Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July, Y'all!!

We had our BBQ on Saturday night so we could celebrate with our son and his girlfriend!  

We had margaritas, ribs and steak with mushrooms and corn on the cob, salad, and cake!  Yum!  Love summer food, don't you??!!

So, today I get to play catch-up on emails and sorting/saving photos, long overdue blog posting and hopefully SEWING this afternoon!!  But, I have made a few new patriotic quilties to put out for the summer!

This one was a kit from Connecting Threads... very reasonable, too!! 

I love the simplicity of it!  It only took a few hours to make!! 

It lives in the foyer!  So does the next one!

It was also a kit from Connecting Threads.

I use patriotic colors, plus sunflowers and watermelons in my summer decor.  

I had a little bit of this very old sunflower fabric saved in my stash, 

so I subbed some into the center pinwheels and stars in this runner!!

This little mat was made from the leftovers from these runners.

And I finally finished the last of Kathy Schmitz's four seasonal stitchery wall hangings!

I was able to use the last bits of that same beloved sunflower print on it, as well!!

The tiny center quilt is paper pieced.  Not my favorite quilting technique, but it sure does ensure perfect points!!

Kathy made her wall hangings using only black and beige fabrics, but I have used colored fabrics in all of mine!!

They sure do cheer up our little "throne" room...

I've been able to do some weeding and gardening this summer...

unlike last summer when I was having my knee replacement surgeries.

Love my day lilies, roses and geraniums...

unfortunately so do the deer around here.  Can you see him hiding in the bushes?  

So, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Yogi is catching up on some sleep...as usual!!   But we both want to know what lovelies you are sewing on these days!!  Do tell!!

Row by Row 2016

How many of you participated in the 2015 Row by Row experience last summer? Last year was the first year for this fun activity, and the theme was water.  This year, the theme is Home Sweet Home.

I was again honored to design our local quilt shop- Oh Sew Persnickety's row this year!

I really love the Home Sweet Home theme this year!!  So many possibilities!!

I also decided to make our row vertical instead of horizontal.  That way, it can be made just as it is and used as a wall or door hanging.

I am a garden lover, and especially love to watch the birds outside through my kitchen window... so naturally bird houses came to mind!!  

Also, like last year, I wanted to include the cute little bird that Oh Sew Persnickety has in their shop logo!

I named the design "Home Tweet Home"!

I hope everyone likes it and it brings in lots of visitors and business to our beloved little quilt shop!!

Yogi is enjoying this warm summer weather from the coolness of the front porch on the glider!!  

How are you all keeping cool this summer??

Keeping Busy!!

I started doing some hand embroidery while recuperating from my knee surgeries.  I love these seasonal Kathy Schmitz designs.

These four designs are embroidery in the center, surrounded by a bit of piecing and then an actual tiny mini-quilt attached in the center.

I first did the embroidery on the autumn quilt... you know how much I love fall!!

It went much faster than I thought, and as I was still not able to do the piecing part, I then started on the winter embroidery design.

That went faster than I thought it would, too! :-)

So, then I started making the pieced border and paper pieced tiny mini-quilt, for the winter scene, because I wanted to get it hung on the wall for this season!!

I am very pleased with how it turned out!  And I love the bird hanger, too!!

After I got the winter wall quilt finished, I worked on the border piecing and center tiny mini-quilt for the autumn design.

I am so glad I decided to use stash scraps in seasonal colors to make the borders and center quilt, rather than do them all in the same black and tan mini-prints.

I think the colors add so much and you KNOW my motto, right?

Life's too short not to use all the colors you can!!

Yogiboy says hello and wonders what you all are working on these days!! (Ya gotta love that tiny pink tongue sticking out, right!!)

I’m Still Here!!

First off, thank you ever so much for the emails and sweet comments from you all!!  I appreciated every single one!  They really brightened my days so much!!

I was so mad at my orthopedic surgeon, back when he told me that the second knee replacement can be even more difficult than the first, because everyone else like my PT and friends who have had both knees done separately, all told me the exact opposite.

Well, he was right… at least this time with my second total knee replacement.  This second recovery has been very different than the first… and not in a good way.  Sigh…

But, I finally feel like I’ve turned the corner.

I’ve finally made it upstairs!  Yay!!

And I’ve put the walker away and am using only a cane… although not real steady with it yet!

But, even with all this drama, I do have a quilt to show you!!

I made the top before I had the surgery, and had a dear friend spray baste the quilt sandwich, instead of pinning it, like usual.

I’ve been hand quilting it in the Big Stitch style for the last two weeks.

I’ve really enjoyed using the thicker thread and hand stitching 1/4” around the inside of each leaf, and then stitched in some freeform curved lines in the background.

I finished the binding and label today!  Yay!!

I am ready to get back in my sewing room for longer periods of time… I can handle about an hour with my leg down, then I have to go back down and put my leg up and pack on some ice.

But, I am getting there!  Slowly but surely… one day at a time!!

Yogi has been patient with me during the rehabbing.  But I think he can’t wait to get back up in his bed on my sewing table, too!!

So, what have you all been up to these last three weeks??