Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

On this day especially, remember to keep your pets safe indoors!!!

There is nothing but rain and more rain in the forecast for today in metro Atlanta.  No fireworks or grilling out for us.

Too. Cute. For. Words.

Remy with his favorite fish toy

Sunnyside for an Overcast Day

I'm so excited to start off the month with a completed quilt top! I finished sewing the rows together this afternoon.

The pattern is "Sunnyside" from Pat Wys' book Spotlight on Neutrals: Quilts and More for Any Decor. 

I used my hoarded stash of Denise Schmidt Flea Market Fancy and Hope Valley fabrics with Moda Bella Solid in Zen Gray for the background.

I wish the lighting was better but it's been overcast on and off all day.   The colors are not true in this image and this photo doesn't do justice to the saturated colors of the fabrics.  There is no chance for an outdoor photo today as everything is still damp from the two weeks of a rain-storm-a-day weather. I'll try to get one when S. is home to be Mr. Quilt Holder.

Remy I started planning this quilt back in January and it went together quickly once I decided on the fabrics.  The directions were very thorough and it was easier to piece than it looks.

Here is a detail of the stars. This is a perfect pattern to highlight some of your treasured fabrics that you've been saving for "just the right quilt".  I particularly like the outer setting with the large and small triangles (or as I called it "the mountain range around the edge").

The original quilt in neutrals can be seen on Pat's blog. I think it would also look amazing in batiks.








I thought I would add an outtake of my attempts at trying to photograph this quilt today.
Count them.  Three.  Three cats in the middle of the photo.  From the top: Remy cleaning his toes, Gomez staring off into space and not willing to move an inch, and Stella wandering around back and forth in and out of the frame.  Edgar Poe (the fourth cat) was guarding the sewing machine.  Never a dull moment around here.

Also, we all would like to wish a Happy Canada Day to our fellow quilters and bloggers and quilt-blog kitties to the North.  Hope you have a wonderful holiday!!

June Schnibble

I am loving all the different versions of "Dulcinea" popping up for the Schnibble parade.  Be sure to visit Sherri and Sinta's blogs tomorrow for all the fun.

I am especially enamored with Thelma's clever interpretation of the pinwheels.  If you haven't seen it, jump on over to her blog.  I think she has captured the essence of summer in her little quilt.

After several attempts at different borders, none of which I liked, I decided to leave mine with a simple plain border to match the background.

I'm going to hunt around for a soft brown for a skinny binding at some point.


Can you believe it's the end of June already? I can't.  Summer is flying by.

What Color is Humidity?

If you follow along with the quadrillion several block of the month's that I'm making this year, the theme I am using for the Country Threads BOM is colors or fabrics that remind me of the calendar month.

June is the beginning of Georgia's long summers of smog alerts and humidity.  Sometimes this starts in May and stretches all the way through October.  This year, we have had more moderate temperatures (less than 90 F) and lots and lots and lots and lots of rain and thunderstorms.  For the past several years, Georgia has been in a miserable drought.  This year is making up for all that.

So what color is humidity?  I couldn't come up with anything so send me your suggestions and I can use it next month or in August.

I did come up with this color combination for the small 6" block to represent the nearly daily thunderstorms we have had this year.  Stormy grays and black to represent the dark clouds rolling in.

For the 12" block, I used this weird mustardy brown color to represent the smoggy summers in Atlanta. And the pattered fabric in the pinwheels looks like suns.  This year, the rain has helped keep the air quality better than in other years. 

I still need to catch up on the Blogger Girls BOM.  In between the rainy days I have been busy busy busy with outside projects, while the temperatures are moderate--priming and painting my porch, reglazing windows, washing windows, refinishing an Adirondack chair, and all sorts of un-blogworthy chores.

As Google Reader keeps reminding me, Google Reader is going away at the end of this month (sob!).  After much research, I moved all the blogs I follow over to Feedly (I decided that bloglovin was not for me).  I found Feedly easy and useful and it works well on the laptop and on iVan the iPhone.  

Schnibbling

This month's Vintage Schnibble (called "Dulcinea") is coming along quickly.  The blocks go together perfectly.  I'm using an older Fig Tree line called "A Day in the Country."  I just love the soft buttery colors.

I have the center finished and just need to add the borders.  Wow I *may* actually get this month's done early!!

Of course Stella had to photobomb.  Her motto is "see a quilt, sit on it."

A Million Things

I have been busy doing a million things but apparently blogging was not one of them ;)
The weather has been nice here with moderate temps in the lower to mid-80s F, rain, and low humidity for the most part.  I've been working outside on the garden and on various maintenance projects. All those fun chores--reglazing windows, washing windows, priming exterior trim and porch posts, buying paint, etc. etc.

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Nancy, Near Philadelphia for the wonderfully fantabulous mug rug and sewing goodies that I won on her 1600 Post Giveaway.  Nancy's blog was one of the very first quilting blogs that I started reading lo these many moons ago. This mug rug just makes me smile and it will have a treasured place in my sewing room.  You bet these great purple fabrics are going to be featured in a quilt or two and those adorable embroidery scissors are going straight into my on-the-go sewing kit.

There has been some sewing going on here at Chez Stella Bella.   I finally decided to cut into my stash of Flea Market Fancy and Hope Valley fabric that I've been hoarding.  I am pairing it with my favorite Zen Gray Moda Bella Solid.  Here is a sneak peek of a new quilt I'm working on. 

After missing the past two Another Year of Schnibbles projects.  I'm starting this month's right away.  I dug through my stash of charm packs and found an early Fig Tree line called "A Day in the Country."  The blocks are cut out and I'll be working on those this week. Photos to follow.

How could I not include an update on the cats?  They are all fine and sprawled around the house in their favorite spots.  Isn't this the cutest photo of Remy?!?!? (of course I think he is the cutest all the time).  Remy loves playing in paper bags and I try to have one out for him to play in.  Paper bags don't last very long because he likes to run into them at top speed so he runs right through the bottom or he rolls around and rips them to shreds.  

Remy's "green" motto:  Reuse, play, shred and recycle. 

Remy loves paper bags from Whole Foods