July One Monthly Goal

July is here and half of 2018 is gone.  I LOVE July and especially this July because my son, who I have not seen for two years, is coming home.  He has been in Germany on a church mission.  His best friend just returned from his mission last night and I cried when I visited him.  It will be a grand reunion!

My One Monthly Goal is to piece and quilt a small one for a friend's Christmas present.  Yes, Christmas in July it will be.  I have not yet even cut a piece of fabric for it, but it will be a red, yellow, and blue version of this quilt.

I did finish my One Monthly goal for June but forgot to link up.  Oh well. 

I always have other goals as well.  I am going to list them, but I am not going to push super hard to really get them all done.  If I do, I do.  If I don't, I don't. It is more of a wish list because I want to spend some time with my son and do some house work.

1.  I want to paint both of my bathrooms.  The paint is beginning to peel and needs a refresh.

2.  I want to stain the bathroom cabinet in the back bathroom.  If I like it, I will do the main bathroom.  Now, I don't even like doing this kind of work, but I visited my sister last week and fell in love with what she had done to hers.  It inspired me.  I ordered the product just yesterday.  

3.  Complete my Sliced Quilt top.  I finished the last paper pieced house just days ago and began assembly.  I have now renamed it the "Snow Globe Sliced Quilt".  I know I can do this goal because it only needs four squares of fabric added to the four corners.

4.  Quilt and bind Sweet Cherry Orange.  This was a Stashbee Quilt.

5.  Complete my Chicks in the Garden quilt top.  I know it is wild and bright, but I like it.

6.  Quilt & bind Chicks in the Garden

7.  Cut the bees to go with the flowers I made last month

8.  Sew the trees and assemble my Bear Paw Quilt.

9.  Keep up with Block Lotto comments as I am hosting this month.  Here are the blocks we are making.  

10.  Keep up with my family round robin.  I just returned home with it yesterday.

11.  Add my June section to Pieceful Country

Quilt bound and hosting the Block Lotto

Hello Blogland!  How was your weekend.  Mine was relaxing.  I worked pretty hard cutting out fabric for a family round robin so I can deliver it to a sister this week.  

I also bound my "Winged Things" quilt.  Yay!  A finish!  I still have one more quilt to bind this month, but I know I will get it.  More detailed photos can be found here and here.

This quilt was on my 2nd Quarter finish list.  I am linking up with She Can Quilt's 2018 Finish Along.

Winged Things is on my 18 in 2018 list hosted by Lynette What a Hoot.  It was also my UFO Challenge for June hosted by Patchwork Times.  Check out everyone else's progress at the link above.

I am hosting the Block Lotto for July.  Here are my sample blocks, and they are super simple and fast to make.  The pattern to make them will post on the Block Lotto blog on July 1st.  Anyone who makes blocks and posts them to the blog gets a chance to win the blocks.  I have won before and it was so much fun!  I would LOVE to win them but I am hosting.  You get one chance to win per block you make for a maximum of 9.

I am two weeks overdue for my 15 minutes to stitch update, so here it is:

15 minute stitching days/week  = 6/7 days
15 minute stitching days/June = 20/24 days
15 minutes stitching days/year = 146/175 days
Success rate = 83.42%

PHD UPDATE:

To Do Tuesday has really been helping me along my quilting journey as well.  I set goals anyway, but it still makes me want to have something to show each week.  This week's goals include:

• Can 20 bottles of chicken at my sister's tomorrow...It will be a big family event with sisters, sisters-in-law, and my daughter.  We are doing chicken and pork.  My sister owns a grocery store so she watches for when prices are good.  It is so nice to go down to my pantry and grab a precooked bottle of meat off the shelf.
• Bind my son's quilt
• Get the final house done for my sliced quilt and maybe start the assembly on the flimsy
• Work on my "Chicks in the Garden" quilt.
• Assemble my Bear Paw Quilt

I am headed out on a family fun week today.  I will be at my sisters doing meat tomorrow and playing with grandbaby Ira.  I will stay a couple of days and then head off to my cousin's (4 hour drive) for a little quilt retreat in her basement.  She is so dear to me and we are overdue for some time together.

Next I will head further north (3 or so more hours) to my other sister's house for whatever kind of fun we can find together.  We might sew and we might not.  We shall see.  She says to bring my bike because she wants to take me mountain biking.  I am super out of shape, but I suppose I am up to the challenge.

When I return home I am hopeful that the rock people will get the rock done on my house.  The stucco is complete and so is the roof.  I hope I come home to a new house.

I am linking up today with:

Lynette's BOMs Away
Beth's MCM
Tish's UFO Busting
Em's Moving it Forward Monday
Beth's Monday Making

Deana: Borders are on!

I have been doing the Patchwork Times Quiltathon as much as possible considering that I worked Thursday and Friday.  I am thrilled to add this one to the "top finished list" which was my goal.  

Presenting my Block Lotto winnings quilt:

I also made the binding for it so it will be ready to go once it is quilted.  I always try to make the bindings, roll them up, and keep them with the top so they are easy to finish after they are quilted.

I also got the border on my Periwinkle Quilt.  Love it!

I am linking up with:

Patchwork Times Quiltathon
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making

Deana: A sew day - all day!

I have not had a Saturday to sew for a couple of months.  Since school started I have been too busy to even sew in the evenings.  I was missing it SO BAD!  Well, yesterday I parked myself in my sewing room all day and loved it.

I made the final 6 blocks for my SWEET CHERRY ORANGE quilt.  This was my Stashbee quilt this year.  I was queen bee back in February.  I want to add that I have really enjoyed my two years of stashbee and look forward to more.

I also made up these flower blocks.  I plan to make enough for a lap quilt.  It is just out of my scraps.

I am linking up today with "Quilting is more fun than Housework!"

Deana: Bee, myself, and I linkup

I am participating in Carla's "Bee, Myself, and I " this year.  She made several blocks for others last year and didn't get many made for herself, so she is hosting this.  She does not have a linky tool but will link my post to her blog post.  

For March I completed the following blocks for myself:

Sophie's Block Lotto March Pattern.  I am in LOVE with these blocks!

Periwinkle block - I made a whole row of them to enlarge my quilt and got it attached to the rest of the quilt.

I also made the rest of my "Sweet Cherry Orange" blocks and am ready to assemble the quilt.

See the other linkups at Granny Maud's Girl Blog.  She will post on April 1st.   Here is the official link-up post where you can see everyone's wonderful Bee, Myself, I progress.

Deana: final blocks made for my Block Lotto Winnings!

I was able to finish up the final four blocks needed for my Block Lotto quilt.  I won it in November and decided to add one more row.

 Now I just need to sew the rows together and get a border on it.

I also picked a border off my barn block.  I am donating it as well as my house block to a quilt that will be auctioned off next month.  I need to bring the house block up to size, but that should be easy.

I also made a block for another Hive in my Stashbee.  I hope Heather likes it.  When the blocks are put together this quilt looks fabulous!

I am Queen Bee for my own hive this month.  I designed this block that I am calling Sweet Cherry Orange.  I fell in love with this color combination after making a block for someone else last year.  It is going to be a happy quilt.

Deana: A few blocks completed today

I was able to make 5 blocks today:  four blocks for my Block Lotto Winnings Quilt and one for Dear Jane.  Look how small Dear Jane is in comparison.

I also made a block for my Stashbee quilt but I cannot show it yet.  I am Queen Bee for February and have to wait until the first to reveal it.

I am linking up with  Freemotion by the River, Sew Cute Tuesday, Oh Scrap, Fabric Tuesday, Building Blocks Tuesday, and Moving it Forward.

Block Lotto blocks I have received

I now have 36 Block Lotto Blocks!  I can't wait to get this quilt sewn together and quilted.  It is so fun!

It has been a hectic and challenging December thus far.  My daughter got married Saturday and my father-in-law, who passed away the previous Tuesday, was laid to rest on Monday.  It has been a joyous/sorrowful week to say the least.  So much contradiction of emotion is draining.

I am linking up today with:

Lets Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thursday
Crazy Mom Quilts
Can I get a Whoop Whoop?
TGIF
Link a Finish Friday
Design Wall Monday

Deana: Block Lotto

I now have 9 blocks completed for the Block Lotto.  They were fun to make.

I am linking up today with:

BOM's away

Design Wall Monday

Design Board Monday

Main Crush Monday

Monday Making

Deana: Block Lotto blocks done

I loved the blocks in the Block Lotto this month so I made six.  I have three more cut out and will post them later.

I am linking up today with:

freemotion by the river
Sew Cute Tuesday
Monday Making
Design Board Monday
Main Crush Monday
BOM's Away

Deana: Yellow Bellied Toad Swallow

I have been having a blast making birds for Mary Huey (Stashbee Hive #7), and the Block Lotto.  Sophie from the Block Lotto designed these cute and fun little blocks.  Mary chose them for her bee block for July.  Funny thing is that this month the Block Lotto is doing a "pet" swap.  The bird block qualifies so I made one for the Lotto as well.

Mary asked us to name our birds so...

Meet Spooky Louie Chickadee (There may or may not be a haunted house on her belly.)

Meet Yellow Bellied Toad Swallow ( I think she swallowed a few toads.)

Oh, I made two of her.  This one is for the Block Lotto.

Meet Black Bottom Fluff Jay

I am linking up with all my regular Tuesday links:

Sew Cute Tuesday

Freemotion by the River

Deana: Friday Night Sew In report

Hello Blogland!  This is my Friday Night Sew in  report!  I am so excited to have a Friday night at home to sew.  We have a break in wrestling for two weekends in a row so that helps me to get so much more done.  I do take hand work with me to wrestling though.

I got some work done on this project - only two blocks

 I also got all of the outline quilting done on my flower quilt as well as some filler quilting.  I hope to finish it today.  This was a round robin several years ago.  I asked the group simply to make me a flower block any size.  The border is a Block Lotto pattern.  I will post this to the Lotto when it is done.  The flowers have many memories from many people I love and the border just finishes it off nicely.

I am linking up today with:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Link a Finish Friday

Can I get a Whoop Whoop?
Friday Night Sew In
Tweety Loves Quilting

Deana: Flowers

Val's Quilting studio's theme for today is flowers and flying geese.  I will do a separate post for the flying geese because there are so many photos in this post.

Here are my smallest flowers EVER.  I double fused the fabric and tacked them on with french knots.  This was a panel in my barn quilt for the DOD 2011 mystery project.

 

I made these flower blocks for the block lotto several years ago.  

 I did not win, but I did make more and put them as a border for my Autumn Flower Quilt. 

 I need to update the photo because the top is finished now.  This was a round robin.  I asked everyone in the group to make me a flower block of any size or style in autumn colors.

 This is a quilt I made for my teenage daughter.  I love the large flowers on it.  Doesn't it look all teenagerish?

 I quilted it in veriagated pastel colors. (The back)

This is a flower quilt I designer many years ago.  I sold many patterns, so I guess some other people liked it too.  I call it Lacy Daisies and it has hand embroidery on it.

And here is another flower I designed.  I was having fun with free style curvy piecing.

Deana: Windows (Block Lotto)

This month for the Block Lotto I made the maximum number of blocks - 9.  Sophie calls the block "Windows" and it is way fun to make and fast too.

 I misunderstood the rules and made several blocks with the wrong frame fabric.  The rule was to use a black and white FRAME fabric, meaning a fabric with BOTH black and white in it.  The following three blocks I made solid white.  I fixed them by cutting out 2" squares in freezer paper, pressing the waxy side to the windows, and then flicking black fabric paint over the frames.  It worked pretty slick and was much faster than picking and sewing or just recutting and sewing.

 The frog window block also had to be redone.  The photo below shows how it turned out, but the next photo shows how it started.  Personally, I like it much better in a  solid black frame, but I had to follow the rules.  I did not have any predominantly black fabric with small bits of white on it.  This one is kind of loud now, but you should have seen it before.  I actually dabbed black paint over the white flowers to dull the contrast.