Yes, it does rain in the desert. Yesterday, Phoenix had localized heavy rain which caused some flooding. I live in North Phoenix which did experience some heavy rain. There is a wash along the west side of my property which catches the rain coming off the mountains to the south of me. There was some rain early morning, the heavy rain began about 11:30am and lasted 30 to 40 minutes. I went out to look at the wash after the rain and there was quite a torrent. I am really not in danger of flooding as the wash is quite deep and very wide.


Today is a beautiful day in Phoenix, the sun is shining and the air is clean. What a difference 24 hours makes.

I just got back from Henderson Nevada, I spent a few days with my quilting buddy. We decided to work on an embroidery machine appliqué project from the pattern Mixed Mutts. 10 dog are available in the pattern but I decided to do just 3 of the adorable dogs. I chose a poodle, a schnauzer and a golden retriever in honor of the breeds of dogs I have owned. My web page Waiting at the Bridge has pictures of my dearly departed dogs, you can also click on web pages for Katie and Molly my standard poodles. The pattern also includes embroidered designs for woof and paw prints which I will embroider as filler blocks after I decide the placement the 3 dog appliqué blocks on the quilt. You can see the 3 dog blocks Sandy made at http://sandywf.blogspot.com

Drum roll, please. Bird Dance is finished, I even have the quilt label on the back. The gorgeous machine quilting was done by Jessica Jones Gamez.. Bird Dance was designed by Sue Spargo for her 2013 BOM. Sue's quilt design was inspired by a tile floor while on vacation in Italy, check out the full story of Sue's inspiration.

In January 2013, I started my first Sue Spargo BOM. I was new to Sue's wool appliqué stitching and I decided to make a test block using wool from my stash. Of course, I then had a finished 6 1/2" bird block which I decided to use as the front of a small needle keep. My original needle keep has served me well these last 18 months but as Sue introduced a wider variety of needles, my original needle keep did not have enough labeled spaces for the needles. I designed my new needle keep with 4 wool pages which would allow spaces for 24 different types of needles plus I added two zippered vinyl pockets to hold thimbles and needle threaders. I did a wool appliqué flower on the front. The needle keep is 8 1/2" high and 7 1/2" wide.

I finished the African tulip tote today. The African Tulip tote was designed by Sue Spargo and is 21" wide, 16" in length and 5" deep. The embellished wool appliqué front gave me a chance to learn some new embellishing stitches and to use some different embellishing threads. Valdani pearl cotton, Thread Gathers silken pearl, silken chenille, and sea grass are some of the embellishing threads I used. Sue's pattern was constructed using batting but I decided to use Soft and Stable to give the tote more body. I also wanted a zipper closure and I used instructions from a by annie tote pattern.

I love a challenge. Last week I decided to make a queen size quilt for a friend. I needed a fast and easy quilt and I picked The Right Slice quilt published in Quiltmaker Magazine, November/December 2013. The quilt in the magazine was constructed using assorted red and green 5 inch squares. I decided to make my quilt using just 3 batik fabrics, 2 batiks for the nine patch blocks and the remaining batik was inserted into the slashed nice patch blocks. The queen size quilt requires 36 blocks. I want to finished the quilt top by Tuesday so I can take the top to be quilted by Jessica Jones Gamez. It is going to be close, but I think I will finish the quilt top by Tuesday afternoon. I now have 24 blocks finished and sewn together, plus I have the remaining 12 blocks started. I took a picture of part of the quilt hanging on my design wall.

I have sewn another 40 pillowcases and they have been delivered to 35th Avenue Sew and Vac, they collect pillowcases for Back to School Clothing Drive. I made a total of 110 pillowcases in the month of June, it certainly was a great feeling to clear out fabric from my stash. I will admit that sewing the last 20 pillowcases was just a bit of a chore, but I wanted to really wanted to see if I could make at least 100 pillowcases.

Hope everyone is have a great 4th of July holiday weekend, although it seems as if most of the United States will be having rain. Phoenix had dust and thunderstorms yesterday, some local fireworks displays were cancelled. It is very overcast and humid today, thunderstorms are also predicted, hopefully we will get some rain too.

I have sewn another 40 pillowcases and they are ready to deliver to 35th Avenue Sew and Vac, they collect pillowcases for Back to School Clothing Drive. I have been able to reduce the fabric in my stash which keeps me motivated to make more pillowcases. I have now made a total of 70 pillowcases and I plan to make more, maybe I can get to 100 completed pillowcases.
I will keep you posted on my progress.

I have been busy these last few weeks sewing pillowcases. I have found that making pillowcases is a great way to use fabric in my stash. I construct the pillowcases using the roll it up pattern found on the Million Pillowcase web site. On Monday, I delivered 30 pillowcases to 35th Avenue Sew and Vac, they collect pillowcases for Back to School Clothing Drive. I will continue to go through my stash and will be making more pillowcases, I will keep you posted on my progress.

Katie and Molly are good buddies and they have really brought out the best in each other. Katie is 7 1/2 years old and Molly is 4 years old. Molly loves everyone while Katie is a bit more selective, but with Molly leading the way, Katie has become more outgoing. It is not often I am able to take a picture without either Katie or Molly deciding to move. I usually end with a picture of one poodle and one black furry blur. Katie is on the right and Molly is on the left looking much serious than she really is.