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Saturday, August 11, 2018

Peas in a Pod


Oh, my goodness,
there are so many beautiful quilts to make.  
There are new ones posted every day.  
I overwhelm myself flitting around the Internet.  
I’ve pinned hundreds.  
I have a folder in my desktop labeled Patterns, 
and it’s chuck-a-lucka full. 
I had to stop purchasing them, I have so many,
but it's so hard! 
I have to keep reminding myself 
that I just can’t make everything I see!

Often, I find new-to-me blogs, and when I take a break, 
I enjoy a little scroll through their archived posts.  
I do that a lot with my favorite blogs, too, 
sometimes scrolling back years.  
Do you ever do that?  
Two new-to-me blogs that have recently caught my attention are

In an attempt to only use the fabric I have,
I have found it very fulfilling this summer to return 
to the roots of my quilting journey - good, old fashioned scrap quilting.  
Utility quilts, if you will.

In my previous post, I mentioned that a sweet friend brought me a bag 
of her scraps  and left over pieces 
that had been cluttering up her sewing space for far too long.
Just what I needed.  More.
What to do, what to do.
I graciously accepted the bag
and while I was sewing later in the day,
I remembered this quilt that Louise of My Quilt Odyssey had made,




and I started pressing, cutting, and sewing as a leader/ender project.
Louise provides links to her inspiration,
if you pop over and take a peek.
She also has more pictures of her lovely creation!

And here's mine, sans the binding,
which was only finished late last night.




I am going to gift this to my only nephew
and his delightfully sweet bride-to-be next month.
They make their home in rural Maine.
I wanted to give them a quilt that they will use,
not deem 'too pretty', and shelve.




I was excited to finish the flimsy 
because I already knew exactly how I'd quilt it.




Peas in a Pod added just enough movement
and a little bit of whimsy!

The label will be stitched onto the back this evening,
and it will be a finish!  
Finally, a finish!
My first this summer!


(Click on picture for a clearer view.)

This is already pretty wordy for me,
but there's more.
The scraps generated from this quilt generated MORE!
What to do, what to do?

So I started another quilt
using a pattern from Stephanie Dunphy's book,
Too much fun!



Too big for the design wall,
it had to be layed out on the design floor.

But wait!
The scraps generated from THIS quilt
resulted in MORE scraps!

I couldn't help myself.



These are the corners from the flying geese in the arrows.




This will finish as a 16" pillow
for a nursing home initiative hosted by
a member of the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild
in Halifax.  
It will be perfect for a male resident.

I think that's it.
Let me check my picture cache....
........Yep, that's all there is!
Whew!

Sewing is slow.
The weather is hot but beautiful,
and here in Cape Breton, we waiting a long time for it,
so I've been busy out of doors.
It's raspberry and blueberry season,
we're rebuilding my front deck,
and the grass keeps growing 
despite the lack of rain and the oppressive heat.




I leave you with one last picture that I took 
while birding in a cemetery 
in Portland, Maine this past spring.

Cemeteries are great birding spots during migration, 
often being the only dark spots among the city lights
where hundreds, sometimes thousands, of tired birds
can finally drop down
and find respite
from their long journey.

Thanks for popping in!
Have a wonderful, funderful day!
~Karen