Purple and Orange

Well, THAT’s an exciting blog title, eh? Kidding! I was going to title it “I Can’t Think of a Blog Post Title”, but I’ll have to save that gem for another time. I’m attributing my brain fog to the orange, smoky skies outside. It appears that the west half of the USA is on fire and the east half is poised for hurricane season. If only we could share, there would be a lot less destruction. Who’s going to tell Mother Nature?

This week was same old same old here. I did make a great stir fry this week. Heck, I make one a couple times a month, but it’s especially nice when so many of the ingredients come from your own garden. And there is a peach pie to make later today with what’s left of the peaches we got at the Farmer’s Market last week. I’m the queen of pre-prepped meals, but I do break down a couple times a week and fix something that didn’t come out of the freezer. If I have to. I guess. 

Anyway, as usual, there was a lot of sewing happening. First up, I made a small purple basket of and for my purple scraps. I usually use Angela’s pattern, which finishes about 7x10” by 7” high. This time I made it 7x7x7”, because my purple scraps are not that plentiful. When we get to red, I’ll be using that size too.

And then I used more of my bits and bobs to make another purple Beachcomber block. It joins the two I made last year, plus all the others I’ve collected since March of 2019.

Beachcomber is my name for this block, but the original name of the quilt itself was Beach Retreat. I saw a picture of a quilt online a few years ago, and pinned it in my Pinterest. Then I just figured out the dimensions I wanted to use. It was originally in a book called Stash Statement by Kelly Young and the subsequent blog hop. Here is where I first saw it.  Anyway, I like the name Beachcomber for the block, because the scraps of fabric one uses to make the colored portions reminds me of the detritus a beachcomber picks up on the beach.  :-)

Anyway, here are most of my Beachcomber blocks so far. It sorely needs red and yellow. Another five blocks total and I can start sewing it together. 

The States Quilt got quilted and bound this week. It’s ready to head to Quilts for Kids when we have our next local workshop in two months (September’s meeting is way down in Utah County, and I’m not going).  Anyway, States finished at 44x58”, and the back and binding are both from the state names background fabric. And I still have some left over. It will get cut into strips for more strip quilts...

This was my OMG (One Monthly Goal for August, and I’m linking up to the August goal finish post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. 

And I’m sad to report that I stitched my last Zipper blocks. I only needed 10 more, but I sewed 12. So I have two extra blocks, plus the extra va-va-voom ladies fabric block, which makes 3 for the back. Here is the first batch I sewed this week.

Say hello to Bob Ross again! I think this finished up that fabric. Then there’s some Kaffe and some Tula Pink as well. 

Then I sewed one more from one of my all time favorite fabrics from Amy Butler. It was from her Lark Line (circa 2012-2013), and I’ve had 2.5 yards sitting in my stash since then. The coloring of the picture below is all off, but you get the idea.  I don’t understand why camera’s sometimes “see” a true color and sometimes not.

That fabric shows up accurately in the next picture, which is the fabric pull and introductory photo for my next quilt project. My DIL Kim asked me (well, actually I asked her if she’d like me) to make Christmas quilts for her parents, who we have known and loved for years. I pulled potential focus fabrics and patterns (on Pinterest), and this is what Kim chose. The pattern is Florabelle Bloom by Melissa Corey, a free pattern located HERE. 

I pulled the other fabrics to go with it, and have cut all the flower portions out so far. Ignore my scribblings on the paper above; I’m doing something a little different from her pattern or my scribbles. My plan is to do the 20 flowers, but eliminate the outer 2” border of white and colored squares for the secondary flowers. Instead, I’ll have a 1” white stop border then a 3.5” border in the focus fabric. Both Kim and I loved the fabric because it looks very European (Austrian/Italian), and since all three of us (Kim, her mom Paula, and me) have all been to and love the Tyrol region of Austria and Italy, we wanted to feature it as much as possible. Five of the 20 flowers will also be made using that fabric. There are no firm plans yet as to the backing (scrappy? purchased?) or binding. The working title for the quilt is Tyrol. 

I’ll introduce the quilts I’ll be making for DIL Kim’s dad (Bill) and my son Ryan in future posts. I had some great masculine fabric in several prints that coordinate and match other things in my stash; enough to get two quilts out of easily. The backings for those will be big pieced buffalo checks and will require yardage purchases.  Kim and I will go shopping for the backings and fabrics when the time comes. 

Oh! Last but not least..... wait. It is last and it is least. Because I’m mad at it. 

You see, although purple is the color of the month for those of us participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, I have always intended to mix my purple scraps with the rest of my oranges for this  monthly scrap Creature Quilt. This month was going to be Creature From the Molten Volcano. I could see it in my mind, and even drew it out! A purple volcano of strip blocks. Fiery orange scraps spitting out in streams and curls (strip blocks, snail’s trail blocks), plus all the other scraps and blocks........ SCREEEEETCH!  The reality of the scraps and orphan blocks I have do not say volcano. See what I mean?

They are having an identity crisis. I’m thinking maybe Creature from the Serengeti (which I would prefer to name Creature from the Maasai Mara, which is the Kenyan side of the same geographic region). Or maybe something to do with all the wildfires here in the West? Any ideas? 

So anyway, this is what I’ll be banging my head against the wall working on this week. Wish me luck. Stay safe, friends, and wear your masks! xo

Linking up to: Rainbow Scrap Saturday

Days of Future Passed

When I was pondering what, if anything, interesting happened here this week to write about (the answer is: NOTHING), the phrase “Days of Future Passed” popped into my mind. Those of us of a certain age (*cough, cough*) may remember The Moody Blues concept album with that title. It was the album that contained Nights in White Satin. And indeed, the Moody Blues has been a major part of the music I stitched along to this week. Should’ve done that last month when we were stitching with moody blues! But a more contemporary version of the expression is spelled “Days of Future Past”, which is an X-Men story line. I don’t know or care about Marvel comics and X-Men, so I picked the older reference. All of that to say that we’re doing the same things over and over, like in the movie Groundhog Day. The future days and weeks will probably be much like the past days and weeks. Same old same old in the Time of Covid. 

But I did get some purple sewing done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. August is purple month.  I’ll be linking up to Scrappy Saturday, so come check out all the purpley stuff.

First up: Two Scraptastic Stars; one in red-purples and one in blue-purples.

Fifteen Split Nine-patches:

String Blocks (6” finished): 13

In between all of those, I stitched my weekly batch of Zipper blocks. Eleven this time, because it was hard to stop. 

Some of the fabrics aren’t as interesting as when I started, because I’m nearing the end. After these, I believe I only have ten left to reach 99, the number I need for a quilt that will measure 66x81”.

This block is my favorite this week. I love that scrappy fabric that Nann sent me and have used it here as well as in the Tessa Quilt I cut out a couple months ago. I hope to get to that one before year end. Note that I didn’t have enough of any of those solid oranges, so I used them all in a gradient fashion. 

And the block below is interesting too. I bought a fat quarter of this marijuana fabric from Spoonflower last year (when I bought that Bob Ross fabric - remember?)  I used every single square centimeter of it cutting out a mask for my brother, a zip pouch for my brother, and two of these Zipper blocks - one for me and one for Cousin Kim. There wasn’t even a half inch left over!

And finally, I sewed up the last two blocks for my One Monthly Goal project quilt. Nothing too exciting here. I just tried to keep the blocks simple so that the blocks of color would be prominent, and then to round out the colors for the overall balance of the quilt. 

It’s now basted and ready to be quilted this weekend. I really have enjoyed working with that rather wild background print with all the US States listed in brightly-colored abbreviations. I think I’ll just call it the States Quilt (original, eh?)

We are going to head out to the local Farmer’s Market this morning to see if we can get some raspberries and peaches. I want to make more raspberry jam, and the peaches are for eating. It may be a little early for the local peaches, but we’ll see. Then I have to swing by our Quilts for Kids workshop. I am not going to stay and stitch (even though they are limiting it to 10 people), but I do have six finished quilts to drop off. And my friend Bonnae, who is out camping this week, asked me to pick her up some quilt kits to sew on. As for myself, I still have seven baby quilts for QFK that I checked out last month and didn’t get quilted. They were sewn by other people - too bad more of them don’t quilt their own quilts, but oh well. I’ll get to them eventually. For the rest of this calendar year, the priority for me will be getting Christmas quilts done - more on that another time.  

So, for the coming week I’ll sew the last of the zipper blocks, quilt the States quilt, make a little purple scrap fabric bucket and sew a purple Beachcomber block. If I finish those, maybe I’ll baste and quilt some QFK quilts and/or finish up the last half dozen kennel quilts I stared a couple months ago. There is never a lack of  things to do in the studio. 

We’re having my older son Ryan and our DIL Kim over for dinner tonight. Maybe the grandkids Lauren and Easton will come too if they don’t have to work. Bruce and I bought a misting system for the patio, but we need to go to Home Depot and get a short hose for it. My guess is that we won’t get it set up until it’s time to take it down in the fall. Anyway, we’re celebrating DIL Kim’s birthday, so I’ve got to make her Something Chocolate for dessert. Better get my rear in gear!

Have a good week, wear your mask in public and wash your hands when you get home! 

One Monthly Goal for August

Time to get a move on and declare my OMG for August. 

This project is a partial set of blocks that I was making as a supplement to a local Block of the Month class I began last fall.  The class continued as usual until everything shut down in March because of Covid-19. Then it continued for three months virtually. But in July they decided to meet in person. That’s when I said Adios! 

The actual class blocks were done in solids, while these supplemental blocks use a busy bright colored text print with the state abbreviations as the background. From that print I’ve been pulling bright colors to play with it and simplifying the blocks. This will eventually be a kids donation quilt. So, this is where the project is starting at the beginning of August:

Seven blocks are done, but I need to make five more 12” blocks to have a 3x4 setting. These are 12-inch blocks (finished size) and I’ve decided to sash and border it in bright red. The resulting quilt should measure approximately 44x58”, which is a good size for a youth donation quilt.  So that’s my goal - to finish the 5 blocks, assemble the top, baste, quilt and bind this donation quilt by month end.

I’m joining Patty at Elm Street Quilts for the goal setting linkup for the August OMG.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is what we woke up to this morning. Our Bradford Pear Tree (ornamental) in the front yard lost one of its main branches sometime during the night. We’re grateful that it didn’t happen during the day when there a lot of walkers and bikers active in the neighborhood.

Our lawn guys are also arborists. They actually come on Tuesdays, so I texted them a picture of this to give them a heads-up. When they got here, they dragged it off to the back of the driveway and were able to do the usual mowing and edging.

Apparently, Bradford Pears are known for shedding large branches like this, and he said the tree should be fine. It will look a little naked from the above angle, though.  Our trees are normally pruned in late summer/early fall, but apparently this tree didn’t want to wait another month.  

They’ll be back on Thursday to chop up the branch and haul it away and give us a bid for trimming some of the other large outreaching branches. We also have some other things that need to be trimmed, and we’ll just get all the big fall stuff done early. 

Starting tomorrow morning at VeryVeryEarly O’Clock, Bruce and I will be out in the garden  cutting back and dividing our irises and daylilies. And weeding. Then we can empty our compost/mulch bins into the beds before the fall chores start.  It’s always something!

Finished - OMG for July

I finished my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for July a couple days ago, but I’ve been waiting for a good time to get an outdoors photo of it. We had an early morning appointment today at the occupational therapist for Bruce, so since we were ready early, we took advantage of the early morning softer light and grabbed a few photos. I’m the quilt holder-upper and Bruce snapped the pictures.  Here is Pineapples II, or as I prefer to call it, Piña . 

This is the second month I’ve been working on this quilt becauseI didn’t finish it up in June. So, I’ll be linking up to the goal finishing link-up at Patty’s blog, Elm Street Quilts. 

Piña  finished at 62 x 82.5”.  Except for the background (Kona White), the pineapples and their tops all came from scraps.  I made one almost identical to this back in 2017, which you can see here, but my granddaughter Lauren claimed it. So, three years later, I have finally finished another one for me. It still has a wild pink pineapple in it, but in a different spot. 

Here’s the back, which is a Kate Spain fabric from several years ago. I had enough to use it for the entire backing, with just one horizontal seam. The same fabric was used for the binding.

The print shows up better in the closeups below.   I quilted a basic grid in the pineapples themselves, then a wavy line with circles around the white border.

In order to make the pineapples “dance” instead of march along in rows, I set them in a basic half-drop pattern. I had planned to try some ruler work in the six resulting white spacer squares (one for each column), but realized as I was quilting the outside border that there was no separation between the white border and the squares. Oops. Normally that wouldn’t have been an issue, but I had already quilted the first X in one of the squares without taking the border wavy line into consideration.

So, I did what I normally do - just fly by the seat of my pants (and it’s an ample seat, I must say) and quilt whatever I wanted to practice on. So there were some squirrels swirls ... 

And some random flourishes. And a few other things. Each square was different. It’s all good - I’m the one who’ll have to look at them and tsk tsk myself for not marking them first.

This will go into the laundry now, where I’m sure it’ll shrink a couple inches each way and get nice and crinkly soft. 

I’ll be back tomorrow with my Saturday post and monthly recap. 

June OMG - One Monthly Goal

Every month I like to set creative goals for myself. The One Monthly Goal challenge, run by the very talented Patty Dudek at Elm Street Quilts, facilitates that process for needleworkers of all types. Participants name their goal at the beginning of the month and then if they are able to finish it by month end, a link-up opportunity is provided again. In the process, various sponsors offer prizes that are awarded in a monthly drawing of those who have successfully finished their project. I’ve completed all my monthly goals going back well over a year. So, as I’ve been doing for a long time, I’ll be linking up to Patty’s One Monthly Goal June goal-setting post.

What is my goal for June? To finish up another pineapple quilt that I started a couple years ago. Here is the work in progress as it sits right now.

In the lower left, you can see a picture of the first pineapple quilt I finished in August of 2017. To see it more closely, you can click the page tab above for “Quilts 2012-2017” and scroll down just a bit to see it. Anyway, my granddaughter Lauren loved the first one so much that she staked her claim on it. So now I want to make one for me! I don’t know what color the one “odd” pineapple will be, but likely it will be either pink again or perhaps aqua. That fabric in the top left area has been patiently waiting its turn to be put to use as the perfect backing!

So, my goal is to get this quilt totally done by month-end. That’s a tall order, considering I haven’t even started assembling blocks yet!

I finally broke down and spent some of my gift cards from Christmas, my birthday (March) and Mother’s Day, so I have a new wool pressing mat, a new rotary cutting mat (I hate the one I bought last year and it’s already warped and deeply grooved) and some new rotary cutting blades. Everything is due to arrive over the next 1-2 weeks.

Two More Quilt Finishes and May Recap

Happy weekend! Summer - or a very warm spring - has arrived here in the Salt Lake Valley, and we finally had to turn on the central air conditioning. But we keep it relatively warm-ish (78 degrees F) in the house because I prefer warmth to refrigerated cold. At night we open the windows and turn on the ceiling fans, and the cats jostle for best position under it on the bed.

The vegetables wasted no time in appearing in the garden and are loving the warmth too. My mouth is already watering at the thought of the early veggies - peas, spinach and lettuce. The rhubarb plant is still producing, but I’m trying to make strawberry-rhubarb compote with it after scratching our “pie itch" and making one (spectacular) raspberry-rhubarb pie.  The thought that I’ll not spend all of July putting up apricots is mostly very freeing, but sometimes there is a twinge of remorse that we had to chop the tree down. Luckily, there are enough frozen apricots, jam, and dried apricots to last another whole year.

My first finish this week was the garlic knots quilt that was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project I began in 2019. It was also my OMG, One Monthly Goal, for May.  So, I’m linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts to share my finish there. As always, Patty, we appreciate your help in keeping us moving forward with our goals!

So, the official name for my garlic knots quilt (traditionally the block is called Arrowhead Puzzle) is Garlic Breath. Why? Because it’s just plain silly, that’s why!

My official quilt holder (hubby Bruce) is no longer qualified for the job since he had his right arm amputated last month. So, Cousin Kim, who came over to sit and stitch and gab on the patio (properly socially distanced of course) held this up for me. Wait, I held it up and she took the picture.  

This is the back. I had the perfect twin sheet in rainbow colors for the back. But the stripes were wonky, so in straightening it out and cutting off the wonkiness, I lost just enough to have to insert a piece of one of my all-time favorite backings.

Garlic Breath measures 64x80”, and like real garlic breath, it is heavy!!

This one is a keeper!

I had a few things to finish up for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge’s month of dark green scraps in May. First were these two International Sisters blocks. These are not African fabrics, so they will go in the rainbow Sisters quilt I’m making for myself.

And finally, there was the dark green scrap quilt I make (almost) every month from all my leftover scraps, test blocks and orphan blocks.  I call these my Creature quilts because I give them silly names - because they are silly quilts - yet they provide creature comforts to the charities to which I donate them.  So, without further ado, meet CREATURE FROM THE MOSSY MOUNTAIN:

And here is the story of the Creature from the Mossy Mountain:

     Deep in the lush green mountains lived a young one named Fern. Shy Fern had always been misunderstood and ignored. Even as a tender sporeling, she hid in the shadows and was passed over as attentions were showered on the more vivid sprouts. The bright flowers snickered behind their sepals when they thought Fern wasn’t looking. All spring and summer the flowers and other plants were plucked up and carried away, one by one, from the meadows and hillsides. Alas! Green with envy and chlorophyll, Fern hid in her shady bower to photosynthesize alone.

     Then, one late summer day, a pair of famous botanists hiked to the shady glen deep in the mossy mountains. They were hunting for a rare, exotic specimen to become the centerpiece of a grand botanical garden at the palace. There in the shade they spied Fern. “Oh! What a magnificent and verdant Creature you are!” they exclaimed. They lovingly took Fern to the palace where she became the star of the garden ... and lived happily ever after.

If you look at the quilt, you will see mountain ridges, a gray “rock” outcropping, fern-y fabric with little woodland creatures and a big, ostentatious flower. And lots of little snips and bits shoved in there to make all the odd sizes work together, LOL.

Here’s the back, pieced from green chunks and leftovers. Creature measures 41x44”.

I’m also linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s Blog. It’s month-end, so you’ll see lots of colorful inspiration and finishes. And a lot of excitement as we begin June’s new color, PINK. But first, here’s my dark green May recap:

My green blocks this month totaled 43.  

In May I finished 6 quilts; two yellow and green giraffe-themed donation quilts, the Harambe Sisters wall hanging, the blue and pink happy blocks donation quilt, Garlic Breath and Creature from the Mossy Mountain.

But wait! There’s more!

Yep, once Angela announced pink for June earlier this week, I’m sure lots of us got crackin’!  I started by clearing out the biggest mess first - pink selvages.  The result was 16  half-hexie selvage blocks and lots of leftovers that I’m collecting to pass on to someone at the end of the year.

I’m also going to be working on the zipper blocks like Sally and Wanda (pattern courtesy of Lynn at kleinmeisjequilts). Here are my first two. I love the fabrics, but I’m not happy with the blocks. They’re too matchy-blendy. The solids (or near-solids) need to contrast more. So the one on the left will get dark orange for contrast and the one on the right will get gold for contrast. I should have them corrected (and hopefully another one made) by next week.  There’s potential here.

Stay safe, and if you venture into public, please be cautious and sensible. xo

One Monthly Goal for May

OMG! I almost forgot to name my OMG - One Monthly Goal - for May! Many thanks to Patty at Elm Street Quilts who hosts this monthly challenge to keep us focused on our goals and the finish line.  :-).  I’m going to link up to her goal-setting post and get my stitching game on (since it’s one of the only games in town, LOL).

I’ve been participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for years, and I love when I’ve been through all the colors and can finally finish up a quilt from blocks that have been sewn in all the colors. I started making Garlic Knots (more traditionally called Arrowhead Puzzle blocks) early in 2019. Last month, I got impatient and needed some regular (read: mindless) sewing between other projects, so I finished up the red and yellow blocks, which were the only colors remaining. 

So now, my goal for May is to get these blocks sewn into a quilt top (flimsy) and then basted, quilted and bound. In other words, I want to totally finish this quilt and tick it off my UFO list in May. 

These are just some of the 8.5-inch (unfinished size) blocks, but I have more than enough now to make a quilt with 80 blocks, with 3 left over. It should finish at about 64x80”.  I look forward to playing with these blocks to determine the color layout and pattern I want to do.

I hope you’re staying safe and healthy, and that the weather in your little corner of the world is behaving itself.

Just Another Day in Paradise

... if by “Paradise” you mean being quarantined in your home for the start of the second month of a pandemic while your husband recovers from major surgery, one daughter files for divorce and another daughter loses her canine rescue furkid to pneumonia/sepsis; then, yeah, we’re having a Grand Old Time here at Chez Kizerian. Oh, and did I mention that we had another 4.2 earthquake this week?

The truth is, you feel better after shedding enough tears. At least I do. And even in the best of times, the road of life is bumpy and littered with land mines. Life in the year 2020 has been a white knuckle ride for most of us. But I’m seriously trying hard to let go of the negative stuff and hold tight (no white knuckles) to the good stuff. Bruce is getting better, every family member is healthy. Our pantry is full (restocked today). And no one at the grocery store died today, not even the guy who got perturbed at me because I wouldn’t let him go past me against the directional arrows in the aisle. He blustered, “You mean I have to go all the way around!?!”  I just smiled behind my mask and pointed to the arrows, but was thinking “Call the waambulance, you entitled jerk!”

But enough of this already!  Let’s check out what’s going on at the Scrappy Saturday linkup today, where the only blues being shared are of the light blue scrappy fabric kind. This week my sewing consisted of these 16 strip blocks measuring 6.5” each, unfinished. 

That finished up all my RSC light blue sewing for this month. As it stands now, I think I’ll just save the little crumbs and leftovers for the next time we do blue (dark values) and combine them all into a crumb-pieced blue scrap basket. 

But, Nine-Patch Madness, or 9PM as I like to call it, is a finish! This was my April OMG One Monthly Goal), and I’m linking up to the goal finish blog post at Elm Street Quilts. 

Oh how I love this quilt! It measured 60x72” before I laundered it, but may have shrunk a bit in the process of getting all those yummy Quilty crinkles! The quilting was just simple loops. 

The binding was a perfect half yard piece of this purple check that matched nicely with the sheet used for the backing. 

Oops! Underneath you can see a sneak peek of another project I’m working on, to be revealed in early May. But I’m already on to the next project, which will be quilting up On Ringo Lake this week. Unfortunately, the cord to the foot pedal on my Bernina (Bernadette) has a short in it and I’ve ordered a new one. I don’t know how long it will take to come in to the dealer, but they need the actual foot pedal so they can attach the cord. So, I’ll  be sewing via the start/stop button, which I hate, but it’s do-able. I just don’t know how it works with free-motion quilting, but I’m about to find out. If it doesn’t go well, I can switch to my back-up Brother machine (Bob) and quilt with a serpentine stitch. 

Let’s wind up this post on a positive note - a little story I forgot to share last week. On Monday morning, April 6, I was talking on the phone to Cousin Kim when three cars turned the corner of the street in front of our house and drove slowly by, honking their horns and waving. The cars were all decorated, but I couldn’t read the signs. So I went out on the porch (phone in hand so Kim could hear all the racket). Then slowly, one by one, more cars turned the corner and followed along in procession. Turns out that it was the faculty and staff (and families), each in their own vehicle, of the local elementary school. They organized a parade route along the streets within the school boundaries and let all the kids’ families know to watch for the parade. The vehicle windows were rolled down and the occupants were waving, shouting “we love you,” to the kids and honking and blowing kisses. The signs said all sorts of things like “Your teachers miss you” “Longmont Rules!” And “Stay Safe, Stay Home”. The cars just kept on coming, decorated with balloons, streamers, signs, flags, stuffed animals. Kids quarantined at home stood out on their lawns, waving back to their teachers and favorite faculty members. It lasted about 8-10 minutes on our street alone, with at least 30 cars in procession. The kids I saw were so excited! Heck, so were the rest of us who don’t even have kids in school. It was just such a fun and thoughtful thing to do. I’ve seen on Google that these teacher parades have happened here and there throughout the country this month. I love how people are striving to stay connected! 

I’d love to hear any anecdotes you may have heard about or experienced during this time of sheltering in place! Have a good week, friends. Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands!

March Quilt Recap and April OMG

Before March, with all 147 of its days (didn’t it seem like the.longest.month.ever?) ended, I was able to finish up two more small quilts. That brought my total to 5 for March. First to be finished over the weekend was the Seeing Stars wall hanging. This was a sew-along with my friend Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting. Here it is up on the design wall. I debated awhile about that red and white striped binding, but I’m glad I used it - it’s so cute!

I was never crazy about the fabric I selected, but I do LOVE how this wall hanging turned out. I’ve got plenty extra blocks (in greens and pinks) that I’ll be able to use to make a table runner or topper. That will happen probably this month, because they’ll definitely have a spring feel. Seeing Stars  finished at 30.5” x 36.5”.  And as you can see, Sir Alfalfa supervised and approved of this new burst of color in  the living room. Yes, he’s a Sir now; the Queen knighted him in March, did I tell you? For meritorious service to humankind because of his extreme cuddliness and care of Bruce.  :-)

But as this is an equal opportunity blog, we can’t leave out Princess Darla. Here she is doing what she does best. What you can’t see (or hear) is that she is snoring.  She’s such a dainty little cat, but man can she SNORE! Maybe I need to get her a CPAP. Or would that be a CCAT?

Moving along, the second finish in the last few days of the month was my small version of Bonnie Hunter’s On Ringo Lake pattern, which I call On Ringo Pond. It finished at 45” square and will be a donation quilt for Quilts for Kids.

Here is a collage of the five quilts I finished in March.

Top: On Ringo Pond; Teddy Bear Sailor Quilt (panel for QFK)
Bottom: Turtles and Frogs (panel for QFK)  (oops, I didn’t put the finished quilt picture in the collage, but it is done and posted on my 2020 Quilts Page, link under header); Seeing Stars; Creature from the Aqua Lab

I’m also going to take this opportunity to declare my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for April. The 9-patch variation blocks shown below in light blue were a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project that I sewed throughout 2019. I have 120 9-patch blocks to sew into a top. There are 2 extra pink blocks that will go into the block Orphanage.

So, I’m linking up to Patty’s OMG goal-setting post at Elm Street Quilts. My goal is to get these blocks not only sewn into a top, but quilted and bound and FINISHED by month-end.  Whereas March felt like it was 147 days long, we all know that April is a shorter month. Still, 96 days in April should be plenty to finish the quilt - and lots more too!  :-)

The new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for April is light and bright blue. I say “new”, but my brain is screaming that light blue is just a blink away from March’s color of aqua/teal. I do have some things to sew in light blue, but I probably will wait until we get to the darker blues to make a Creature Quilt. And I don’t need more light blue International Sister blocks, or Beachcomber blocks (both projects continuing from last year). I plan to make a blue scrap bin, but it will combine all blues, so that may or may not happen this month. Instead, I’ll work on red and yellow garlic knot blocks, since those are the two remaining colors I need to be able to assemble all those blocks into a quilt top. I also have lots of selvages to sew up, and quilts to finish; On Ringo Lake (the bigger quilt of the two I was making) and an International Sisters wall hanging to quilt and bind. There is no shortage of projects, that’s for sure.

Bruce is currently in the hospital. His surgery is today, as I write this. I’m waiting for a call from the doctor once he’s in recovery. There was no waiting allowed in the hospital. He will have to remain in the hospital for 5 days so they can monitor the circulation of the blood vessels in the tissue they transplant to his wrist/forearm area. And because of the coronavirus, there are no visitors allowed in the hospital. So that means that Bruce and I will communicate by video chat. Yeah. This first week of April alone will feel like 34 days...