One lonely block

Hi friends!  I can't believe we're nearing the end of July.  Time seems to move at a pretty fantastic rate these days.  I'm already behind 3 Moda Blockheads2 blocks, but I managed to throw together this little pineapple by Jan Patek yesterday in the blink of an eye.  It looks cheerful up on my 'design wall'.. which is really just a vinyl flannel backed table cloth push pinned to the wall in my hallway. Not sew fancy.

 

It's a sweet little thing.  I left off the little ribs that you can see in Jan's design, mostly because I was lazy.  They're a cute addition. I was happy to have some fabric that fit the bill close at hand, and the background print will  help me add more colors to the rest of the blocks.  I went off into a pink and red  tangent and getting back to my more PKM colors is a bit work considering I don't know what's coming and what will end up where.  With projects like these I have a tendency to end up with a random mishmash of things that I don't necessarily like in the end.  Is there a secret to this?  Am I on the only one who doesn't know it?  I probably should have read the instructions better.   

 

Whatever, I like making the blocks and maybe someday all these blocks will be treasure discovered in a bag at a garage sale or a thrift store.   I just enjoy making them one at a time and if they don't turn into anything else then no biggy, they've already served their purpose. 

 

I'm really not up to much else.  Just normal day stuff.  Drinking coffee, doing the laundry. What about you? I hope you're keeping cool  (or warm for you southern hemisphere folk) and things are going along as best as they can. xo

Use it or....

Hi there friends!  How are you?  Summer is progressing along here.  My air conditioning is back and better than ever. Nothing is put away though, they still need to replace all the ducting under the house next week.  Cool air is flowing  till then, so I'm happy about it. 

 

You might remember WAY BACK  when the Queen celebrated her Jubilee. It's been years, right? Anyway Frankie and I acquired some of the cute celebratory tins courtesy of her friend Martin.  My tins have been in protective custody since then.  I don't know about you, but I have a habit of putting things in cold storage saving them for later. Well I'm no spring chicken and it's later now.  Time to start using things, right? 

I had a bunch of stuff on my sewing table getting in the way so I pulled out my Jubilee tin (there's still one in cold storage, I'm not perfect) and  my biscuit tin that I did nothing with and used them to store my little collections of beads and beading supplies.

Imagine Frankie's surprise when she's cleaning out my stuff when I head to the great sewing room in the sky and she finds this stuff.  She wisely began using her tins immediately.  Most of the time she's able to fight the saving-for-later-gene and use her things.  Most of the time..

 

They're cute and I'm glad I have a blog post to refer back to when I need to find where my stuff is.  In the mean time that's just a fraction of the stuff on my sewing table.  No flat surface is safe with me around.

 

Hope you're using all your stuff and having fun.  Don't be like me!!! xop

Monday Morning!

Good Morning friends. How was the holiday for you? It was a nice time here.  Bret took a few days off here and there and the week passed quickly.  I have spent some time filling up all the empty pots in my back yard with flowers.  With the drought  we let our back lawn go, so my patio is where I indulge myself with pots of perennials and annuals.  With my big patio umbrellas for shade  it's my happy coffee place.

If you're following along on Instagram you know I made the trip to Utah again to see Nanette and her family.    We spent the time sewing and hanging out with some quilt shop shopping, lunching, tv watching thrown in.  It's always a good time there and I'm sad to leave. 

Nanette worked on baskets, you can see them here and here.  I made a pot, we used the freezer paper template method.  Old skool style.   I worked on my butterflies.  Since then I did sit down and sew them into rows but that's as far as I got.

I made two more Moda Blockheads2 blocks. 

 

 

I'm behind though.  I had to stop everything to prepare for new air conditioning here.  We're currently without a/c,  believe me the complaint level has reached has reached defcon 4 around here.  Luckily we have 2 portable a/c units from Millers Air Conditioning and Heating who will be replacing our system at the end of the month.  That's what's keeping me going on these hot days.   I'm not even going to complain that access to the crawl space and attic area are in my sewing room which means a bunch of stuff needs to be moved out of there.  (that's  a lie.. I am going to complain but it will be half hearted at best.  I LOVE AIRCONDITIONING.)

 

I had good intentions of getting  a little project completed to share with you for the 4th of July, but I just didn't get it done.  This will eventually turn into a pillow, but sewing isn't that fun in the heat so it's on hold for now. 

I hope you're doing well!  xop