I’ve had another fabulous finish! “The Secret of Sugar Meadow” is show ready for Maine Quilts in Augusta, July 24-26th. Be there!

My piped binding came out like a champ– many thanks to Susan Cleveland for her “Piping Hot Binding” pamphlet and tool. I’m ready to add piping hot binding to everything– it’s so hot!

Points a la perfection…

Custom quilting…

And last but not least, the label!

Of course, it is every show entrant’s wish to walk away with a ribbon– as my friend Andrea always says, I believe my quilt is a “good effort,” but not over the top enough to win a prize. I’m not sure if I’m really capable at this point in my life for tiny applique pieces, hand quilting, and a double prairie pointed and beaded border. But my goal was to have a piece in the show– so, there’s that, right? For my $25 entry fee, I also get a report card from the judges which I will be sure to share– I’m hoping they’ll be honest and tell me if I should be on the lookout for another hobby!

What happened to “Points West?,” you ask?

In a humbling moment– I had to scratch it! Significant amounts of my time last last month were spend traveling and on another major time suck– I volunteered to paint our barn. There’s no ladder work, but there’s plenty of area, moaquitoes, and humidity. I emailed the person in charge of quilt intake to let her know– she was so very nice to me, assuring me that she still had two to bind. I’m still hoping to get “Points West” over the finish line by November. There’s a quilt show category that only happens at AQS Spring Paducah each year. It is made for us machine embroiderers. It’s called “Fiber Art/Mixed Media.” If anything, I’m a mix!

The second row of Carefree Highways was completed last week. Most assuredly, this is going to be a beast to photograph as I go along.

I’m still waiting on a yard of fabric for the cornerstones that will unlock the sashing rows for in-between each of these state rows, since I’m sure the layout in these photos makes no sense to you. I’ve also come to a decision– this is taking forever, so I need to just bite the bullet and make the rest of the 180 flying geese all at once to get it moving. (Insert Crying Emoji Here.)

I think the month of August is going to be a good sewing month to do it in– the rest of July, not sew much. I have two sets of company coming through starting later this week. To git ‘er done on time, I’m working on the Year on Sugar Meadow block the earliest ever this month, and it’s also shaping up to be my favorite so far!

Yup, the blueberries in our patch are almost ripe, and how do I know?

As I sat on my deck, I noticed the same birds kept flying in to check on them. I looked closer to see who it was and it was the blue jays! Those bossy, boisterous, and loud neighbors that are my favorite bird. (A little projecting, there?) I’m going to add some Black-eyed Susans in the background which have presently taken over the whole meadow. Funny, I could never get these to grow in my previous life’s formal gardens. Anyway, the block should be glorious. And early this month. 🙂

Blue and yellow was my favorite color combination as a kid– I remember playing doubled-up games of “Trouble” with a girlhood friend where we would each play two colors of the game pieces for a longer game. So she would always pick red and green as a Christmas lover, and I would get blue and yellow. Oh, those childhood days of summer, with no worries and all the time in the world. ❤

And here’s my Holly Horse progress… before and after. I haven’t taken a picture of this in about a month.

Lots done under the horses nose and I’m almost done with page two of four. I’m really enjoying this stitch.

I was toying with the idea of cross stitching with the “big girls”– they rotate pieces in and out in fun ways like doing a Halloween piece on the 13th and 31st of every month and Christmas on the 25th. But I think I’m just better off being a monogamous stitcher right now. It’s such a waste of time to pick something up again and wonder where I was on it, reacquaint myself with all the color symbols, and try to figure out if was stitching with 2 strands or 3. So for me, I’m closing out the summer with just the Holly Horse for hand stitching and just Carefree Highways for the quilt.

Sounds like it might make for some boring blog posts over the next few weeks, right? Wrong! I have a grandchild AND chickens… and furthermore, I am always ordering something!

I hit the Buy Button on Lori Holt’s Americana fabric. I’m super nostalgic about the Bicentennial, looking forward to the Semiquincentennial, and intending to make it all red, white, and blue next year. I did pick this bundle up at Green Fairy Quilts for $115 and free shipping– that’s 52 fat quarters. “WHAT!!,” you say? That’s what I said, too!

On the chicken front, the babies are getting big. I took dozens of photos but it’s hard to do with three little moving targets and a protective hen.

One of the chicks appears to be a rooster with a larger comb and honking big feet to give it away– not good! No eggs and more floggings for me. If ya know about roosters, ya know. That being said, as a little rug rat playing on the floor, I noticed my Great-Auntie Adele had the biggest feet of any known person in my little circle at that time. So here’s hoping it might be a hen–we won’t know for sure until the first crow.

And finally– the impeccable Miss Harlow is coming for quite a few days at the end of this week/beginning of next for her first visit to grandma’s house! We are all going to attend the “Kingfield Days” festivities in the next town over, and my son John has promised to jump off the Kingfield Bridge with the rest of the idiots I wrote about last year. There’s also a little quilt show put on by a local guild and the DD has a booth this year selling Maine stickers and our own Sugar Meadow Maple Syrup. You can buy some, too, if you want a little taste of the Meadow, here on Etsy!

So many fun things to look forward to in summertime… let’s do them all together!

xox
Carol