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lavender

We took a little trip to the mountains and came home to lavender ready to be cut.  Last night I sat for a few minutes and watched a dozen or more honeybees working their way through the flowers and felt so very grateful for this simple thing.

What a lucky girl I am.

This summer seems to be marching along with a beat I’m unprepared for, and perhaps I feel that way because I’m marching my way to my 40th birthday next month.  As in, the “next month” that begins in five days.  And the marching is not the feeling of a parade, but rather something much less fun.  To say I’m dreading it is an understatement.

Ten days ago I looked at my calendar and realized I had just 30 days left in my 30’s, so I made a quick list of 30 things to do before the dreaded day.  I’m running a little behind my schedule of one/day, but I’m working on it and am excited to share a few of them here.  Most of them consist of things I’ve been meaning to do but haven’t or things I enjoy but rarely do.

Meanwhile, it’s good to be home.  Home where the lavender and the honeysuckle grow alongside the garden now full of weeds.  Home where there’s work to be done and dreams to be dreamt.   And a lawn to lay on at night while I watch the stars.  I’ve done some of that this week, cause it’s on my list.

Home.

Father’s Day Superhero Gift


superhero

I was on the hunt for a simple, creative and fun idea for Father’s Day this year, and I found just the thing.   I used these printables from AlphaMom to put together a superhero box for the superhero of a Dad that lives at our house.

superhero2

It was a lot of fun picking items to go with each label.  I ended up making a few of these gifts for different people and it was fun to customize it for each person.  I couldn’t find a wood box that worked, so had to settle for a plastic box instead.  I lined it with white tissue paper so you couldn’t see what was inside it, and it worked out just fine.

This is what it looked like when it was “delivered” to our superhero:

superhero3

How was it received?

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The kids loved watching their Dad open the gift, and gratefully he was funny as could be as he went through each item.  What made the whole thing really amusing was that I thought he knew all along that we had put it together, but it wasn’t until he got to the very last item in the box, a cold can of Hero Juice (Dad’s root beer) that he realized I didn’t just order the box from somewhere.  What tipped him off?  The can was cold.  We all laughed and the group hug he finished with brought a smile to my heart.

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One thing I like about these printables is that they don’t actually say anything about Father’s Day on them, so you could use them for a birthday or anytime you need a little thank you gift or pick-me-up for the superhero at your house.  It wasn’t a fancy gift, but it did put a smile on our faces, and the snacks were much enjoyed by my husband.  It was a great gift!

Jennifer

Summer Weave quilt


summerweavequilt

A couple of months ago, while searching for a particular fabric print online, I stumbled upon images of a collection called Lilified by Kanvas Studios for Benartex.  I’d never seen it before but liked the crisp colors.  It was so summery and I was tempted by several prints but didn’t purchase any at the time.  About a week later I went to a sample sale where I stumbled upon samples of every print in the collection which I quickly purchased for just a few dollars.

The collection comes in two colorways, a green/blue combination:

lilifiedblue

and a pink/orange colorway:

lilifiedpink

The line includes a few patterns that I think are great stash prints.  The first are these awesome lattice-type prints which I particularly like in orange, pink and green/white:

lilifiedfavs

These two were also favorites.  The prints on the right would make awesome quilt backs, and the prints on the left belong in a low-volume quilt:

lilifiedfavs2

The samples came in all different sizes, the smallest being 8.5 x 5 inches.  My favorite print came in this small size and I forgot to take a picture of it before I began cutting and sewing.  It’s a little baptist fan type design in pink/white and blue/white.

I’m so pleased with myself for making something right away with these fabrics instead of letting them wait in line behind other projects.  It’s fun to get something new and start sewing with it immediately!  I knew I wanted to spotlight the larger scale fabrics, especially those with the medallions, but had mostly small pieces to work with.  There was not enough fabric for fussy-cutting to center the patterns but I’m happy with how it turned out.  I wanted something light, bright and summery for my little girls to play on in the yard this summer.

summerweave2


summerweaveback

There was enough fabric left to piece some strips for the back. I paired it with some Joel Dewberry yardage I had on hand.  I’m really working on making do with what I have and it feels good to use something up!  I kept the quilting simple, using straight lines that echo the design of the quilt.

summerweavebinding

The Michael Miller clown stripe in black was the perfect binding for this quilt.  It makes me smile.  This is the second quilt I’ve bound in a black and white print this year and I’m fast becoming a fan.  Once again, a machine stitched binding.

summerweave

The “Summer Weave” quilt measures approximately 64 inches square.  The design was my own making and I’m sure I’ll use it again, as it would be easy to adjust the size of the quilt by adding strips to the “weave.”   I had some extra help in the form of young children when I was basting, and there are some spots that didn’t get pulled as tightly as I would like.  I’m not worried about it, though, because it will just crinkle up when I wash it and we’ll love it even more.

summerweavequilt

Have a great day!
Jennifer

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