Purple Pastimes

Sometimes when Saturday rolls around, my head is so full of thoughts and words and stories to tell that I have to rein myself in to avoid writing a novella-length blog post. This is not one of those weeks. I agonized for ten minutes over that lackluster title, and I’m really fighting to stay awake! So if this post is as blah as I feel (not sick, just tired), please excuse me…

The purple blocks I sewed for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week were waffle blocks. I make four of them at 5.5”, sew them together then end up with a block that measures 10” when finished. I made three of those this week.

I also finished sewing the blocks for a Scrappy Star quilt. The 12 blocks have been sewn into a flimsy. In this String Star iteration, the strings are sewn onto a 6.5” base. Four of them make a 12” finished Star. 

The star solids aren’t necessarily pretty colors or nice fabrics. In fact, some of these pieces have been laying around for three years, waiting to be used. Several are just cheap solids donated to Quilts for Kids or me. At any rate, I used the last of those solids to make this flimsy, so from here on I can concentrate on more traditional string blocks which use up strings faster. 

The string stars and last week’s double disappearing 9-patch in pinks and blues will both be basted, quilted and bound in the coming week, so stay tuned for those.

In the meantime, I’m starting the process of throwing purple (and mauve, pink, lilac, lavender, etc) scraps onto the design wall to see if I can eke out a little purple (with pink accents) quilt. I can already see from this picture that those chevron pieces are going to need some work…

I’ve got more scraps to choose from, luckily.

I’ve also made a few blocks for the Positivity Quilt-Along that Preeti is hosting. I have all my colors selected and all the background pieces cut out. This week I’ll finish cutting out the plus pieces and sew up more blocks. But these four should give you an idea of the range of colors.

I will probably do a simple layout, like the dark backgrounds as a border. We’ll see as things move along.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a couple pictures of some of our glorious roses. 

It’s too bad I caught the neighbor’s camper in this picture. But regardless, you can see how this bush is just covered in blooms! This is my Daybreak rose.

The climbing rose tree below (I don’t remember its name) is along the back garden wall. We’ve spent a lot of time out on the back patio this week, visiting with family or just reading and enjoying the pleasant weather.  I love summer (before it gets too hot to stay outdoors). 

Have a lovely week, friends!