I Like Thursday #146

It's time for a happy and uplifting post. Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more like minded posts. We had a little rain one afternoon and I noticed everything looked orange outside after the storm was over.  I ran out and took a picture of the sky. It's so pretty! It was very striking to see.

We had a little visitor in our yard a few days ago. We have a little marsh in the woods behind our house. I have a feeling that's what this little guy was looking for! I'm not sure where he ended up. I know he didn't go near the street. I kept looking out for him.

This is our little vegetable garden. My husband wanted to try a few different vegetables this year. He has potatoes in there as well as eggplant and tomatoes. He's still adding to it. A wood chuck had found it and ate quite a few of our plants. My husband added more wire netting around it. I hope it works!

I just finished this book and absolutely loved it! It's about a sewing circle during World War II in England. They didn't start off reworking wedding dresses but they were in short supply during the war and there were lots of brides! The idea took off and became quite popular. I know that part was based on a true story. I love the fictional characters and hated to see this book end!

Enjoy the long weekend and have a Happy 4th of July!

Garlic Knot Rows

The first 2 rows of my Garlic Knot quilt are sewn together! I had hoped to sew them yesterday but I didn't feel well. I had a migraine and felt awful all day. I feel much better today. 

Sewing these rows together takes time and patience! There are so many seams to line up. I like how it's coming out so it's worth it. I have 3 rows left. After that, I'll be adding a light 2.5" strip to each side. Then, a border made up of 2.5" squares. This quilt is using up a good portion of my stash but I still have lots left!

I Like Thursday #145

It's time for fun and uplifting posts. Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more blogs. We've had this rose bush for a few years but it's just been beautiful this year. The flowers are gorgeous and add such a great pop of color to the front of our house.

It was my husband's birthday last week so I had to make my white wedding cake! This is my family's favorite. You can find the recipe at peartreekitchen.com. It's easy and your friends and family will love it.

Here's a peek at my Swoon quilt that I'm busily quilting! I'm stitching lots of feathers and curved cross hatching. Some parts look better than others but that's fine. It's the only way I'm going to figure it what works.

Here are my 25 Garlic Knot blocks. They measure 16.5" square. I'll be playing around with placement as I decide the 5 X 5 block setup. This might take awhile!

I hope you all have a great weekend. We're expecting heat and humidity. It sounds like summer is finally here!

Garlic Knot Blocks

I'm sewing my Garlic Knots together. They're easier to sew together than I had expected. They measure 16.5" square. I have to make 25 blocks total. I should be done sometime in the next few days. I missed I Like Thursday yesterday. It was my husband's birthday. He took the day off and my whole day got away from me. It turned out to be a busy day! 

Have a great weekend!!

Garlic Knots

 I just had to share. I have officially completed 100 Garlic Knot blocks! I enjoyed playing with my stash and finding some fabrics I forgot I even had! I'll start making them into blocks of 4 Garlic Knots. I'm hoping it won't take as long as making the 100 blocks. This is a fun stash project. Bonnie Hunter has the best patterns!

Holiday Table Topper

I love to make table toppers. They're quick and useful! I wanted to make something for Halloween. I found this pattern by Atkinson Designs in my drawer of patterns. I used fabric in my stash. I didn't want to buy anything to make this project. It makes the project a little more challenging!

First step was to sew these 2 colors together along their long sides. Easy enough!

The pattern says you make triangles out of rectangles and that's exactly what I did. I cut the previous piece into rectangles. These rectangles were cut on the diagonal.

And this is what I got! I then had to cut the black/grey triangles in the same manner. What a fun project! I'll quilt it once I'm done with Swoon. 

I Like Thursday #144

It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to find links to more inspiring and fun posts. A few months ago, I bought a little plant growing kit from CVS. The kit I chose said it was seeds for a miniature rose. This just blossomed! I don't think it's a rose. Maybe some sort of daisy?? Anyways, it's cute and I'm surprised I got anything to grow!

My local quilt shop had a tent sale last week. It was so fun to go! I didn't buy too much since my fabric stash is too large as it is. I did buy a few yards of fabrics that I have ideas as to what to do with them. I just couldn't resist. Some of the fabrics were gorgeous!

I haven't been out to eat in ages. My husband and I went out this past weekend. This is chicken shawarma from our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant. I never finish my meal. I always have leftovers to bring home. It's so good!

 Here's a little update on my scrap project. I'm making 12.5 inch squares of just scraps to sew between the scrap blocks with the blue. It looks a little chaotic but I'm finally using up my scraps! It's nice to dig through a pile and use some of those small pieces. 

I hope you have a nice weekend! Hope the weather is good!

Feathers and Curved Crosshatching

I had planned on knowing exactly how to quilt Swoon before I loaded it on the longarm. Unfortunately, I just couldn't come up with what I planned to do. So, I decided as I went along. I like the ribbon candy at the top and sides. The outer border is not very wide so I thought this was a good choice. I tried to make the crosshatching look a little elongated to make a 3D effect since it's sort of stretched out over the corner. I'm not sure it works, but I'm not changing it!

I also made the crosshatching closer in the small triangles. The area was too small. It's a little wider when paired with the feathers.

I like the curved crosshatching in the  side triangles. I thought the area between the Swoon blocks was too large for just curved crosshatching. I thought I would add feathers. These feathers are my third attempt! I always believe feathers look better if they're symmetrical. My previous feathers were not symmetrical at all. I just couldn't get the angle correct. 

This is a picture of the feathers before I fixed them. The feathers to the left are at such a weird angle! I like them better now. I learned I just can't get the correct angle unless I quilt them a specific way. I hope I improve and will be able to quilt them at any angle I want!
 

I Like Thursday #143

It's time for I Like Thursday! A bunch of us bloggers focus on happy and uplifting posts. Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to find more of these posts. I've always loved peonies but we didn't have any plants in our yard. We bought 3 plants and my husband started to plant them. We already got our first bloom! The plants aren't very big but I'm hoping they get larger over time!

It's June so I changed out some of the floral arrangements around the house. I always loved this one. It sits on a table in our foyer. I just love the colors!

I started to quilt Swoon. I quilted ribbon candy on the border. It took a while for me to decide what to do with that odd shaped space. I knew I wanted feathers and curved cross hatching. This is what I came up with! So far, so good!

Here's my scrap sock that I started last week. I posted a little formula last week to use when trying to incorporate different colored yarn into a sock. This measures around 5 inches. I like how it looks. I'm writing everything down so the mate to this sock will look similar.

It was nice over the weekend but it's been cold today and yesterday. I hope you all have great weather as well as  a great weekend!