Purple and Orange

Well, THAT’s an exciting blog title, eh? Kidding! I was going to title it “I Can’t Think of a Blog Post Title”, but I’ll have to save that gem for another time. I’m attributing my brain fog to the orange, smoky skies outside. It appears that the west half of the USA is on fire and the east half is poised for hurricane season. If only we could share, there would be a lot less destruction. Who’s going to tell Mother Nature?

This week was same old same old here. I did make a great stir fry this week. Heck, I make one a couple times a month, but it’s especially nice when so many of the ingredients come from your own garden. And there is a peach pie to make later today with what’s left of the peaches we got at the Farmer’s Market last week. I’m the queen of pre-prepped meals, but I do break down a couple times a week and fix something that didn’t come out of the freezer. If I have to. I guess. 

Anyway, as usual, there was a lot of sewing happening. First up, I made a small purple basket of and for my purple scraps. I usually use Angela’s pattern, which finishes about 7x10” by 7” high. This time I made it 7x7x7”, because my purple scraps are not that plentiful. When we get to red, I’ll be using that size too.

And then I used more of my bits and bobs to make another purple Beachcomber block. It joins the two I made last year, plus all the others I’ve collected since March of 2019.

Beachcomber is my name for this block, but the original name of the quilt itself was Beach Retreat. I saw a picture of a quilt online a few years ago, and pinned it in my Pinterest. Then I just figured out the dimensions I wanted to use. It was originally in a book called Stash Statement by Kelly Young and the subsequent blog hop. Here is where I first saw it.  Anyway, I like the name Beachcomber for the block, because the scraps of fabric one uses to make the colored portions reminds me of the detritus a beachcomber picks up on the beach.  :-)

Anyway, here are most of my Beachcomber blocks so far. It sorely needs red and yellow. Another five blocks total and I can start sewing it together. 

The States Quilt got quilted and bound this week. It’s ready to head to Quilts for Kids when we have our next local workshop in two months (September’s meeting is way down in Utah County, and I’m not going).  Anyway, States finished at 44x58”, and the back and binding are both from the state names background fabric. And I still have some left over. It will get cut into strips for more strip quilts...

This was my OMG (One Monthly Goal for August, and I’m linking up to the August goal finish post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. 

And I’m sad to report that I stitched my last Zipper blocks. I only needed 10 more, but I sewed 12. So I have two extra blocks, plus the extra va-va-voom ladies fabric block, which makes 3 for the back. Here is the first batch I sewed this week.

Say hello to Bob Ross again! I think this finished up that fabric. Then there’s some Kaffe and some Tula Pink as well. 

Then I sewed one more from one of my all time favorite fabrics from Amy Butler. It was from her Lark Line (circa 2012-2013), and I’ve had 2.5 yards sitting in my stash since then. The coloring of the picture below is all off, but you get the idea.  I don’t understand why camera’s sometimes “see” a true color and sometimes not.

That fabric shows up accurately in the next picture, which is the fabric pull and introductory photo for my next quilt project. My DIL Kim asked me (well, actually I asked her if she’d like me) to make Christmas quilts for her parents, who we have known and loved for years. I pulled potential focus fabrics and patterns (on Pinterest), and this is what Kim chose. The pattern is Florabelle Bloom by Melissa Corey, a free pattern located HERE. 

I pulled the other fabrics to go with it, and have cut all the flower portions out so far. Ignore my scribblings on the paper above; I’m doing something a little different from her pattern or my scribbles. My plan is to do the 20 flowers, but eliminate the outer 2” border of white and colored squares for the secondary flowers. Instead, I’ll have a 1” white stop border then a 3.5” border in the focus fabric. Both Kim and I loved the fabric because it looks very European (Austrian/Italian), and since all three of us (Kim, her mom Paula, and me) have all been to and love the Tyrol region of Austria and Italy, we wanted to feature it as much as possible. Five of the 20 flowers will also be made using that fabric. There are no firm plans yet as to the backing (scrappy? purchased?) or binding. The working title for the quilt is Tyrol. 

I’ll introduce the quilts I’ll be making for DIL Kim’s dad (Bill) and my son Ryan in future posts. I had some great masculine fabric in several prints that coordinate and match other things in my stash; enough to get two quilts out of easily. The backings for those will be big pieced buffalo checks and will require yardage purchases.  Kim and I will go shopping for the backings and fabrics when the time comes. 

Oh! Last but not least..... wait. It is last and it is least. Because I’m mad at it. 

You see, although purple is the color of the month for those of us participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, I have always intended to mix my purple scraps with the rest of my oranges for this  monthly scrap Creature Quilt. This month was going to be Creature From the Molten Volcano. I could see it in my mind, and even drew it out! A purple volcano of strip blocks. Fiery orange scraps spitting out in streams and curls (strip blocks, snail’s trail blocks), plus all the other scraps and blocks........ SCREEEEETCH!  The reality of the scraps and orphan blocks I have do not say volcano. See what I mean?

They are having an identity crisis. I’m thinking maybe Creature from the Serengeti (which I would prefer to name Creature from the Maasai Mara, which is the Kenyan side of the same geographic region). Or maybe something to do with all the wildfires here in the West? Any ideas? 

So anyway, this is what I’ll be banging my head against the wall working on this week. Wish me luck. Stay safe, friends, and wear your masks! xo

Linking up to: Rainbow Scrap Saturday