Too Hot for Outside

 We are having a very hot and dry summer. We are trying to establish a new lawn this year, which is virtually impossible during a raging drought. But at least we are not in a fire zone (knock on wood). We just see hazy skies from fires in Canada. I hope everyone near the fires will be safe.

I am tired of the heat and mostly stay inside. I have been working on this for the last couple of days:

Before that I put finishing touches on a few other quilt tops:

Made from fabrics my sister gave me,

and the pattern is from a member of my online group;

we named the pattern Doris. I bet you can guess why.

using some orphan blocks, Lotto blocks, and random stuff

an idea I copied from an unknown quilter; I added the HST borders

another one made from leftovers and extras

Still needs borders added.

This pattern is called Horizon and was found at this blog:

https://kleinmeisjequilts.blogspot.com/

It is super fast and easy; I have made 3 of these so far.

My online group, Sunshine Quilts, had a QAL (quilt along) day

when a bunch of us talked on Zoom and spent the day

sewing Horizon quilts. We have made about 18 of them so far!

New ones keep popping up in our feed.

I will have to share this info with kleinmeisje.. I bet she has no idea

what a quilt avalanche she started!

Amazing accomplishment in the middle

of a drought! 😍

Here are my previous two Horizons. One has been finished so far.

My Solo Vacation

My family owned a lake lot and then a shack and then a "cabin" which is really a house. Now my sister owns it. Her family is large and still growing, so it's hard for me to find time to squeeze in and visit the place. Last week I had the place all to myself for eight glorious days! What a treat! Husband was supposed to join me mid-week, but he decided he had too much work to do and the quiet at home was beneficial for him. The quiet for me at the cabin was heavenly.

I did a lot of sewing, reading, relaxing, swimming, and eating when I wanted to. My cousin came over and sewed with me which was nice; I didn't get lonely. And when she returned to her own cabin, I had the lovely solitude to enjoy again.

I put together these four quilt tops:

I made this bag:

I made over a dozen 12.5-inch blocks and 62 crumb blocks (scraps sewn together into 6.5-inch blocks). I read three books which have been reviewed in posts just before this one. Finished the 4th book upon my return home.

The lake shared with me its many moods; I rode on cousin's pontoon for a July 4th picnic.

That week was a perfect vacation and a highlight of my summer. I only missed having hubby with me, but alone time has its grand benefits as well. Ahhh..blood pressure was way down, I think.

Glorious Summer Days

Tuesday was a wonderful day! The weather was perfect -- comfortable, not humid, beautiful and pleasant. B and K and I met at a Minneapolis restaurant that I had never heard of: Wise Acre Eatery. Anyone in the Twin Cities reading this blog: go there! The food was fabulous! I had this salad which I think was the Wise Acre Salad:

So Yummy!!! I also had a fresh, home-made cookie with the chocolate still melty-fresh from the oven. YUM! They use fresh ingredients from their own garden in Plato, Minnesota. And everything is made-from-scratch delicious! We had a perfect, outside table in a corner, in soft shade, with sweet little butterflies flitting around while we chatted. I felt like I was in a novel.

The three of us did an experiment (for us as an impromptu group)- we each made a block and then the others added to it. Tuesday was our day to meet and return them to their owners.
K and hers

B and hers

me and mine

After lunch I discovered this museum: The Museum of Russian Art. B's two kids are adopted from Russia.. though she was no longer with me, I decided to stop in. Here's the museum. It used to be a Congregational Church which was built in this Texas mission style because its first pastor had done some work in Texas and loved that style. It's very unusual for church architecture in Minnesota. Inside, there were two exhibits going on. One exhibit was Soviet painters (most done between 1920 and 1960) and the other was a Ukrainian American who made his way to Minnesota after WWII and painted many beautiful Minnesota scenes as well as others. I loved them both!

Here's a sampling of some of the art. Click on any of the photos to get a bigger, closer look.

All the paintings below are by O. Bulavitsky. This is the poster of his exhibit:

Below, the South Minneapolis neighborhood Bulavitsky saw from his upstairs window:

After all this wonderfulness, I went to visit my Little Free Library (at church), pulled out a lawn chair, and sat down in the lawn to read. It was such a perfect day to be outside reading.

All in all, it was a glorious summer day, and a great way to spend my time.
P.S. Today is another equally glorious day! Fabulous!

Friday Books: To Kill a Mockingbird

This week I am re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Our book club at church will be discussing it on Sunday. I'm not done yet, but I have read it at least two times before and have seen the movie multiple times. So, I can tell you now that I will give it a five-star rating. It's fun to read a great book again after several years away from it. But at the same time, I am eager to get back to reading something of my own choosing. I was hoping our church book group would take a summer hiatus, but it decided not to.

After this I will have to read the book for my on-line book group. THEN I can get to a book of my own choice.

We are finally getting somewhat caught up on our yard work... not completely, but at least I got the flowers put in as I want them, and we have done some weeding. That seems impossible to keep up with, but we're trying. So far we have only had one very hot day, so it hasn't been too bad to be outside weeding. Here are some pictures of our flowers. Try not to pay attention to any weeds you notice or the lawn that needs mowing! (As I said, it's hard to keep up completely.) Ha! I think everyone with a yard is always a little bit behind; isn't that true?

A lot of my flowers are just in pots, but I also planted some of the marigolds in the actual garden space between the pots. Once they fluff up and fill in, I think it'll be quite pretty. The white flowers, in a previous photo, were mostly buds on my relatively new bushes. They really popped and are now already nearly done. I am happy with those pretty bushes, whatever they are.

I have been wanting to sew, but my main machine isn't working properly; I need to take it in for service and don't want to! So I'm just stymied while I decide what to do and what I could work on with my slightly less nice machines.



I hope you are all enjoying a lovely summer, and a lovely fall/winter in the southern hemisphere! It has been beautiful in Minnesota.. plenty of rain and beautiful sunshine. Lucky us!

Glorious Summer

What a perfect day! Blue skies, a soft breeze, sunshine, temperature around 80 deg F and low humidity! Gorgeous!

Charles mowed the lawn. I planted flowers, trimmed, bushes, swept front patio. Afterwards we sat on the deck in the shade, cooling off and enjoying the perfect weather. I live in Minnesota for days like these!

There was a city celebration going on in the park nearby. My church has always hosted a bouncy house there, and this year we added face painting. I have attended three or four years in a row, to help, and every year it rained and was miserable. This year I told them I didn't want to go. I felt a little guilty not being there; I could hear the festivities from my front yard. ["Time for hula-hoops now! Who wants to hula-hoop?!" fire truck noises, and whatnot.] Hopefully they were all having a good time. With good weather they'd have more kids and need more helpers. But, you know, we shouldn't count on the same old people doing the same duties every year! My fingers are crossed that it all worked out happily.

Blogger is not letting me leave comments again today. So I will make one of my comments right here: I hope and pray that J. finds the kind of home he is hoping for. I am trying not to feel anxious as he leaves a great home and finds potential... what... even greater? I hope so!



The photo above (apologies for the bad quality) is June Lotto blocks I made for Sunshine. I have 4 million bindings to work on, but they're so boring!! I'd rather make blocks and plant flowers.