About sunporches, gardens, and quilts

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Hello friends, 

We are deep into summer weather here in Pennsylvania, which means it is muggy and sticky and hot...thank goodness for air conditioning and pools, although the latter we just put up this past weekend and the water is probably a bit too cold for my liking at the moment...let's see how desperate I get ;)

We are enjoying our sunporch quite a lot! It is a nice place to sit and eat dinner, especially with the fan going or a breeze blowing. 

In our college town there are quite a few moving sales happening after graduation, so last week I was able to score this baker's rack for a good price.  

I have always admired baker's racks, but never owned one, so I had fun "styling" it for our sunporch!

This one has a rack for wine bottles at the bottom too, but seeing as we are not huge wine drinkers ( not to mention that storing the bottled wine in the heat would probably be a bad idea!), I decided that  it could hold rolled-up magazines perfectly! 

And if you ever have a chance to hang one of these hammock chairs, I highly recommend it! They are the perfect spot to lounge and relax...and maybe even have a little nap!

My garden looks so good right now...the Hydrangea bush that pretty much got destroyed by the fence crew is making a nice comeback. I wish that you could see the colors of the blooms in person! It is the most amazing periwinkle blue and I cannot get enough of it! I think other than Hollyhocks, these lacecap Hydrangeas are my favorite flowers....but then I can't get enough of daisies either....Hahaha! Just as with fabric, I can never have enough flowers! ( Did I mention that the lady who runs the local, temporary flower and plant tent in a local parking lot recognizes which car I drive? That's probably a bad thing, right?) 

Even with all the flower and plant adoration going on over here, I did manage to spend some time with my sewing machine this past week! I have been working on our summer sewalong project, and it has been so much fun to work on! ( If you would like to join in it is not too late, just click through my older posts and look for the "summer sewalong" titles!). It would make for a great scrap quilt, but I have seen some stunning versions from people in my FB group that are using a limited color palette, so really it would look great in any color way! Here are my blocks so far: 

 I started out making a scrappy version and then changed my mind and decided to use soft blues and pinks. That proved to be too boring for my liking so I started adding in some reds and bright greens and dark blues and now I'm much happier :). Some of my fabrics are pretty funky too...do you see those chickens? But I  like it and that's all that matters! 

I haven't decided yet what size I'll make the quilt, but it will at least be 36 blocks....as long as I have fabric I will keep going and I still have quite a pile! 

A few weeks back I shared a little embroidery that I started. I found the pattern in a Simply Vintage magazine and enlarged it just a little so it would make a good pillow size. It is not quite done, but getting there ( although I do think the humidity is slowly erasing the blue marker so I better hurry up and finish it!) 

Well, those are all the updates from the farmhouse for this week.

Wherever you are, I hope you are staying cool and comfortable and until next time~happy creating!

Monique

A little bit of everything

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Hello friends, 

We have had the most gorgeous weather here in Pennsylvania this past week! It seems like we just skipped spring and dove right into summer on Wednesday, when the temps were in the 80's! Even though that was  a little too hot for my liking for April, I soaked up the sun and spent as much time as I could outside. I always choose any activity outside over cleaning anything inside!( Planting flowers or cleaning the toilet? No contest!)

There is something so peaceful about getting your hands in the dirt while listening to the chatter of the birds...

Other than planting some flowers,  I convinced hubby that we really needed some apple trees. Well, we actually went looking for crabapple trees, but when they didn't look that healthy we opted for regular apple trees instead. I had my heart set on a pink-flowering tree and that is what is now gracing our yard! As soon as there are some pretty blooms on them I will be sure to share some photos ;).

With all this puttering around in the garden I haven't spent a whole lot of time working on any quilty projects....

But in the evenings I have been stitching away on my giant hexies that I bought from One Common Thread, the organization that supports women in Honduras. You can read more details about them in this blog post ( click).  

These flowers are HUGE and I don't know yet how I will put them together or what they will become, but I have many more hexies to go before having to make a decision!

I am also excited about this new book I just bought! 

As you work your way through the various rows you learn different techniques, such as simple piecing,   applique,  and everything in between ( like paper piecing, which I definitely am not a fan of, but I am hoping that this book will teach me a new and better ( read: more fun and successful) way to do it.)

Below are some of the blocks the book covers: 

And it also has 2 extra quilt patterns although, as the authors point out, you can use any of the block rows and turn them into a new quilt! This extra pattern is one that caught my eye: 

Isn't it adorable? And just think how many scraps this would use up ;). 

Here is a look at the complete pattern of the row quilt:

I am really looking forward to those birds~ paper-pieced no less!~ but that appliqued row is soooo darn cute too and I can't wait to make that one!

If you want to check out the book, here is a link: Quilting Row by Row ( click). Or, if you would rather buy directly from the publisher, here is another link: Quilting Row by Row ( click). Your purchase through one of my links provides me with a few pennies, which I use to pay for giveaways etc, so I thank you for your support!

Alright, I'm off to plant some more flowers and maybe some veggies, if the weather looks like it will not pull any more surprise low temperatures....

Happy May to you all and, until next time~happy creating!

Monique