Weekly update: a sale, a finish, a flimsy

My sister retired June 28, concluding a successful 25-year career as an environmental educator. She came up and we enjoyed a walk on the beach.   Will we get together more often?  Her retirement leisure will likely be as unleisurely as mine has turned out!

(In the photo:  cliff swallow nests in the sandbank; spiderwort; a few blue flag iris; and a leopard frog.)

The Lake County Symphony Orchestra had its July 4 concert indoors at 3 p.m. -- the air conditioning was welcome. 


We've flown this flag on holidays for 38 (almost 39) years. It was a wedding gift. It's from the Capitol Flag Program -- flown over the U.S. Capitol.  Here is the backstory. 

I sold SEVEN flimsies to JS.  She caught the text of my Facebook ad though not the photos -- that was the day of the big software glitch that didn't allow posting any photos to FB.  She emailed me (we had transacted business in the past), I sent her photos, and she bought 'em all.   Yes, she got a bargain. The way I figure it, I could keep them as flimsies forever. I could quilt them myself and give them away. I could have them professionally quilted and give them away.  By selling them I get some money back that I can invest in more quilts.

Stuff goes out, stuff comes in:  when Grace, Barbara, and I visited Marianne she offered us her latest destashing:  fabric and quilt books.  My selections were too heavy and bulky to bring on the flight home so Grace mailed them to me.  One box arrived Wednesday and the other on Friday.  Forty-four yards and nine books!

I completed one part of my July OMG:  sample tote bags for the Nepal school project. I sent them to Margaret to critique -- I need her to provide the correct dimensions before I go into mass-production.
I began the second part of OMG:  the Birds of a Feather challenge.  I didn't get very far. It's going to take more work and concentration.

"Piked Peaks" by Amy Ellis, patterned in her book Modern Neutrals, caught my eye.   Here is her design that uses 6" blocks.   I went to my box of 3.5" batik HSTs.  Having units on hand (one blogger refers to the Parts Bank) made it easy to sew 9" blocks. The flimsy is 72 x 72. (5 yards used.)








But a finish was in order!  I made the batik slab blocks in the spring and assembled the flimsy last month. Now the 50 x 60 quilt is finished.  (3-1/2 yds for the back and binding.)

This week will not be as quilty -- appointments and meetings and a day downtown coming up.  But quilts are never out of my mind. (You know that!)

Monday link ups:
Oh Scrap!
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward