Pink July

The color of the month for July’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink. I have so many pink scraps, which is not surprising considering I have six granddaughters. Oh, and I like pink too, hehe. Last year I didn’t even come close to using them all, so this year I am really going to make a concerted effort to reduce their numbers!

As usual, I started with my selvages.  Here are four 4-patches, sewn into one big 16” block. This is the seventh of 9 blocks I’ll need for a quilt. It’ll finish at 48x48” unless I add a border to enlarge it.

Next I sewed a row of selvage and fabric tumblers in pink, then added it to the selvage tumblers top (working name, Gumdrops).

I still have several rows to make for this; purple, light blue, gray, and brown.

And the last of the scrappy sewing for this week was 8 Cracker blocks.

In the garden, the lettuce, peas and rhubarb are still going strong, but the spinach is petering out. But that’s fine because we’ll probably plant a second crop in August.

The apricot tree is just days away from being ready. The fruit is mostly ripe, but just not quite there. Once they're ready, the next 3-4 weeks will be crazy time for me. I’ve gathered the old (and bought more new) jars for jam and freezer containers for putting up the apricot halves in light syrup; the supplies of pectin, sugar and ascorbic acid are assembled, the dehydrator is ready to go, as is the vacuum sealer. Friends and family are on standby, and I have lots of cardboard fruit flats and plastic clamshell containers for distributing and donating apricots. We don’t get bumper crops like this every year, so I don’t mind taking full advantage of it while I can!

Did you have a nice 4th of July? We stayed home by choice and had a relaxing day and yummy grilled burgers for dinner. The neighbors did lots of fireworks, including aerial displays. Guess who else enjoyed the fireworks? Well, it wasn’t Darla - she ran off and hid as the first firecrackers were lit. But Alfie perched himself in the front window (resting on the shutters as he always does) and watched it all. Here’s a picture, but I need to warn you that it’s dark. We were watching TV and I turned off the lights to try and get both Alfie and the fireworks in the same shot.  He cracked me up. That is one strange cat!

Happy Independence Day and July Goal

Happy Independence Day to everyone in the United States! How are you celebrating?

We’re just having a quiet cookout at home, followed by neighborhood fireworks. 

We’re not much for big gatherings and goings-on.  

If you're outside of the USA, I hope your July 4th is wonderful too!

It’s time for me to name my monthly goal (OMG) for the July link-up at Elm Street Quilts.

Last month my goal was to get the background and base of my Spokes and Blossoms wall hanging completed, which I did. And now for July, my goal is to get it finished. To do that, I need to collage all the flowers and leaves over the peachy-colored blob spilling out of the basket in the picture below. I may also collage some other reds onto the handlebars.

Once that’s done, everything will get its final pressing and trim. Then I’ll sandwich/baste it to the backing (as yet unselected) and quilt it. The quilting will be very dense as recommended on the pattern. Plus it will add a bit of stiffness which is great for something that will be hung and not frequently laundered. Finally, I’ll need to add a hanging sleeve and binding... and voila!

We are days away from the full ripening of the apricots on our tree, and July is going to see us eating, dehydrating, canning, freezing, sharing, baking (etc) apricots with family, friends, neighbors, my Weight Watchers buddies, fifth cousins twice removed, and any random person who happens to stop by.

Hot Fun in the Summertime!

So many fun things happened last week. Diane Knott, one of my favorite quilters and authors (Scrap Quilt Secrets and Strip Quilt Secrets) was in town for a Handi-Quilter seminar. She was there to learn lots of new things for several days. You might remember that Diane quilted my Lattice Birds quilt, and did a beautiful job. So anyway, we met up for some fun shopping and a photo op at Quilters Lodge in Draper, Utah.

Diane is so warm and friendly, and we just talked and laughed (and shopped) like we’d known each other for years. Truly, a nicer person you will not find! Quilters are such a wonderful group, aren’t they??  That was Saturday, and I was finally rested from two trips to Wheeler Farm earlier in the week.

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Wheeler Farm is a county-run historical working farm that is a block from our house. After I retired from my full-time job as a credit manager, I worked part-time at Wheeler Farm as a kids Camp “Cow”-nselor and then as a bookkeeper and docent for almost 4 years. Wheeler Farm is almost 78 acres of trails for walking and biking, plus lots of farm animals (and participatory cow milking), farmhouse tours, a machinery barn, wagon rides, summer camp, pony rides, teaching gardens (in cooperation with the county extension service) and so much more. I have a label (hashtag) on the sidebar for Wheeler Farm that includes all the posts I’ve written about it over the last 12 years of blogging.

So, on Wednesday, Cousin Kim and Bruce and I went walking around the farm just for exercise. And then on Thursday, the grandkids from Colorado visited with their mom Emily (Bruce’s daughter), and we had to show them all the new stuff. These pics combine both visits....

The restored Farmhouse, newly restored gardens.

Looking from the Farmhouse to the west

From the farmhouse you can look northeast to see pastures for cows and horses, old farm trucks and the machinery barn.

Beyond the farmhouse are the two duck ponds. That building below is the Ice House, where they used to store the ice cut from these ponds. It’s also the headquarters for Kids Camp. 

The two ponds above are formed by water diverted from Little Cottonwood Creek, which flows down from Little Cottonwood Canyon (ski resorts Brighton and Solitude). With the spring runoff, they are running at very high and dangerous levels.

Looks like some folks (picture below) are getting a tractor-pulled wagon ride. The little playhouse at the right is situated next to The Lightning Tree (a box elder), so named because it’s been hit twice by lightening. 

Here are some of the teaching vegetable gardens with the in-process Nature Center that’s being built in the background. It’s scheduled to open this fall, but the wet spring later means that it will be late fall instead of early fall.

And looking in the other direction, you can see more gardens.

We loved this little “skep” made of two-by-four chunks of wood. It’s in the center of the nature walk/teaching area for kids. 

Naturally, Cousin Kim and I had to sit in it on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Abbie, Gunner and Deacon rested in the skep and certainly look a lot cuter!

And here’s most of the gang walking along on Thursday. 

The County cleverly had wood carvers transform the stumps of dead trees into wood carved wonders along one of the main walkways of the farm.  Here daughter Emily poses with Abbie, Deacon and Gunner.

Abbie

Gunner

Deacon, Abbie, Gunner

Emily and Deacon

Not to be outdone, Alfie and Darla wanted me to show you their pictures too.

Alfie’s favorite “hang-out” is to sit on the back of the couch and look out the front window shutters to watch the neighborhood goings-on. He even naps like that sometime. 

Meanwhile, Darla sits on the ottoman and pretends she’s asleep. But we know her better; she knows exactly what is going on. 

And a final picture for the week, just because. My volunteer hollyhocks are huge. They were planted several years ago on the other side of that bed, but somehow these sprung up here for the first time last year (ish). They’re just getting started. This picture was taken last week too, and the apricots are almost ready. We’re thinking next week at the latest. If the propped up branches can hold on.....

June Sewing Recap

The month may not be quite over, but I’m probably not going to finish much else before it’s official. Actually, I’ve been spending a lot of time quilting some small baby-sized quilts for Quilts for Kids - I think I have 6 of them on hand - and that’s been a nice change from the dark blue scraps of June.

I also made my One Monthly Goal (OMG) target, which was to finish the BASE of the Blossoms and spokes wall hanging.  So, I’m linking up to Patty’s OMG linky party at Elm Street Quilts.

Bruce asked me what the blob of peach stuff in the basket was. “Gum?” Haha! I had to explain that it’s the base for the flower collage. You know, in case there are little spaces in between the collaged fabric flowers. You can see (near the handlebars) that I actually cut some flowers from floral fabrics. But It’s just too difficult to get lots of disparate floral prints to play well together. So, I’ll probably use the pattern instructions and templates to cut flower and leaf pieces from various prints to fill the basket. But that’s a task for later - maybe next month?

And here are the blue blocks I sewed in June for my various Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

The 5.5” crumb blocks that I made (8 of them) were made into four Beachcomber blocks. In the future I’ll show and count the Beachcomber blocks instead of the component parts. Anyway, my blue blocks totaled 66 this month.

Cousin Kim made these shorts for her adult son Nick from some of the African fabric I brought home last year. He really liked the fabric. So, since his favorite shorts had worn out, Kim took them apart and used them as a pattern to make the new ones. Th new pair is sheer perfection in craftsmanship. Even the pockets have french seams. They look store-bought and fit Nick perfectly! Way to go, Kimmie!!

My Crumbcakes flimsy is done and still waiting to be basted.  I’m just too tired to baste it now because to do that I’d either have to completely clear off my four sewing tables or mop the dining area floor. I just can’t face it this weekend! The past week was crazy: Farmer’s Market, two trips and hikes around Wheeler Farm, farewell gathering at Weight Watchers for our retiring leader, tending granddaughter on Tuesday, entertaining grandkids all day Thursday, entertaining sewing friends (Wednesday afternoon sewing!), Quilts for Kids workshop and sewing, grocery shopping, errands. I’m pooped. Tonight we’re having dinner at son Ryan (and DIL Kim’s) house with them and the grandkids Eason and Lauren. Should be a nice, relaxing visit. And I don’t have to cook!

I’m going to do a separate post in a couple days on the Wheeler Farm visits with the grandkids because they’re so cute and because there is so much new at the farm this year. We love that it’s just a block away from us. But right now, it’s time to go relax....

Deep Blue Sewing

Last Saturday I attended another fun meeting of volunteers for Quilts for Kids here in Salt Lake. It was held at a new-to-me fabric/quilting and scrapbooking store called Heartfelt Crafts. They had lots of fabric, but I didn’t take the time to look. Not because I’m being frugal or anything, but because that is going to deserve a separate, dedicated trip there to explore. It will happen soon. At the QFK meeting, I quilted one youth-sized quilt on my Bernina 550QE. Those of you who’ve been following me for awhile know that I’ve named my Bernina machine “Bernadette”. Well, I was having some thread issues and asked Bernadette to please behave herself, forgetting that one of our volunteers is named Bernadette too! We got a good laugh at that, but I’ll just have to remember to not talk to my machine in public!

My primary stitching this week was sewing up blue Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. Our color for June, mid to dark blues, is keeping me hopping. But I got the rest of them all whipped out this week.

First I did three 9” string blocks. This completes 32 of the 42 I need. 

Next came the International Sisters Blocks. I sewed all 8 of these blue Sisters. Half will be for my uses, and half will be for Harambe Humanitarian quilt purposes. That’s why you will see twins of many blocks as I go through the colors to make these.

I also went back to the color orange and sewed some more orange Sisters, and here is the whole group together, having a meeting. I could sew these blocks all day long!!

After all those blocks, my blue scraps were down to bits and partially-sewn pieces, and lots of leftover blue HSTs (half-square triangles) from my Good Fortune Quilt. So, I tackled those first, and out of all those HSTs came these 4 blocks.

They measure about 8.5” each, and will go into the Parts Department until a use comes up for them in a scrappy leftovers donation quilt!

Next up was the crumbs. To me, it’s just so therapeutic to feed in the little pieces, matching sizes and chaining them one after another. Then pressing, trimming, and repeating the entire process until blocks emerge. My goal was go get some 5.5” crumb blocks (in pairs) done and some 4.5” crumb blocks.

There is no immediate plan for the 4.5” crumb blocks, but they may become the center square of future scrappy star blocks. However, there is a plan for the 5.5” crumb blocks. But first, let me show you what emerged.  Eight 5.5” blocks and six 4.5” blocks.

The 5.5” crumb blocks are being sewn into a block that I’m calling Beachcomber. It is based on the blocks in a quilt called Beach Retreat by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation. Now, I didn’t buy her pattern, so I don’t know how closely my blocks match hers in size. I just liked what I saw on Pinterest and figured out what I want to do. Here are my 4 blue Beachcomber blocks PLUS a column of bitcoins thrown in.

It’s hard to see the white borders on the sides of the blue crumbs because the pictures I take with my little Canon camera are awful. My iPhone does a better job and I should use that instead. (Mental note made).  I went back and sewed up my orange 5.5” crumb blocks into Beachcomber blocks too, and here is what they look like together so far. Each block will finish at 11” square, and this is the new RSC project that I’m working on with my crumbs.

My crumb project from the last couple years, which were first just 6.5” crumb blocks in 2018, and were sewn into 13” Crumbcake blocks in 2018-19, is almost a finished flimsy.  Here is my progress so far. Only the bottom three rows are sewn; the top three are just pinned. I start from the bottom row and work up so that I can let the finished part hang down below the limited space of the design board.

This coming week my goal is to get the Crumbcakes top done, sandwiched, quilted and bound. In other words, finished. And blogged and laundered. I also want to finish the background layer of the bicycle wallhanging. The month-end and quarter-end are coming quickly. And my son Shane has a birthday next weekend (OMG - he will be FORTY!), so there are things to prep for that, too. Yesterday the weather didn’t even break the sixties, so I’m hoping it warms up and we can have a good old fun summer starting soon!

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Saturday at Angela’s blog.

Busy Summer Days

I know many retirees ask this question; How did I ever have time to work? My summer days are filled with (morning) gardening or errands and housework, then lunch, and afternoons of  sewing and/or reading or more errands. And now the garden is coming on. We have been harvesting lettuce and spinach daily. Cousin Kim takes some and I always take packages of veggies all summer to my Weight Watcher (WW) friends. It’s interesting to plan meals around vegetables instead of protein (meat).

And the rhubarb! Yum! I chop and mix it 50/50 with chopped strawberries, simmer on the stovetop with a wee bit of water (and sugar to taste) for about 10-15 minutes. It makes a great compote that we use as a side dish (like applesauce) or on angel food cake with strawberries and dollop of whipped cream - almost like a trifle. We seem to eat half of what I prepare twice weekly and the rest is frozen for the rhubarb-less months of fall and winter.  Our poor apricot tree is so laden with fruit that we have propped up all the branches we can. When I’m out in the yard every morning, I pick up a bucketful of the still-unripe fruits that fall to the ground. Bruce will grind them up and compost them.

I was able to get a lot of scrappy sewing this week, and am linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s blog.  Our color for June is blue, from mid-tones to darks. First, I finished 10 anvil blocks.  I just noticed that they are rather randomly placed in the picture, but that’s OK. They’ll be mixed up with all the different colors soon enough!

Then I finished the garlic knots - 10 of those, too.  The garlic knots use a plain Kona White background.

And finally, 16 nine-patch variation blocks (courtesy of Jennifer C). They are the various blues plus black and white. I haven’t decided on the final arrangement, so you will see (and may have already seen) me play around with these as I sew them every month.

Next week I’ll be tacking blue strings, making some International Sister blocks (thanks to Preeti for the pattern and some dark complexion fabrics!) and then maybe get to crumbs...

I also have made some progress toward meeting my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for June. This is the pattern I’m working from, called Blossoms & Spokes by No. 2 Abbey Lane.

Over last weekend I got the nine blocks crazy-pieced and sewn together. I’ve made them a bit larger (1” wider and 1” longer) than the pattern calls for because I want more background around the flowers and tire.  I randomly pieced more than half the blocks (because I used to be a crazy-quilter and I like that sort of thing), and then used her template to make the rest.

There is one fabric that I think is too dark (I don’t need to tell you because it sticks out like a sore thumb). But I placed it where it will be covered up by the basket and flowers, so it doesn’t matter.

Once the background was sewn, I cut out a basket shape on some solid fabric. Then the instructions had me fuse some web to two fabrics, cut strips and weave them. They were placed over the basket base and lightly fused to it. This is what the basket looks like so far.

That took a long time, and I needed to get more fusible web. JoAnn Fabrics had it on sale for 60% off, so I went and got some. They had so many partial bolts of the Pellon double-sided fusible, and I grabbed all the nearly-gone bolts. The salesgirl thought some pieces weren’t good enough to sell because they were torn up or missing instructions, so she just threw those in. (Heck, some of it is going to get torn up anyway in the collage process). And since I cleaned up bolts, she was only loosely measuring. Somehow, I ended up with over 7 yards for about $8.50. SCORE!

Anyway, this is a picture with the background, basket and the next pieces - the bike frame and flower base - pinned on. My goal is to get those done this next week. After they’re in place, I can get the tire and spokes done, which will complete the entire base, which was my goal for June. The flower collaging will likely not happen until July.

I got the wall painted in our library/Africa bedroom, and that room got put back together. When Bruce cleans up his remaining mess (music stuff - I don’t fiddle with it, no pun intended), I’ll get a picture. The next painting will be the baseboards, closet and ceiling in the other guest room. But probably not this coming week - I have to pace my shoulder!  And we are still waiting for the new back door and storm/screen door we ordered for my studio to come in. We got a notice that the manufacturer has shipped them to the installer, so we are just waiting to hear from the installer to schedule that. Do you spend your summer doing little projects around the house too? 

Sewing the Blues

Can you believe that in three short weeks the year will be half over? The rhythm of the seasons feels more like an aerobics exercise tune than a waltz, at least to me. But we did have a couple lovely slow afternoons this week where we were able sit out on the patio with our beverages. We read our books, talked and gazed at the garden loveliness, all thoughts of chores and errands and obligations held at bay. It was so peaceful. And when the (inevitable) rain started up again, it was time to head back indoors to the sewing machine!

We have a new color of the month for June in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - blues from mid-range to dark tones, including navy. I wasted no time getting started because there are a lot of sewing things I want to get accomplished this month in addition to my RSC blocks.

First, as usual, I worked with my dark blue selvages to make 4 four-patches, which I then sewed into one big block. 

Then I cut my dark blue selvage tumblers and blue fabric tumblers and sewed those together into a dark blue row.

Below are the tumblers with the rest of the rows. There will be a light blue row inserted between the teal and the dark blue. But the light blue is for another month. There will be a pink row (or two) above the red and then purple and who-knows-what else below the blue.

I also got a lot more RSC blocks cut, but the only other ones sewn up this week were these nine Cracker blocks. 

I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s So Scrappy blog and to Oh Scrap! on Sunday at Cynthia’s blog.

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Also, for those of you who just visit on Rainbow Scrap Saturdays, I did finish my Good Fortune quilt this week and blogged about it HERE.  I also included some garden pictures. Have a great week!