An Endless Summer Quilt : :

Today is the first day of the kids Summer vacation, which makes the finishing time of this new quilt pretty perfect! I'm calling it my Endless Summer Quilt and I hope to take it along on all the adventuring we have planned in the weeks ahead!



It's a quilt as you go made using my qayg tutorial for my Herringbone quilt with the little twist of adding each strip straight across rather than on the diagonal. I simply work my way down the panels of cut batting, sewing down one piece of pretty fabric after the other until done!



I used Leah's gorgeous Meadow collection in her Picnic In the Hills colorway and lots of Art Gallery fabrics for this one. Such a pretty & happy assortment of bright orange, coral, peach, yellow, green, blue & Teal!



Yesterday we brought it with us for a quick photo shoot just out of town at my parents house. Now I can't believe this is the first quilt we've photographed in the field behind their house, such a gorgeous spot!



It was sprinkled with bright orange hawkweed, blackberry flowers, and little yellow buttercups that looked like dwarf cinquefoil. What a beautiful backdrop this new quilt made for my tiny cluster of wildflowers!



After our walk and lots of pictures taken in the field, we continued to the treeline. It's been several years since I've been to these woods, what an amazing surprise to discover this tree standing before us. Begging to hold my quilt. It was such a beautiful moment!







From the Meadow prints I used to make this quilt I chose the brightly colored, simple, and lovely print - Gentle Breeze in Red for my quilt binding!



My personal Meadow favorite Summer Grove by Night had to be the back, framed by a narrow strip of AGF's Pure Elements in Coral Reef and Peach Sherbet!



Finishing and sharing this quilt feels so good today, on the first day of our Summer break! I'm hoping it's the first of many. Let the Summer of Quilts begin, I'm ready!



♥  Maureen

A Question : :

We had such a beautiful & very full long weekend. I hope you did too! The sun was pretty intense in all of the photos I snapped yesterday of my mostly finished Endless Summer QAYG quilt. This one is still waiting on binding, which is happening immediately, followed by a proper photo shoot as soon as it's possible! Even unfinished I couldn't resist bringing it along to the lake with us to take a few shots. This little waterfall & stone spot is a favorite of mine, I love the way this quilt mirrors the stacked pattern of the rock wall!



This morning it's a challenge to return to this sewing/quilting blog of mine since I haven't had a minute to sew in several days! I often think to myself how much easier it could be to maintain my blog with new, daily blog posts if I were brave enough to branch out from my usual fabric & quilt-y report to share more of the things we make and do together as a family, and even more if I shared all my recipes! I love to cook, I'm gluten free, and at times have been very low carb and no sugar, as well, although that's a tough one for me to stick with! Still, I can't help but wonder if sharing here, even just once a week, might help me stay the course and even better, might interest or help some of you, too? It's become such a habit for me to only photograph what's happenings in my sewing room each day to share here, as a result I pass over sharing more personal photography, all the simple joys, and so many of my favorite things!

I’d love to read your thoughts today, as I work on something quilt-y to share tomorrow! What do you love most about blog reading? 

Within Sight : :

These sewing days are busy, overloaded with a medley of etsy orders, quilt projects, computer work, and abounding new ideas & plans. When it comes to my etsy orders I try not to over-share here. I assure you, each sewing day there's at least one, but most likely several, crowns & pillows being made, packaged, shipped. This is the work that sustains my business and I'm so grateful! The reward is this blog and the time I have to make with fabric, supported by my wonderful sponsors! It's a dream and having their and your support encourages my work in a way I could never return!

Today, after I finish up a few more orders, I have big binding plans for my newest quilt as you go finish, my Endless Summer quilt made of Leah's gorgeous Meadow collection and lots of Art Gallery fabrics!



But for me, beginning is just as exciting as finishing! And there's lots of that these sewing days, as well! Last week I shared that Pat Bravo recently sent me some advanced yardage of her newest collection due out soon, NouvElle. The plan for these beauties came to me immediately and I couldn't wait to begin! I shared a couple of peeks on my Instragram over the weekend, in case you didn't see..





I'm calling this my Friendship Diamond quilt and I can't wait to work my way back to it today!



I'll have more to share soon!  ♥  Maureen

Quilting As I Go : :

This weekend I almost finished my newest quilt as you go project, a quilt made using Leah Duncan's gorgeous Meadow collection and lots of Art Gallery Fabrics! I say almost, because even after Instagramming my freshly complete quilt top pic Sunday morning, I counted up just enough cuts to make one more qayg panel. I can't have these pretty strips going into the scrap drawer when they can make this quilt just a little bit bigger!



You can read more about how I'm making these stacked strip qayg panels right here!



Late last week the fabrics I requested for my backing and binding arrived from Art Gallery Fabrics, along with a surprise bundle of Pat Bravo's lovely, new collection NouvElle, I'll be sure to share more on those tomorrow! For my binding I chose the beautiful, red-orange Gentle Breeze print, to make all of the tangerine, peach, and salmon colors in my quilt really pop!



For the back I had to go with my stand-out favorite print in the Meadow collection, Summer Grove by Night from the Picnic in the Hills colorway. I LOVE this print! This fresh Kelly green color is my favorite!



I can't wait to finish!!  

How about you, what are you working on this week?

Progress Report : :

Yesterday I finally managed to start this new quilt. It was seeming as though beginning this one just wasn't meant to happen there for a little bit, sheesh! Happy that's behind me. Beginning is so, so good!



And, I'm extra happy to report that I accomplished quite a bit!







I share often that both my quilt as you go tutorial and my newest qayg tutorial for my Herringbone quilt pattern are both extremely quick makes. Well this version of adding each strip straight across rather than on the diagonal, working my way down the panels of cut batting, one piece after the other definitely exceeds those speedy methods!



It's exactly the perfectyly laid-back, enjoyable quilt project I'm so needing right now!



♥  Maureen

Change of Plans : :

I used my quilting ruler to cut one triangle from each Meadow print, setting them aside, waiting for my chance to begin my new quilt. I wanted to sew just one row together before committing fully to my design plan. Then yesterday, as I finished up a few etsy orders while enjoying my daffodils, I changed my mind!





The warm, sunny yellow and bright orange flowers were too convincing, and so out went any Meadow blues darker than a clear Summer sky and in came cantaloupes & peachy creams, mint & pale aqua, more sunshine yellow & tangerine, grassy greens, and bright teals.



This bundle feels so much like Summer to me. Those shiny, carefree days I'm so ready for! An easy quilt as you go of bright stripes in varying widths of these pretty fabrics. Simple and fun!



My plan, to take my Herringbone quilt tutorial and rather than add each fabric on the diagonal, I'll be adding each strip straight, one after the other just like a patchwork stacked coin quilt. I printed out AGF's Rustic Autumn quilt pattern quite sometime ago, loving both the diagonal direction and the orange! I plan to keep it close by for a little extra inspiration!



And how about you, what are you working on these days?

♥  Maureen