July Goal Finished

          What a  couple of months it has been.  It's been filled with the joys and exhaustion of spending lots and lots of time with my grandsons.  I won't go into details but it has taken pretty much the two months since the birth of the baby for my daughter in law to return to health and during those two months she was back in the hospital 6 times.  It is wonderful to see her back to health and energy and no one is happier than her two boys.  Here's hoping that things stay that way.

     Additionally my aunt has had a set back and is now back in the hospital. It never rains, it pours. Over the last month or so I had been trying to get her to go on the waiting list for long term care and now we will have to speed up the process.  It's pretty complicated however and depending on how her recovery goes she may end up in the first available bed.

     Despite the busyness I managed to complete my July Goal of quilting one of the three quilts I blogged about here.

I chose the green and orange quilt that is the second quilt top I made.  It feels good to have this gem from the past quilted up. I even managed to bind it.

       It was a bit dreary out on the day I managed to squeeze in a photo shoot but you can see that it's a pretty bright quilt.  It's hanging on the back of our newer couch at the moment.  I'm hoping it can protect the couch from cat claws.

     I took a suggestion from Christina Camelli and looked for a detail in the quilt to choose how I would quilt it.  I took my cue from the fish fabric I used for the backing, which also features on the front of the quilt.

     I quilted ribbons with my walking foot and filled in some of the spaces created with free motion circles.  The idea I was going for was underwater plants.  Here's a closeup or two.

     The walking foot quilting went very slowly but the free motion accents just zipped along and I had a lot of fun with them. This quilt is my first finish for the 3rd quarter of the 2017 Finish Along.  My original post is here.  I'm happily linking my post up with the OMG July Finish Linkup, with the Main Crush Monday Linkup and withTGIFF which will be at Katy's Quilts and More this week.  I'm also linking up with the 3rd Quarter Finish Along Link up at She Can Quilt.

   

  

One Monthly Goal for July

     I'm having a hard time choosing which quilt I would like to work on this month.....so I think I will cheat a bit for my one monthly goal ......and just let you know that I would like to get the quilting done for one of these three quilts.  It could be 

1. Circle of Friends 

Or 2.  This donation quilt...which actually has been sewn into a quilt top with a lot of negative space...but I haven't shared it in a photo yet.

Or 3.  The second quilt top I ever finished.

     I have a rough plan for how I would like to quilt each of these.  I just have to pick one and go for it.  My time will still be limited as my son's new work contract has started and my daughter in law will still need help with the kids.  But I do have a week off work this month so I'm super optimistic that I'll be able to make great head way that week.

     I had been planning to pin baste one of the tops on Friday but I think I may have to go in to Toronto to see my aunt.  I've been so busy with the kids that I haven't seen her for several weeks.  My sister has been picking up the slack.

     I'll be linking this post up to the OMG link up for July and with the Let's Bee Social link up.  See you there.

Third Quarter List

     I am having a difficult time this year with finishes.  In Quarter One I had one finish and in Quarter Two I had no finishes.  I have moved some of my projects forward though, so all is not in vain.  I have a couple of baby quilts I have to add to the mix for completion this year.  One of these babies, my second grandson, is already a month old so I will add his quilt to the  Third Quarter list.  I have yet to start it but here are some of the fabrics I will be using.  The second baby will be born in August and I have no idea when her/his quilt will be finished.

The Toronto Modern Guild is hosting a curves workshop with Jen Carlton-Bailly this summer which I may or may not be able to go to.  It's on the long weekend in August so Dwight and I might have other plans.  You never know with his work in the summer. This has gotten me thinking about curves and it brought the next quilt to mind.   I thought this quilt must have been on a finishing list before but I couldn't find any pictures of it so I guess not.  I started it a long time ago so I should pay some attention to it. Step one will be to pull these blocks out of the needs to be done pile and iron them.

Here are my repeats from last quarter: 

Another curved quilt:  the clamshell.  You can tell I was on a warm colours kick when I was last working on these two quilts.

Snowflake Shimmer

This charm squares quilt which has now been made into a quilt top and is ready for quilting.

The tea cozy

Circle of Friends:  Also a quilt top, now awaiting to be quilted.

The second quilt top I ever made:  I think it's time I got this baby done.

I know it's a pretty big list but I'll be happily chipping away at it and we will see if I get any of it done this quarter.
I'm heading over to Leanne's blog She Can Quilt to join in the link up for Third Quarter Finishes.