Carpenter's Squares

Graphic of quilt design for the quilt class I'm teaching in August:

~Carpenter's Squares Infant Quilt ~

From the class description:

The woven bands of the Carpenter’s Squares create a high graphic design with a modern, a classic, even a Celtic appeal which looks difficult to do, but really isn’t. Once you know the secret of creating consistent T-seams this infant quilt top becomes so simple, beginning quilters can confidently piece it. More experienced quilters will also find this quilt top an excellent opportunity to practice “pinless seaming” a speed construction technique using very few pins.

The "sample quilt" made up to help advertise the class:

Outside the Lines

I started off quilting in straight lines. Two inches apart, respectably thorough but not too dense. Faster on a hot day. Simpler and faster on a project I want to finish quickly. But I got bored.

Like crop circles suddenly appearing in a field of neatly planted straight rows, freehand quilting curlicues suddenly erupted to decorate the last corner of the quilt. I suppose I should know better... never settle for boring rows when arabesques and scroll-work are an option.

Garden News with a Side of Possum

June has tried to be July this year. Ninety degree days and nights that barely cool to comfortable before the sun rises again. Thick with what my sister calls "real air" not the thin "fake air" of summer office buildings. Sudden sweeping thunderstorms that rush in and water the garden just before it wilts or, usually, just after I've turned the hose on to water it myself.
The carrots continue to need thinning, only now they really look like carrots. Crunchy, sweet and orange. The lettuces began to think of bolting and so have been pulled. We simply do not seem to eat enough lettuce to justify as many rows as I planted. Yet mid-August I know I will be wanting nothing but cold salads and complaining that lettuce is not a hot weather crop.

Cucumbers grow fat on the vine. Will I have enough for pickles? Maybe... but I suspect too few will make it all the way from garden to kitchen. Is there anything better than a crisp cuke right off the vine on a summer afternoon? Actually, much as I love cucumbers, I am reminded that my homegrown tomatoes will be ripening soon. A sun-warm juicy tomato eaten barefoot in the backyard is a summer delight I fondly remember and the tomato plants boast small green suggestions of summer pleasures yet to come.

The first crop of green beans has already been consumed. A colander full, snapped and blanched made a perfect main dish with a small side of baked chicken. If you have ever had slenderette green beans fresh from the garden and prepared simply (as in not drowning in gloppy sauces) you will know why we had green beans for desert too. I've trapped and transported five groundhogs already this year but I do not dare set the trap overnight to catch this possum which has moved into the back yard. I do not dare because on any given evening the possum comes accompanied by his friend the skunk. I have smelled, and seen the skunk casually making himself at home under the big pine trees in the side yard.

That's understandable, right? Not wanting to accidentally trap a skunk...

So for now the plan is to set my camera on it's highest flash setting and annoy the possum with flashing light until it doesn't think my yard is such a great place to be.

It's probably just as well I didn't get any chickens yet.

Asiatic Lilies

On the Wheel

Merino and Rambouillet fleeces are supposed to be more difficult to spin so I have not attempted them ... until now. The soft and fluffy blended ball of roving insisted on coming home with me. Really it's been too hot to work with it much but I have gotten some spun up, and I must say it hasn't been as daunting a task as I thought it would. I had some false starts getting my tension and speed comfortable, and I'm not good enough to spin a fine yarn (as in thinner) but I think it's working up quite well.

Photo Shoot

I finished piecing another sample top for my Counting House (full) quilt yesterday. And having actually managed to hang onto the Sixpence (infant) quilt I finished a few weeks back --finished quilts have the oddest habit of getting up and walking out my door-- I decided to do a photo shoot this afternoon to get some cover pics for the pattern.

behind the scenes

the view from on high

pattern cover photo option #1

pattern cover photo option #2

Which photo do you like best?

Leave a comment or just vote for your favorite in the poll on the sidebar.

Summer Garden

Despite spotting groundhog number five nosing about my yard I have great hopes for the veg garden still. Cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes are all in bloom and, thus far, untouched by marauding marmota.