Mid-September Quilt Progress and Other Stuff

Hi everyone! Today is grey and heavy and dull, perfect for a doctor visit scheduled months ago. This guy is kind and listens, so okay. But yesterday! Ah, yesterday! It was the most beautiful sparkly fizzy  bright summer day you can imagine.

A Top Ten day. I was surprised the beach was not smaller, but the walk was the usual mile and a half. Cool dry day with a few clouds and bright sun, made for an easy walk. We saw dolphins!
[more pics at the end/ no dolphins tho]

I brought both Mo's Rainbow sweater and Bitty to work on. I find I can only hand quilt with enthusiasm for about an hour, lol. Better to work on it an hour per day than to force myself and get sloppy and bored. Annoyed.

Quilt projects: I spent more time than I intended recently making this baby quilt for a friend. I needed simple and modern.  [it got bad reviews here on the home jury of kids, so it is okay if you hate it. It's a smidge pathetic, too bad.]

I totally made this quilt twice because I didn't like the grey solid of the first version, more tan than grey, a prob of ordering online. I have another requested grey quilt: ''palest possible, but grey,'' the mom to be says. Sigh.

Fussy cut a free form Star: giraffe, lion, smiling Sun, etc..

Showcased my quilter's fun pattern of stars and planets.

The back is the best part, it is the text of Dr Seuss's Oh The Places You'll Go! , a classic storybook. I love having all the goofy wishes and encouragements on the baby boy's quilt. ''You'll climb to great heights! I am 98% sure!"

I also bought the book, maybe his big sister can read it to him, when he is a bit older. She started kindergarten last week, time flies. [Look at these stripes! String quilt inspiration!?]

I made a gift bag with the leftover backing print.

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Lori's Fall Sewalong started!  (Humble Quilts) Her much awaited Almost Amish little quilt. I have been very excited and awaiting this project eagerly for months.

I tried out Grunge 5" squares, but no. Not for a mystery project. [You know how mystery quilt SALs make me anxious, right? I only do Lori's.]




Next I waffled around with a selection of "Amish'' solids, here.

In the end I swapped in the pale pink because I have never seen white in an Amish quilt.

I even gave the project its own little pretty box! Can't wait to see what the next clue is.

Here are the next two blocks for Year in the Country. September and October.

Making the 70% sized copies is as far as I have progressed.  I don't think I have ever have been so far behind by mid-month on this fun quilt.

I am stalled by not knowing how to applique the House sides and roof, they make no sense to me. Maybe I'll go with the original ''primitive stitch''/ running stitch? but even then they don't seem to fit.  Baffled.

Can't wait to make October, maybe it is distracting me?

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And---this was so fun! One of my FB quilting groups had a fabric scraps swap. I don't accumulate scraps , so instead I cut pieces from my stash. That was a bit hard but worth it. Here is what I got in return. I got a BIG box [not just an envelope!] of fabrics from my swap partner, Mary Ann.
 All beautiful and useful.

Plus she put in some quilt scraps, some of her own lovely quilt blocks, and a great pattern. How fun is this!

All the fabrics---or many--seem to date from the time when I wasn't quilting? Or Mary Ann just has a wonderfully different ''eye'' from mine.  As with my special fabrics from Penny, I just have these in a basket, to look at and enjoy---so far.
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Sewing machine notes: cleaning the feed teeth and tightening the foot screw helped with my machine spitting out the seams! Thanks for advice.
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Off topic: The market had wonderful fall flowers this week---talk about color inspiration! Why the fad of grey, we should rebel.

Including dahlias.

I was thrilled, though I prefer mixed bunches of dahlias.

I had a hard time choosing, ended up with these pompom types.

I don't think they are as adorable as I had hoped, too bad.

I tried a couple of containers......hmmm. They had that boring chrysanthemum effect, right?

When in doubt, use a Mason jar?

Up close they are actually kind of icky. I have a phobia about repeating patterns like this, hate honeycombs, or honeycomb motifs, for example. Or hexagon and clamshell quilts---ick. Fibonacci spirals, eeew.

I could have spent my $7.oo more wisely.

Have a good week! Thursday or Friday we are cooking something new and healthy. Be sure to join me.

"Zucchini?"

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.......