Lots of Country Life (and Little Else)

     Oh my, it's been a very long time since I've last updated my blog. The pups and I have spent a lot of time this summer just sitting back and chillin' in the house enjoying the a/c. In all honesty... we've been very lazy. A slight touch of Fall has been in the air, with a temperature of 48 one early morning this past week. We've been alternating between a couple of Fall like days and then a return to heat and humidity. But, it won't be long now until Fall is here to stay. The tree across the street from Corgi Cottage is already changing leaf color to a beautiful orange/gold. The tree inspired me to change the banner and background in eager anticipation of the cooler days to come.
     Last time I posted Country Life looked like this:

   I've spent my time stitching madly away on the border and grass (very boring). Now my Country Life looks like this:

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them if you'd like a close-up view. There is still lots of stitching left to do on the border flowers, birds and verse to add to the sky area... so we won't be doing the 'fini' happy dance any time soon. It's a beautiful sampler and has been a wonderful summer project.  I think I need to take a break from Country Life and perhaps work on a smaller project before returning and completing the sampler. 
     I've spent very little time at the sewing machine. I completed the August block for the French General BOM... and that was it.

      I like to introduce my traveling companion to you, my faithful readers. Annabelle and I will be crossing The Pond soon and we're both looking forward to sharing our adventure with you later this Fall. I can hardly contain Annabelle's enthusiasm... she's already packed her essentials and is counting down the days.

     Enjoy the remaining days of your Summer and the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Thank you for stopping by and visiting Corgi Cottage blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I love hearing from you and sharing the joy of stitching and quilting with you all.
      The transition period from Summer to Fall always makes me a bit nostalgic. I'll leave you today with some snaps of Emma and Owen in their pupper days.

 Till next time....

The Dog Days of Summer

     August has arrived and it brought the heat and humidity right along with it.What's a Corgi to do... I think Owen has found the solution to coping with the weather conditions..

       I spent some time at the sewing machine. I pieced all of the blocks for the BBD Country Charm quilt and have sewn the first six rows together.

 I have the remaining eight rows pieced but still have to sew the rows together. The BBD ladies finished the quilt off with a narrow ruffle. I plan to add some borders to the quilt top... but I haven't made any final decisions about the border treatment. 

     I also stitched up another French General BOM block... and then lost the finished block. You have to show the finished block to the quilt shop gal before you can pick-up the pattern and strips for the next block. In an effort to be 'green' I try not to take a shop bag. I only purchased a magazine and the new BOM, so I passed on the bag. I placed my finished block between the magazine, in a plastic wrapper, and the new BOM kit. Well... the block managed to slip-slide away without me realizing it. Thankfully I have enough leftover fabrics strips to make the block over again. 

     Since I was on a BBD stitching/quilting kick I decided to get my Anniversaries of the Heart sampler  out and add House #4 and #5 to the sampler.

 Blackbird Designs

Anniversaries of the Heart

Pink Manor

 The Pink Manor block took me the longest to stitch out of the first five Houses. Lots of color changes and lots going on in this house block. I think it can stand on its own and I don't have any plans to add a personalization to this block.

 Blackbird Designs

Anniversaries of the Heart

Farm House

The Farm House block was also the May house. Dad's birth month is May. This was the perfect block to personalize with my Dad's initials and year of birth in the rooftop of the house.

      I've returned to Country Life. I stitched a bit of the fill-in on the church today. I'll wait until my next post to share a progress snap.

     Ms. Cranky Pants, aka The Princess, just looked at the computer screen and saw her brother's snap being featured. Before she throws a Royal hissy fit I'll close this posting with a couple of snaps of our Emma.