June and still waiting for summer to happen.

 
Still waiting for summer to happen here although we have had a few days, now and then, when Mother Natures gives us a wee taste of shorts and t-shirt weather.  But, for sure, most days are long pants and long sleeved shirts.  

More time for sewing and less time spent outside in the garden.  I am trying to think positive!  Up until Friday, I was still waiting for Quilts of Valour labels to arrive so kept working on quilting my tops and making the bindings.  Here is a Dot Dash, 3 yard quilt done and waiting for binding.  I added a wider border to get it up to the size I like for donation quilts.

This is the next stack of quilt that have batting cut and backings prepped but am slowing down on the quilting.  Eventually, they will all get done.  The St. Louis 16 patch got quilted and added to the stack of quilts waiting, patiently, for binding.

 

 My stack of quilts sitting by the sewing machine but all have binding made!

A good friend told me about this book and how all the patterns in it were great.  They all use one charm pack which is different that other patterns that usually call for 2 charm packs.  I pulled out my bin of charms and have a lot to choose from!   But, it was good for me to look at what I have on hand because my Heartstrings group chose jelly rolls for the June challenge.

It seems that I had a matching jelly roll and charm pack in something called "Elementary" so chose a simple plan to make the charms surrounded by the jelly rolls.  I have the blocks made and need to get them up on the design wall and stitched up into a quilt top. 

In keeping with the jelly roll theme, I decided to pull out a bin of brown and beige strips that I had cut years ago and then added in strips of red.  This is a pattern called Cool Water by Fons and Porter and I had just finished quilting the top I made last December from the pattern so it was fresh in my mind. 

And, now, the blocks are all made and waiting to be put on design wall and assembled. 

Last fall, I also made a quilt top from strip sets of brown, beige and reds, turned into hsts.  I had a lot of blocks leftover after making the top (which was finished in May) so I counted and made more blocks to have enough for a second quilt.  Since I had my container of beige and brown strips handy, it made sense to keep keep working with them.

 

I have my Rainbow scrap challenge blocks using leftover strips finished and these were for March so am only 3 months behind!

I have cut out another quilt from fat quarters and this one will be a Turning Twenty and a gift for a grandson that has a cat... am sure none of my grandchildren read my blog so safe to post this on here!

My project yesterday was to paint some stones with red to make them look like strawberries.  I had read on Facebook, the suggestion to put these around your strawberry plants and when the birds come to peck at them, they won't be impressed with how hard they are and leave them alone?  I have no idea if the idea will work but it cost me a small bottle of paint and the time to collect the stones and paint them.  They are now spread around the plants and hoping that they do their job.  Sadly, they won't prevent the slugs from having a feast and in all our rain, that is a possibility. 

So, odds and ends to finish up.  My May accomplishments were getting the quilting done and binding made for 9 quilts and now that labels are here, those will get done in June.  I did get my RSC blocks done for January and February so hope that this month, I can finish up March and April.  

June goals: 

1. Label and bind 9 quilts

2. Finish quilting 3 quilts that are ready and waiting

3. Make cat quilt top and get ready for quilting

4. Layout the jelly roll/charm blocks Elementary and stitch together

5. Layout the Cool Water blocks and stitch together

6. Layout the half square triangles of brown, beige and red and stitch together

7. Work on March RSC blocks (half done)

8. Work on April RSC blocks 

9. Layout and stitch the 15" Farmer's wife blocks from RSC 2021 and stitch together. 

10. Patterns by Jen: block for June, mustard 

Lots of appointments again for June for my husband who is still struggling to make red blood cells and has a very low hemoglobin count.  And, on dry days, means a little more gardening for me since he doesn't have the energy or strength to do more than a half hour outside per day.  However, despite the crummy weather, I have fabulous poppies blooming, a few rhodos (although the heat wave a year ago did some really nasty damage to the plant) and peonies are just waiting for some warm, sunny weather to burst open with colour.