Summer's End

Here it is, the end of Summer! In Utah, August has been an unusually wet month. Landslides, flooding, thunder, lightening, very stormy. I drove up to the family cabin at Bear Lake on Tuesday. It rained for two days and yesterday cleared up nicely. Just in time for the grands to arrive with their Mommas!  

Clouds on the drive

I love this smiley face barn

I have driven past this barn since I was a child and I am thrilled every time I see that it is still there! I love smiley faces!

Cat tails

I had brought along my Bernina, I have a piece due for a challenge. The due date is September 1st. I got all my stuff set up, folding table, sewing machine, ironing station, cutting mat, fabrics and such. Cut and pressed and got ready to sew. CLUNK, Clunk, clunk.  UGH. Pulled out the bobbin, re-threaded, reset the needle, clunk, clunk, clunk. Something is out of alignment in the bobbin area. The nearest repair shop is an hour away. So no sewing for me. I will drop off the machine at Dave's Bernina on my drive home Tuesday. I do have another machine at home, so will be able to finish this project then. 

So for this weekend, I will play with the toddlers and 4 year old, go swimming, walk the dogs. And take some inspiration photographs.

This is my off the wall post for the week.

Friday is for fun!

Last week I was side-tracked by Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS awareness. It is a very emotional subject for me having lost both my mother and brother to the disease. It also has been a tearful time, 8 years ago on the 18th was when Mom died. I am touched every time I see an ice dump! My good friend Lisa did an Ice Bucket Challenge. If you would like to donate to this wonderful cause here is the link to the donation site ALS. Thanks!


So what I was going to write about last week was my Odin II. I used the leftover pieces from my challenge quilt to piece another quilt. I had so much fun! This quilt went together as if it were meant to be!

D cup

Running dyes

As it happens when you quilt closely, my quilt poofed up a very nice D cup. I decided to block it before trimming. I spritzed the bottom half, let it sit for a few minutes and the steam pressed it flat. I sprayed the top half and when I came back to press it the orange dyes ran into the sky.  UGH! I asked some friends for advice and was given a blog post that talked about using Dawn  to wash out the dye runs.  IT WORKED!

Odin II

I was able to get the piece finished and it is headed to the Utah quilt guild Quilt Fest show next month.

My name

I am not good at free motion quilting, but the bits I did on this piece were pretty good. I am trying to hid my name in the quilting.

Repeating motif

I was able to do a repeating motif in the white section! I was so proud of myself!

This is my off the wall post for the week.

Also linking to the finished Friday party! 

Monday blues

I am having a strange day. I have all kinds of things that I should be working on, like:

Swap blocks for Cotton Club

OR

Off to the races challenge piece

OR

Friendship blocks that were arranged at sew day

OR

Test pattern for Lynn

OR

4" blocks for the mini swap

Instead I just had to start quilting my leftover boat quilt pieces quilt. It doesn't have a deadline, no hurry to get it done, but somehow this guy jumped up to the top of the queue!

Odin II

Sometimes you just have to do your art with wild abandon! Enjoy the process and everything will be just fine!

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Monday in August

Boy Scout Memory quilt for my nephew

Leftover parts from my boat quilt

4 inch blocks for a swap

Hmm what can I make from these?

How about some geese?

I completed the Boy Scout quilt! Shh! Don't tell, my nephew hasn't seen it yet! I am thrilled to finally get this finished!  I am counting it as my 7th finished UFO of the year. 

I got a lot of sewing done yesterday, well until the power went out. Third time in less than a month. It almost makes you want to go off the grid.  Anyway, I always try to make a mini quilt for the Utah Quilt Guild's mini raffle. So I pulled out my leftover triangles.  I figured that some I could use for a 4" block swap I am doing and the rest will be some flying geese.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.