Moving It Forward Monday

I finally finished the orange Sand Castle blocks (a Bonnie Hunter pattern).  I was supposed to work on orange scraps in May for the RSC19, but the month got away from me.  They are all complete now for orange.

I'm linking up at Em's Scrap Bag for Moving it Forward Monday.

Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt -- With Kevin the Quilter!

I'm starting a new summer project!!!  Woohoo!!!

Check out all the details on Kevin the Quilter's Blog.

I have already decided that one of my colors will be NEUTRALS!!!  I have plenty of them.  This big bin is already handy and by my sewing machine. 

I'm not sure what other color to pick yet.  Hmmmm.  I have a lot of blues and greens...  Hmmmm.

Marking these days on my calendar... Hope you play along too.

June 27

July 25

and

August 22

The 2019 Garden

Here's the current situation of my garden.  Hopefully it will be dry enough to run my rototiller and/or Mantis this week.  We have had more rain here in Ohio than usual this year.  The plants look great so far!

The zucchini and squash are doing great.  I hope to have some baby zucchinis next week.  I finally found a zoodle maker that I love.  I got it on eBay.  

Paderno World Cuisine 3-Blade Vegetable Slicer / Spiralizer A4982799 

The tomato cages are re-purposed tv antennae pieced that I personally cut with the cutting torch one day while our son was in pre-school.  They make great heavy duty cages.  I need about 30 more cages for the rest of the tomatoes this year.  I'm not sure yet if I will just buy them or use fence posts and tie them with pretty fabric strings.  That would be more work, but I have all the materials.

It's a tomato canning year.  Hoping for a great crop.  

The swimming pool ladder is a great place for cucumbers to climb.  I saw a relative cleaned out his garage and put another one on our porch.  I may grab that and put it in the garden as well for the other hill of cucumbers.  Re-use and re-purpose -- love it!

Scrap Happy Saturday -- The June Blues

I finally got out some blue scraps after being shamed out of using my orange scraps that I am STILL not done with... LOL.  Here's five Sand Castle block (a Bonnie Hunter pattern.)  They aren't all super dark blues, but blue none the less.

...and here's the last of the orange 4-patches for now.  You can see that I really needed to get some fun colors into the blocks above.  I'm almost out of purples and pinks already.  Those months should be coming... right?  Hint hint, Angela!  I'm still working on my orange sand castle blocks as well.

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC19.

It other news, we have had SUNSHINE in Ohio for two days!!!  I could mow and my husband re-dug the washed out ditch and culvert last night and was able to grade the driveway today.  Ahhh.  I love a fresh graded driveway.  My hubby knows how to keep me happy. :)

I don't post that many pictures of my husband.  He's a little camera shy.  Don't worry... he is wearing shorts!  They blend in with the tractor a little.  I love the Discovery Channel show called Naked & Afraid.  LOL.  I am so blessed to have him as a partner in life. 

Last night was a great night for playing baseball.  Here's my favorite catcher.

Here's what it looked like after I mowed the muddy yard.  Some of the fancy allotments have fancy mowing stripes.  I have muddy brown stripes.  I love living out where we can't get cable or natural gas.  800 feet from the main road is fine with me.

My grandma was a quilter.  She was very talented and won many ribbons at the Ohio State Fair.   She passed away in 1975, but I am proud to say that she is the grandparent that I relate to the most -- my quilting, my thrifty heart, my crafts, my cooking, my chickens, my canning, my gardening, my spirituality...There is a little bad blood in our family.  I didn't get the things that were supposed to be divided in the will.  That's water under the bridge.  Every once in a while I find something tucked into a box that was regarded as "junk" from another family member.  This week I found her songbook from the 1950's.  It has things tucked in there in her handwriting and newspaper clippings and sewing/quilting patterns.  I believe that NOTHING happens by chance.  I believe that everything is perfectly timed by God.  I was meant to find this book this day.  Oh the sentimental value of this book.  I love it.  It will be at my sewing desk for quite a while.  It's amazing that the songs she loved in church are also some of the songs that I love in church.

Customer Blue and 4-Patch Quilt -- A Friday Finish!

I'm so happy that this blue and 4-patch customer quilt is finished.  I think part of the reason that it gave me longarm problems is that it is made from several different types of fabrics (front and back).  Done is done.  I called the customer and hopefully she's not upset for me having it for too long and I can drop it (and it's friends) off by the weekend.

I longarm quilted it with pink thread because the back was mostly pink.  I used my Circle Lord giant template board called Ribbles.  It's a looser pattern and allowed for me to work in some of the fullness.

Here's a glimpse of the back.  It was pieced.  It was part of a white sheet in the center and pink gingham check on the sides.  I had to add more white after the pink gingham because the backing fabric was not wide enough.  I had to add enough to the bottom so that I can use my grippers to clamp it into the frame = extra work...  But it's done.

I originally planned on using my Swirls template board, but I had tension issues and there was just too much fullness here and there.  That was unwanted re-work on my part, but like I said...DONE!

There are still threatening skies here in Ohio.  I didn't chance hanging it out on the clothesline.

Here it is rolled up and back in the batting bag just waiting with the other two quilts to get returned to the quilter.  :)  Oh what a happy sight to me!

Update:  When I dropped off the three above quilts my customer was satisfied with them and gave me two more to quilt for her.  Whew!  I was a little worried because I have had them since December '19.  My customer also understands that I don't longarm quilt during the cold winter months.  Glad they are done!

I'm linking up with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

I'm also linking up with Sara at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

I found some new linky parties I hope to be part of the future as well.  I'm linking up with Michelle at From Bolt to Beaty and Nina at Creations - Quilts, Art...Whatever for Off the Wall Fridays.

I also found Wendy of Wendy's Quilts and More for the Peacock Party!

Speaking of Ohio weather.  Look!  I put stripes in the yard while getting a chance to mow today -- brown mud stripes that is.  LOL.  The entire ditch an culvert needed cleaned.  My husband did that an put back some of the washed out driveway back with the backhoe last night.

I got this photo of two turkeys in the yard this morning.  They are regulars.  The turkey on this side of the driveway is interacting with a bunny hiding in the grass (that little brown dot.)  See it?

Bowling With the HIGH SCHOOL!

We spent the afternoon this week with our regular bowling activity.  He was starting to beat me.  Now, entering 6th grade this fall, he is allowed to practice with the high school bowling team.  Since they have been starting to coach things I am leaving things alone and letting them COACH.  His scores are going down, but he is learning fundamentals.  Glad they are starting at 6th grade!

Owen also participates in the summer reading program at our local library.  It's funny that's he's Mr. popular at our local branch.  EVERYBODY -- even the substitute librarians -- knows him.  Even his aunt can go into the library and they know HER just by association -- and she's such an amazing part of his life.  Anywho... one of the reading prizes this week was a free doughnut at a local doughnut place.  I confidentially left him out at the parking lot (and made sure he got to the sidewalk safely, of course.)  We had never been to this particular doughnut shop location.  He took his coupon and confidentially walked in, had a conversation with the person at the counter and proudly got his free cream stick with sprinkles.  I watched as the counter worker who has never met him before gave him a high five before he left.

We are SOOOOO PROUD of our son and the independent young man he is becoming.  Next week he'll be at church camp for the fourth year in a row.  He spends three nights and four days there!  We have an amazing church family.  He can't wait to go.  Like I said, we are just SO PROUD of him!

Unofficial Accuquilt Die Review

I am not an employee or affiliated with Accuquilt.  I am a HUGE Accuquilt fan and loyal user.  Let me tell you why...

It seems like some of my friend don't know what to do with little bits and pieces of scraps after they are done making their quilts.  They put them in a bag and surprise me when they see me... at home, at a guild meeting, at church, at school... Scraps just show up.  Here's an example of some neutral strips and pieces that I pulled from my bin today.

I love to work with 1.5" squares on so many things.  I used to cut them all to length by hand from my 1.5" strips (cut with my Accuquilt strip die #55024).

My newest die is the 1.5" square (1" finished) Accuquilt die #55470.  I like this die and will be using it often to get rid of my tiniest of scraps.  I'm not really sure why Accuquilt put spaces between each square unless it was for better visibility for fabric placement.

I ironed and layered my fabric up to six layers, put on a mat (all of my mats would work because they are all bigger than this die) and cranked them through.  Within 10 minutes I had over 200 accurately cut squares.

Sometimes I purchase my dies on eBay, Amazon, and sometimes just directly from the Accuquilt site.  I found the best deal on this die on the Accuquilt site.  (I had points and a coupon to use.)  It is a newer die.  That is where I normally purchase newer dies.

I once talked on the phone to a person that worked at Fabric Hut in Virginia. Fabric Hut is a great source via Amazon and Ebay and their website for Accuquilt dies.  They even offer free shipping from time to time.  The person I talked to said that they offer great Accuquilt die prices because when a die becomes "older" Fabric Hut purchases it by the pallet from Accuquilt and sells it at a discounted price.

I whipped up these 4-patches in no time...and yes, I'm still working on orange blocks for the RSC19.