Catching Up

This month the theme in my sewing space was supposed to be " some assembly required " but I saw a request from Wrap-a-Smile for some "smalls" or quilts smaller than the usual 40 x 60 quilts I usually make for kids.

So my theme this month is now "smalls".  I only had one small top waiting to be quilted so I looked in my Fodder Files, Parts Dept and Orphanage of orphan blocks to see what I could come up with. I ended up making and finishing 8  Smalls. 

The center four large rectangular blocks were given to me. I sewed them together and added borders.

The back is a butterfly and ladybug print. I quilted it with swirls.

Someone gave me this vintage looking panel a long time ago. Someone also gave me some vintage looking tumbler pieces I had sewn together into strips. A piece of vintage looking blue calico went into another border.

I also quilted this one with swirls. The back is a red and white pin dot and the binding is a red and white stripe. 

This is the top I already had made that just needed quilting. Someone gave me the vintage Mother Goose print. Someone else had given me some vintage looking squares I made into four patches and then used as a border.

This one also got some swirly quilting. The backing is blue gingham.

Someone gave me lots of very long strips of different widths of what looked like coordinated border prints. 

I cut 40.5 inch long pieces and added some lime green solid strips to the mix and made a strippie quilt. 

And you can see I quilted this one with horizontal lines.

I was given this panel. All I added to it was a border of orange gingham. 

The back has letters of the alphabet. And this one also got quilted with swirls.

I was also given this panel. I made it a little larger with a flowery border.

All those critters are cute on a panel but not in my garden.

I quilted in some leaves and flowers. 

Someone gave me that center section. I just had to add the yellow and plaid borders to make it a little larger.

It has a polka dot back and it also got some swirls. That was the first thing I tried long ago when I decided to try free motion quilting so that now is the quickest thing for me to quilt on my sewing machine.

Someone gave me the four large blocks of tumblers that I sewed together for this quilt. 

That was an easy peasy make ! I think this one ended up 40x 40.

It has a light blue with flowers backing and was quilted with horizontal lines.

And sew on...

Finished or not finished Friday at Alicia Quilts

Update on my darned computer. 

I n my last post I said I would be off line for awhile because my laptop died. I knew it was very old and has been having a few problems but I didn't expect a sudden death. I went to restart my computer after a Norton antivirus update and I got an error message there was no hard drive. I messed around with it for a little while and with no luck I have put it aside for now. Basically I have a whole lot of genealogy files and scanned documents and photos on it but they are backed up and I have originals so I won't be missing much until I can get around to messing with the darned thing this winter. I have assembled a checklist of things I will try then.  In the meantime I have not had the time or energy to purchase and set up a new one. I had already planned to look for a new one in September because Windows 10 will no longer be supported starting in October. I guess I will stick to that plan. 

In the meantime I decided to see if I could use my husbands kindle fire tablet to make blog posts. He no longer uses it to read. He now prefers to listen to old radio shows instead. So his fire tablet has not been used in a long while.  I don't like using my phone because I can't see very well and I don't like typing on a touch pad. I also don't like speaking commands to a computer. And I don't like taking photos with a phone. I like taking photos with my old Pentax and I like my old photo editing program. Ok. So the tablet has a larger screen. I guess i could get used to typing on the touch pad for awhile. That just left me with trying to figure out how to upload photos and how to edit them. I spent a couple evenings working on it and didn't even realize my husband took a photo he shared with me he titled "intense". I challenged myself to upload photo to this blog post. I also had to figure out how to do simple things like cut and paste on the tablet because it is a little different from doing it on a laptop. 

Veg Garden 

 Beans from the garden. I grew two different purple varieties- purple teepee and red swan, wax bean called golden butterwax and an heirloom called Dragon Tongue.  I have been eating a lot of them but now I am going to start freezing them and after that will start giving some away.

There are a lot of green tomatoes but I have not had any ripe ones yet. I don't think the plants have liked the extreme heat. I did not take a pic of pepper plants but I have harvested a few.

Onion tops are starting to topple over and when about half of them have toppled it is time to harvest. I have potatoes about ready for harvest too.

The broccoli does not like extreme heat either.

I will show flower garden photos in next post. There are some beautiful and fragrant lilies in bloom now.

Life

June 28

I live in the country. The neighbor down the road put on a spectacular fireworks display we could clearly see from lawn chairs we set up in our front yard. We felt like we were in the fireworks that burst right above our heads. While we were waiting for the fireworks to start we watched the fireflies ( lightning bugs) twinkling. I can't believe there were so many out twinkling to attract a mate!

July 4 

My youngest son's birthday. He turned 41.   I remember his birth like it was yesterday. It was such an easy birth I barely made it to the hospital. 

 

July 5

Oldest son went to ER. He had fever, headache and big splotchy rash. He has Lyme disease.  He didn't even know he had been bitten by a tick. He first went to walk in clinic. They sent him straight to the ER. Thankfully the clinic called the ER to let them know he was on the way. At first they thought he had Lyme meningitis but later decided he only had Lyme disease. He has been on an antibiotic and is feeling a little better.

July 6

Had a visit from daughter, grandson, and granddaughter and her partner. They all live an hour or so away and I have not seen them in over a year. They all finally had a day where they could schedule time for a visit. I was so happy to see them and catch up on what is going on in their lives. Granddaughter and her partner just moved into their first apartment so I gave them a few housewarming gifts. 

Books finished.

Malice by Design by Gary Birken. It's a medical thriller and second in the Jack Wyatt and Madison Shaw medical mystery series. I'm now reading the third book in the series. 

Printer's Error : Irreverent Stories from Book History by J.P. and Rebecca Romney.  An interesting read.