June Recap and July Goals

Stitching rows together

My goals for June were:

✔1. Continue piecing blocks for the 2022 Temperature quilt. This month, I'll begin adding a previous rows to the pieced strip. Also this month, I will use all of the purple background fabric I had on hand.

✔2. Write three or four more posts that feature book club quilts from the past. The books will likely be:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Jump Off Creek by Molly Glass; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

✔3. Continue work on my book club quilt for the June reveal. This was my one monthly goal. I finished the project!

✔4. Write a post about a virtual Saturday Workshop that I took earlier this year.

⃠5. Work on a cross stitch project.--Update: Looked at the project. Took it out of the bag, put it back in the bag!

Celebrating the Queen's Jubilee

⃠6. Write a post about additional Ottolenghi recipes that we've made.--Update: Wrote too many posts about my book club project. Will work in an Ottolenghi post next month.

I arrived home from my three month visit with my daughter and her daughter. Being able to spend so much time with my newest granddaughter was extra special. The day after I returned, I helped people earn their CPR certifications. I had the weekend off and then I did it again the following four days. I helped 44 people earn 62 certifications. At ten days, I'm still working through the jet lag. Perhaps, my body got use to my 7am shift with the granddaughter!

What a change in three months

Returning home was bittersweet. I missed my husband and our dog. It was hard leaving that little bundle of joy and my daughter.  I'm glad I went. I loved having lots of time with my daughter. London is a wonderful city. Yes, I did get to visit a few places.

I would go again, although my work mates have said not for three months again any time soon! They along with my husband said that I was missed in many ways and many times. I don't think of myself as "important" but, hearing how much I was missed sure tugged at my heart. Our dog, has made sure to make eye contact and to lay her head on my knee!

Books I read last month were:

Print: 

Dear Miss Kopp and Miss Kopp Investigates both by Amy Stewart. These were six and seven in the series which I've been reading since our book club read the first one (Girl Waits with Gun) about five years ago! Stewart has written one book each year since 2015 based on newspaper accounts of an actual woman and her "sisters. 4/5

Audio:

Organize this closet

Lion in the Library by Elizabeth Peters. This was number four in a series which is a light read. 3.5/5; The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles 4/5 and "The Personal Librarian" by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray 4.5/5.

My goals for July are:

1. Continue piecing blocks for the 2022 Temperature quilt. My order of the purple background fabric arrived on the day that I returned. I've just a couple of purple points to add to my June blocks so in that respect, I'm not far behind. I've learned last month that it isn't that hard to attach a block to the piece. My One Monthly goal is to attach all the blocks for July. This means I need to finish attaching June. I've about half of the month attached. I'm linking to Patty and Elm Street Quilts.  Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal July Link-up

2. Write two more posts that feature book club quilts from the past. The books will likely be: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows and The Midnight Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I'm close to documenting all the finished past book club quilts. My next step will be to begin finishing the book club quilts that I started but have let languish for one

Quilt a day with the Oregon granddaughters

reason or another!

3. Write a post about the Ottolenghi we ate while we celebrated with the Queen during her Jubilee.  I ran out of weeks to post about this topic last month! 

Possible scraps for the RSC blocks

4. Clean and organize the studio closet. Clear the cutting table in my studio. Originally, I planned to remove almost everything from my sewing space and start over. I thought a month would be enough time.

Last weekend, I removed the contents of the closet. Working though the contents, I realized the process will take much more time and effort than I had envisioned. I can see that doing this process several times as I'm able to let more "go." 

5. Spend a day quilting with the granddaughters that live near me. It would be great to have the youngest get her quilt quilted and the oldest to make progress on her scrap blocks.

6. Begin catching up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks as I haven't stitched the blocks for April, May and June! This morning, I pulled a few scraps of green, pink, purple and blue. I looked longingly at my machine. 

I'm linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. Cynthia has been making Positively blocks. It's a sew along that had I been in town, I would have joined. Preeti, the sew along leader, sent me a personal note that I was welcome to join any time. . . so you can too!

This month, it would be great to quilt a project on the longarm, make progress quilting one on my domestic machine and finish a project or two as well. Time will tell if Gertie, my inner squirrel, will be content with working through my list. She has seen so many fun projects in the closet. I'm happy to report she has only been whispering in my ear about one project in particular. . . .time will tell what happens next!