Rail Fence Progress

 I'm working on a large quilt (28x30) block layout using 3.5" (3"finished) rail fence blocks.  I'm working on the third section.  Here's the layout:

I'm linking up at Quilting is more fun than housework for Oh Scrap!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I only moved the hoop a little to work on this next part of the same block.  This project definitely qualifies for S L O W stitching.  I'm trying a longer needle.  I'm not sure if I like how thick it is.  I like the length.

Another slow project is planting seedlings.  I'm experimenting with planting them using egg shells as the container.  I got these on Amazon.  These are Scabiosa Pincushion Mix.

I'm happy to report I'm not sore today from falling when the pool ladder broke on Friday night.  Woohoo.  We also had a nice rain yesterday -- finally.  The smoke from the Canadian wildfires seems to have cleared up quite a bit in our part of Ohio.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

 

Rail Fence 3.5" Blocks RSC26

I made it this far with my RSC rail fence blocks.  They are 3.5" unfinished.

I'm going for a 28 x 30 block layout.  That would fit our bed nicely.  I love the look of it so far.

Hoping for rain today.  If so, I'll lay out the next 15 x 15 section.  Otherwise I'll be working outside trying to make progress on pulling weeds from my BIG flowerbed.  Here's the before pic.  Look at all those overgrown weeds!

Progress... it's looking better:

Look at this before pic at this angle.  Yuck.

Looking better.  I only have about 1/8 of the bed left to weed.  Eventually I will remove four of the bushes too.  That may have to wait until fall.  This hot weather isn't the best time to move them.  When I look at the above pic and this next pic, it's hard to tell it's the same flower bed.

And the lamp shade you ask?  Someone was throwing that away.  I got two of them out of their trash.  They make great supports for peonies!  My peonies never bloom here.  The leaves turn brown later in the season.  I'm moving them.  Hopefully they will be closer to some ants to eat the wax so that they open. 

I pulled this branch of berries out of there.  The chickens are happy.  They have to stay in the fenced area for a few days.  We had a close call with a coyote on Thursday.  It was within 20 yards of my girls!  I purposely leave some weeds in this fenced-in area for the chickens.  They like to root and scratch around them.  

My other job this week will be to find a new pool ladder.  My son wanted to swim after 7pm yesterday.  We were having fun.  The water temp at that time was 85 degrees.

My husband and son got out of the pool and went into the garage.  When I got out of the pool, this:

When I fell I hit both knees.  I have had knee issues in the past.  I'm really sore this morning.  I'm so thankful that I didn't break anything or get hurt more.  But ladder shopping it is.  I yelled for help.  No answer... After a couple minutes of sitting there watching water gush out I accessed my body damage and got up and texted my husband this photo.  He was able to make the repair.  When.  It's still holding.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC26

Bitcoin -- More Progress

BitCoin is a Bonnie Hunter digital pattern available on her site here.  It got up to 97 degrees yesterday.  I stayed in the house vs. pulling weeds in the sun.  These posts will probably be boring as it continues to grow.  I like to sometimes use my blog to make myself feel accountable and motivate me to move projects forward. 

I am going for the original size of 74" x 90".  It could go just a smidge wider, but with all these little seams, the quilt could become heavy.

Bitcoin Progress -- Sewing the Long Rows

I finally have enough rows assembled on the BitCoin quilt to start putting the rows together.  BitCoin is a Bonnie Hunter digital pattern available on her site here.  It took me an hour to sew four rows together.  I am going for the original size of 74" x 90".  It could go just a smidge wider, but with all these little seams, the quilt could become heavy.

I didn't lay out the rows.  I am going to put them together at random in strips of four and then arrange them.  I'll have a couple left over to put where needed.  Many of these fabrics definitely look better cut into tiny pieces because the majority of them came out of the multi-colored bin.  I made sure I threw in some others to break it up a bit.  I'm glad I did.  You can see where the fabrics with the single colors break that up.

It's been hot--in the 90's--and humid.  My t-shirt gets soaked working in the flowerbed in the first 15 minutes.  Better get busy pulling weeds this morning.  But look how Candy gets creative to be comfy:

Candy is an outside cat but usually insists on my attention and likes to be where I am on the property.

This afternoon looks like a pool day.

The ducks are enjoying the hot days as well.

Plants by the Fence Finally Moved

It's been a process to move the plants growing on the other side of the chicken yard fence.  This weekend I selected the last few.  I know this is not the best time of year to transplant them.  They are very hardy and will survive.  They will be ready for work next spring.

Yucca, sedum, peonies, cora bells.  They are ready to move to their new home.  Hoping for rain the next few days.  We shall see.  

My next area to get a lot of attention is this bed by the pole barn.  It is overcome by weeds.  There are four large shrub-like flowering plants.  I am going to remove three of them and leave the rhododendron.  Every year I cut the other three back.  They grow back and take up too much room.  They are crowding the plants.  I am going to move them to a sunny spot along the woods.  Again, I know this is not the best time of the year to do this.  But once school starts I will be busy busy again. 

Bitcoin Progress

 More progress has been made on the BitCoin quilt.  BitCoin is a Bonnie Hunter digital pattern available on her site here.  The last of the columns have been counted and sewn.  Next I will put them together.

Tulip Table Topper Complete

Tulip table topper is complete.  It measures 45" x 15".

I found this sweet pastel in my scrap bins that was just the right size for it.  I'm pretty sure it was a piece of a gently used sheet that a friend gifted to me.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

 

Here's my Summer 2026 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

5.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

6.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

7.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

8.  HST -- Needs more blocks made and sewn into rows

9.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project

10. Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

11.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

12.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

13.  Horsen Around Scrap Quilt -- needs blocks cut and sewn

14.  Pink Houses crib quilt -- Needs blocks made

15.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

16.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

17.  Dinner Party (school print blocks) blocks cut, needs blocks sewn

18.   Layer Cake Lattice -- pink blocks cut -- needs blocks sewn

19.  True Blue Sew Along (started 1/15/26) -- needs corners sewn to blocks

20.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

21.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

22.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

23.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

24.  Cheddar Jack crib quilt -- cat blocks are sewn, some 2.5" squares are sewn

25.  Tulip Table Topper -- finished 7.11.26 -- 1st finish this quarter

True Blue Quilt Top is Complete

 True Blue is a flimsy.  I just added a simple border.

I made a pieced back for it.  After it sat around for a couple of days I didn't really like it because the one fabric that I had a very large piece was not a quilty fabric.  It's too slippery.  It's like a fabric to make drapes.  Back to the drawing board on that.

My two ducks are getting older.  They did not lay any eggs this year.  The started having trouble getting into the pool.  I made them a little dirt ramp to help them.  I now have a watermelon rind as a wedge to make it more level.  They don't seem to mind.

I put these bee balm seeds in these containers only two days ago.  I'm shocked how fast they germinate.

Ahhh!  It's raining this morning.  Happy day!!!

Bitcoin Mountain of Strips Sewn

Yesterday I spent sewing strips together for Bitcoin.  Up next... cutting them to the usable size from this mountain.  HA! Can you tell by the reflection on my Accuquilt die cutter that I'm still watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix?  This seems to be an all summer watch for me.

Speaking of a mountain... I mean small pile of topsoil in the back of our property... here's the progress made on the seeds that I scattered on that pile:

As you can tell, I don't weed it 100%.  I just weed it enough for the plants to make progress.  I think I have here some squash (hopefully butternut), yellow squash, watermelon and maybe cantaloupe.  The white stuff is baby powder.  I bought a surplus of it at the bin store for 25 cents a bottle.  It works similar to Seven dust but seems less toxic.  The bugs don't like it.

Flower Update

Here's some pics of some things I proudly have growing this year:

I filled in empty spots between the strawberries with petunias.  Cucumbers are growing on the pool ladder.

The surprise poppies are gorgeous on the topsoil pile.  I seriously have to gather some of the seed pods.

Tomatoes are doing fine in the raised beds.  I threw in the leftover, discount petunias and. some basil.  Just in case you are wondering, the tomato stakes I use are from two old antenna that I cut up with the cutting torch.  I did that about 15 years ago when our son was at pre-school.  They will stand the test of time.  I'm concerned that there are not many blossoms on my tomatoes.

Lucifer Crocosmia is starting to bloom.  Hummingbirds love this stuff.  Each year I dig some up and spread it to another area of the property.  To the right of it is lemon mint.  That stuff takes over like crazy.

Bee balm--currently this is the only color I have.  I bought a variety seed pack this year.  I'm trying to get some starts of other colors since the bees love it.

Hydrangea -- I tried pouring the stuff over it to make them blue.  No luck...  Oh well.  I had to move these from where they were this spring because they were starting to flow onto the neighbor's property.  I didn't want them to get caught in his mower.  I successfully moved two bushes this size.

Cactus -- a friend gave me just one little piece about four years ago.  I'll probably move it from the tile soon.  Even though it is super sharp (I use gloves and tongs when I mess with it) something continues to bite chunks off of it.  By the size of the bites I think it's a deer.  But there is a groundhog family that lives very close to it.  I never see anything near them.  This would bloom yellow if it ever got the chance.  I'm going to sacrifice a piece this fall and try growing it in the protected area with the dog fence.

Lamb's ear needs some more nutrient-dense dirt around it.

I cut up the lily tubes and spread them out.  They are doing much better this year.  Can't wait to see what color the cosmos are that I planted by seed (to the left of them).  I love the sedum to the right of them.

The Cora bells got thinned out last week and I tried to plant them around a tree in the orchard.  I probably shouldn't have done it on those super hot, dry days.  These are still fine, but we'll see what becomes of those next season.  I didn't get a chance to water them in...

Catnip is growing under the milk crate.  I forget what this flower is called...  I know my friend convinced me to get some of it at a garage sale for $1.  She makes tinctures from several of the plants that she has.  I bought a book to do it, but never did it.  I didn't realize at the time that tinctures were basically plants soaked in alcohol to help with different ailments.  I need to look at that book again to see what would help poison ivy.

The two plants in the center are new to me this year.  They are called pumpkin on a stick.  They are a form of edible eggplant that is small and orange.  The spiky looking plants are called red hot poker.  They bloomed with a yellow/orange flower that kinda looks like candy corn on top.  They already bloomed.

 

Bitcoin Progress -- Long Strips are finally cut

Yesterday I got all of the short pieces cut AND sewn for the BitCoin quilt.  BitCoin is a Bonnie Hunter digital pattern available on her site here.  

Today the long pieces have been cut.  Now I can do mindless sewing and more mindless sewing.  Simple for a summer vacation project.  I'm not getting any big projects done.  But I am enjoying using these scraps that will definitely look much better cut into small pieces.  

I realized these posts are probably boring to you.  But it motivates me and that's why I do a post like this.

BitCoin Progress

 The plan today is to cut all these odds and ends into strips so that I can keep working on my BitCoin quilt.  BitCoin is a Bonnie Hunter digital pattern available on her site here.

Yesterday was spent ironing and sorting scraps that were this size.  Most of these were pulled out of the "multiple color" bin or were thrown in my to-be-sorted bin.  Carry on...

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I found myself stitching in a waiting room this week on my random blue blocks crib quilt.

I realized that I didn't have blocks marked out in advance and that I did not have my erasable gel pen.  That didn't stop me.  I just tried to stay the same distance from the seam.  It looks okay to me, but I prefer to stitch on a line.  My sew-to-go bag now has a spare ruler and a few erasable pens in it.  Lesson learned.

I got to some of the berries before the birds did.  Yummy!  I'm dealing with the aftermath of poison ivy.  I showered with Dawn dish soap right away when I came into the house.  I still ended up with it.  

I didn't think anything came up when I threw a bunch of seeds on the topsoil pile the first time I planted things.  I was so excited to find these poppies blooming.  There are a bunch more pods on them that will bloom later this week.  The leaves on them are different than my other poppies.  Such a beautiful surprise.  

The deer have been getting dangerously close to my raised beds.  I forgot to post this pic a few weeks ago.  I'll try to get an updated pic of how well the plants are doing for next week.  The tomato plants look great, but I don't see many blossoms on them.

Candy the cat keeps a watchful eye out for birds on the berries.

She usually poses for the camera.

I caught our son out watering "daddy's" peppers on the porch.  It's easier for him to take care of these plants.   He can pull the weeds from these because he can distinguish the weed from the plants.  He almost always gives me a pepper count when he is finished.  We had four scorching days this week (temps in the 90's and heat index over 100).  We made sure the plants got watered.  We finally had good rain on the 4th.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.