July Recap - Quilts, Bucilla Felt Kits, Cross Stitch, New Granddaughter and a Grizzly

 July has been a busy month. 

Some rain and quilting crept into my summer gardening schedule.

I had a daytime, 3-day retreat at my local quilt shop with my Material Girls group. Several of us really enjoy this type of retreat where we can go home in the evenings and sleep in our own beds but leave all our stuff in the classroom of the quilt shop for the three or four days of our retreat. 

I very often start a retreat by finishing a project...most often adding borders. For this retreat I wanted to work on one new project so before the retreat I finished up two UFOs claiming space on my sewing table. I did mention there was rain...no sun to call me outside.

"I Believe In," probably looks very familiar to you if you have been quilting for the last 15 years. I started this in 2013 while we were living in Paris. It's a design from Nancy Halvorsen and she re-released one of her previous Christmas fabric lines in May.

I used the fusible web method for the applique and machine stitched the edges with a blanket stitch in black thread.

When I was sewing the blocks together I realized I had missed blanket stitching around the inner edge of an "a."

So glad I caught that!

My next finish is so much more eye catching in person. I named it, "Blue Alaska," and it will be for my grandson. The first grandchild has several quilts from me but my other grandkids haven't gotten any! My quilting priority is to fix that dismal fact.

This was a very fun project that is a, 3-Yard quilt from the design team, Fabric Café. They have several books  with eight quilt designs made with one-yard of three different fabrics. This pattern is, "Enchanting," from the book, "The Magic of 3-Yard Quilts." It's a good book with several other designs I would like to make.

With two more tops added to the the "To Be Quilted," pile it was time to start a brand new project! I bought this kit from Shabby Fabrics a couple of years ago which features a digitally printed panel, Dragonfly Dreams.

It was a challenging design with lots of points to match. But I stayed on task and only had the last border to add which I quickly did at home. This is destined for one of my granddaughters. 

Every New Year I start a dimensional kit from Bucilla from my extensive stash. This year it was Santa's Ark. It was super challenging making the ark.

As always...the kits are always so much prettier when done than the kit photo.

My four-year-old granddaughter kept me on task...always checking on my progress when she came to our house.

After finishing that enormous project I picked a quick project. A set of Christmas Cookie ornaments. All the tops are done...just have to add the backing pieces. 

I'm still loving my cross stitch projects. I think it took me a couple of weeks to finish Liberty Sam. As usual...the final finishing is probably the hardest part and I haven't tackled that step. There is a companion piece, "Lady Liberty," I have kitted up and ready to stitch so I will probably wait to finish the two together.

 

Back to the Noah's Ark theme...I have two more sets of animals done for a cross stitch ornament series.

The llamas.

 I just love how the designer has a "fabric design" look to her animals.

A plaid hippo. So cute!

I was blessed with my fourth grandchild just a couple of days ago, Hannah Jane. This is my son Zack's third daughter. I love it so much that he has three girls! 

Zack is a fighter pilot in the Air Force and when I was newly married to my fighter pilot husband there was an article in a science magazine that addressed a statistic that fighter pilots had more daughters than sons and it was believed the pulling of  Gs affected the sperm to create this outcome. We had two boys...didn't happen in our case. And I did have a few little girl dresses smocked in anticipation of having girls. Some friends in the squadron got those dresses for their daughters. 

I had a very brief but big critter visit a couple of weeks ago. I was sewing in my basement studio when I got a text from a neighbor two doors away...grizzly headed my way. I looked up from my sewing machine and there he was...walking quickly through my back yard. Both my dogs were napping in the studio so I quietly opened my basement door...with iPhone in hand and managed to get a photo!!!

The black fencing is the dog run off my sewing room door. The dogs woke up pretty quickly...barking like crazy from the smell but bear had already disappeared into the woods. The neighbor on my backside is new and sits on 22 acres. I need to get their phone number one of these days.

It’s All About the Garden

 June was a very agreeable month for weather. I spent the majority of my time outside. I did manage to finish a quilt and even had a garden location perfect for taking a photo.

The quilt pattern is, "Duet," from Villa Rosa Designs. Finished  size is 55 x 74-inches. Creeping thyme is making it's way up my rock slope. About nine years of growth to get two feet of rock covered.

The rest of this post will be garden photos and will mostly serve as a little journal for my future reference. 

The stars of my perennial beds are the eight Blue Himalayan Poppies that are split between two beds.

The were the third plant to pop into bloom this year.

They've been blooming for a little over two weeks so far.

I have at least two poppy plants that look like they need to be divided! I need to find a good location for those new plants. Not sure if I will get them divided this year.

The next big bloomer in my garden this year was creeping thyme. I've planted a lot of thyme over the years. 

It's such a slow process...

I've got a lot of rocks to cover. Though only two areas in my garden where the thyme is really covering rocks.

Here's a close up of the thyme flowers/

Another good creeping plant is Soapwort. I have had some success starting a new plant from cuttings. Perennial shopping in our area is a little challenging. You find a plant that works and then you never see it again at the local nurseries.

This orange plant, Fire Storm Geum was a risky perennial I bought at Lowes and it has survived for seven years! I had three but one didn't make it through the first winter. 

And a local favorite....irises!

I also have some miniature irises in a tub...they just don't bloom long enough!

I almost didn't plant Blue on the Mountain, below. Beautiful plant but it is ginormous and quickly takes over an area. 

I feel like perennials that do well in my area are mostly purples and blues. Love it when I can find other colors to add to the beds. I bought these yellow and pink columbines at the end of the season a couple of years ago. They are so fun!

I also bought these Coral Bells in the color "Firefly," at the end of last year's planting season. I was so excited to see they made it through the winter and are thriving.

I am most excited this hedge-like shrub looks so great. When I bought it last year it just looked like a stick in a pot. I searched all over the area for this plant, a honeysuckle that will thrive here. This is Arnold Red Honeysuckle. It has pretty berry colored flowers. The shrub is supposed to get 10 x 10 feet! I put it on our property edge to create a little privacy hedge...I planted two of them. 

I suppose that's enough plant photos for one post. 

No recent critter photos, except my three next to me as we spend the day inside.

Much needed rain has arrived.

Summer has Arrived

It finally feels warm outside…no coat required! It was a cloudy and chilly spring. I did not plant my garden until June 2nd.  That’s one week later than I have ever planted and two weeks later than I usually plant. I was in good company with friends who were also late getting started due to the chilly temps.

The chilly weather helped me get a quilt finished. This quilt is 69 x 87-inches

I was waiting for some nice weather to snap an outdoor photo. The pattern is, “Tapestry,” designed by Tamarinis. Two new techniques with this quilt. I machine stitched all of the binding...no hand stitching. And I am now concentrating on less intense quilting designs. 

A fun pattern. I would make it again.

I had never worked with Kaffe Fassett fabrics and after attending the quilt show in Houston last fall I was inspired to work with his fabric. I work almost exclusively with batiks so I didn’t like the loose weave of this fabric. I learned I should starch these fabrics heavily in the future.

I’m about halfway through quilting a second quilt with Kaffe fabrics.

In May I attended a. 3-day quilt retreat at my local quilt shop. I am preferring this style of retreat…a lot of fun and much less time prepping compared to the retreats at a B&B. I like sleeping in my own bed and the quilt shop is only 15 minutes away from my house. 

On day one, I finished stitching blocks together to complete, ‘Weekend Fun,” a free pattern from Connecting Threads. It takes 21 fat quarters. I had a set of 20 fat quarters and easily found a fat quarter in my stash to make it 21. Here is the link to the pattern.

The next two days I worked on making blocks for three quilts I am planning for my granddaughters.

I’m designing as I go on this project. I finished the 27 blocks that I need for the three quilts.

In the evenings I have mainly been cross stitching. I am working on using my left hand more. 

These shamrock patterns are a free series I found on Pinterest. I’m stitching them on 14-count Aida. I think there are 10 patterns in the series. I am only planning to stitch two more. Right now I think I will finish them as little pillows with the green mini pom pom trim. Mindless stitching is always good to end the day. 

I'm getting a nice little selection of spring displays. I was waiting on a bright green pom pom trim and love how it looks around the Scattered Eggs piece. It's my first flat fold finish and I will be make more of these. Easy to display and store.

I’m so happy I have been feeling better. I had an MRI on my neck which confirmed the obvious…my body is aging. I’m thankful for no bad surprises from the MRI but my project laden mind is frustrated I am going to have to slow down. 

Just a little note about healthcare. I am 62, not eligible for Medicare. My husband is retired from the Air Force Reserve and the main reason he stayed in 20 years was the healthcare benefit, Tricare. I am so glad we have this option…which is the least expensive option right now. Most of my doctors take Tricare…but Tricare does not cover Chiropractic treatment. Bummer! When my symptoms were lingering we decided I should get an MRI. I was able to use the hospital on Elmendorf Air Force Base. I had to wait three weeks for my appointment but my chiropractor said he had a patient who was on a two-week wait list with several civilian imaging places….seems MRIs are in great demand right now. Anyway…when my chiropractor got the results he mentioned to me it was one of the most detail results he had ever seen. Sometimes the military medical system gets a bad rap but we have had a good experience.

Back to the fun stuff. 

It is gardening season!!! I am so thrilled I have invested a lot of time…and money…into lots of perennial plantings. Despite my slowdown in activity…my plants look great and flowers are starting to bloom.

I planted this Blue Moon Woodland Phlox two summers ago. This is the first year it has bloomed.

Love the color! The flowers are about 18-inches tall. 

These bright pink flowers are a rock garden plant, Rockcress. These flowers are only four or five inches tall.

It has been thriving for years and is the first plant to bloom every year. 

It obviously loves this little niche where it gets full sun.

We kicked off the garden season with a hose bib pipe break…which flooded down the ceiling  beams of my sewing room!!! Lots of drama for a few hours but no damage once everything was cleaned up and fans were blowing for a couple of days. It’s one way to get that spring cleaning done.

Critter photos! This moose was here on May 12...when plants were just starting to grow after all the snow had melted.

If you look closely you can see his antlers budding on his head

A couple of days ago I chased a black bear out of my garage. Hard to tell from a photo but it was a pretty good sized black bear. He was happy to leave quickly.