Summer has officially started!

 Before we left for our Great Lakes cruise in May, I made a list of what I needed to work on when we returned.  And I came home with a pretty bad cold and didn’t sew for several days.  But now I am happy to announce I finished what  I wanted and needed to work on.  First is the kangaroo/wallaby quilt for the third grandchild of Ed and Marge Dieball.  This grandchild was born in Australia, but now the whole family is living in Wisconsin.  Marge requested this quilt, and I was pretty happy to find this fabric.  It’s bright and cheery and just fun.

My sister in Ann Arbor has always been one of my supporters, and she’s been doing some serious doctoring this summer. The bag below is for her surgeon who did her blepharoplasty. I love this fabric so much, and this is the last of it, I think.  And there’s a small Run-Around which I’m delivering to John’s sister Monday morning.  She’s had a bizarre accident and will be in a rehab center for another month.

Here’s a table runner made from scraps of two quilt projects.  I love these fabrics and needed to do something to use up these gorgeous bits of fabric.  And one can never have too many table runners.  Amirite? 

And of course Junes dozen Sew Powerful purses.  These dotted fabrics are just so happy and cheery!

Below is student Agness from Lusaka, Zambia with a purse I made.  This picture?  It puts what I do in the  best perspective.  Time to work on July’s purses!

A Quilt Finds Its Owner

 My summer project of 2025 was hand quilting long strips of fabrics.  I love grunge fabrics so I cut 8.5”  by WOF and batted and backed them.  And then I hand quilted these strips. 

Not a clue of what I would do with them.  But eventually these strips, after a lot of playing around, became this…

I used low volume neutrals for the back of these strips, and this backing?  I love it.  It’s just a favorite look. 

But now what to do with this quilt. It, like several others, adorns the quilt ladders in the living room.  

A bizarre set of coincidences happened last year.  An upstairs neighbor turned out to have a connection with John’s sister.  Chris taught at Hinsdale Central for years, and this neighbor Carol was not only a theatre parent, her son now teaches at a Hinsdale and took over the drama program.  It was fun to make that connection.  But then a second coincidence happened. Carol was widowed at the beginning of the pandemic.  She later dated a lovely guy from Arlington Heights.  And they are still going strong.  Last year Bob’s brother Bruce came into town for a visit.  Bruce?  He was a teaching mate and best bud of John’s at Farragut HS.  When I first got to Farragut in 1974, Bruce was my desk partner.  And he mentored me as I took over the yearbook when Bruce left. So now, 50 years later, we get to see Bruce again. Amazing.

Bruce just visited his brother Bob and stopped at our place briefly.  I offered him a quilt.  He looked at a couple, but his eyes really stopped on this colorful one.  I love it when a quilt finds its owner.  Today I put a label on this quilt and will now mail it to Bruce. Pictures below?  Just more process pics.