Friday, July 31, 2015

Finishing up July - 2015


Like in so many places, the heat has taken it's toll on productivity and creativity.  The occassional storms that rolled thru were not always friendly.  And July saw the 3's - they say things come in 3's.  The car that died (fixed), the iron that died (replaced), and now my sweet Juki (in for repair).  But for every dark cloud there comes a ray of light - so let's see how I did on my July goals.

  
The Le'ts Book It project almost to flimsy stage - one more border to go.  This one is big and will be sent off to a long armer.  I did pick up backing and binding fabric on my outing yesterday.


The color for RSC15 for the month of July was Red and I completed all my various blocks for 'in-progress' projects.  Now that we are more than half way thru the year, do you get the itch to finish these up?  It is hard for me to wait each month for the next month's color announcement and then just work a few blocks.  I'm eager to wrap up some of these projects.  I was hoping for ORANGE and even picked up some orange FQs on my outing - but it is Indigo or option for deep purple or black.


I needed a little slow down at times and used the Slow Sunday Stitching to finish up the binding on this monster.  I don't normally do BIG, but I love this quilt and it so represents me as a quilter.  As I handled each of these 2.5" squares from the barrel or the bricks from the totes - I remembered the other projects those fabrics appeared in.  And said some sad (and happy) farewells to some as it was their last performance - gone and used up.


And this little piece was a 'slow down' project which took forever to do - I procastinated, not that it was hard or large.


July was a month of clearing out, too.  I passed on some fabrics and UFOs, organized, and put the piles of blocks together.  This one - 'Grandpa's Stars' - was inspired by Jo's Country Junction to finish up one of our Bonnie Hunter projects before her retreat.  Some of you were in shock when I said I was planning borders for this.  It is small and I could make more blocks, but the reason for making this quilt was to use up all those 'stored' HSTs - not make more.


And when you play with so many scraps, you get the itch to play with NEW.  Although most of this is OLD that was sitting on the shelf for far too long.  The Charms gifted and waiting for the right quilt.  A Kona black jelly roll found behind a UFO.  A surprise find of an old fabric that just wanted to be in a quilt.  I rarely make a quilt from cut to finish, but that is what happened with this one.  And I got to have fun with my aboundance of thread - I have a thrill of thead as much as the thrill of fabric.

With the heat, summer activities in the next month, waiting on a sewing machine repair - I plan a little more slow down in August.

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."
-  Sam Keen  

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon


23 comments:

Julianne said...

Wow! you got alot done this month Sharon! Good for you! Several beautiful finishes!

Lesley said...

Oh my goodness...I am such an admirer of yours! Everything is beautiful!

Debbie said...

Wonderful month of fine finishes! I love them all but especially covet the scrap quilt that is so you. Yep....it is a winner and so perfectly you. I think you deserve a little slow down next month. It will give us a chance to catch up :)

Needled Mom said...

Other than the 3's, you had a great month! I love the big finish this month.

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

Way to go Sharon!! I sure love that first beigie one. What happened to your Juki??

Julie Fukuda said...

Wow, do you ever sleep? Looking through my paper diary, I see three finishes for the whole year ... and two of those were runners.

gayle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gayle said...

I swear, sometimes Blogger drives me nuts...
What I was trying to say was that I always enjoy your end of month roundups. You always have such pretty things to show! (And so many!)

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Lots of lovely finishes!

Char said...

Wow, you had quite a. Few finishes. I sure hope your Juki is back soon. Don't know what I'd do without mine.

Rebecca in AK said...

Lots of great projects! I love using my scraps and remembering the other quilts I made with that fabric and who they were for. Those red nine patches with yellow star points are very pretty. I hope you get your machine back soon.

Kat Scribner said...

Great projects this month, Sharon, but Granpa's Stars is especially nice.

Kate said...

You had a really productive month! Hopefully we only have on more really hot month before it starts to cool down in September.

Dana Gaffney said...

You had a good month, they're all lovely and you used a lot of scraps. I thought I was the only one who gets sad about the last few pieces of certain fabric, I'm glad I'm not alone.

Beth said...

Wow! That is so much scrappy goodness here in one month! Inspiring for sure.

Eat Sleep Quilt said...

Congrats on your July finishes! I'm in the process of plowing through as many UFO's as I can, but sometimes I just gotta start something new!

Jennifer M. said...

Lovely quilts! You got a lot done last month it seems.

Sheila said...

Your monster is beautiful. I know the feeling of using up those last strips, strings, squares of a fabric that I enjoyed sewing.
Oh yeah. I have finished RSC quilts before the end of the year because I couldn't wait to see them finished or there was no way I could finish five quilts in December. Grandpa's Stars will look very nice with borders. Love the colorful thread quilting in the last quilt. Very modern. Hope your machine is repaired soon and August is cooler than July.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

Thank you especially for the quote...I've hit deep summer...and always need to be reminded it's okay!!!

Shannon said...

I am always amazed how much you get done. Your quilts are fabulous. Slowing down is good for the soul. We are always so busy that our lives just pass us by. I can't wait to see what you don't get done this month. HA HA

Teresa in Music City said...

Such a nice variety of projects this month Sharon! Your Wys project turned out gorgeous, I'm looking forward to seeing what you put on for a border. And that is a lovely quilt you finished binding - the "monster" as you call it :*) That's one of the many reasons I love scrappy quilts, because of the memories invoked when I pull out a scrap from a favorite fabric and bid it farewell. As usual, you ran rings around me this month - and with a broken machine too!

Michele said...

You've done nicely for July. I hope the machine fix happens quickly.

Carla said...

Wow what a July. You got a lot of beautiful quilts done.