Stories from the Sewing Room

It's so unexpected. I thought I'd struggle to get these done on time, but here I am, finished a whole week early.  25 Grassy Creek mystery blocks are assembled.

I'm debating what I want to select for next month's OMG. I should go ahead and make all the gray string blocks so that I can finish this thing, but I also feel like I really need a break from this project. I have plenty of other things to work on. I am testing a quilt. I have a small paper piecing project I'd like to make. I need to make myself some shirts. I have a charity quilt I'd like to quilt and bind. I have another quilt of my own I'd like to quilt.  I have a couple quilts that need to be trimmed and have binding attached to them. I never run out of things to do. What should I work on? Stop by next week to see what I decided on.

Here's this week's quilts. I've been working like crazy to get these done. The first one belongs to Deborah. It's quilted with In the Swirls.

Next is one of Charlene's, quilted with Ripples. I learned how to split and recombine a design on this one!

Then I worked on Deb's. She makes the cutest 30s quilts. This one is all hand-pieced! She chose Saffron Blossoms for the quilting.

Here's another of Charlene's, quilted with Honeycomb.

Finally, here is Amber's quilt. I quilted a loopy meander on it. It was fun seeing fabrics she's used in some of her previous quilts that she gifted. This one is just for her.

I've clearly spent a ton of time in the basement this week, but I have still gotten my walks done. We had huge storms move through Friday night. There were a lot of branches down and part of our downtown (well north of us) flooded. We didn't think we had any damage, but a (dead) tree fell down after the fact. Prior to the storm we had loads of butterflies, including a few monarchs. We haven't seen the monarchs since then, but we did capture a few others on camera.

We think these are Great Spangled Fritillaries.  They're fritillaries of some sort, anyway.  We had loads and loads fluttering around the lower garden for a few days, but not so many recently.

I also captured a yellow swallowtail on camera.

We also have tons and tons and more tons of bees. The bees love the lamb's ear flowers and also like the milkweed. I think these are plain old common bumblebees, but I don't want to get that close!  Several of our neighbors have honey bees, but I didn't see many or any or those.

Several of my day lilies in the lower garden that usually get eaten before blooming are actually blooming. Look at this stunner! The flowers are HUGE.  No idea what type or where I bought it.

We have another batch of baby bluebirds in the nesting box. They've clearly just hatched since they are naked!

I celebrated my anniversary this week by making myself a key lime pie. No one else in my house likes it. Pro tip: to easily juice key limes, cut them in half and squeeze them in your garlic press.  I like this recipe for my pie. I don't make the whipped cream, I usually use fat free sweetened condensed milk, and most of the time I buy a premade crust. And it is still yummy.