End of July PHD Report

I've really been trying to keep my nose to the grindstone. So many projects I'd LOVE to jump on board with but I'm keeping myself in check. Well, until August 16th when I'll be joining in on Gudrun Erla's next sew-along. You can find all the details on Gudrun's Quilt Crew group on Facebook this Tuesday. She'll let us know what pattern we'll be doing and fabric requirements.

But until then, I'm quilting, quilting, quilting! I finished up Winnie the Pooh. Now it's not on my PHD list but I did start it in June and finished it July 31st. Counts as a good finish!

I was hoping for some sunshine for the photo shoot but it just keeps raining. I took this picture while it was sprinkling and you can see the rain drops on our deck floor.

Sorry to say that I didn't write down the name of who gave me the brilliant idea of how to do the quilting. She had done a wall hanging and described her method for it and I thought it would be perfect for this little 46" x 46" quilt. I didn't want to detract from the characters! This is what I did following someone else's directions: Bernina stitch #4 (serpentine), stitch length 3.0, stitch width 5.0. I followed the vertical seams which are 2" apart. Then I was afraid that the channels in between (2" x 46") would be too long to stay secure so I quilted horizontal serpentine stitches 6" apart.

View from the back

Quilt Label - Used my Bernina Built-In Letters

This quilt will be mailed out sometime next week and it goes in the "Done" column!

The Star In a Star quilt has been my other focus lately. I managed to get the large 24" blocks assembled, the 12" Celtic knots for the outside cornerstones were completed at a recent retreat, the borders finished and the outside frame attached.

This big boy is 96" x 96" and is pictured without the outside frame. I didn't even have room in the basement to lay it out completely but I think you can get the idea. The top is now finished and I'll be basting and quilting it as quickly as I can but it will surely take some time!

Let's check my To-Do List at the start of the month and see how I did.

________________________________________________________________________

1. Quilt, bind, & label Winnie the Pooh - Finished!

2. Finish Patriotic Wall Hanging 100% - Finished!

3. Get Star in a Star top assembled. This quilt is due at my LQS on August 25th. It finishes as a queen-sized quilt. For credit at the shop, it will also have to be quilted, labeled, and bound. Definitely a big job for July & August. Currently, 5 of the nine 24" blocks are assembled and the top & side borders are complete. What's left? Assemble the final 4 blocks and finish the 4 border cornerstones. They are hand appliqued Celtic knots. Sounds like a hospital project to me! -  I ended up doing the applique by machine. The top is officially a flimsy!

4. Quilt, label, & bind Hope. - No progress here.

5. A little more progress on Eva Grace would be nice too! - A girl could dream, right?

So what's in store for PHD progress in August?

1. Get Star in a Star to the finish line.

2. Quilt, label, & bind Hope.

3. Stay caught up with Afternoon Delight applique blocks.

4. Get 7 Heartfire hexies done in RSC color PURPLE.

5. Get 9 Awesome Land blocks done in RSC color PURPLE.

That ought to keep me out of trouble. I'll check in with you around August 15th. Wonder how the others are doing with their PHDs. I'm going to see for myself right HERE and I invite you to see too!

August = Purple!

Friday evening, Angela let the cat out of the bag that the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August will be PURPLE! I will be looking forward to working with purple fabrics in August because it is one of my favorite colors. It will also be a great month for visiting all the Rainbow Scrappers to see how they work with purple. But first we need to wrap up July's color - DARK BLUE.

I was happy to take this month off because I needed to catch up my Heartfire hexies. I managed to get all 7 green blocks sewn for a January catch-up last week. You can see those blocks HERE. This week I played around with a few smaller projects and check it out! There's DARK BLUE in the midst!

The block on the left upper corner is Easy Breezy, Bonnie Hunter's Leaders & Enders block for the year (July 2020 - June 2021). I'm going to concentrate on oranges and blues for my blocks. The 4-patch in the bottom left corner will be the center of the next Easy Breezy block. Just look at those adorable animals ... I spy a giraffe AND an elephant! I'm using these blocks for leaders & enders at my sewing machine upstairs, where I do most of my piecing.

The Half Square Triangle in the bottom right will be used in another of Bonnie Hunter's quilt patterns. It's called Split 9-Patch and is one of her many FREE quilt patterns which you can find HERE. There are a lot of HSTs in this pattern so I had a stack of them going. I'm using this pattern for my leader & ender at my sewing machine downstairs. This is where I do my machine quilting and also where I sew on borders, bindings, and where I also sew together large quilts. This  Split 9-Patch project will probably take me a LOOOOONNG time to finish since I don't spend as much time down here!

The upper right and bottom middle blocks will be little pillows or pincushions. The top one is complete except for the pillow finishing and measures approximately 3-1/2" x 6". The 2-1/4" star will have red & white stripes attached to be flag-like. I plan on using these as little pillows in a basket. The pattern is called Sweet Liberty Tuffets and you can find the FREE pattern HERE. They're really fun to make and don't take any time at all! I'm thinking you could make these in Christmas colors or even Halloween fabrics! Lots of fun!

Speaking of fun, I'm very excited because Gudrun Erla of GE Designs has announced that she will be doing another Sew-A-Long Day on August 16th. It will start at 9am Central Time with clues given every 2 hours. She will be sharing all the details this Tuesday, August 4th at 7pm Central Time on her Facebook Group page (Gudrun's Quilt Crew) to reveal the pattern, fabric requirements, etc. You can bet I'll be there and,  just like when I sewed along with her last sew-along Hope, I'll be sewing with my sister who lives in Texas! But wait! There's more! I'll also be sewing with my BFF who lives in Ohio! She will probably have to set her alarm because that is 8am Eastern Time! Lol!

In the meantime I finished up Winnie the Pooh. That's right! I saved my finish for last. It is quilted, labeled, and bound. Unfortunately it's in the wash right now but I can share a couple of pictures that I took last night while finishing up the binding. Stayed tuned for the photo shoot later.

Polly Loves a New Quilt!

In other good news but not quilty, I got to "harvest" a zucchini this week! I'm having trouble with the flowers falling off but no fruit. I'll water more frequently, I guess, to see if that improves my production! Thank goodness for my rain barrels!

My red giant hibiscus bloomed this year! It's a favorite of the Japanese beetles so I'll have to take care of that next week if we get some sunshine.

This week I spied a visitor soaring through our backyard. Hubby actually got a decent picture of this Broad-Winged Hawk before it didn't like being the center of attention and flew away.

Have you stayed with me this long? I just noticed some more quilty pictures to share with you. I'm all caught up with the applique blocks on Afternoon Delight, the block of the month from The Quilt Show.

Block 22

Block 23

Block 24

August blocks will be released today sometime. I think there are only two again which is manageable for me. Unfortunately, these past two months I've been supposed to be making twelve double 9-patch blocks along with the applique blocks! That means a total of 36 DNPs by the end of August! Oh no!!!

For real that's the end of this post! I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy HERE. Can't wait to see everyone's joy at the color purple for August and to see their wrap-ups of dark blue!

RSC, Health, and Celtic Knots

This month I dug through my light, bright greens so I could sew the January hexagons for Heartfire blocks. I actually kept my nose to the grindstone and did all SEVEN! Maybe I didn't get them pressed too well but they are going to be just fine!

I finished these in the nick of time because on Sunday afternoon we got two very special visitors. My DIL Amanda arrived with Brody!!! We had such a terrific visit and they stayed until Tuesday afternoon. Please indulge me while I share a few -- Ok, many -- pictures.

DIL & Brody

Gracie couldn't get enough of Brody!

Brody passed his driver's license test!

Polly had just smacked Brody's hands ....

When he promptly sat down with his hands behind his back!

GG (Great-Grandma) giving and getting a little attention with Brody!

 

Family portrait minus the cat. Of course, Gracie was in it!

For those of you following along or wondering about DH's health, he had his 2 week follow-up on Wednesday this week. We were glad it was already scheduled because the 4" incision above his belly button started "weeping" from the top and from the bottom. It was clear fluid with blood in it, pink to dark pink in color. The doctor looked at it and was semi-concerned because apparently it is normal a few days after surgery but not so much 2 weeks after. However he was VERY CONCERNED about the looks of one the laparoscopic incisions, which was now leaking also and was very red. He ended up cutting into it and releasing some infection. That was followed by a lesson for me on how to pack it. So now every morning and every evening we are changing two bandages and keeping a close eye on those spots AND packing & bandaging the other. Of course I'm keeping an eye on it also. We have another follow-up appointment next week. So much fun around here! YOI!

Meanwhile, these last couple of days I've joined some friends on a sleep-in-your-own-bed retreat. I had these four Celtic knot blocks prepped for Star In a Star and I am aiming to get all four done.

This quilt is part of my PHD Challenge and also my LQS UFO Challenge. I.Will.Get.This.Done!

I'll close for now with my favorite picture of my favorite grandson. Have a great week!

Checking In with RSC & FNSI

As you may recall, I'm playing catch up with some of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks this month. I caught up my Awesome Land blocks last week which I posted HERE. This week I tried to work on a few (no, I was actually thinking I could do all 7!) Heartfire blocks in bright green, January's color. Here's the four I worked on and, as you can see, these are not finished.

Part of the reason I lagged on those is because I was working on Star In a Star. Those Celtic cornerstones took a long time to prep and that's all I got done on those this week. They're glued in place and just waiting to be machine appliqued down. Maybe get a start on them this week?

My other distraction was Winnie the Pooh. I want to get this one done and out in the mail SOON but I'd been dragging my feet because I couldn't make a decision on the backing. I saw some cute Pooh fabric online but order processing & mail is so slow right now at times that I couldn't see taking that chance. I also visited one of my LQS but didn't find anything appealing. Then all of a sudden I remembered WAAAAAAY back I had made a Winnie the Pooh (different than this one but still Winnie-themed) and had used some Pooh fabric in it. Did I still have any of that left? I dug deep in my  mind to try to remember what the fabric actually looked like so I'd know what bin to scour and sure enough, I found it!!! It measured about 12"x 42".

It is pieced into the back with a bright yellow fabric and is sure to be cheerful. Next task is to find a 54" square of batting. I dug around this morning and found two pieces that, when sewn together, will be just right! Now it's all about finding time to finish this puppy up!

Of course my week would not be complete without a squirrel. Very Busy Monkey on Ravelry has a free mystery knit-a-long going on for a pair of socks. I absolutely LOVE her patterns so I downloaded what she had and completed Clue 1 last night during Friday Night Sew-In. I knit two-at-a-time so it takes me a little longer to get the clues done but here is a picture of my yarn and my progress so far. Thanks to Wendy for hostessing FNSI again this month!

Clues 2 & 3 have been released as they are coming out on Thursdays. You can find all the information HERE if you'd like to join in too! There's only one more clue but the downloads are still available!

Now I'm hoping to make some progress this week on all these projects but mostly I'm planning this week to enjoy my DIL & Brody's visit. They arrive tomorrow (Sunday) and will hit the road again to go home Tuesday morning. Yes, short but oh! so very sweet!! Amanda sent this picture of Brody getting ready for the trip -- haircut time!

I also wanted to give a quick share of a funny thing Gracie & I saw on our walk the other day. We happened to be cutting through a subdivision and came upon this:

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy later today. Have a perfectly-pink flamingo weekend! Lol!

PHD Report - July 15

Well, what do you know? We're halfway through July. Hopefully I'm keeping on schedule. Let's see what I hoped to accomplish this month.

1. Quilt, bind, & label Winnie the Pooh - Don't have anything to show but I found some Winnie the Pooh fabric from a previous project. It will be incorporated into the backing so I'm anxious to get it pieced and ready to quilt!

2. Finish Patriotic Wall Hanging 100% - Yes! Finished and hanging! See my post HERE!

3. Get Star in a Star top assembled. This quilt is due at my LQS on August 25th. It finishes as a queen-sized quilt. For credit at the shop, it will also have to be quilted, labeled, and bound. Definitely a big job for July & August. Currently, 5 of the nine 24" blocks are assembled and the top & side borders are complete. What's left? Assemble the final 4 blocks and finish the 4 border cornerstones. They are hand appliqued Celtic knots. Sounds like a hospital project to me! - Progress here has been slow but steady. The final four blocks need the final seam sewn and then on to assembling the main part of the quilt. The cornerstones have been prepped but not sewn. The original plan was to hand applique these as recommended by ones that have finished theirs. The directions explain how to machine applique these. I'm thinking machine at this point. Maybe give it a go tomorrow?

4. Quilt, label, & bind Hope. - Nada!

5. A little more progress on Eva Grace would be nice too! - Nada!

So there you have it. Thank you, Gail, for keeping us on track. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else is doing and motivating all to get those Projects Half Done DONE! Will be joining the linky party HERE.

See you August 1!

RSC Saturday!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge's color for July is dark blue. I didn't get much done for that but I have a project in mind that I hope to start soon. I'm a "starcher" so I can tell you my dark blues & background fabrics have been starched but the cutting has yet to begin! Thank you, Angela, for hosting this party and you can see all the amazing dark blue fun HERE at So Scrappy.

This week put a lot of mileage on my vehicle going back & forth to the hospital. Grateful I could visit but a 45-minute drive each way takes a toll on the gas tank and the driver! Ha! Not complaining, just stating facts. I was able to bring hubby home yesterday so there was a lot of adjusting and readjusting for comfort. The good news is: NO MORE TUBES!

I was able to pop in to the TAS (The Applique Society) class & trunk show by Deborah Tirico. She is the "Wool Applique Queen" and she shared lots of tips and loads of eye candy, including her favorite technique, the colonial knot. This segment preceded the TAS Annual Meeting at 3pm. I was able to pop in for a few minutes to catch Irene Blanck's class at 7pm. She gave a trunk show and a mini-clam shell class.

There is more fun scheduled for today and I'm looking forward to catching whatever I can. I believe the machine applique class by Kathy Delaney is first up this morning followed by needle-turn applique by Barb Eikmeier this afternoon. If you are an applique fan, you might think about joining this group. They're working on growing it and the dues are quite reasonable. HERE is the link to their website which has all the information.

So back to RSC, I chose to catch up my teal and the light blue Awesome Land blocks.

I finished 100% the 2 Afternoon Delight blocks. This quilt was designed by Sue Garman and here are the official pictures of my blocks #20 & #21.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing what everyone has created this week!

Kidney Eviction

Spent most of yesterday at Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis. Hubby had a 10am showtime for a noon surgery. After his partial nephrectomy in March to remove a cancerous tumor, we just couldn't get him healed up. So yesterday we had the rest of the kidney removed. He was wheeled away about 12:30 with the idea that it was probably about a 3 hour surgery. It lasted 4 hours instead. By the time he got out of recovery and to his room, it was 6:30pm. I left him alone to get his bearings and for his body to remind him what all he'd been through at a little after 7pm putting me home at 8:00. Thank goodness Mom came to the house and took care of Gracie & Polly!

So during the four hour wait, what did I do? My next Afternoon Delight block went from this ....

All parts glued in place.
Stems already sewn down.

to this!

All sewn down.
Mauve berries glued and ready to be sewn!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, kind words, and prayers. We're looking to get DH home Thursday. I'll be visiting him at the hospital this afternoon. So glad I am able to visit this time but can't take Mom. Still only one guest allowed during the corona virus pandemic. At least I get to go. During his April hospitalization for twelve days, no visitors were allowed.

Have a good Wednesday!