Some progress and some plans

       Are you quilting along with Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. I love Cheryl's quilt alongs because they have a nice slow pace.  If you fall behind you have plenty of time to catch up.   I have finished cutting my fabric for the Mosaic Mystery which is the current project.  The cutting seemed to take forever which I guess is what happens when you are trying to do it at night after work. But now it's done and I am ready to move on to the sewing when we get the first set of directions next week.  I'm still loving the fabric selection and I am hopeful that I can manage this particular quilt along without falling behind.

       A couple of weeks ago Wendy and I went to Spool and Spindle in Waterloo.  One of my co workers fills in there occasionally and we went to visit her.  It was our first time at the shop and we were not disappointed. They have so many patterns and fabrics for clothing making. I picked up a teal bamboo knit that I am going to use to make the Ebony Tunic.  You can see the beautiful version of the Ebony tunic that Anja made here . I also picked up two patterns: the Emerson pants and the Uniform tunic.  I'm not sure when I will make any of these projects but a girl can dream.

     When I got home after visiting the store I dug around in my fabric closet and found these.  When we were at the Spool and Spindle I had said that I thought I should have a more streamlined wardrobe that was basically all blue and it looks like I have been collecting for it already.  

     I already have the fabric on the right pegged for the Emerson pants.  I have about 4 yards of it purchased.  I think I bought it on sale when Greenwood Quiltery closed.  It's an Essex cotton and linen blend.  So maybe I will get to making the pants sooner rather than later.  The middle fabric was purchased a few years ago to make a dress and I may still use it one and the stripes will likely make a top.

     My latest addition to my wardrobe however does has no blue in it at all.  I finished my second T shirt from the white flowered fabric.

     It's my second finish of the 3rd Quarter FAL .  The original list is here.  The pattern is the Scout Tee but made in a stretch fabric instead of the woven fabric the pattern calls for.  What this means is you get a nice roomy comfy T shirt.  I'm linking with the Mosaic Mystery  August linkup and when the time comes with the 3rd Quarter FAL link up.

A rainbow in the garden.

     It's time to link up our finished quilt tops with the Jelly Roll Wave linkup hosted by Myra at Busy Hands Quilts.  Here's mine.

     I'm really pleased with my quilt top.  It's really pretty and I'm looking forward to quilting it on my home machine. I think it will make an awesome donation quilt and I'm hoping to have it all done by the guild meeting in September.  

     In addition to the Jelly Roll Waves linkup I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social.  What have you been up to.

August goal update

     I set myself a simple August goal for a couple of reasons.  One reason was that I thought I would need to spend a lot of time this month working on my part of the Modern Quilt Guild's charity quilt. Another reason was that Dwight and I where going to be away for the better part of a week.  Usually when I take time off in the summer, he is working and I sit around at home and sew.  Still another reason for the simple goal was that I had some concerns about how my 8 sisterhood blocks, all paper pieced by different quilters, was going to come together.  I was overthinking it.

    On the weekend before the vacation start I managed to complete 1/3 of my part of the charity quilt in an easy afternoon of sewing so I decided to just sew the sisterhood blocks together come what may and see if I could live with the result.  The result wasn't perfect but I decided I could live with it and that the imperfections added to it's folksy charm.  To further add to it's folksy charm I decided I would try my hand a big stitch quilting.  This would be the perfect project to take on vacation with me.

     As I have not done a lot of hand quilting I stuck to a colour that blended in so you will have to strain to see it.  It's Aurifil cotton embroidery floss that I won in a link up with Quilting JetGirl a couple of years ago.  I used three strands and the colour is 6722 which is a creamy white.
     Even though he was on vacation we still spent an hour to an hour and a half on two different occasions on a job site.  Normally this would drive me snaky but as it was at a nice location in Grey County just south of Georgian Bay, I happily sat in the car and worked on my hand quilting.  I also worked on it in the evening.
     It was a good little vacation.  We stayed at the Lavender Hills B&B where the host is a trained Chef and Baker, yum yum.  He also has a herd of goats and alpacas which added to the entertainment value in the evening when we relaxed on the patio.  We went on a 2 hour canoe trip on a very lazy river and a couple of hikes.  It was great to be out in nature, and to spend some time together.  I'm going to try to finish my quilting for this project as my new to myself goal this month.  I'm linking with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts and with UFO Busting at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland.

One Monthly Goal for August

     Apart from the heat, it's hard to believe it's August.  July just seems to have flown buy.  I guess that's because we were pretty busy.  August is also getting off to a busy start. This is a long weekend where we live and the start of a one week vacation for Dwight and I.  We are going to the zoo with my son and his family on Monday.  Then we are heading north and east to spend time in the countryside finishing up with a visit to the big city to visit our daughter.
     Because I'm away from the sewing machine for a week I've decided to choose a fairly simple project as my OMG for August.

     These are the blocks I received in Sisterhood  swap.  My goal is to sew them together.  This goal should go quickly apart from the fact that I am having trouble lining up the arms.  Also I have a lot of other projects I'm working on at the same time.  What can I say, that's me.  If I manage to get this little piece quilted I will be really happy, but I am not counting on that.  I have too many irons in the fire.  Linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for the August OMG linkup.