June Cornucopia

 

Hopefully it has been a beautiful June for us all, full of nice sunny days, all the flowers blooming and only good or great things happening. This is me crossing my fingers for the very best June Ever here at the beginning of the month. To keep myself from being too worried about June not going swimmingly, here are links to a lot of the things I enjoyed online this month.

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Perhaps a reason to visit North Carolina, a new museum for Costume Jewelry. How fun!

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This is a pretty good use of the power of an app, Magic Markup helps visualize your pattern sewn up in a certain fabric. It is part of the Stash Hub app which looks like it would be very handy.

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Mx. Domestic has a great new self-designed collection, so much great variety,  very tempting!

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Perhaps a cure/treatment for Long Covid. 

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Wonderful use of resources, both saving California's kelp forests and also making an interesting and beautiful tile out of purple sea urchins.

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The Microsoft BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) might be permanently going away. This is a funny look down memory lane of how and why the BSOD persisted for so many years and why it might change.

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A very handy 20 minute video of some useful serger tips.

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Another great SAL this year from Andover Fabrics, Patchwork Palooza, free weekly block patterns from  July 10 - December 4, 2025.

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Trinket Anchored

Back to getting Trinket anchor quilted. That's what I call doing the horizontals and verticals in my mind.

I still love these juxtapositions of odd colors in the Alison Glass fabrics vs. the odd dark berry purple solid that I chose to use.

And there it is, all anchor quilted and un-trimmed.

This is probably just enough quilting, but I know I want to do more.

Why are the yellows so odd in this picture? I think it's because they're next door to the intense reds and cellphone cameras are notorious for struggling with accurately translating the reds correctly.

Here's how the back looks with the untrimmed edge pinned underneath. ie not the final bound and finished edge.

Hmmm, don't like that grid offset look on the back.

I still can't believe I paper pieced that block!

Trinket Quilting Stop

 

At first I thought I'd bought some Aurifil thread in the right color but then I realized it was a much larger spool, actually a pretty large 5,500 yard cone. I'm using this cone of rayon thread that I picked up off of the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day. The color is INTNS MAROON maybe that means Intense Maroon? I also picked up one in a lighter purple but that's too light. I wound bobbins so that it would match on the back.

Here's how it looks on the front. I'm starting out with just out of the ditch quilting along the horizontals. I did three rows out of sixteen. I think I'll do the verticals as well, and then we'll see from there on what else. Maybe a design of some type in the solid squares? X marks the spot or ???

It's not going to look perfect on the back of course, but also I need to remember that it's the back.
Alas, a tuck was stitched into the backing. I think I'll un-sew this part and re-stitch this part of the quilted line. I also have to face facts that the whole shebang needs to be re-ironed as well before I doing any more quilting. It just got too wrinkly in the storage box.

Trinket Quilting Start

 

I've just received clearance from my Studio Assistant/Manager to begin quilting Trinket.

I had quite the hunt for finding it the other day, luckily I'd left myself notes about how I was rearranging stuff in my workroom. It was safe and sound in one of the work-in-progress boxes.

Now I've got to figure out how to quilt this thing and find the thread I know I bought that matches the odd dark berry purple almost black background squares.

ICAD Week 3

 Another week of ICAD work. It's about all I've had time and energy for this past week. 

I find that it functions as something of a meditation session for me. 

I sit down, quiet, by myself, concentrate on what's right in front of me, what I'm making, and I can zone out right into the creative zone. 

To me, that's very restful. 

This is a muscle that I never appreciate having so much as during times of high stress.

These are mis-printed foundation piecing patterns from EQ8, cut up and put back together.

 

Selvedge Candy

 Printing out and taping together enormous paper piecing patterns that I'll be using for a new quilt for the MQG challenge. Hope it works out!

This is quite a change from the quilt I was considering making last month. I was thinking about the lovely selvedges and how to use them on the quilt's surface. Glad I reminded myself, and now to think about if that would work with this design...A possible title would then be "Selvedge Candy".

 

Flower Friday - June Edition

A nice big bloom on one of the Sages in the front yard. Still trying to find flowers that the deer won't munch on.

In portrait mode on my phone camera, the background blurs out so nicely. I like the shadows on this one.

Yes it's leaning out into the pathway a bit too much, but I don't mind.

The Globemaster bulbs actually bloomed, I was surprised. These are supposed to be 3' tall, maybe next year?

Not in my garden unfortunately, but still worth a picture. It's like an Easter Lily, but a crazy deep orange.
 

It's Day Lily time now that the Peonies are done.

This one was just opening up.

Some interesting color combinations happening.

One of the brand new rose bushes that I planted has actually bloomed. Because it's in a lot of sun I think.

It's a really pretty pink.

I guess I like this one!

And here's my SIL's dog, Ginger, growling at us while lounging among the Jacaranda blooms.

ICAD Week 2

 

Second week of ICAD fun.

So very very literal I know.

I used my sticker from the great Wayne Thiebaud show.

A reminder to me to work on my YES coat

Running Out of Raincloud Finish

I have another quilt finish to post! Two in a row, that must be some kind of record for me. This time it is Running out of Raincloud, which just needed the facings to be hand-stitched down and the hanging sleeve to be added. 

I added the facings at the BAMQ retreat in March, but they needed that hand-stitching on the back to be done to count this as a quilt finish. I got most of it done while keeping friend Jaye company while she worked on another very cool quilt in progress. Thanks to her for the excuse to sit and get my hand stitching done! Sometimes a change of venue is what I need to get unstuck and finish something.

More pictures of the finished quilt and the crazy amount of quilting I did on this one.

This was designed and made for the 2024 MQG challenge, but unfortunately it was not finished in the correct year to actually be entered. Oh well, I got it done anyways and learned a lot by making it. 

This is also another one to check off of my 2025 UFO Challenges list, that leaves three left to be finished: Temperature Quilt, Trinket and Bohemian Wife. I'm really glad I signed up for this UFO challenge thing, because I've gotten 3 out of 6 quilts finished now, by the halfway point of the year, too.