Where does all the time go....

Can it really almost be Labor Day? I've spent the last few days watching the memorial and funeral of Teddy Kennedy and was moved by his dedication to his family, so many things about him we never really saw or heard bout since everything always seemed to be about his political career. I knew of all the hardships and bad days but had never realized the love story he was living the last years of his life. We will truly miss him. I have recently been involved with a group spontaneously put together by the husband of an online quilter, Kristen LaFlamme. Art LaFlamme is in Iraq and leaving very soon and has summoned the online quilters to help put together boxes of fabric to be handed out to the women of Iraq before he leaves on Sept. 7th. Take a minute to stop by his site and check out the story and send a bundle of your own. He also have a "secret" group called "Old Mother Hubbard" to help put others things together for a another needy group but have about a month for this project. The project is operating under the name of Iraqi Bundles of Love at http://www.ibol.wordpress.com/ . Robin of http://www.simplyrobin.blogspot.com/ put out a seperate challenge when Ted Kennedy died for us to mail a seperate package and send in purple as an honor all he's ever done for these in need.
This is all such a wonderful experience and I thank them all for putting this together and allowing me to be a small part of it all.

Though my blogging has not been very successful I have actually been quilting and stitching and getting things done one day at a time.I have been very busy working on projects and trying to keep up with all the BOM's I've signed up for and try to still find time to quilt. This is my Chubby Chicks project I worked on early in the year but haven't had time to quilt yet working with orange.
In keeping with the orange theme I just recently started working on an improvisational quilt using some "Texas" orange. I was inspired to start this after seeing Stephanie's anniversary quilt in progress. You can see her progress at http://www.stephpea.typepad.com/. Eventually all my blocks will get squared up with white borders and I'm not sure yet if I'm happy with all the blocks yet. The longhorn is only paper for the moment but will eventually be appliqued on the orange square. I am also still mulling around having a gray border and would somehow like to have a large longhorn on the back. The blocks will be 12.5 " squares so I'll probably end up with 20 squares when it's all said and done and obviously won't make kickoff but it will probably be an early Christmas present so he can enjoy it during football season.

I am planning to start a new quilt-along with John from http://www.quiltdad.blogpost.com/ which will be wonky log cabins and I think I will do these in fall colors and since it all starts on Sept. 1st I really need to make a decision on this pretty quickly.

The last quilt along I did was hosted by Dana at http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/ and I did this one in reds and turquiose and once it was done it just said "summer" to me so I sent it to A&;G for them to use as a beach/water park quilt. I added the little bow to help keep it neatly tucked inside the backseat.

I ended using the leftover blocks on the back and then made them a label using a photo I had taken of them a year or so ago at Longwood Gardens in PA.