Relaxing slowly.

It takes time to slow down and just be after a very busy start to the year and not getting many down time to relax. This plant is growing from the neighbors side into our garden, it is putting on a show.

The tomatoes are a treat, enjoying everyone that we are gifted by nature. The gherkins are suppose to be small, this large one was at the back. Found it last week and it was almost eight inches long, this is what happens when we get so much rain.

Made binding for two quilts.

We also became fur baby grandparents over the summer.

A wallhanging in the making, strip sets are sewn together.

Another great nephew will be arriving and a request for a baby boy quilt was requested, with anchors.

A time to relax…

We can finally relax a bit this summer over the weekends. Almost all has been spent fixing and rebuilding the fence and other diy jobs which needed to be done outdoors. Still some small projects to get done, but most of the big jobs are done, last sunday we went on a picnic at one of the small lakes about twenty minutes away.

We did not take the canoe with, we were all just too tired for that. Just the basket with our picnic and the blanket came along with us. Afterwards we went for a walk and found some adult swings? We had not been on a swing in many years, oh boy what fun it was to be flying high on a swing and be free as a kid. Amazing and just what we needed.

The wedding quilt is now a flimsy. This was it, as it was on the sheet on the carpet. The end result is this so far. It is booked to go to the longarm quilter next week.

We also have tomatoes going ripe on the vine.

Diane got her AT The Met on the wall, all framed and finished.

She also finished London, she has since started Rome. Lots of projects ready to get framed in September.

The hollyhocks gave me a new surprise, double flowers on the next lot to flower.

Enjoying a bit of summer.

Grew these flowers from seeds. It has been an odd summer, with heatwaves, humidity, lots and lots of rain. Walks and outdoor activities have been adjusted and we fit it all in, where the weather and time allows for it.

When the fence needed to be fixed, we had leftover fencing. Kitty now has her very own kitty deck.

When it gets too hot, she goes underneath it.

Diane has been stitching a lot, she started Paris

Paris got finished before I could blink, with all the rain that we got alot got done.

A sneak peak at the wedding quilt which I am working on. This one will be going to a longarm quilter, it is just too hot to hand quilt at the moment.

The creek with the stream, the forest path. It is the most dense we have ever seen the forest grow. Parts we can normally go walking in is totally blocked with vegetation.

The beavers are expanding two dams up to the north of the broadwalk.

Gifted fabrics and shop hops…

Many a times when we are gifted fabric or visit quilt shops while on shop hops, we receive goodie bags and in them they will have treasures.

These include fat quarters of fabrics as well.

What to do with them?

Most of the time they are fun novelty fabrics.

Leftover batting and muslin is used to quilt the inserts for the bags just by machine, just basic quilting.

On top of this is the vinyl and zipper placed and sewn to this insert before it is trimmed and popped into the pocket made for this.

My favourite way to use them and enjoy them, is to use them making project bags.

These three bags was made with gifted fabrics and shop hop treasures from the goodie bags.

The best part of making these bags, leftover binding scraps are used for the flanges that is sewn to the edges of the frames. Everything is used, including zippers which was not used in other projects. These project bags make great gifts and storage for projects on the go.

Tahoe is finished.

Tahoe is finished. Before washing it was 87 x 87inches. After washing and drying it was 81 inches square. I was not surprised by this, as all the fabrics had been starched beforehand and it was quilted quite densely.

The top is machine pieced. The quilting is a combination of hand quilting on the center and all the piecing of the quilt. Machine quilting was used on the border pink fabric which surrounds the piecing of the quilt.

The scale of the quilting is easier to see from the back of the quilt.

It was finished with Magic binding, sewn onto the back and folded over to the front. This was all done by machine.

The Magic binding, is called Aunt Suzie's Magic Binding. It creates a skinny flange on the front of the quilt. It is more noticeable when one use a contrast fabric, this time one plain and one pale print was used for this.

It was started towards the end of summer, lots happened inbetween the start and finish of her quilt. It has left on its journey to my sister.