More and more HRT's, now trimmed

 

Now that all the rest of the HRTs for the Lupine Mystery quilt are sewn together, it is time for trimming!

Five more sets trimmed up.

I put them up on the design wall underneath the previous batch. The Bohemian Wife quilt top is on the left for scale. But wait, something's missing!

There we go that's better. It's getting old trimming these, but they're turning out great, and they're almost done. So I'm pushing through, a few more sets at a time until the to-be-trimmed stack is gone.

Saturday and Sunday were my first workouts back at the gym. Here I am looking very pleased with myself for recovering enough to get to go out and do a good workout at the gym with DH. 

August To-Do

Here's how my design wall looks on the first of the new month. It's just busy as per usual. I have the newly ironed Bohemian Wife quilt and back hanging up so that I can get it layered, basted and quilted for the BAMQ UFO Challenge. That's pinned on top of the languishing Patchwork Palooza quilt. Maybe once I get the Bohemian Wife quilt done, I'll be in the finishing mode? There's also the HRT's' for the Lupine Mystery quilt. Up on the upper right is the Bending the Calendar quilt,  pinned up so I can think about how to finish it (one of the UFO's for this year). Underneath that are two finished projects, the QCR Mini Pumpkins and the award-winning (hah1)Ocean Effect quilt. In the front is the finished quilts that need to be put in storage or hung up on the walls of my house on top of some Project Bags. It's a lot on that wall.

Note: the use of 🥏👽  by a project name indicates that it's on the 2026 UFO Finishes challenge list of six projects that I committed to finishing at the beginning of the year (more on that list later). Note, this is not the same list as the UFO Challenge for BAMQ, that UFO will have this next to it on the list:🌀🌐  

QUILTS

Design & Begin

Pantone Project - work on an overall design, either in EQ8 or up on the design wall.

Lupine & Laughter Mystery Quilt - keep making units following the clue instructions

BAMQ BOM - make monthly blocks of varying sizes through the year.

Continue Assembly

Patchwork Palooza - Decide on borders, make backing & binding

Keep working on Sour Grass Grace from Jane Sassaman class.

Old Town Mystery Quilt - make a backing & binding, decide on whether to have it quilted

AG Stamp Quilt - continue to make more blocks using the final group of fussy-cut stamp block centers from Tula Pink fabrics.

Continue the piecing of Selvedge Candy (maybe the name) quilt originally designed for the 2025 MQG challenge.

🥏👽 Sew the last 6 columns and sashing together of the 2023  Temperature Quilt together to make the quilt top.

🌀🌐 David Owen Hastings class piece, make more blocks, assemble into quilt top, quilt, finish🥏👽 

                                      

Quilting

🥏👽 Bohemian Wife -  Sandwich this and start quilting it🌀🌐 

Mosaic Table Runner - Sandwich this and start quilting it

Final Steps 

🥏👽 Bending the Calendar - Cut up? Re-arrange? Embellish?🌀🌐 

HANDWORK/BAG/CLOTHING PROJECTS 

Make a Cotton Candy pouch for myself.

Make a Charlie's Aunt wool purse for myself, first felt the wool from Pendleton Mill.

Toned-Down Circle Sampler - now that I have the appropriately sized grey background felt, arrange and appliqué the circles, start embroidering.

Y.E.S. Coat - continue making pieces/blocks. assemble on foundation, cut out lining pieces from the fabric that I dyed

Snake In The Garden - Finish hand stitching -  🌀🌐

Body Pillow-knit cotton pillowcase - 🌀🌐 

Quilted Dog Jacket for Meg - 🌀🌐  

Hey! This Is All Finished!

🌀🌐  Mini QCR Pumpkins 🌀🌐  

I made and attached binding and a label to a Community giving quilt.

I caught up and finished my ICAD work.

Well...how about that? That's four months in a row with some actual finishing happened. Here's hoping that I can continue with the finishing energy into August.

Accoutered August

Well, here it is, already August, I'm calling it Accoutered August. It's been a fun exercise for me this year coming up with an adjective for the month ahead that starts with the same letter and isn't necessarily a word I already know or use. Accoutered means: Having been fully equipped or furnished with necessary items or accessories, indicating preparedness and readiness (prepared, equipped, provisioned). Which is definitely the state of my studio, I have just about everything in there that I would ever possibly need (and more!) from here on out. 

The monthly marker is made up of two photos, the first one of the Lupine Mystery HRTs.

edited in the Percolator app,

 and this ICAD piece layered over in the SnapSeed app and edited.

 Here is my 1sE video for the month, one second of every day of the month of July

 Monthly I-Did List for July

1. I cut out the rest of the rectangles for the HRTs needed for the Lupine Mystery quilt.
2. I finished binding a Community Giving quilt and wrote and illustrated a ruler tutorial for myself
3. I made an interesting backing for the Mosaic table runner.
4. I caught up and finished my yearly participation in ICAD.
5. I worked on making the HRTs for the Lupine Mystery quilt and almost finished them.
6. I designed a quilt in EQ8 using the new to me Judy Martin stars add-ons.
7. I finished my Mini QCR Pumpkins project for the BAMQ UFO Challenge.
8. I made two napkins out of beautiful toweling.

I only got a few things done this month due to being ill, but I did make it to Sew Day. and managed to have a couple visits with family. I haven't gone to the gym for the whole month and I miss it so much and will be going back starting on 8/1. I didn't do a whole lot of gardening, as I was only able to water a little bit at a time, just enough to keep things alive. I only went to one PT visit early in July for my right wrist, but the rest of the month, all that rest seems to have let it really heal up. I'm raring to get going in August after so much down time, but I have to keep in mind to not overdo things. 

 

July Cornucopia

 

Hopefully we've all had a lovely July filled with outdoor activities, the right amount of sun, and lots of nice flowers. I've also been inside, on the various screens that I use, and here's a cornucopia of links to things that I've enjoyed, learned from, been inspired by, or that have made me think. Hope you find some of them to be useful too.  (note this was written on 7/1 before I fell ill for almost the entire month!)

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

I guess I'm officially an "old lady" as I've finally given in and downloaded the Merlin app so that I can identify alllll those birds that wake me up every morning. I've been a long-time fan of the webpage for Cornell University Bird Lab with all the sound clips, photos and bird info.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

Now that the World Cup is over and I'm pretty soccer satisfied at this point, how about making a fabric soccer ball out of hexies and pentagons? I might get mine done in time for World Cup 2030

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

Another reason to go visit Portland again, to see the absolutely beautiful new mural in the children's library section of the St. John's branch of the Multnomah County Library.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

One of the very first large online quilt fabric stores, eQuilter has changed ownership. It will be interesting to see what and how it changes. Wishing lots of ood luck to Luana Rubin in her art endeavors.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

The super interesting and very beautiful Wimbledon walk-on dress that Naomi Osaka wore has quite a significant backstory. So gorgeous!

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

A free quilt design, utilizing Dresden Hexagon blocks called Freaky Familiars from Ruby Star Society.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

Nancy Drew (first four novels) are in the public domain, along with the first Miss Marple novel, here's an interesting article about how the Nancy Drew books were written and why they changed so much. I had no idea, I just stopped reading them once Nancy changed into someone else and wasn't interesting to me.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

Another free quilt design from Ruby Star Society, for a Merry Happy Christmas quilt.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

This article about making a mixed-media Story Scroll inspired me to buy a vintage spool because I'm going to try making my own version.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

This essay about Quicksand by Sarah Kendzior is amazing, especially if you're a Gen-X person.

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

Really enjoying the Platypus Economics substack of Justin Wolfers, 

I am back to regularly listening to This American Life podcast, still very worth the time

  ProPublica's Narrated podcast (their long form investigations are read to you)

 and the shorter ProPublica podcast, Paper Trail, deep reporting you don't get from other sources.

We thoroughly enjoyed The Sheep Detectives movie on Amazon Prime. 

I also dug the documentary, Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That's the Weight of the World).

💛🌞🌻😎💛🌞🌻😎💛

Well-Lit Tiger HRTs

 

Cutting the pairs of rectangles for the rest of the HRTs for the Lupine mystery quilt.

I noticed the cool reflection of the underside of the new portable rechargeable light that I got for myself when it was on sale. That's reflecting on a print I just got from Ravi Zupa.

That's a lot of pairing and pinning, I think 15 sets. And I still have 5 more sets left to cut and pin. But at least I'm prepped for some more sewing tomorrow.

Lupine HRTs

 

Here are the HRTs that I've just finished today for the Lupine Mystery quilt. Only seven sets, with so many more to go. Back to cutting I go.

Back to HRTs

 

Back to actual sewing happening today! Finally! Woohoo! But of course I had to re-teach, re-view, and re-learn how to do the rest of the HRTs with the Bloc Loc Rulers that I cut out for the Lupine Mystery Quilt.

I referred back to the kinda tutorial I'd made for myself way back in June. This is a sort of update to that, with a big deal note to begin with: Both fabrics are right side up when you cut the pairs. Very Important for prints especially.

Flip one of the triangles, right sides together, offset the triangle tips, sew together.

Press seams to the purple.

Make sure you're using the B ruler with the B units, pay attention to which side the seam allowance is on. Trim on two sides.

Keeping the ruler locked onto the seam, spin ruler 180°, slide down to the final measurement of 2"w x 3.5"h.

Repeat with the A ruler and A units.

Okay, one set all done!

There it is, an actual thing that I sewed, and ironed and trimmed.

And then I cut and sewed a whole bunch more, but they haven't been pressed or trimmed yet.

Partial ICAD Catch-up

 I've been working on doing my ICAD pieces for this sort of lost month of July. 

They are being done one by one, but more than one per day so that I can catch up by the end of July when the ICAD event ends. 

So, here's half of my July ICAD pieces.

A lot of these are using text from the brochure that I got at the Los Angeles Public Library

Grommets is one of my all-time favorite words so I was happy to find it in print to use!

We have a brand-new Pride Flag hanging up on our house.

I really like how this one turned out. This is from the label for the index cards that I'm using this year for ICAD.

That's one big batch. Still catching up on the rest for July, but getting pretty close.