Promised Block Pics

About a month ago, I promised I would show you some pictures of some blocks. Better late than never, here are the blocks I was promising to show you.

1857 Album Quilt

These three are from the 1857 quilt. The last of the blocks have been released, but I am way behind in getting them ready. These blocks have been prepped but have not been sewn down yet. You see a shadow under all of them because they are all stacked up and you can see a different block underneath each of these. When there is batting underneath, I don't think that will be a problem.

 

 

 Circle Block 191 

The reason I delayed showing these to you was because I thought I would be able to add to this. None of these blocks wow me. But I don't have anything new to show you.

 I have been cleaning and finishing up remodeling projects around my house. With my surgery, I did not get any chance to do any spring cleaning. I am also working on transforming my house and my life to be more low-maintenance.

 One day last week, I was drawn to reading an old post of mine. It was the first post from 2016, and in it I mentioned that I was working on following the book by Marie Kondo and touching every belonging in my house and deciding whether I should keep it. This has turned out to be a long-term project.

I have been living here for a very long time. I am not planning on moving, but the basic premise is that I am moving out of the house and moving back in without hiring a moving truck. What would I put in here if I was starting all over again.

One of the problems is I bought a couch as part of this process. And every time I pass it, it beckons me to take a nap.

June Favorite Pictures

It is that time of the month when I look into the June folder and share my favorite pictures I took this month.  I try to take pictures every day, although that doesn't always happen, and usually when I take one picture, I wind up taking several pictures that day. This month I found eight I want to share with you.

Requisite sky picture.   The striated clouds are interesting. In March, they identified new cloud formations for the first time in 30 years. Who knew there is a Cloud Appreciation Society?

Most people would probably discard this picture, but I really like the brightness of the yellow flower - just pure translucent color - and how the leaves and buds show all the little hairs. Sometimes the interesting things happen in the background.

Everytime I look at this picture, it looks like something is wrong - like two photos were overlapped or something. But this is a digital camera. The leaves just happen to form such a straight line that it looks like two different pictures.

This one makes me think of a secret garden.  The white flowers and leaves invite one to look further inside to see the pink flowers and whatever else is hidden back there.

This is a traditional picture. I like the combination of the white and pink flowers and all those little buds. They plant summer flowers at the school and they tend to look this fabulous after the school lets the kids out for the summer.

The weather has been pretty nice lately,so I've kept the air conditioner off.   Zeus still likes to stake his spot in front of the fan.

I like the shadow this bench makes.

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There's a baby raccoon in the neighbor's roof! It took over the space after the squirrels were vacated.

Button Season Quilted

I've finished quilting Button Season.  Some simple straight lines.

I think whole cloth quilts are highly underrated.  When you find a pretty fabric, you don't always need to cut it up just to sew it again. This backing fabric has 2006 written on the selvedge.

Next I have to bind it, and then add the buttons. This fabric is newer, and has pretty little birds on the selvedge.

I think I bought this last year or the year before when I bought other border fabric for another quilt.

Button Season

I told you my train of thought I am using to stop feeling guilty about having so many unfinished projects.  When one moves forward, the rest in the line all get to move up in line too.

So please don't tell anyone in line that another quilt snuck to the front of the line. I had an idea and I just ran with it.  It is a whole cloth quilt, and look it has been sandwiched already! Simple straight line quilting will make for a quick finish.

Zeus saw I had a quilt on the floor and the camera out, so he knew it was time to get to work as a quilt model. He needs no directions. Note that he turns his head to avoid the flash and therefore green eye.

It really won't be as quick and simple as I described. The plan is to open the button jar and put a button underneath each tree. I decided to quilt before adding the buttons since some of the buttons would get in the way of the straight lines. That means that the stitches for the buttons will show on the back of the quilt, but I've decided to be okay with that.

Those swirls are calling for some hand quilting, but the machine stitching will be enough. After adding all those buttons, I doubt I will want to do any hand quilting.

May Pictures

It is that time of the month when I go into the folder and pick my favorites of the photos I took last month.  Here are my favorite May pictures.

I really like the texture of this tree stump, and have enjoyed watching it deteriorate over time.

 Election Day. The flag looks like it is drooping, but the reflection looks like it is flying proudly.

Requisite sky picture.

I decided I didn't have to limit myself to one sky picture.

I took lots of pictures of the clematis flowers in my backyard.

 I decided I didn't have to limit myself to one favorite clematis picture.

These remind me of fireworks, especially with the dark background.

Stay tuned. Next time I will show quilt blocks.

January February and March Pictures

There didn't seem to be enough photos from January, February, and March to have their own post. Here they all are, all in one post.

January

 My happy dog running to me.

Leaves frozen in ice puddle.

February

You wouldn't recognize my blog if I didn't show you a trees and sky picture!

March

April Pictures

I don't have anything exciting to say, but I didn't want you to feel abandoned, so here are some pictures. I've been working and haven't had much quilting time. I decided to give you pictures from April since I haven't shown those yet. Most of these are pretty nature springtime shots.

Love the beautiful white flowers against the blue sky background.

I like how the flowers are overtaking the bare tree in the background.

I like the texture of the tree.  There are lots of heart shapes in there.

This is from an art show. This is a miniature bedroom.  All those tiny books are made by hand.

This is a shot from above so you can see all the petals that fell on the ground.