Stash Mystery Burger Queen

Today I finished up the 6" blocks for this mystery I had done the 9" & 12" yesterday. so I'm almost caught up, only need 22 x 3" blocks now. I'm doing the Calico Puzzle block, it's cute & very easy & I wanted something a little more interesting than a 9 patch but nothing that would drive me insane in something as small as a 3" block! The fabrics I chose are RW&B, it's turning out to be mostly red & blue, but I want to use it for a QOV so that will work fine because it's going to be rather masculine looking.
DH is working hard at painting the exterior of our CO. home-it will be all one color this time, no trim color because his plan is to add some trim with that corrugated metal & some stonework & a separate trim color would get too busy. We have had rain every day, usually later in the afternoon & today we only just got back from our walk with the dog before it began to rain again. So it stopped for a bit & just now we have had another storm roll through- this is by far the wettest summer since we have had the house in the mountains. Yesterday I took a short movie of the humming birds as they buzzed madly around one of the feeders. When it rains they go into a feeding frenzy, wish I knew why! I will try to figure out how to post a video but it might take me a while,LOL! I still struggle with the blog format so you know I'm not too slick with this stuff. I want to take a class at our local CC in the Fall if they have web design or some related topic. Maybe then I can manage both the HOB & Matthew's websites all by myself.

Mountain time

We returned to our mountain home on Monday after two weeks in the very hot & monsoonal[new word?] desert. I was a very productive quilter and managed to longarm 8 quilts before we left.In addition to Lucas ' quilt I did five QOV's, Leslie's very pretty Storm at Sea and a baby quilt. The latter is bound & only lacks a label to be ready for gifting, the SAS is back in Leslie's hands & today I prepared the bindings for two of the QOV's, the OC mystery quilts I made with Bonnie Hunter's group.[I seem to have difficulty setting the photos where I want them on the blog, perhaps I need a few more lessons from my friend Khris in Aus.] I spent a little time with my old New Home treadle machine & hooray got it stitching! I have no idea what I did differently this time but I re-threaded, reset the bobbin & eureka, perfect stitches! Now I have to actually use it to make something. The other QOV's [along with one more I hope to quilt on Gale's Prodigy this weekend] will return to the piecers in CA. for finishing, but here they are, quilted & trimmed. The RW & B quilts got a flag panto, though nothing shows up on these busy fabrics as on the SAS above where only the border quilting can be seen. I did a freehand peacock feather thing on the OC's & freehand Baby Butt feathers on the pink. All in all a rather productive couple of weeks. I am now beginning to plan the next baby quilt for my niece in Australia, who is expecting a baby girl late in the year.

It's that time again

July, I never thought that one month of the year could be approached with such dread as happens when you lose a child. Two years ago today we found out that our Matthew was gone from earthly life & I still struggle to grasp that fact-as a mother it doesn't fit into my mind. Knowing something in your head & embracing the reality are two different matters & I doubt that it will ever be different, something inside me just can't understand that Matthew is not still alive.
As I walked in the park with Button yesterday I placed a little sprig of rosemary, the herb of remembrance, & a red rose from our garden, by the memorial we have there. The date still hasn't been corrected so I need to follow up on that. DH & I have our wedding anniversary 16th. July, the day before Matt actually had died ,17th. though his body was not found until the following day. So our anniversary has been swallowed up in the whole agony of Matthew's loss & I don't know how to disentangle it.
I keep encountering more bereaved parents & we all have the same experience in grief, it never goes away it's never over when you lose a child.

Memory Quilt, Twin's Birthday

Here are pics. of Lucas' memory quilt that I made for his birthday. I got it finished, I was still sewing on the label when he came by yesterday. I am relieved to have it done, now I can focus on long-arming the stack of tops waiting in line. I have a Storm At Sea on now & I plan to do an ocean panto. Panto's are not my favorite way, I prefer freehand, but this is one I haven't used yet & it looks interesting, dolphins & whales etc. Then I have a stack of QOV's apart from several of my own that always go the end of the line.
As I was checking out some blogs I saw that Lyn at Bluebird Quilts is having a Christmas in July give away, so you may want to check it out !
One of the young women in the quilt class I have been teaching at our church seems to have caught the notorious "quilting Pox"! She is off & running, teaching herself new skills & now has begun a KS quilt . I am very impressed & pleased to have passed along the love of quilting to the next generation. Now she needs to accumulate a stash!