Greetings dear readers! This post is a potpourri of what’s been on my mind this week.
HEAT! We northern New Englanders are not used to the heat we’ve been enduring for the past several days! By 8AM it’s already too hot to walk. Most of us don’t have central air conditioning. We have one window AC on each floor of the house. The first floor is relatively comfortable with the addition of a fan. The bedroom upstairs where the AC is located is comfortable, but the rooms up there are chopped up and the cool air has a hard time getting down the hallway to my sewing room so I can only be in there in the early morning hours. And the heat makes me lethargic! I’m spending the bulk of my time in front of the fan, reading 🥵. But still getting some sewing done!
BASKETS! In those cooler morning hours, I prepped several more basket blocks, choosing the 4 fabrics for each one, making the handle, and gluing it on:

These handles are all ready to be hand stitched down and then I can proceed to piece the blocks. I put all 60 of the completed blocks on the design wall:

If you look at the upper left corner, you’ll see that I’m experimenting with the idea of adding narrow sashing between the blocks. I think I like it and I like this particular shade of green. No need to make a final decision until all 98 blocks are completed.
“CHEVRON” LOG CABINS! I like to have the fabric for 4 of these blocks cut and ready to chain piece any time I can grab a few minutes at the sewing machine:

Even if I only have time to piece a round or two at a time, they seem to quickly come together! The newest 4:

BACKINGS! I pieced together to backing for the Half Square Triangle Medallion top! I cut twenty five 16 1/2 inch squares from several florals I’ve been saving and it felt really good to finally use them!



I have an appointment to take this top and backing to a long-armer tomorrow morning. I think custom quilting would be lost on the top and am going with something simpler. I’ll next show this when it’s completed.
I finally found a suitable backing for Maple Leaf Rag! I’d hoped to find a wide back, but couldn’t find something in the color I wanted so finally settled on having to piece yardage. I love this rich shade of rust:


And, believe it or not, I am quickly approaching the completion of my version of Kim McLean’s “Stars and Sprigs “ quilt, “Stormy Weather: Shine A Light.” I have only the last half of the 4th border to finish appliquéing and 4 corner star blocks to make! This journey had been going for 2 years – not bad for such a detailed quilt! So, while shopping at local quilt shops for gift certificates (to be given to our guild’s Challenge winners at next week’s meeting – tough job, I know 😊) I picked up 3 yards of this Tilda fabric for the center panel of the backing – it seems perfect for the quilt title 😊:



I’ll eventually decide whether to pick up several more yards of this and make the entire back of it or whether to use other fabrics to fill out the sides.
NEW ENGLAND QUILT MUSEUM EXHIBIT! My quilt, “Golden Glow”, is currently hanging in the museum with the Hospital Sketches exhibit! I haven’t had time to get there to see it yet. It’ll be up till the end of September and I’m hoping to get there within the next couple weeks and take lots of photos to share! Barbara Brackman created and published a small book with quilts and info from the exhibit and sent a signed copy to each participant thanking us for participating:

Here’s the page with my quilt on it:

And here’s another random page showing some of the other quilts:

I believe copies of this will be available for purchase at the museum. If you are within driving distance of Lowell, MA, please consider going to see it. There is also a fantastic exhibit of quilts by Carol Breyer Fallert-Gentry as well as a display of some quilts from the museum’s permanent collection. Well worth the trip!
GREAT MEMORIES OF OUR CAPE COD TRIP! A few more photos. My quilting friend Janet Elia works 2 days a week at the shop Quilt Corner in Sandwich, MA at the head of the Cape and we made the drive to see her:

Janet made all those samples you see!
Don’t you just love the little elf (?)doorway in this wall?!

Other quintessential scenes:


The flowers on the Cape were gorgeous, especially the hydrangeas and day lilies. I’ll finish this post with a color explosion!😊







Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi