14 hello summer.

Is anyone else experiencing a heat wave the past two days?  Oh my goodness it is HOT out there.  Not that I'm complaining...but since our pool still isn't up and running we aren't enjoying it as much as we could be.  One thing that I am enjoying though in this warmer weather is our garden!  We built a raised bed in our backyard out of bricks this spring, and last week it was finally warm enough to plant things in it.

The garden has two levels, and is kind of shaped like a kidney bean.  We needed something that would fit in the corner of our property line to take the focus off of our neighbors' white fence and the edge of the woods behind it.  The fact that it's raised also helps to prevent our deer and rabbit friends from trampling and/or eating all of it.  The liquid fence deer repellent we spray around it helps with that as well...although it doesn't smell the best!

In the top row I've got 4 different tomato plants, green, red, and banana peppers, basil, parsley, and cilantro. 

 In the bottom row there's zucchini, scallions, carrots, and cucumbers.  I also planted some mint along the edge of the yard, and I'm hoping that it will spread into the woods a bit.

I've kept it all alive for a week so far, which is good for me.  I've been watering like crazy since it has been over 90 degrees the past two days.  Everything is looking healthy and growing in nicely, and we've only had one minor incident with deer snacking.  I even have a few little tomatoes starting to grow.  I'm praying for lots and lots of home grown vegetables this summer!

We've got some other things growing in our yard as well, it's kind of fun to see what everything is as it pops up!  We had no idea what most of the plants would be since we moved into our house this past winter when everything was cut back and covered in snow.

I'll share more pictures once things grow in a bit more.  Hope you're all keeping cool!

25 herringbone quilt.

It's finished!  How's this for a fun summer quilt?

The blocks were made by the members of the Inspire Circle of do.Good Stitches using my herringbone block tutorial.  They are all so vibrant!  There are definitely lots of different colors and prints going on in here, but I think it works.

I quilted horizontally along the seams to stabilize the quilt, then I went through three of the diagonal lines in each block.

 You can see the quilting a little better on the back.  I used this awesome chevron print as the focal point of the back, to kind of tie in with the herringbone pattern going on in the front.  I only had a half yard of it though so I had to make it scrappy.

 Here's another look at the quilting on the back.  I used gray thread so it wouldn't stick out as much on the back.  I haven't washed the quilt yet but it should shrink up nicely in the dryer!  There really aren't any puckers on here, even though it kind of looks like it in the pictures.

I thought it was only fitting to bind it in this aqua herringbone print from Modern Meadow!  I love the way it looks against the colors in the quilt.

I kind of want to make another one of these quilts for myself!  Wouldn't it be great as a picnic blanket?

This one is all ready to be shipped off to Project Linus!  Thank you again to all the lovely ladies in the Inspire circle for your contributions to this quilt.  

If you make a herringbone quilt, please share it in the Bijou Lovely flickr group, I would love to see it!

7 pretty little pouch swap complete.

This is a few weeks late, but I wanted to share the packages I sent and received for the Pretty {little} Pouch Swap.

My partner was one of the swap organizers, Michelle from i like orange, too!  I was really excited to have her as my partner because we have similar styles and I was confident I could come up with something that she'd like.  I took inspiration from her swap mosaic and noticed lots of Echino, some linen, and a pouch with ruffles and I went from there for the first pouch.  I made sure it was pretty large and had gussets because she asked for a pouch with a lot of space in it!

The second pouch wasn't based on her mosaic, but from reading her blog and looking through flickr I knew she's a lover of brights!

Of course I made the lining orange as a nod to her blog name!

I added in some vintage trims that I had found while thrifting since her flickr profile says she likes them!

With few fabric scraps thrown in for good measure and a little note, the package was complete.

Here it is all wrapped and ready to be sent.

I also received my package from Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations around the same time.

Isn't it a gorgeous pouch?  You all know how much I love brights mixed with gray, so this pouch is perfect for me.  I was so happy to have it arrive at my door!  My favorite part of it is actually the back, just look at all those rainbow colored threads!

She included some fun colored zippers and a lovely note in the package as well.  I'm sure the zippers will be put to good use for more pouches, I can definitely say I'm addicted to making them now!

Thank you so much Megan for the wonderful package!  This was a really fun swap and I'm sure I'll be participating again in the future.

0 bee blocks.

Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend!  I finally had some time to put together my May blocks for do. Good Stitches!  Nothing like getting them in at the last minute.  Evelyn asked for square in square blocks for an older boy using primarily blue and brown, with bits of gray and green mixed in.

This first block measures 12.5" square.

Rather than a second large block, I opted to make 4 smaller blocks to add to the quilt, each measuring 6.5" square.

 Here's how they look together.  I can't wait to see this quilt finished!

I made progress on the herringbone quilt this weekend as well, and now all that's left is to hand stitch the binding!  I love that part of the process.  It should be finished in the next couple days, so stay tuned for pictures of the finished quilt before I send it off to Project Linus.

2 giveaway winners.

I am kind of sad that I'm not at home this week (I'm gone again for work) because my sister just sent me a package that would have made the perfect picture for this post.  She wrapped the "gift" and added at least five layers of tape around the entire thing, and then wrote on the package that it was very important and extremely fragile and to be extremely careful when opening it.  After spending 10 minutes carefully cutting it open with scissors, I get inside to find this ridiculous cheap dollar store trophy that says "WINNER" on it.  She's so nice to me.

Anyway, thank you all so much for your sweet comments on the giveaway post!  I gained over 150 new followers, so welcome to all of you and I hope you'll stick around!!  There were 797 valid comments on the giveaway (I had to remove the last 3 because they were a day too late in entering, I'm sorry!).

Now for the winners... the winner of the pillow cover is comment #20, Oso, and the winner of the charm pack is comment #755, lulafortune.  Blogger isn't letting me upload the random number generator screen shots, but I'll try to do that again later.  Congratulations to both of the winners and thank you all again for entering!

14 herringbone quilt progress.

Looking for my Sew, Mama, Sew, Giveaway post?  Enter here!

The herringbone quilt top has been sewn up, I pieced together a back, and it's basted and ready for me to start quilting!  It is kind of a crazy quilt but I like it more and more every time I look at it.

 I notice something new in it every time I walk by.  Kind of like an I-Spy quilt of sorts?

Now, to figure out how to quilt it.  I'm thinking some random diagonal lines (like I just did on this pillow) would look pretty cool.  Any other ideas you want to share?

In other news...you can kind of see the new color of my sewing room in these pictures!  The room is still a work in progress but I will try to share some true "after" shots next week sometime.

773 giveaway day!

This giveaway is now closed!!  Thank you all for entering!  I'll announce the winners later tonight.

Today is Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day!!  Welcome to all of you stopping over here from there!

I have two things to give away today, the first of which is this bright and fun 16" pillow cover!

For the second part of this giveaway, I have a handmade charm pack (6" charms) made up of 14 of my favorite fabrics!  There are 4 charms of each print, for a total of 56 squares.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post!  Please make sure to include an email address if you're set to no-reply.

Followers (old and new) may leave a second comment for an extra entry.  I appreciate you coming back to visit me here often, I heart you all :)

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, May 25th at Midnight CDT.  I'll announce the winners on Thursday, May 26th!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you're all enjoying Giveaway Day!