finished

All done!  And hanging in my kitchen.

I took the quilt outside for pictures but the sun is much too bright to get a good one.  While I was out there I looked around in our garden and found these…

Our tomatoes and green peppers are loving all that good sunshine. 

One of my favorite things of summer…fresh tomatoes from our own garden.  I’m getting excited!

Log Cabin Star Quilt

 

These log cabin blocks have been the “star” of my sewing room lately…

 

Only two more rows to go…

 

…and then I can get back to my neglected little houses again.

enjoying summer

My total house count to date is 234.  Only 18 houses this past month… oops…  good thing I was already ahead.  I promise I’m still hanging in there to the finish.

 

But who can blame me… I have been a little side tracked spending time with these two… and the rest of the family.  Our summer has been pretty full so far.

 

 

And I also got a little distracted with a new project.  I saw a log cabin quilt on page 47 of the latest Quilt Sampler magazine (Broken Star Log Cabin) and I was smitten.  Now the house blocks have to share sewing time with my new log cabin blocks.  These will finish at 4 1/2”.

 

Oh, and I’m not the only one who’s been busy …  I spied these while visiting at my mother-in-law’s home.  This huge vase holds almost 500 yo-yo’s!  They are awesome to look at and my granddaughter calls them flowers.  I just had to share them with you. 

for my daughter

I came across this old candle holder and it seemed to call out to me,

“Make me into a pincushion!” 

So I did.

As a gift for my daughter…

with love.

 

And thanks so much to Kathy for the lovely pincushion pattern. 

thought I’d give it a try

I’ve long admired Natalie Jo’s blog, Picalilli Days.  She makes the most beautiful pincushions and this year she was so generous to run a tutorial on how we could make one of our own. 

So I tried it. 

It was fun but it wasn’t easy. 

I really like my little girl pincushion

but it’s probably the only one I’ll ever make.

Besides a wonderful talent, Natalie Jo has a lot of patience.  I admire her skills even more now.

learning to sew

 

This kid’s going to be a quilter…

 

 

I can tell already.

Welcome to my house

While working on all these little houses, I decided to have my own house be the large center block.  It was soooo fun to try to replicate my house! 

Now I just love “living” among all these nifty neighbors.  After all, who wouldn’t want to live next door to a funny giraffe or a pincushion or a pretty rainbow.

But mine is not just a house…it’s a home…through and through.  Lots of memories here.  This is where my children grew up.  See that rose bush by the front door?  Mr. Sunshine and I spent a lot of time finding just the right one and planted it when it was tiny.  Now it is taller than me.  This spring we chopped 15 feet off the top of that cherry tree by the side of the house.  It was huge!  And from this view you can’t see the maple tree behind it, but I can feel it there…it’s the one my kids spent summers climbing.

Now the hunt is on for just the right “couple” to fussy cut for the front window.  The ones to represent Mr. Sunshine and myself.  It will be an interesting challenge to see what I can come up with.  What better excuse to pour through all the fabric shops I can find.

This quilt is becoming a labor of love.

A Few of My Favorite Things

interesting people:

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sewing, of course:

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bugs…but only the cute kind:

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pretty flowers:

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and other fun things:

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a trip to the zoo:

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precious children:

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and funny pets:

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My report for April: 216 houses finished (whew!)…

…and still having fun… 

…can you tell?

stash busting

The scrap bins were overloaded (once again) and driving me nuts so I took the cutter to them and chopped up a whole bunch of 2 1/2” squares.  About 2,000 of them!

 

Then I went looking for an idea for what to do with them all and found this 100 patch quilt by Deanna.  Perfect!  I went right to work on it.  My squares are a little bigger so my blocks finish at 29”.  Two blocks are done…10 more to go.  It’s enjoyable because each little piece has a memory of a past project.

 

Still have plenty of scraps but at least I can close the drawers now.

 

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…and, BTW, we had a nice Easter.  We all get together for breakfast.  The guys are in charge of cooking it.  Then the kiddies are stripped down to diapers and let loose with the dye.  And the tiniest one really liked his new Easter bibs.  That makes me feel happy.  What a fun day!

Counting

8 baby bibs

I needed 2 bibs for Easter but these were so fun and quick that I ended up with 6 more than that!  Thanks to Jaime at Sew She Sews for the great tutorial.

5 Blessing Blocks

I finished the Temecula Quilt Co. quilt-along.

1 pouch for my key chain.

156 house blocks.

This is my March report.  Only 210 left to go.  I think I might just make it.

Last, but not least, look who else is counting.

To 13!

A sweet two year old...aka my granddaughter.

window peeping

The postman delivered some exciting mail to my door …

from Pokey!

and from Raewyn!

 

We traded “windows” for the little houses we’ve been building. 

It’s true what Pokey says:

It was very fun!  Thanks!

Good Times

Just what kids need for a fun evening at grandma and grandpa’s house… a few quilts to make a tent, some sweet snacks and a flashlight for each of them.  The combination makes for lots of happy giggles.

And wonderful memories for grandma and grandpa about when their own little girls did the same thing… in the same room.

Life is good isn’t it.