Summer Fun

I got another quilt home from the quilter.  This project was a Schnibbles Sew Along from last April!  The pattern was Summer Day, but I changed mine up a little and named it Summer Fun.  And since my summer isn't over until I say it's over, I immediately hung this quilt up and intend to keep it up until summer is over.

This was quilted by Dawn at The Sewing Basket in Charleston, Illinois.  Here's a nice view of the back, she went with a custom design.

I love the quilting, especially the quilting around these dots, like little rays of sunshine, perfect for a quilt named Summer Fun.

I've made several quilts to hang in that spot in the guest room, but this is the first one I've gotten back from the quilter, "T" Stands for Thelma has been up quite awhile, and I thought it would be best to give that quilt a break from the sun.

Then I threw it over the banister while I decided what to do with it (I don't like to fold quilts that I hang) and decided I liked it there, so "T" Stands for Thelma is still out, just in a different location.

I'm going to town on my Canasta baskets. I thought it would be fun to make a variety of basket blocks, so far I've drawn up 23 different patterns.

Like this for example.

I think I'll make the parade, how about you?

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Summer of Fun Recap.. .

So, on June 20th I blogged about my idea of a stress free summer of sewing, set a few goals, named it "The Summer of Fun",  and topped things off with a yoyo guessing contest.  Since summer is officially over at my house I thought I would do a little Summer of Fun recap post.

Here are the goals that I set but didn't accomplish, at all -

*Hexies - I didn't make a single flower, didn't even get one piece out of the neat little travel bag that I organized to make making Hexies easier.

*Memories of Province - I didn't touch this project box all summer, but now that Northern Lights is done this is my next BOM Rehab project.

So that's it as far as goals that didn't get any attention at all, not so bad!

Here are the goals that I set and made some progress with, in some cases, very little progress!

*Farmers Wife - I'm sticking with my earlier decision to make a wall hanging, not a full size quilt, and I did get out the book and select  a stack of blocks that I thought I could easily shrink down to  4 inches, so I'm ready to make some blocks, but didn't manage to make any this summer.

*Minick and Simpson, my goal was to make something using my my Minick & Simpson stash,  my attempt at making Free Spirit Medley using that fabric was my biggest disappointment of the summer.  It wasn't fun, and did not look at all like I thought it would.  But I learned a few things, mainly that the busy Free Spirit Medely pattern needed simpler fabric with a smaller print.  I'm thinking I may give this pattern another go using Old Glory Gatherings by Primitive Gatherings for Moda.  I also learned that just because a fabric is in a fat quarter bundle, you don't have to use it! This isn't the end of the story for that pattern or that fabric.

*Tools Drawer - My goal was to clean out my drawer (check) and to figure out how to use the tools in that drawer that I didn't understand how to use or had never used.  I think I have 4 tools left that I need to research and determine their fate as a keeper or a loser.

*YoYos - my goal was to make as many as I could, I made 27!  That definitely wasn't as many as I could make, I intend to make more and fill that vase, sometime!  Amy guessed 128 and wins the contest, even though she was off by more than 100, but that was soooooo much closer than so many of you!  Amy drop me an email so we can discuss your layer cake choice at cupcakesndaisies@gmail.com.

Here are the goals that I set and accomplished!

*I made my sewing machine cover!

*I made Spools and to add to the fun some of you made one too!

*I finished Northern Lights, meeting this goal, after sitting on on those BOM packages for years made me very happy.

* I made my summer Schnibbles; Leap Year for June, Hubbel/Hubble for July, and Dimestore for August.

So that's it for the goals I set, but I also accomplished some things that I didn't even think about way back in June:

*I organized my thread!

* I learned to work with wool!

* I met Paula Barnes from Bonnie Blue Quilts!

* I visited the Temecula Quilt Company!

* Had a grand old time at the Buggy Barn!

And that my friends is how I spent my Summer!  Whew, I think I'm done setting goals for this year, whatever I do, that's what I get done.  But it sure was a summer of fun for me, thanks for following along!  And after reading your comments from last week, I'm happy you had a summer of fun too.  

What do you think, should we do it again next year?

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Done with Summer Fun . . .

I played around with some different borders for Summer Fun, 

this is the one I liked the best.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 86. ( just 14 more until 100, but who's counting!)

The pattern is Summer Day by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

The fabric is Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt.

It finished at 49" x 49" and has 664 pieces.

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There's No Place Like Home . . .

I'm happy to be back home even though I had the best time in Paducah at the AQS Show.  I have plenty to show and tell you about the show and my classes (I didn't win a ribbon and that's ok) but that's going to have to wait, Settler's Trail is going to have to wait too, it's the end of April and time for a Summer Day, Sinta and Sherri's April Schnibbles Sew Along.

I'm going with some Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt scraps I have in my sewing room.  I used my Fit to be Geese ruler by Monique at Open Gate Quilts to make my perfect flying geese units. 

I bought the Summer Day pattern as soon as it was released, I just loved it.  I'm so glad Sinta and Sherri picked it for the April Schnibbles of the month, it forced me to move it from my ever growing To Do List to my Do It Now List.  

April has been a very hectic month for me, and for some reason, this pattern suddenly also felt hectic to me.  In an effort to achieve some calm in my life,  I decided to try and add some calm to my project.

I thought going scrappy, but just within each color way, would bring some calm to the project, but that wasn't enough calm for me.

My next attempt at tranquility was to add some white space, but that was little too quiet for me.

Then I decided to add some dots to those white spaces and decided I liked that. 

I also arranged the blocks into units of 4, with three flying geese units pointing towards a dot unit in a clockwise motion.  The perfect combination of order to the chaos.

It's like a little island of relaxation surrounded by the hectic days of summer. 

 Together I think they add up to a summer of fun, so that's what I've named my April Schnibbles, Summer Fun.  

To keep things even I had to add an additional row and column of blocks.  ( you know me, ever the accountant, debits must equal credits,  everything has to be even steven!)

I think it may need another border or two,  I'll give that some thought, stay tuned for an update, maybe!

Tomorrow will be the big Schnibbles Parade over at Sinta and Sherri's blogs, don't miss it, I'm sure it will be a fun Summer Day!

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