Lightening Bugs and Lemonade

Should I share this?  Its a bit awful but as kids we didn't think so.  On summer nights we use to pull "the light" off of lightening bugs and set them on our ring finger and pretend it was a diamond.  There, its out there now.  No tv to watch, I suppose.  
I put the Summer Stitches all together for the 1st time.  Till now, I just had my fingers crossed that it would all come out ok.  I'm kind-of thinking cute, cute, cute.  3 more to go.

Lightening bug PDF file here
Pink Lemonade PDf file here


linking up with Lee at Freshly pieced

No where to go and all day to get there

I haven't abandoned the mini swoons. I really haven't.  There are 4 more and all together I think they are a little bit wonderful!  Although I have some ideas,  I don't know where I'm going with these...just slooowly moving along and enjoying the process.  

I made this "summer time" table runner years ago and sadly just put the binding on yesterday.  Gotta stop doing that.  This table runner says watermelon and fresh tomatos, green beans cooked with bacon and warm cornbread.  Ahhh, it always comes back to food.

Summer Stitches.. Once Again

Sweet little home, just big enough for you and me!

When my children were in grade school, we had a goldfish in a bowl just like this one.  Blub-blub lived for 2 years, (yea!) and I cleaned that bowl every week. I wasn't as sad as they were when he died.

Get the house stitch PDF here
Get the fish stitch PDF here

More summer stitches

    My favorite blocks so far.  I can still remember when a sand bucket and shovel kept me happily occupied.  I live in Indiana now, but that doesn't stop me from wishing for the smell and sound of the waves.

   I'm using all these blocks to make a child's quilt but I like showing other uses.  This fabric cube used to hold my summer sun lotion and bug spray was made using a tutorial from crazy mom quilts

      This spring, we've had a birds nest on the front porch.  I'd like to say its sweet and interesting to watch and it is, but mostly, I miss my front porch swing.  The swing is just too close to the nest and it disturbs the poor mother bird.  Happy stitching!

  pdf file for sandbucket 

               and

  pdf file for birds nest

        Linking up with WIP wednesday with Lee at freshly pieced

      

Summer Stitches #2

Strawberries and Memorial Day weekend and summer begins.

   My grandmother made what she called strawberry shortcake by first smashing the daylights out of the strawberries and adding lots of sugar...set aside.  Then, and heres the thing, she made pie crust, rolled it out, cut into strips, sprinkled with sugar, and baked on a cookie sheet.  She then broke up the pie crust and poured the strawberries and syrup on top.  Imagine my confusion when I saw those sponge cakes in the grocery for strawberry shortcake.  I wondered if anyone else had strawberry shortcake with pie crust.  

 Strawberry Quilt Block

A sweet dress for my niece, Eleanor Elizabeth

Download the Strawberry embroidery here

Coconut

     This has kept me and the dogs very entertained this week. There are some things that might not have gotten done.

Download the kitten embroidery pattern here

-Nena

   

    Watching my mother work on her strawberry blocks this week and with the fresh strawberries in our fridge, I got in the mood to do something with them.

    However, since I bake for a job, I didn't want to do the obvious strawberry cake or strawberry shortcake options.  Then I remembered that at the college cafeteria they always had three different options of fruit/ veggie infused water.  So I ran to the grocery store and grabbed some lemons and mint leaves and layered them with ice in a pitcher  along with some chopped strawberries and poured water into it.  After letting sit in the fridge overnight, we had refreshing flavored water that was a nice alternative to soda.  

-Lulu

LInking up with Freshly Pieced

Summer Stitches

  As the weather gets warm, I want to slow down, sit and stitch.  Embroidery always seems to make life a little more peaceful.  I designed this little square and as I was stitching, the ideas kept flowing.

    Now, I have 12 sweet blocks that I want to share with you.  I'll post a couple each wednesday. 

Download this week's block here.

  I did a fabric pull for this little quilt and then I chose embroidery 

thread that matched my fabric.

  I cut my fabric larger than I need and cut down the square to the desired size after the embroidery is done.  This makes it much easier to hoop up the fabric.  

  I use a layer of muslim behind my fabric and stitch through 2 layers of fabric.  This allows the stitches to sink in and gives the look I desire.

  I have used 2 strands of floss.  The stitches I used are outline stitch, back stitch, and french knots.  

  I trace the design onto the fabric with a brown pigma pen. Then before I embroider the design, I shade it with crayons.  This gives the shapes so much more depth.  If you color the shapes with a white crayon first, the crayons will go on the fabrics smoothly and give soft shading.

  Next week I'll post 2 new blocks and a suggestion for quilt lay-out.

linking up with WiP on freshly pieced

Pink Champagne

A finish!  I started this in January to clean out all my pinks, straightening and even getting rid of a few as I went.  Very satisfying.  Next January, maybe I'll attack the blue fabric.

I decided to brake up the rows of triangles with a few straight rows of pink.

Pink Marching Band.  Pink really?  Its a vintage fabric I found at a yard sale. Found treasure.

We'll finish with some cute.  My daughter came home from school with this little guy. Its my Mothers Day Gift.  Super huh?  I call him Coconut.

linking up with crazy mom quilts