Grandkids and Flying Geese

I forgot to share a picture of these two cuties.  They spent a night with me while they were still in town, and we had another trip to the rock pile -- this time in the rain.  We were getting pretty wet so we didn't stay long, but long enough that they each had a six pound bag of rocks to take home with them.

I don't know where that little ghost picture is coming from so I can't get rid of it.

I've always loved quilts with the flying geese  blocks but haven't been satisfied with my accuracy when I've tried to make them.  I recently purchased this little ruler from Open Gate Quilts and had some fun trying it out.

I thought I'd try to use up my Verna fabrics while I still love them, and this gave me a chance to play with them.   I put together this small baby quilt which is now waiting to be sandwiched and quilted.

The ruler proved to be a great help -- I'll be using it again for sure, and I'm looking forward to trying some smaller size geese.

Good Morning!

I wonder how many people were out taking pictures of the rainbow this morning!

The sky here really was an eerie yellow color.

And then it went double -- maybe if you click on the picture to enlarge and  look real close you can see.

What a beautiful way to start the day!

I wish I had been quick enough to get a picture of the lightning flashing behind the rainbow.

Now I better go close some windows in case the nasty storm they're predicting really does happen.  It should be a quick one.

Rock Picking

Sharyn blogged about a new walking stick that Greg carved and it reminded me that I hadn't posted these pictures.

Some of the grandkids are in town and these two came to spend the night on Friday.

One of the things they like to do at Grandma's is to take a walk to the rock piles and see how many rocks they can fit in their pockets.  The rocky terrain is a bit of a challenge for me, but it was a beautiful day so I couldn't say no.

I had the help of my walking stick to keep my balance.   Pete thought he'd like to borrow it for a bit -- until he noticed that "Mom" and "Grandma" were carved into it.  He was a bit worried that might show up in the photo.

Picking daisies to take home was a good way to end our hike.

No work for me on Friday so I'm hoping to have a couple more grandkids for the night tomorrow. It'll probably mean another trip to the rock pile and another bag of rocks for them to take home.

Working on July

Judy at Patchwork Times picked #2 on the list to work on in July. That would be this quilt -

I thought  -- "how nice"!  A small baby quilt that just needs to be quilted and bound -- I can whip that out in no time even in the busy month of July.

I put this top together quite a few years back.  Wendy was probably just a toddler when Sharyn picked out some fabrics to get started on a big bed quilt for her.  I asked her to give me a fat quarter off of each piece she bought and I'd put together a baby quilt to match -- just to have on hand when or if she ever had another girl.  So far that hasn't happened -- just brothers for Wendy.  So the quilt sat waiting in my pile of tops to be completed.

I spray basted the quilt this morning and as I was looking at it and thinking I could machine quilt it and probably finish it in a day or two, I had second thoughts.  I've been having so much fun hand quilting my June challenge quilt, and I happened to have a perfect color of perl cotton for this one -- I decided it really needed hand quilting to make me love it.

It'll take me a little longer to finish, and with a busy July I may not get it done -- but when I do, I know I'll love it.  I already do.  The decorative stitches were done by machine when I put the top together.  I think the hand quilting really softens it.

June UFO Progress

There hasn't been too much time this month for a quilting project -- and it looks like July will be just as busy.

But - I have managed to find a few hours here and there to make some progress on my "Ice Cream Quilt"

It's all basted -- with a wonderful soft wool batting that's a dream to quilt.  I wanted to play around with the quilting on this one.  I thought I'd do some machine quilting and some hand quilting, using different colors and different threads, some perl cotton and some embroidery floss. 

The hand work has turned out to be much more fun than the machine quilting, so I don't think I'll be adding too many more machine quilted lines.  The closer I get to the outer edges, the bigger the chance is that I may change my mind on that.  We'll see. 

I didn't set a goal to finish this one in June -- only to get it basted and start the quilting.  I feel like I've met that goal and anything else that gets done on it in June is a bonus. 

The big news is that I've gone 37 days without buying any fabric.  Amazing!  I have had to empty a few online shopping carts during that time.

Flag Day at the Cemetery

Barb and I went for a walk in the cemetery tonight -- so peaceful, and just enough breeze to chase away the bugs. Barb got some better shots of the many flags in the cemetery but this one at the memorial for veterans caught my eye.

I had left my camera downstate last weekend, so I asked Barb to bring hers. I wanted to get some pictures of the quilt I completed for May. I tried hanging it on the clothes line, but it was dragging the ground, so I brought it along on our trip to the cemetery and shot some pics there.

WARNING: If you find pictures of quilts on gravestones to be disrespectful, scroll no further.




I love the statues in the cemetery. I'm always a bit tempted to take a wire brush with me to clean up some of them -- but then I think the aging process adds some interest and maybe I really better just leave them alone.



But the ones that have been cared for do look nice.



And don't they look like they really enjoyed the chance to see my latest quilt? I think they may want me to come back.



Click on the picture a couple of times to get a much better look!

May UFO Challenge

I pushed pretty hard, but didn't manage to finish my May UFO Challenge in time. Give me another week and I should have it done.

The pattern I used for this quilt is called Yellow Brick Road -- not really appropriate for a pink and green quilt. I'm not one to name my quilts, but if I did, maybe Peppermint Pathway would be better.

I might have reached my goal if I had placed the crosshatching a little further apart, but this was something I've been wanting to try and this quilt needed a little extra effort to make me love it -- it's working!

Just a dozen more rows of quilting and it'll be ready for binding. I hope to finish the job before I head downstate next Thursday.

In other news -- I bought myself an early retirement gift. Still five months to go, but I didn't want to car shop in November, and this one looked like a pretty good deal.

The quilt that I'll be working on in June is this Ice Cream Quilt. My goal is simple for this one -- get it basted and begin the quilting process. I want to combine some hand quilting with machine quilting on this one so I'm not even hoping to have it complete by the end of the month. June looks to be a busy month and I want to sit back and enjoy with no pressure.

I do have a backing all ready for this one, but I'll have to order a batting and plan to get it basted after I return from downstate.

Check with Judy over at Patchwork Times for links to other May finishes.