July's finishes

July has sped by at lightening speed.  We have one more month of summer break left and we intend to make the most of it!  We have a couple of trips left and then 10 days at home to recover and get ready for the school year.  I have managed to get some sewing done in the few quiet moments.


This month's UFO was the 2011 birthday group blocks.  I love these blocks!  Done all in greens - and flying geese!   These blocks once again showed me that everyone's quarter inch seam is different and that not everyone presses their blocks to death like I do.  After some major/minor wrestling, I managed to get this top together.  It is not quite twin sized - more like a good sized lap quilt.  It will get plenty of use this winter.

My second finish of the month was the block of the month from a local sewing store.  It has been quilted for over a month - but once again I procrastinated on the binding.  This month's quilt guild meeting prompted me to get moving and get it bound. 

This block is one of my favorites - I love the mannequin fabric!  The block was the 12th block in a year long series and I was impatient to be finished.  Working from known sizes in previous blocks and from a picture of the finished quilt, I figured out how to piece the block.  Not exactly how the pattern ended up telling me to do it - but I don't follow directions very well anyway!

This block is another favorite - because of the button fabric in the middle of the stars.

I took the time (and a lot of extra effort) to do three different designs in the three borders.  The outer border was was done in spirals; the next two borders were done in the in the same design, just adjusted to the width of the border.   The main body of the quilt was so busy anyway I just did a meandering loopy pattern.  

This is just some street urchin I pulled in off the streets to help me with the picture.  I am sure he was asking me to hurry up.   My black and white stash of fabrics is totally depleted!

This is a baby quilt for one of my cousin's first baby.  My mom pieced the top.  We are trying to make one quilt per cousin - but Mom has already broken that rule a couple of times. 

This second baby quilt is for new niece/nephew due to arrive in November.   I am so happy for my BIL and SIL.  I'm hoping this is generic enough for a boy or a girl.  What do you think? 

A Crafty Kind of Day

One nice thing about the nasty heat of summer is that it gives me an excuse to stay inside and sew.  Before moving on to July's UFO, I wanted to get the spiderweb blocks put together into one bigger piece - which would be harder for me to misplace!  This is the 10 blocks I made in June - and I need another 15 to finish the quilt top.

Yesterday we also managed to make several crafty projects that have been sitting here since Christmas. Sad, I know!  I made my sister a reusable calendar like this for Christmas.  I used a 16x20" frame and paint sample cards.  You put the paint sample cards under the plexi-glass and then you can write on the plexi with dry erase markers!  When I bought the frame for my sister's, I also bought two extra frames - one for me and one for Ian.   Mine is the yellow and green one.  Ian chose blues for his.  In case you can't read his handwriting - the middle week of July says "Maddie goes to camp - YES!!"   Ahh, the love of a little brother!
 

Maddie also decided she needed a reusable calendar.  Her frame is smaller - maybe 11x14".  She also chose to use the paint strips with multiple shades of the same color.  Thankfully she is crafty enough that she handled making her own.  I think she is a little excited about going to camp too!
 

This last project is the one I am most excited about!  I made my own portable ironing table.  Oh, Frannson inspired me with her great tutorial.  I was surprised to find that Target sells individual TV trays.  My owl home dec fabric is from Hobby Lobby.  The husband helped me with the staple gun part.  I started off using a hand held staple gun - but the staples were not going into the tv tray deep enough - so he hooked up the compressor-driven staple gun and helped me out!  I love how it turned out.  Now to find a little iron to use with it.  I'm not sure what to say about Ian's pose!  
 

What are you doing to escape the heat?  

all pictures should be clickable for a bigger view!