I can't believe it's August already!

My summer has been wonderfully packed with activities--mostly involving 11 year old Lily, my first grandchild, who's here in Wisconsin for the summer.  Sadly, her mother is arriving in 16 days and Lily will be returning to Maine on the 29th.  Actually, I'm not sad that Tessa is arriving, I'm sad that Lily will  be leaving us way too soon.

Quilting has taken a bit of a back seat because I've wanted to spend time with Lily instead of in the basement sewing room.  Quilting can wait until September when I have a getaway planned for myself.

I have begun to work on this embroidered  Halloween runner and I have the witch on the left completed and am working my way to the right.  This is an easy project to bring with when I take Lily to her various lessons and activities.

I've also begun working on the blue and white wedding quilt for my son and his bride-to-be. The wedding is on the 28th and I've already let them know that the quilt won't be finished by that time.  Here are a couple of the blocks that I've made up---20 down, 44 to go!  That should put a dent in my stash of blues, don't you think?

Erin said her favorite color was pink, but Dan said he didn't want a pink quilt. Erin's next favorite color is blue so I decided to make a blue and neutral Log Cabin quilt but with pink centers.  I haven't decided on a layout yet but however I put it together, I hope they like it.

I think I'm going to do quilt-as-you-go on this king sized quilt. I have quilted a king on my sewing machine before but it was difficult.  I think I'll be okay if I stitch the blocks together in smaller units--maybe 4 across and 4 down which would be 48 by 48 inches--and quilt up that section. Then I could join the sections into the final large quilt.  I'm not sure--will have to ponder this for a bit before deciding.  At any rate, I'll make all the blocks and lay them out in the pattern I decide on before I begin any of the quilting.

I'm leaning toward doing a simple buttonhole stitch in the seams of the log cabins, kind of like stitch in the ditch, and doing feathers in the borders.  Feathers is the design that I have yet to conquer and I think that with some practice I'll be ready to begin them on this quilt and by the end of the quilting, I should be a master feather stitcher!

I also have been pondering the idea of the Row by Row Experience which I only learned of a few weeks ago when I went to my local quilt shop and saw the winner's quilt on display.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of getting rows from the quilt shops I've visited in my travels this summer.  I stopped at shops out East before I knew of the RBRX and I think I'll call them after the event has finished to see if they can mail me a packet then. I know they aren't allowed to mail any while the event is going on, but maybe after it's finished.  I hope so.  I explained the idea to my husband and he likes it--to have a memory quilt of this summer's travels.

So, last weekend, when we were in Peoria, IL, I stopped at this shop,  Prairie Points Quilt Shop, and picked up a kit for their row:  

It's called Jumping Fish and it refers to the Asian carp in the Illinois River which flows through Peoria.  It's made of purple and blue batiks and looks much brighter in reality than in the picture.

This weekend I'm going on a shop hop with 3 friends to southern MN and will get a row from one of the shops we visit, and tomorrow I'll be in Duluth and will pick up a kit from a shop there. And of course, I have to return to the Busy Bobbin in Rice Lake where I saw the first RBRX quilt and get their kit.  I think this is going to be a lot of fun and I'll have a unique quilt for my home when it's finished.  

Well, my day is waiting for me to begin, and no one is going to clean the bathroom except me so off I go. I hope you have something a little more exciting planned for your day!