Whew!

I did it! I reached my goals for this month. I sewed on 14 flowers plus a bunch of green hexagons to my top.

As you can see I need to make a bunch of green hexagons to fill in spaces. I have added all the flowers I had made so I will be making more in August.

This was one of my goals I had listed on Melissa's blog for this month. And with eight hours left until the link closes I will be able to add mine to the collection. Yay!

My two other goals for this month were to get my two quilts bound. I did! Whoo! Hoo! The quilt on the left is from The Raspberry Rabbits and the one on the right is from Bee In My Bonnet.

 I am linking these finished project to Lynne's.

One more thing I accomplished was to meet the challenge put out by Pat Sloan. The challenge was to sew every day in July.  I did even though some days it was a little hard like today. Yippee! I hope to do more but for now I made some binding for a quilt. I can't show it yet because I have been testing a pattern for Stephanie of Loft Creations. I can tell you that when you see this pattern you are going to want to get one. I had the most fun making this quilt.

Have you been to your local AC Moore store lately? Well, I went last week and guess what? They have fabric for sale. They have fabric made by Benartex and Andover. The fabric on the bolts is $10.99 a yard. Then they have flat folds for $6.99 a yard. I bought 2 yards of some Jo Morton fabric last week. When I got my receipt I got a 50% coupon. So then I had to go out today. I stopped by to purchase some more fabric. Just so you know your coupons are only good on the first yard you buy. The store in my town just starting carrying fabric three months ago. If you have a store in your town you might want to check it out to see if they sell fabric too.

If you have done any handwork this summer you can go by Clover and Violet to link up for a chance to win some prizes.

You still have a couple of hours to link up to this post if you finished your UFOs for July. I will be announcing the winner of my giveaway tomorrow plus I will have a new link up for your UFOs you plan to work on in August.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Christmas In July

Have you started any of your Christmas sewing yet? Starting in July is a good time to get busy on some of your gifts. I decided to do just that. I thought I would make this doorknob hanger to give to a friend this year for Christmas. This is in a book by Kim Diehl. The book is called Simple Graces. You can see her doorknob hanger on this post.

I am linking up my first gift for Christmas to Love By Hand. There is a challenge going on there with a couple of bloggers doing some great tutorials. If you need some ideas for gifts check out the link.

In fact, this little Christmas tree trivet came from one of the bloggers, Stitching And Bacon. I thought I would make this to send along with the doorknob hanger. Isn't it cute?

You might remember that I was working on some binding here. I was the quilt guild president this past year. The guild is so sweet to present the outgoing president with a quilt. I was given this Christmas quilt.

My friend Laura did the machine quilting on this quilt. Here are some of the details.

Look close at the tree. Laura added ornaments. So cute!

Each block has some different quilting.

This is what she did on the background. A Christmas quilt done in July. Can't beat that!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

You still have until the 31st to link up your finished UFO goals for this month here.

Log Cabins

Log Cabin blocks that is. I started sewing the blocks together on July 26.

 On July 27 I put them all together into this sweet little baby quilt for the young woman that cuts my hair. She is having her first baby girl in November. She told me that she was going to do the baby's room in neutrals with a touch of pink. I think this quilt fits the bill. The blocks measure 5" square.

The photo of these two blocks is more of the true color than the one above.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

ps don't forget to link up your UFO finishes on the previous post.

Sewing Along and time to link up your UFOs

I am sewing in between doing lots of other things that take up my time which is flying by these days. When I have taken the time to sit down in my sewing room I have made some teeny tiny yo yos which are going on a doorknob hanger. Have you ever used the Clover yo yo makers? I love them and it is the only way I will make yo yos from now on.

 I finally got the last round on the baby log cabin blocks. I started sewing the rows together today. Once I have the top sewn together I will  show you the way I set the blocks. There are so many ways to set log cabin blocks.

As I was sewing I had to get up to answer the phone, really just listen to the message to see if it was anyone important. I am tired of "Rachael" from cardmember services calling so I just screen my calls now. Anyway, when I went back to my sewing room look how the blocks were forming this circle.

And last night I sewed a yellow flower. I have this flower and 4 more to sew on to the top to meet my goal for this month. I wanted to share a correction with you too. I mentioned that I saw Angie using the Sewline fabric glue pen. She did not actually use it but shared a link of a video by Becky Goldsmith here. Check it out if you want to see how you can use the fabric pen for your hexies.

Have you met any of your UFO goals this month? If you have it is time to link up your post showing what you have done for July.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Keeping Up With The Challenge

Sunday (July 21) was a very good day! I finally got to spend some time sewing in my new room. I was having sewing withdrawals. I am sure you know what I am talking about. So first I decided to make some green hexagons for my flower top. I saw Angie using this Sewline fabric glue pen to put her hexagons together. So instead of basting them which would have taken me hours I used the glue pen. It only took me about an hour

 to make this stack of hexagons. Now that is a time saver! I decided to make a yellow flower to add to the top.

 I cut and sewed the next two sides of the log cabin baby blocks.

 I also worked on some binding.

 Yesterday, July 22, I cut and added one side of the next round to the baby blocks.

 And I also attached seven of those green hexagons I had prepped on Sunday. Boy! do I like that glue pen!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Nothing exciting!

This past Thursday I picked up a quilt from Laura who did the machine quilting for me. I got the binding sewed on that same afternoon.

 Yesterday I spent most of the day finishing up the caulking and touching up the paint in the bathroom I mentioned in the last post. I also had to put some sealant down on the tile too.The room does not really have that yellow cast to it but I just couldn't get the photo to come out right. So the bathroom is all done except for replacing the white knobs with some satin nickle finished ones that will match the faucet at the sink. I am really pleased how the tile looks.

So last night after I finally got caught up with all my email and replying to blog comments it was 10 pm. I sewed together some green hexagons and added another flower. I am going to have to make some more green hexagons before I can add any more flowers. I am linking this hexagon to Angie's Hexie Friday. If you have a minute you should go by to see all the other wonderful hexagon projects being made by other bloggers.

 So tonight I am going to see how much more of the binding I can get done on this quilt. So far I am keeping up with the sewing every day challenge even if it is a little bit of sewing.

 I was standing in my kitchen this afternoon when I noticed the culprit who is stealing the sunflower seeds. If you look close near the center of the photo you will see a yellow spot. That is a goldfinch. I had to zoom in. You can see what he looks like here. If you go to the link you can hear his song too. They love to pick the sunflower seeds out. See the orange and pink zinnias in the background? The goldfinch likes to pick the seeds from those flowers too. They are one of my favorite birds.

 With Passion,
Carrie P.

What's New?

Well, for me it the same stuff. Gardening, quilting, and working on updates in the house. I have not replied to all your comments. I have not even been reading many blogs either. So I don't know what you all are up to this summer. I am going to try to catch up on replying to your comments this afternoon. Please be patient with me. This morning before it becomes a sweltering hot day I went out to the garden to check on how things are growing. As you can see the sunflowers are loving the hot days of summer.

 The birds are loving the sunflowers. As you can see from this one where the seeds are just about gone from the center.

 I picked a few things this morning.

 At night I have done some sewing for Pat Sloan's challenge to sew every day. July 16 I finished up appliqueing those pieces at night while finally relaxing for the day.

 July 17, last night I added to more flowers to my top. Some hand sewing works for me.

 Here is the second bedroom done. This room used to be my boy's bedroom. Mr. P. and I put the bed in last night. I took this photo before that so you could see that great job Mr. P. did in this room. We ripped the carpet up in our bedroom last night so we will sleeping in the newly finished bedroom for a while. We had tile put down on the floor in what used to be kid's bathroom. I have been painting the baseboards which Mr. P. will put up tonight after work. Mr. P. has been working so hard. He works ten hour days, four days a week and then comes home to work on the house. We will both be glad when all this is done but it is going to take a while.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Boring..

to you but not to me. I have been very busy around the house but have still managed to fit in some sewing time. The reason I titled this post boring is because you are probably tired of seeing these blocks but it is all I have been working on lately. July 13 I added more to the log cabin blocks.

 July 14, same thing.

 I also added a few flowers to my top.

 Here is what it looks like so far. I really need to make some more yellow flowers.

 I am linking up my mid month progress to Melissa's blog.

 Today I added a little more to the log cabin and made the binding for my Willow Weave quilt.

See, I told you it would be a boring for you but I have been able to keep up with Pat Sloan's sewing every day challenge.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Little Bits of Sewing

I have done little bits of sewing today. I sewed one more flower to my quilt top. I am linking up to Angie's Hexie Friday.

 Made a few yo yos.

 And I added some rounds to the log cabin blocks.

Did you get to sew any today?

With Passion,
Carrie P.