Nothing To Show But A Clown

 Tell me!  Who quilts & binds quilts in the middle of summer?  Huh?  Don't tell me it's just me!  lol  Unfortunately the urge has struck.  It struck at the same time as the summer heat did!  But that's OK really.  I am still powering along.  I have only one quilt left to quilt.  For now.  Then I can clear my mess off the dining table & return to sewing corner & restore order of sorts.  As a result of the quilting there is no crafty stuff to show right now.  You don't want to see me fighting the quilt to fit it under the machine to quilt it.  I think the one I just did is the worst one I have ever done.  I don't think I could attempt anything bigger than a single bed quilt on my machine to quilt.  

Unfortunately that did remind me of another lovely one I should dig out of the depths to show you.  I think that may end up being my first ever quilt that I will have to pay someone to do.  When I am digging again for stuff sometime I should get it out & get on with that one.  It's a pretty one.  Very pretty, & that's not me really!  So it will be quite a change for me!  

OK, so I will leave you with the resident clown!  On Sunday he hurt himself.  Quite a good graze on the knee.  It was actually the first time he had really hurt himself.  Grazes hurt.  He cried for about an hour.  I had to sit & rub his knee for another hour after that.  (It did get me out of finishing mowing the lawn mind you!)  I did finally get a break though & Stuart got to do some cuddling & knee rubs too.  He finally cheered up.  

Guess How Much I Love You

I'm a sucker.  Totally.  lol  We got this gorgeous fabric panel in at work last year.  BJ came into the shop with me one day & spotted them.  Of course he was taken with it as at the time the "Guess How Much I love You" show was on ABCkids.  So I got a panel & some fabric to go with it to make a mini quilt.  The panel isn't very wide so I had to make it a bit wider.  It's more of a panel for a wall hanging otherwise I think.  Anyway, it's been quite popular.  It is cute.  I love the border panel too which I put on the back.  That is cute too.  But sorry, no picture of that.  

Well I have had this fabric kicking around in the cupboard, falling out & stuff while I got other things out.  So last week, one lazy holiday morning, I got the fabric out & sewed the borders on.  I got it basted that afternoon as I had an off cut of wadding big enough for it!  Bonus!  Another scrap used!  

I quilted it with clear thread & went roughly around the big rabbits in the middle.  It looks cute.  Also roughly over the butterflies.  Free style quilting I guess I should call it!  lol  Around each of the squares & some stiple quilting down each side.  I am a less is more quilter.  I do like some quilts with pretty patterns etc quilted over them but there are some that are so over quilted that it detracts from the actual quilt top I think.  Seems a shame after all that work in making a quilt top to hide it in the actual quilting.  

I spent a few days hand stitching down the binding.  Didn't rush.  Just did some when I could.  So yesterday I finished that off.  The boys love it.  They kind of need to share it really as I don't want to make them both one.  BJ did sleep under it last night though.   Nice...

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1.  The only way I have been able to get a decent picture of the big boy.  He has been too busy & it all just becomes a blur.  Finally stillness.

2.  Little guy is at that age where he has to do EVERYTHING himself.  This includes brushing hair which involves a dripping face washer & hand wash soap more often than not.   

Linking up with Jodi.  

Nice Days

A spot of basting the other day.  Note to self - don't baste on the floor after a meal. 

Today we had a beautiful summer day!  I took the boys 2 houses over for a birthday party all afternoon.  It was lovely.  They had a water fight.  It was fun to watch.  I was flat out filling water balloons.  That takes an age!  

When we got home, Stuart had finished making this.  He bought the bits of pipe this morning.  Put it together while we were out.  The soaking wet boys had a blast running through this as well!  Then out of the wet stuff only to warm up a little & go back out under there again.  I think it will get a bit of use in the next few days.  

Things I'm Loving

Snapping pics of my 2 boys having loving moments together.  

Plus it isn't very often I can see in the big boy, that face of him as a little toddler, but I captured it here.  Usually I only see it when he is asleep.  Ahhh....  my baby...  

Rainbows.  We love rainbows in our house.  For one thing they are a sign of promises.  I like that.  A constant pretty reminder.  For another thing they are really cool.  This one was a full bright rainbow which then turned into a double.  It was amazing.  A complete double rainbow!  We were so impressed that I went out in the rain & experimented with the camera a bit which was fun except for the standing in the rain bit, but really, that wasn't so bad either.  I didn't shrink or anything.  It was amazing that the colours showed so well, plus there is that dark arch between the rainbow & it's double.  I had never seen that before.  

I am loving the not stinking hot summer too.  Shhhh... don't tell anyone!  I think I wouldn't be popular.   People are complaining about our weather.  I agree with the wind factor, I definitely hate the wind.  But I love these quite balmy days.  Not stinking, melting, skin burning in five minutes kind of  hot!  Yay!  It's lovely. 

Loving the lazy days too.  Ahhh...  just hunting around finding some budget friendly things for us to do.  It's nice.  

It's been great being so productive again this week!  More fabric gone from the cupboard!  It's such a good feeling.   

In Progress

Quick!  Take a picture of placement before it gets trashed!  (which I did, before little boy & dog played in it!)

Terrible picture but had to snap this before the dog moved.  Even she likes my stuff!  lol 

BJ is quite pleased with progress so far.  

Tractors Are Go... ummm... Gone!

 Well I got the tractor quilt finished!  Wow!  6 days!  That's pretty impressive for me!  hehehehe...  

I am really pleased with it.  I really love the binding too.  You can see that a bit clearer in the bottom picture.  It is part of the range that the rainbow chevron, the thin stripe, the red chevron & the blue dots are from.  They are a range called Stonehenge.  The yellow spots are from the range Giggles.  I don't have a picture of the back!  Oh well, the back looks really cool too.  It is mostly green but the green just fit perfectly.  It's amazing how well this fell together.  

I took it into work yesterday as I was going to hang it in there for a bit.  But it ended up in the front window instead.  It looks cute as can be.  I should see if I can get a picture of the window.  Big glass doesn't photograph well but I could try!