Catching Up Because I was Lazy Last Week

I didn’t post last weekend because I was lazy. Yes, I had actually sewn and accomplished quite a bit, but on Friday night, when I usually prepare the post, I was just too tired and went to bed instead. Oh, the joys of aging! But I’m back now with lots of photos from the last two weeks, so grab your favorite beverage and get comfortable. 

First, let’s get caught up with my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. October is for dark neutrals and catching up on any missed colors or blocks from throughout the year. I chose to work on paring down my gray and brown scraps this month. To that end, I finished up the last four Gameboard blocks I’ll need, two in brown and two in gray. They will finish at 8”. 

And then I put them up on the design board for their class picture. They will now wait their turn to be assembled at some later point, likely in the new year. 

And while I was taking class pictures, here are the Rolling Stone blocks for the year. These are 12” blocks, arranged sideways because of my limited space. Like the Gameboard blocks above, these will be assembled later. As you’ll see below and in the coming weeks, I have other priorities to sew first. 

While I had my gray scraps out, I sewed 15 string blocks at 6.5”. I decided to put them directly into one of my homemade kid quilt kits, shown below. I realized that I was not making much progress with these baggies of fabrics that I was calling “kits”. So, my goal for the next couple months - or however long it takes me - is to revisit every single themed gallon-sized bagged group of fabrics and scraps and actually decide on a pattern and cut out all the pieces. Then I’ll write up some rudimentary assembly notes. In other words, the old bags of fabrics are being turned into actual kits, ready to sew. Cousin Kim, Ruby and I will all pick from these and hope to each sew a couple of these per month. So here is the first one - gray and aqua elephants - including all cut blocks, borders and backing. Sorry for the bad lighting.

Here’s the next group of old fabric baggies to work on. Ruby and Kim each picked out two from these last week, and I’ve converted those to actual kits for them to sew as they can. 

This is one of the kits that Kim picked - it’s #13 in the top left of the picture above. Because it consisted of a lot of width-of-fabric (WOF) pieces, I went with a simple Strippie layout. I snapped this picture after all the pieces were cut, but before I bagged it up. The pieces are just pinned up for reference (only half the width shows - I was just working the pieces to get to a certain length). 

Below is the group of scraps and strips I decided to work on myself earlier this week. This is before I started the serious sorting and auditioning, deleting what didn’t work and hunting for any possible additions. 

This is what I ended up with, and it’s now ready to be quilted. 

But wait, there’s more!  Below is a little Strippie that Ruby sewed and quilted from one of my kits. I bound it, and we’ll turn it in to Quilts for Kids next week.

Remember the 15 lavender string blocks below from a couple months ago? I combined them with some fabric scraps for this cute little quilt top. Ruby has it now for quilting. She also has my Block of the Month quilt. If I get those two back from her when she’s here tomorrow, I can get them bound in time for next weekend’s blog post and QFK workshop. 

We’ve had lots and lots of rain here (thank goodness!) and more expected next week. It’s been a glorious autumn so far. The cats love that I’ve plugged in their heated beds. Everyone and everything is cozy!

Today I have daffodil and tulip bulbs to plant out in the courtyard, and then food prep (Mexican enchilada casserole, sides, fruit and a chocolate pie). My son Ryan and daughter-in-law are coming over for dinner tonight. 

No word yet on when the living room fireplace rebuild will start. We’re still waiting for the brick to arrive from Arizona. My late brother’s estate (probate) closed last week, so I’ve had a lot of paperwork with that. We got our flu and Covid shots last week and have routine dentist visits this coming week. Just life things. 

I’ll leave you with a picture of this lovely rose. My garden revived itself once the hundred degree (F) temperatures passed in September. This was taken on Thursday. 

Have a great week, and be sure to check out some of the other great Rainbow Scrap quilts coming together over at Scrappy Saturday.