Blues, Baskets and BOM's

So much to love these early summer days. It is all about the garden for me right now which I'm enjoying very much.  And my body seems to be adjusting and not complaining as much.

June is an amazing month - one heralded with rejoicing back in my teaching days.  The mood in any school just lifts off at this time of year the kids are so happy- as happy as the teachers might be, no one knows how to show joy like children do.

A couple of nature's blues...
I know it is a poor carpenter that blames her tools, but one of the flaws of my camera is that sometimes it will bring into focus surroundings rather than the focal point which it did with this photo but I wanted you to see the brilliant periwinkle colour these irises are sporting right now. ( Irises are one of three favourite flowers...years back I had cross stitched a very large piece of pinkish/lavender irises on black fabric which took me most of a year to complete; though I've lost it, the memory is with me, sigh.)

I spied a couple of birds I did not recognize right off but a bit of sleuthing and confirmation from Facebook friends came up with its name. This is a great time for bird watching here before they get hidden by full summer foliage.

This is the yellow- rumped warbler...a "new to me" bird.  There are a number of them flitting about high in the tree tops down by the pond; I had to hang out there for about thirty minutes before I was able to get a decent shot and this is with my zoom fully extended and then some cropping. The camera gets heavy at that point and harder to keep totally steady so I am pleased with this particular result. I love how summery looking that blue sky is...so welcome after the cloudy cold spring.

Got my planters put together again. They are a little bit sparse but will thicken up when things begin to grow. My back loved not having to bend over quite so much.
This is last years group...this year ditto.

I have an abiding love of basket motif quilt blocks. Like stars, I seem to love them all.
With that in mind, I began a little summery kind of quilted hanging with little baskets. Started with these 6 and it was so stress free to make these appliqued parts I added 3 more in an 8 inch square each.

 I saw a number of projects on Pinterest with a similar type basket and drew my own little template.  Inspiration from here at Podunk Pretties.

I'm finishing off the nine continuing the freezer paper applique for the basket parts.  I found this very useful tutorial on how to use freezer paper for templates from Linda Franz if you are thinking of using them too. This is a great little project like the lilies for when I grow tired of (thinking about, lol) the machine work on the snowballs.  I will definitely finish this piece this month.

And I have watched all my wonderful videos provided by Sarah Fielke for The Grasshopper BOM as preparation for getting deeper into that project.  It is in month 4 now but I'm not in any rush- as Sarah says it is the journey that counts.
 And this project is designed to be hand stitched so a slow process overall. I want this to be my summer stitching and especially need those snowballs out of the way first. I have hand stitched three blocks and they have worked out exactly to the size Sarah said they would.

What a relief and confidence booster for me as I venture onward with the blocks getting increasingly more difficult.
 Sarah's patterns have been faultless and I'm off to a good start so will  state a monthly goal- that being to complete Blocks 3 and 4 of this project.  I feel lucky to be able to avail of such a wonderful project, btw.
The fabrics and pieces for Block 3 below- blues have such range and I think are so pretty. Wish me luck as I continue the hand stitching with a lot of little blocks in this one.  That is Gutermann 100% silk thread- I am enjoying stitching with it.

I see versions of Sarah's Down the Rabbit Hole, the 2017 BOM, at many of the blogs I visit.  She does make lovely contemporary designs.


So, do you like baskets and blues? And hand stitching? How about blooms or birds? (This post is full of "B" words inadvertently!)
If not any of these, hope your first Sunday in June does have lots of other good things to enjoy.

Also enjoy if you can the linkup parties at Kathy's Quilts, Elm Street Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Cooking Up Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, What a Hoot Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt and Sew Can She.