Stories from the Sewing Room

I think I can share this since the pattern, Gemstones, is available for purchase now. I was really hoping to have a completed quilt, but it was not meant to be this week. This was made from a Denyse Schmidt layer cake and some green yardage from my stash.

You know I can't stand wasting triangle cutoffs, so I incorporated them into a panel for the backing. However, I wasn't paying much attention (giddy at finally, finally having some time to just sew something) and promptly created a "design opportunity." LOL. My plan was for all the triangles to be going the same direction, and now they are not. And it's a quilt back, so I'm okay with it. Once I get this finished, it will be donated to the guild's community quilts program.

Well these don't look right. Oops.

I spent four days quilting a little custom quilt last week.

During this, the switch in my brand new, fancy handlebars went haywire and my machine would take off stitching uncontrollably any time I was trying to do needle up/needle down. Options for this are either replacing the rocker switch with a spare (that I didn't have) or one from the rear handlebars, or just a replacement handlebar set from them, I guess. APQS sent me instructions to change it out and a replacement set, so I didn't attempt to do the switch exchange since it was only a few days. My new set should be here today or tomorrow, depending on the PO and it is really easy to change out the whole handlebar assembly.

After completing the custom, I got back into my happy zone and quilted Ikat on Pat's quilt. I will be binding this one too.

Next was Basic Swirl for Trish.

And then Echo Blossoms for Penny.

Now for a great find: years ago (probably 20+), I bought a Marti Michell block of the month program. It was way above my skill level at the time and I quit when I got part of the center medallion done because it was so far off. Not sure how I was that far off considering it used templates. Of course I didn't have any extra fabric and it's long gone from stores. A couple weeks ago I was scrolling through eBay and found kits for three of the months. I won the auction at a whopping $4.95 plus shipping. And now I have some extra fabric to try to fix this thing some day.

Another nice thing from last week is both my prizes from the Tall Tales QAL arrived. I won a $25 gift certificate to Cottoneer and a pin cushion from Storts Market. 

Over in the garden, I decided to make more sweet relish with more of the giant cucumbers. It only took 2.5 cucumbers and I got seven more half-pints. Do we need 15 half-pints of relish? No. But I made that much anyway. I kept a few of the smaller remaining cucumbers to eat (I am the only one who eats raw cukes in my household) and sent the rest in to work with my daughter. Hopefully someone can use them.

We picked a big dish of overgrown green beans and I got massive contact dermatitis from the plants.  One of the two zucchini plants is totally gone and the other looks like it started regrowing. Something already ate all the blossoms off the new growth. Many of the baby cucumbers look diseased and the plants are dying back and I am okay with that.

Our weather has been quite cool compared to normal (only around 80 degrees) lately, so I'm hoping to get the garden cleaned up and weeded this weekend. The flower gardens will have to wait. I can only take so much dermatitis at once. ha.

We had some turkeys visit the other morning. It's nice to see them around the neighborhood again. There's also been a group of three hanging around.

Meanwhile, the month is half over and I haven't even started working on my OMG yet. Hopefully I'll have some progress next week. Stop back and see how I did.

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation and True Blue Quilts.