Sewing O’ the Green

I did get a lot of sewing done in the early part of the week with my green scraps. And I’m sharing some of them in this post. Others I'll save for next week. Today I’m exhausted. It’s been an emotionally charged and draining week. A roller coaster. But life is like that sometimes, and sewing sure helps to even things out for me. Sewing and quilting melt away stress, sadness, anger, even boredom. Does it do that for you? And I find if I add music (current playlist is Ed Sheeran and Mary Chapin Carpenter), time just floats happily by.

And so I’m cheerfully and green-fully linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday party.

First up are the Squared Away blocks for March. They’re this month’s installment of our Rainbow Scrap Sampler for this year.  I love the left one. The right one, not so much because of the fabric I chose. They are 10-inch blocks.

And then I did about eleven selvage squares measuring 6.5”, unfinished. Because I have very few dark green scraps, especially selvage scraps, I decided to mix all the greens for these blocks instead of focusing on just the medium to light ranges.

Next up was a Geese Migration block, a lovely pattern by Cynthia Brunz (of Quilting is more Fun than Housework). You can find her free pattern HERE. It’s a great stash buster.

And this weekend I’m joining in on Cynthia’s Oh Scrap! linkup. There are many of us currently working (or who have already finished) her Geese Migration pattern. These are only some of my blocks, and they’re on my design board with the fabric I’ll be using for the background and sashing.

The gray fabric is a lovely cotton called Linen Look by MakowerUK. It has a wonderful, rich color and drape. And I believe it shows off the colors to good advantage. Now there are probably some of you eagle-eyed stitchers who have noticed that my blocks are not all stitched with the same orientation. The yellow and pink blocks (and even the yellow and pink ones that aren’t shown) all have the geese on the left, while the rest have the geese correctly on the right. So, all I can say is ..... do all geese fly in the same identical formation every time? And if they do, then Oh.Well. I’m not changing them. :-)

I haven’t decided if these will be set on point, as shown in Cynthia’s pattern, or if they will be set like shown above. To date, I’ve never done an on-point setting (there! I admitted it!), but this quilt’s finish and Bonnie Hunter’s Ringo Lake pattern (I’m still sewing those blocks together) both call for on point. We shall see.....

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The rest of this post is pretty much for the birds...... my Lattice Birds quilt. I need to come up with a better name. Suggestions welcomed at any time!

This was the bird I made last week:

 And then I added three more:

And THEN I combined them with the blue members of their flock, as well as the inspiration fabric by Tamara Kate that will become a border, backing (and parts of blue birds).

Oh my, I am really loving this. When we get to blue again, there will be at least two more blue birds, maybe more. Blue and green will be the primary colors of the quilt, but we will also see some other colors. I added some pulled fabrics for those future birds in the picture below.

Oh, yes please! The birds will be flying all over the quilt on a Kona White background. Between the birds I’ll have a dark royal blue lattice made of single Irish Chain blocks. I plan to do those when we get to the dark blue month. I hope it turns out as nice as my drawn plans!

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Tonight we’re going to cap off the week by seeing the WellRED Comedy Act (The Liberal Rednecks) in Salt Lake City. Have you heard of them? Funny as heck, intellectual, but rather rough language. Bruce and I have tickets with Cousin Kim, Cousin Carrie (Kim’s sister) and Carrie’s adult daughter Jenny. It’s a dinner show.  And I’m looking forward to laughing a lot.