A summer flowering planter with an American flag

Summer is Packing Its Suitcase

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Well, as far as I’m concerned, summer is pretty much over. I keep my patriotic summery decorations up through September 11th, and then it’ll be full-on autumn here in Brooketopia.

Smitten English Paper Piecing Quilt

I gave my knee another week of rest, just to be safe, and spent my creative time working on the Smitten Quilt. I am thisclose to being done with attaching all the rows into one cohesive quilt top! So exciting!

A Smitten English paper-pieced quilt in-progress.

Then I’ll need to attach the side triangles and two borders and the top will be complete. I am hoping to hand-quilt this one, so I talked to Renaissance and Rachel about the idea of me setting it up in the TV Room so that anyone could put some stitches in when they pleased and the two of them were intrigued. Fingers crossed, it would speed up the process and I love the idea of all of us quilting it together.

Rachel came downstairs one day while I had the two halves of the Smitten quilt laid out on the TV Room’s floor and immediately yelled out, “PLAGIARISM!” and ran out of the room. I yelled that it wasn’t plagiarism because I started sewing my Smitten quilt years before she started sewing hers, to which she replied, “I’m the one committing plagiarism!” as she dashed up the stairs to the craft room. Turns out she really liked one of my blocks and decided to shamelessly copy it in her own Smitten quilt. Ha ha.

I don’t know if I’ll keep pushing forward with this in the upcoming week, but it would be smart if I did!

Husband Christmas Socks

I put in some solid effort on them this week and I’m so close to starting the heel! I think I have like two rows left to knit before I start the heel. Woo hoo!

Back-to-School

It’s upon us and I’m about to get pretty busy with band shenanigans. We held an ice cream social during this last week and it was attended pretty well. It’s the first time we’ve done something like ahead of the school year, so I’m hoping it was enough of a success to warrant repeating it in future years.

House & Holidays Plan

It’s here! It’s here! Today is the start of the 2026 House & Holidays Plan! I can finally let all my Christmas joy explode out into the world and rain down like confetti throughout the house! I’m toying with the idea of creating a separate series of posts for this this year because I really like the idea of hunkering and going all in on this. I’ve dabbled with the HHP since 2004, never really ever finishing it completely, and I appreciate the ways it prepares and organizes my holiday season. Every year I go big in the first few weeks and then lose interest, so we’ll see how long I can keep it up this year.

Week #1 is “Planning and Paperwork,” which has me cleaning up the office areas and establishing my Christmas Activity Center. I’m hoping to start working on that once I publish this post.

Farewell, Summer

So we’re buttoning up summer and getting ready to immerse ourselves into autumn. Aren’t seasons just the best?!?! I love that the landscape just changes for funsies throughout the year. Enjoy this last week of real summer, seeing that next weekend is Labor Day and everything will become orange and pumpkin spice the morning after.

No complaints here, but I’m trying to be responsible until then and remain present in the moment and the moment is summer. Wish me luck!

Pencil crayon quilt blocks in red, yellow, green, blue and purple.

The Apple and Pumpkin Overlords Are Approaching

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Hello lovelies! We’re already at the last full week of August! This summer flew by at such a clip! I’ve been fighting the back-to-school vibes and the alluring pull of autumn season-core, but I grow weary of the battle and will soon concede to the apple and pumpkin overlords. I got a big ol’ hit of yearning for all things fall yesterday, and actually felt excitement about it, rather than dread and overwhelm. I’m glad we’ve been trying to fit in everything watermelon and corn on the cob these past few weeks because it’s felt like a good final embrace of late summer.

Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt

Shout out to my dear friend Chrissy for saving the day so I could keep sewing this week! My printer is out of magenta ink, so it won’t print ANYTHING AT ALL. I designed these pencil crayon quilt blocks for the front of Rachel’s quilt and wanted to do them using foundation paper piecing, but couldn’t print the papers and it was going to cost $30 to print them at FedEx Kinko’s, which I wasn’t willing to spend. So I reached out to my friend at 8:45 on Sunday night and asked if she could print them, and she said to head on over. Who cares if she was packing to leave on a camping trip the following morning?! She had my back. And then we shared the hot goss in her driveway for an hour while slapping at mosquitoes biting our ankles. Excellent summer fun. Five stars.

I was able to get a good start on these blocks on Monday morning and was really cruising along until I wasn’t. I have the pencil crayon tips mostly completed, but then something started pulling in my knee early in the week and I’ve been resting and babying it since. I’ve been lucky that I’ve not had knee injuries, partly because I’m terrified of them, so I shut everything down anytime I feel anything amiss in those precious joints. Rest seems to be doing some good, so we might be ok. I tried stretching them a bit this morning and they’re cranky again, so I’ll probably keep things light this week, just to be extra safe.

Pencil crayon quilt blocks in red, yellow, green, blue and purple.

I sew standing up. My back couldn’t handle the motion of getting up from a chair very well after my back surgery, and I found standing while sewing meant less pain for me, so that’s how I’ve been doing it for many years. I might try setting up my machine at some sort of table temporarily and see if it lessens the pressure on my knees for a couple of weeks. Maybe my back is finally strong enough to sew like a normal person again? I guess we’ll find out!

Husband Christmas Socks

I am doing really well on these! I’d say I’m at least halfway, if not two-thirds to three-quarters of the way done with the leg of the second sock.

I started a new thing this week: Listening to an audiobook while knitting. It’s pretty awesome and I really recommend it. I don’t like audiobooks whatsoever; I am not strong in the audio processing department and prefer visual anything over listening to it, so it’s a big surprise to me that this new experiment actually went well. Apparently knitting may be the missing link between my brain and the spoken word?

We’ll see if it sticks, though–this was the last week of the weird summer training schedule for The Boy, and I won’t need to stick around at his practices for an hour each morning anymore. Hopefully I can still find time to knit each day when I’m no longer forced to wait around for him.

Summer Band Concerts

YOU. GUYS. Renaissance joined a local community band and they just got done performing their series of summer concerts in the park and it was SO LOVELY. I went to every one and enjoyed them so much. The sun would set over the course of the concert and everything would end on that warm and fuzzy note of a perfect summer evening spent in a camp chair on the grass. Friends showed up to support her, too, and we’d chat between pieces, basking in the golden light and beautiful music. blissful sigh

Renaissance Brooke playing flute in a summer band concert in the park at sunset

I’m so glad she’s playing music again. I missed seeing her play in a band these past couple of years while she was busting her bootay to earn money to pay for pastry school.

Back-to-School Band Shenanigans

We’re getting close! I manned the Band Boosters table at Tip-off this last week and it was so nice to see everyone again. As luck would have it, my table was right next to the table handing out the school bus passes, so I could easily flag down freshman students as they left that table and ask if they were in band. I was able to meet and greet A LOT of the incoming freshman band babies and their families, so it was a very good day. It’s going to be a fun year with the band, I can’t wait! I’m so glad I still have an excuse to go to the high school football games, even if I don’t have a football player in our home; it’s just such an autumn thing that I love so much. There are few things that feel more like autumn to me than a Friday night football game, the pep band playing in the stands, and our community cheering on its youngsters.

Awaiting the Apples and Preparing for Pumpkins

I didn’t do any of the things I was thinking of doing in the garden. There’s still time, but I’m starting to doubt any of it is going to happen. My cranky knee made things difficult and gardening tends to be hard on the feet and legs. We did enjoy some homemade watermelon sorbet, though, which is peak “August in a bowl.” I might try to sneak in a batch of strawberry ice cream this week, just for the sake of savoring the last days of summer.

The Ward Activities Committee had its end of the year planning meeting this morning and we talked all about sunflowers, apples, pumpkins and Christmas, so the autumn and Christmas vibes are definitely getting their little feet through the door. I also had dinner with my aunt and granny a few nights ago and I might set up a crafting project to do with my granny sometime this fall, which I think would be so awesome.

Dinner prep calls. Happy last week of August, friends!

Late Summer Puttering

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It’s that blissful time of year when we spend quiet time at home tending to whatever happens to strike my fancy. Mornings are spent in the yard, talking to my little hummingbird friend when he hovers two feet away from my face while I’m drinking my morning tisane, and the sultry afternoons are spent in the craft room in air conditioned splendor. The squawking baby birds have flown from their nest tucked in the eaves of my neighbor’s porch, and I am low-key struggling to find new ways to get my family to eat ripe tomatoes and zucchini. I love late summer.

Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt

I was able to spend more time on this in the last week and the backing is almost completely done! As predicted, I ran out of the outer border fabric. I went to my local quilt shop to buy more, but they didn’t have any, so I put in an order at Fat Quarter Shop and it should be here next Saturday.

I shifted to working on the quilt front, which will be made from Riley Blake Confetti Cotton Solids that match the Crayola fabric I’m using on the back. I’m almost done cutting that fabric; hopefully I can piece the top this coming week? (Let’s be realistic, it’ll probably take three weeks…I don’t know why, but that’s just how things go in real life.)

Renaissance and I have been spending a lot of time together this summer, which has been awesome; we’ve even started watching movies and shows in the evenings in the craft room. That has been a big reason for the sudden action on Rachel’s quilt. I love this time with my girl. She works on her little projects, I work on mine, and we laugh at whatever we’re watching together. Most of the time we talk very little; it’s just nice to have another heartbeat in the room with me. I know I’ll cherish this extra time with her when I look back on this chapter.

Husband Christmas Socks

I did a lot of work on these this past week. These are the most complicated socks I’ve ever made (which isn’t saying much) and I am very proud of them. I think Michael will be very pleased with them on Christmas morning. I’m about 15% done with second sock?

Gardening

I woke up yesterday morning with an inkling to spend time in the garden and try to tame the craziness that it’s become after two years of being allowed to lie fallow. I figure, I may not get much out of it this year, but I can clean it up and it get prepped for an easier start next spring? That should work, right? Ha ha.

I came across a cute little bird’s nest tucked beneath the rhubarb stalks:

I have a cherry tomato plant that is sluggishly growing some tomatoes, and my container blackberry and raspberry plants actually produced a couple bowlfuls of berries in the past weeks. Not terrible for the zero amount of effort I put into them throughout the season.

According to my previous years’ notes, I could still sow some spinach, beets, turnips, and radishes for a little fall harvest. I’ve missed the date to sow carrots by a week or so, but I’m tempted to give them a go anyways. Wouldn’t it be lovely to get a little bit of produce out of this neglected garden before winter arrives?

I’m thinking about moving my blackberries or raspberries into the area of my garden where I usually grow beans. I think it’d benefit our family far more to grow berries than beans because we straight up like berries better and can’t get enough of them, while nobody around here is particularly passionate about beans. It seems like picking sugar over substance, though, so I’m having a somewhat Victorian moral dilemma over it all. I guess beans can grow the containers I currently have the raspberries in, so a swap wouldn’t be the end of the world…hmmm. It might not be the ethical quandary I’m turning it into in my head.

Autumn Approaches

I’m refusing to give space to autumn just yet. We’ve been so busy this summer that I haven’t felt like we’ve really gotten our share of the season! Hopefully we can find some meaningful ways to stretch out fully into these last days of summer break and be fully re-energized before school starts up again.

Methinks some homemade ice cream needs to happen, yes?

When Wildfires Cancel Your Plans, You Quilt

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Things are finally calming down around here; I feel like I can actually check in this week, which is AWESOME. I love me some good ol’ dog days of summer when we can just putter around the house!

Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt

I managed a few hours in the craft room this week, mostly due to the bad air quality provided by the wildfires in our region—many outdoor activities were cancelled on account of the smoke, so I spent my unexpectedly freed-up time working on Rachel’s graduation quilt.

Jelly Bars Quilt in progress for a graduation gift.

I am happy to report that the signature blocks are complete and assembled together. I next need to attach two borders. However, the original plan for this quilt was that the signature blocks would be the front of the quilt and then I’d use a simple backing. But now I’m going to use the signature blocks as the backing of the quilt, so the outermost border will need the extra four inches on each side for the quilt backing, and because of that extra four inches, I do not have enough of the fabric I’m planning to use for that border. I’ll need to hunt some down, oh dearie me! I think I actually saw a bolt of the fabric in one of my local quilt shops a couple months back, so I guess another visit in order, and soon.

Once those borders are in place, or while I am waiting to secure more of the outer border fabric, I will start working on the new front of the quilt. I do have the fabric for that. I also ended up with too many signature blocks, so some will be worked into the design of the front of the quilt, too.

Husband Christmas Socks

More time went into knitting these this week as well, yay!

I made the mistake of using some waiting-in-the-car time to work on them with the windows down, and eek, I had a raging headache from the smoky air within ten minutes.

I’m so glad from the temporary reprieve from the smoke, but it looks like the air quality will go back to yucky in the next week. I’m all for finding silver linings in challenges, so I am thankful when I get some free time due to cancelled activities, but it feels wrong to be getting so much personal good out of so much widespread destruction. I would happily give up the extra time to sew if it meant we got a miracle storm of rain to squelch out all these horrible fires.

We’re finishing up studying the story of Esther in the Old Testament this last week…maybe it’s overdue to look to the examples in that story and apply them to the current wildfire situation ourselves?

#craftygoals: August 2026

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July was busy, too; mostly with driving people places and trying to adjust to the different activities that summer brings. Good weather makes it difficult to stay indoors as well.

Debrief: July’s #craftygoals:

In-progress graduation signature quilt
  1. Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt: There has been progress. All signature blocks have at least two of their four borders.
  2. Husband Christmas Socks: Finished the first one! (It looks SO GOOD!) I’m only on the ribbing of the second one.

August #craftygoals:

Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt: I know myself. If I move off of this project before it’s done, it will languish. So I am not going to make goals for any other project, besides the Husband Christmas Socks, until this quilt is completely finished. Summer is a hard time to find crafty time, so I’m just hoping to get some work done on this; it was silly to think I’d finish it last month, but here we are.

Husband Christmas Socks: I’m just going to keep trying to find thirty minutes a day to work on them.

If I manage to finish Rachel’s graduation quilt, I’ve promised myself I can jump back into working on the Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 sew along. But not before.

Kind of a boring update, but there it is. Enjoy these last days of summer! Being in Washington State means we don’t start school until later than most, so we’ve still got a good month of summer vacation to enjoy, and I do mean to enjoy it as much as possible, preferably outdoors because the winters here are gray and wet and very indoor activity-oriented and I feel like I’m going to lose my mind by the time February rolls around. You have to balance that part of the year out with by using the summer months to engage in a frenzied amount of watching the sunrise while walking through the woods and eating dinner in the backyard until it gets too chilly to stay outside anymore. Doesn’t leave a lot of time for the craft room. How I manage to forget that every year is baffling. 😉

A red, white, and blue sawtooth star quilt block with farm animal fabric squares

Crafty Goals: July 2026

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Welcome to Full-on Summer, otherwise known as July! Whew! You guys, the Brookes were very, very busy in the month of June; I’m so glad I didn’t make any actual crafty goals for the month because there simply wasn’t any time available for crafting.

Debrief: June 2026 #craftygoals:

Music and artist ribbon graduation leis in maroon, gold, and white.

Graduation: Rachel is officially graduated from high school! I love graduations so much; the only celebrations I love more are weddings and babies. These life milestones are so special, and I try hard to make sure that they feel extra special for the individuals involved. I made a cute artsy ribbon lei for her and music note lei for one of her friends in the band because I think she’s awesome, and we threw a big ol’ graduation party as well. So much work! But everything went well and the party was well attended, so I’m satisfied.

Rainbow paint chips board with bags of chips attached

Summer Plans: Well…sadly, my husband’s mother passed away the day before Rachel’s graduation ceremony. June 2026 was all about graduation plans and funeral plans. Once graduation was done and dusted, I pivoted immediately into funeral trip preparation. I was also invited to sing at the funeral, so I spent the weeks leading up to it feverishly transcribing (finally) a song I’ve been working on for years and working with Renaissance to write a flute part so she could be a part of it, too. I’m happy to report that it went well. With all of that going on, it’s easy to understand why summer planning has not happened yet.  

Family dressed in black at an LDS funeral.

July 2026 #craftygoals:

Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:

Graduation Quilts: All the signature blocks have been collected, so it’s time to start piecing! It’d be really great to get Rachel’s quilt completely done this month, but it will probably take longer than that, much to the dismay of the many people in our circles who have become (in their own words) obsessively invested in the final outcome of her quilt. Hey, if peer pressure helps you move forward with positive, productive things, then put that peer pressure in the driver’s seat and let it motivate you to push towards the finish line! (Looking at this in a realistic light, I think there’s a good chance I can pull off getting both of the flimsies complete in July.)

I am not sure when I’m going to get to Renaissance’s graduation quilt, though. With the realization that I want to put the signatures on the back of the quilt, I now need to create an entirely new quilt for the front of the quilt. As luck would have it, I just purchased a pattern not too long ago to make for her “someday,” but it’s a bit involved. I might work on a “palate cleanser” project once I finish Rachel’s grad quilt and before I get going on Ren’s again. I want to finish Ren’s grad quilt before the end of this year, though, that is a definite goal.

Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: I knew June would be busy and I’d fall behind on this, so I’m not panicking, but it is a goal to get caught back up with my blocks in the upcoming month. It’s just NINE blocks, no big deal…ha ha ha. I guess I’ll shoot for three per week. Oh, man…

Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:

Machine Stitching:

  • Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: The binding is done and Emily even slept under it when she was here for Rachel’s graduation. The label is not done yet, and I got it into my head to make a complicated label, so I’m working on piecing the label during my self-imposed mandatory 15 minutes of “Finishing Time” at the start of every work session in the craft room. It’s possible to get this done this month and do a legit photoshoot and all, but I can also see this label taking longer than that. Hopefully it all gets finished this month.
  • Riley Blake Designs’ Block Challenge Quilt: There’s so much on my plate this month, so I’m going to shoot for getting six of the chevron blocks done.
  • Baby Quilt: A friend is pregnant! There’s a baby on the way! Yay for babies!!! I’m trying to decide on the direction I want to go with this—I have a flimsy already made, the “Best Friends Farm Wonky Stars” quilt from during my Blank Quilting ambassador days, that would work beautifully, but I feel guilty re-purposing something I already made? That guilt is silly, right? If I decide to go with the partially-made quilt, I’d like to have it basted by the end of the month. If I decide to make a new quilt from scratch, I will need to decide on my pattern and acquire the fabric by the end of the month. As I write my options down and look out upon the expanse of projects waiting for my schedule to open up so I can work on them, I’m leaning heavily towards using the already-existing flimsy.

Hand Stitching:

English Paper Piecing: Get as much work done as possible on Smitten. It’s HOT in the craft room in the summer, so hand-piecing is perfect for this weather. I should set a daily stitching time goal for this. Fifteen to thirty minutes a day or something. We’re in the slog of it; I just need to sit my butt in the chair and stitch and it’ll be over faster.

Knitting: I usually work on the Husband Christmas Socks in secret, but I am much further behind on them this year than I normally am, so I’m going to talk about them because publicly shaming myself works for me. I try to have the Husband Christmas Socks done by the Fourth of July so they don’t hang over me, but here we are, almost at the Fourth of July, and I’m only about two-thirds done with the FIRST sock. Eek! The situation isn’t dire, obviously, but some heat needs to be applied. I’ve been working on them for fifteen minutes a day for some months now, but I guess I need to bump it up to thirty minutes until they’re done. It’d be great to finish them up by the end of the month, but a practical goal would be finish the first sock and get to the heel of the second sock? That’s actually a little ambitious, but possibly doable. I have some other socks I’d like to knit up as gifts this year, so being behind on this is annoying to my Christmas junkie senses.

Embroidery: None for this month. But it is July and hand stitching is lovely in the summer, so hopefully I get through my projects so I can visit some embroidery projects. There’s nothing like sipping lemonade and embroidering in the garden while the bees buzz in the lavender plants.

Summary of July’s Crafty Goals:

  • Rachel’s Graduation Quilt: Finish both the signature back flimsy AND the pencil crayon top flimsy.
  • FQS Sewcialites 3: Sew up blocks #15-23. (3 per week.)
  • Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: Finish the label, photoshoot, blog post.
  • Riley Blake Designs’ Block Challenge Quilt: Sew up six chevron blocks.
  • Wonky Stars Baby Quilt: Baste. (Do I need to secure a backing and batting?)
  • Smitten EPP Quilt: 30 minutes of stitching a day.
  • Husband Christmas Socks: 30 minutes of stitching a day.
  • Embroidery: Indulge in some summer garden stitching on Sunday afternoons and soak in the aesthetic.

Proud family of a White River High School graduate, class of 2026

Rachel’s High School Graduation

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Another graduate in the Brooke household! Rachel graduated last night in the rain!

White River High School graduate, class of 2026
Proud family of a White River High School graduate, class of 2026
White River High School graduates toss graduation caps

It’s been such a great week with all the graduation buildup and festivities. Emily flew back home to be a part of her baby sister’s big day and it’s so great having all my Brookelets under the same roof for a little while! (NOT a fan of this whole “flying the nest” business of parenting!)

In true Washington State fashion, it rained on and off throughout the graduation ceremony, so we were pretty damp and chilled by the time it came to taking pictures afterwards and we struggled to find our brightest joy on film, ha ha.

And now we’re taking some easy days to get over all the craziness before Rachel’s grad party. Whew!

I’ll leave you with the picture that makes me laugh the most, which just sums us all up so perfectly most of the time:

Family graduation photo preparations

All the blocks in the Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge 2026 sew along, sewn by Cara Brooke of That Crafty Cara in blue, pink and green.

craftygoals: June 2026

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We made it to the summer! We’re in the midst of end-of-school chaos and fun, so I’m just going to leave a quick update!

Cara and Renaissance Brooke serving cake at the end of year band concert
Ren and I serving cake at the end-of-year band concert.

Debrief: May #craftygoals:

Graduation: We are working on it! It’s finally here! Made some leis, sent out most of the invitations, and Rachel and I have run quite a few errands to prepare for her graduation party. We even did her “Senior Skip Day” together because she wasn’t interested in doing the stuff her peers had planned to do, and wanted to go quilt shop-hopping with me instead! Such a fun day!

Cara and Rachel Brooke going quilt shop hopping on Rachel's high school Senior Skip Day.
Senior Skip Day: Quilt Shop Hopping!

Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge Sew Along: I finished all sixteen blocks! It still needs its setting blocks and final construction and finishing, which I had hoped to do in May, but alas, that did not happen.

All the blocks in the Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge 2026 sew along, sewn by Cara Brooke of That Crafty Cara in blue, pink and green.

Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: Kept up with the blocks until this last Friday because I caught the cold that’s going around these parts and I’m recuperating from that. Did not work ahead on June’s blocks as I hoped I would.

Blocks 1-14 in the Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 Sew Along, sewn in green, pink, red, orange and yellow fabrics.

Graduation Quilts: Received the last block I was waiting on for Ren’s quilt and bought some fabric for the new top I’m going to make for it. Received the fabric for Rachel’s quilt top but haven’t started on it. Sent out lots of blocks to be signed for Rachel’s quilt and received most of them back.

Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: I am SO CLOSE to being done with the binding; there’s only about two feet left to hand-stitch.

Sew Many Stars BOM Christmas Quilt: Nope.

Smitten EPP Quilt: I put in some decent time on this on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. Rachel has started her own Smitten quilt, and she is surging forward with it, which lights a fire under my keister to finish up mine because mine’s been in progress for almost six years now. Can’t let her beat me!

In-progress shot of a scrappy "Smitten" English paper pieced quilt in a rainbow of colors.

[H1] June #craftygoals:

Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:

Graduation: This is it! We’re there! The next two weeks are going to be such a whirlwind of activity! All focus is on graduation, so I doubt I’ll work on anything outside of that.

Summer Plans: I always flail a little bit when we head into summer break, but there’s a lot going on this summer with Nathaniel, so there’s a lot of logistical details to execute for him throughout the season.

Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:

I am actually not going to make any goals for June. I’m going to be so busy with graduation and the inevitable clean-up and reset afterwards that I don’t want the extra pressure on my shoulders. IF I find some downtime to work on creative stuff, then great; but I’m not going to publicly declare any intentions.

Heads-Up on Possible Radio Silence:

This is going to be a very busy summer, so the blog and social media channels might go silent. If that’s the case, just know that I fully intend to be back in the swing of things by October, as always. Hopefully I can remember to check in at least once a month, but you know how it gets with sunshine activities and gardening!

In case I don’t pop through until autumn, I wish you the happiest of summers!

"Cherry Limeade" birthday cake, made by Renaissance Brooke in shades of green, yellow, red, pink and white.

FQS Sewcialites 3 Check-in: May Update

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More than halfway there! Blocks I sewed up in May:

Block 11: “Snuggle Patch,” by Edyta Sitar

Block 11 "Snuggle Patch," in the Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 Sew Along, designed by Edyta Sitar and sewn up in yellow, green and pink.

I really like how this block turned out; I’ve been hoping I’d have a chance to use that lemon print at some point in this quilt, and using up some of that lime green and red “Little Ruby” print made me very happy as it’s a tough one to use as well. I was delighted to find some of this pink Lori Holt cherry print from her “Calico” collection in the scrap bins, so of course it had to make an appearance in the Cherry Limeade quilt!

Block 12: “Shoo Fly,” by Sharon Holland

Block 12 "Shoo Fly" designed by Sharon Holland, for the Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 Sew Along and sewn up in red and green.

I really like making scrap quilts because I happen upon leftovers from previous projects that make me smile. This sock monkey fabric is leftover from an apron I made for Renaissance when she was 3 or 4 years old, and I HAD to fussy cut a sock monkey once I saw it.

Block 13: “Back Porch,” by Joanna Figueroa

Block 13 "Back Porch," in the Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 sew along, designed by Joanna Figueroa. Sewn up in red, pink, orange, yellow and green.

While scrap-tossing I found all these fruity prints and wanted to use them in this block, which will probably be the center block of the quilt, so I wanted a lot of negative space around it to help it stand out. I thought I used up all of that orange and yellow Sandi Henderson apple print, but a few days later I found another scrap of it. Love these fruity scraps!

Block 14: “Criss-Cross Star,” by Lori Holt

Block 14 "Criss-Cross Star," designed by Lori Holt for Fat Quarter Shop's Sewcialites 3 sew along, sewn up in Heather Ross fabrics in pink, orange, yellow and green.

While combing through scraps to start this block, I happened upon the green Rapunzel fabric and I decided to make this block entirely out of Heather Ross fabrics. It includes fabrics from all three of her “Far, Far Away” collections, plus fabrics from her “Briar Rose” and “Kinder” collections. I knew the pink apple print for the background was a bit of a stretch, and I ultimately believe the block would look better with a less busy fabric for the background, but it made me so happy to pieces all these brilliantly-colored scraps together that I couldn’t possibly go back and remove the apples. I smile every time I walk through my craft room and notice this block. It’s just one busy block in a quilt full of better-balanced blocks, so it won’t matter in the long run!

Block 15: “Split Star,” by Lissa Alexander

Today’s new block is the “Split Star” and I have contracted the cold that’s making its way through our community, so I probably won’t get to sewing it up for a little while. Rachel’s graduation is also fast-approaching, so all crafty pursuits might come to a standstill for the next month. I had hoped to work ahead on this quilt so I wouldn’t fall behind, but May is a busy month and I couldn’t find the time. Oh well.

Happy birthday to me!

I am so glad I committed to this quilt as it’s been so much fun to sew! I talk about these blocks and the lovely sewing community in the Facebook group all the time, so much so that Renaissance themed my birthday cake on this Cherry Limeade quilt this year:

"Cherry Limeade" birthday cake, made by Renaissance Brooke in shades of green, yellow, red, pink and white.

Isn’t it the cutest?!?! Seriously, make time to bake with your children as they grow up; you might just raise up a pastry chef that makes holidays and celebrations all the more beautiful in your family! It’s so much fun to watch her in her pastry program.

Download the free block patterns for yourself:

Block 16 "Kaleidoscope Star," designed by Tara Reed for the Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge 2026 sew along in shades of green and blue.

Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge 2026: May Check-In

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We’ve come to the end of this year’s Block Challenge sew along and all my blocks are done!

Block 15: “Center of Attention,” by Heather Peterson

Block 15 in the 2026 Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge "Center of Attention" designed by Heather Peterson, sewn up in Confetti Cottons solids in green, blues and pinks.

Not a bad little block. I’d like to see an entire quilt made of these. I threw this together in a short amount of time, so there’s not much to say about it.

Block 16: “Kaleidoscope Star,” by Tara Reed

Block 16 "Kaleidoscope Star," designed by Tara Reed for the Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge 2026 sew along in shades of green and blue.

I think this is a particularly striking block. Another block that I’d like to make an entire quilt out of. We shall see.

Finishing

The finishing instructions were released today, and they differ from how I thought they were going to go. I had preemptively started working on the setting blocks in the manner I thought they’d be constructed, so I’m just going to go forward with my method. I had made the goal to finish this quilt in its entirety by the end of May, but that will not be happening; and with Rachel’s graduation only weeks away, my focus is going to shift to preparing for all the festivities and preparations for that. Hopefully I can come back to this quilt before the end of the summer.

Thanks so much, Riley Blake Designs and all of its designers, for putting on a lovely sew along. This quilt is going to look so beautiful in my front room.

The block patterns are free and available on the Riley Blake website. If you want to download specific patterns, here’s the links: