It’s not just quilts I finished at Mom’s on the weekend. I also finished up the first of the Hallowe’enie Man Socks I have on the needles.

This sock went SUPER fast… especially for man socks. I guess there’s something to the name – Speed Racer.

I just hope the second one goes just as fast.

The main purpose of the trip to Mom’s (other than to visit, of course) was to FINALLY quilt my red and cream quilt for my bed. It’s been ages since I’ve made a quilt for myself – I think the most recent one was my gnome quilt, which was finished a little more than two years ago.

It’s not like I have a shortage of quilts, but the majority of them are lap quilts. The two quilts I have been sleeping (I like them layered) are closer in size to something you’d put on a single bed. Dave and I don’t share blankets at night, so I don’t need a big quilt. But – when I make the bed, it does look a little silly to have quilts that don’t quite cover it properly. For a while now, I’ve really wanted one that hung over the sides far enough to reach the top of the bed skirt, and not show any mattress.

So… as you know, I bought some fabric from Moda’s French General line (This one called Bonheur du Jour), and set to making blocks for the Jubilee quilt.

The fat quarter bundle I had worked out perfectly for 16 blocks.

I got some yardage of one the red prints, and alternated between that and the background cream fabric (which I buy by the bolt) for a couple borders.

I’ve said it many times before – I love the combo of red and white (or cream in the case). And this line has such wonderful deep, rich reds. There are a few beiges thrown in. And flowers in a wonderful French Provincial style (one of my favourite decor styles)

The backing fabric isn’t from the French General line. It’s actually from Connecting Threads (called Faux Damask), but as you can see it was just perfect for the quilt.

The quilt finished up at 88″ square, so one of the biggest quilts I’ve made. (I believe the biggest was 90″) Mom doesn’t have a full-sized table for the long arm, so making bigger quilts is a little harder… we manage it, but it’s one of the reasons you don’t see a lot of quilts bigger than lap quilts in our shop.

But enough about the details, I know you all want to see how it looks on the bed?

It’s absolultely perfect!!! (And will look even better when reno the room and get rid of that wallpaper!!!)

It reaches right to the top of the bed skirt (which is now trashed thanks to a certain ginger kitty…)

And of course, it’s 100% kitty approved!!!

As mentioned, I spent the weekend visiting Mom and Dad. It was a lovely weekend. I went to the range with Dad to fire my new-to-me rifle, and spent a lot of time quilting with Mom. (There will be several FO posts coming).

I’m on vacation for the rest of the week and I plan to spend today doing as little as possible. In the mean time, here is a picture of Mom’s favourite neighbour…

Her name is Ruby. Ruby would love to come over every day and play with Chevy and Jem. So Ruby tries. She likes to dig holes big enough to get her head under the fence.

But she also knows she’s not supposed to dig holes, so when you get close, she goes back to her side and tries to look repentant.

While I have a nice little crop of common milkweed in the yard, I’ve also got a small clump of Swamp Milkweed in the catio yard. But it hasn’t been looking that great this year.

The flowers are pretty, but the plants are looking pretty sparse. I didn’t think the monarchs were going bother laying any eggs, but the other day…

I found a couple good-sized caterpillars munching away. In fact, these guys were likely in the last stage before heading off to make a chrysalis.

Before I left for Mom’s on Friday, I went out and did a check, and couldn’t find any of them. I’m hoping when I get back, there will be a chrysalis or two for me to find. Apparently they can travel up to 20 feet away to start the next stage of their life… so it’s a crap shoot on whether I will find them or not.

Back in the common milkweed, we have several caterpillars in various stages.

So maybe the odds are in my favour of finding at least ONE chrysalis this year.

At long last, I finally made it to Mom’s! (Wilma is still a diva, but she’s drivable now).

Before I left, I went into the garden so I could bring her a fresh harvest.

I had two good size zucchinis so she can make some zucchini bread.

I brought several large cucumbers – enough for her to eat some fresh, and cut up and put in a jar of vinegar in the fridge for Dad.

Bean production has slowed down, but there was enough for a meal.

The cherry tomatoes are just starting to ripen, so there are not as many – but it’s enough for a snack.

And my garlic was done drying, so I trimmed it all up, and brought her four heads – that should keep her going for a while.

It’s nice to be able share the fruits of the garden.

Just some cool kitties enjoying their catio yard.

With Yule-y wrapped up (and so successful), Mom and I decided we are going to do Aug-tober!!! This month, our quilting projects will be dedicated to making stuff for the Spooky Season!!!

I have a bin just OVERFLOWING with Hallowe’en fabrics, so I’m super excited about this one. Unfortunately, as I’m headed to Mom’s this weekend – I won’t be able to start on anything until after my return… but imagine my surprise when I let Burton pick out my next knitting project and he demanded this…

It’s a skein of Felici and the colourway is called Speed Racer

But knit up, it’s looking pretty Hallowe’en-y. Like most of my stripers, just plain vanilla. They are man socks, so hopefully I can finish them up before the month is out. 30 days to go!

Here we are at the end of July – and the end of mine and Mom’s “MAKE ALL THE CHRISTMAS” extravaganza.

I am very pleased with the three tops I managed to complete, and I’m off to Mom’s tomorrow to get them quilted and ready for the shop!

But if you think I was productive, wait until you see what Mom’s done…

There’s this cure little wall hanging/table topper.

And not one… but TWO completed lap quilts!

and as of writing this post, this one…

Was under the needle of the long arm – so it won’t be long before it’s complete. I call that a very successful mission on both our parts!

Finally, I feel like I made some decent progress on my cross stitching.

Saturday was mostly spent in the garden, but by Sunday, it was disgustingly hot and humid again, so Burton and I plopped ourselves in front of the TV and got down to work.

I was able to finish the dark blue on the right side, and made a good dent in the lighter blue you see there. There’s five different shades of blue in the upper wings so I really have to pay attention to the symbols on the pattern. There was a little ripping (I’ve had way more ripping on this one as opposed to the butterfly), but it wasn’t anything major.

I’ve got plans to head to Mom’s this coming weekend, so there probably won’t be a TNT for next week. But it will return the week after.

If there’s two things that cucurbits love, it’s heat and wet. And we’ve had a good amount of it this summer. You can see the pumpkins and gourds happily growing up and over the right side of the squash tunnel.

So much so that I needed to get out there with a pair of garden shears to tame them down a bit.

Unlike most gardeners, I haven’t had a mass of zucchini – just that one HUGE one so far (though there are two more coming now). The one thing the Zucchini has produced is a mass of huge leaves. Huge leaves that were shading out the poor Cucamelons. I trimmed away anything that was blocking the tiny-leaved cucamelons, and they seem quite happy for it. They are still small and fairly sparse, but they are finally climbing the tunnel, and giving us flowers.

Just look at that tiny thing! Hopefully it will produce a fruit very soon!

As I was cutting away leaves, I also discovered these.

On the left is a wee guord, and the right is a wee white pumpkin. And there’s others as well. The pumpkins are orange, white and black (very dark green) and will get to about this size.

I didn’t even see this one as I was cutting and accidentally cut him off. I think it’s ok because he looks like he was about ready to be picked! These guys can be used for pies, but I’m growing them just for decoration. I hope I have enough to cover the front porch and gardens in them for Hallowe’en!

And in other tiny news. Those few little seeds starts I put outside in the woodland garden finally seemed to be taking off.

The left is Delphiumn – the right… I’m unsure. I thought it might be Bellflowers, but then I realized the bellflower tray was still inside and they were dead. So these may be Cherry Brandy Black-Eyed Susans, but I’m not 100% convinced.

Whatever they are, I decided it was time to pot them on.

I had a tonne of nursery pots left over from spring, so I put two to a pot, and I’ve set them in a slightly sunnier spot in the Woodland Garden. I’m hoping they continue the do well and I can plant them in the garden before fall.

Anything small happening in your garden?