Domestic Diva? Hardly!

At some point during my early morning sewing binge, 

it occurred to me that sewing on a domestic machine isn't exactly 

'being domestic', 

so I decided to bite the bullet and threw not one, 

but two, loads of laundry into the washing machine.  

Then I felt smug because I could sew while the washer did all the work!  

I don't have a dryer, though, so I did have to stop long enough 

to hang everything out on the clothesline to dry.

And yes, to bring them in to fold and put away.

(Truthfully?  I piled them onto a chair 

in the corner of my bedroom for later.)

I have spent the better part 

of my spring/summer playing, 

whipping up blocks and patterns

that I've wanted to try

but haven't taken the time.

When a former student announced

her wedding date,

I took the opportunity to try

the pineapple block

that's been circulating.
It made a great wedding gift.

This is the only picture I took

before I slipped it into the mail,

but while it was (quite literally) hanging around

waiting to be finished,

I couldn't stop looking at it!
Depending on the time of day,
it never looked the same.

I love it.

I always like to have a "to go" project,
and in 2015, I was inspired by
Julie's Quilts and Costume's RSC Challenge project.
She was inspired by
a quilt called "True Colors"  in Nancy Mahoney's book,
Simple Curves and Quick Curves.





I collected several B/W, W/B print fat quarters,
hit up my scrap basket,
and got to work.

When it was time to return to the states for the winter,
I packed mine up and stored it away.
Fast forward to the following spring.
I had lost my mojo for this project,
declared my pile of appliqued circles as finished,
worked up a layout,
sewed it into rows,
and stored it away for another winter.

When I sewed the rows together this past spring,
I wanted it just a little larger,
so a quilting blogger friend suggested I use a white border
and quilt ghost blocks in black,
then bind it in black.

Thinking this was a grand idea,
I got to work.
Thankfully, I was trying out a new-to-me marking pen,
one that fades with time,

because quilting circles with black thread on white fabric

isn't for the faint of heart.

Having a nice bold line to follow surely helps.

I can highly recommend this pen,

but don't mark ahead of time, then leave it for later.

It fades more quickly than the directions 

lead you to believe.

Hope you are enjoying your summer days

as much as I have been!

~karen

PS - If you visited my previous post about our NSQBQ Round Robin adventure,

but you didn't have time to check in with the other girls (I didn't post pictures of their quilts), here's a quick snapshot of us all together!