I'm back and so soon 😜

 I'm back again with more updates of what's been happening. Since I didn't want to overwhelm my last post, I decided to split it in 2 so here is part 2.

August's color of the month for the RSC is yellow! Since I was on vacation for the first 2 weeks of August, I got started with my yellow button blocks this past week. 

I can't wait to see all these buttons together as I now have quite the stack of button blocks! I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SO Scrappy

This is the 3rd year that I have participated in the #30daysofimprovqal hosted by @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio. The QAL started on July 30th and we are in the 4th week. Again, I was on vacation for the first 2 weeks but caught up by doing all 3 prompts in one week - stripes, L shapes, and triangles! This week was curves! 

As you can see, this year I am sewing only from my green scrap bin. I will probably make a few more blocks as we arrange and rearrange in Composition Week next week. 

Before my vacation, I pulled out a UFO that I started last year called 'Oh Say Can You Sew' on Facebook. The original quilt pattern called for 1152 - 1 1/2" HST. 

That is where I stopped and put the project bin away.  

After pulling that bin out again, I decided to cut down the size of the finished quilt so I would need to make fewer HSTs to finish. I would only need 648. The quilt will still be a nice size laid out in a 5x7 grid. 

Here is a peek at my current progress. I have all the blocks finished and I'm working on piecing the sashing. All fabrics are from my stash or scraps. 

I think that I can see the light at the end of this tunnel. It is rare for me to put away a quilt that I have started for as long as this one sat. Do you have projects that you give up on? Do you eventually finish them? 

It's been a while...

 Summer has been crazy busy - regular summer busy and our new retirement busy - which includes travel! 

In my last post, I showed the quilt I made for a wedding gift to a very special couple. We have known the bride since she was born and her parents even longer! I asked for help naming the quilt as I was having difficulty coming up with a name that worked for me. After reading many suggestions, both here and social media, as well as asking my daughters, I came up with the perfect name (in my opinion). I finally named it 'Love Grows'! Here is a picture taken on top of Mt Washington!

It was so windy! This is the best of several attempts but it was fun trying! 

(more pictures here.)

The finished size is 63" x 73". 

Also in previous posts, I showed you the process of designing and piecing a baby quilt for another special couple. I have also know mama since birth and her parents longer. Our youngest daughter was raised with these 2 girls! Since I was going to miss the baby shower (due to retirement travel), I desperately tried to get this finished before leaving. I managed to finished everything except hand stitching the binding so it came with so I could finish during the car ride. Here are pictures taken on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. 

I quilted this with several different thread colors. I stitched spirals in the sun and straight line rays. The mountains have straight lines following the peaks and the trees are quilted with triangles. The finished size is 36" x 42". 

I'm linking to Off the Wall Friday @ Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Wednesday Wait Loss @the inquiring quilter

I also brought some EPP tumblers on our car trip and I managed to finish the last 36 as well as start randomly sewing them together in rows of 10. 

I'm not sure what the layout will be but at least I got a start on some rows. I can always make them longer. I have 300 tumblers.

My final project for the car ride was to work on an old UFO from my cross stitch days. I was inspired to pull this project out when I saw Annie's @Annie's Musings, cross stitch project that she recently started again. I drew up this pattern from a picture I took after we put on the addition to our house! I got bored with it while filling in the sky/background and I haven't worked on it in years!

This is what it looked/looks like!

Before

After

I have put in a few more rows since being home! Maybe this will get finished after all! I still have all the details/outlines to do after the background is done!

PROGRESS!

I will leave the rest of the updates for another post as this has gotten quite long. if you are interested in my vacation pictures you can see them on my instagram or facebook accounts.  Thanks if you have read to the end!