Before July gets away. . . I've been busy

It's been over a month since I posted anything, but I have been working on lots of things.

First of all, here is the progress on my Medallion quilt from Lori and Randi's sew along:

The final appliqued border is on and I have started hand quilting it.  The center medallion is quilted and I am working on the first border.  This will be a slow process over the next few months.  I still need to embroider some eyes for the birds in the border.  I have enjoyed working on this one.  I am linking up with Lori's blog Humble Quilts to show my progress.  You can click on the picture to enlarge it to see more detail.

I have lots of other projects to show off, too.  After we got home from our visit in IL, MO, AR and TX earlier in the month, I got busy on these:

New shirts for the two grandson's who don't have shirts made by Grandma yet.  They both turned out really cute, hope the little ones like them.

Next, I have been working on pillowcases to donate.  Last summer when my friend was moving into her new home, she gave me tons of fabric she didn't think she would use.  Most of it doesn't fit with my taste for quilts and some of it was all cotton and some was a blend.  I used some of the cottons for quilt backings on little quilts, some for sundresses for DGD and shirts for my other DGS but a lot just sat on the shelf staring back at me.  I decided pillowcases would work!

The two piles on the left are finished, the stack on the sewing machine are waiting to be finished.  Just have side and bottom seams to sew yet on those.  When I am finished I will have 26 pillowcases to deliver to the LQS to pass on to whoever needs them. 

Also finished are these four placemats:

I've had the fabric and pattern for these for a couple of years but never got around to making them.  Now I have some pretty southwest style placemats for the kitchen.  One more project that won't bug me anymore.  The pattern is Trading Post by Elizabeth Anne Quilt Designs.  The designer is Elizabeth Dawson.  The pattern also has instructions for a wall hanging and a table runner.  Maybe I will do the table runner one of these days since the placemats turned out so nice.

Our trip to IL was really nice.  We got to visit lots of family.  Next we are off in a few days to visit DH's kids and grands in OR and WA.  We still have a few things to get ready for the trip.  Oh, we have had some rain!  I was wishing for that and we have had a couple of weeks of light rain occasionally and then this:

One good storm with about an inch and a half of rain, hail, flash flooding and some wind.  We are not close to being out of a drought, but this sure helped a bit!  The hail really chewed up the leaves on the little apple tree but the tree protected my flowers from too much damage.  Along that block wall we used to have those elm hedge trees that we had to trim every year.  We had them all taken out in the spring and put up the green strips to help with a little privacy in the back yard.  The grass has been growing since it got some rain. 

Well that should catch things up.  I am back to pillowcases and quilting the medallion quilt. 

Happy stitching!