“Focusing on Everything” has been our family motto and inside joke for the week– I hope you immediately recognized the tongue in cheek! Yes, we all have a lot going on and it’s all progressing, at one rate or another. Not one of us can believe we’re already well into June, and it seems like my own dance card is fully booked out for June and July. What to do? Take a vacation! I’m heading off twice this month and you can be sure I’ll take you with me. It will all get done, one way or the other.

My first reality check this week– Moonbeams. Last week, I told you I would be able to finish the background swirls on 5500 sq. inches of quilt in three or four days. That statement puts this blog in the genre of “Fantasy Fiction.” As of this writing, a week has passed, but I’m finally 6” from the bottom.

I could say a lot about this experience– it’s my first full size quilt done on the longarm, but I’ll spare you and just give the bullet points. Positives: I DID IT!, lots of practice, flat as a pancake, a beautiful gift, FINISHED. Negatives: Thread color choice, black batting, swirls still lack smoothness, stitching in the ditch better, but requires constant vigilance in practice. I’m ready for the next thing and I can’t wait to ransack my TO BE QUILTED pile and pick it out.

Since the long arm wasn’t freed up, the Robin Pickens table runner did not get quilted as a gift for my SIL– oh, well, I’ll have to keep it. 🙂 I’m thinking of gifting the Star of Wonder to her, since pink is not my favorite, but all quilts permanently leaving Sugar Meadow require the approval of the DD, so we’ll see what she says. Gosh, my feathers were not bad!

The binding is ON the Halloween quilt, but I may be hand-stitching it down at the airport– will airport security be concerned about this? I am the first one to ever finish a gifty quilt binding in an airport? Questions, questions.

More time was spent in the garden this week than in front of the computer, so on the digitizing front, we had the next Tiny Sampler of the Month. It’s for all my MAKERS out there!

Much time was spent outside last week. It was fantastic to feel the hot sun on my back! Thanks to our proximity to the North Pole, we are having incredible long days from 5am until 9pm– that’s plenty of daylight to make the things, right? We have a HUGE garden mostly run by the DD– I’m just an accessory for now, but I hope to step up in July and August. But I was proud of myself this week– I got three blueberry bushes in, weeded, and watered.

We are just in the very early stages of growth here in Maine, but our strawberries look very promising! Strawberries are one of those things that the supermarket never gets right.

Inspiration for the Year on Sugar Meadow block of the month abound, Here are some irises I knew we had, but they are doing better than I deserve. There are dozens of them.

The beach roses here are huge. I could never get them to grow at all when I lived near the beach!

The Marigold Project is doing well. Chickens have ignored and/or can’t reach the pots.

The next step is to plant some marigolds in the ground by our front door. This will be difficult because it’s an area they love to scratch around in. See how nicely raked out they have this already? I need to teach them to weed next.

I’m trying to have progress on Carefree highways each week for all of you who are joining me, so here’s what I did! I cut out a good portion of pieces for the flying geese.

Two hundred flying geese need to be made– that much repetition is a hard NO for me and probably why this project stalled, so I’ll break it up. I’m going to set a goal of 20 at a time PLUS start assembly– maybe one row a week. It’s always exciting to see things start to come together. I could easily have these two rows in no time.

I have enough blue from my fat quarter set of American Gatherings I to do the flying geese, but I need another full yard for the cornerstones. So American Gatherings III is not out yet and the question remains if it’s the same blue. I’m going to carry a swatch around with me on my travels and see if I can find anything!

I’m not the only one who has discovered the SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL is coming. There is a ton of patriotic fabric lines coming out next year. If you are sewing along with me on Carefree Highways, you’re going to have plenty of fabric choices. We already have Americana from Lori Holt which I am struggling to not buy.

And just look at Lori’s applique quilt.

Then there’s this panel from J. Wrecker Frisch (a genius).

I’m not a panel girl, but just look at this!

Most of the new ones aren’t coming out until February–I want my Carefree Highways done by the end of the year, so I can’t use any of the upcoming sets for a backing. I wish I could wait. In my overthinking, I highly regret Minick and Simpson, the masters of red, white, and blue, retired before this 250th milestone! How dare they? At any rate, some of this is going to jump into my cart– I’d love to have some patriotic quilts in 2026 for posterity. I had so much fun as a teenager during the Bicentennial– it’s a hugely nostalgic subject for me.

More good news– Horsey has a nose! I’m afraid he’s gonna be kicked to the curb this month in favor of binding. I’m at the dangerous stage of a project when you think you have plenty of time to finish it!

So that’s what I focused on this this week– all of it. I have two weeks away this month– one is a badly owed visit in Georgia and the other is the Moonbeams wedding. (How I will fit this quilt in my suitcase needs some thought!) In between the two trips, I have twelve days to get an impossible amount of work done– Year on Sugar Meadow June Block– My Maine quilt show quilts (YIKES)– in addition to all the daily summer on the farm chores. It’s all HAPPY things! I am blessed.

xox
Carol