Remember when I started on this improv project last winter?
Blocks, strips, pieces and chunks
Today – my big Dirty Dozen finish!!
It’s really hard to take a picture of a quilt top in the Iowa wind!
And I have another finish – A Walk Around the Block in red, white and blue – just in time for the Fourth of July.
More info on this coming soon!
Reader projects
I think I’ll take a break this afternoon and read my book in the porch.
Great idea to take a break. We have spotty showers, so going to my quilt room. Your quilt reminds me of Jen Kingwell patterns.
Mary, your DD finish is fabulous! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy reading your book on this last day of June!
I love the helping,lol. So cute.
Mary, your improv is super! It is so bright and pretty.:) Kathy in Western NY, love, love your flower quilt. Would you share the name of the pattern? We’re back into HOT weather again and very dry. Our neighbors who live about 500 yards from us and in another town, set off commercial grade fire works on Memorial Day. They were actually illegal then, but smaller fireworks become legal tomorrow. UGH. Why are people so inconsiderate? I am worried about Buddy, who hides in the basement when it thunders, Sadie, and all the other pets who are so terrified.
Thanks for sharing, Mary.
Diane I feel the same as you about setting off fireworks. My dogs tremble and shake. I think of the many vets who silently suffer with PTSD and are not considered either when people shoot them off recklessly.
The pattern of my flower quilt was a free one on Moda designer Corey Yoder’s blog- Coriander quilts. ( and she lives in Berlin Ohio area). She did a monthly free block and it was Spring Brook I believe. I used neutral scraps for backgrounds and leaves and did a nine patch for the corner blocks that were to be solid white.
Thanks, Kathy. I live about an hour and a quarter from Berlin. She is a wonderful designer. I have a couple of her patterns and will have to look for that one:)
I agree, the Vets have it rough, too. I am calling the police dept. over there tomorrow to ask them to drive up to the house! Hope they do.
Mary, I thought you’d like to hear my good news. After only 4 hours and 20 minutes of labor, my 4th grandson was born this morning. Baby Owen now joins big sister Olivia and even bigger cousin, Jameson. Those are my local grands. I wonder if I’ll ever have time for making lol!!
Carla – CONGRATULATIONS! Owen and Olivia – such cute names! You’re so lucky they’re local.
Hi Mary, your quilt looks great! I like making scrap quilts, but the pile of scraps doesn’t seem to diminish! Looking forward to seeing friends at craft group today after a month recovering from covid. Enjoy your rest, give Molly a pat from me, take care, best wishes from Sandy
I love your quilt, Mary. Scrappy is the very best in my eyes! Your grass is so green! Ours is mostly brown in Oskaloosa. We are hoping for some rain in the next couple days. Crops and gardens really need it. Kathy in NY, your quilt is beautiful. Our kids and grandkids are on their way to our house today and we will celebrate Christmas in July! It works so much better in the summer, especially for our daughter who lives in North Dakota. There will be 15 at our house, and three cannot make it this time. It will be a fun time. We borrowed a camper from some friends so we can accommodate everyone. It gets more tricky as the grandchildren get married. Our only great grandson will be coming. He’s 18 mo. old.
Thank you Jeanine – I too love using scraps. It has variegated pale green thread for the machine quilting and I am so glad my long arm lady chose that for me.
Congratulations! Your quilt is beautiful 😍
Kathy…I love your flower quilt too. So bright and country…which I love. Mary, I love yours as well. What a great thing to do with orphan blocks.
I got a good laugh seeing Molly in the plastic bin.
Happy 4th, everyone. Eat lots of picnic food.
Why thank you Sue. I love Mary’s more than mine as it has a little bit of everything in it.
Yay Mary on your DD finish! It’s a really FUN one! It’s so rewarding to use scraps and orphan blocks like that.
Kathy, I too, love your flower quilt. I’ll have to try looking at it on my desktop so I can see the green variegated thread. What a great choice for it. Love the colors! And what cute cowboy boot baby slippers too. Fun projects today.
Thank you Karla and I hope somehow the light green variegated thread shows up for you. I especially liked making these larger flower and stem blocks as it has made a nice couch quilt size.
Love the improv quilt!!
Great finishes , Mary. Fun to see what you do too. I like the flower quilt and the sock monkey slippers. Nice work, ladies,
Jeanine, I like your Christmas in July.
Your creativity is to be envied. Really like the improv quilt. Carolyn in GA
Great fun from everyone. A great big THANKS!
We got glorious rain. Not much, but enough to make a puddle. Thanks the Lord.
Love, love the improv quilt and the dog block right in the middle. It seems to be one of your bigger quilts making use of your extra blocks and pieces. I love scrappy anything, and yours is a true example of “using it up “.
Thanks for sharing your other quilt top, reader projects, and dog photos. Your lawn is looking very green, which I know you love.
Hope you are enjoying the rest of the day with a good book, and a beverage.
What a glorious day! Love the quilts. You have such a knack for putting scrappy together. Love the flower quilt, too. I am working on two sew along Corey Yoder quilts with her Beautiful Day fabrics. Got the best news ever today. The results of my follow-up biopsy after cancer two years ago is entirely benign and no more follow-up needed. Answered prayer for sure. Enjoy your time on the porch. You deserve it and I’m sure your foot will benefit, too.
Marsha. You are right, that is truly great news.
Marsha From Kansas,
So happy your biopsy results were good; what wonderful news! It is a glorious day indeed.
What a great use of orphan blocks. So nice to have a big quilt like that completed. Another UFO off the list!
I like the flower quilt too. And the little boots are pretty cute.
Molly looks like a good helper. I’ve been putting empty cardboard boxes around as cat traps. Magnus and Klaus also like the brown paper that is often used for packing. They will wrestle with each other in the paper.
It’s hot and dry here. We haven’t had rain for a month. Watering the potted plants is an almost daily job.
Love your quilt.
Mary, live your improv quilt. Being a fellow dog lover I couldn’t help but notice the improv word “dogs” in second pic, but couldn’t find it in final top. I hope it makes it into your next improv design. So sweet!
Your improv quilt is great Mary & I also love the flower quilt! Thanks for sharing! Getting hot again here, we have had some rain now & then, but lawn is starting to look a little dry.
Reading a book on your porch sounds lovely! It was 93 here….I stayed in and sewed! We need rain! The corn is waiting…some not so patiently. We traveled to Michigan and saw our new grandson this past weekend! There was baptism and lots and lots of snuggles! He will be 6 weeks this Saturday and he smiled for us on Monday. Melted us for sure.
Hi Mary…hope your foot is improving…I like your improv quilt! Like it very much! Always enjoy seeing what others are making, pretty flower quilt and sock monkey boots. Maybe I need to spend time on a flower quilt as this Texas heat takes a toll on plants even with watering. I am working on a “crumb” quilt, maybe a few blocks each morning. Then hand quilting an appliqué quilt that has been more time consuming than I expected. Enjoy your farm news…
Your quilt does remind me of Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife which we both made. Should this wonderful quilt be named the Trucker Wife quilt? We need to catch up. Happy Fourth!
Why is it when Mary puts orphan blocks together, it turns out great but when I do it, it turns out ugly? Just wondering. Have a wonderful (and safe) 4th of July everyone.
Janet – not so! Everybody is so critical of their own work – I can find lots of things I don’t like in this improv quilt top!
What are you reading Mary???
You should start a Book Club…How fun!!!
Renee – I am reading The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade. When I was in Barnes and Noble on one of our Mayo trips, it was displayed as a staff pick otherwise I’ve never heard anything about it. It’s very good – about a poor family in New Mexico trying to make ends meet – a grandmother, her son, his daughter who gets pregnant to make 4 of them. I’m two thirds of the way through and the story has taken a very sad and tragic turn now.