Thank Goodness for Sewing Therapy!

OK, my burning question of the week (politics aside), is - has anyone else been experiencing issues with Blogger? Every comment has all of a sudden been coming across as No-Reply. Every single one, even those of you who have been reading and commenting for years. And that means I can’t reply. Have you had that issue on your blog (if you have one)?  How do we get it fixed? I’ve searched everywhere on my Blogger dashboard, inquired of Blogger and Google, and have gotten no answer. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

Getting back to sewing. . . .  Again, thank goodness for sewing. It’s been one hell of a week in American politics, as you are all no doubt aware. Being of the blue persuasion myself, the results have been a gut punch, a kick in the butt, a head-scratcher and whatever other body part cliches you want to throw in. All I can say is that if Trump does what he’s threatened to do, the red voters will be suffering along with everyone else. No, that’s not a good thing, but at least we’ll be able to say “I told you so” smugly while we all shake our heads and wring our hands together (more body part cliches). 

Now let’s REALLY get back to sewing. This week I finished all the remaining blocks - I needed 78 - for this Quilts for Kids scrappy quilt top started last Saturday at the workshop. Here is the finished top.

You can see in the photo above that the white pieces form a pattern, a sort of stair step, when they come together in the correct way. That’s the pattern you get when you’ve sewn every block in the same orientation. But we didn’t do that, so it’s a free-for-all in this top. And by “we” I mean most of us who didn’t get that part of the instruction in our workshop. But in the end, who is really going to care? I’ll sew the next one the correct way.

And there will be next ones. I took a couple days and went through all my bins and bags of novelty or multi-colored scraps and chunks and cut them up. If the scraps were large enough to cut 2.5x8.5” strips from, I did that (top right in the picture below). The shorter lengths were cut into 2.5x 4.5” pieces (top left). If those shorter pieces contained four or more of the same print (which came from different scrap pieces), I separated out the fours to make windmill blocks (bottom left). Chunkier or odd-sized scraps were cut into 3.5” or 2.5” squares. All of those together take up less than one shoebox-ful of space and are ready to go for future use. 

As a reward for all that work, I ordered 2 yards of four different bright solid colors. I’ll be able to use the solids with these cuts and wherever needed as I work through the large box of quilt “kits” and scraps I’ve set as my 2025 goal. I’ve also narrowed down my selection of potential 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks to about 6, but I’d like to cut it down to 4-ish so I can concentrate more on finishes. Have you made any 2025 sewing plans? I’d love to hear about them. 

Oh, and I have finished trimming the quilted It’s Jungle Out There quilt and have made binding. But my friend Ruby, who is the tallest among us and is my quilt holder-upper, is gone for a couple weeks visiting family, so I won’t finish it or get glamour shots until later in the month. 

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We had the electrician in this week to prep the fireplace (install electrical) so that the insert can be installed on Tuesday. It will be the same manufacturer (Chaska) as our unit in the old house, which we loved. It can actually heat up a room (the remote control has lots of settings) instead of the heat going up the chimney. We never really noticed much of a bump in our gas bills, either. 

From manufacturer’s website

The kitties are anxiously awaiting its snuggly warmth! Have a good week!

What a Week!

Thank goodness it’s over!  The week, that is. You may remember from my last post that I had a “procedure” scheduled for Monday. Oh heck, we’re all adults here...... it was a colonoscopy. After my weekend of fasting, the procedure finally took place on Monday at 2-ish. Missing the food was not the worst of it. Neither was the frequent trips to the bathroom. The worst was drinking the POISON - a solution that can be best described as warm seawater. But the results were perfect, and I don’t have to do THAT again for ten years!

And if that wasn’t enough crap (literally and figuratively), the election was on Tuesday. The results, to most of us, are devastating. Talk about CRAP. And by “most”, I mean the majority of voters (because H won the popular vote), educated women, minorities of any variety, and the rest of the peace-loving world. My daughter (age 30) called me, crying. My neighborhood friend’s daughter (age 24) called her, crying. Bruce’s co-workers (many are gay or minorities) were in a deep funk on Wednesday. We are still trying to come to terms with what this means for us going forward.
End of political discussion. I just deleted a paragraph of rant here. You’re welcome.  

So, back to why we're REALLY here - faaaaabric and those wonderful things we do with it!

I didn’t get much sewn this week, but I did finish the litter of purple kitties from last week. That is 4 litters down, two to go on the third and final Kitty Quilt.  As this is a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project, I am linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday party. Swing by and see all our rainbow projects coming together!

I also got the green and black borders sewn onto this pre-printed panel from Pattern Jam that I bought a year ago. Our son-in-law Mike is a hunter and this has his name written all over it.  The backing is pieced and it's ready to be quilted (behind several others in line!) And yes, I realize I need to pay more attention to how I pin quilts up on my design board. Sorry for the waves, LOL.

I finally began quilting the Magic Carpet quilt last night. After a false start that required some frog stitching (rippit, rippit), I decided on some basic stippling for the blue sections. The quilting on all the colored squares will be simple and medium to large scale. I don’t want to interfere with their color punch. The black bits will probably be X’ed or ???

I am not enjoying the quilting of this one, mainly because of all the stops and starts, changing thread colors, etc. I just want to put the pedal to the metal and stitch because I have so many quilts to do. But I am being patient, though it’s hard.

As far as my Christmas quilts go, there is only one left to start, and that is for my son Ryan. I have a jelly roll of Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey, plus lots of light and dark neutrals and some matching yardage for a border. Originally, I was going to do a Ribbon Star (MSQC) pattern, but decided it was too much background, and the stars were too cutesy for my athletic son. So now, the four patterns I’m considering are below, and they’re all in fabric colors or lines that are similar to what I’m working with. Which one do you like? I’m leaning to the strings one in the upper left (a la Three Dudes quilting).

One of the projects I’ve set for myself for 2017 is to make and contribute small kennel quilts to charities. These quilts are for cats and/or small dogs and measure approximately 12x18”. To find a local charity, I contacted our local Best Friends Shelter, a no-kill shelter and organization from whom we adopted Alfalfa and Darla two years ago. They were enthusiastic about the kennel quilts, and indeed accept quilts of all sizes for not only the kennels, but for fostering families and other uses. My cousin Kim and her granddaughter Trinity and I will begin sewing these in January. Our goal is to complete and donate at least a half dozen per month. Here are some kitty fabrics I ordered just for the fun of it, but any fabric will do, of course.

Along with the fabric I got a great new book, Modern Selvage Quilting by Riel Nason. I ordered it because I was having difficulty finding a pattern to use my selvages for. After getting the book (and seeing what she has coming in 2017 - a book of Halloween selvage patterns!), I am now having trouble narrowing it down, LOL.  But I think this quilt, pictured below, will be a great one to use for my selvage RSC project in 2017.  I will do it as a column quilt, working on one color - two columns - per month. The selvages themselves can be multi-colored (which will allow me to continually collect them), while the alternating solid pieces can be sewn in the color of the month. And those solid-color pieces can be one piece or scrappy/crumby. A solution that really works for me!

Finally, in remodeling news, the living room is fully painted, with new outlet and vent covers installed. The hallway is getting its second coat of Agreeable Gray today by yours truly.  Then, since Sunday is Sewing Day, on Monday I will start painting all the hall doors and door trim white. The baseboards will be replaced along with the baseboards in the living room. But unlike the living room, the hallway will not have crown molding.

All our living room furniture is moved out; we have temporarily relocated  the TV and Bruce’s recliner to the library/music room (our back bedroom). I have the futon to curl up on. It’s cozy, but the cats think we are crazy. So what else is new. The living room carpet comes up today, and the old ceiling lights are coming out and new can lights are being installed.  Our cabinetry may be done as early as next week, but if it’s the week after, that’s OK. In the meantime, the hall painting needs to be finished (me) and floor laid (contractor). Once the flooring in the living room is done, we will move the recliner (etc) back while the flooring moves down the hall and into that back bedroom. Such fun; musical furniture. And we are still on track for the new furniture delivery on or around December 7-8. And padded white cells shortly thereafter.