Another new start....

Here we go! A start to yet another project!

Today is the beginning of the Meadow Mystery hosted at Meadow Mist Designs. The instructions will be given out once a month until next April and are for a lap-size quilt.

I'm not sure about my fabric choices. Do I use my stash and do it scrappy.....and this is what I should do! Or do I use coupons for fabrics at my local quilt shop and get fresh, new fabrics?....which is what I'd like to do!

The problem is, I'm not liking my stash too much anymore :(

I know I've probably said it before but I'll say it again.....I think I've gone thru' the "fabric change of life". 

Reveal day results...

Yesterday was the reveal day for our Shoebox quilts. You can read about the concept in my previous post here.

I just thought I would share pictures of the quilts that were revealed. Eight of the twelve people involved have at least got their blocks into a quilt top, not bad!

First, a star-themed quilt where we had a fabric that was to appear in all the blocks. We all remarked on the whimsy in setting the blocks in a wonky fashion... 

Second, in this quilt we were given a specific range of brightly coloured fabrics...

 Next, a lovely basket quilt with the background fabric and a brown fabric as a unifying factor...

 The owner of this quilt was so pleasantly surprised to receive all beautifully appliqued blocks for her flower themed quilt...

A tree theme...I wasn't fussy on the blocks I had prepared for this one, but they look quite all right in the finished top!...

An "I Spy" quilt, borrowed back from my friend's grandson for the day...

A house quilt, put together in a unique, exciting way....

....and a beautiful star quilt, for which we were given specific colour choices...

.....and we had a quilt still in the planning stages for which we all gave our two cents worth, so I think my friend went home with some fun ideas!...

....oh, and mine, which I've posted about previously...

We all had a fun afternoon showing our quilts, snacking and sharing ideas as we escaped the heat wave for a bit! 

Have a great hot, humid day and maybe have a listen to my favourite Summer song....

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoLogdbVS3U

Reveal day!

A while ago (maybe two years?) a group of us started what we were to call our Shoebox exchange.

Everyone was to choose their own themes and make a block to start. We put our blocks in a shoebox (or something like it) and it was passed through the group once a month. Everyone added to your quilt and after a year (since there were twelve of us in the group) we were presented with our own shoeboxes, full of blocks everyone had contributed. 

In that year, we had not seen what was being added. At the end of the year we had a Reveal Day get-together where we finally saw our blocks. It's been a while now, but we set today as a day to try to have our blocks assembled into a quilt top!

To remind you of my Shoebox quilt, you can look back to post here. 

Here is a picture of the finished quilt, Moonlight Thru' the Trees....

I had hoped to host today's Reveal outside with a bit of a Garden Party feel. Well, Mother Nature has other plans with heat and humidity to feel like the upper 30's! I have a feeling we'll end up in the house with the lovely A/C!

I've always liked to bake, but sometimes success doesn't happen when it counts....for company!

Today I have prepared a treat from Pinterest, Berry Pie Bars. Luckily it has turned out delicious and looks just like the pictures on Pinterest!

 Of course, we had to do quality control....yum!....

I'll take pictures today during the gathering and hopefully the ladies will agree that I can share the pics later in my next blog post. 

It will be so fun to see what everyone has done with their blocks. We had so many themes....snowmen, an I Spy quilt, trees, baskets, fairy gardens, etc.!

I have to show a picture of how my border of FlowerGarden is doing. I'm loving the big beautiful flowers. The one at the top measures 8 or 9" across.

Puppy update

Today the pups are five weeks old. I can't believe how fast the days go! 

We have set the pups up in the living room in a small wading pool to keep them contained when we don't want them wandering about. Now they are getting big enough that we've had two escapees already. 

We've had a challenge starting them on kibble, but now we've found an answer and they are taking to it...

So much cuteness around here this summer!

I am linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social to see what others are up to today.

Have a great Summer's Day!

Quilty365 Update

Well, it's that time again.

Time to check in with the monthly update on the Quilty365 project, or as I call mine, A Year in My Life.

It's been difficult to catch up as I've been enjoying my FlowerGarden applique, but at least I don't think I'm any further behind than last month!

I'm still determined that I won't give up on this quilt. I will perserve until November when the year of hearts will be complete!

At times it is feeling like a chore to continue, but I've stuck with it for so many days and am still enjoying it. I definitely want to see this one through!

I've had friends donating fabrics they think may be useful. This one for the last day of school for children this past week...

...and the tomatoes....

...this one I actually asked for from a friend to commemorate Canada Day this past week...

I have been sewing them together in date order and everything is looking great. I'm surprised that this has happened twice....

....after sewing the hearts into rows, there are background fabrics matching up to the row previous. I try to use so many different fabrics, it's hard to believe this has happened....twice. Oh, well.

Here is what I have so far....

There are 14 rows of 15 hearts, adding up to 210 hearts. I started on November 11th. I still have some hearts to prepare to be caught up. I think I'll take a bit of time today to do some prepping.

This past week I talked about the ironing table we were working on in this post here. It is complete and being used...

I wanted it fairly tall so we've started at around 37", approximately the same height as my cutting table. I've worked at tall ironing boards on Retreat so knew I wanted something a little taller than the average ironing board. This may be a little too tall but I'll live with it for a week to see how it feels....it will be an easy fix if I decide to lower it a couple of inches if need be. There a couple more shelves to install....I'm just not quite sure what will be stored here yet. Love it!!!

On Saturday I listened to an interview on NPR with Norman Lear (creator of shows like All in the Family, The Jeffersons, etc.). He is in his nineties and still smart and funny to listen to. He was asked what word meant most to him. I always want to remember his reply....he said two most important words in the world are "over" and "next". How nice it would be to just be able to let something go because it is "over". 

Puppy update

The pups are able to scamper around now, so cute.

I was able to get a picture this morning of our cat giving one of the pups a little grooming...

....and here's a picture just because it's adorable...

I am linking up with Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts, and with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh,Scrap, and with Audrey at Quilty Folk to see everyone else's monthly progress on their Quilty365.

I'm also linking with MolliSparkles for Sunday Stash to show off my new ironing table....I'm pretty sure I was inspired by a blog from there last week to check out Ikea for the cabinet!

It looks like it's going to be another glorious Summer's day and I intend on enjoying it. I hope you can, too!