Sunday, August 18, 2013

End of Summer and some Economy Blocks

Summer doesn't officially end till September,
but for us School starts tomorrow, so it is the end of our summer vacation.

We spent our last week of summer at the beach.

We only had two good days of sun.
The rest of the week was rainy.
But that didn't stop us from going to the beach.
We went every day of the week.

Rain or shine.

We had a great send off to summer even with rain.


One of my favorite places to go is to Huntington Beach State Park and walk all the way to the jetties. It rained on us a little on our walk that day but after that the clouds decided to let us enjoy the beach without having to squint through the rain.  Even though it was cloudy it was still warm.  That is the good thing about summer rain.  You can play in it and not get cold.

Huntington Beach state park also has access to the marsh.  They have some nice boardwalks to walk on where you can check out the local wildlife.

You can't tell in this photo, but the sun actually came out for a good 30 minutes while we walked the boardwalk.

I think I dread summer ending as much as the kids.
I really enjoy having them at home.
I will be sad to send them off to school in the morning.
I may just cry.

I have plenty of things to keep me busy though.
The are house chores of course, but I also need to finish up my Christmas advent calendar that I started for the Ho Ho Ho blog hop.



This is what the finished quilt will look like.  Last week I had all but the border done.  Some people told me it looked good just the way it was but I really want to add the small border. I did the design and coloring in EQ7.  I got the program for my birthday in May, but it isn't as user friendly as other software so it took me a little while to get the hang of it. I still feel like I am trying to understand it and that is not like me, I usually pick up software pretty easily.   The company is nice though, I emailed them a question when I just couldn't find the answer anywhere, and they were friendly and polite and answered my question pretty quickly. 
  The outer border needs 52 three inch Economy blocks.  With blocks this small I prefer to paper piece.  It gives me nice sharp points every time.   I sewed two sample blocks to make sure I had the right size fabric triangles. Then I printed out 50 more papers and the rest of the fabric I need to finish the rest of the blocks, which I will chain piece. 


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Friday, August 9, 2013

My day for the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop

For the Ho Ho Ho blog hop I wanted to make a Christmas pinwheel quilt.


I made the one to the left, a much smaller version, years ago and gave it away.  Since then I have wanted one for myself.  This blog hop was the perfect motivation to get my sewing machine humming with plenty of time for me to finish this up before Christmas.


This is what a pile of pinwheels can look like.

 I can't wait to get it quilted and bound in time for Christmas.





Another project this hop inspired me to work on was my advent quilt.
I still want to add a 3 inch border before I call this one complete.
 I embroidered these numbers over 10 years ago.  Each year I planned on making some sort of advent calendar with them, but I always spent too much time sewing holiday gifts and never got around to sewing the numbers together.



  I would always tell myself I can do it in January when the festivities are over, but by the end of the Christmas season I was ready to move on to other projects.  So I am glad I decided to participate in this hop to get my personal Christmas sewing started early.  



The pockets are kinda of small, but I plan to put Christmas quotes, scriptures, or riddles inside.  Possibly mini scavenger hunt clues for the kids.  A clue a day, or a clue to where bigger sweets are stored. We can have a small adventure each day till Christmas.


This tiny candy cane was the only holiday decoration I could find in July.  It fits perfect.  ;)



Click the links below to see all the other bloggers who are posting today.

August 9

Happy Hopping

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A New Idea


I've had these numbers embroidered for a very long time.
Yesterday I came up with a plan to sew them into a project.
Hopefully I can get most of it done by Friday, the day I am posting for the Ho, Ho, Ho Blog hop.

Stay tuned!

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Monday, August 5, 2013

Pile of Pinwheels


I love Pinwheels.  They can look good in anything.


54 Pinwheels soon to be added into my Christmas project.



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