Leaves

 Can you see the kitty in the garden hiding under the leaves of my overgrown broccoli plants? This is where she chose to hide out from our triple-digit heat days, especially the one where it got to 106 degrees. She got mad every time the sprinklers came on.

We tried to explain that the water in the ground was what helped her stay cool. She was not buying it.

 Finally finished with the redo of the hall bath -- such as it is. I designed a valance to coordinate with the leaf design in the shower curtain.

 The back, showing how I stitched in the vein design for the leaves.

 Ta-dah!

 I am glad I swapped out the old aqua blinds for these white blinds.

 Not my favorite color palate, but fun. I like how these colors brighten up all that white.

 I unloaded the contents of the old sink cabinet into this office box when we started the project. Since I have not yet purchased a new cabinet for the side of the new pedestal sink, I put the box in the corner. At least it is color-coordinated. Precious thought we did it just for her. This is where she hid out during our two triple-digit heat spells, although she moved to the bathtub two days ago.

My sister gets the credit for this idea. She suggested converting our "You might be a redneck if..." photo to black and white to hang in the bathroom. I gave this to Buck for his birthday. He loved it. If anything in the bathroom draws a comment, it is this picture!

Sea the Scrappy Quilt

Finshed size was 48" x 43".

I finally finished my scrappy quilt with the remaining nautical and pirate theme fabrics from previous projects. I have several projects in the works, but kept getting motivated to finish this in order to get one UFO (unfinished fabric object) completed and the project box freed up. Plus, this fabric is FINALLY gone except for a few pieces I stuck in a baggie and will keep for awhile in case I need some of it for an applique embellishment (kind of wish now I had embellished that red box in the lower right-hand corner before I stitched the layers together. Oh, well.)

I also used up several miscellaneous leftover strips from other projects. I probably would not have chosen some of them if I had to go to the fabric store and pick out coordinating fabrics. But, as I pulled them from my strip collection, they worked.

A few people I showed the quilt to were more impressed with the backing. That is the only piece of fabric I bought especially for this project. I also like this particular design. The rest was stash reduction.

I decided after my quilt I made for the California Rural Letter Carriers' Association PAC that I would use a letter with an applique stamp motif for my name label. I need to get black fabric paint. I do not like the way the fine-tip Sharpie bleeds.

Friend Celeste and I took turns stitching the center section in a freehand meandering pattern. I started a loop-to-loop design on the top outside sash, but did not like how the sides were turning out. I picked out the stitches on the sides and pinned my take-up lead on each side of the sashing, one side at a time, to do the loop-to-loop design. I still am not real thrilled with it.