Weed Whacker

Have you tried the pattern Weed Whacker by Bonnie Hunter? I love how this pattern comes together and it's a great way to use up scraps. I can call most of these greens gone from my stash! This was started (ahem...) several years ago at a get-away taught by Tina over at Seaside Stitches. Hers was done up in beautiful multi-colored scraps, but I went for a similar-colored look. Today I pieced the back and pin basted so I can get quilting. Gotta love crawling all over the floor and in the humidity, the quilt top was sticking to me knees and lifting every time I moved.

The bonus pieces cut off each little group were used to make the pieced border. Scrap quilts always tell a story - there are pieces of my mother's fabric, some from a friend, pieces left from quilts I've given others. It's always fun to just look at the bits.



I moved all the furniture in my dining room as this quilt is HUGE. My dog zonked out in the heat and humidity and didn't make a move to walk on the quilt. The cat, however, has a mind of her own, but gracefully skirted the quilt edges.



And a bonus picture. My youngest son is working at the Weekapaug Inn in Westerly (just ranked #5 in the US for inns and lodges) and part of his job is taking people out on a salt pond and showing them how to dig clams. He brought me these beautiful quahogs (an Indian word for hardshell clam) for an appetizer last night. They look tiny, but they are all legal! The sugar package and mess is from chocolate frosting he was making for a cake. He's quite the chef.

Happy 4th of July tomorrow!

Window treatments

Tina over at Seaside Stitches posted about a challenge to sew every day in July. I accept! Today I finished some valances in my kitchen. First, though, is the modified roman shade in my breakfast nook. This Waverly toile fabric was gifted to me quite a few years ago by my friend Ellie, and all it needed was some lining fabric. 

The shade almost fully down. Can you see my dog in the lower left? He's checking for squirrels at my bird feeder!



I hang the shade from a rod and have screw eyes in the frame of my window. I know it's supposed to be attached to a block of wood, which is then screwed into the wood frame, but even though these are replacement windows, my window frames are OLD, and don't like too much screwed into them!



This is one of two tie-up valances. The ribbon came from JoAnn's yesterday with a 40% off coupon and an extra 15% for the teacher card. I'm thinking of painting the kitchen yellow, but that will have to wait.

Scrap quilt by Tora

My guild gets together about twice a year to create quilts for new Habitat for Humanity residents. This very scrappy quilt was designed a created by Tora, quilted by someone else and bound by me. 

This is one of the sashing treatments (navy stars) and below is the other with off-white sashing. In included the center of the quilt top. Tora added different borders to the top and bottom to make the quilt longer.









Notice the grey in each block corner as well as the red square with off-white rectangles. I call this quilt very scrap-happy!