Sugar Meadow Pinks are here! Only my most diehard fans will remember me saying how I wanted to breed chickens this year. I imagined my Rhode Island Red rooster would mate with a white Brahma hen and the result would be pink chicks! I learned color theory in college, you know.

This little girl wanted to be a mommy in the worst way, so I left a few random eggs under her…

The days slipped by and on she sat. I walked in one morning last week and saw a broken eggshell in front of her. “Oh!,” I thought to myself. “I hope she hasn’t crushed one of the eggs.”

I gently lifted her up, and underneath, three sets of little eyes were peering out at me. I’m not sure who was more surprised– me or Buttercup!

Is this a metaphor for some of life’s situations– instead of recognizing a positive, hoped for outcome, you have assumed the worst? I haven’t had time to give this moment its proper overthinking, because I’ve been too busy running after Buttercup and her three little “bugs” as I’m calling them.

None of them appear to be pink– it’s been fun to guess who is the mother of each, though, (it is not Buttercup, ironically) and they really don’t seem to have taken much of their Dad’s genes so far. The black one we believe is a Jersey Giant mix, then we have an Americauna mix– this is the only one I’m certain of since that hen lays a blue egg. And I believe one of them is a full blooded Rhodie Red. I’ll be sure to give you the updates as they are growing, like all babies, as weeds!

Can you guess what “bird” will be in my next Sugar Meadow block? Or what plant?

A lot of sewing this week– not a lot of time to take pictures. Many of you purchased the Carefree Highways set, so I’m trying to have some sew-a-long type content each week to motivate us all. I did get my first row together!

Instead of sewing the 200 flying geese at once, I’m just going to do enough for a couple of rows at a time. After sewing this together, I am planning to do a tutorial with some tips ‘n tricks for best results, which you are all highly encouraged to ignore or not, as the sewing spirit moves.

I have always said how I have no idea of scale in my head– measurements on paper mean nothing to me! I had imagined this as a wall hanging– the sketch easily fit on an 8-1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper after all. It is more like a king size quilt when you consider adding borders! Should be a fantastic 250th anniversary eye popper– I imagine my descendants will haul it out for a “Tricentennial” quilt retrospective! 🙂

The quilt blocks and the free quilt pattern is here if you’re looking for something to do for the next year.

The American Gatherings III collection I was hoping to add some fabric from, does not even come out until December, it turns out. So I’m trying to source some American Gatherings II from Etsy. What I do have is a set of American Gatherings I fat quarters– there is just not enough blue in the set and I’m also planning borders for which a fat quarter would not even begin to be enough!

Look for the tutorial in a couple of weeks.

Next up– I have entered two quilts in the Maine quilt show and neither is finished! Why, oh why, do I frequently find myself in these situations? The leaf quilt is still awaiting binding, and the crab quilt is not even a flimsy yet. We have multiple visitors coming up in July, plus I’m away for another few days. The deadline is the 19th. I keep reminding myself, if I just make it my full time job, I can get it done!

The crab quilt needs these four pointy borders finished. They are paper pieced. So this has gone well, but it’s still not done. Not a big fan of paper piecing here, but just look at those points! Here is the back of the piece– I’d be interested to know if any of you out there enjoy this process– or if it’s just another appalling pastime of mine!

I need to sit down and just make up a schedule and stick with it. We got this, right?

Finally, a ton of hand binding this week– not a lot of cross stitch. The complete Moonbeams wedding gift is finished! I promise this will be the last time you ever have to look at this.

I had two extra blocks that I made pillow shams from– and a cross stitch pillow. It was all a stitch-a-long from Fat Quarter shop last year. I believe this is the most coordinated bed set I have ever made– and I’m still wondering how I’m going to pack all this in my suitcase!

I’m now in the enviable situation of letting myself start a new project.. after all, I finished one, right?! Is anyone out there excited for the Fat Quarter Shop free Christmas stitch-a-long that starts July 1st?

So that’s it– time to pack my bags for the Moonbeams wedding. Slight progress on my horse stocking, but a lot of handbinding happened on the those quilts at night, so not enough progress to show. I’ve been tempted to start another cross stitch– please no, but I’m starting to toy with the idea of starting this huge Sandy Orton project– the summer sun on my back and nostalgia for my mom’s shore house in Ocean Grove, NJ, is driving this impulse right now. I did the impeccable matching Autumn Sampler and it took a year!

Gonna try my best to keep up the blog for July– it’s gonna be crazy around here! The calendar says it– and I can confirm it– the summer is in full swing.

xox
Carol