September already?

You may recognize this wall hanging from Edyta Sitar's book Friendship Strips and Scraps. I made this for a friend who got married this summer. I love the imagery for newlyweds. A warm home, the sheltering foliage protecting their new home and marriage, the heart for their love, and the blue bird for happiness. In the red border I quilted two lines similar to marriage lines in Aran knitting. It was fun to make but I would piece the border differently another time. The directions call for cutting triangles then piecing together the small print triangles with a white triangle, then joining two of these units to make the square. Lots of very small pieces that I think could have been more accurately pieced and more quickly pieced using another technique. Well, there weren't too many to make, so I just kept going. 

A happy little blue bird. 

I had fun with the machine quilting. Lots of hearts and a musical note by the bird as Mariah is very musical! I embroidered the Est. 2012 in chain stitch using a variegated thread. 

My dear daughter stayed with us for a week in August. She lives in North Carolina now where it has been very hot all summer. She didn't get much relief from the heat on the day we went to the Maine Botanical garden in Boothbay. It was sweltering! 

 We really enjoyed our visit to the garden just the same. This algae filled pond was a cool green oasis.

I've been catching up on some of the Take a Stitch Tuesday embroidery stitches. The green arch and stitches below that are Sheaf Stitch. The little yellow flowers are done in Cast On Stitch. 

The pale yellow sprays are made with Palestrina Stitch. 

The "candy cane" is done in Pekingese Stitch. Below that are some leaves and a flower made with Oyster Stitch using wool yarn.

Here is Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch. The bottom row has red Lazy Daisy Stitch flowers and Oyster Stitch carrots. 

As with every other summer, when September comes we say where did the summer go? I feel like that, too, but there is plenty of beautiful weather yet to come. Yesterday I spent the day with a dear friend at Popham Beach and my husband and I have been enjoying taking our canoe out this summer. I love being outdoors but look forward to many creative days indoors when the weather changes.

Enjoy your last days of summer!