August!

How did that happen? Why is it that time goes by so much faster the older you get?
In July I turned 40, had my 10 year wedding anniversary and celebrated my darling nephew's 2nd birthday.
I gardened and watered all of my plants a lot. Other than a few measly days in July, it was disgustingly hot. As I've mentioned, 82 to is my limit, and since 85 was considered 'cooling down' by the local weather guy, there was a lot of whining coming from me the entire month. Ok, it was more than whining, it was really bitching, to be honest. And as bad as we've had it in Chicagoland, I am thankful everyday that I don't live in Texas. One of my coworkers who is based down there said the other day it was 110. Yuck, with a ginormous capital Y! And the poor things have had over a month of that kind of weather.

At the beginning of July I started what I thought would be a quick quilt. I figured it would take a week at most. Riiiiiggghhhttt.  I'm starting to think PittiPat is right. She always says that she thinks we all have delusions of grandeur because we bring 10 projects to work on to our weekend quilting retreats. I tell her it's really because we are optimistic, glass half full kind of girls.

I've been eyeing the daisy quilt on the cover of Quilting for Joy since I bought the Barbara Brandeburg / Teri Christopherson book over 2 years ago and thought it would be fun for the Riley Blake contest. I've also wanted to do a turquoise and red quilt for some time, so I went with that combo.

The pattern called for 12" blocks but I only had quarter yard cuts, so I had to resize it down to 8" blocks, which meant that instead of 16 blocks, I had 36.

Each of the 36 blocks has 5 appliqued daisy pieces and 5 centers for said daisies. It took me 14 hours just to cut out the daisy pieces and another 12 to applique them down. Luckily I have a Sizzix circle die that worked perfectly for cutting the center circles or you could have added a few more hours devoted to cutting circles out.

When I put the blocks on my design wall, I realized that my lay out would not work w/the different block background and alternating centers. Since I'm symmetry girl, I really struggled with the layout. The lesson there is to slap the blocks on the wall pre applique to decide what you need! Who knows if I'll remember that next time.

Like any quilter with an issue, I took it to my quilting friend Michelle's house, where, after laying in the pool and drinking margaritas,  we decided it didn't have to be square and taking off a row would make it work. I think the margaritas really helped the decision making process.

Phew. I finished the top Thursday night, and hope to have the quilting finished this weekend since it's due by the 17th. Wish me luck!