The Scraps are Always Greener in May

I’ve been cutting green scraps like a madwoman, and I have the dead/numb right arm to prove it. Thank goodness for ibuprofen! I have a lot to show this week, and am linking up to Scrappy Saturday over at Angela’s blog. If you are craving green, that is the place to go!

So let’s get started. This week, I made the green shelf of books for my bookcase quilt. Normally, a row consists of 5 twelve-inch finished size blocks. This time, since the row was going to be all green instead of a combination of two colors (like the blue/teal row), my goal was just to sew a continuous line of books that was all green, 60.5” across, with seam allowance. The number of blocks, per se, didn’t matter.

This is what it all looks like as a finished unit. Sorry for the bad picture and the odd coloring/shadows of my design board. That orange coffee mug is a big question mark; more about that in a moment.

Here are some closer shots, from left to right....

First, my favorite area, with a fishbowl.  Kim and I were sewing together when I came up with this. And since we had just been talking about Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn getting their stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I had to name them Kurt and Goldie.

In the next section the books definitely seem to be listing to port. I was going to say the section is straight-up books, but they’re definitely looking tipsy. In double checking the actual section, it’s just the way they are pinned to the design board in the picture. Yikes!

OK, here is where I need an opinion. The orange coffee mug is temporarily positioned there. Should the mug stay, or should we vote it off the island?? Or keep it in a different color perhaps? If it stays, I will naturally trim out the handle area before fusing it on.

Moving along, here is the rightmost section.

Once again, I have filled the bookcase with such well known and best-selling titles as  A Walk in the Park, Downton Abbey and (my favorite), Turtle Parade!!  Selecting titles is my favorite part of this process. Yep, I still have some growing up to do!

But wait, there’s more.  Oh my, that sounds like an infomercial. But I digress. I also knocked out my 6” Plus blocks, 16 of them. I have no idea yet if these will become a quilt on their own, or if they will be filler blocks for something else.

This next week will see me sewing on green bowtie blocks, green friendship stars, and finishing the Stars and Stripes quilt top sashing. The blue fabric for the sashing arrived and it looks good, so time to get that moving along.

I spent a good deal of time in the yard this week. First I cleaned up my potting bench and surrounding area to allow our garden service people easier access to the back yard with their huge mower. Our back grass is postage stamp sized (we have more garden, patio and flower beds), but they want to use the big mower. One circle around it will get all the grass. Seriously. Up to now they’ve just been using a weed whacker. But whatever..... Anyway, I also got most of my flowers purchased so that I can begin planting and setting out all my lovely Talavera pots on the front porch area. The irises are just opening up and I plan to make a point of getting some pictures this week. Any green thumbing should fit right in with our color scheme this month!

Happy Mother’s Day!