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| 20 gallons of peaches- aren't they lovely. They've been frozen, eaten and shared |
Everything's Peachy!
What happened to my summer? It flew by. I think it's technically still summer, but you would never know it from the weather. I've been wearing socks, long sleeve shirts and sipping hot tea. And that's a shame because I like hot weather. And cool weather comes soon enough in the midwest. Maybe we'll have a warm autumn. The crickets and the birds already think it's Fall, too. The crickets are loud and the birds are quiet.
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| About 60 new postcards made |
I've been making some postcards to replenish my supply. I've been trying to get postcards out to the sick from church and also for the birthdays. I use up postcards pretty fast that way. It's been an unexpected pleasure- people that I rarely have a chance to speak with will make a point of finding me and thanking me for the card. Not that I'm seeking the thanks, but it's wonderful to connect and fun to see how much a silly postcard meant to them. And there's the novelty factor- a nice surprise for them. Wish I'd thought of doing this more regularly, earlier. But with using so many postcards, I'm having to make them more en masse- which isn't quite as much fun as doing each one differently. But much more time efficient.
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| happiness is... doesn't take much |
Come on. Tell me all you quilters out there didn't feel your heart go pitty-pat and a tingle zip down you spine at the sight of all those wound bobbins. It makes me feel so secure. Of course, I'd rather have a box full of cream colored bobbins, but you know how we are, any thread will do when we are chugging along. I like to get my sewing thread from "Thread Art" as their prices can't be beat. But I guess a whole lot of other quilters like to do the same and the cream, beige, tan, gray threads are always on back order.
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| Love this for their fall wedding |
Jacob and Mary's wedding is quickly approaching. I'm working pretty diligently on their quilt. The wedding is two months away, but the shower is much closer. (Bekah said I shouldn't post a picture of the quilt in progress as she's seen Jacob visit here. Who knew?) But I'm still gonna- 'cause we all know that things look different in person than they do in a picture. Plus, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out. There are 21 of the 12" leaf blocks and 42 of the 6" leaves. This picture is just a few of the larger ones. And the cool thing is, that I didn't have to buy a single fabric especially for this quilt- they were already in the stash. Making scrappy quilts, almost exclusively, has it's perks! Someone asked me the other day how I choose colors for a scrappy quilt that works. How do you know they all go together? I've given it some thought and here is a short list of my process:
It has to make me smile. I start pulling colors and if I smile when I lay it with the other colors, then it's a keeper. Sometimes it'll get booted off the team because another color will make me smile even more and I move in another direction.
I think of colors as members of a family. Every family member is unique, but have some kind of similarity. And I've noticed that in families there is always that oddball who everyone thinks must have been adopted. But without the oddball, it wouldn't be a real family. So a color that seems unrelated has to be there- just try not to make the family so dysfunctional that all of them are oddballs!
Never include seasonal (Christmas, Halloween, Easter) fabrics. Never ever. Nothing will hi-jack your quilt back to 1973 faster.
Try to keep your neutrals in the same tone and shade. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it will help the design pop. Sometimes, I use different shades to accent different elements in a quilt and that works well if you have a limited amount of neutrals.
Relax. Don't over think it. Do you think great grandma dithered over which fabric to use in her scrappy quilts? I doubt it. I've seen ladies spend two hours choosing the "perfect" fabric for binding. Really? I can usually choose the fabric for an entire quilt in less than 30 minutes. Am I that good? No way. I just relax and have fun. That's why we quilt, right? To have fun.
Daniel is coming home for a short visit. I'm beyond excited. His birthday is tomorrow and we're celebrating, tonight. I'm frying chicken, mashing potatoes, making gravy and yeast biscuits. And there's corn on the cob from the garden. And because it's Daniel, apple pie and ice cream.
Hope everyone has a blessed day!
