The workbench organization tweaked...................

 I decided to make a collage of the before and after instead of linking back to the earlier post.  Top photo is from a week ago Tuesday.  I didn't like the Studio dies so close to the window (in case of leaks).  Bottom photo shows we put the stacked units up on their sides Tuesday this week.  We were able to bring the one remaining rack of Studio dies from the bookcase to the workbench.  The last rack on the right doesn't have any dies in the section nearest the window.  The blue plastic unit is still going to be removed and I want to keep that end of the bench empty so I have a place to sort fabric.

Then we proceeded to fabric sorting.  I had 2 big blanket size bins full of brown/rust/beige prints (no batik).  I knew I wanted to pull fabrics for another Snail's Trail quilt so I had 3  groups, ones that I wanted to keep, ones that will be sold, and this group for the quilt.  The keep group fits in one box now.  After I cut off the 11-1/8" strip from each of these fabrics there were be a few remainders that will also fit into that box.  Next we sorted the same size bin of 90s wild prints and the keep pile fits in 2/3 of the box.  I will condense my floral fabrics from 2 of that same size bin down to one full one and the remainder will fit in with the 90s wild prints.  That is 2 big blanket size bins eliminated and the 3 remaining will fit under the pool table/cutting table.  My helper is coming back in 2 weeks and we will continue on the organization.

Meanwhile I'm melting in this heat and didn't get as much done yesterday as I would like.  I've done a lot standing on the cement floor in the basement this week so I may need a day to relax and just sort scraps.  I have a huge pile of Kaffe scraps, mostly strips, so that will be the first I work on.

June 2026 Monthly recap...................

 Three finishes in June, the halfway point of the year.  This makes 14 finishes for the year so far so maybe I can finish just as many in the second half.  On the left is "Glow" made with Marcia Derse fabric and it is 45" x 62.5".  In the center the Single Irish Chain layout worked well with the Terrie Mangat fabrics.  It is 53.5" x 71".  I was happy to get a flannel quilt finished even though it is summertime.  I love the 16 patches.  It is 47" x 71".

The 1990s floral Sawtooth Star blocks waited a year and a half to finally get sewn into a top.  It is 67" x 79".  After 3 quilt tops with these fabrics, I still have 1-1/2 blanket size bins full.  

In the evenings I finished 4 dishcloths.  I think this Sugar 'n Cream yarn is being discontinued because I'm seeing less places carrying it and less variety available.  I think I have enough to last my lifetime so I'm not worried.

Tomorrow I'll show an update to the workbench organization and document how far I have gotten into other areas of the basement.  Since I don't have central air conditioning and my studio is at the farthest point from the window A/C units (and has west exposure with 2 windows!), I didn't do any evening sewing last night.  I'm planning on having a cutting marathon for a few days but maybe I'll find something to sew earlier in the day.  After this week of 90s and high humidity, next week looks like it will be in the low to mid 80s and things can get back to normal.  I watered my tomatoes and cucumbers late afternoon yesterday and then put a top dressing of fresh compost delivered by a friend on Sunday.

Third finish for June 2026....................

I think this is one of my favorite flannel quilts.  It wasn't planned, it just used blocks I had made previously and rectangles that were resting in a project box.  I don't think I'll ever get tired of making 16 patch blocks.

I bought the leaf print flannel on sale recently and added a piece left over from another back to make it wide enough.  This quilt is 47' x 71".  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and it was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

Yesterday I spent several hours in the basement and one of the things accomplished was cutting the backing and batting for the floral stars quilt.  

I found the lid to one of my large plastic bins.  I mentioned a while back that one of my goals is finding all of the lids and matching boxes and reuniting them.  A lot of times I used a lid as a tray to carry cut pieces and then I never returned it to its box.  I'm making headway but I still have lids to a lot of the small boxes to match up.

Trimming, cutting binding..................

I got this flannel quilt trimmed yesterday and then looked for a binding fabric.

I started looking in a box of flannel fabrics where I knew there were bright ones but didn't think I would find anything to use on this quilt.  Surprise!  This brown one was in there and it looks great with the quilt.  I got the strips cut and started sewing on it last night.

The Geranium is in full bloom with even more buds to bloom later.  The new self watering pots are working out great.

I spent over an hour yesterday trying to get a better photo of the floral star quilt, trying to catch the intensity of the floral fabrics.  Also I was trying to get one that wasn't so crooked.  About 20 tries later I finally got one that satisfied me and I replaced the bad photo in this post. 

In the garden..........................

The double Impatiens are like little roses.  I can't decide if this is a very dark rose or if it is red.  I guess it doesn't make any difference, it's pretty either way.

One hanging pot has this pale pink and the other has white.  The whites are currently not blooming so they aren't getting documented on my blog.

The Tiger Lily closest to the house has some large buds now.  It will still be a couple weeks I think, before I have any blooms.  Of course with the heat we are expecting this week, they may surprise me.

The larger group of the Tiger Lily plants are in the shade for a good part of the day so their buds are smaller.

There are 3 groups of tomatoes on this 4th of July variety plant.  The largest one is about golf ball size.  I'm not sure they will be ripening by the 4th this year.  I have 3 of these planted.

The Rutgers tomatoes are a little larger variety but still in the medium size category.  I'm surprised how many there are on the 2 plants.  They are usually a little later than the Early Girl and the 4th of July variety.  I have staked all of the plants and keep adding the little Velcro holders to keep the plant nice and straight.  All of the plants are taller than the round cages already so they will start flopping over the top rim.  I have two in front of the Forsythia bush so they can climb up on it.

The cucumbers I started from seed are producing some of the larger leaves now so I need to get the cages in the pot.  I have pulled out the 2 smallest plants and will leave these 4 growing.

 

I found one...................

It's interesting how many fabrics I looked past without seeing them when I made the first search for the backing for the floral stars quilt.  I think this one will be perfect.  It is from the same time period as the floral fabrics and I have 9 yards of it.

That was actually the second fabric I pulled out of the large bin and I first thought this might be a candidate.  It is a taupe type beige and is a Jinny Beyer fabric.  After I found the other one though, I realized this would make a great backing for the William Morris Trip Around the World quilt.  I have 5 yards which is plenty.

When I was outside in the garden 2 days ago I thought one of the hanging baskets only had white double impatiens but now I see they both have both colors.  This shot was taken from my dining room window which is the only clear view from the house.

I got my housework done yesterday so today I should be able to play with fabric.

 

First quilt top for June 2026................

This was my original plan, adding pieces of a variety of light color florals to the edges of the blocks.  This way a border was assembled while I webbed the quilt; no long strips to add to the center section.  But then I kept thinking I wanted it larger and that is where I got hung up for a year and a half.  I finally decided I would settle for a smaller quilt, 67" x 79".

After I took its photo, I decided to look in my backing fabric bins and see if I had enough yardage of anything I liked.  After seeing the photos together here, I don't think this one has the right flavor.  I have 5 yards of this one.  I think I need to make a green quilt specifically to go with this backing.

This was the second one I pulled out.  The blue in the leaves isn't quite as predominant in person.  I have 8 yards of this one.

Both of these fabrics are from many years ago.  I don't have enough of any of the 1990s florals for a backing.  I do have one 3 yard piece that I would need to add to so I'll keep looking to see what else I can find.

Started sewing stars......................

After thinking too hard about this quilt, I am sewing it together with my original plan.  I'll explain that when I get it all sewn and pressed, hopefully today.  I made the blocks in December 2024.  I have the rows all webbed, just need to sew in the other direction now.

Two of the tomatoes have ripened on the half price plant that had 10 tomatoes on it.  All of my other plants have lots of little tomatoes on them but nothing near ripening.  Next week is supposed to be in the high 80s and 90s with high humidity so I'm hoping for a lot of growth then.  They don't like that high of heat so much but they love the humidity.

Most of the storms missed us yesterday but there was a brilliant sky after they all passed the area.

The Hydrangeas in the backyard are starting to turn lime green.  I haven't checked the ones in the front of the house.

The flowers are starting to bloom again in the 2 hanging baskets.  They are double Impatiens, red in one basket and white in the other.

I'm still loving the purple and yellow together in the back garden.  I let about half of the Creeping Bellflowers plants bloom and the other half I have already pulled out.

One more patch of the Bellflowers in front of the Hostas.

 

Organizing success...............

This is the last part of the workbench to be cleaned and organized.  The 6 section cubby was shown before.  The blue plastic drawer unit has clothing patterns and misc. in it and it may be removed in the future.  I have some foam core board to prop in front of it to cover the window at night.

This is the whole 15' 9" of the work bench top.  At the left I still have a few notebooks piled there and they will be moved.  My friend came over yesterday to do the heavy lifting for me.  She lifted the box unit up there to put my long cutting dies in and we left a space between it and the next stack of storage units to put the rest of the tall dies.  They have to be stored up on end, not stacked.  We ended up moving the heavier weight fabrics from the bottom shelf of that stack over to the 6 cube cubby.  I'll decide what goes in that empty shelf later.  As we work to the right, more of my dies are stored there.  At the far right are the smallest of the Studio dies on their little rack.

As we turn the corner to the right, I had a lot of my dies on this bookcase and I wanted it converted back to fabric storage.  There is just one rack of dies left there that may remain.  To the right of this is the door to the fruit cellar, where the previous owner probably had all of her canned goods.

We also cleaned out the area under my longarm and have the storage area under there arranged much better.

Later in the afternoon I needed to check on the garden.  I planted a few Marigold seeds in each of the tomato pots.  This one has the most.  Some only have 2 or 3 plants.  I read that it is a good companion plant for tomatoes.

Those 2 tiny cucumber plants I bought May 1 have really grown.  I see I didn't get the top of the plant in the photo.  There are little curly feelers that are growing out of the largest plant and it is climbing up the cage.  The smaller plant doesn't seem to have any and I'm going to have to figure out a way to get it attached to an upright of the cage.  There are lots of male blooms and very few female blooms so I haven't seen any cucumbers yet.

The cucumber seeds I planted in 2 more pots are doing well.  I need to get some cages in these pots soon.

I have the first bloom on one of the Smooth Oxeye (or False Sunflower) plants.  There are lots of buds so there should be more yellow in the backyard soon.

Thinking ahead.........................

As I was working on cleaning off the last section of the basement workbench, I was thinking ahead to what quilts I want to make in the future.  One of my favorite blocks to make is the Bear Paw.  I looked back through my photos and these are the only ones I could find that I had made.  I thought there were more.  The 2 with Kaffe blocks on the left are just 2 layouts with the same blocks in 3 sizes.  I sewed the bottom one in 2013 and sold that quilt top. I had several of the largest size (14") blocks and a few of the smallest (7") leftover and used them in at least 2 more quilts, one as the center of a medallion, and 3 large and 3 small in an orphan block quilt.  The 2 quilts on the right were donated for raffles.  I could make another batik one easily because I have so many batik scraps.  Maybe I should made a one color quilt next time.  There are so many possibilities and I'll keep thinking about it as I work on the workbench reorganization.

Outside I cut off bottom leaves from several tomato plants.  I planted a few marigold seeds in each of the pots and they are starting to grow.  We had 2.25" of rain on Sunday.  They are predicting more rain Wednesday but we don't need any more this soon. 

2nd finish for June 2026...................

A Single Irish Chain layout seemed perfect for these quirky prints designed by Terrie Mangat.  I pieced the top in August 2024.  Robin, my longarm friend, quilted it for me.

The back and binding are also her fabrics. I was glad I had enough of the stripe for the binding since it goes well with both sides of the quilt.  It is 53.5" x 71".

I have the backing fabric in 2 colors but thought this one went best with the top.

You can click on the photo to enlarge it.  Check out the lavender background with the long skinny shapes.

We had light rain all day yesterday and I'm estimating at least 2".  I'll check the rain gauges this morning.

 

Binding................

I was going to start sewing the floral star blocks together into a top, but then I decided to do the binding on this quilt first.

I finished the binding at 10 p.m. so I'll take its photo today and have it on my blog tomorrow.  These Terrie Mangat fabrics are so bright and fun.

I needed a photo I could refer back to of the 4.5" and 9" finished fussy cut florals.  Now they can come off the design wall.  I'll continue cutting a little each week until I have enough to start designing.

I moved one pot down to the porch because the table was pretty crowded.  I have that vining plant in all of the pots except the one on the porch and the Geranium pot.  That plant needs to be up high to hang over the edge.

I noticed buds on the yellow Coneflower a few days ago so I checked it out yesterday.  There are weeds to be pulled there too, maybe today.

 

The last section....................

I went down to the basement and looked at the last section of the workbench but just couldn't talk myself into working on it.  The weather was perfect to be outside so I pulled weeds and cut volunteer trees from the front flower bed.  I watered the porch pots and all 22 of my Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus, filled the bird feeders and planted some Jack Be Little pumpkin seeds in a pot near my neighbor's fence behind my bird feeders.  They are miniatures and the package says 3" across and 2" high.  I thought about planting regular size pumpkins but I really don't have enough room for them to spread all across the back of the lot.

 

While I was doing all of that I was thinking about the projects that are stalled and hope I have come to a good solution for at least one of them.  

I have 30 of these star blocks and got stalled on whether I want to sew them together edge to edge, or border them with dark floral fabrics, and maybe put sashing between them after that narrow border.  Here is the post where I was playing with layouts, 2 1/2 years ago.......  I need to stop dithering and finish it.