Butterfly Garden Quilt Finished

                                            

Oh, goodness, I love this quilt.

I love the warm colors and the simplicity of the design and the beautiful array of leaves that Jackie quilted across it.

                                          

I started out with 2 layer cakes of an older line called Butterfly Garden by Moda. I know it's summer and these are dark colors, but it took me a coon's age to get it bound.

                                     

The pattern couldn't be any simpler. At the time, I just wanted some mindless sewing and a way to use up those layer cakes. I just paired 2 10" squares and stitched all the way around them.

Then I sliced them on the diagonal 4 times,

 paired them up again, cut on the diagonal once more and the result is  6" hourglass blocks or 1/4 square triangles. Accurate. No waste. Simple. 

I can't recall and have been unable to put my finger on where I first stumbled upon this method, but it's one I am happy to add to my quilting arsenal.

This quilt ended up measuring 82" x 96"

and will be gracing the bed in the guest bedroom come fall.

Although it's very tempting to just crawl up here in the hay and sneak in a nap right now:

                                           

Busy Bees

The days seem to be getting away from me lately...a sure sign that summer has arrived. Thankfully, we've not had the intense heat this year that generally cloaks our summers around here. The showers have transformed our usually 'dry heat' into sultry days with heavy air although you'll laugh when I tell you that the humidity has been hovering around 40%...that's sultry for us desert rats. And its the reason I am trotting down the road at 5:30 in the mornings. Its the coolest part of the day. Our girl has been DH's sidekick lately so after I fix breakfast for them, I head out the door. As long as its light enough for me to avoid stepping on a snake, its light enough.

                               

We've been invaded...by honey bees. Our wet spring brought on a prolific wild flower crop this year and the honey bees are taking advantage.

One night we heard incessant buzzing when we went to bed and we quickly zoned in on the problem. Apparently, a colony of honey bees decided to take up residence in one of our bedroom walls. We didn't want to kill them all...they are fascinating and helpful creatures, but we certainly didn't want them building their hive in our wall either. We found their entrance and DH bought a powder he used in hopes of making them leave. Regular wasp spray had no effect on them. Once we thought they had vacated the premises, DH sealed up the holes - he had drilled a few more in order to be more effective.

 Then a few days later he called me to another building and pointed out this:

I briefly...very briefly... considered taking up beekeeping as we love fresh honey, but  it was a fleeting thought. They are welcome to make their home here without our interference.

 On the sewing front - I've been piddling. I pulled out 2 old layer cakes and commenced to stitching and slicing. I just wanted an easy, 'no thinking required' project and this fit the bill nicely although there was more trimming than I would have liked:

But I ended up with 160 blocks to show for it. Then blocks were stitched into rows and that's as far as I've gotten.

                                                 

I added borders to the little hourglass baby quilt:

                           

And I did manage to get the stars appliqued onto the Rodeo Baby quilt and pieced a backing so this one is ready for Jackie too

                          

Now I've got to spend some time behind my trusty lawn mower and help sort some cattle in the pens before I can call it a day. I'm thankful for leftover brisket in the fridge for supper and clean sheets on the bed. Its been a good week.