The holiday is over and I am happy to be back.  I hope many of you have some exciting summer plans.  We took in some of our local Canada Day celebrations and the fire works were spectular.  Today, we hope our US friends have enjoyed a special July 4th celebration.

The postal strike is ended and what a relief.  It did nothing but create stress for those of us trying to ship parcels, letters, etc. to only find the government had locked the employees out.  We are only received 2 pieces of mail of any value since the workers were ordered back to work. 

I have taken part in the Quilting Board Doll Quilt Swap.  I have a wonderful partner Carron who lives in California.  We have enjoyed many messages to each other trying to figure out when it should be safe to mail our mini quilts.  They are gone off to their new homes but I cannot share a picture of my little darling I sent to Carron until she receives it, soon I am hopeful.  Now I am into the July Doll Quilt Swap with a new partner, Linny of Minnesota.  I have hers nearly done and it is very small.  I can hardly wait to get it off in the mail to her.

Another new adventure for this summer is a Postcard Swap.  I am in a group with 3 others doing a swap of "what is in your picnic basket".  I have never made a postcard so it should be interesting.  I went in search of a large piece of Peltex I had but I am fearful that ,not knowing what it actually was, I have thrown it out.  Oh dear, not a place in my town to buy fabric let alone Peltex.  I will try fusing together some pieces of cotton to see if I can get it stiff enough.  I am looking forward to this.  This is my type of break from making quilts during the summer.

I have done one small Charity project, Chemo hats.  A friend phoned me saying the local Cancer Office didn't have any chemo hats on hand and would I make some for a former employee.  Well they know me, of course and the next day I was off to the hospital to chat with the OR nurses about their cute hats they wear.  One was so kind and gave me one of hers to keep and take apart for a pattern.  I then had to search for some good fabric that would be cool during the summer months and came up with a nice jersey knit, a seersucker aqua cotton, and a red rayon.  I made 12 over the weekend and got  them delivered promptly.

I will share a secret with you.  I made a small quilt and made a mess of it.  I truly mean a real mess.  I even went to Christina of "A Few Scraps" for some help.  Then I prepared to rip out all the stitching I had done.  Shield your eyes, here it is!

See in the bottom left hand corner, that's were the worst is.  I have ripped everything out from the green checkerboard up.  Christina and others have suggested using a white thread on the white background using a dense pattern of paisley, flowers and add some butterflies, snails, worms, etc.  They have excited me and I am madly practicing some dense stitching.  I am not ready yet to go back to this finished item, just might muck it up again.  This is what is so wonderful about blogging and having so many great friends on the Internet.  You can get honest feedback on a problem as well as encouragement to keep working at it.  I would normally chuck this mess but I felt I had done a good job sewing the blocks together and it was worth having a second chance.

I am really tired out tonight so I am going to sign off.  I will try and return tomorrow with some pictures of something I have finished or something new I have started.  I hope each of you have a wonderful evening.