End of Summer and some Economy Blocks

Summer doesn't officially end till September,
but for us School starts tomorrow, so it is the end of our summer vacation.

We spent our last week of summer at the beach.

We only had two good days of sun.
The rest of the week was rainy.
But that didn't stop us from going to the beach.
We went every day of the week.

Rain or shine.

We had a great send off to summer even with rain.

One of my favorite places to go is to Huntington Beach State Park and walk all the way to the jetties. It rained on us a little on our walk that day but after that the clouds decided to let us enjoy the beach without having to squint through the rain.  Even though it was cloudy it was still warm.  That is the good thing about summer rain.  You can play in it and not get cold.

Huntington Beach state park also has access to the marsh.  They have some nice boardwalks to walk on where you can check out the local wildlife.

You can't tell in this photo, but the sun actually came out for a good 30 minutes while we walked the boardwalk.

I think I dread summer ending as much as the kids.
I really enjoy having them at home.
I will be sad to send them off to school in the morning.
I may just cry.

I have plenty of things to keep me busy though.
The are house chores of course, but I also need to finish up my Christmas advent calendar that I started for the Ho Ho Ho blog hop.

This is what the finished quilt will look like.  Last week I had all but the border done.  Some people told me it looked good just the way it was but I really want to add the small border. I did the design and coloring in EQ7.  I got the program for my birthday in May, but it isn't as user friendly as other software so it took me a little while to get the hang of it. I still feel like I am trying to understand it and that is not like me, I usually pick up software pretty easily.   The company is nice though, I emailed them a question when I just couldn't find the answer anywhere, and they were friendly and polite and answered my question pretty quickly. 

  The outer border needs 52 three inch Economy blocks.  With blocks this small I prefer to paper piece.  It gives me nice sharp points every time.   I sewed two sample blocks to make sure I had the right size fabric triangles. Then I printed out 50 more papers and the rest of the fabric I need to finish the rest of the blocks, which I will chain piece. 

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My day for the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop

For the Ho Ho Ho blog hop I wanted to make a Christmas pinwheel quilt.

I made the one to the left, a much smaller version, years ago and gave it away.  Since then I have wanted one for myself.  This blog hop was the perfect motivation to get my sewing machine humming with plenty of time for me to finish this up before Christmas.

This is what a pile of pinwheels can look like.

 I can't wait to get it quilted and bound in time for Christmas.

Another project this hop inspired me to work on was my advent quilt.
I still want to add a 3 inch border before I call this one complete.

 I embroidered these numbers over 10 years ago.  Each year I planned on making some sort of advent calendar with them, but I always spent too much time sewing holiday gifts and never got around to sewing the numbers together.

  I would always tell myself I can do it in January when the festivities are over, but by the end of the Christmas season I was ready to move on to other projects.  So I am glad I decided to participate in this hop to get my personal Christmas sewing started early.  

The pockets are kinda of small, but I plan to put Christmas quotes, scriptures, or riddles inside.  Possibly mini scavenger hunt clues for the kids.  A clue a day, or a clue to where bigger sweets are stored. We can have a small adventure each day till Christmas.

This tiny candy cane was the only holiday decoration I could find in July.  It fits perfect.  ;)

Click the links below to see all the other bloggers who are posting today.

August 9

Moose Stash Quilting

Cathy’s Chatter

Darlington Delights

Life in the Scrapatch

Quilt n Queen

Forget-Me-Not Stitches

Quilted Delights  (ME)

AnnieOak Designs

Sew Peace to Peace

Wips & Tuts

Just Keep Swimming

Sew We Quilt

Happy Hopping

A New Idea

I've had these numbers embroidered for a very long time.
Yesterday I came up with a plan to sew them into a project.
Hopefully I can get most of it done by Friday, the day I am posting for the Ho, Ho, Ho Blog hop.

Stay tuned!

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Pile of Pinwheels

I love Pinwheels.  They can look good in anything.

54 Pinwheels soon to be added into my Christmas project.

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Sneak Peak, Sort of...

I signed up to participate in the Ho Ho Ho blog hop that starts this week.
 My scheduled post date is August 9th. On that day I will show off my Crafty Christmas Creation.

In anticipation I thought I could give you a sneak peak.

Well it's not really much of the project, more of the fabrics I will be using.  :)

You can see a list and links of the other participants
on Carol's blog Just Let Me Quilt

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Family Tree Quilt Complete

The family Tree quilt is finished, has been picked up, and will soon be on its way to Canada

for a 60 year anniversary party.

The piano key border really helped bring all the leaves together.

I tried to quilt the main part of the trunk so it would have a little bit of texture.

I think it turned out pretty well.

I added names using the same bark fabric and green lettering.

This sure was a fun project to work on.

It was interesting to see all the family traits pass on from generation to generation.

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Progress on Family Tree Quilt

I am making great progress on the Family Tree quilt.
All the faces and leaves are ironed down.

There are 29 people on the quilt and each person has three leaves that represent them.

Each leaf is a specific fabric that represents a little piece of each person.
Since each person is so different and likes different things it makes the quilt look a little busy.  To help bring everything together I plan on using green thread to stitch down all the leaves, and brown thread to go around each photo.    That way all the unique personalities will be tied together just like a regular family.

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The Tree

The tree I designed to fit all the families for the Family Tree Quilt is all cut out and ready to go.

It isn't ironed on yet, for now it is hanging on with pins.

Today I will get all the photos and leaves settled in the right places and iron it all to the background.

I love how things are turning out.

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Family Tree Quilt in Progress

The past couple weeks I have been doing more brainstorming than sewing.  I have been trying to figure out a way to fit 29 photos on a Family Tree Quilt for a friend.  I had the background designed for a while.  It is a simple sky and ground surrounded by a piano key border.

I designed this in Microsoft excel of all places.  :)

The hard part was trying to figure out where to put all the branches and people to make it pleasing to the eye.  Each person will also have three leaves of fabric that represent themselves surrounding their photo. 

This is what I have so far, next is to draw tree to fit the people.

Then I can trim and reposition photos and leaves before everything gets ironed down with wonder under.

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SFQ 2013 Guild Challenge

It was a great day at the guild challenge the other day.   I enjoyed looking at all the quilts and seeing how everyone interpreted the theme:  "America the Beautiful: Home Sweet Home".  I took pictures of every quilt, unfortunately some came out blurry. Below are some of the better photos. I meant to post these photos the other day, but I wanted to be able to write who won what with the pictures so I had to wait till I got part of the winners list.

3rd Place Best Piecing

Tied for 2nd place for Best Machine Quilting

2nd Place Best Use of Theme
3rd Place Most Unique Use of Theme

2nd Place Most Unique Use of Theme

3rd Place Best Machine Quilting

Tied for 2nd Place for Best Machine Quilting

This quilt won Best in Show.

1st place for Best Use of Theme

1st place for Most Unique use of Theme

1st Place Best Art Quilt

3rd Place for Applique

3rd Place Best Art Quilt

 2nd place for Piecing

2nd place for Best use of Color

My quilt won 1rst place for Machine Quilting

1rst place for Piecing

1rst Place for Best use of Color

3rd Place for Best use of Theme

(:   *YaY*  :)
(Ribbons were awarded at the end of the show, so I didn't have a chance to go around and get photos of all the other quilts with their ribbons.)

I think this one got third place for Hand quilting.

2nd place for Best Hand Quilting

2nd place for Best Art Quilt

1st Best Hand Quilting
1st Best Applique

Everyone did a great job. I loved seeing all the different interpretations.
These quilts will hang all summer at the Hartsville, SC Museum.
If you live near by, head on over to see them in person.
Quilts always look better in person.

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