This month Judy had us make 6 of these lovely blocks This will be a very attractive man’s quilt when all finished.   It gets better with each block.  It’s difficult to tell on this photo but the squares going from the upper left to the lower right are a medium brown and the ones from the lower left to the upper right are a black.

I also have all the seeds planted in the greenhouse *which is really a large cold frame) for winter eating.   I will have to thin them when they come up, but at least they are all in.   Today, I planted carrot, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and parsnips.   The tiny tomatoes have been heavy.   We’re eating them with every lunch plus I have put some in the freezer.   Now to find a great salsa recipe for the large tomatoes which are nearly ready to ripen.   We did actually pick one and two more will be ready within the next two days

The manager of the store is wearing this inventive hat to show that the company has rented the space next door and  now will have a major expansion which is so badly needed.    Today’s program was = what else, – But “Christmas in July”   which  makes perfect sense if you are set to make gifts or live “down under” where it is the height of summer Dec 25.

This lovely quilt or table top is from Cheryl Taylor’s book “Christmas is coming”   In fact there are several delightful quilts in this book, plus cheery pieced and fusible-applique projects such as table runners, wall hangings, pillow, bed runner and even a Christmas-card hold   All are fairly easy

I know this photo is a bit confusing, but since I’m in a class, I have to take what I can get.   The quilt on the top left is from the above mentioned book,    The little house piece is from a pattern called “It’s a keeper” and has hooks to hang your keys on the bottom.

This  table runner  which is simple with a clean look is from “”Christmas is Coming”

Baker’s Dozen by Bit’s and Pieces has 13 nice pieces including this bag. aprons, table mats and table runner.

In the  “show and tell” section, this lady was wearing this interesting skirt she has made.   Only really it is a pair of pants as well.  Terrific for travel.   Until she showed us it was also a pair of pants, we did not know.   It has only a front and back seam, but looks similar to this idea   http://www.pinterest.com/pin/470696598526606534/

This is a class available August 3.   I think it is a beautiful table runner.  I am tempted I need more hours in my days s or maybe I just need to rearrange my day to use the hours better.    – Maybe the Fitbit will  to do it’s own thing which would give me an extra hour and a half.  sigh. sigh.

Oh and I should mention that after several days of very warm, dry weather, when I went to feed the alpacas tonight, their bowls had 3″ of water in them.   We are expecting another downpour tomorrow and then back to warm, dry weather.   We loved having the gardens watered for us.

As you can see, I inserted markers for each time the pattern repeats.   That helps me so much, because then if I come to the next marker and my count is off, I can easily check to see why.   This is the first set of 20 rows which are round 1.   I have at least 3 more rounds to go.  Because I’m not a cable expert, these are going slowly.

Tomorrow is Sew Fun day as well as Blood Draw day, planned that way, because they are decently close together So I’ll try to do better at taking photos and notes.  It seems I get absorbed in what she is presenting and forget the note taking.

Between gardening, running to the store, and making my Fitbit happy, I snatched a bit of time to put this July block together

Here are the blocks so far for the year.    Since she only gives us one clue a month, I’m not sure how she will fill in between the blocks or what she has chosen for borders.   It will be interesting as this is a very busy quilt top.

The rest of the spring volunteer potatoes are now out of the greenhouse, so I can plant some broccoli and cauliflower there for the late fall.  This will be a bit of an experiment to see how late I can still harvest it.  ae nd I want to get more carrots, lettuce, table onions in there as well.    We’ll see how much energy there is for all that since I also have a quilt that must get quilted.

This is the rug the dogs love to sleep on when they have to be in the  house at night.    Since it is a heavy woven, cotton rug, I can’t just toss it in the washing machine.   Out on the deck it went with dawn and a very good stream of water from the hose.   We spent about 2 hours out there working on this, which is also why we enjoy some of the good, warm days.   Yes, we got wet and it felt good.

It was so wet and heavy, we left it there for the night and it rained a bit this morning.   So it stayed out there all day.   This evening, it was dry so came in and was rolled up for the summer.   No, it’s not perfectly clean, but I can live with it and it is much better after cleaning.