My Quilty World: June 2021 Monthly Update

Welcome to June and your new "I AM." May was challenging for me and as a result, June is meeting me head on and a certain streak within me is rising. Tenacious is a nicer word for it. Can you overcome something this month? I AM going to face this month with a tenacious frame of mind. Come along.

If you are new to the blog, you may be asking, "just what is a monthly update?" I decided long ago that I just can't keep up with blogging daily. I just can't. Sooooo, what happens is I document a day in my life within one post and if something special happens, a separate post takes place. See, you can stay caught up with a once a month check and then, if you're interested, see the other posts too. It's a great system for me.

In years past, I have set goals for each month and I will continue to do that simply to keep myself on track. I AM still in an ongoing UFO mode around here and trying oh so hard to use or clean out the stash. It will be an continuing project this year. If I want something to come in -- something has to go out. That is one goal. The balances change each month (hopefully) and will always show up at the bottom of the update if you read that far - and they are joined by links to the previous monthly updates for the year.

Now, grab a cuppa and sit back for a fun read and perhaps a new idea or two. (P.S. I format on a computer, so if you are reading on a phone, well sometimes the pictures will be before or after the story. It is what it is.)

So --- here's June and all the wonderful fun it provided. Please remember that any links in here will open in a separate window so that you can keep your place on this page at the same time and there are no ads or popups EVER.

1st - Can you believe we are at the beginning of the last month in the first half of the year? Figure that one out y'all. I have hope that this month will provide love, laughter, and all the joy I can muster. I simply need to get it going. Come on this journey with me, if you wish.

I have pulled out the Round Robin that Terry sent me. TERRY - if you are reading this --- STOP or your surprise will be ruined. I mean it. Depart now.

Okay, everyone else. Here is her center:

I want to work with the purple in her corner and try to bring out the green in the center as well so pull these fabrics to do the job.

Now to draw the design and cut --- about this time, I discover that the purple doesn't really work well and it's back to the studio for me. The next one might have just enough to do what I want.

Rulers and rotary cutter are ready. Let's cut. Yep, love those specialty rulers. I had enough of the fabric to pull it off.

I'm thinking of starting a quilt for my granddaughter and have a fabric line with her name all over it.

Maybe something like this? I don't know. Argh.

Oh yeah --- it's June 1st -- these Farm Girl blocks went live today in the quilt-a-long.

2nd - Now, I REALLY need to get my act going on the Orca Bay quilt-a-long. Today, I'm building a new set of units. First, the triangles.

Now to add another triangle to create the final unit using some of the units above. Many will be left still.

3rd - Strings!!! I am playing in the gold strings first today. It goes well and I have some really pretty stacks of units sitting together at the end of the task. I'm going to truly love this quilt. 4th - More strings. Why not? As long as the machine is set up and raring to go, who wants to change all the settings and move onto something else. The color for today is green!!!

5th - Saturday is "us time" and we have crappy weather again . That meant that we just stayed home and hung out together then went for an early dinner at the Dog Haus. Outside for a small break in the rain and even a performer to top it all off. As for the dogs? Not a fan. Once home -- we finished Amazing Race as far as we could go for free. Now to decide if I want to buy the last few seasons. However, that is for another day.

6th - Binge watched all but three episodes of The Toughest Race together. Well, I also cleaned my desk and paid bills, etc. Just another Sunday in our household. Oh, Mister made kimchi.

Meanwhile, I found the dining room table AND

Baked bread. So, I guess the day wasn't a total waste.

Dinner -

7th - I'm back to Orca Bay. So much to do still. Today those leftover triangles are meeting some green strings.

And creating this unit ---- so cool. However, over half of these are not matching up. Out comes the seam ripper.

For our evening entertainment --- we finished The Toughest Race while tearing apart the units I sewed today. Exciting stuff around here.

8th - Some long overdue blogging takes place and then I have to re-sew the units I had ripped out.

Working on the Round Robin as leader/enders, I get some of the units back together again.

Started cutting Farm Girl blocks for July and August before deciding on a trip out for burgers. Yes, this hits the spot. 9th - First thing, I tackle finishing the Farm Girl cutting and kitten them up. Nice. I am ready to go.

I've also finished the rest of the repair units. Woot woot.

AND - have the Round Robin ready to mail. I LOVE how it turned out. Hopefully, she will too.

We have an Arboretum Event in the evening and here is your LINK for that but just before we leave, another item is sold and out of the house. YES!!!

10th - It's time to build some Orca Bay blocks and I am FOCUSED!! I laid these all out while driving to Abilene at the end of May. How sad is that? They have just been waiting to be sewn.

TA-DA

11th - Starting on the Farm Girl blocks today. I need something to keep me happy as I had to cancel our Girls Cruise this summer. The whole unknown situation is just too challenging for this year and my fingers are crossed we can rebook in the future.

12th - I'm starting out the day with a Red Hat Event Here is the LINK to share in my fun if you so desire.

After the event, Mister and I wandered up to McKinney for the rest of the day and I even have a McKinney LINK so that you can peek in on all that happens there too. So much fun checking out breweries and an old cotton mill. Who knew? Treasure abound and sometimes we just gotta go looking for them.

13th - Not a super active day. I did bake cookies (oatmeal raisin) and a coffee cake. No, we don't need these, but . . . .every now and then I just gotta.

14th - My sciatica is once again making it's presence known. I'm staying put and trying to nip it in the bud.

15th - Spent as much time working on the FG blocks as my nerve would let me. No pics.

16th - Yay! The FG blocks are finished. Woohoo. Here are July's.

And August's -

17th - A lost day. It happens.

18th - I'm starting out the day with the vampires taking my blood, but then following it up with a sewing machine pick up. Woohoo. My longarm is back in the house.

While I was in the design district, I picked up a couple pieces of fabric and asked for 2 yard of each. These are GENEROUS yards as the fabric is folded in half.

Now to sew. Hopefully I can get the Orca Bay borders/binding completed today.

It does happen and I'm thrilled. Binding and inner border.

Pieced outer borders.

Off to OHB for some fried food and great beer.

Along with decent music. It's a nice night.

19th - I've determined that it's time to empty out the toy closet. We are going to a family reunion in a week and I can send a whole tote with Jen for Cassie's family and then mail a whole other set to Rhiana. They are not being used here and it will free up some space for us.

Additionally, there are a LOT of LEGO's and so I'm starting to work on those. Four were tackled today.

20th - On a day when I'm struggling, Val to the rescue. These arrived in the mail today as she kept me with her on her trip to Tennessee. My heart is so full.

I have finished going through all of the Harry Potter LEGO's and all missing parts are ordered. These are retired and rare sets and I will be selling them later this summer.

21st- Cleaning house, grocery run, work on toy closet and toted up for Jen to take and to mail, on phone with Carnival and bank for the refund mess. All this leads up to Jen and Jared here for the evening. Jared has a camp in Denton so they will be staying a few evenings with us this week. Jen and I also went out back and went through the old family reunion totes to see if there was stuff she could use for games next week. Success AND I found stuff I can take to retreat for use as well.

22nd - Blogging, blogging, blogging. And then - we finally bought our flights to MT for next month and are still enjoying Jen and Jared for evening. Dinner out at Jakes. That's twice in one month for us.

23rd - More blogging in morning and Jen and Jared in evening. I made spaghetti and we topped the evening off with ice cream.

24th - Dermatologist appointment this morning. Now I have a large frozen section on my chest - yay, as we have a trip and pictures this week. So fun. The rest of the day I am practicing my couch potato act.

25th - Today it is off to the doctor day. So fun. I am finally going to be on a prescription for the remainder of my life and super sad about it. This getting old stuff sucks. I have loved being able to say that I don't take any medications for the last 12 years. That ends when I get back from Utah. Oh well. The rest of the day is spent prepping for our trip to Utah, with laundry and blogging thrown in for fun..

26th - We are off to St George bright and early. We have a stop in Phoenix and then forward we go.

Here is our Before the Gathering LINK so that you can join in on our fun. First up is lunch with Jen's family and then we are off to see a quilt shop (along with other stuff). Here is the Quilt Shop LINK for Scrap Apple Quilts. I spot a pillow there that I love and make all sorts of attempts to locate the pattern. All to no avail. Some fun fat quarters do make it out the door with me. Yes, I bought them.

Meeting up with the family takes place and here is the Day 1 LINK. Come along to share in my wonderful family.

27th - We are in St George with the family and here is the Day 2 LINK for all of our many wonderful moments. One of the highlights of the day is cliff-jumping and I was the photographer. It was great fun to watch as each person tackled their own fears and worked higher and higher up the cliff. I had so planned on jumping as well, but due to the dermatologist and a fall I took yesterday morning, it is just not in the cards for me. My son didn't let it stop him though.

Nor did my sweet Mister.

28th - It's our last day with the family in St George so I'm holding on tight to everyone. Here is the Day 3 LINK to continue sharing with us. What fun we have had.

The end of our time was spent taking pictures to savor at home. Here is my gang.

Once the pictures were taken, our departure happened and here is the After The Gathering LINK for our remainder of time in St. George.

29th - Today we fly home but have a bit of time to kill. Feel Love Coffee starts the day.

and then a stop at a second quilt shop. Here is the Quilted Works link and I think it is a wonderful store. Honest.

This piece made the trip home with us and a final stop for dinner finished out the day.

30th - Mister off work today and we pretty much had a down day . Time to recover from travel. Why is that so tiring? All the LEGO parts have arrived and I worked on making sure sets are ready for sale. That means putting them back together again for pictures.

That pretty much ends the month for me and as we begin the second half of this year, what is your I AM? If you have to stick little notes around to help - do it! I completely understand. This past year has been challenging in ways we never imagined and has tested everyone. Find your I AM and move forward. It takes effort but will be worth it.

Thank you for reading this far. If you made it here, kudos to you. Hope you have a great month and find a way to bring joy into your life. Stay creative y'all.

UFO's to quilt:

BOM #1 - quilted and bound -
BOM #2 - quilted and bound
BOM #3 - quilted and bound
Winter Wonderland - quilted and bound

Witch's Night Out - quilted and bound

Quarantine Challenge - quilted and bound

Current Projects:

Farm Girl Blocks completed - July and August are done

Dawn's Early Light quilted and bound -

Grassy Creek 8 -

July Skinnie -

UFO Items to work on:

All Neutral strings -
1 Row by Row block -
BAD blocks as leader/enders -
Stash Buster project -

Whims 2nd quilt -

The next four are to be worked on with rotating Wednesdays until finished -

Scrap Crystals -