I’m back in N. H.  The weather is beautiful.  My climbing roses are outdoing themselves this year.  Two of the flowers that my Dad gave me are in blossom.  I look forward to them every year.  I did make a list of what I “needed” to do when I came home.  I haven’t even looked at the list.  I’ve been busy.

Last Friday night was the Guild banquet.  Our speaker was Beth Helfter.  Beth devised a new method of making half square triangles.  It is called the Accordion sewn Half Square Triangles.  It was fascinating because I need to make lots of half square triangles for a border of a wall hanging that I am making.  Today, I thought I would make some.  It took three tries to get the procedure into my mind.  There are four steps in the procedure.  It’s really very easy and quick to make the half square triangles.  My final border will be finished very quickly.  Then I can think about quilting the piece.  This quilt is a challenge that will be revealed in September.

I took two small partially hand quilted to Maine with me.  I started both of them many years ago. They both have been sitting around for a long time. I decided to focus on one of them and finally finished it. Hand quilting is very relaxing.   It just fits on the center of my dining room table.  It will be my decoration for the month. This quilt pattern is one of my favorite patterns.  It is easy with all straight sewing.

 

It’s June and Annie Louise needs a new dress.  Last month, my Maine chapter of the Pine Tree Guild had a teacup raffle.  My numbers were drawn for a few doll and doll dress patterns.  I also won a bag of fancy fabric.  Because it is June, Annie Louise had to have a bridal dress.  One of the doll dress patterns is for an 18″ doll.  It was perfect.  Thank you, Shirley.  There was some white brocade in the bag of fabric.  Thank you, Brenda.  Putting them together made a very nice dress.

I think that it is time to look at my list and start doing what I need to do while here. I know that one of the things to do was to find  some more UFOs to finish when I go back to Maine.  One other thing to do is to gather supplies for classes in Vermont.  I should get busy.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I have been focused on the bag full of Mile A Minute scraps.  I knew that it would take a while, but I didn’t think that it would take three days of sewing.  The scraps were pressed down in the bag. They made a huge pile when placed on the table.

 

 

For three days I have been sewing, pressing, and trimming.  This was repeated until I had a piece large enough to make a 6″ square.  Then I did it again, over and over and over.  I really had to focus and not put it aside.

I did take a break and weed the last two gardens.  All the wild flower seeds have been planted.  The weather is finally warm, so they should produce plants in a few weeks.  The Iris are budded.  The Lupine is blossoming.  The gardens are coming to life.

When I finished  piecing the Mile A Minute blocks today, I still had a small pile of fabric left.  I’ve put it aside and will use it for a three inch border when I get to that point.  When I make a Mile A Minute quilt, I usually make three borders.  The first is a small border. The second is a Mile A Minute and is a bit larger. The third is larger still.

 

With all that work, I have a little over 200 blocks.  That is enough for several quilts.  I have already planned two quilts on EQ7.  Several more are in my head.  That is for a later time.  I will find fabric in N. H. to finish a few and make them the “Focus” of the day sometime later.

 

         

 

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The definition of focus is:  Noun – Center of interest or activity.  Verb – Pay particular attention to.

Somehow, I don’t seem to focus on one quilting activity for a long time.  I flip from one project to another and it seems as if I don’t finish anything.  I have decided to announce to myself every morning that I will focus on one project that day.  It will be the only thing on my table.  Everything else will be out of sight.  Of course, gardening, cleaning the house and cooking will be allowed.

My new plan has worked for two days.  A bird or bird house block is due at the Guild in a few weeks.  I realized that I wouldn’t be here for the drawing.  I had to submit the block early.  This is where I really miss my sewing room in N. H.  I have no bird house patterns.  Also, no fabric except for the  Japanese fabric that I left here over the winter and the fabric for the Flower Wall hanging. I didn’t want to use the Japanese fabric so it had to be made with the wall hanging fabric.

The Internet is wonderful.  I downloaded images of several bird houses.  I was able to enlarge the images and used the computer as a light box to draw the bird house.  Ideas from several houses were used. The designing took most of the morning.  I couldn’t make a fusible applique as the Misty Fuse is in N. H.  Paper piecing was the answer.  I paper pieced the house and then hand appliqued the whole piece down.  That was all I did on that day,  A piece started and finished.   Focusing worked for one day.

Today. I finished the 12 fabric boxes.  All the hand sewing is done.  They just need the buttons which are in N. H.  The boxes are in the suitcase, waiting to go South.  Sewing the buttons on the boxes will be my focus for one day.  Or evening while watching TV.

 

There are a few projects left in the blanket box.  Most  are hand sewing projects. The hand sewing projects would be perfect to work on while sitting on the porch.  The weather has finally warmed up and is beautiful.  Every time that I sit on the swing, the black flies drive me inside.  I needed something to sew on my machine.  I had a choice of Dear Jane, a box of 2 1/2″ squares and a very large bag of Mile A Minute stuff.  The mile A Minute bag will be my next  focus project. There is so much in that bag.  I will have to focus for more than one day.  When it is finished, I will have lots of blocks to work with.  After all the blocks are made, I can put that project aside until I can get the fabric to complete the quilts.  I should have enough blocks for several quilts.

I have been working in the gardens in the mornings.  I am about half finished with the last one.  Then, I start all over again.  I can see some tiny green plants where I planted the wild flower seeds.  I hope that they are the flowers and not more weeds.  Time will tell.

The pretty, little purple flowers are under the birch trees again.  I don’t know what they are.  I didn’t plant them.  They come every June for me to enjoy.  The lupine are almost ready for their display.

 

 

Focusing seems to work so far.  I wonder how long I will focus until I fall back into my old, bad habits.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

We have had a few days with the sun.  I’ve been fighting weeds which seem to grow faster than I can pull them out.  Several gardens are “finished” and the annual seeds have been planted.  Finished means as good as they are going to get right now.  Maybe later, I’ll pull more weeds.  I have three more areas to weed and seed and then I can start all over again.

The lilacs are in blossom.  The deer must have come into the yard as one of the bushes just have blossoms on the top.  When the deer are hungry, they eat all the buds so there are no flowers.  One year when the bushes were smaller, we had one blossom on the top of one bush.  So far, they haven’t found the Hosta.  Last year, they ate them down to the roots.

 

The crab apple trees are beautiful.  The Lupine has started to bud and should blossom in a week or two.

 

I’ve been working on several projects. One of the projects that I brought from N. H. was a plastic bag of quilt pieces that I received from a friend.  I had no idea what was in the bag but thought I’d do something with it and get it out of the UFO pile.  I found over 100 six inch pinwheel blocks and some sashing material.  Three rows of 10 blocks were sewn together. It is very hard to sew something that someone else has started.  Her 1/4″ seam was not the same as my 1/4″ seam. I really didn’t want another large quilt to sit around waiting to be quilted.  I unsewed the three rows and removed three blocks from each. I had enough blocks to make three charity quilts.  Two were 5 x 7 blocks and the third was 6 x 7.  The three quilts are in the suitcase waiting to go back to N. H.  They need a border, batting and a backing. All of that is in my sewing room in N.H.  I didn’t bring any extra material to Maine this year.

Another project was twenty four 10″ blue blocks.  When I finished the Canadian 150 quilt, I cut the leftovers into 10″. 5″ and 2 1/2″ squares.  I decided to make 12 fabric boxes. All 12 are sewn and turned.  Once turned and pressed, each one has to be quilted. Then with a few seams, they turn into little boxes. I have three finished up to this point.  They need some hand tacking and then buttons to hold the points down.  Again, the buttons are in N. H.  When they are all finished, up to the addition of the buttons, they will go into the N. H. suitcase.  I can finish them there and not bring them back to Maine.

The Farmer’s Market has opened for the summer.  Last Saturday, I bought beet greens, little turnips and some herb plants for the garden.  The fresh greens were delicious.  Tomorrow night, I’ll either roast or stir fry the little turnips.

Tomato and basil plants plus the flowers for the barrels by the garage were bought next door to the Farmers Market.  When I was checking out, I saw a sign for fiddleheads.  I thought that I had missed the season.  I have enough for a meal and some to freeze for next winter.   They are so delicious.

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.