PROGRESS MADE ON WALL HANGING

I'm almost finished with the borders for Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers!  Here's a picture of one corner.  I will sew the last 2 borders on as soon as I get the berries sewn onto them.  5 berries on each border. 

Little by little does the job!

GETTING BACK TO QUILTING!

I'm finally getting back to quilting and the first thing I did was quilt this small doll quilt.  I made one of these for a customer and thought, "why not make 2 while I'm at it?"  So this is the 2nd one, which will probably go in my Etsy shop when I get it bound.  I also have one hanging in my sewing room that I made during a Jo Morton Little Women class several years ago in Texas.  I'm keeping that one.

Then the question was, What to work on next?  I decided I needed to finish my Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers wall hanging designed by Jan Patek that I blogged about here and here.  So, it's only taken me 5 years to get to this point, which is almost finished with the borders.  And I definitely want to get it finished to hang up for fall.

Here's one border.  I have the 4 corner blocks finished and am almost finished with 3 of the borders.  The other one is waiting for the vine to be made and then I can iron down the flowers and leaves.  It shouldn't take too long to get that border finished and then I just have to baste, quilt and bind!  I still have a little appliqué stitching to do on each panel, because I need one more color of thread.

I use Sulky thread for machine appliqué and I made a great garage sale purchase a while ago of this bag of threads.  I was hoping I had enough to finish a certain project, but I still need one new color. 

I think I may have mentioned before that we get a lot of deer walking or running through our neighborhood and yesterday morning I got a picture of 4 of them.  I was out talking to a friend I saw walking by and then we saw these lovelies coming toward us.  They were heading for the ravine that runs through the middle of our town.  This picture is cropped, but if I didn't do that, you would see that I live in a regular neighborhood, not in the middle of the woods.  I cropped it so you could see the deer better.  My GD (and all of us) really enjoy seeing them

Happy quilting, ladies!

ONE SMALL PROJECT FINISHED

I finished another E Pluribus Unum wall hanging as a gift for my brother's birthday.  His is on the left and the one on the right is hanging in my living room.  I made the original one in February and posted about it here.  All the bow tie blocks are from the block swap last year that Barb at Fun with Barb organized.  I think I have a few of those blocks left over.

DS/DIL/GD have moved into their rent house and I have my sewing room back for the first time in about a month!!!!  I can't wait to get back to quilting again.  They live a couple miles from us so we will be seeing them on a regular basis, which is great.  My DIL is from India and is a fabulous cook!  My DS is now working at the local hospital - he's a RN.  And my GD, Abby, will be going into 3rd grade.  She loves to go to parks and we have been to a number of the parks in town, but maybe not all.  We all have been enjoying seeing the deer that come into our neighborhood regularly.

This is one of the best playgrounds!  We went here on Monday and the temperature was in the 60s - it was delightful!  She wants to go back there again.  They didn't have these kind of playgrounds when I was growing up.

Thanks, dear readers, for your comments.  I just haven't had time to respond to all of them.  Hopefully, I will get organized and start accomplishing something!

EXPLORING AND SEWING

We went into Salem the other day and walked across the Willamette River on this walking bridge, which used to be a train bridge.

Abby and DS looking out at the river.

Looking north at the Willamette River

The doll quilt is finished now.  Below is a picture of Abby quilting it on my Janome 6600 sewing machine.  I decided it would be easier and best for her to use this machine instead of the Featherweight because this one has a stitch speed regulator that I could set so no matter how hard she pressed down on the foot pedal, it would only go to the speed I set it for.  She stitched across each diagonal row to form an X on each block.

The back of the finished quilt.  She picked some fabric with pictures of deer and bears on it, because she has been delighted to see lots of deer around our neighborhood.

The top of the doll quilt!

I folded the back over the front and ironed it down so all she had to do was stitch around it on the sewing machine.  I decided that would be easier for her first quilt.  ALL DONE!

SEWING LESSON

Our DS and family are staying with us until the rental house is ready on July 19th, and since we have a small house, they are living in my sewing room.  Yesterday I decided to set up my featherweight on the patio since it was such a beautiful day.  I no sooner began sewing than my GD Abby said she wanted to learn how to sew!  

So, I found her some 3" square scraps and she picked out the ones she liked to make a doll quilt.

She is learning to line the fabric up against the 1/4" marker.

The speed of this machine is kind of hard to regulate, but she managed to figure out a way.

Once my Janome is more available, I can let her sew on that and turn the speed down to low, so it will be easier for her.  We don't want any fingers getting sewn!

The top of her doll quilt is done!!

BTW, Abby is 7 years old.  So far she is signed up in the summer reading program at the library and we have been to several parks with play grounds.  I'm sure we will find more to report on.  The house they rented is about 2 miles from our house.  DS starts his job on Monday!

My project will get done, but maybe not in time for my brother's birthday, which is a special one for him.  We might get rain today, so the table might get set up in the garage for sewing.

A LONG TRIP

We have been gone about 2 weeks due to going to Florida to help our DS#2/DIL/GD move up here to Oregon!  What a trip!  After helping them clear out their house, we left for the 3,000 mile trip by car and a rental truck towing another car.  It was very hot everywhere we stopped until we got to Oregon!

We visited the Grand Canyon and had a great time there.

The men took turns driving the car and truck.  I only drove a few hours.  Since they are both former truck drivers, the long distance driving didn't bother them.

Mt. Shasta in northern CA

I had some knitting and embroidery projects along to give me something to do on the trip.  The cherry embroidery is on a dish towel.

I'm making a couple Christmas throw pillows.

I also had a regular book to read as well as some books on my tablet.  The weather was sunny and hot the whole way until we hit Oregon and then it was sunny and mild.  Yea!!  Today, DS and family went to see Mt. Hood and Multnoma Falls.  DH and I stayed home - still recuperating from the long trip.  I did a tiny bit of sewing while they were gone today as I was in withdrawal!  I can't wait to get going on some projects that are waiting for me.

I really wanted to go to the Sisters quilt show this year, but just didn't have the energy to drive the 3 hours each way right now.  I'm sure many others will post pictures, so that will have to suffice.

Have a great Independence Day celebration!