It's July!

 Time seems to be flying but I think I feel that way every year.  Hot weather has arrived, we have had rain though, so that has been so nice.  We can water the plants but once it rains, they seem to like it much more, they take off growing.  We took a short weekend trip up to Colorado to visit my son and his family.  He liked the quilt and I had gifts for my DDIL and Grands.

I had been wanting to make some pretty tea towels, so I ordered a bunch from CoCo B Kitchen & Home.  They have beautiful Dunroven towels at good prices.  I have no affiliation with the company, I just like their towels.  I found some cute applique designs online and made towels for myself, my DD, DDIL and step DD.  They turned out so cute.  

Cute pumpkins for fall.

Flip flops for summer.  I did the one with stars first but decided I liked them better without the stars.

Pretty flowers for anytime. There were only three towels for this design so these all went to the girls.

And red, white and blue canning jars for July 4th or summertime.

You can click on the photos to get a closer look. Everyone loved them.

For the Grands I finished up two of the cross-stitch pieces I showed on my last post.  

This is a free chart by Sheepish Designs found on Pinterest.  I made one in pink and one in purple so the girls can tell them apart.  These were a big hit, too.  Both girls like cute things to set on their bookcases.  

 Here is a sneak peek at my current cross-stitch project.  It's designed by Jardin Prive and called Composition Florale 1, 2 & 3.  There are three patterns that can be stitched individually or combined into a larger project.  I can't do anything easy, so I am making the large design.  Part 1 is the center panel, the alphabet panel and the sheep.  Part 2 is the top house design and the butterfly with part 3 being the cat and large bottom design.  I love alphabets, sheep and houses so this really caught my eye.  Once the bottom panel is complete, there is a border design all around.  This one has been lots of fun.

Another project was to make a flag block for Primitive Gatherings for their Hogs for Heros fundraiser.  Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings had a secret sewing project that she requested quilters make a flag block or many.  This is mine, I sent it in and if you click on the link above you can read about her project making quilts for veterans and the fundraising she is doing to help donate motorcycles to veterans in Wisconsin to help with their healing.  

It's fun knowing my block is included in a quilt donated to a veteran.

And my last project is working on the 2022 Mystery Quilt by Jan Patek.  Here are the first three blocks.

The bird still needs her eye embroidered on.

Last fall Jan had a contest to name her 2022 Mystery and she chose my suggestion, "Garden Party" as the name for her quilt.  The prize for winning is the monthly kits for the quilt.  I am really thrilled to be the winner.  I have always loved Jan's designs and her fabrics are so pretty.  These blocks are big, 20 X 20 and 16 X 16.  I have two more months of patterns to work on, so watch for my progress on those.  I can't wait to see what comes next.  

That's what has been keeping my busy and out of trouble.  I have so many ideas of new things to make.  I want to make two more placemats for my table like I showed in my last post.  I saw a churn dash quilt on a blog and want to make myself one.  I made one for my nephew and his wife for their wedding and loved it.  I need my own!  You can see it here.  There are a ton of other ideas whirling around in my head, just not enough time for them all!

That's about it for now, enjoy your stitching time!

Marsha