The July Report

 We are well and truly into the dog days of summer!  

That means not only is the weather hot and steamy, but it's also Doggie Daycare time!

This year it's just our son David's dog, Jozy (rear).  He's from the same litter as our dog, McKenzie, so it's a family reunion of sorts.  David has a month-long job assignment in California every summer, so he brings Jozy to stay with us.

I missed David's visit/Jozy's arrival, as I was in Florida with my mom.  She wound up in the hospital over July 4th weekend with a nasty case of bronchitis (thank goodness, not Covid!).  I stayed with her after the hospitalization to make sure she was following doctor's orders and to get her to all her follow-up appointments.  

Of course I packed some stitching projects to work on, but I got distracted by Mom's library.  

She has saved copies of lots of the good ol' books we both enjoyed back in the day.  I got caught up in re-reading some favorites.  Indeed, I've embarked on a bit of a Georgette Heyer binge.  Yay for summertime reading!

Before I left for Florida, I had started playing with an idea for a July mini quilt.  I guess this will become an August mini quilt!

This Rainbow Scrap Challenge project got finished up during July.  Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads did the quilting and I hand-stitched the binding, label, and hanging sleeve.  It's been shipped off to it's intended recipient with the less-than-original name "Scraphappy Stars". 

Another July finish: I love how the fan quilting (again, Butterfly Threads Quilting) looks in this quilt!  I made this quilt top several years ago and never proceeded to the quilting stage.  In February, a visiting friend fell in love with the un-quilted top, so I finished the quilt and gave it to her.  I'm glad the quilt found a happy home!

I was also able to finish a Sugar Loaf block for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color:  dark blue.  I already have two blue blocks in light blues and bright blues, so I figured one more blue block was plenty.  

And since the Sugar Loaf blocks make scraps in just the right sizes, I made two Easy Breezy blocks.  

And now I'm off to watch the dogs frolic in their wading pool!  Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay safe, and have a fun August!

Flamboyant Flamingos

 The flamingo hexagon quilt is finally finished!

It currently has pride of place on the quilt hanger in my dining room.  I think I need a life-size wire flamingo sculpture to go with it - right?!

I was originally inspired by Barb Vedder's Hex Vex quilt.

At the time, Barb sold a pattern that included instructions and starter paper pieces for the different shapes needed for the quilt.  

As much as I loved Barb's Halloween theme, I already had a stash of fabrics that I thought would make a great interpretation: flamingos!  I pieced my first blocks in April of 2017.

Barb's Hex Vex description mentioned being inspired by Kim McLean's hexagon quilt from Quilter's Newletter Magazine, March 2005.  As luck would have it, I still had a copy of that very issue.  I immediately made a copy of the cover and consulted it repeatedly for inspiration.

It took several years to accumulate enough pieced hexies for a quilt.  The finished quilt has over 100 pieced blocks, as well as plain blocks.  It measures 60 inches by 52 inches.

I had a blast fussy-cutting all the different print fabrics I picked for the quilt!  I cut several "viewing windows" from card stock to help me visualize how different motifs would look as part of a block.  Later, I bought acrylic templates from Paper Pieces so I could cut block pieces using my 18 mm rotary cutter.

After experimenting with different fabric prep methods, I settled on using pre-cut card stock shapes from Paper Pieces.  The purchased shapes were much more accurate than shapes I could make on my own.  I also used a fabric glue stick to attach the fabric to the card stock shapes.

Once the quilt top was assembled, I sent it to Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads for quilting.  
The simple swirl design of the quilting was a good compliment to all the movement in the quilt top!

I had a big piece of flamingo fabric that didn't make it into the quilt top, but looked great on the back.  The yellow stripe in the sleeve matched the yellow in the flamingo print, so that was an easy choice.

And what does one call a group of flamingos?  

A flamboyance, of course!

Many thanks to Barb for the inspiration and Diane for the quilting!

I think I will be entering Flamboyant Flamingos in my local quilt show next year!