Tales from a HOT summer...

With days and days of 90 plus heat...so unusual for upstate New York, we finally got a break, with a quick and heavy rainstorm late yesterday afternoon. The temperature dropped 25 degrees in minutes, and best of all, there was thereafter an occasional cooler breeze. We actually sat out on the porch for a bit and enjoyed the evening.

Even better, the heat break allowed me to spend some time in my sewing studio...aka the OVEN...with a window fan. And finally I finished my table topper I am making for a wedding shower gift. The wedding shower is long over...but the wedding preceded the shower, so flexibility is OK! I settled on an outside border, using some blocks that were serendipitously included by an online quilt friend as we exchanged some fat eights of black and whites both of us were collecting...thanks, Lori! She had left over black white and red blocks that coordinated perfectly with my topper...I just had to decide how to sew them together, as the flying geese gave me several choices...I still have quilt a few left over, plus some black and white half square triangle blocks.  I am please with the result. I may, if I can find it, finish it with large black rick rack at the edge...otherwise will bind with Wow. Backing is a question...will find some spectacular large print, I think, to give an alternative side.

Now that it is a bit cooler, and I have several more projects done...four for the quilter...I am anxious to dive back in, but it is not to be. I have a family reunion up on Lake Ontario this afternoon, and am planning to do a cemetery tour with my sisters and parents, to learn where our relatives are all buried. I have no idea, except that they are scattered across two counties. I have the beginnings of a real nice genealogy a friend did for us out of the blue, using material we had given him from various sources, and many resources he had that we did not...so I need to fill in the blanks. And my parents are at or near 80...so soon will not be able to take me around. I have my digital camera and notebook ready!

Then...next weekend I leave for a conference for work in Saratoga Springs for most of a week...followed by a week of work, and two of vacation: one camping at Darien Lake while attending Kingdom Bound, for the twentieth year or so...then a week in Columbus Ohio at the Hoots conference...taking painting lessons with three friends. What I want to do, nevertheless, is continue working on my rediscovered punch-needle project, and to begin the Sashiko pillow tops I bought materials for at the AQC show in Lancaster, Pa. The punch-needle project is my first, but I started it (and lost it) several years ago. Amazing what you find when you reorganize your sewing studio!

Days a wasting...I am ready to start my morning!

It's STILL HOT!

Hasn't it been amazingly hot? With just the right amount of rain...easy to say as we just had a great thunderstorm. the garden looks wonderful...stocky healthy tomatoes, with no sign of last years Late Blight...eating squash, peas, lettuce and chard, beet greens (not me!), broccoli, even a few cherry tomatoes, unheard of this early. Soon will have pole beans and cukes, and time to pull the garlic.

Not too much going on in the sewing studio...it is an oven there, even with a fan on. And summer is just so busy! However, I did finish the table topper, added two borders, and I really like it. Not sure how I will finish it...either white binding, or finish with large black rick rack. Have a great large print for the reverse side. Waiting to hear back from the long arm quilter...if not soon, I will break down and quilt it myself. The trouble is the other three ready for quilting: two wall hangings, and one throw. And time.

Take a look...and vote...binding or rickrack?