Rolling in the Orange

This week I had four good sewing days (or half-days) and got so much done. Part of my motivation is that today is our monthly Quilts for Kids workshop (and a Scrappy Workshop, which we have once a quarter - my favorite!). I had three quilts made by others that I had to baste and quilt; one was done before we went on vacation, but two I did this week. No pictures, because I don’t count those in my personal totals.  :-)

This week I mainly focused on sewing orange blocks for February that I’ve chosen for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Today is our linkup, and as always there is so much fun and creativity on display as everyone shares their goodies for Scrappy Saturday. 

My first finish of the week was this Scraptastic Star block. It measures 16.5” and I’ll be making a total of nine of these.

Next I churned out ten 6.5” Twin Sisters blocks. I love these blocks! They are so quick and easy. 

And I must have something for “sisters” this year, because I also sewed up 10 International Sisters Blocks (pattern courtesy of my friend Preeti).

The dresses of these Sisters are (all except one) made from African fabrics, and most will be going into fundraising wall hangings for Harambe Humanitarian. That’s why there are so many with the same fabrics. I used up all my African orange fabrics. Each wall hanging will only use 8 sisters, and I’m planning on several (at least 6) more of these wall hangings. I will be working on assembling at least two of them in March, and will talk more about them - and Harambe Humanitarian - at that time. A lot has been happening that I would like to share.

Moving along....  Here are my 17 orange string blocks. They measure 6.5”. 

And I assembled (from previously-sewn and quilted panels) another scrap bucket for my orange scraps. This is a cute and simple pattern courtesy of Angela at So Scrappy.  It measures about 7x10” and is 10” deep. It’s currently holding all my leftover scraps. I’ll be sewing on those this coming week to see if I can put together an orange quilt using them, along with lots of orange orphan blocks. Stay tuned.

Last week I also showed a couple scrappy quilts in process. Here is my progress on those. All of the string star blocks are done, but only the bottom three are sewn together - but not pressed yet. The goal this coming week is to turn this into a flimsy, and then quilt and bind it. Month-end is next Saturday, and I want to count this as a finish for February.

I also showed this in-progress scrap quilt, made with a pack of Rainbow Charms and some low volume (neutral) string scraps.  Here is finished Rainbow Charms #1. It is my February OMG (One Monthly Goal), so I’m linking up to Patty’s February goal finish link-up party here.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this when it was completed; it looks so much more vibrant and fun in person. In fact, there were enough charms to do another whole quilt. That second one is already sewn. I’ve layered and basted it, so it’s just waiting for its turn to be quilted. That will happen this weekend. I’ll have that to show next week, along the finished string stars and my February recap.

That’s it for now. I’m off early this morning to my Block of the Month class, then home for a few minutes to pack off and head in another direction to the Quilts for Kids scrappy workshop, then lunch with friends. Have a great week!

TGIJ - Thank Goodness it’s June

The ark we’re building is coming along nicely. Bruce has decided that a cubit is roughly equivalent to a rock (as in “whiskey on the rocks”) and we’ve been measuring our drinks with those in mind. Our ark(s) look suspiciously like our bicycles, however, and that’s probably a good thing. The weather is finally forecast for some days without rain this week. Looks like we may be pedaling instead of paddling in June.

This week was a crazy one again, and I am dead pooped. The Utah Shop Hop (quilt shop visits all up and down the Wasatch Front) has been going on, and I am the designated driver. Not because we drink (except coffee), but because Guy Smiley (our car; don’t ask) is much more youthful than Cousin Kim’s car (which is, sadly, nameless).  I have to show you a picture from one of the shops on the Shop Hop, the theme of which was Fairy Tales this year. This was a cute display at Little Red Riding Hood’s place.
 

It didn’t seem as crowded to us this year, and we only visited about half the shops we usually do (and that took two whole days). However, the bargains were good. One shop had FQs at 10/$20, another had them 6/$13.50 and still another had them for Buy 3 get 1 free (at $3.50 each, so that was 4/$10.50). Normally I don’t go wild with fat quarters, but since I’m looking for some fabrics to use on some of the collage quilts I’ll start working on soon, that worked out well. Plus, there’s always that one fabric you can’t resist, you know?

Also, last night we attended the first outdoor concert of the year at the amphitheater at Red Butte Gardens. I wanted to go last summer to see Jackson Browne, but he was scheduled there while I was in Africa). This time we went to see one of Bruce’s longtime favorites, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. And we got lucky; the rain held off until we got home (late).

It’s not a very good picture, and you can see some of the lights and smoke effects on the stage. But it was really fun and a great concert. Next time we’ll know to bring our own wine.

On the sewing front, I sewed up three new-to-me blocks, the International Sisters. These are the three I came up with. They are so easy and much larger than I anticipated (unfinished size is 10.5”, and they will be set on point like this):

The middle one is a Kaffe Fasset fabric, and the other two are from my (authentic) African fabric collection. I plan to make these in mostly (but not wholly) African fabrics for a quilt for myself. I also want to begin making these from some of the other African-like fabric that was generously given to me by my friend S (I need to ask her if it’s OK if I mention who she is and the generous gift she sent me). They will be used to make wall-hangings (back to back with some authentic African fabric from Kenya) to make double-sided African wall hangings as a funding source for Harambe Humanitarian.

I love these blocks so much!!

And, as always, I have to tally up my Rainbow Scrap Challenge for the month. I’m linking up (late) to Scrappy Saturday and also to Oh Scrap! on Sunday.

So, in addition to the three International Sisters blocks, I made all the blocks you see in the picture above. I’m not going to list them all because I know you don’t need to read all that. The blocks for May (sometimes a “block” is a row, a chunk) numbered 79.

I also finished two quilts in May (see my Quilts 2019 tab just below the blog header) and am about two thirds done quilting Good Fortune. I expect that will finish in the coming week and be my first finish of June. So now I’m gearing up for a Blue June (medium to dark shades). Bring on the scraps!

But first let me catch my breath and get a good night’s sleep.... AAAAAAND just as I go to post this, I hear the rain starting again....

So Many Orange Scraps

It’s time to recap all my progress with orange scraps this month. I’m joining in with all the other rainbow scrap enthusiasts at Scrappy Saturday.

First, I sewed up all my leftover orange bits and bobs. I love making crumb blocks at the end of the month, and this time I was able to knock out 17 blocks at 6.5”.

I have plans for all the crumb blocks, but that’s for next year’s challenge. I think I showed a sample back when we were doing teal. Essentially, I’ll be taking four blocks of one color and sashing them with a black 1” strip, forming a giant + in the center. That means that I’ll need blocks in multiples of 4. So next year I’ll continue sewing scraps this way, and combining them at the same time. It will probably end up making at least two donation quilts.

So, my orange results are shown here.

2   Linked Squares blocks @ 16.5"
17 Crumb blocks @ 6.5"
16  Quarter Log Cabins @ 6.5"
6  Bowties @ 4,5"
4  Orange Birds @ 10.5"
2  Squared Away blocks @ 10.5"
2  Lollipops @ 6.5"
2  Friendship Stars @ 6.5"
15 Selvage Squares in orange (pictured HERE)
9   Selvage Squares in brown (pictured HERE)
Total Blocks:  75

And for those of you who read my posts about the trip I took to Kenya last month, you may remember the pictures of the rutted dirt road in the Mau Forest that took us up to the village of Entiak and the Tenkes Primary School. WORST.ROAD.IN.THE.WORLD.

Well, there is some good news. While there are no immediate plans to pave it, at least the Kenyan government has graded the road, which should improve conditions for a few years.

Before (last month):

After:  YAY!!

During the next week until month-end, I’ll be working on finishing up the blocks for the Orange Lozenges quilt. This was the picture from the start of the month, and I already have three more blocks made. Only six more to go. 

And if I get those done, I can sew up the top and then baste it AND baste the Linked Squares quilt top too. Wish me luck. There are an awful lot of vegetables from the garden that will get higher priority!! Tomatoes and squash, I’m looking at YOU!

Orange August in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

This month we are working on using our orange fabric scraps in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  And it’s going to be a fun and orange-y linky party today at Angela’s So Scrappy blog because it’s Rainbow Scrap Saturday.

This year I’ve been starting out each new color of the month by sewing up my selvages. And this month was no exception. I was able to get 12 selvage squares of 6.5” and three of 4.5”. That brings me to 67 blocks in the 6.5” size. 

Now I’ve been through most of the rainbow colors, but I still have lots of scraps left in browns, blacks and grays, dark blues and multi-colors. I’ll probably work on the brown ones this month too, as Angela suggested brown as an alternate or extra color for this month. And I know we have another blue coming up, so the blues will be taken care of. After that, I’m not sure. I could stitch up the rest of the multi-colored selvages and get probably enough blocks (all told) to make a 60x60” quilt. Or larger if I sashed them or alternated the selvage blocks with another block. I’ll have to put my thinking cap on. Whatever I decide to do with them, it will happen sometime next year, not this year.

Next I stitched up six 4.5” bowtie blocks, bringing my total bowties to 288. And that completes what I need!

If I set them 16x18, that will give me a quilt that measures 64” by 72”. Sounds good to me!

Also, I did some sewing on these lozenge blocks toward the end of last month. I’ve been working on this quilt for two years. So, this is how it looks as we start Orange August:

I have 11 out of 20 blocks completed - just over half. While we’re working on orange this month, I’d like to finish the remaining 9 blocks to complete the flimsy. All the lozenges and corners are cut, so it’s just a matter of putting the sewing pedal to the metal! But probably not next week; I will be working on other blocks instead. 

My final note is just a happy share. Regular readers know that I joined Weight Watchers a year ago. I’ve not always been as diligent (like during the Holidays) as I could have been, but I’ve been persistent and consistent and managed to lose 37 pounds by my 1-year WW anniversary at the end of June. And then I went to Africa and had no control over the food that was served to us. But I could control how much I actually stuffed in my mouth!  The African diet is so full of vegetables and fruits that it was never really a concern to try new foods like the occasional nyama choma (roast goat), chapati, or samosas. And then there was the chocolate that I brought home from Africa and Amsterdam “for Bruce”, LOL. (Truly, it was for him, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to tasting some myself!) 

Once home again, my first meeting back would have been on Tuesday the 24th of July, but it was a state holiday (Utah’s statehood day, Pioneer Day), so I didn't weigh in until the 31st. And I maintained my weight - I hadn’t gained an ounce! Yessssssss..... it was beyond thrilling for me! Now, with our garden veggies going gangbusters, good food abounds. I plan to buckle down and lose the final 30 pounds over the next several months. Anyway, blogging about this health journey helps me stay accountable. Thanks for reading if you got this far!  

Recapping a Busy September

September was a busy and fun, fun month. But lately I feel as though (as the saying goes), “the hurrier I go, the behinder I get”. Do you ever feel that way? Luckily for me, I am moving more and feeling physically much better since I started Weight Watchers back in June.

In September I lost about 5 pounds, making my total to date a loss of 20.2. But even better than that are my two NSV’s (“non-scale victories” as we call them). First, my annual physical was great and my blood work was all in normal ranges, unlike last year. And then my clothes are looser (one pair of pants keeps falling down - goodbye!) and I’m on the verge of moving into the next size down. The smaller pants are ready and waiting in my closet for the cool autumn weather to set in. I did a lot of walking and hiking on vacation, totally controlled my snacking (easy when peaches are in season!) and lost weight. I’m enjoying this journey!

I thought I’d get more sewing done over the last week, but my time in the studio was limited.  I did sew up all the rest of my orange scraps, making three slabs from fabric crumbs. They’ll be used in kennel quilts later this fall. And I made a couple more strip blocks, stars, as well as two Geese Migration blocks. Linking up to Angela’s So Scrappy blog for Scrappy Saturday.

So here is my Orange Collage for September:
Top Row, L-R:  2 Geese Migration blocks, 20 bowties, 4 Plus blocks, 3 crumb slabs
Middle Row, L-R: 2 Selvage columns, 5 Bookshelf blocks (not all shown)
Bottom Row, L-R: 16 Friendship Star variation, 8 Strings blocks

That totals 62 orange blocks for September, rather down from my usual. But that’s OK! I also made several 12” blocks for my Autumn Farmgirl quilt and cut several hundred 2.5"x4” orange lozenges and began adding 1.5” corners to them. Speaking of the Autumn Farmgirl quilt, I used the leftover HSTs from the Friendship Star blocks to make cornerstones. It’s just pinned, but you get the idea....

And here is the start of a pair of Indian Corn blocks for that same autumn quilt....

This week we visited friends and went out to lunch on one of Bruce’s days off. We got to pick out pumpkins from their pumpkin patch, which is bigger than our whole backyard! It was like being a kid again!  We also had family over (twice), including our boisterous grandkids. I would love to be able to bottle just enough of their energy to use to clean my floors after they leave! LOL.

Also, Darla and Alfalfa had their annual physical at the vets. The hardest part of the whole ordeal was catching them after they saw the cage, which was my fault. It would’ve made a good half-hour sitcom. Something about The Little Rascals and their Stupid Human. All that, combined with a lot of autumn batch cooking (lasagna, pot roast, beef enchiladas, chicken rice soup) made for a busy, exhausting week!

And finally, I have something else I made earlier in the month that I haven’t shown yet, but will do that next week after the recipient receives it.....

Have a great week! Have you decorated for fall yet?

Sewing More Orange

Hi! We are back from our fantastic week-long vacation to Colorado. We had a great time visiting friends and family, but I will save the recap for a separate post in a couple days.  For now, I want to link to Scrappy Saturday as our September color is orange. And boy, did we see a lot of orange leaves in the mountains of Colorado!

Before we left, I sewed up 20 bowtie blocks. They will finish at 4” each. I’ve now completed 177 of the 304 blocks needed, so I am 58% of the way to the block finish line. This is definitely a 2-year project.

Next up are the 13 Friendship Star variation blocks that I sewed while on vacation. They are an unfinished size of 6.5” each.  I now have 135 of 136 blocks needed, and we still have PINK to work on. The extra blocks will probably end up on the back of the quilt.

And I have been sewing 12” autumn-themed blocks, using some of my old Farm Girl Vintage blocks and adding new ones from here and there. These five were sewn last week.

I have a total of 4 (first one from a couple years ago not shown) and they will go in the four corners. I still have several blocks to work on: an owl, a crow, a turkey, a schoolhouse, a squirrel and some Indian corn. I am hoping to get this one done by early October.

Finally, I sewed some pillowcases for the Hurricane Harvey/Irma relief efforts. I had hoped to finish 10 of them, but did managed to get just half of them done. That will have to do, as I want to get these, along with 3 donation quilts, off this week. There is a local quilt shop who is collecting, and I may just save myself some postage and take them there instead of mailing them back east.....

We returned home from vacation on Wednesday night, and I have spent Thursday and Friday doing laundry, grocery shopping, errands, housework, etc etc.  I haven’t even unpacked my machine yet!  After one final errand on Saturday morning, I plan to commune with Bernadette (my Bernina 550QE) all afternoon and not come up for air until dinnertime.  I hope you have a pleasant weekend too!

Quilting by the (Orange) Book

Welcome back, friends! First, let me say that those of you in Florida are sure in my thoughts as you brace for Hurricane Irma’s impact. Hopefully you have all prepared as best you can and that you and your loved ones (and loved homes, etc) escape harm. If our friend Angela is able to post the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Scrappy Saturday link-up, I will join in.

And we have not forgotten our Texas friends who are still recovering from Hurricane Harvey. There are many online sites for donating money, services, quilts, pillowcases, kennel quilts for animals, etc. for the multitude of victims in the Southeast. I hope we will ALL take the time to contribute what we can. If you need help finding a charity, please feel free to write me and I will be glad to direct you to some.

And now let’s talk Orange.

This week I started by using orange strings to make (8) 8.5” string blocks. If I have strings left over after all the rest of my blocks are done, I'll make 4 more to sew into another 16” finished block. If not, there is always next year!

And then I sewed up four quick Plus blocks. Originally I wasn’t even planning to use orange in the Plus quilt, but that changed. With these, I have 89 blocks. The remaining blocks for the quilt will be pink and gray, and I will need between 7-18 total of those. The extras will be used if I decide to switch out some of the already-made blocks that I don’t care for.

Next, I got started on my orange shelf of books (5 blocks) for my Bookcase Quilt. Bookcase Quilt - it needs a better name, doesn’t it? Any ideas? Anyway, here are some close-up pictures so you can see the individual titles in case you want to “check them out”!  hahahaha..... get it?  check them out 

So, let’s read across from left to right. Note that you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. Have you read Timeless Treasures or Peak Hour?

Moving along (there is some overlap in the pictures), we find Cool Cats and Helen’s Garden. Naturally, Helen has pumpkins in her garden at this time of year....

And it’s true, I got lazy and stacked all my smallish books sideways. But the titles are easier to read. These little book titles include Diamond Eye, Handmaids and Hello Darling. 

All this reading is making me hot (as in hot flashes, LOL). So, thank goodness I parked my fan on the shelf, eh??

And note that we have the the runaway bestseller Butterfly Bliss. It even has a butterfly on the cover! And even Home for Harvest has an appropriate cover.

And here is a view with the orange shelf just pinned on top of the yellow, green and blue shelves. I haven’t sewn the orange books onto the shelf yet.....

There are three pink book blocks still to sew and add to my two red book blocks; they will they will comprise the top shelf. The bottom shelf will be the 4 already-sewn purple blocks plus one dark-colored book block of black/gray/other dark neutrals. This may come to Colorado for me to work on....

I am starting to cut and pack other projects to take along with me to Colorado next week. One of the things I plan to bring is fabric to make the pillowcases for Sarah’s charity drive over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I’ve cut and packed up 7-8 of those to sew.  And I will probably cut and kit fabric for a half dozen or more Farm Girl 12” blocks. I want to do an autumn-themed quilt. And since I have way too many 12” Farm Girl blocks for just one quilt, I thought I would pull out the autumn-ish blocks, add a few more and see what I can come up with. I have plenty of sashing and backing ready to go, so this is another one that could materialize quickly. Like a quilting hurricane.....

Last December, we purchased four Ingo tables from IKEA as my Christmas present. I have wanted to re-do the tables and arrangement in my studio forever. Anyway, after Christmas came the end of our living room remodel, and then weeks, even months, of the arm cancer scare and operations for Bruce. So we “tabled” the assembly (sorry, couldn’t resist). And then it was summer/garden/family/brother moving in, etc. Finally I announced an assembly date last Monday, and both Bruce and my brother agreed gladly. They had those 4 tables whipped out - from gathering tools to wiping them of dust - in 2 hours flat.

So, here are some pictures of the place. Keep in mind it’s still a work in progress. And also, these are honest, messy pictures. There is ironing to be done, messes to clean up, stuff packed up for our trip, etc..........

When you come down the stairs (above picture, where the light switch is), there are two rooms to your right. The first one (brown) is my office and computer. It's also where I used to store my lace and fabric inventory when I had an active Etsy shop. The second apricot-colored room (above and below) has two easy chairs and is my hand stitching room. In there I keep my batting rolls, and cabinets of embroidery threads, silk ribbons, beads, buttons, books, ribbons, vintage laces, and collectibles such as vintage aprons, vintage clothing, vintage pillowcases and linens, etc. That room is worthy of a post in its own right sometime.

So, as you come down the stairs and look ahead in my studio, there is the design wall on the right. Facing forward (to the left in the above picture) are two bookshelves housing fabrics. On the top of the wood-toned bookcase are two containers of selvages sorted by color and one basket of multi-colored scraps.

In the picture above you can see two of the new tables. My power strip/surge protector comes down from the overhead lights and sewing machines and irons for up to 4 persons can be plugged into it. I just flip off the power strip when I leave the room. The studio is in the basement, but it gets afternoon sun and is delightful.  My big ironing board there is covered with the pillowcases I’m kitting up. Beyond that, in the corner are (1) plastic shelves containing scraps by color and the WIP bookshelf. The door leads out to the backyard. Hanging on the door handle and on the carpet shampooer is the laundry I need to iron!!

As we continue moving around the room, you can see more of the tables and the cutting station that’s set up (green mat).  Behind my sewing chair (that is really for my office, but until I get a new one without arms, I’m using it here) is my thread, treadle machine below the thread, and miscellaneous sewing supplies in the desk and shelves behind my chair. That is the bathroom there behind the door....

Between the bathroom and laundry room (the door next to the hangers) is a plastic bin of fancy fabric scraps (silks, damask, velvet) for my crazy quilting, plus a bookcase of mementos, pincushions and music. The painting was done by my son Shane in high school.

And so we’ve come full circle. Again, sorry for the mess. But honestly, I wasn’t going to clean up just to take pictures and then have to get it all back out again.

If you don’t hear from me next Saturday, it just means that I don’t have internet access at our cabin in Colorado. We are meeting up with Diann and her hubby (of Little Penguin Quilts) and several other couple friends for a long weekend in the mountains. Then we are visiting family for a couple days before returning home. I will update y’all when I get back!

Have a great week!

Orange for the Win !!

Welcome back, friends. Today is just a recap of my orange scrappy adventures for the month of April.  Can you believe that tomorrow is MAY already??

I keep track of my various blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge as I seem to be working on several quilts at once: the RSC2016 Sampler, Cats & Kittens (will become 2 quilts), Dresdens (will become 2 quilts), 16-patches with black & white centers, vintage sheets rail fence (not shown) and also just 8.5” scrappy blocks that have no particular purpose. Yet.

So, this month’s total orange blocks numbered 79, my busiest month yet. I also did 2 - 12” blocks for my Notting Hill quilt, 10 - 6” blocks for the Splendid Sampler, and cut over 140 orange lozenges (5”x 2.5”) for a future quilt (to add to the 40 that were given to my in an Instagram giveaway). And, I finished my Cityscape quilt, which you can read about in my previous post. All in all, a great sewing month.

May promises better weather, and I plan to be outdoors and in the garden more. That will probably be reflected in my productivity, but that’s just fine.

Why not join us at So Scrappy for Scrappy Saturday??

Holy Orange, Batman!

Most of the last week has been spent finishing up my orange blocks. The result has been a sizable dent in my orange scraps, although I did add in a few new ones from my sewing from last blog post (the 2 12” blocks for my Notting Hill quilt).

I did get the whirligig blocks done, or buzz saws or whatever they are called. I found them really fun to work on! Originally I cut them all out of the orange dotty fabric, but decided instead to swap out half of them for other oranges. Hence, there are plenty of the orange dot scraps in my improv blocks, which you’ll see later in the post.

After taking the above picture, I sewed them into a column and hung them up on clothes hangers on a makeshift shelf in my Other Sewing Room. This is actually just an old bedroom off my basement studio that I redecorated a couple years ago (see the orange walls?) It also has the full spectrum fluorescent lights and is where I keep my books, threads, laces, beads, etc.  I do my hand stitching in here in a comfy wing chair.

But anyway, don’t the four columns look great together? I can hardly wait for next month’s blocks!! Angela at So Scrappy has been doing a great job of leading us along on this year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this sampler!

My improv blocks, above, number 20 this month (usually it is 10). I just have so much orange because I love it. I also incorporated all the waste HSTs left over from other projects. And then there was the first whirligig block I did with the orange dots and a too-busy background that I didn’t like. Someday these will all find a home in a quilt.....

******
Yesterday I took a break from sewing and instead repainted all our outdoor wrought iron railings plus a wicker chair and footrest for the patio.  It’s supposed to rain this weekend, so I won`t finish setting up and cleaning all the patio furniture and cushions until next week.  Then, since my hands and arms were killing me, I spent the afternoon vegetating binge-watching watching the first 4 episodes of one of my all-time favorite PBS series, House of Elliot. Dressmaker sisters in 1920’s London that rise from destitution to a heads of a couture house. Some luscious fabrics, sewing machines, styles, etc. Just what I needed to get me fired up to return to the sewing machine today and finish up 4-5 Splendid Sampler blocks.

*******
Why not join us at So Scrappy for Scrappy Saturday? We are happy to share our orange (eye) candy with you!
Also linking up to Oh Scrap!