Saturday, January 21, 2023

Blue Blocks and Quilt Kits

The weekend sure sneaked up on me today! (I like the sound of “snuck”  better than “sneaked”, but it’s not correct according to Google). Wasn’t it just Saturday, like, yesterday? OK, maybe it was a few days ago, but jeez….  So, here we go.

First I framed 8 of the wild animal squares with blue, turning them into 10” blocks. It will take 20 to make a single quilt, and I have enough of the print pieces for 2 quilts. But I’ll be using other colors, like green and yellow and maybe more red or orange to frame them as those colors are called during the year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge


I also sewed up 10 crumb blocks measuring 6.5” each (unfinished). 


Additionally, I sewed up some 4” crumb blocks, but I’ll show those next week when they’re sewn into the “candy” blocks. 

Since I spent the better part of two days this week cutting and assembling five Zipper Quilt kits for the Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids, I have to show those as well. 

As I’ve mentioned before, each of these kits uses up 3.5 yards of fabric, so these represent a stash reduction of 17.5 yards. Wahoo! Some of the backing fabric was purchased by me, but most of it this time around came from generous donors. Thank you!

And, in preparation for a mini quilting frenzy next week, I basted three quilts this week. Technically, the zipper quilt in the middle was basted before, but when my back-up machine Bob went berserk while quilting it, I had to unpick that quilting, remove the pins and start all over. 

So, after my final New Owner class today, Nina (my new machine’s new name. Thanks, Astrid!) and I will begin our quilting journey together!

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The following story is unrelated to quilting, so you can skip this if you want….

Last Monday we and a few of our neighbors had a nice meeting at a local Starbucks with the demolition contractor who is handling the clearing of the large site behind our street. About a month ago, as a storm front was moving in and it was rainy and very windy, some corrugated sheet metal panels came partially loose from the back wall of the furniture store they were tearing down. The panels were flapping in the wind, threatening to (1) blow into either our house and our neighbor’s house, or (2) fly into the electrical lines between our homes and the wall. The demolition crew were Johnny-on-the-spot and rushed their excavators over to hold the panels securely with the claws at the end of the long articulated arms. Four of them, lined up along the wall like metal ballerinas. But it was only a temporary fix, and they decided to knock down the wall instead.

Now, there were three remaining walls that were still standing throughout this multi acre site. They were all outside walls of various buildings, and all composed of cinder blocks filled with pelleted polystyrene insulation - styrofoam bits. The plan was to knock each wall down in its entirety all at once, preventing the pellets from spreading. So, with the above metal panels threatening to take flight, they decided to knock that wall down. Well, the wall broke halfway down instead of fully collapsing. The flying metal threat was eliminated, but polystyrene pellets rained down on our houses and neighborhood thanks again to the wind. It looked like tiny hail, or cherry blossoms. Mayday! They called in the Murray City experts and the health department, who ran tests to verify that it was non-toxic. And then the clean-up began. The City brought in street sweeping vehicles and the demolition company had people shoveling areas of accumulation. It was still rainy and cold. Later that evening, a crew came around and shop-vac’ed our driveways and front walkways. 

There are still lots of the pellets remaining, and the meeting I mentioned above was to let us know that as soon as weather permits, they’ve hired a landscaper to come and remove all the pellets from our yards. They’ll suck it all up with a shop vac, replace soil where necessary, and de-thatch the grass areas. It was nice to meet the demo company owners. They had gone around the neighborhood to collect our names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, and have kept us informed every step of the way. The meeting was primarily for everyone to meet and be reassured that they will do everything possible to “make us whole”. They seem to be a very honest, hard-working and reputable company, and we know we’re in good hands!

Oh, and in the interim, the remaining walls have come down - wow! Like an earthquake!! But that’s OK - at least there were no more styrofoam pellets!

14 comments:

  1. Your blue crumb blocks look so happy. Nothing is happier though, than a stack basted quilts ready to finish. Enjoy!

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  2. The blue framed animal print blocks have turned out beautifully and along with the other coloured frames will make two delightful Children’s quilts. You have worked so hard making up those Zipper Quilt kits too - you are very generous with your time and fabrics. I’m always amazed how long cutting out takes (getting longer and longer as I get older!). Your demolition story was great reading. How lovely that the gang are working so hard to rectify the mess - I don’t expect that level of service often happens in such situations!

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  3. Your wild animal framed blocks look great!! An I love the "moody' look to your blue crumb blocks...I've been feeling that way lately--[Aside: do you think one's mood affects color choices in one's work?--I do...just sayin'] It has been so gray here and I feel like using gray or grayed off fabrics--huh!!
    Good work assembling all those quilt kits for kids--(another star in your crown as my Grand-mere would say;))) )
    hugs, Julierose

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  4. Love the blue bordered “wild jungle” print. Looking forward to your candy blocks.They are so fun. I know those Zipper Quilt kits will be put to good use. It would be fun to see one or two of the finishes, Just sayin’ !
    Wow, what good outcome to the demolition fiasco! Unheard of these days. Lack of customer service seems prevalent!

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  5. You may have felt like the week flew by, but you clearly got a lot done. The Jungle print blocks are looking good. Adding the additional colors for RSC will make colorful quilts. It sounds like the contractor hired for the demolition work is a responsible one. The local utility company installed new gas lines on our street in Nov/Dec. They've promised restoration work on the lawns, but not until spring. So I have a very muddy front yard, plus a layer of mud on my driveway from a water main break right in front of my house during the same time frame. Of course, this is the winter we have no snow and the ground is barely frozen.
    Pat

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  6. Wow, what a story! And how great that you have responsible people working in your neighborhood. That means you don't have to worry and can spend time creating nifty little quilts and blocks! Love the farm animals and crumbs!

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  7. That sounds like quite the demolition event for your neighborhood, Cathy! It sounds so great that the company is working so hard to get it all cleaned up. I love your framed animal print blocks - they'll make such a cute quilt!

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  8. The wild animal print is adorable. Framing the print with the RSC color of the month is a great idea.

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  9. Your jungle animal print blocks are really cute and would look great in the other colors (for the frame) too. Pretty blue crumb blocks. 17.5 yards for the kits is a great stash reduction! Doesn't it feel good to have those quilts basted and ready to be quilted?! So far this year I have two quilts basted, waiting for Nina to return from the spa next week.

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  10. Some story. I love America, especially when they do it right.
    May Nina take care of you where Bob has failed you. I am participating in RSC this year. Well, I have started. Hope I can finish. Some 2022 RSC backlog remains. May be if I hugged you real tight, some of that Finishing Mojo will rub off on me.

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  11. Great story about the demolition contractor! It's good to know there are still reputable folks doing business the right way!

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  12. I like your framed blocks. I have a bunch of an animal print that would work well with these. Thanks for the idea. I'm glad the contractors have been working with you. We have a major project going up across from our church and the contractors have been willing to work with us on some parts of it.

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  13. What a cute quilt,luv how you have the animals in the center of the blocks

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  14. The animal blocks are so cute - some little person is going to be very happy with that quilt.
    Too bad about all the escapee pellets which must have created such a huge mess. Good that the company is commited to fixing the issue though.

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