Purple Power

I recently got another special order, this one a baby quilt for a childhood friend's first granddaughter. She asked for a pink flower quilt like I made for my neighbors down the street when they had their second baby girl. I actually have another Spoonflower panel similar to the first I haven't used yet, but I'm almost out of pink stash for the backing and binding!

When I dug out the second of three pink flower panels, which I designed with flowers from my garden, I wondered why I haven't done a purple flower panel. I don't think I'll ever run out of purple stash!!! I would have plenty of backing fabrics and scraps for a purple flower quilt!

So I made a new collage with my purple flowers. My friend's granddaughter still gets a pink flower quilt. But one day I'll be able to make another garden flower quilt to use up some of my purple stash, and I'm excited at the prospect.

I made a small version, too, because I thought the purple would look awesome in a dress. Then I saw an advertisement with flowers swirling from the bottom of the skirt diagonally up into the bodice. Back when I was in high school, I used to design dresses while I was working the graveyard shift for my parents' answering service. One of my favorite designs would feature my own embroidered butterflies swirling from the bottom of the skirt diagonally up into the bodice and completely covering the sleeve. Somewhere in my basement is one of those envelopes of 100 butterfly embroidery designs from the '70s because I always intended to make that dress one day. Somewhere in my basement is a book of 1,000 embroidery designs, with a whole chapter of butterfly designs.

I got this crazy idea to make yet another purple flower fabric panel with flowers from my garden along the bottom of the skirt and going up to the waist. It took longer to create this new collage with the flowers properly placed on the fabric than it took to do the entire first collage. I still don't know if I lined everything up right. But I ordered two yards so I can see how far off I am. And to make a dress, or a skirt if there's not enough fabric to make the dress. Now I just have to wait for the fabric to arrive. And I guess, the time to sew...

I asked AI to create such a dress (because my photoshopped mockup is so amateur; I could have drawn a better rendering!!!) so I could have an awesome image to help illustrate this blog post, and I accidentally forgot to specify I didn't want a video. The accidental result is so entertaining, I have to share it here!

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Oops

I guess my mom, the mother of seven kids, gets another snowflake. :) Perhaps I should send her a deformed octopus, too...

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Garden Report

Sometimes I worry my garden reports might be kind of boring because most of what I grow has been featured before. Multiple times. Every year.

Yet my garden is exciting to me, and even more so when the crippling heat doesn't destroy it. There are so many things to see all summer long! And every once in a while, I still get a huge surprise. Sometimes the surprise is weeds. Sometimes the surprise is a garden helper or a garden terrorist. And sometimes, it's a flower I did not expect at all!

This year's gigantic surprise! The baby white picotee amaryllis pup spawned by my very first amaryllis has bloomed! In solid upper 90-degree weather! I am in utter shock!!! This is my favorite amaryllis, and now I have TWO active bulbs!

I planted my first-ever iris seeds last year, and quite frankly, I gave up on them and dropped some other seeds in the pot this spring. This year, at least one of those iris seeds is sprouting!

I've had my first Colorado zucchini ever. None of the cucumbers, crookneck squash, white pumpkins or melons (both waternelon and canteloup) are producing. But I have zucchini! I might even be able to celebrate "Sneak a Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day" this year (official holiday on August 8)!

Half of the first zucchini provided a zucchini boat with turkey sausage, as well as onions, tomatoes and serrano peppers from my garden, and the second half became the best home-grown homemade spaghetti sauce I've ever made.

Lizard didn't care for the zucchini boat, so I got the entire thing to myself. We didn't get even one serving of the quinoa noodles with sauce from my very own home-grown tomatoes, onions, serranos, carrots, spinach, zucchini, oregano and basil. (With store-bought garlic, celery, olives, mushrooms and tomato paste.)

I cried and cried.

Now I have another fresh zucchini. I plan to try my hand at spaghetti sauce again. I'll be using one of my new *plastic* mixing bowls... No more glass bowls for me!!!

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Friday Funny

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Friday Funny

I'm going to be a grandma again!

My adopted daughter asked (via text) if I will make her a pregnancy body pillow. I wanted to reply, "Poof! You are a pregnancy body pillow!" I resisted the urge but looked it up to find out what it would entail.

My goodness, that's a BIG pillow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Due to the massive amount of stuffing that would be required (although that might be a great way to get rid of a bunch of quilting scraps and maybe even old T-shirts and socks, cleaned of course) and my current desired Freedom From Deadlines, I told her I'll order one through Amazon and have it shipped to her.


She responded that her blood pressure is high and they are going to test her glenclose.

Now, I don't typically make fun of her typos. I'm grateful she is communicating with me, and it's delightful she's trying to master modern technology.

But my heavens, did this one make me laugh! I never saw the movie "Fatal Attraction" and have no intention of ever watching it, but that was the first thought that came to my mind. Perhaps this won't be humorous to anyone who doesn't know my adoptive daughter's teenage fetishes background. Suffice it to say there is reason the connection was made. And I'm very thankful to be able to laugh about it now.


So, she meant glucose. I was laughing so hard, I didn't immediately realize what she meant.

I hope this new grandbaby is going to be as sweet as today's laughter!

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Bear the WIPs

Well, that certainly was a productive quarter. I'm almost embarrassed to admit the only quilting I got done in the last three months was not on my WIP list... a quilt for brand new baby Braden, who made his grand appearance on Mother's Day.

The quilt top took me two nights; sandwiching took another night. I thought I could have the quilt finished by June 12, a month late, but work and life got in the way. I finally finished on June 30.










After washing the finished quilt, I couldn't wait to get it in the mail! I hung it on my rack and picked loose thread bits and lint off the front, then turned it around to repeat the task on the backside. I was utterly horrified to see stains in the solid blue fabric Lizard picked up for me so I wouldn't have to go shopping. He was horrified when he came up behind me to look over my shoulder after I gasped.

I tried washing the quilt again with three different stain removers/detergents, all with no success. Of course! I had set the stain when I dried the quilt. I never saw the stains until after I'd finished cleaning the quilt. The stains are on the solid blue only; there are no stains anywhere else on the quilt. We deduced the fabric must have come stained, and neither of us noticed until it was too late.

Initially I wondered if I might be able to send one of the ungifted quilts I finished last year instead, but I free-motion-quilted the musical notes on this one free-hand. I was so proud of them!

During the final unsuccessful attempt at washing, I wondered if I could cover the little spots with needle-turn appliqué using leftovers from the binding, which was the same fabric. I pulled the remnant triangles out of my HST leftovers, which occupy a spot on the below WIP list and discovered spots on a couple of those tiny pieces, too. This batch had not been through the washer and had minimal handling. Once again, I marveled that I did not see the spots while I was cutting the binding. I checked the roughly half-yard of remaining uncut fabric, and there, too, were more stains.


A patched quilt is better than a stained quilt, and a finished stained quilt is a reminder to check fabric closely before piecing. After two quilts with non-intentional sun-bleaching, you'd think I know that spilt-milk drill. 13 tiny little patches later, the quilt was on its way to new mom with no explanation. If she ever asks, I will give her the scoop. I hope, though, she's having too much fun with her new little baby to notice quilt flaws...


In the meantime, two nieces announced new bundles of joy, and I have been able to make contact with three more of the grands! So now I have to decide if any of my already finished but ungifted WIPs (and there are a few, thankfully), would be suitable for a 13-year-old, a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old for Christmas, and if not, if any of my WIPs below might work. I'm also hoping I don't have to start new projects for the next two babies. If the babies are girls, I might be okay... Thank heavens I have seven or eight months to complete those!

Here's my unchanged Summer WIP list from the Spring Quarter:


1. Hawaiian Punch


2. Welcome to the Jungle


3. Lizard Toes


4. Hexie Booboo


5. Tickled Pink, the Sequel


6. Teal Shadows


7. Goodbye Hollyhock Road


8. Snowflake Strip Bar


9. Green Floral Batik Postage Stamps


10. Lavender Sunrise


11. Giant Dahlia


12. Showcase


13. Snowbike II


14. Autumn Splendor


15. Citrus Whip


16. Time for Me to Fly


17. Venetian Squiggles


18. Moda Blockheads


19. Tiny Triangle Leftovers


20. Matthew's Quilt

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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