Saturday, September 5, 2020

Red (Scrap) Alert

This week felt *almost* like old times - normal. If it weren’t for wearing masks on errands and using a lot of hand sanitizer, I could have almost believed there was no pandemic. We visited the grocery store and Costco together, and I stopped off at the thrift store (to drop off donations in the drive-through), Dillard’s (bought something underthings), and paid a socially-distanced visit to Cousin Carrie’s (Cousin Kim’s sister) to give her all my old beading magazines. Oh! We also went to the Best Friends Animal Shelter to drop off some kennel quilts. I forgot to show them last week. Back in May, our friend Terri dropped off four kennel quilts to us to pass on. 


That put me in the mood to make another batch myself, and I may have shown a half dozen or so before. But last week I finished all 19, and here they are.


So all told, we dropped off 23 kennel quilts. 

Here in the Salt Lake Valley, we had some cooler temperatures for a couple days (seventies) and it was glorious to feel so energetic again instead of moping around like an overheated slug. Summer has taken ‘hold again, but its days are numbered. Autumn is just around the corner!!! Let’s all pause for a moment of dancing and rejoicing!!  .......   ........  ........

OK, time to get back to the Blogpost.

OF COURSE I sewed this week. Cousin Kim and I are back to our sewing days of Sunday and Wednesday, which usually run from about 9:30 or 10 in the morning until 3-3:30-ish. I fix a simple lunch on Sundays and we do our Del Taco run on Wednesdays. Also, we start our sewing mornings with a quick exchange of veggies or a trip out to the garden. Kim brings me zucchini and cherry tomatoes and she gets onions and carrots and Armenian cucumbers from us. We’ll probably be picking the Concord grapes this week. I used to pick them and used my juicer to make grape juice. But then Bruce and I both admitted we really don’t care for grape juice, so I gave Kim the juicer and she gets all the grapes, too! And all the work, LOL. 

Today is the first Scrappy Saturday of September. Our color for this month is red. It’s been a year and a half (since January 2019) since red has been the monthly color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. And I am more than ready to whip those scraps into shape! First, I attacked the selvages. As usual, I sewed them into strips and then used my Accuquilt Go! Baby to turn them into half hexagons. I also cut some red fabric pieces to go along with them. 


Some of them may end up in the red Creature quilt at the end of the month; we’ll see.  Next up were the Twin Sisters blocks - thirteen.


Normally that’s all I seem to get accomplished during the first week, but I was a sewing fool this week, so there is also the red Scraptastic Star that I made.


After all that red, I got to work on some blocks for the Tyrol quilt I’m making. My goal is to sew four per week, and this week I sewed numbers 5-8 out of twenty needed. 


The quilt is from a free pattern called Florabelle Bloom, but I’ll be changing it up a little. :-)

And here are the first eight blocks, although there will be sashing when they’re actually sewn together. 


So, that just about brings things up to date from our little corner of the world. We are going to see Bruce’s daughter Stacy and her family over the long Labor Day weekend. Yay! (Muahahaha... another group to foist carrots and onions and grapes and tomatoes on!)

21 comments:

  1. I'm sure your friends and family members don't mind getting fruits and veggies from your prolific garden! Love those Twin Sisters blocks - I'm still trying to figure out how they're made. I may have to Google that! The Tyrol quilt looks like it's going to be beautiful!

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  2. Lovey red blocks in progress...nice you can exchange veggies...
    have a great weekend Julierose

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  3. How nice of you to make those adorable kennel quilts for the shelter! And your red blocks are terrific!

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  4. How fun! Love all your red blocks, and what fun kennel pads you made!

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  5. Wish I lived close to you because I'd happily relieve you of some of the garden produce. Resident Chef spent most of yesterday getting a bunch of veggies prepped (all had to be purchased of course) and then I took over this morning and spent over six hours making two different kinds of relish and some mustard....mostly to be used for Christmas giving.

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  6. Great start to RED month, Cathy!! SEW glad to hear that you and Cousin Kim are back to your weekly sewing routine. Although, I can't imagine how your productivity can be any higher!

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  7. Molly wants assurance that the kennel pads are for cats not dogs...she suspects you are making doggie placemats with “snack” themed fabric and that you may not have adequate supervision.

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  8. Making quilts/bedding for the animal shelter seems such a lovely idea, and would be quite satisfying, I imagine.

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  9. Wonderful reds! My conclusion is that "we can't do things the way we used to but things need to be cone so we will do them in a new way." (For me, right now, that's working (by email) with the exec comm of our women's club to get the yearbook edited and to the printer. Ordinarily the club year would begin on Tuesday, but we aren't going to meet in person until February, 2021 -- depending on circumstances, of cours.)

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  10. I am admiring your productivity this week! And visits too! So awesome! I am so missing in person visits, but most of my friend have gone back to everyday things, not wearing masks and probably not using sanitizer either. Though I haven’t questioned that! And I can’t trust that they have been vigilant!
    I’m just going to continue to try to sew and stay busy.
    Have a great week sewing reds,

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  11. Overheated slug - that's me this week! Just got out of the pool at 8:30 and it was still feels like 94 outside in the dark! You sure did make lots of great sewing progress this week. Your tyrel blocks are looking great as are those red blocks. I'll bet your family and friends are happy to take the produce off your hands. Have you thought of making wine with the grapes?

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  12. Overheated Slug or Sewing Fool - Love your work in all your avatars!!! If I could I would live near you and graze in your kitchen garden and then come inside and feast my eyes on the lovely fabrics/quilts and then laugh and joke with you and be perfectly happy :- D
    Sally Trude's comment needs serious attention, Cathy. Have a great weekend!

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  13. Hi Cathy! It sounds like you've found a wonderful home for the juicer and the grapes! I remember spending hours with my mom several years in a row making jam from my sister's grapes. Wow that was a lot of work but it was priceless time spent together. My favorite part was squishing out the pit. So glad to hear you and your cousin Kim are back to sewing together. That really sounds like fun and productive. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

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  14. "Moping around like an overheated slug" made me cackle! Perfect description of how the heat has affected me the past few weeks. Looking forward to some cooler temps and happy dancing, for sure! Sounds like there's another Accuquilt die I need. Accuquilt thanks you for helping me with my shopping!

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  15. That scraptastic star in red is indeed fantastic. The cooler weather does make it so much easier to move around. I liked "moping around like an overheaded slug" too.

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  16. I could easily adopt the "overheated slug" moniker and looks like several others could, too. It has cooled off this week and little bursts of rain have occurred, including one surprise burst yesterday which happened an hour after the crew finished sealing our driveway (in bright sunshine). Needless to say, I spent an hour scrubbing sealer away that splashed up on the white garage door. I wisely decided to leave the door raised after that. And the guys came back this morning and redid a section where the sealer washed away. Great progress on your red blocks and the Tyrol ones. It's nice that you've gotten out and about a little again and sew dates with Kim are surely welcome. We're trying to do a little more each week, but I'm keeping a close eye on the Covid numbers now that the nearest college (15 minutes away) has been back in session for two weeks.
    Pat

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  17. You have certainly had a busy and productive week. Glad to hear you are getting out and about ad feeling comfortable with that. Lovely red blocks and great kennel quilts.

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  18. All kinds of pretty blocks going on!
    Our weather cooled off too - and just in time! I was definitely starting to melt...

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  19. Has it really been that long since we did red scraps? No wonder they are growing like weeds! You've made good use of yours already this month. I'm a bit abashed to admit that I haven't even started on my purples yet. I think it will be fine to do red and purple at the same time, though. Concord grape stains will show less on the purples anyway :)

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  20. Well, look at you go! Sew, sew, sew! Great job this week. Looks like you were really feeling fabulous. Maybe it was getting out and seeing people, distance of course. Wish I lived closer to you. I'd absolutely appreciate several tomatoes and onions! Hope this week is equally productive and FUN!

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  21. Your Florabelle Bloom blocks are coming out really good. It's a very cute design. Yay for kennel quilts! I need to finish some up myself and move them on out.

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