Keep Calm and Sew Purple

On one hand, it seems as though this month of February has flown by. That would be because this is only my second Rainbow Scrap Saturday post for purple. But on the other hand, this month has been going on.for.ev.er.

Back on February 1, a sunny vacation loomed ahead. Now it’s done and we’re back (see last blog post for more of that fiasco).  February also brought a tragic school shooting in Florida, with teenagers proving they’re more mature than many adults in the public forum; Olympics, snowstorms, politics, auto accidents, mounds of laundry, tax returns.... Sheesh. No wonder I dove into my sewing this week and beat those purple scraps into submission!!  

Rather than show everything individually, I’ll just do my usual month-end scrappy recap via a collage photo. 

Here is my Purple February tally (clockwise from top left):

(4) 8.5” string blocks

(3) 10” Squared Away blocks

(9) 6.5” crumb blocks

(1) Geese Migration block

(8) 6.5” selvage blocks

(10) 6.5” quarter log cabin blocks

(3) Linked Squares blocks

That's a total of 38 purple blocks for February.

There were other things I worked on this month as well, of course. I prepared three blocks and a PDF tutorial for The Block Lotto’s March block, which will be published on their site (BlockLotto.com) on March 1.

I finished my brother’s Hot Rod Quilt and sewed up a dozen or sew On Ringo Lake blocks. And this is currently on the design board, being sewn into a flimsy. Sorry for the bad picture. The blocks were folded into fourths so I could play around with their placement easier. I hope to have this finished to reveal for next Saturday’s linkup. 

Rainbow Strings

We found out yesterday that our 11th (and final, I believe) grandchild, due in early July, will be a girl! I’m so excited! So I’m planning her baby quilt. What am I saying? It’s been planned for weeks, and I pulled the fabrics last night. But I have to finish a couple other quilts first, so the baby quilt won’t begin until the second quarter of the year.

Bruce and I will begin car shopping in March. We were in a bad auto accident about a month ago. Luckily, when impact was inevitable, Bruce sped up instead of braking. We were therefore hit toward the rear of the truck instead of the cab where I was sitting. We thought his truck was totaled, but because Toyotas hold their value so well, it wasn’t close. We get the truck back next week. And so, for reasons I won’t go into here, we will sell both our current vehicles and buy a new one. We are looking at another Toyota hybrid, probably a RAV4 SUV. And I will be the sole driver.

And since I haven’t shown kitty pictures for awhile (and every post is better with cats, right?), here are Alfie and Darla settling in for a long winter’s nap....

Linking up to:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Oh Scrap!

February is Purple!

Participants in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are playing with our purple scraps for the month of February. Our intrepid leader, Angela, has assigned purple and lavender as our focus this month. It never ceases to amaze me how I can pretty much clear out my scraps one year, but by the time that color rolls around the following year, there are so many bits and bobs to play with. This year I’ve been adding in large chunks and fat quarters that have sat unloved or unused in my stash for many, many years. Cue the theme music for Rawhide here as I paraphrase:

“Move ‘em on, Cut ‘em up, 

Ride ‘em in, Head ‘em out...... RAWHIDE!  Our Scraps!

Ye-haw!  Ok. I’m over it now. 

So, purple.

First up were my Linked Squares Blocks. I did three of them this month, using the entire range of purples from red-purples to blue-purples. These blocks finish at 16.

I wasn’t sure how I was liking these until I put all my blocks together. There are the three purples, plus last month’s two blues. What’s with the one green one, you ask? It was the very first test block that I made to see if my pattern was correct. I’ll make more green ones when that color month rolls around. But this gives us an idea of what they will all look like together. I will need 20 total.  

And next I made four 8.5” (unfinished) string blocks for my Never-ending String Quilt that I started back in 2016.

All I have left to do with this string quilt is to make 2 orange blocks (to finish the orange foursome) and then one other large 4-part block in red or green.  This is so close that I may turn it into a monthly goal in March.  

Bruce and I are leaving Thursday to vacation in Arizona with family for a week or two. Our return is rather open-ended because we don’t have to rush home for anything. My brother is staying at the house to take care of the cats. Anyway, I won’t be around for the next couple Saturday link-ups unless I can borrow a relative’s computer. The iPad I’m taking is notoriously useless in Blogger edit mode (it won’t scroll, which they’ve known about for years but have never deigned to fix). So it’s unlikely I will post while I’m gone. But I always take lots of pictures, so I’ll catch you up when I get back.

Happy February!!

As January (Finally) Comes to a Close...

Is it just me, or does it seem as though January has been going on for three months already? I am so OVER it already! But today was really nice - there was a big ball of yellow fire in the sky that created shadows and made everything light. I think it’s called the sun, but that is from rumor and certainly not from previous experience this month.

So, I finally pretty much wiped out my purple scraps this month. I played with my 1.5” this week. Oh, but before that I finished up my Friendship Star variation blocks that weren’t quite ready last Saturday.

They’re kind of a pain in the butt because there are so many HSTs to trim, but I love the look, so OH WELL.  And speaking of pains in the posterior, the 1.5” squares and HSTs got cleaned up and made into 2 36-patch blocks alternating solids and HSTs. Yeah, my piecing leaves a lot to be desired.

With all the leftover bits and bobs, I made these three slabs. I am counting them as ONE block in my tally because they could be sewn together.... or not.

So here is my summary of PURPLE blocks for this month:

Top:  4 string blocks, 4 Bookcase blocks (12” each, sewn together)
Left: 1 Crayon block (the light one was from last year)
Middle Row: 2 Geese Migration Blocks, 11 Plus blocks, 2 columns of Selvage blocks
Bottom: 13 Friendship Star, 38 Bowties, 1 Crumb slab
Not Shown in collage: 2   36-patch blocks.
Total RSC Blocks:  76.

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Angela’s So Scrappy Blog. Why not join us and see what everyone else has done too??

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I had another finish this week - my warm-colored Rainbow Improv from 2016. I had to baste it first, then quilt and bind it. I really love how it turned out!!!

These 8” improv blocks are what I did last year with the miscellaneous crumbs and such of each color. The first quilt (shown a couple weeks ago) was done in blue, teal, purple and green. This quilt is the warm part of the spectrum; yellow, orange, red and pink.  This one was set 6x8 and sashed with Kona Cream. It looks like a pale peachy yellow, but it’s called Cream. Anyway, I like it.  The batting is Warm & Plush and it finished at 62x82”.

The quilting was a basic freeform loop, and I used Aurifil thread (1135) in 40 wt because that is what I had. I wasn’t crazy about the gold thread on the red (above), but I loved it on the rest of the quilt (below).

And when washed up, it was just fine. The backing I bought at Connecting Threads during their year-end clearance. I’d had my eye on it for awhile for this quilt - perfect colors. The binding was strips left over from other backings.

This was #4 on my Quarter 1 Finish Along Goals - my third finish in January. But that’s because the tops were done last year.

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Finally, I made a bit of progress on the D9P quilt for my brother-in-law.  This picture doesn’t show the entire width of the quilt, but it will be sashed in black on all 4 sides. Then there will be three sections divided by vertical strips of blue/black/blue as shown. The center column will be three blocks wide and each side column will be four blocks wide. I think. If I don’t like that, it might become 3-4-3.  And there may be some horizontal stripes, too.

I’ll be playing with this for a few days and want to get it sewn up this coming week. Preferably before Angela announces the February color!

Most of this post was prepared on Friday evening, so I slept in this morning. But Alfie never really lets me sleep late. I was awakened by a gentle paw pulling back the covers over my head. The time? 8:00 straight up. It’s like he KNOWS, because it’s never later than that.

Alfie: Yes, human. The King is all-seeing.

See you on Tuesday for a Rainbow Scrap finished quilt round-up.

First Finish of the Year

How has your week been? Here in the Salt Lake Valley it’s been cold and wet. The sun made a brief appearance yesterday but is back in hiding today. We’ve had rain and snow (mostly rain) all week. Great sewing weather!

In my last post (if you didn’t see it) I listed out my goals for the first quarter of this year’s Finish-Along. I have a finish to show later on in this post (a Rainbow Scrap finish!), so let’s move on to Rainbow Scrap Challenge matters. This month is purple, and this week I focused on working with strips.

First up are my four 8.5” strip blocks. I’m still on the fence about adding the lighter colors, but there you have them. These are really the dregs of my scraps, as the best pieces went into the bookcase project.

The bookcase project, you ask? Yep, a rainbow bookcase. Here are my four purple 12” blocks for 80% of the “bottom shelf”. The last block will be made of dark neutrals (black/gray) when we get to those....

I’ve got more pictures, close up, to show you while I talk about this FUN project. You can click on the pictures to see them better. And all my imperfections. What a learning experience! My favorite part is picking out the book titles from my selvages.

The names of fabric lines make good titles for books (or songs, come to think of it). I just cut them out of the tightly-woven selvage and stitched around them with a tiny stitch. Do you see the book Fairy Frost? Dover Hill? Between Friends? And of course, Prince Charming!

As you can see , the books aren’t perfectly rectangular. I just eyeballed rather than measured everything (and with my vision issues, I should know better). But look at those titles...... Jazz (with music notes!) Anything Goes. Architextures (on the wood-grain print).

The small leaning books on top were problematic; from now on I’ll stick to the stacked books (like in the Anything Goes and Quilters Candy group).  My favorite? Helen’s Garden, on the right.  The names do not match the fabrics - I was more concerned about which titles fit. And I want to explore doing a book series (like the gold banded books above). I can do better.

Why not join us over at So Scrappy for some more purple Rainbow Scrap “reading”????

And this was my first finish of the year - my Rainbow Rails.  It was a 2016 Rainbow Scrap project made of vintage sheets in the Rail Fence pattern. It is now quilted, bound and ready to use. As it was always intended to be summer weight, the batting is merely flannel. It finished at 72”x81”.  This was #1 on my list of Q1 goals, which you can see here.

I’m not sure if you can see it, but the binding is scrappy and roughly matches the colors it borders (orange-green-pink-blue).

Right now I’m in the process of quilting another Rainbow Scrap quilt (blue-green Improv) and will have that for next time.

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In remodeling news, we had a great surprise. When the carpet was ripped up from the hallway and back bedroom/study, we found the original hardwood floors. They were in beautiful condition, although there was one tiny patch to be filled, then the whole thing was buffed. It is generally not recommended to lay hardwood on hardwood unless you run it in different directions, but why would we want to? So yeah, we have three different types of hardwood in the house now. The upstairs hardwood is everywhere (except the 2 bathrooms, which are tile) - three bedrooms and the hall. We left the master bedroom and the girly guest room carpeted for now.

So the hall (and closets) and study are now restored to their original lovely sixties-era hardwood. The new baseboards still need touching up and caulking, and the stair treads will go on today. In fact, it will all be done today and tomorrow. Then we can move everything back into the bedroom and hall closets. And the last of our furniture (couch and ottoman) are being delivered today. YAY!!  If the sun ever shines again, I should be able to finally get some pictures this week!

The remodel feels like it’s been going on forever - and indeed, we started the kitchen refresh in August. But the whole thing is within inches of being done. I love FINISHES of any kind!

Another Scrappy, Happy Week!

This has been a cold week with lots of snow here in the Salt Lake Valley. It clears up for a day or so in between storms; brilliant sunshine and blue skies with glittering snow on the ground. Gorgeous. And then another storm comes in to cleanse the air and prevent pollution build-up. And so it goes. I don’t mind the snow - in fact I enjoy it -  because I`m retired. All I ever have to do is occasionally shovel the walkway for the mailman if hubby and the snowblower aren’t in the vicinity.  But since I’ve only come to live where there are four seasons in my adulthood (I grew up in sunny Southern California), I have never built a snowman. I ALMOST started one last Tuesday, but thought better of it.  :-)  I was in the front yard and could just imagine the neighbors wondering what this crazy ol’ broad was doing....

This week is the first week of PURPLE for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Angela’s So Scrappy blog. Lots of purple goodness to check out! But also, we veteran RSC’ers were asked to share some of our past makes. Rather than add them in here, I have created a GALLERY page (blue link, above, next to “Home”). It starts with my 2016 quilts and goes back to 2012. Enjoy!

So, this is what I got done this week, sewing-wise:

Rainbow Selvages. This is actually four columns; two in purple (or blue-purple) and two in red-purple. The like colors will eventually be sewn together into their own single column, but I figured it was easier to photograph them this way. Besides, each column will alternate from starting with a solid to starting with selvages, checkerboard fashion. So, in the end I’ll have to rearrange a section here and there. No biggie.

These were so fun to whip up! And for now they will go into their little pile and await other colored friends to join them throughout the year.  :-)

Crayons.  The light purple crayon below was done last year (August) when we had the month of misty purple/acid green or do-your-own-thing.  This week I sewed up the dark purple. They are sewn together because they are neighbors on the quilt.  Actually, their length will be the width of the quilt (before borders, etc.)

Planned for next week is the purple blocks of the Rainbow Bookshelf. And then some work with 2.5” scraps.

I found the picture of the warm version of the Improv Scrap Blocks flimsy to show. It has a back pieced for it and is just waiting its turn in line for quilting.

I just totally love it! The sashing is Kona Cream, and I questioned whether it “worked” or not at first. But I think it does. This quilt is set 6x8 blocks and will finish at 62”x72”.


Right now I am in the middle of quilting Rainbow Rails (the vintage sheet rail fence), then after that is the Cool Improv Scraps (like above, only in blues, greens, purple with black sashing), then the Warm Improv above, and finally the Rainbow Dresdens. They will all become goals for the Finish-Along 1st Quarter.

Finally, I stitched up a sleeping bag and pillows for one of my granddaughter’s American Girl dolls. I still need to run to JoAnn and get a 20” separating zipper and sew on the ribbon ties. But It’s fun to show it even at this stage. I took the opportunity to practice my free motion swirls, and as you can see, I do need practice! But it’s OK for this, right?  LOL

I’m feeling a sort of loss, not having kitty blocks to work on! Did you see Missouri Star Quilt Company’s tutorial for this week? It’s a cat quilt!!  I’m almost tempted.......   Almost, but not quite.

Slow Progress

Happy Saturday!  Our neighborhood is having a clean-up drive today and they're supplying three roll-off dumpsters for green waste, hazardous materials (paints, etc. that the local scouts are coming around to collect) and regular household and limited construction waste.  We have taken advantage of that by getting rid of some old paints and the detritus from our clean-up of the patio and storage sheds earlier in the week. We still make weekly runs to the  thrift store to unload usables. Although we are purging instead of collecting, it still feels as though it fits in well with this nesting time of year! Getting things in order.

But let’s talk about quilting. Last weekend I quilted my cousin Kim’s red, white and black quilt. But I will wait to show pictures until she adds the binding and we wash it. A couple weeks. She has this idea to piece the binding in patchwork squares, and I couldn’t dissuade her. I’m glad she will be doing the binding, not me. Stay tuned.

On my personal sewing front, I have started the purple litter of kittens (and their mama) for Kitten Quilt #3andfinal. When purple is done, there will only be green and pink left.

Those will get finished up today.  And so, I am linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

What else did I sew on this week? Not as much as I would have liked, but I did finish up the orange peel blocks (42, machine appliquéd) for my DIL Kim’s Christmas quilt. She picked the fabric (Bonnie & Camille’s Hello Darling) and the pattern. The top is now pieced.

She loves red, so I originally thought I might use red for the border. But it was overwhelming. So luckily I found some of this matching Bliss pink dot fabric in my stash. I had just enough to do a 5” border. The backing got sewn up as well, using some fabrics from that Hello Darling, the leftover pink from my Dresdens backgrounds, and a cute white with pink starflower design fabric. I even sewed in a label. It’s now in the To Be Basted and Quilted pile, which is back up to 5 quilts. But I quilted a quilt and sewed a quilt top and back this week, so I am sticking to my goal of one per week until Christmas.

Living room remodel progress:  We got the plans back from the carpenter’s shop. After the sticker shock (almost double what we anticipated), I had to put pen to paper and do some fancy financial figuring (and obviously I can alliterate too). Long story short, it will work. The plans were great, and we signed off. They had a scheduled job that was delayed, so were able to squeeze us in immediately. Time frame: two weeks until delivery. That means that Jeff, our contractor/relative is busy doing some additional brickwork for the floor hearth and grouting this weekend. But first he had to pour some cement to level that floor area. The living room is painted except for where I have to wait for the boxes of flooring (stacked along the wall under the front window) to be moved. A job of ten minutes to paint. We will begin ripping carpet out this week, I think. Jeff wants to start the flooring and have much of it done (except the part that abuts the cabinetry) by the time it gets here.


We also bought all our new living room furniture this week. But as one couch (leather, from Italy) won’t arrive until Dec. 7, we have about a month to worry about that. We got the aforementioned leather couch, a fabric couch, a modern wingback chair for me (pictured above, in showroom), an ottoman (leather, from the Italian set) for me to use with my chair, a side table, and a large room rug.  In the meantime, our former Ikea shelves were brought down to my sewing room to give me additional fabric storage.

More space for fabric!

Left cabinet: WIP’s, then drawers of scraps 

The white cabinet in the right photo is missing a shelf near the top. I’m still looking. I know it seems that I don’t have much fabric compared to many of you, but I did a major purge about 3 years ago and have (for the most part) only recent fabrics. I do have a large basket of strings and strips (not pictured) that cousin Kim and I are saving to crochet some rag rugs. Many of my old cuts are in there, awaiting slashing.

And then moving around the room, this area still needs work. That old desk was mine when I was growing up. Heck, it was MY MOM’s when she was growing up. It is solid maple and heavy beyond belief. Next to it is my old 1916 Singer Treadle, which needs a belt. Those bins under the desk are RSC WIPs, but will get moved to the shelves by the door once a space opens up. In other words, once I sew up a couple more RSC and Christmas quilt tops. Before the new year.

In the center of the room, not pictured, is a long folding table and a card table. I hope to replace both of those with two matching heavy 4-legged Ikea tables. DH has been put on alert that I will need him to hack one of the tables to make it possible to drop my Bernina down so it is flush with the tabletop. He has the tools, he has the skills. Luckily, he also has the impetus to keep me happy, so that is on the Honey-Do for after the Holidays.

Hopefully I haven’t lulled you to sleep with all my blathering.  I am doing my best to stay downstairs to sew and do laundry. The real reason is that I want to stay away from the kitchen; today begins my fasting for a Monday colonoscopy. Two days; the new Thorough Cleanout procedure, I guess. Enough said. I still get liquids (coffee and soda OK!), popsicles, jello and broth. As long as it isn’t red or purple.  But I will have purple scraps today, LOL!!  Kitty sewing, here I come....