Summer Begins

 My summer vacation began on Thursday, but my daughter is already on hers in Italy. She sent me these pictures this morning of her inside the Colosseum

 and this one outside. She still has another week in Italy. I am so happy that she was able to participate in this extended study course.

 Meanwhile, I made luggage tags to hold gift cards as grad presents. 

 They are nice little novelties with a nod to the colleges everyone will be heading off to in the fall.

 I had a squirrel moment--I am easily distracted with quilt projects. I was organizing my sewing room and making a mental list of what UFOs I needed to work on. I looked in my random blocks bin and saw several blocks I had made for my Quilty Fun class last year. I also noticed I needed another smaller Lori Holt quilt to hang with my Sunflower Pigs. I decided to take the demo blocks and make some more to make the small sampler from the Quilty Fun Sew Along in 2013-14. I managed to complete 9 of the 20 steps yesterday. Check out other squirrel projects here:

http://www.mmmquilts.com/2017/05/dreami-linky-5.html

 The flying geese are each 1.5 x 2.5 inches.

 A small row of Twinkly Winter Stars.

The Chubby Chevrons--some set as X blocks and the rest as a row.

 There are three tree blocks.

 I plan on leaving the mittens off and putting more Cocoa Cups on instead.

The two Courthouse Steps blocks were a breeze using my scrap bins.

The Vintage Baskets are a nod to all the baskets I have. You can find information about the Quilty Fun Sew Along Sampler here:

http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2013/11/announcing-quilty-fun-sew-along-and.html

This is one version I found online--mine is going to be more primary colors and less pastels. I hope to sew the bee block and complete the embroidering on it today for Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/05/slow-sunday-stitching_28.html

Quick Week

Greetings! We presented this retirement quilt to Mr. King this week. He was quite pleased with it and loved the Amy Butler backing.

 The Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt drive is ending. I dug out this Medallion Log Cabin top and backed it with minky and quilted it up. I am donating it to Happy Chemo in honor of a third grader that lost her short battle with brain cancer this school year. It is 56 inches square. You can check out all the other charity quilts here:

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2017/05/hands2help-time-to-show-off-your-quilts.html

The minky is very soft and should be cuddly during chemotherapy treatments. I will get this mailed off this week!

I took some time to get caught up on Carole's Scrap Dance Mystery Two Step. I got my dozen blocks together today.

I need gifts for several graduates this year. I picked up gift cards, but they are not very personal. I thought of making luggage tags. I started with this prototype this afternoon, but I am already planning on some changes.

This is a little bigger and bulkier than I want. So stay tuned for my modifications!

One year ago today, my daughter graduated from high school. Now, she is off in Italy on an extended study where they are studying Galileo. She will return to her university for a paid internship in the admissions office all summer. Sounds like a perfect ending to her freshman year of college!

I delivered the four quilts I bound for my local fabric store on Friday and picked up another. I will spend my evening binding for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/05/slow-sunday-stitching_21.html

Only 2.5 more days until my summer begins! 

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Mother's Day 2017

 Happy Mother's Day 2017! My sweet daughter sent me my favorite sunflowers on Thursday. She is flying to Italy today for a 3 week extended study. They are studying Galileo and will visit Florence, Rome, and Venice for a week each. Not a bad way to end her freshman year, I think! 

 My mom and I celebrated by getting together yesterday to make pineapple quilts. We are using this free pattern:

http://patsloan.typepad.com/files/jackie-padesky-pineapple-quilt.pdf

We did decide to make our pineapple crowns a little taller than shown in the pattern.

 We got everything cut out and I managed to make 2 blocks. We also celebrated with our favorite Thai food from our local food truck. It was a lovely day!

I spent this morning binding the retirement quilt for my friend John, but I am not posting any pictures until he receives it on Wednesday. I have this quilt all ready for binding this evening as part of my Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/05/slow-sunday-stitching_14.html

My countdown for summer is continuing with 8 days of school left. I will be gifting my personalized pencil pouches this week and packing up one of my three classrooms to move--not fun! Have a great week!

2 & a Half Weeks to Go!

 The end of the school year is a very hectic and stressful time for teachers. We are counting down to summer more than the kids! There are gobs of field trips, end of the year parties, and retirements. One of my schools has four people retiring and they traditionally make quilts for all retirees. I offered to make one of them. There are the two blocks I embroidered for it.

I had 28 blocks, so I just spent the day sewing them together. Right now, it measures 31.5 x 53.5 inches. John loves green, so I am going to pick up a darker green for an outer border.

I have this amazing Amy Butler fabric that I want to use for the backing. I plan on just quilting around the blocks as this will just be a memory/display quilt.  John's fiancee, Patrick, is a quilter, so I know they appreciate designer fabrics. It is my May OMG Goal to have this quilt done for the retirement celebration on 5/17. Here are everyone's goals:

http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2017/05/one-monthly-goal-may-link-up.html

I am helping out my friend and fabric store owner with some binding becauseI love o bind while watching TV. She had another customer quilt several quilts with her new longarm and needed some help with binding. I did this one for her.

Here is its back--the quilting is very nice. I think the longarm is all computerized. 

 Here is the other quilt I finished the binding on.

This one was quilted with different sized swirls. It is gorgeous! I may need to get her to quilt one of my UFOs for me soon. I have two more quilts to bind, so that will be my Slow Sunday Stitching this evening. Check out everyone else's stitching here:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/05/slow-sunday-stitching.html

Have a great week!

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