a little googling to see if I could remember how we did that. Thank you, Denver Channel! The directions are here for making these adorable dollies:

Aren't these fun?

Kansas City is getting some much needed rain today. I was getting tired already of the hose-dragging routine. And I'm sure the tomatoes will enjoy it.