Hi Everyone! Happy Tuesday. Wow, as always, summer came quick. Never fails that the temp jumps from mild to crazy hot in a matter of days around here. We were floating along with lovely 78 degree temps and it is in the high 90’s this week. I am not a fan of hot weather. Makes me ever so grateful for the A/C unit. The older I get, the more I dislike hot weather (thank you menopause.)
One positive side to the heat is that my husband’s berry patch is going crazy. We have blueberries and boysenberries that are ripening and they are so yummy. Right now we are picking about 5 pints daily of the two combined (more boysen’s than blue’s). Ray is all about making jam so I suspect that he will take over the kitchen on Sunday and put up jam. When he does this, I happily become chief bottle washer and he does the rest.
Thanks to everyone who entered my blogiversary celebration giveaway by leaving me a comment about their favorite non-profit. I truly enjoyed reading through each comment and found it interesting to see what everyone holds near and dear to their heart. If you haven’t read the post, I offered to donate $25 to the winner’s favorite charity. My sister, Patti, then piped up with an offer to match my donation, bringing it up to $50. Because, you know, she’s awesome like that. 🙂
And the winner is……….. Number 9, Sarah Goer!! Sarah was one of the first virtual quilty friends I made when I began this blog last summer. A talented quilter and writer, Sarah is also a stay at home mom to two little ones. I enjoy her blog and especially love reading about the projects she does with (and for) her kiddos. Her son (about 5-ish years old) is on his second quilting project already! Do yourself a favor and take a peek at her blog, Things I Make. Sarah left a wonderful comment as an entry to my giveaway. See what you think:
“Happy blogiversary! What a special and unique giveaway. And thank you Patti for contributing as well! The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has a special place in my heart as my friend’s 18-year-old daughter (who I’ve known since she was 2 or 3) is living with CF. She just graduated from high school and is on her way to college. I admire how hard she has worked while also having daily treatments and regular hospital stays to deal with her CF.”
In honor of Sarah’s friend, $50 has been donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation!
Finally, here is a peak at the quilting I am doing on the batik Honeymoon quilt. It is a traditional nine patch pattern with each block being made up of nine 5″ charm squares. The center of each nine patch is a blue square which I quilted with a large flower of one sort or another.
I have all twelve of the flowers done and just started the filler pattern to go around the flowers. I am doing a leafy vine.
It is kind of difficult to see the pattern against this particular batik because is it so busy and leafy. This is the only square I have done so far though. I think I should be able to get this finished up fairly soon. Seems like it is going quickly.
That’s it for now. Wishing each of you a wonderful summery week! The season for iced coffee, iced tea, iced water… get the idea? Stay cool and enjoy.
Linking to Freemotion Mavericks, Sew Cute Tuesday and Freemotion by the River. Links to all of these sites are available at the top of this page, under Link Ups.
What a wonderful give away and how awesome that your sister matched your donation as well.
I love the idea of having a different flower in each of your nine patch centers and look forward to seeing how the quilt finishes out! 🙂
Congratulations to Sarah!
I am jealous of your berries. Did your husband plant the bushes, or are they wild? I hope you’ll post some of his jams/jellies. 🙂
Love the blue flower centers on your quilts, and the quilting on that one is gorgeous. I have lots of batik charm squares, and I loved them more when I first started quilting than I do now. Your nine-patch with a consistent center has give me an idea to use them!
He planted the bushes. Probably a dozen or more blueberries and about 6 or 8 boysenberries. We have raspberries and strawberries but they didn’t produce this year (probably for lack of water over the winter months). Additionally, we do have tons of wild blackberry which taste great but have more seeds.
I am not a huge fan of batik but I do like how this turned out.
Hi! Bernie
I’m following your blog via the ‘hive’ of the 2015 blog hop. I’m a bit envious of your lovely bowl of fruit too! We are having a really cool start to the Summer here in the UK (only managing about 18 degrees C today and overnight dropping below 5!) so although the raspberries have set they are nowhere near ripe. You’ve used beautiful colours in your batik quilt. Do you FMQ the flowers by eye or draw a pattern?
Allison, You must have sent your cool weather vibes to us last night! I woke up in the night and it was just pouring. So I have all the doors and windows open to let the air in. It is lovely! (and much needed here in California)
For the flowers, I used a tutorial by Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt. Her site has a plethora of FMQ ideas and great instructions.
http://theinboxjaunt.com/?s=flower+motif&submit=Search
(I do a rough outline of the flower but then fill it in free hand.)
Your quilting looks great! And I’m jealous of the berries. They look so yummy. Do you ever make pie with them?
Great giveaway to a really terrific organization. My daughter’s best friend has CF. She’s now 27 and generally doing well, but regularly ends up in the hospital because of it. Don’t know how the family would have gotten along without the Foundation and other organizations like it.
Enjoy the rain!
Your berries are mouthwatering! We’ve been enjoying California fruit, but it’s not the same as fresh off the bush. (Our strawberries should be coming in around here soon, though.) I really like how your quilted flowers are looking! Can’t wait to see them all together.
Hi Janine,
I eat about 20% of the berries while I am picking them! They are so good. I need to go pick this morning before it gets too hot out there as a matter of fact!
B.
You are getting an amazing amount of berries and I have never eaten a boysenberry in my life! 🙁
No boysenberries?? Oh they are wonderful. Less puckery than a blackberry and less seeds. I love them! Do they not have them in the markets in PA?
Thank you so much! I’m so pleased for the donation to CFF. FIVE pints of berries a day! Wow!!
Thanks for stopping by Sarah and helping me test this out!!