BEJEWELED UPDATE, AND LAYER CAKES

Despite having cataract surgery on my left eye this past Wednesday I was back for a brief time in that afternoon in the sewing room, and by Thursday able to work in there a couple hours each day since then.  Back for right eye this coming Wednesday.  Much easier than I thought all this would be.  A bit interesting with one eye done and the other not, as far as my vision, but there is a great deal of improvement.  First time in years I can actually watch TV without my glasses on.  Amazing!

I have been working on Bejeweled a bit over the last couple days.  I ended up buying some additional fabrics and also changing out a couple of fabrics.  I think I finally have everything planned out for getting this project completed.  It has been a bit of a struggled with fabric selections.

Just before I started on Bejeweled I was working on a scrap project.  I had a bin full of layer cakes bundles.  The strips are 2.5" wide and 8.5" long so the layer cake fabric works great for these blocks.

I saw this picture on one of the blogs I frequent and thought It would be perfect for doing something with those precut layer cakes.

My strips are all cut and as soon as I can clear the mess I have of Bejeweled fabric all over the cutting table, counters and floor I can get moving again on this project.  

There is alway some room for cuteness.  Our youngest daughter, as many of you know that follow my blog, lives out in the country on about 4 acres.  She has a multitude of pets.  Chickens, ducks, peacocks, geese, dogs, cats and yes even three boys and husband.  This little lady has a habit of escaping out of the chicken yard, and came up missing for several days.  My daughter finally found her under a bush in the back yard with 10 chicks.  So she has remained outside the chicken yard and discovered the patio furniture and the lovely new cushions my daughter just purchased.  This was the perfect place for her family to enjoy a nice warm summer afternoon.

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BEJEWELED AND PIE

This coming 2 weeks I do not know how much sewing I am likely to accomplish.  I have to go in on Wednesday and have cataract surgery.  Not so much as my vision is an issue but I have anatomical angles bilateral narrowing that the cataracts are causing. Not only am I scheduled for this coming Wednesday but back to do the other eye the following Wednesday too.  On top of it I cannot get new glasses until a full month after the second surgery.  Great doctor and he says my vision will improve a good deal.

I did get a charity quilt top finished off for my charity group.  So at least I am set to turn that in at my July 5th meeting.  

My last charity group kit project was a great success, so I have been handed another to work on.  

I was given fabric out of the charity group's stash.  Unfortunately the back ground fabric was not suffiecent and some of the fabric choices I was given just were not, in my opinion, suitable for the pattern.  I found a pretty good selection from my stash and I am working on it.  And yes, I did make a bit of a change adding a small strip between the red and green square blocks which made it easier to not cut off points.  It means I have to do some adjustment to the strips so they come out even, but thus far it is looking pretty good.  

My daughter dropped by a huge bag of apricots this past week.  We froze 30 cups of them, but couldn't pass up making an apricot crumble pie. She says there are more coming this coming week.  So guess if I can't see well enough to sew I can prep apricots and do some baking instead.   
   

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LEFT-OVERS FINISH AND GRAFFITI WEEKEND

 A few things accomplished this past week.  I did turn in my charity quilt to my Warm Wrappings group and will get it back to bind in a few weeks.  The left overs from that fabric kit found their way into the two items below.  So much fun to have so may lovely fabrics left over from the kit.  With kits that rarely happens.

I finished my table runner this past week made from the left overs of a quilt I made for my charity group to use at a fundraiser auction.  The kit had more than the usual left overs from the kits fabrics.  

Plus there were still a few leftovers to complete this little wall hanging. The little hanger was on the free table at my guild.  Every month at our meetings there is a free table if you want to pass on some quilt items or pick up some items you want.  The little hanger gave me a great idea for a little mini wall hanging on the brick wall in our kitchen.  Now I am thinking I should make a little 4th of July wall hanging for it.  Takes no time at all it is only 8 by 12.  Gives me all sorts of fun ideas for fall and the holidays. 

With most of my have-to-do projects finished I took the time to put together this quilt top for my charity group.  I am thinking I may change the way the strip blocks go as the right side and the bottom seem a bit odd.  Not sure how to fix that, or maybe just ignore it.  I do have plenty of the beige fabric left so it maybe just needs a border.

We live in Modesto, CA and this is graffiti week.  Annually the city has a big antique cars cruise to celebrate the movie American Graffiti.  My husband does have a 1958 Chevy, but rather than stuck in this massive cruise we preferred to watch from the sidelines.     
  

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QUILTING SAMPLES AND THE LEFTOVERS

 I have spent most of this week quilting my Sunflower quilt top.  The only thing that was on my mind other than getting that done was also coming up with some additional quilting stitches beside the serpentine stitch I have used on my previous tops.  I have a membership in Craftsy, so decided to take some time to watch Jacquie Gering's Next Steps class on using decorative stitches for quilting.  Her advice was to make a sample of stitches.

There are some interesting ideas here.  I think I will try some of them out on a smaller project and see how that goes. 

Last week I finished this top for my charity group to use in a fundraiser.  It was a kit with pattern and all the fabric.

After completing the quilt top I had a good deal of leftovers from the kit's fabric.  There is enough here to make a runner for myself.   

I have done a good deal of fussy cutting butterflies. I think I have a nice start.  So I will get busy and see where this goes.  

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