Happy Fourth!!!

 

Happy Fourth of July to those quilters in the USA!! I am working on the above blocks, for a children's quilt, going to a refugee Ukranian child.  I am loving these bright, fun fabrics!!!  I hope this will find a child in need of a fun, bright quilt, for a glimmer of happiness in a terrible situation.

Nancy, who blogs below, sent out the word for these quilts.  She needs 25 of them.  

O, Quilter -- Can You Help? (nancynearphiladelphia.blogspot.com)

Here are some fun facts about our July 4th remembrance.  

Hope each of you has a happy day!!

Julie

Busy, busy, busy days!!

 

Good day to everyone!!!  I am chasing squirrels around here.  I just love plaids, as many of you know already, and I decided maybe an autumnal quilt was in order...with hearts.  Oh, my heart just sings while working on these applique hearts!!  This was so I could have some hand work to do on a recent road trip.

I finished the hand quilting of this little quilt, and it will actually be a pillow, to replace the absolutely worn out one that my husband uses for his back while sitting on the couch.  I love hand quilting!

I finished this quilt, too!  This is from Lori's quilt along, of Humble Quilts.   All plaids!!!  and hand quilted, just in time for the fourth of July.

What are you up to???

*********************Nurse's notes*****************

Hospice has been closed for two weeks now, and I have floated to many other units in the hospital, nursing very different populations of patients.  From sickle cell patients, (one young sickle cell patient asked for one thing...a Twix candy bar!)  of course I got her one, LOL!...to oncology, heart patients, to ICU and vented patients, to code blues, to a darling Alzheimer's patient who fell backward and had a brain bleed.  To a young man, who left against medical advice...and I am afraid for his very life, he is so sick.  It has been challenging, exhausting, and so, so fun.  I even went to the ER for a day and did ER nursing!  Wow...I really respect those nurses...they rock!!!

I am delighted to be off today!!!

Julie

Round and round I go!!

 

I have been making flying geese to go around the Squirrel Star quilt.  So named because...it is a squirrel!!!  It is sort of a springtime, pastel quilt.  I have sewn a zillion flying geese for it and have more to go.

I went to an estate sale this spring, and the lady selling her things and was moving to Switzerland.  In her things were some 100% cotton sheets, still in the yellowed, old packaging.   I bought a couple.  I took one out of the package, washed it, and WOW!!!  It is the softest, thickest sheet I have ever imagined, much less felt.  It is wonderful for piecing!!!  They were a very odd size, and the one I washed was smaller than a twin size.  I am loving piecing with it!!!  I translated the writing on the package, to find out what it said.  I have never seen such a high-quality sheet in my life.

I was just playing here...fun piecing!

I added another round on the Unity quilt.  I made this round simple.  I could not make the scraps I had work right in making the round in the pattern, so I just did this.  It will be just fine!!!

Hope you are doing fine too!!

Julie

Quilting this and that

Remember the Unity Quilt that Bonnie Hunter designed, near the beginning of the pandemic?  Here is my start on that!!  I really concentrated on pressing and accuracy.  I just love it!!  Again, this is a collaborative quilt with Annie.  Super fun!

I have been making a few little taco pouches in-between things.  Here are my efforts.  You can find the free pattern here:  

Taco Zipper Pouch | Riley Blake Designs

I am surprised at how simple these are.  A very fun sew!!!

 Jo, at Jo's country junction, has been sewing tiny stars.  She did a video all about them.  I remembered my tiny stars, and just pulled them out to admire these tiny blocks, and to cut a few more of them.   You can find her video here:  

Sew with Jo: Making STAR BLOCKS and chatting with you about scraps and thrift store finds!! - YouTube

My stars are four inches finished, and Jo's are three inches finished.  Itty-bitty!

Have a wonderful day, each of you!!!

Yahoo! Two finished tops!!

My friend Annie and I made very similar quilts for a wonderful charitable cause. 

A quilter named Ray is making quilts for the Veterans in his church!! Annie heard about this from JO, of Jo's Country Junction.  This following is from Ray himself.

"The church I am a member of, Saint Hilary's Episcopal Church, is holding a Veteran's Day dinner on Nov 10 to recognize and appreciate veterans. Last year we gave 13 red, white and blue quilts to veterans in the congregation. We have more to recognize and want to include visitors, guests and veteran family members with quilts. So many have gone for so long without any recognition or acknowledgement. Just trying to change that in some way."

Mine is above.  We had several different pattern options to choose from.  Annie designed the quilts, and I picked one design that she sent, and we were off to the races!!!  These were the centers of the blocks, that I was making a couple of weeks ago.
 

This one is Annie's!!!!  I love her border the best.  We had so much fun making these together and cannot wait to work on our next ones!!  Isn't that so cool how different they look, using the same block????

Enjoy your sewing!!

Julie K

Garden and progress!! and a FINISH!!!

 

Good morning!!!  Whew, it has been a barn burner around here...lots of work, and more work.  I am OFF today!  Hurrah!!!  And guess what?  I have been slowly hand quilting the above quilt!!  and IT IS COMPLETED!  A few minutes each night has done the trick. I quilted around each applique piece, then did a 3/4 cross hatch in the open areas.  Simple.  Lots of stitching, though!  I am delighted is it done.

It is on the big bed, for a picture.

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I call this the "King's bed."  The quilt is square, so not bed shaped, but I put it on there anyway.  I am celebrating this long-term project being done!

I put together these plaid blocks, in red and blues.  A true UFO, completed too.

The garden just beckons!  Tomatoes and squash are going just crazy with growth.  

Tiny tomatoes are popping through the blossoms!

This tomato plant was purchased from Costco and has tomatoes on it already.  I planted a whole packet of tomato seeds back at the last of January, and the plants are big, now.

A lone zinnia, with many other to come.  The bees like them.

The little garden is really growing, too!!  I am so happy about this little project.  Radishes, swiss chard, peppers, carrots, and peas.  I also planted my last year's Halloween pumpkin seeds around the edges, hoping the vines would trail over the edges and grow pumpkins.  

Hope each of you is doing fantastic today!

Julie

IN search of perfection

 Good day to you all!!  I have been working on a donation quilt with my friend.  We are making the top, choosing backing, sewing binding, and sending it all to a gentleman making quilts of valor for his group.  OH dear.  I thought using all the different reds and making those little blocks, using 1/2 square triangles would be more accurate. IT IS NOT!!!!!  I had such a tough time making all those points meet!  I pinned and sewed carefully and most are not accurate, anyway.      NOT PERFECT!!!  Well, the blue ones are good, anyway, LOL!

Another picture of some of the red blocks.

This, however, is perfection. Isn't that the prettiest thing?  I have no clue what it is, but the supermarket has them on sale.

A tomato!!  Hurrah!!!  I love growing things...and they smell so good.

Hope each of you is having a PERFECT day!!!

  My little garden is flourishing!