Red Hot Sewing

It’s July, and that means a new color - RED - for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. We’re sewing our red fabric scraps and linking up with Angela’s Scrappy Saturday post. Come join us!

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Kenya for 12 days on a trip that combines humanitarian projects (Days for Girls, ribbon cutting of a new community center, distributing hundreds of wooden toys from Tiny Tim’s Toys) and pleasure (3-day safari during the great animal migration). I’ll be taking lots of pictures, writing in my journal and getting to know as many lovely Kenyans as possible. I’m so excited that I can hardly sit still!

But sit still I did, earlier in the week, in order to churn out as much red scrap sewing as possible. Nervous energy! Here’s what emerged from under the needle....

One Linked Squares block. It’ll finish at 16”. Only two orange ones left to go...

Six 4.5” red bowties. I think I’ll only need a half dozen orange bowties, then I can begin assembly of this RSC quilt.

Lots of selvage squares: 12 at 6.5” and 2 at 4.5”.

Quarter log cabins galore. Sixteen of them at 6.5”.

All I have left to do are the Squared Away sampler blocks, which I plan to work on today since I’m all packed and ready to leave. And then when I get home in a couple weeks I’ll still have all the crumb blocks to work on.

Oh! I also sewed up six cute Christmas tree blocks for the Block Lotto’s July drawing. Coincidentally, they also feature red (with cream and gray or black). These were really fun! The link to the pattern is HERE.

Our garden is going gangbusters, and we have been enjoying the last of the rhubarb (now done), spinach and peas (both done), the butter lettuce (still going), lots of crookneck squash and the cherry tomatoes are just coming on.  I was able to get enough apricots from the tree to make two batches of apricot jam this week, and they are safely in the freezer.

The cats weren’t too crazy about all the fireworks for the 4th of July, but they did love the patriotic quilts I’ve had out. Here Darla models the one I made last year. I have one of Alfie snuggled in the quilt, too, but can’t find it at the moment. But Darla says the picture of her is better anyway.

See you in a couple weeks!