Are you sure it's summer???

I have been thinking for weeks now that it must be time to start feeling like summer, right?  You guys on the East Coast are having huge heat waves, my friends in the south talk about the misery of their air conditioners breaking.  I on the other hand have been sitting in wonder as to when I will get to turn off my central heat.

This is the view of the river bank next to my office.  On a normal day this photo would have a mountain range as a backdrop.

It has been so foggy and cold in the San Fransisco Bay area the last few months.  It is 3:30 today and the fog still hasn't burned off.  Blah!!

I loved this article from the San Fransisco Gate last week.

"This has been the summer of our discontent. Not only has the economy been lousy, but the summer fog has also hung around day and night, like a houseguest that won't leave.

Everybody's noticed it.

"This has to be the coldest July ever," noted Latitude 38, the sailing magazine.

Restaurateurs in the upper Napa Valley set up space heaters for outdoor diners this week, unheard of in July.

The temperature in Sacramento at 7 a.m. Thursday was only 53 degrees, colder than the temperature at the same time in Anchorage, Alaska.  San Jose, which normally bakes while San Francisco shivers, is having one of the coolest summers in years."

Yikes!  Colder than Alaska!  I'm ready for summer to start!

Since the weather has been so blah, I have been in a bit of a quilting funk and haven't gotten much done.  I decided today that since it doesn't feel like summer outside I would make my sewing room feel like summer.  For a while now I have slowly been working on blocks for a Flower Garden quilt.  Today the flowers I have done went up on my design wall.  I now have a fabric flower garden in my sewing room.   Yeah!  Maybe now I will feel a little more uplifted.

So here's to summer in the rest of the US!  Hope you all are enjoying!

Friday Night Progress

So I decided to participate in the Friday Night Sew in, if only to actually force myself to work on something and get over my lack of motivation.

It worked!

Here's what I got done:

It's just a little doll quilt or table topper about 16" by 20".  This one I plan on keeping, so I don't really know what I will do with it yet.  I don't have any excess batting to put it together right now, but I guess that is motivation to get one of my other tops basted and quilted. 

I'm headed on vacation up to Lake Tahoe this week and I get to bring my sewing machine along, so hopefully I will have some progress on something new when I get back!

Less than motivated...

Several weeks ago we had our annual shop hop and boy did I have fun shopping!  Here's my loot.

The Michael Miller prints are going to be used in a Debbie Caffrey pattern called Four Patch and Friends with a white background.  Most of the patterns were free giveaways by the shops, as well as the loose fat quarters (I love free fabric!).  I love the coffee fabrics and will probably do a few table runners out of them.  I love the layer cake of Moda Birdie prints.  I'm still brainstorming on what I will do with it.  And the hexagon paper pieces I was really excited to find.  I started a Grandma's Flower Garden project last year, but ran out of hexagons.  I like English Paper piecing because I can travel well with it and makes a good project for lunch break at work.

The only problem I am having now is a complete lack of desire to do any quilting.  You would think that spending my birthday money on all sorts of fun new things would make me interested in starting a new project, but it has been two weeks and it is has spent all that time sitting in the bag I brought it home in until I pulled it out to take a picture.  Any ideas for getting motivated?

Work has been overly long and stressful that last few weeks and I guess I just don't have the energy to even think about pulling out my sewing machine.  Thankfully after next week work will calm down and in a few weeks I have a nice long vacation coming!

Ugly Fabric Challenge Update

So, I worked right up to the deadline, but I finished my ugly fabric challenge!!!!

So, I guess the ugly fabric challenge deserves a bit more of an explanation, as several of you have asked about it.

Last year my local quilt shop started their annual Ugly Fabric Challenge. In January (this should indicate how long I have been procrastinating on this!) the quilt shop employees scour the store to find the most ugly bolt of fabric they have in stock and cut it into quarter yard sections. If you choose to participate you receive the quarter yard of fabric free. These are the rules:

* Projects are due at the end of June
* You may make any kind of fabric object with your quarter of a yard (hence its usage is not necessarily limited to quilts.)
* You must use at least three-fourths of the ugly fabric in the top (or seen surface) of your project. (Another words, no hiding it inside a purse or on the back-side of a quilt.)

The entries hang in the local quilt shop for the month of July and customers get to vote on their favorites. The winners receive a $100 gift certificate to the shop. Totally worth it!

I have a very complex love/hate relationship with the ugly fabric challenge each year. I hate the challenge because, well, who likes working with an ugly fabric? I almost never chose fabric to fit a project. I pick a project then find the fabric combinations to fit it.
I also love the ugly fabric challenge because of what I get to do with it. Because I don’t really care about the fabric to start with, I allow myself to try new things. I mean, I don't really care about how the project turns out in the end. OK, so maybe I care a little.

I really love this piece and I had a lot of fun with it, but it took a long time and a lot of mental work.  My job has been really intense the last few weeks, so this hasn't been the best project for after work, but I pushed through and got it done. 

Well, off to go relax.  The husband and I are headed out of town for the long weekend to go camping and take some time to decompress.  We live in a resort town so everyone flocks to the beach for the 4th, and we try to find a way to get out of town and avoid the tourists.  Hope everyone has a happy 4th!