My Views - Flowers, Beaches & Design Boards

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This is my view as I float around in the pool. While the summer heat is here, I try to enjoy it as much as possible.

I have done a bit more on my embroidery flowers.  Not much more but a bit. I balanced out the left side with some blue flowers and more pink on the left/center.

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I still have to either add more center big leaves or take them out.  I'm so undecided about it that it has totally stalled this project for 5 months.  What do you think I should do?

In the summer, we have a pool party every Saturday.  It's just a given, come to Mom's and bring some food.  We always have a good time. Until....Covid and being locked down made my one daughter "crazy"!!!

She had to just get out of town!  So we all went to the beach.

OOOOH  that was so much fun we did it again last Saturday.

Check out this beach - NO ONE was here at 8 am.

It was just me and the birds. (Bruce was off body surfing)

Oh and Marzipan!

Total Happiness!

And by 9.am

One family to the left.

And one family to the right.

  The afternoon brought the family and the FUN!

They dug a bathtub and Violet fell in!

 Mamas pouring water into the sand-tub.

Daddies taking a break on shore

And Marzipan taking a break in the shade

  Or on my rump!

And there was a little pier action.  

This is the same beach Bruce proposed to me. 

I remember sitting up here on the pier after he proposed just being happy and also very nervous to tell my daughters. One had not even met Bruce yet.  Now look at us - all at the beach together.

In non-beachy news: 

I did actually do another design board.

This one I tried harder to be neater. And it's better but still a bit wonky.

But it works! And now I have two.

I must say God has met all my needs and the needs of my "going crazy" daughter.  Hahaha.

Happy Stitching,

Linda

New (and not so good) Design Board

Ugh! Not every project is a hit.

This one is certainly not.

I watched Lori Holt's tutorial, and my first try is a bit wonky.

I was a little discouraged.  Although it does serve it's purpose. 

 I'm going to watch her Youtube video again and give it another try.

Cuz, we know we quilters always try again!

(and again, and again, and again - hahaha)

Hoping my next post is with a much better design board.

Happy Stitching,

Linda

WAIT!

 Before you go, I have something else to share.

Before and after pictures of my little Marzipan.

BEFORE: Obviously

After: Wow! - what a haircut can do! 

 The real Marzipan or Marzi-pants as we call her 

 is a goof ball.

Okay - thanks for reading.

Now let's get on with our day.

No More "Too Hot to Handle"

You know when the stars align and everything clicks?

After saying for years I would make myself a potholder I finally did.

I have needed one for YEARS.

I saw Kimberly Jolly doing a tutorial on the Lori Holt paper piecing Economy Block.  Oh it looked like so much fun.

I don't know how to do the link - but you can search YouTube for it. 

Behind the Seams: Lori’s Holt’s new Economy Block Foundation Paper Tutorial, and more!

First I had to find some Cute and Fun fabric. 

Yes, little ladybugs will do.

I don't usually paper piece. So I had to do a lot of "unstitching" and I even cut off one of the triangles!  Oh Dear - that was another "redo". 

But in the end....Happiness!

 

I used two squares of insulbright batting. I do hope that will be enough.

Such a little square to put binding on. I didn't know where to start!

Binding on - now to flip it over and hand stitch it to the back. 

All done! And why did it take me so long? 

Happy Stitching,

Linda

Colorado Blocks

While in Colorado last August I picked up the cutest little quilt kit.

There are blocks for Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.

It's applique and I LOVE drawing and cutting out shapes.

I love the fabrics in the kit, but I did have this brown that I liked better for the tree trunks.

And then I saw Lori Holt create design boards on YouTube, but our local JoAnn's is out of white flannel so I just use the plain boards for now.

 

It is a lot easier to place each block on a board as I sort and cut the pieces. Then I can stack up the boards and Wa La - a nice neat mess.  Hahaha

Have a great day stitching and creating,

Linda

12 Things I learned from Frolic

12 things I learned while doing this mystery quilt.

 #1

When cutting, place the two fabrics together that will be sewn together. Then cut.  Now the pieces are paired and ready to be zipped through the sewing machine. Makes chain piecing sooo much easier and quicker.

#2

How to use my strange looking ruler, the Easy Angle Ruler.

 and the Companion Angle 

and how to switch and turn and flip.  NO waste - love it.

#3

What chain piecing Really is! Zipping through hundreds of HST one right after another without stopping.  (It's actually quite fun!)

#4

The background of a fabric is often how the fabric will "read".  Such as flowers on a cream will read cream or frogs on dark blue will read as dark blue. 

This floral reads lavender.

#5

To take a picture in black and white it to see the contrast.

#6

To read, re-read and mark the instructions with a high lighter if necessary. I did this in college, never for a quilt. However, it was good to realize that is the way to go. You never know what a designer is really saying unless you dissect it.

#7

That I really do like to sew and even better -  Bruce appreciates my passion for quilting and is willing to do whatever it takes for me to continue it. (Dishes, cooking even those bathrooms.)  Wow!  I really lucked out!

What a guy!

#8

How to spin seams. (Hey - I didn't even know this was a thing until Bonnie taught me!)

#9
I learned to think about HST differently. Before I would just do a block - like a star block. Then do a bunch of different star blocks to make a quilt. And this time I realized that if I had a bunch of hst made up I would create my own design by adding other elements, like a four patch or flying geese.

#10 

That I may never master that scant 1/4 inch. UGH!!! hahaha

#11

That I have an unbelievable amount of patience to rip, sew, re-rip, re-sew the same seam over and over and over again until those points match up!

#12

And mostly importantly - scrap busting quilts lead to more fabric not less! 

So then my question when I first started was, would I like doing a Bonnie Hunter AKA "Thousands of Pieces Quilt"?  The answer is yes.  It was a challenge and it was hard but it was worth doing. 

Happy Stitching,

Linda 

Rolling Instead of Frolicking

  Do you know what happens when you have a silly dog 

and you are trying to measure the length of your quilt?

She lays right smack dat on the tape measure.

 And rolls around 

 becoming a blur.

Gotta love her!

I made this little dress for my daughter's soap bottle.

It was much fun to make with the rick-rack and ruffle.

We decided you have to be old to appreciate this type of thing.

Then my 15 year old granddaughter busted our theory - telling us she loves it too.  Or maybe we just raised her right. hahaha

Happy Stitching,

Have fun staying home.  

Linda