summer fun

What I've been doing this summer:

1.  Admiring the beauty of nature!

I only wish these gorgeous flowers could last longer!

2.  Quilting for a customer, a hand-embroidered quilt from a pattern by Crabapple Hill.  There are many beautiful designs from Meg on her website and available at Bear Patch.  

This one is called Vintage Tin.

I took this picture to show the little wireless speaker that I attach to my handlebars to listen to recorded books while I work.  It's called the Buckshot and is made by Outdoor Tech.  The holder is intended for use on bicycle handlebars, but it fits right on my machine handlebars, too!  I get most of my books through the Anoka County Library as digital downloads on my iPhone.  With this little speaker, I can still hear the recording and the sound of the machine at the same time.  I have to have an ear to the machine to pick up on the noises and sounds that alert me to a problem.  Headphones don't work as well for that.

3.  Visiting North Carolina to get some playtime with my little guys!

Happy Jack!

The best selfie I could get of the boys and Brita together.

We had something fun to do every day, and I learned all about the favorite books, videos, foods and anything else you can imagine in the life of a 2 and 4 year old!

4.  Starting a new quilt design for a new pattern.

This is for the Quilt MN fabric and shop hop starting 7/29.  So I need to keep pushing to get this done!  I have it all done in my head, but that doesn't really count!

I'm using a row quilt layout again, with the border print cut and place between rows of pieced blocks.

It's coming along, but there's still a lot of work to be done.  The top row of spool blocks is pretty straightforward, that's a block that's been made many times.  The row of chain blocks was something I pretty much had to invent to get the right size and shape that I wanted.  So that took awhile.  The bottom row of fish blocks was a block design that I found in my EQ program, but had to modify.  It was made with diamonds and Y-seams where the orange points are.  That type of construction is not easy, and I want this pattern to appeal to any quilter who looks at it.  So I re-drafted it to incorporate half-square triangles instead.

I have one more row of different blocks to make, then assemble the rows with borders, get it quilted, bound, photographed.  And write up the directions!  And get them printed and packaged, too.  And kits cut!  But hey, I've got 24 days to do it in!

What are you doing this summer!