What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Hi everyone! Can you feel the summer winding down? I can, and I want to hang on to it with both hands so it won't go away. Unfortunately, it's so humid that it's far too slippery to hang on to, plus I have a hard time breathing the soup that is our air right now. True fact: it has been so rainy and soupy that this week there was a full-grown frog on our deck. Or maybe it was a toad. I'm no scientist, but it was weird. He just hung out there, then literally hopped ...

 Hi all! Well, just like that, it's August. You know what comes this month-- the end of summer and the beginning of school. Amazingly, this week has so far been one of the coolest parts of the summer weather-wise. How does that happen? I don't know, but I'm not sizzling, so I'm pretty happy about it.

 

The grandkids are visiting for the summer, which means I’ve been busy juggling a toddler and a bigger kid, both of whom need things to do outside.

Taking this video as inspiration, I decided to go for something we could do TODAY from start to finish and see results. [YouTube video: “Indigo Dyeing with fresh indigo leaves // 生葉で藍染”]

Our local soil is kind of garbage. It’s sandy, silty, and blows away in the wind, but we find ways to work with it.

I ordered indigo seeds from The Dogwood Dyer several months ago and lo and behold, they ...

 Hello everyone, and welcome to another summer weekend. Aren't they great? This week I've seen people (okay, mainly fabric companies) busting out fall-themed projects, and I've wanted very much to tell them to stop it. Summer is short enough-- don't rush toward fall! I still have tons of ice cream to eat!

 Hi all! How have you been, besides really hot? I had a great week, mainly because we spent most of it with family, including both my parents and my grandkids. It was my dad's Covid-postponed big birthday bash, and it was a blast! A lot of us in this now-extended family were able to get there, and it was just great to be together. There may have been some tears, and not just from the teething one-year-old. The best part for me was getting to see my grandkids interacting with my parents, and listening to the five-year-old tell my ...

Hi everyone, and happy weekend! I hope you all had a lovely week. I was mostly inside, because it is hot and rainy, but I did get a lot of things done. After almost two years, the house is finally starting to feel like home. Once I get the hallway done, I think I'll be finished with home improvements for a while. Until I get sick of something else and absolutely have to change it or paint it, that is.

Since I wanted desperately to stay in the air conditioning, I made some progress on the Color Chain quilt ...

 Hi everyone! Yes, it's a very rare Sunday post! I'm usually busy doing family stuff-- or scrubbing something-- on the weekends, but I took some pictures of the progress I've made on my Positivity quilts to share today, so that's what I'm doing. Always good to have a plan, isn't it?

 You probably know by now that my friend Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts is running the Positivity Quilt Along to benefit Mercyful Quilts, which is overseen by my friend Bernie.  How could I not jump in and support some friends and contribute to ...

 Hi everyone! How is your week going? I am happy to tell you that the noise from the cicadas is fading. It's fading because they're all done with their life cycle and are now dying in droves. The front walk looks like the site of a massacre. We keep using the leaf blower to clear it because the crunchiness when you go out to the mailbox is really disconcerting, and using a broom is just icky.

Other than that. . .well, I started another quilt, and it turned out to be another positivity quilt for Preeti's quilt along ...

 Hi everyone! I don't know about you, but we have started to get out and about some more, but not quite normal yet, and this week we traveled to our nephew's high school graduation. They held it in person! In a cicada-free area of the country, too. It was a bit like a family reunion, and most of us spent some time sobbing over lost time. It was so great to see my sister and niece and nephew, and my parents were there, and some siblings, too. And J. got safely graduated and is off to college soon ...

 Hi everyone! The wind is about to blow me off my chair today. How about you? Holy cow, the wind is really strong out there. On the upside, the temperature got over 80 degrees one day this week, but then it fell back to a more normal temperature. I can feel the summer coming on already, can't you?

Today I am showing off my new RSC project. I know what you're thinking-- do you really *need* a new project, Mari? Well, yes, yes I do! I have sooo many scraps. Sometimes they make me tense because they seem ...

 Hi everyone! How are you all doing today? I am happy to say that this past weekend was one of the best weekends ever, as we got to go to visit our Wisconsin grandchildren for the first time in 15 months, and to meet our smallest granddaughter for the first time ever. I'm happy to say that Giggles is just the happiest child, and is so cheerful that it's contagious. It was glorious, and so long awaited. I think my heart grew several sizes. Also, restaurants are now called "the french fry store," which is what the 3-year-old ...

 Every year, I enjoy creating a version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. This year, her quilt was called Grassy Creek.

Grassy Creek [AKA October Picnic]  (98" x 98")

I used Bonnie's colors of red, orange, gold, and grey; however, I substituted blue for her green. I call this October Picnic because this was my color inspiration photo and the palette I created.

The quilt went together well, thanks to Bonnie's excellent writing of instructions. You can see some of the steps I took by clicking on the "Grassy Creek" label on the right pane of this blog ...

 The second clue of the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Grassy Creek, came out this week.

Grassy Creek--Clue 2

These are just a few of the units. I'm substituting blue for the green Bonnie used. The blue fabric is a tie-dye type, so I'm getting a bit of color variation in the units. I like that--it adds interest. Below is the photo I'm using for color inspiration:

More to come. 

 Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Yesterday, while I was trying valiantly to teach a class to students who are seriously exhausted, several dump trucks came and dumped fill dirt outside the almost-finished garage. I was annoyed as all get out and happy as a clam at the same time. It was loud and disturbing, but it means that my garage only has one more step to go. So I guess my current mood would best be  described as annoyed-happy. Or maybe happily annoyed?

Today I just have a couple of updates on things I'm working on, a ...

Way back in July of 2019, I attended a quilt retreat in Baton Rouge with other members of the BRMQG. After I got home, I finished up the top and added it to the bin. A couple of weeks ago I dug through the bin and chose this top to quilt. 

The back of the quilt is this solid blue linen and, because it was too ...