Lots of Orange Sewing

This was a quiet week for us - nothing but a few errands, gardening/harvesting/preparing vegetables, and sewing for me. Bruce is building a software-defined radio in his workshop with a large loop antenna. I have no idea what that means, any more than he would know how to make a pinwheel quilt block. But he’s having fun, so am I, and we play nicely in our respective studios during the afternoon. Alfie and Darla are like little kids. They nap until about 4 in the afternoon, then come downstairs to visit us and see how we’re doing. Bruce’s workshop has lots of toys parts that interest them, but we’re very careful about what they’re allowed to bring out. They have a whole “toy box” (basket) full of toys, and once we turn off the lights and head to bed, the kitties get them out and either playtime begins, or Alfie serenades us with the songs of his people. Or both. We still haven’t gotten them to put their toys back in the basket, so that is one of my first chores in the morning! I guess they have me well trained!

I really did spend a lot of time in the studio this week. One day I basted five quilts, another day or two I sewed string blocks. I assembled five Zipper Quilt Kits for Quilts for Kids, sewed a quilt top, planned another, quilted a quilt and sorted through more fabric donations and purchases. So, it’s time for some pictures. 

Let’s start with the two remaining orange elephants I sewed this week.

That brought the orange herd up to 10. They are destined for five separate quilts, believe it or not!

And speaking of elephants, Nann sent me this adorable Laurel Burch fabric of rainbow tossed elephants. It’s enough to do the borders and backing of another youth quilt! Thanks, Nann!

Next I worked on the 12 orange bullseye courthouse steps blocks I needed.

They will be assembled into a quilt top with the dark blues, reds, dark greens and a couple teal blocks. The fabric in the center is an old Amy Butler fabric and will be the backing and possibly the side borders.

And I was feeling the urge to do some string sewing, so one day (and part of another) was spent on these 30 orange string blocks. They are pinned in batches of 15 and donated to our chapter of Quilts for Kids to make into quilt kits. 

Then I sewed a bunch of my easy blocks for the month; 12 Bowties (will finish at 4” each) 

and 18 of the Little Bricks blocks, which will finish at 6” each. 

Yeah, there’s more. I’m telling you, I don’t have a life these days except pretty much sewing, sleeping, gardening and laundry.

I did finish one quilt. It doesn’t have a name, but it was put together from a couple years’ accumulation of scraps in orange, brown, bright blue and bright green. I’ve noticed that if I load two pictures at once in Blogger, it reverses the order every other time. This time we’re getting the photo of the back and label first.

Now, here’s the front. There is everything in there from Heather Ross fabric, solids, to Riley Blake fabrics, Gumby and Pokey, bugs and more. But it hangs well enough together, finishing at 40x48.5”.

I didn’t get the Mermaids and Octopus quilt finished (the Mendocino fabric I showed last week), but it is one of the ones I pin basted. It’s next up for quilting. The other three will get quilted this week, too, but they’re some secret (for now) sewing.

My next quilt kit bag of scraps is in oranges/salmon and green. Here’s a peek at what I’ll be working with:

I’ve drafted a pattern and will have enough of these scraps for the front and the back. It should be at least to flimsy stage by next weekend. The only RSC sewing I have left for the next week is my crumbs (crumb tumblers and 2 placemats) and the Bear Paw blocks. 

And finally, I assembled five Zipper Quilt Kits. Each kit contains the necessary cut parts for 24 Zipper blocks, the borders and backing, instructions, and a QFK label. Note the orange zipper-print fabric! I don’t generally make five Zipper kits a month (there’s So.Much.Cutting), but I had a lot of fabric donations in the last month and I needed to move them into something useful. If I can’t sew them all myself (and I can’t), it helps QFK just as much if I can assemble kits for others to sew.  

Partially-assembled kits

I did some calculations, and each quilt kit uses 3.5 yards of fabric. So these 5 kits represent 17.5 yards of fabric out. I don’t have the time or inclination to track that kind of thing on a regular basis, but I was curious. As long as I keep the quilts and the kits moving out, I don’t have guilt about receiving fabric donations and/or purchasing fabric. *cough, cough*...... like these 20 yards of fabric from Hancock’s of Paducah....... Their sale fabrics are amazing, and the Kona prices are usually even better than JoAnn’s with a coupon (and a much better color selection!)

I see lots of quilt backings and borders there!! 

That’s it for now, friends. I am totally wiped out from this week and plan to just vegetate for the day. No housework, no gardening, no sewing, no people-ing. Maybe a good book out on the patio (weather permitting - it’s beginning to cool down somewhat) and a cup of iced coffee. How are you spending the waning days of summer? 

Linking to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.