July 4– That seemed a better headline than “A Series of Unfortunate Events, Part 9,” a theme we can’t see to shake! This week’s calamity– our brand new grandson woke up with a blister on his arm. Before grandma could say, “Let’s see if it just goes away,” the kids were advised to head for the ER post haste for a potential skin infection. Since the culture took 48 hours to evaluate, they were then admitted for three days in the hospital, two hours away.

I guess I should be thankful that all ended well, but they were sent home with Neosporin and a band aid for all the trouble. They are just exhausted.

So here I am still blogging to myself because I’m tired of sharing bad news… I will probably treat you to some binge reading by releasing these posts when things calm down around here and we can all laugh, right?! By August, I hope.

The Semiquincentennial is here– my sister and I were discussing how this isn’t as much fun as the Bicentennial was– and by rights, it should be even bigger. In 1976, everyone was doing everything to celebrate.

We had a logo, a new $2 bill, coins, the Peace Train, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, Operation Sail, and on and on. I specifically remember 7-Up (soda has always been important to me, so that’s why I remember this) had cans featuring the 50 states.

If you could collect them all, they stacked up to make a cool picture of Uncle Sam. I don’t think I even got close, but not for the lack of trying! If I had, and if I had stored and moved them for all these years, I could have gotten $200 on eBay.

Our house at the time was behind a navy base in Michigan, and when the fireworks went up, they rained down in our backyard– it was just like a real revolutionary war! I had to watch from the garage to avoid the rocket’s red glare.

Miles away at a small town flag raising in New Jersey, Mr. SFO, a bugler, played “To the Colors” tolerably well. I can’t confirm this, as we were two years yet to meet.

Maybe I’m not paying enough attention, but I’m seeing more soccer for 2026 than USA. Coke did issue this plastic bottle though– I’ll take it. All I intend to do anyway is stay home and bubble wrap my whole family and hope a comet doesn’t come crashing through the roof next.

Sewing has moved along, mostly for my mental health. It’s not what I SHOULD be working on, but I am obsessed with Whitecaps– the bright, happy blocks and the summer feel is the perfect balm for some crazy days.

I have all the units pieced, and every night, I have gotten a couple blocks together.

POSH is off the longarm– I just finished up all the stitch-in-the-ditch and may re-load it this winter to make it fancier. It’s looking wonderfully flat-ish and each shape has a slight poof as you can see in the photo. I figured out I could do a self-binding– that is when you just roll extra backing to the front. I can then un-do and use the fabric to easily pin it back up on the rollers.

POSH will be featured at the Seams Sew Perfect shop booth at Maine Quilts– will you be there?

I also entered Carefree Highways in the show. I have to move the hanging sleeve down to 88″ as they can’t accommodate anything bigger, so unfortunately, you won’t see “The United States of America” banner– my quilt will be hanging over a rod.

I seem to be leaving both of these projects for the very, very, very last minute– they need to be dropped off on July 18th. The show is from July 23rd- 25th. Come on up!

In the Department of Hand Stitching, progress on the Summer Sampler has been fantastic! Here’s where I was when I put this away at the end of the November last year:

And here it is now. I am dutifully backstitching each area as I go along– if you know the designer, Sandy Orton, who produced many pieces in the 1990’s and early 2000’s– she loves an intensive, multi-color back stitch.

I used to be a contrarian stitcher– Christmas in July, fall in the spring, but working on this happy thing has been extremely healing– I may reconsider my seasonal stitching choices! I’m going to continue it through July and am hoping to finish the center diamond. I could do two corners in 2027 and two in 2028 to finish.

The Fourth of July reminded me that I got off track with Sweetland! I quickly prepped the applique shapes and intend to glue it up tonight and finish ASAP. Then it’s on to five delicious star blocks– I do love a complicated star.

I cut these shapes on the Cricut– they come out beautifully, but the actual machine is more for paper, in my humble opinion, It can be a bit fussy when cutting Appliquik paper. I’ve actually wasted big 12″ x 12″ sheets and had some major jams– the Appliquik paper is not cheap!

Since I’m no big cutting fan, I took a look at the AccuQuilt website– they make fabric die cutters for quilters, and boy, did I get sticker shock. It’s a major investment to just get the machine– then the dies are another major investment to even cut anything! Most die sets seemed very limited in what you can make. I think I will stick with my rotary cutter for now. Does anyone have one of these AccuQuilt machines?

I did get a Fat Quarter Shop order in today– retail therapy always helps smooth out life’s bumps, does it not?

I bought this large shell Tula Pink print for the backing of Whitecaps, which I’m convinced I will finish up very soon.

This lovely print is by Bunny Hill and it’s the backing for my Pressed Flowers sew along. This is the BOM provided in 2023 with the Sew Sampler boxes– can you believe I kept up with it, only to drop it because I didn’t like the way it was assembled. That’s high on the list to finish soon– but it’s such a pain to get back into it, figure out where I was, make sure I have enough fabric because I already messed something up, and all that bother. But it’s almost done!

Then I got the finishing kit for this month’s Sew Sampler Whale project by Elizabeth Hartmann. In a moment of very good news, we found out that Harlow’s upcoming sibling is a boy and it’s a perfect baby quilt!

It is so great in life to have a girl and a boy– I am especially happy for my son with the auto repair shop– he’d be thrilled to pass that business down– or even just have a helper! Not to say that the helper could be Harlow, depending on her interests. She sure has my son’s energy!

I have now selected the next grandbaby Christmas stocking– but, of course, Charlie’s woodland one will be done first. But it wouldn’t hurt to open this and put a few stitches in soon, would it? I’m happy to say this one has been waiting in my cross stitch kit stash, since pickup trucks are such a thing for our family.

So that’s my Semiquincentennial story– it’s amazing how soothing it is to keep on sewing through life’s ups and downs. I hope it will continue to be a balm– and I hope it is for you, too.

Carol
xox