Quilts in my Garden

We've had a record breaking July...cloudy weather...cool temperatures and rain....too much!

The sun finally arrived the last few days of July and the first few days of August. 

I knew the sunny days were limited so I tried to get photos of all my finished quilts and a few garden photos.

My absolute favorite quilt is a scrappy one I made from a mystery block challenge we did in my Material Girls retreat group in 2022. 

No fancy quilt name for it...yet.

 The star block was the mystery part...

after we made the stars we had to decide how to finish the block into a quilt. 

I have some beautiful deep purple delphiniums that look great with this quilt.

I did a scrappy binding. The quilt measures 70 x 89-inches.

I used a King Tut thread called Egyptian Princess which has variegated deep pinks and plums. 

The edge-to-edge quilting design is Flower Whirl by Christie Dillon. 

I love these delphiniums so much...

I can't have too many of these gorgeous purples. This year it was hard to find a nice selection of perennials in local nurseries...I wanted more delphiniums.

My next finish is also a quilt that reminds me of my garden. The pattern," Lotus," is from Jaybird Quilts using the Hex N More ruler. This is a pattern we did in the Breakfast Club in 2018! Yipes! 

I made this quilt from my stash with the intention of using is on my couch. Impossible to get the colors to come out accurately in a photo...it is more subtle in it's coloring. I named this quilt, "Flowers on the Couch." It measures 69 x 90-inches. 

I stitched the edge to edge design, Mountain Meadows by Christie Dillon with King Tut thread in the color, Splendid. I mostly quilt with batik fabrics and learned ball point needles are recommended. So far the ball point needles are working great. No tension issues. All of the quilts in this post have an 80/20, single layer of batting.

 I'm going to jump back to the first flower to bloom in my garden every year, my woodland phlox. This plant is so happy...it has outgrown its space! 

And of course...my absolute favorite flower is...Himalayan Blue Poppy.

 Also one of the first flowers to bloom every year.

While I was taking photos a dragonfly was buzzing around...

Back to quilts! 

Below are two quilts that were my first finished on my new Amara 20, 

 The larger one I call, "Dragonflies on the Mountain." 

The pattern is, "Himalayan Pink," by Madison Cottage Design, 

another Breakfast Club project...from 2016!!! 

The pattern uses the Creative Grids 60 degree triangle. 

The batiks were a line from Moda Fabrics by Holly Taylor I absolutely love.

 The scraps were large chunks that I made into a mini quilt I call, "More on the Mountain."

 In Alaska...when a house has many additions added throughout the years...

it is affectionately referred to as...a More-on House.

"More on the Mountain," is 38 x 58-inches,

 "Dragonflies on the Mountain," is 69 x 70-inches.

My latest quilting finish is, "Liberty Starlets."

 Such a fun fat quarter pattern by Modernly Morgan. 

I used 20 fat quarters from Robert Kaufman fabrics called, "Liberty."

The quilting design is an edge to edge called, "Stars Across the Universe," by Christie Dillon.

 I love how the quilting looks like waves in the strips of color...

one of those serendipitous outcomes in quilting...

awesome!!!

"Liberty Starlets," measures 65 x 72-inches.

Now a little extended garden talk.

 One day early in the gardening season,

 I was watering a hanging basket when this gorgeous butterfly joined me.

 I rarely see butterflies here...I googled it and looks like a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail.

My newest flowerbed which was finished last summer, 

 I call Septic Hill.

 Yes...this mound is part of my septic drainage system. 

I was aiming for a red, white and blue theme this summer in my flower tubs 

which turned into

more like red, white and purple.

 I like it!

And very exciting news...I am the mother of many blue poppy babies!!!

 They are two years old...having survived their first winter. 

I moved two, into an open area in one of my well established flower beds.

But I had 14 babies to give new homes. 

The Material Girls were happy to take them at our retreat last week. 

I have so many perennials outgrowing their spaces...irises, trollius, spirea, blue poppies!!! 

So I weed-wacked a sunny area and laid down black plastic to kill all the weeds...lots of weeds. 

Another big project...I just can't help myself! 

Time for some critter talk.

Bears...so many bears. 

Below, this sub adult loves my neighbor's house. He visits so often.

 I was working in my yard when my dogs let me know he was there...

and I managed to get a few photos of him...

I guess it could be a her. 

The bear tried to climb the wooden post supporting their deck...

that's when I called the neighbors. 

They were out bike riding and getting ready to walk up the mountain to their house.

 They called another neighbor and got a ride up to their house.

 They used an air horn to scare away the bear...

then they also set off their house alarm...

it was a stubborn bear that didn't want to leave.

This black bear is pretty small...for a bear...

but when is gets bigger...like next summer...

it may turn into a real problem bear. 

Stay tuned.

Extremely scary to me is this grizzly family. 

This photo was taken by another resident on our mountain...

just about 100 yards from my house...about a week ago.

Look carefully. Three cubs. 

This is their second summer.

 So far no extreme encounters in the hood.

I have not been walking my dogs except around my yard this summer.

I do not want to encounter a mama grizzly.

 I have absolutely no confidence in bear spray or a gun if she's mad for me. 

Stitchy Projects

 I had some fun projects to sew for my grandkids in June. 

My granddaughters went on an Alaskan cruise with their mom's family in June. Maybe because we have long winters...there are many great quilt shops in Alaska. One of my DIL's cousins is a quilter so somehow all my granddaughters where in this amazing quilt shop in Skagway, Quilt Alaska, that has a ton of fantastic eye candy. 

I have ordered from Quilts Alaska several times. They have the best customer service. Emails answered quickly and packages shipped on the same day ordered. FYI, Skagway is a town that sprang up during the gold rush. 

I actually got a phone call from my son while they were all in the shop asking me if they could pick up something for me. I should have been better prepared...I knew there would be many quilt shops along the way where the cruise ship docked. There is a wonderful Alaska shop hop going on this summer but I decided not to partake this year...I already have several shop-hop tops I need to quilt. And the kits are always available that are designed by this year's artist.

With the help of my DIL's cousin, we decided the girls should pick out pillow case kits and doll kuspuk kits.

 Kuspuks are native Alaskans' version of a hoodie. In the warmer months the women make them in colorful cotton prints and often add trims.

Cuteness overload!

I'm missing a photo of one...it's at my granddaughter's house...on one of her favorite dolls. 

I made a third kuspuk from fabrics and rick rack in my stash for my youngest granddaughter who will be getting her American Girl doll at Christmas.

You know I love batiks...and I absolutely love Alaskan batiks. We have very talented quilters who work with Hoffman fabrics to come up with new batik prints every year. I had not seen the latest designs until I saw the pillowcase sets. I love them all so much! The all-blue pillow case is actually made from my stash of last year's batik release which is for my grandson who was not on the cruise...but he needed one too.

While everyone was away on the cruise, I  took a fun class on making Hemingway bags. I have enjoyed seeing others making them on blogs and Instagram and taking a class means I would get it done!

I had several pieces of quilted Soft and Stable leftover from bag projects that were perfect for this class.

Bonus...we made a mini bag from the scraps of the bag. 

I had enough fabric to make four bags of this fun quilt shop hop fabric.

My last stitchy finish to share is my latest Bucilla Advent Calendar.

My oldest granddaughter asked me how many advent kits I was going to make!!! I have one more advent kit in my stash...so I guess one more.

This kit is from 2011, "Must Be Santa Advent Calendar." 

This kit was very oddly constructed and I made a major change. The backing for the pockets was a piece of white interfacing...yuck! So I used red felt to sew to the bottom of the top section which I then stitched the pockets onto. The made red piece of felt long enough to back the bottom burgundy triangle piece. 

The kit included a piece of polyester quilt batting which I did use. I covered everything with yet another piece of red felt.

To hang it, I made a simple loop and secured it on the backside. This method of hanging has worked great for me over the years.

The set of 24 ornaments for the stocking were pretty simple.

Two of each design.

Someday I would like to make a pouch to store the  ornaments...

maybe a Hemingway bag in Christmas fabric!

Busy Summer...Just As I Like It

 I hardly know where to start. 

Summer months are always intense with little time to sleep.

June was a month spent mostly outside. There was a garden to plant, annual flowers to pot up and perennial beds to tend. I love it all.

There were a few rainy days so I did get a finished quilt! 

Sparklers on the 4th

As a bonus...you can see my viola and pansy tubs. 

This was my third quilt using my digital quilt design program on my Amara 20. It was a major leap in my ability to program a design and successfully execute it on my quilt top. 

The digital design is a freebie through Quilts of Valor, "Star Spangled Banner." I used a King Tut variegated thread, "Home of the Brave." The digital pattern is from Wildflower Quilting

The quilt pattern is a design from the duo, Me and My Sister Designs, " Slice of Cake, Slice 2." It is a layer cake design. Definitely beginner friendly. This would be so cute done in bright floral colors...also as light tones of blues and purples on a dark background like snowflakes...no more talk of snow.

I was so inspired by our country's 250th birthday. I remember the 200th birthday in 1976. There was a full year of commemoration. Special bicentennial design of the quarter. NBC had little historical segments...just a few minutes at the top of the hour...just a few memories of the year in celebration.

For three years I focused on patriotic cross stitch designs and I had a sweet little display this year. 

I devoted a couple of weeks to creating finished pieces from my stitching...lots of painting...I had no idea how long it would take me to paint all the pieces.

My oldest stitched piece was a Lori Holt design, "Stitchy Stars." I laced the piece using matboard as a the base and glued some mini pompom trim around the edge. It was then glued a the white board.

My next finishes were completed last year...what a relief they were already finished.

I detailed my finishing July 2025. Lizzie Kate designs, Liberty Sam and  Lady Liberty.

I next opted for some simpler, little designs. Stitching with the Housewives has many adorable patriotic designs and I hope to stitch some more. This is a series of roundabouts.

I used sticky board circles from the Fat Quarter shop to mount these little finishes. There is a layer of quilt batting behind the aida fabric.  I trimmed the stitched pieces and did a basting stitch to cinch up around the circle. Then glued the pompom trim.

I had several wooden pieces to use for mounting the circles.

I found simple stands on Etsy, MelsCrazyCraftCorner. I painted them with an acrylic paint.

I ordered the next two fancy pieces from Paisleys and Polka Dots

It took me a ridiculous amount of time to paint these stands.

They sure are cute!

Next was a cross stitch finish of a Mill Hill Jim Shore ornament kit, Patriotic Gnome.

I  love this finish. This little wooden frame is from Michaels. I painted it with several coats of red acrylic paint. Covered a piece of sticky board with a batik fabric from my stash and glued the gnome in place. 

My final finish was the fun cross stitch piece designed by OwlHouseStitching on Etsy.

I laced the piece to matboard. Glued the rick rack in place and glued the whole piece to a roughly finished wood piece purchased at Walmart.

Everything came together so sweetly.

I happened to find the cute wooden stars at the Target Dollar Spot.

And...one last quilting piece...top finished. Waiting for backing fabric to arrive.

Such a fun quilt. This is a fat quarter pattern, "Starlets," by Modernly Morgan. I made this at a quilt retreat the first week of June. I used a set of batik fat quarters, "Liberty," from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. The fat quarters were a release from a few years ago.

I will share gardening happenings in another post...but here are a few critter visits.

I went to sit at my sewing machine and noticed I had a visitor...

Munching on new growth...

he headed to the front yard...looks like he is trying to hide behind the tree.

There have been a lot of visits from black bears at my neighbor's house.

They had a birdhouse hanging on the eaves of their front porch...a big no no in bear country.

They found out all birdhouses...no matter where you mount them...are not safe from bears.