Summer Solstice & Summer Fun

I'm getting caught up on a number of projects over the next few days. I finished these flying geese blocks just before the next step in this quilt along is released tomorrow. Phew!

I love this Summer Solstice quilt by Melissa Corry. Click here for more information. 

I fell behind a little bit for the best possible reason. I've been having all kinds of fun with these little sweethearts.

In addition to the indoor playgrounds, we've been swimming to escape the 105+ degree heat...well, if you can call 90 degree water an escape! 

Anyway, it's been a blast having them all together - I miss the noise and commotion already! 

Summer Solstice

When I first saw Melissa Corry's blog post about her Summer Solstice quilt along, I thought about whether or not to join for approximately 7/10 of a second. This is such a cool quilt - actually, it has more of a hot, blistering sun kind of vibe and I love it!

She has numerous block and quilt sizes, so you can make this in any size from a small baby quilt to a king size bed quilt. She also posted a nice variety of fabric and color options. You can purchase the bundles or be inspired to select your own. After pulling out nearly every fabric I own, I came back to her original color scheme. Those colors are all sunshine and heat. 

These are the fabrics I selected. My background fabric is a white on white cross hatch.

And here are all the cut pieces, ready to go!

For more information on Summer Solstice, click here.

Maggie's First Dance

I've been joining quilt alongs right and left these days! I have a need for variety in quilting - I think that could be why I have so many UFOs. I start a new quilt and part way through, I'm bored with it or something new and exciting has caught my eye.

But with a bunch of quilt alongs, I'm always working on something different. And, since I only make one block or do a little bit of cutting, I don't have a chance to get bored with it and I'm always excited for the next set of instructions to be released.

Maggie's First Dance is one of the new quilt alongs I've joined. Here is my first block:

More information on this project can be found at jacquelynnesteves.com. You need to sign up to receive the pattern and instructions by email. Her version is just darling!

Thread Journey quilt along

I've joined the Thread Journey Quilt Along with Wendy Sheppard on the Aurifil blog. Here's my center section which we prepared in part 1:

After the strips were sewn together, the branches, leaves, birds, nest and birdhouse were appliqued onto the background:

We'll be working on this every two weeks. Since this was actually posted June 16, I only have to wait a little more than a week to get the next step!

This gorgeous quilt along looks like a lot of fun and I hope to improve my quilting beyond the jerky meander stitch I do now! :)

For more information or to join, click here to go to the Aurifil blog.

Progress on Two

I completed block 4 of the Summer Sampler this week. The blocks are very modern and working with all solids has been somewhat challenging, but so far, I'm happy with these!

There are a total of 20 blocks, with a new one released each Monday. This quilt along is being hosted by Lee (FreshlyPieced), Katie (SwimBikeQuilt) and Faith (FreshLemonsQuilts).

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I've also been following a quilt along hosted by Debbie (QuiltedMoose.com) called From Louise's Garden for more than 6 weeks now. Today I told myself either join or move on. It's only 12 blocks that finish at 4-1/2" so I'm not sure why I didn't start sooner. Debbie tells the sweetest story about her grandmother (Louise) throughout the posts. So I started making the blocks today and even got all of the first 6 completed.

There's something so adorable about small blocks that can't be captured by a camera. And these little blocks certainly are sweet! The colors are more vibrant reds, golds and browns than the photo shows, also. I can't wait to see how this finishes.  :)

Ahhhhh, the Ocean!

I jumped right into the cool, refreshing color of June and got the pieces cut for 80 aqua blocks. Actually, they're not all aqua - I also included some turquoise shades too. Really, anything that I thought didn't quite fit into the box of blue fabrics.

These blocks will become 2" finished bow ties for my (first) Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 quilt.

I love these colors and am really excited to get the little blocks all sewn up!