So Many Things to Share!

It’s been a busy couple weeks. Last night I finally wrote up a blog post about our week-long trip to a Missouri Star Quilt Company retreat in Hamilton Missouri. That post is HERE because I wanted to do it justice in a separate post. It’s fun and there’s some nice eye candy, so check it out! But I STILL have so much to share, so I won’t waste any time.

Let’s start off with the blocks I managed to get sewn up this week for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The color for August is aqua/teal/turquoise. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday to share my blocks with the others who are working hard to put their fabric scraps to good use!

First up was the aqua momcat and her litter of five kittens. I always sew one kitten to match mom, and this month was no exception. 

Next came the two Spring Star blocks.

It took me a good two days after returning home last Saturday evening to recover from the trip. By “recover” I mean sleep, do laundry, rest, unpack and nap,  LOL. There was a lot of fabric fondling, too. Here are some pictures, but they’re not exhaustive (because I was exhausted). 

These are some of the large cuts (all are 4-5 yards except the teacups, which is 2 yards). The red Kaffe fabric with circles will be the backing to my International Sisters quilt - the one I’m making for myself. That will be a priority in the new year. The other Kaffe fabric, those luscious chrysanthemums, will be a backing for an orange quilt I’m itching to make. 

In the foreground of the above photo is a large cut of Tula Pink’s Fairy Dust background fabric. I fell in love with that when Julie stared using it for some of her RSC blocks. I plan to do the same in ‘22. The top navy floral was a sale fabric with metallic, and I just fell in love.

Next up are some fabrics I bought for the next quilt I’ll make for Bruce. Thankfully, he likes them! I took a sample of an orange fabric (see it there on the white) depicting radio circuits to match up. I got a couple science-themed fabrics, some red grunge and lots of solid gray. The gray matches perfectly, but I actually bought it for another project that I’ll show later in the post.

Next up is some navy Kona (because I’m on a navy kick), a pattern and batik strips with which to make this handled tote, and a yard of colorful sale fabric that I could just see for making lots of zipper blocks.

A puzzle and a rainbow jelly roll…

I couldn’t resist this Tula Pink fabric. I think it’ll become another pillowcase for moi! And the Kaffe Collective and Tula fat quarters (only $2 each) were too good to pass up. 

Now, let’s jump back in time for a moment to the week prior to the fabric acquisition trip retreat. This is a line of fabric I bought from Connecting Threads called “Alfie”. Regular readers know that one of my crazy felines is named Alfie. That, coupled with these beautiful florals, practically *forced* me to acquire them. I’m sure you totally understand. 

There are cats among the main floral! Anyway, that solid gray I showed above will be used with these fabrics to showcase them in one of those shadow-framed block quilts. Another project for myself for 2022. After eight months of sewing donation quilts almost exclusively. I’m planning selfish sewing in a big way for the new year!

Another thing I did before leaving for the retreat was to sew this orange 12” block. It was the final one needed to complete a long-running Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler quilt.

When I returned home, I sewed up the flimsy. The top is now waiting to be sandwiched up. Unfortunately, this picture just shows the blocks pinned to the design board. The actual quilt top is sashed and bordered. I should have it finished next week.

At the retreat, I got all of these blocks sewn up, so it was easy to assemble the flimsy once I got home. I love the colors in this line, even though it’s way too matchy-matchy for my tastes. It was a layer cake I wanted to use up. 

There will be a small white stop border then a wider yellow border added. The backing will be the same yellow print. I’m thinking this will make a perfect quilt for my granddaughter Lauren’s high school graduation next May. 

And here is the status of the other project I worked on, the Ribbon Quilt from Jordan Fabrics. All the blocks are cut and sewn; they just need to be assembled and a border added. I’d like to finish this in August, too. 

Additionally, I’ll have two aqua scrap quilts to sew for Quilts for Kids. The pieces are gathered, but they can wait until I clear off the other things in the next ten days or so. 

Our garden has finally begun sharing its bounty. Even the compost bin had a volunteer snapdragon to present to us!

This was my harvest last Sunday, and Thursday’s harvest was nearly identical. Well, about two less spaghetti squash and double the cherry tomatoes.

The onions are almost ready too - their tops are beginning to fall. I pick one or two as we need them, but the bulk of them will stay in the ground until all the tops have fallen and I can pull and dry them out as a batch for storage. The birds are spending a lot of time in the higher more bird-accessible areas of the grape arbor. That means the rest of the grapes (reserved for humans) are not far behind. It’s a busy time of year. 

This coming week we have a dentist appointment (Bruce - toothache from a cracked tooth that will probably need either a root canal, crown, or both). I’ll be getting more cortisone so I can function again like a sixty-something instead of a ninety-something. And hopefully there will be a contractor visiting to give us an estimate on fixing the basement leak. We’ve already determined from a window contractor that it’s NOT the window. Some exploratory demolition of the interior wall will be happening. Of course - it’s in my studio. That means I’ll be doing The Fabric Shuffle again. Because the thought of sheetrock dust and my fabric in the same room makes me (pick any:) cry, itch, feel faint. 

Catching up with Other Sewing

Now that the month is more than half way over (how did THAT happen?), I have other sewing progress to report - sewing that is not related to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I mean, I do have stuff to show for the RSC, but that will be on Saturday.  But for now, as the Eagles serenade me in the studio, I would like to show you my two Notting Hill blocks for April.

I started making 12” blocks for the 2013 (yes, 3 years ago) Sugar Block Club in the lovely Notting Hill Fabric by Joel Dewberry.  About the 3rd or 4th month we got to paper piecing, and although I tried valiantly, I gave up. If you don’t remember how I feel about paper piecing, scroll back a few posts.  Anyway, that project got put on hold until this year.

I started the year with 4 blocks (one pieced in the intervening 3 years) and decided it was time to finish it, two blocks per month. As I am and always have been a big fan of Amy Gibson’s, I’m participating in the 2016 Sugar Block Club and making her block every month (at least so far).
 

Here is this month’s block:

I really enjoyed making this block, but wish I had chosen a fabric with better contrast for the small triangles in the inner part of the corner patches and that snowball the center patch. Live and learn. As they say, finished is better than perfect.

Along with my SBC block, I select another one of my choosing to sew up. This month’s is High Tide by Kate Spain. You should see her version in blues, here. Scroll down about 2/3 of the way to find a downloadable pattern link. Here is my block:

That brings my total blocks to 12, of 20 needed to finish a quilt that will be (with sashing) about 60  x 72” or so.

And speaking of fabric (I know, my segue leaves a bit to be desired),  I got some new goodies in earlier in the month, thanks to the bad influence of some internet friends who shall remain nameless.

I think that fabric on the left will make a good backing for the second Cityscape quilt I will make later this year (as a donation to a cancer organization). The middle fabric is another Tamara Kate print; I just love everything she does. The other one - the pins.... *sigh* ... who can resist a sewing-related low volume print?   And I am looking for several yards of a cute cat fabric to back the two in-process cat quilts I’m making.....

What about my fabric diet, you ask?? To which I reply... what fabric diet?  I did that in November - February, which is enough. Time to bring in some fresh fabric! I did get lots sewn and despite several fabric winnings, I managed to use, sell or give away over 50 yards net.

And one final thing that I have not officially shown here. One day, on a whim, I replaced my fugly ironing board cover with this fabric I bought a couple years ago. The good news is that it uses a narrow length, so I have enough to re-do it yet again.  :-)

Until Saturday,

Work in Process Wednesday and a Rotten Apple, Inc.

Is there anyone else out there in Blogland who has had the new Apple Photos app forced down their throats???  After a routine “update” three nights ago, I woke up to having iPhotos gone and replace with PHOTOS.  I had to import every picture (hours) into a new library.  OK, I am getting used to the new format. I can live with progress. But I can’t access my photos from Blogger when I want to upload them to the blog! Grrrrr.

So, I had to go in to the new PHOTOS, export them to a file called PICTURES, and then upload them. Does anyone know why the export process is so mangled?  If I try just simply uploading from Blogger, all that PHOTOS will give me is the Photos Logo, not the photos themselves. And I can’t place them anywhere on my Favorites or anywhere they are accessible by Blogger.  As usual with tech things, specific advice is nowhere to be found online.  I am probably the only person in the known universe with this problem.

That must mean it is time to go sew and work off some of that frustration!!!

Here is my in process stitching of Bruce’s quilt. He loves bright colors.  So, I am now loving flying geese after doing 100+ for this quilt.  :-)  And actually, I have four out of 8 rows of the top sewn together. I hope to baste it later in the week, sew the back, and begin quilting on Sunday.

After laying these out in order, hubby decided that he wanted all arrows except one column pointing up.  The column that is second-from-right will stay pointing down.  :-)

The gold-looking print in the picture above is actually orange, and there is a lot of orange in the banjo print.

The quilt will be backed with some orange Riley Blake ombre fabric. I found an entire shrink-wrapped bolt of it (10 yards) for $7.99 at a local thrift store.  (No, those things never happen to me either....)  Plus there will be some other pieces and/or flying geese added into the back for interest. I shared this on my Instagram a couple weeks ago.

Well, off to sew.  Linking up to WIP Wednesdays with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

See you soon!