First Okra Blossom!!!

I just had to share this!  We have the first (several) okra blossom(s) in our garden!  Okra doesn't grow nearly as well here as it does down South, but it does grow.  Taking that into consideration, we planted a TON of okra, hoping to get enough to make me happy!  It's my favorite vegetable!  My husband even jokes that okra blossoms are my favorite flower :-).  They certainly are pretty!

Here's our harvest for the day:

I decided, as I was going through all of my batik scraps that I'm going to add more blocks to the summer sampler quilt (eventually).  I have a ton of extra 3x3 squares that I cut for Lee's "Supernova" quilt along that are just begging to be used up.  I'll have to cut up some more reds, greens and oranges to add to the mix.  I hope it doesn't get too scrappy!  I'm thinking of adding them checkerboard style, and putting the quilt on point.  We'll see....

With family in Texas, my mind has been there quite a bit.  I hope all of you are safe and staying cool!

Supernova is DONE!!!

Whew hew!  I just got her done!  You can still see the yellow chalk in the photos.  I'll try to post pictures of it after the wash, but my husband helped me get these pictures taken just minutes ago, and I wanted to show them!!

I decided to free-motion stars and suns (big stars) into the design, and just love the way it turned out.  I am glad I stuck with it, despite the machine problems.  After all, our house is mostly powered by the sun, ever since October, so we're become just a wee bit obsessed with it....

The stripes kind of remind me of Saturn, another celestial object.  My son got a telescope for his 11th birthday recently.  His big brother will officially be a teenager very soon :-O.  but one of the first things we saw in his telescope was Saturn.  AMAZING!!!  He also got this recent picture of the moon.  Don't ask me how he did it!!

I already have a space themed quilt planned and partially cut out for my youngest, and an electronics themed one for my oldest son.  Too much fun!





I also did a biased binding for the first time on this quilt.  I wanted the diagonal element with the quilt and had this great batik fabric in my stash that I used.  I love the way the whole quilt turned out, and thanks to Lee very much for sharing this design and quilt along with all of us!!!


Here's one last picture of another blue / yellow / purple item in our yard :-).

My first mug rug, and WIP Wed.

Not only have I been admiring the fabric postcards in "blog land", but these cute "mug rugs" have also captured my interest.  I started this one a few months ago, but finally got around to binding it last night!  Yea!!  I love it, and it's new home is right beside our main computer!  These little quilting projects are SO satisfying.... a perfect way to procrastinate!

But I have some quilting deadlines, coming up, so I've spent today making binding and ironing up the 2 backs I have ready for 2 quilts.  I'm hoping to get the Supernova Quilt and the Japanese Quilt all pin basted today, and the binding all done on my "Native", or Monochromatic Quilt done.  Wish me luck!

I'm also linking up with Freshly Pieced blog for WIP Wed.  Come join us!!

My New Addiction: Fabric Postcards

I've been admiring fabric postcards on blogs like My Sweet Prairie, and Notes, but wasn't quite sure how to make them.  With a little help from my friends (que Beatles soundtrack), and some internet research, I finally took the plunge and made a few.  I have a ton of triangle squares left over as scraps from my Supernova quilt, and have been playing around with these the last week or 2.  I'm now officially addicted!!!  I also got out my double sided fusible interfacing, and now have a big chunk of it fused to my ironing board cover.  Dang it!  But it's in really bad shape anyways, so I'm taking a break to go out and get a new cover...

Over the week-end we went camping on the Umatilla National Forest, South of here.  My husband took the boys turkey hunting (unsuccessful) during the day while I tried my hand at gold panning (also unsuccessful) or read a book on my new Kindle.  It is a beautiful campsite and we had the whole place to ourselves.  The only downer came in the form of snow on Easter morning...  That gave us a lot to dry out and clean up later when we got back, but now our pop-up camper is all clean and ready for the next trip!!  I hope you all had a great week-end as well!

Getting caught up on Supernova

I've been trying to get caught up on the Supernova Quilt-a-long over at Freshly Pieced Blog. I must admit that this quilt is coming together nicer than I ever expected! I've rarely used white in my quilts(2 boys in the house, ya know), but now I'm thinking that I may have to end this aversion and start using it more! It really makes the color pop! The more I sew, the more excited I'm getting, which is good, because I've been doing a lot of sewing!

 The instructions for the quilt use all squares and trim the corners off. I decided to add an extra seam in the blocks to create what will be tons of tiny triangle squares. I'm pretty frugal, and wanted to take advantage of all of this "waste" trimmings. I can't wait to play around with them, but first I need to get a bit more caught up!!!

It's Fabric Tuesday, so I'll be linking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday as well! Come join us!