Where did the summer go?

Ok.  First of all, don't ever start a blog a month before you get married with the expectations that you will actually keep it updated.  So much has happened over the summer.  We got married June 22nd and it was a beautiful wedding.  We had such an amazing time.  My husband is from Reno, Nevada and I hadn't had the chance to meet a lot of his family yet.  So getting married in Lake Tahoe gave me the opportunity to do that.  They were great and so completely welcoming to me and my children.  The kids loved having a whole new family.

In one of my previous posts I said I was working on some throws for my new mother in law and sister in law and I promised pictures.  Well I goofed and didn't take pictures before I handed them off.  They came out great and I think they loved them.  I hope they did anyway.  I have a few more to make as gifts for some of my other new family members.  I have started a quilt for my new niece Clare, who has a birthday coming up in September.  This is the quilt I choose to do for her.  Garden Patch.

I am using different fabrics though since I have the pattern already from the magazine.  I hope she likes it.  My new brother-in-law is moving in a new house sometime soon so he will need a throw for his living room. And then I have one sister-in-law left that I don't have anything picked out for yet.  

So, even though I wasn't posting a lot this summer I sure was sewing a lot.  I only have a couple hours every evening to sew so I didn't want to use that time blogging.  But I decided to make myself sit down and get better about this.  I really want to keep a record of what I am working on and what is going on in my life.  I want my quilts to have a story.  

There is one other thing I want to share.  I finished this quilt top a couple weeks ago.  I have had it as a UFO for about 5 years.  And I am not kidding.  It was a block of the month that I was never able to keep up with.  Its called Hot Chocolate.  I did it all using machine applique.  I had a hard time finding a fusible I really liked so there are about 5 different paper backed fusible's in there.  I used Heat-n-bond, Steam-a-seam, Soft Shades, and Applique Fuse from Marathon Threads.  I thought there was another but it escapes me now.  I just couldn't find one I liked.  Either it was stiff and stuck really well or soft and would come un-fused halfway through doing the block.  I am still undecided on my favorite but I think its between Soft Shades and Steam-a-Seam.  Here's some detail shots just because you can never have enough snowmen.  

Well even though I have so much more to share from this summer, this post is getting super long.  I have a few other works in progress that I need to show you but I want to take some better pictures.  I hope you all are having an amazing and productive summer as well!