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!

Out of "Hibernation"

I've been sort of hibernating from this blog lately, just finding a whole lot of summer fun and not finding my muse for writing!  But I can show you some fun things that have happened while "the frayed edge" sat here taking a break.  Be prepared for a bunch of pictures!  Here are some things I have made (or started) lately:

I started working on a set of Christmas stockings.  This pattern is called Stopping by a Woods from Fiberworks in Billings, MT.  This is only #1 of 6 stockings, I have some of the others underway, too.  The background is a lightweight linen, all of the pieces are fused in place and I stitch all around them.  Takes awhile!

I've been trying real hard to stay focused on the positive and turning away from negative.  This book is interesting, considering the direction I am moving.

This is the Fat Quarter Pop-Up by the Fat Quarter Gypsy.  It has a heavy coiled wire that holds it upright, and can be compressed flat if needed.

I did some easy quilting on this quilt that my mom made.  It is made from my dad's shirts combined with a light colored background fabric.  It's good to see those shirts again!  It's the disappearing 4 patch block.

I finished this machine embroidered book for the grandsons.  It can be viewed with 3D glasses for a whole different experience!  R Is For Robot by OESD.

I made this pillow cover for my son, it features vintage pictures of Glacier Park and Whitefish, MT (where he resides).  The pictures came from American Quilt Blocks and I put them together with fabric from my stash in a design that I made up.  It fits a large 20" pillow.

Playing around with some Christmas pennants.  These were printed on a fabric panel and leftover from last year.  They might be just the right thing this year!  They were made by Riley Blake, and they have some directions along with a great free download of block letters and numbers if you want to add words to the pennants.

Working on a challenging quilting job for a customer.  It is all hand embroidered and shaded with colors (crayons).  I've been a very bad procrastinator in getting this done, but the end is in sight!  I think I was intimidated by it.  But we've become friends now!  Pattern is Gardener's Alphabet by Crabapple Hill.  The shading created with crayons adds to the embroidery.  The process is explained on the Crabapple Hill website.

So that's the fibery update from here.  Stay tuned for more!