July 2018 One Monthly Goal

My Sweet Farmer and I took a road trip to Iowa this past week to the American Guernsey Annual Convention. We got to meet new friends and visit with old friends. I even met a quilter who reads my blog! Now how cool is that? And speaking of cool, the air conditioning was way too cool for this Canadian girl but outside it was 100 degrees. That's Fahrenheit not Celsius. Otherwise, we would have be boiling, literally.  The highlight has to be dinner on a riverboat on the Mighty Mississippi River. 

I did some hand stitching on an Antique Wedding Sampler block that I had prepped several months ago.

I guess I sewed the red buds on in the wrong place so will have to rethink how this Dear Daughter block will be done. I appliqued some of the leaves and stems.

Its the first of the month and that means all the monthly challenges are up. My OMG will be to keep up with the 4 new Dear Daughter blocks posted today.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge  colour for July is red . . . of course red. That is the colour on our flag. I have 4 red Bright Jane blocks that were ready last year. They are hard ones. I guess that is why they did not get done. No promises this time.

I have no idea how much stitching will get done this month since it is house guest season at the farm. The little girls will all be here 2 different weeks. One week for Vacation Bible School and another for Fair Camp at the local fair grounds that are just up the road from The Farm. The boys will continue to come 4 days a week until the end of the month. And, my little sister will be here from China. We will be flying out to Saskatchewan next month to meet the newest member of our family - Gus. I will once again be leading a weekly small group for our church for the summer called "Hearing God". The byline is  In a time when many voices are screaming for your attention, learn to hear the still, quiet voice of God.

So, a busy, fun, family filled month.

Blessings,
Chris 

End of June 2018

Well I did not get my OMG goal this month. 

I got only 7 Bright Jane blocks made. 

I was hoping for 8. 

My Sweet Farmer and I are taking a week off and going to,

 of all places, 

a Guernsey cow convention in Iowa. 

Among other things.

we will be dining aboard a river boat on 

the Mighty Mississippi River.

Bags are packed, passports, cash, oil changed,

 Dear Daughter stitching, etc. 

No little children until next Monday. That's a whole week. 

Then we have family visiting here every day until Aug. 

See you next month. 

Blessings,
Chris

Another Bright Jane Block

This Bright Jane block is done by English paper piecing, sort of.

Not too shabby, but 

 I will have to revisit the how-to instructions before doing another.  

There has to be an easier way to get that center done.

I hand pieced this star block for my first Dear Jane quilt
made in Civil War Reproduction fabrics. 

It looks a lot better now than it did 

when I first made it about 8 years ago.  

The boys decided they wanted to put blocks up on the wall this week. 

The bigger one wanted to put the step stool on the table so he could reach higher. 

I said it was not safe to do that. 

The little one repeats everything

so he is learning that some things are not safe. 

Not sure they noticed that half the blocks are on backwards. 

I have been sewing up buffs for our church summer camp. 

Lime green ones and purple ones. 

Now I remember why I stopped trying to sew t-shirts. 

Blessings,

Chris

btw . . . with the root canal all is good and only took the double whammy pain killer once.  

Slow Stitching

Some slow EPP progress on a Dear Jane 2 block.

The boys helped take the Dear Daughter blocks off the wall. 

The little one was trying to put them in a pile

and the bigger one was taking off several and dropping on the pile. 

Linking with slow-sunday-stitching.

Blessings

Chris

Mid June Update

I did get lots of reading done this week. Well, not textbooks. I accidentally bought a kindle book when I was investigating a series of 16 novels that I had read 40 years ago written by Canadian author Mazo de la Roche between 1927 and 1960. The  Whiteoaks of Jalna is a fictitious story spanning 100 years and 4 generations of a family that came to Canada in 1850 and build a magnificent brick mansion on 1000 acres of land near Lake Ontario in the Oakville area. As a result, I got no stitching done but I did get a root canal yesterday. Yes. I invested  yet another $700 to keep one more tooth. And I have to go back to my own dentist to get the filling put in so more $$$. Also, I have had that sinus/throat/cough thing. Not fun when you are in the dentist chair for 2 1/2 hours and your face is frozen. I learned that if you take extra strength Tylenol and Advil at the same time, you get a more effective painkiller. Just saying. 

The RSC  colour for June is Aqua/teal/turquoise 

and I got a few done and started. 

 I bought a new mini iron.

 I plan to do this star by EPP. 

Wish me luck getting those 8 center points together. . 

Blessings,

Chris

linking to 

lovelaughquilt  main-crush-monday   mid week makers  BOMs Away  let's bee social  needle-and-thread-thursday  can I get a whoop-   needleandthreadnetwork     wips-be-gone  esther aliu's WOW slow sunday stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

June Dear Daughter Blocks 

Photocopied the patterns onto heavy freezer paper 

 ironed them onto the reproduction fabrics

 sprayed Best Press on 

before pressing the seam allowance 

to the back

Now the hand stitching fun begins.

Blessings,

Chris

June 2018 OMG

I totally surprised myself with what I had accomplished in quilting last month. I had not set out to do all that but am quite pleased with the results. June is here and that means it is haying time on the farm. I do not drive tractor nearly as much as I used to, but am always on call. I stopped playing computer games 2 months ago and have been turning the computer off more often. However, I still find myself sitting here reading blogs and facebook for hours. So I am endeavoring to slow that down and focus on other more important things.

The RSC colour for June is teal/turquoise and I have pulled no less than 8 Bright Jane blocks that were prepped last year that did not get made. My OMG one-monthly-goal- is to make  8 blocks. They will all be foundation pieced using one of my Singer Featherweights.

In the meantime, I continue to read and write and kiss boo boos and change fewer diapers since both boys are in potty training. Whatever will I do when their Mom finishes school in 2 months?

Blessings,
Chris