As a kid we spent our August camping at a favorite spot in southern Oregon. 
An outing we all looked forward to was a trip to the peach orchards.  Oh those large, juicy peaches fresh off the tree were one of summer's delights. 
So can you guess this month's dessert?   

 
​The star of our show is Peach Cobbler.

The corners in this block are done in the same way we did Block 1. ( I did a more complete tutorial there:  https://www.tuning-my-heart.com/blog/just-desserts-block-1)

​So just a few tips today:
Remember to sew with your needle just to the outside of the drawn line.

You can chain-piece these.  I like to sew with my needle in the down position. 
​ I place the next unit to be sewn right up next to the needle before beginning.

Check to make sure that the top triangle covers the  corner of the square underneath. 
Visit my blog post for Block One for a handy cheat if your square is showing a bit after sewing.

For your copy of this month's block pattern click HERE.

Happy Quilting!

​What comes to mind when you think of July? 
Lazy summer days, lemonade,
afternoons in the pool,
walks in the woods...

My pattern directs us to join these sections into pairs, which lock together very nicely for perfectly matched seams.  I like to sew my pairs together with the seam on top pointing towards my needle as seen here.  This pushes those seams together as I sew.

In the pattern I also mention fanning the seam on these.  I use my thumbs to separate the seam so that it splits it in two, with one side laying one direction and the other side laying the opposite.  (I had to hald the camera to take the photo so you only see on of my thumbs at work.)  I finger press these seams before taking them to my pressing surface.

Once pressed, the back looks like this. Notice that the center looks just like our 4-patch.
​  This is a really useful trick for getting bulky seams to lay flat.

The rest of this block is done just like June's Block and you can find the photo tutorial I did for that one HERE.
Now for some added inspiration from my pattern testers.

Leigh Ann Wilkes of Your Homebased Mom shared this recipe.  It looks beautiful.  Visit her blog for the recipe linked HERE.

You can get your copy of this month's block HERE.

I just couldn't resist one last photo of things I love about July-sundresses and wildflowers.

I love how this quilt is coming out.  So does my husband, which means he has requested I add more borders to make it large enough to go on our bed. 
​For my pattern however, this is where I stop. To make it fit our bed I will be adding an 8" grey border all around and then a 9" dark blue border to give me a finished size of 97" x  97" which will fit our queen size bed with the drape on the sides we like. (92x96 is the dimension I normally shoot for to get a 16" drop.)  At the end of this post I will share some options I came up with to enlarge the size of this quilt for a bed.

It is especially important when cutting long border strips to start with a fabric that has been squared up.  The photo below shows what happens when I fold my fabric in half and it is not squared-see those wrinkles along the bottom folded edge?  I do not want to see that or I will end up with a strip of fabric that is not straight.

The dark blue fabric is pretty wonky because I did not square up the fabric before cutting my strip.  The grey is nice and straight just like I want.  So how do we achieve that?

I hold the two top edges of the fabric I am working with between my thumb and index finger, separating the two sides between those fingers.  Now I can slide them independently until that bottom fold edge is nice and smooth.  My fabric is now squared up. (I cannot take the photo and hold the fabric so I have laid it out on my ironing board, lol) 

Leah Day has a video that demonstrates this pretty well.

Another tip that will help as you add those long borders:  I place pins about every five inches or so and sew with the border strip on top.  Whenever I add a border strip I find the middle of the strip  and the middle of my quilt then match them up and place my first pin.  Next I pin the ends as I have already cut the strips to the correct length.  From there I ease everything to fit and pin from the center working my way to the outer edges. 

    For my quilt I managed to find a grey snowflake material that goes nicely with what I already had and I had plenty of my dark blue to work with as it was going to be the backing and I will just find something else for the back.  You could also frame it with completely different fabrics as option 3 shows.  Option 4 replaces the last Dark Blue border in the original pattern with a wider blue border to continue the blue and white theme.

My pattern testers have shared their progress and what they are doing with their borders.
​  I think they are looking great!

I am looking forward to seeing what all of your finished quilts look like.  I will be taking a break over the summer so will come back to quilt mine in September so that I can hopefully have it completed before winter arrives.  

You can find the directions for finishing HERE.  Scroll down the page to the directions for the Snowman quilt.

Happy Quilting!