Under the Needle: June

 DH was away for 2 days at the first of the month and I spent much of it in my sewing room. I dug into my Tend the Earth quilt project and made 462 hsts. 288 went into this quilt top

And the other 174 are trimmed and ready for a 2nd quilt once I settle on a pattern. I love the versatility of hsts.

Later in the month, I spent some time cutting batting scraps and flannel down for a western rag quilt

 and stitched all the pieces together

I made the blocks and pieced it into a quilt and I am currently snipping the fringe...a little each morning before I tie into the day.

Earlier this year I pulled my bin of flannels and comitted to using them up. I posted about that project HERE. The rag quilt is one of the 6.

My favorite sewing assistant spent some time creating and designing one day

And together we got some stitches under her belt

We made a happy pillowcase

I also felt inspired to make a quilt to commemorate America's 250th birthday and it was fun to dig through my stash of old reds and blues and neutrals to make these blocks

I finished this flannel froggy quilt last week

And I put the last stitch into my 2nd camping quilt

I hope ya'll are having as much fun working on projects as I am!

Road Trip

 Wednesday morning DH and I loaded up and headed to Texas. We had a flat about 4 hours in, as we rolled through the little farming town of Tahoka, and pulled into an old school tire shop where they put a boot in the tire. DH has fixed hundreds of tires through the years, but this was awfully convenient and we like supporting these small businesses. 

Then we rolled on to spend a little time with his little brother. He and his wife recently moved and the boys spent some time going over some things.

Early onset Alzheimer's is a heartbreaking disease.

Then on Thursday, DH and I drove 2 hours to exchange our beehive. DH peeked in ours and could not see a queen and the place he bought it from, said they would exchange his for a new hive. Our original hive is thriving. 

Our girl met us there

 and took me back to OK for a few days. She recently took up crochet so I suggested we stop at a yarn shop in McKinney before heading back to her house

It was fun to treat her to an early birthday gift. The yarn shop is also a quilt shop, but I didn't need anything. We stopped and enjoyed a fabulous lunch 

here

And our shared love for books found us perusing pages here.

And then we drove another 90 minutes to get the best hug ever from this little charmer

Signing off for now. We're off on a bug hunt!

Leap Frog Flannel Quilt

Earlier this spring I dug into my flannel bin, determined to clean it out and get the 15-30 year old fabric into quilts. I posted about the project HERE.

This is the first of those quilts...Leap Frog

The tan, speckled fabric isn't flannel, it's cotton, but it was perfect so I just threw it in.

Such a simple design - no pattern - I just tried to make the best use out of what I had. It finishes at 56" x 68".

I DID buy the Minky for the back though

Those frogs are absolutely delighted to have escaped into the wild after so many years and I'm fairly certain that it will accompany a particular little grandson on many adventures although June is not the best time of the year to cuddle with flannel. I'll save it for his birthday in November.

A Peek into Monday

 Soccer camp was a huge success

This little tike loved it!

She was super focused

At 8 in the morning, the mountain air is cool and crisp and perfect for learning the fundamentals

(I edited people and a big 18-wheeler out of these pictures so that's why these photos have a watermark about being AI generated. Not a fan of AI.)

I think someone is going to be disappointed when the week ends, but for now she is soaking it in

Well done little all-star!

My sister-in-law and I made a good team for the rest of the day. Someone is bound to ask about all the pie birds. My MIL has collected them for years and what you see is only half of them...there are just as many on the other side of the kitchen. They are cute, but get sticky.   We were tuckered out and practically melted, but my in-laws' house is now in pretty good shape. We tackled everything from windows to baseboards and bathrooms to pie birds and we managed to do it without being pruned from the family tree. 😉

The rest of the week promises to be filled with adventure so I'm going to channel my inner spring chicken and forage for the special moments that lie ahead. 

Father's Day Fish Fry

 We did this last year so I guess it's now a family tradition. So greatful each and every day for these amazing dads in our lives.

It warms my heart to have a house full of family. Fried fish, hush puppies, corn on the cob, okra, and cole slaw were on the menu

I had good help in the kitchen

Not the healthiest menu so I put out broccoli and carrots to tip the scale a bit. 😄 And radishes from the garden

Cherry Cheesecake Lush for the win.

I wish I had taken more pictures, but I got busy. Today I'm off to watch our granddaughter play soccer. She's 5. This should be interesting. 😁And then I'll go to my inlaws' and help my sister-in-law clean their house. They keep it 88-90 degrees inside so we're preparing to melt and we may fight over who gets to clean the outside of the windows just to escape the stiffling air inside. Wish us luck. 😉

Found in My Sewing Room

 

The sneaky artist strikes again. 😂🥰 

Wild Spaces

 The other day I popped online to look at a quilt pattern. This was not it, but this cute one popped up

I instantly felt claustrophobic and like I was on the verge of hyperventilating. 😂

What a great scrappy quilt, but if you've been a long- time visitor at the end of the dirt road, you know that I am somewhat of a hermit. We live in the middle of nowhere for a reason. I regularly avoid town and I function best in wild spaces.

But my instant reaction to a photo of a quilt made me chuckle. I'm eager to make this one though.

I didn't order the kit, but I did order the pattern. I'm pretty sure that I will discover a variety of treasures in my quilt pantry that will be perfect for this.

And this one is still calling my name.

America 250 Quilt Project

 This quilt 

has been on my list since I first saw it in this book

And I thought it would be fitting to make it in patriotic colors as America celebrates 250 years so I pulled out this bin. 

There are a lot of cutting instructions and I'm starting with scraps and small pieces of well seasoned yardage so this is going to be a labor of love

I'm also going to leave the stars 1/2 blue, leave the low volumes, and make the rest in scrappy reds so there will be a bit more to sort than if I were just making it completely scrappy.

I'm off to a slow start, but I'm hoping I can find a good rythm once I get a few pieces under my belt. After 2 days, I had 3 blocks made

I've still got a lot of cutting to do, but I like where this is headed. Unless I drop everything, this is not going to be finished in July...maybe Labor Day, if I don't get sidetracked. Don't hold your breath. 😉

Love You S'more x 2 Quilt Finish

 Raising our family, we never had much money. We had enough and we were richly blessed in so many ways, but we never had extra and we were pretty frugal with what we DID have. Plus it was almost impossible to leave the ranch as it was just us taking care of things and we couldn't leave everything unattended. So we didn't take vacations, but we fished on the ranch

We swam on the ranch

And we camped on the ranch

Now that we recently 'retired' from ranch management and moved to the mountains, we want to continue those traditions with the grandkids.

When I stumbled upon a crazy deal for Love You S'more Layer Cakes for $10 and FQ bundles for $30, I knew I needed camping quilts. LOL

Last year I made this one as I thought the little hst flying geese looked like tents

And then, in January, the FQS posted about this Scattered Stars pattern and I knew that would be my 2nd camping quilt.

I down-sized the blocks to 10 1/2" in order to make the best use of the fabric I had and made 1 test block

I loved it and stitched every chance I got for a week. I reached a point where I began to second guess my decision to down-size the blocks. SO many little flippy corners!

I had cut too many of the little black squares and figured I'd use them in the star centers to make them more prevalent. I like the original design and will make it at some point, but for this project, I liked the variation.

42 blocks gave me a 60" x 70" quilt. Enough room to grow into, but not too big to haul on a camping trip. I'm tickled with how this one turned out

Sandy quilted a design called One Cloudy Day on it

I backed it with a print from the collection that I found on a good sale and bound it with a green Grunge from my stash.

I'm looking forward to breaking them both in this summer.