JULY'S BOM

 Here is July's blocks made for the Seatte Modern Quilt guild's Block of the Month, also known as SeaMQGBOM2026.

ROUND AND ROUND QUILTED

After a few setbacks with Erik the longarm and help from Katrina at Bernina of Renton, in Washington, I got Erik up and running smoothly with a new pantograph.  He stitched out a vine pattern on the Round and Round quilt top, now named 'Not Enough Zucchini'.

It took most of the day, and it looks great.

MAKING A BACKING

 I started making the backing for the Round and Round quilt yesterday.  This morning I made a label and then finished the back.

SEWING SCRAPS

 There are a lot of scraps from the Round and Round project.  And a lot of them are strips.  So I started making Log Cabin type blocks, more round and round.

I've been making blocks for a couple of days now.  The scrap pile is much smaller.  I'm holding some back to use as filler when I put all of the blocks together.

LAST BORDER AUDITION

 After meeting with Maria on Monday, I've decided to use all three of the fabrics for the final borders. I made more triangle pieces and sewed them into the border fabrics.

But, I trashed the loud corner blocks.  I had the idea to replicate the rectanges from the center block.  I made them as far as I could.  But, the only Kona Zucchini fabric I have left is in small pieces.  So, I'm going to think about what to do about that for now.

NOT HAPPY WITH THAT FABRIC

 I am not thrilled with that substitute fabric I made the border with yesterday.  So, using more of the triangles I made, I set them on top of some other fabrics I thought might work.  Now I'm going to let be and think about it for a while before I make a decision.  At one point I was thinking of using some leftover Log Cabin blocks as a border, too.

I made those corner blocks thinking they would tie into some of the other borders.  But, I think they are drawing too much attention.  I probably won't use them.

ANOTHER BORDER

 I wish I had more of the e bond fabric I used in the center of the Feathered Star block, but I don't.  So, I found another of her fabrics that are very similar in color.  So, I made the next border using it instead.

I made one side then auditioned them, first with the triangles pointing in then with them point out.

NEXT ROUND

 I'm trying out different things for the next round.

THIRD ROUND ATTEMPTS

 I started making the next round.  After several hours of sewing, the process was becoming tedious.  So, I put what I had up on the wall to see how they looked.  I decided No.  I don't like it and I'm going to try something else.

RABBIT PILLOW

 I finally got all of the things and tools that I needed to turn my Rabbit needlepoint into a pillow.  

Here it is, it's done.  And I like it!  It will be living on our bed during the day now.

FINISHED ROUND

 It took a while and a lot of fussing and fiddling, but I've got that first border all the way around and sewn on.  And I'm thinking bout the next border.

JELLY TURNS ELEVEN

 Today is Jelly's 11th Birthday.

Happy Birthday Jelly!

ROUND TWO OF R & R

 Here is my start of the first round of Round and Round with Maria Shell.  I tried a square on point but it was not looking right.  So, I trashed that idea.  And I started making some Beads on a String.

FINISH NUMBER TEN

 I made the bias binding and sewed it onto the previously quilted "Sing Your Song" baby quilt.

So it is complete!  

It is Finish #10 for the year.

This is a small quilt, 27" by 35" made from a small Charm Pack of only 24 5" squares interspersed with a dark grey Kona and quilted by computer on my B24 longarm.

ROUND 1 OF ROUND AND ROUND

 I'm taking a month long workshop with Maria Shell.  The workshop is called Round and Round and we will be making Medallion quilts.  On this first week we were asked to make a sketch or a plan for our medallion, to pick a palette of fabrics and make our center block.

I want a rectangular quilt, not a square one.  It adds a degree of difficulty!

My fabrics, so far.  Most of these colors are not showing up correctly.  Oh well.

My center block.  It took me several days to make all of those tiny 1" HSTs.

 

RABBIT FINISHED

 I've been waiting for the extra yarn I required to finish this needlepoint.  I received it in the mail today and finished weaving it in and am declaring this needlepoint finished.

It is called Leap and I got it through Ehrman Tapestries.  It is soon to become a pillow.

NEXT UFO QUILTED

 I sewed these Charm Pack squares together yesterday to make a very small top.  There was only 24 of them so I just added more 5" squares instead of making half square triangles out of them.  I boldly chose a dark grey for the alternate blocks.  And I boldly chose yellow thread for the densely quilted top.  

Today I quilted it with an allover pantograph.

CHANGED THE FANS

 I changed the direction of the fans yesterday.  Today I sewed a some more of it together and changed out some of the parts that were bothering me.

IMPROV THAT BLOCK WORKSHOP

Today was the fifth, and last workshop in the Improv That Block Squad on Brave Patch with Sherri Lynn Wood.  Today we got to pick the block we wanted to work on.  Sherri provided some prompts that we could use (or not).  

I choose to continue working on the previous types of blocks we have made, namely the nine-patch, the fan block, and maybe some four-patches and more friendship stars.  And I continued making tumbler blocks as a filler.

Here is how I left it after the workshop:

ROOTED BLOCK FIVE

I just finished block number five from Sue Spargo's Rooted.   

IMPROV BLOCK QUILT

 I've been sewing on the Improv That Block quilt and finally sewed the challenging last Fan block into the rest of the quilt.  I've not really known how to do it, but once I just started it was not that difficult.  

And, then I went on to sew in some other challenging parts.  It's coming together.

MORNING IN THE P-PATCH

 This morning my walk took me to a nearby P-Patch.  It's on 35th SW and SW Barton.  It was raining very lightly.  

FINISHED DRAWER DIVIDERS

 I put labels on the fronts of the drawers.  Then I made some draw dividers to hold the spools of threads.  I finished those up today.  Not every drawer has dividers, mainly because there isn't much thread in those drawers, specifically the 5wt perle cotton and the 3wt perle cotton.  I'm storing my boxes of floss in those at the moment.

NEXT BORDER

 I'm trying out different options on the Round and Round quilt in week 3 of the Maria Shell Workshop. 

FINISHED THE JESSIE TWINED BOWL

 I got this Jessie Twined Bowl Kit from Flax and Twine a while ago,  I've worked on it off and on over the last few weeks.

I finished it today.  The instructions called for just burying the cord ends along the side's warp threads.  But I decided instead to tie them in knots around the outside.  This was a very fun project.

A PRESENT TO MYSELF

I got this in the mail yesterday and Darrell helped me put it together today.  I got some special red roller wheels for it,  and he put those on too.  I'm going to store my special embroidery threads and stuff in it.

IT WAS THAT DAY AGAIN

 And I got a free drink this morning.

ROOTED #4

 I started this project a long while back.  This is Rooted by Sue Spargo.  I bought the kit with all of the wool and thread included, plus the instruction booklet.  I already had her little book about the embroidery stitches I would need to complete the project.

After making a few blocks, I set this project aside over a year ago.  I picked it back up a few days ago and it was exactly as I left it.  Everything was still all together, too.

I finished the last of the embroidery today.  Block #4 is done.  Now onto #5.

STARTED TWINING A BASKET

 I know nothing about basketweaving.  I bought a kit with instructions from Flax & Twine.  I opened the box today and reading the instructions cut some cords for the warp and wrapped the ends with tape.  Then cut a very long piece for the weft.  And started the weaving.

I actually enjoyed it, but had to quit for the day.

MONTH FIVE OF BOM

 I got the instructions for month five of the SeaMQGBOM2026 last night.  

I cut the parts and pieces out and sewed them together to make four more 'blocks'.

FINISH NUMBER NINE

 I quilted, trimmed, made binding and sewed it onto the Babe in the Woods quilt.   It measures 35" by 36".  The top is all flannel.

Its done!  This is finish number nine for the year!

STITCHED THE STITCH BOOK

 I had all of my Stitch Book 2026 pages sewn into groups of four and they needed to be stitched together.  I thought I would do something like a Coptic stitch.  But, that didn't work out.  So, I just used a basic Pamphlet stitch and I added some beads between each page to space the pages.

CLEANED THE PANTRY

 Since we moved into this house the upper part of the pantry has been a mess.  I had put all of the containers which held various flours I used for making bread up there and have ignored them since.

I don't make bread anymore since we both went gluten-free.  So most everything was expired and just taking up space.

I took it all out of the pantry and tossed the expired stuff, which had been stored in Tupperware.  I don't like the idea of storing things in plastic anymore, so it all has to go.  I washed all of it and will donate it to Goodwill or somewhere.

There was some things stored in glass jars, my preferred method of storage.  I emptied those and washed them out too.