Do the Hustle!

Did you ever dance the Hustle when it came out in the mid 70's? Maybe you weren't even born then. The song came out in 1975 the same year I graduated high school. Whoa! that is a long time ago. You can hear this song from the disco craze here. But be warned if you listen to it the song will be stuck in your head all day long. OOOO! do the hustle.

Let's get to the real reason I titled this post "Do the Hustle." The title should really be do the Holiday Hustle. Sew Lux Fabric  had a quilt along. The quilt was made with charm squares. I had some so I decided to join in. This quilt is going to be a Christmas gift. The quilt measures 53" x 60", a very nice lap quilt. Sew Lux Fabrics just made up some really cute kits using this pattern which are now on sale. Plus they are having an end of summer sale. No, they did not pay me to say that. Just wanted to share in case you want to make a quilt like this for a gift or just need some other fabrics.

I decided to quilt this one myself since it wasn't too big. Some of the fabric squares have holly leaves on them. So I thought I would make a pattern to carry on the theme.I traced it on the red border to make a continuous quilting design.

 I quilted most of the quilt in a very dark brown thread.

 Stippling on the squares and straight lines a quarter inch from the edge on the off white fabric. Not too bad for not having done any free motion quilting in a while.

I am linking up my finished quilt to Sew Lux Fabric and Such a Sew and Sew August finish. Don't forget to link up your finished UFOs on the previous post. You still have four days.

                

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Time to link up your UFO finishes

Here is my progress for this month on the UFOs that I had listed at the beginning of the month. 

 I finished the last two blocks of the Bunny Hill BOM that I started in 2009. I changed the block on the left. It had a cat in the basket and a little witch standing by the basket. I asked my daughter for any suggestions she might have to replace those two things. She said, "What about an owl and some leaves." Perfect! I found this charm square in my stash that had these owls on it. So I cut one out. I appliqued it and some leaves on the block.

 I am linking up this finish to Melissa's blog for my "Lovely" August finish and to LynCC's blog.

 I sewed some half square triangles for my Christmas blocks. That is as far as I got on this UFO.

 I did finish up my crocheted shawl. I am pretty pleased how it turned out. You can find this free "easy" pattern here at Red Heart yarn.

 I will be linking this finished project to Lynne's blog.

If you linked up here at the beginning of August you can now show off your UFO finished goals. Be sure to link up once you have a blog post done. Can't wait to see what you finished this month.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

WIPS and Finishes

No, not mine but some Works in Progress by my applique bee and some quilts that were brought to show and tell during Modern Quilt Therapy group that met last week.
This first block is being made by Beverly. This was last years BOW by Primitive Gatherings.

 Patti continues to work on this quilt. She is just working on those hundreds of leaves. One day she hopes to get to the flowers. :0)

 This is Jane's WIP.

 Bonnie is working on a Kim Diehl pattern.

 Charlotte is getting ready Thanksgiving.

 Brenda is working on gift.

 Do you think this Goldfinch was her inspiration for her color choice for her wool?

 Now some modern quilts. Enjoy!

 This is the front and back of this blue quilt.

 We got two more block patterns which use our solid fabrics.

 LC was our speaker at the group. She was giving away some her patterns. I won this star quilt pattern. Thanks LC.

 Marina gifted this pattern to me all the way from Australia. Thanks Marina.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Hexagons

Have you wanted to make hexagons but did not want to make them by hand? If you go to Doreen's blog you can make hexagons with your sewing machine. She will show you how with 5" charm squares. She has two techniques. One is with a ruler and the other is paper piecing. I used a ruler to make this table runner which is going to be a Christmas gift. If you click here you can see the first set of instructions. Click here for the next set of instructions. And here is the next set. I love making hexagons by hand but I wanted to learn something new. Thanks Doreen for sharing this technique.

 Doreen also had another sew along in June. I made this quilt using one jelly roll and some background fabric. I got the binding sewn on last night. One jelly roll and some background fabric sure made a good size quilt. Thanks Doreen for sharing this design too.

 Here is a little bit of the quilting. I did not want it heavily quilted. Laura did this one for me too. Laura has been saving up her money and just got herself a new quilting machine. Go by and see what she got here. Thank you Laura!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Garden Update

It has been a while since I have shared my garden with you. We have had a very strange summer this year. Much more rain than last year and a bit cooler but certainly not less humid. Step outside and you just start sweating. When I work out in the garden, even in the morning, I come in sopping wet. Some vegetables have done well this year, others not so well.

One thing that I am really happy about is being able to water my garden with a hose. I don't have to carry up watering can after watering can to water the veggies. Yippee! I smiled the whole time I watered the first time with the hose.

And it is all because of this 1500 gallon water tank Mr. P. installed. Now he doesn't have to help water either. The tank collects rain water from our house for the garden. As you can see the bell peppers are doing great this year.

I planted some asparagus last year. It is doing pretty good. Maybe next year we can eat some of it.

Here are pumpkin vines.

Squash borer bugs got to the stems before I realized the damage they were doing. I dug the worms/caterpillars out and covered up the wounds with foil.

Here is a view from the back of the garden. That is a pumpkin vine that I planted later in the summer.

Another view further down. The watermelon grew well at the beginning of the summer and then just stopped. We have beans, sweet potatoes, tomatillos, and tomatoes. I only got 5 zuchinni before those plants died.

I have one bed dedicated to the pollinators. I love fresh cut flowers.

 It has been another bad year for tomatoes. I have gotten some but they start rotting before they get ripe. The plants have been dying from the bottom and continue up the plant.

I just got some seeds in the mail the other day. I have planted some of those out in the garden. Some of the others in little starter pots.

With the few tomatoes I have gotten I have made homemade roasted tomato sauce.

The onions, garlic, green peppers and basil are all from my garden too.

Yum! Gardening is hard work. Sometimes you never know what is going to grow but for me it is fun. I love seeing all the veggies grow. If you are a gardener I hope you are having a good harvest.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

ps If you missed this post there is still time to vote for my daughter's fabric designs at the Connecting Threads contest.