Under the Needle - June

I haven't been spending any time in the sewing room lately. It's either feast or famine around here when it comes to sewing. I could have sewn a little on Saturday, but I think I needed a day to recuperate from those 19 hour days last week and I really needed to scrub my stove and floors. However, Sunday found me stitching up some blocks. Our Quilt Squad group is making this quilt:

                                               

We had our monthly meeting on Saturday, but I didn't make it in. We're all making 13 blocks using 30's prints. Yes, that's an odd number, but that's how many members we have. Our Captain 😊 told me that some folks are making extra blocks and we will exchange them in August. I'll probably make a few more too. It'll be fun to see how we all set our blocks. I know for a fact that I'll not follow the original layout. Not that I don't like it - I just want to play around and see where that leads.
Blocks complete:

 On Tuesday I dug back into my Scrap Dance Waltz project bin.These were put on the back burner last year, but I had a hankering to play with these 30's prints again:

                                          

I've also needed to come up with a backing for my Buckaroo Plus Quilt. The only fabric I had enough of is pretty dark. It's the top fabric in the photo below:

                                           

I looked around online, but I really want to use something I have and an idea came to me as I was washing dishes yesterday. I'll still use the dark print, but I'm going to mix it up a bit. For now, all you get is chicken scratch, but I'm hoping it'll all pan out.

                                             

 I also made the binding and stitched it to the front of the Honey Man Quilt today and will work on getting it stitched to the back as soon as the temps fall below 110°:

                                              

And that's a wrap from my sewing room for the time being. I'm missing ya'lls comments! I sure hope Blogger finds a fix soon, but I'll still reply to your comments if I have your email.

January Stitching

OK...I THINK I am going to get to do a little stitching today.

A few years back, well actually, 2012 is more than a few years back... I participated in a Christmas through the year program through Darlene's blog, A Quilting Daze . Darlene doesn't blog anymore. I hope all is well in your neck of the woods, Darlene...you are missed. Each month we were to make 1 gift for Christmas and her cheerleading meant I had a box filled with handmade gifts come December. It was the BEST and I haven't done it since. I was visiting with a friend on the phone the other day and this subject came up. She too is a maker of beautiful things and she was stitching away on Christmas Eve. In an attempt to avoid the crunch this next December, I'm going to give this another go. This month I am going to finish stitching up lined drawstring bags that I didn't finish before Christmas:

Everyone loves the simplicity these add to gift wrapping, especially the men! I know many of you are DONE with all things Christmas, but I promise that this is worth investing in if you love to give hand made gifts come December.

I am also hoping to work on Bonnie Hunter's On Ringo Lake. I'm on step 2, buy hey, it's all about the journey and I'm just going to enjoy it and not worry about rushing through it.

Then there's a new project I'm starting with my Quilt Squad girls. I only made 2 meetings last year, but I hope to step that up this year. We're going to be making blocks from Sew Emma's pattern called Blessings

using 30's prints and Kona Snow for the background. Each of us will make 12 identical blocks and we'll exchange them this summer and set them however we choose.

That ought to keep me busy and out of trouble for this month. On the book front, I'm currently listening to Cold Sassy Tree

on Audible and I'm loving it, so that's an added incentive for spending more time  behind my sewing machine. How is it I've not read this before?