Two new projects

Hi everyone!  Are you melting?  We sure are!  It's been in the 90s the last several days, and it's not supposed to end for a couple more days. The first day was nice, but I'm totally over it now.  Although the sunshine is very nice!  On a completely unrelated note, has anyone ever used the films that you put over the windows to block out some of the heat?  No reason, just wondering if they work.

So, with it being so hot and all, gardening and outdoor painting is out of the question.  Instead, I started two new projects.  Of course!  What else is there to do?  Remodel the kitchen?  Write a paper?  Work on my next book?  No, I think playing with some fabric wins out over those every time. 

Here's the first thing I've started:

This is the beginning of an I Spy quilt!  I think it's going to be darling. I mean, just look at those fabrics! Most of them came from friends,who all have much nicer fabric than I do, though I did have a few myself.  I thought about a number of different ways to use them, but I settled on a simple square in a square block to use up some scraps and showcase the fabrics.  I plan to set these on point with some fun setting triangles, though I don't have the specific fabric yet.

The centers of these blocks are 5 inch squares, and the sides are made from 4-inch squares cut in half.  This will make the finished blocks 6-3/8 inches square.  Since this is going to be a kid's quilt, I'll probably only need 35 blocks or so for a decent size. 

So, there's one project, and it's a lot of fun to work on, so I'm thinking it will go fast.  The fabric is fun, of course, but it also makes me happy that this little quilt will likely end up either with my tiny grandson or in my "grandma stash" for when little ones visit here.  Actually, I think my grandson would love this, and we'll be visiting him later this summer, so I have lots of incentive to work on it.

The other project that I'm starting is the June quilt along with Amanda at crazymomquilts.  She's running the quilt along for a throw-sized string quilt on her blog this month and I decided to go ahead and join in!  Here are the fabrics I'll be using:

I know I just made a string quilt, but I do have a ton of pink and green fat quarters and pieces, and I'll throw some yellow in, too.  The background is a cream with a pale pink polka dot.  They look pretty pale in this picture, but I'm sure they'll look great in the quilt together.  And for those of you who know me, you know that I didn't forget these, too:

Yep, tiny little skinny strings.  I just can't resist them, but I swore to myself that I'd try to avoid the smallest ones this time.  We'll see how that works out.

Finally, there's one thing the hot weather has been very good for (warning, this is a terrible picture):

Tomatoes!  My lone tomato plant already has 4 tomatoes on it.  I can hardly believe it.  The thought of fresh tomatoes before August has really warmed my Midwestern heart.  I can't wait!

I hope the heat breaks soon for all of us.  I've planted 4 trees so far this year and I'm worried about one of them, and the heat isn't helping.  Until it cools off, I'll be alternating between the sewing room and the library.  Good thing both of them are air conditioned!  

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social.