What I'm Working On - July 2026

Here's a look at what's happening in my sewing room this month. Still a red, white, and blue explosion happening. My design wall is so festive and cheerful for summer. It makes me happy to look at it. This is my monthly post where I share what I'm working on each month. It's a little peek behind the curtain as well as my effort to be real and accountable about what I'm consuming and how many 'squirrel' projects there are. (If you're like this too, you're not alone!)

As you can see, I didn't finish some of the the projects I shared last month that I'd hoped to get done for the 4th. And do you know what?! That's OK! Because I'm already ahead of schedule for next year. 😉

Also, if you're still wanting to make a quilt to commemorate America's 250th Birthday, it's not too late! You totally have my official permission to keep working on it. The year is only half over. It's totally legal to finish a commemorative quilt after the 4th. Heck, it's totally fine to finish a commemorative quilt next year! (Remember how I found the unfinished quilt I started 25 years ago for the 225th Anniversary? 😅 No quilt police have showed up at my door. 😉)

These are just arbitrary deadlines that we give ourselves. As long as it's something you're enjoying, keep working on it!

A New Flag Project

That said, I'm starting a whole new flag kick. This one is honoring a dear friend of mine that I lost this year. I'll have more to share about that in the next couple of weeks.

This has been a project that's been on my 'to-do' list for years, but the World Cup this past month definitely kicked up my desire and motivation a few notches. I totally fell for Team Norway (and happily jumped on the Erling Haaland bandwagon). Plus, I've always been a sucker for flags. I love their simple, graphic design, plus those large areas of color are perfect of playing with fun prints and blenders.

This week I had fun pulling dark reds, whites and navy prints to make these blocks. I'm committed to using 100% stash on this quilt and I found SO many perfect prints and pieces that I've had for years and that I still love! So that's a win/win!!

Vintage-Inspired Summer Picnic Quilt Blocks

Another project I finally started this month are these Summer Picnic blocks from Susan Ache's Summer Memories book. I've been wanting to make this quilt since I first saw this book. I love the very vintage, beach-y vibe to makes it look like an antique quilt. When I was pulling red, white, and blue fabric from my stash for my Fly the Flag quilt last spring, I also pulled for this one.

I'm going with more of a 'delft' (royal) blue on this quilt (compared to the more dusty blues I've used on my other recent Americana Quilts).

Most of the prints are coming from my stash, but I found the royal blue flag print from Gracie Lawson's Firework Fields collection on sale after the 4th of July that I'm going to save for the border.

Riley Blake gave me a 10" stacker of Firework Fields that I'm going to use for the scrappy basket prints. The colors are perfect with more of royal blue combined with faded reds and pinks.

Half Square Triangle Shortcuts

This pattern calls for lots of little Half Square Triangles per block. I'm using the 1.5" Half Square Triangle papers on a Roll from the Fat Quarter shop. These foundation papers help you create perfectly accurate half-square triangle units every time with no fabric waste. I LOVE them.

The papers are available in lots of different HST sizes. They're a total gamechanger!

Zipper Pouches

Another project I've been working on is making some cute zipper pouches with my embroidery hoop using a free digital file download from Kimberbell. (This pattern does require a sewing machine with machine embroidery function and at least a 5" x 7" size hoop.)

Last week my sister, Laura Miller, was in town from Texas. She's the artist that I've collaborated with on my past 4 fabric collections with Riley Blake and I wanted to make her a few pouches using her artwork. These little pouches are a fun, satisfying little finish and so much fun for playing with different fabric combinations.

I also made this fun little crossbody zipper bag also in the embroidery hoop using the Ellie Crossbody Bag file from Kimberbell. Both of these pouches are lined and come out perfectly every time. They're so much fun to make if you have a machine with embroidery capabilities.

I used some Liberty fabric from my stash for this one. I got the hardware here and strap here.

New Liberty Project

Speaking of liberty I have one more project on my sewing table to share. This project has been in my UFO pile for a few years now and I'm finally putting it together - hoping to get it off to the quilter this week! I'm updating a pattern and I'll have a lot more to share in the weeks ahead, but here's a sneak peek.

Don't those blues feel so summery? 😍 I guess I'm on a blue kick right now.

Fabric Accountability

Fabric acquisition. Good news! I only bought 1 yard of fabric this month! I did acquire the sample yardage and precuts of Firework Fields from Riley Blake Designs as shown above. (As one of their designers they often provide fabric for projects, but I'm requesting less and less because I'm committed to really using stuff that I've already got on hand. 😅)

Also, I've been on a huge clean-out kick this month and just dropped off a huge load to my local crafting-thrift shop, Making Space Thrift. It felt SO GOOD! Also, seeing that place packed with eager crafters made me so happy to let go of things I've had stashed away for a long time. I've finally accepted that I'm just not going to get to "all of the things" and I'm happy to pass them on to someone else. 🙂

I wish I'd taken a picture of the back of my car before the drop off.

It felt SO GOOD! Seeing that place packed with eager crafters ready to repurpose good finds made me so happy to let go of things I've had stashed away for a long time.

I've finally accepted that I'm just not going to get to "all of the things" and I'm happy to pass them on to someone else. 😊

So bonus points for me this month because A) I definitely got rid of SO much more fabric than I acquired and B) my latest new project is going to be stash ONLY. I did the pull already and I'm super excited about it.

Excited to share more!

If you're looking for a little summer pick-me-up, clear out the things you know you'll never get to, and enjoy the freedom of making space for the projects you're truly excited about.

The REAL story behind the scenes

These monthly accountability posts are meant to be a look "behind the scenes", here's an even more accurate display of real life in my sewing room right now. This is a fraction of what is normally cropped out of the photos. 😆😅

If your sewing space looks remotely like this, you are in good company. 😉

Happy Sewing friends!