A tiny new start

Hi everyone, and happy weekend! I hope everyone had a good week. I unpacked some more boxes, made some curtains, hemmed some others, and found my power cord. Yahoo! Then I sewed! It was heavenly.  I love the new sewing room. Here's one thing I didn't expect-- it's very quiet. I still don't know where some of my scraps are, but it was very peaceful while I was down there looking.

I have *so many* projects in various stages that it was hard to know where to start. I decided to start with some small things and catch up on some tiny scrap blocks:

As you can see, I ended up with five tiny blocks so far. As you can also see, one thing I haven't located yet is the charging cord for my camera, so I'm stuck with cell phone pictures. Yeah, not my favorites, either, but at least you get the idea.

These were so great to make. I did locate some blues, and these blocks only take a little bit of fabric, so I was able to eke these out. I had saved the "violet" block from a few weeks ago for when we finally got to purple, but now mine looks a little weird and I can't quite figure out what's wrong with it.  Maybe it will look okay once it's sewn to the others.

Do not get attached to this tree. . .

I decided to try the latest block, the Storm at Sea (how appropriate!) and I'm not super-pleased with it. So many tiny pieces! I did the paper piecing with seam allowances, and it was pretty bulky at some intersections. I had trouble lining up the points, too. So I'm not thrilled with it, but I'm keeping it because I don't want to redo it. It will look okay once it's with all the other blocks in the quilt, right?

That was all I had time for this week, but it felt great. It's almost starting to feel normal around here, but there are still some boxes left, and the painting hasn't even begun. Nonetheless, this weekend I'm going to go get the stuff for a design wall! Doesn't that sound exciting? No promises on actually getting it put up, but at least it's a start.

Hope you all have a good weekend! The picture above is of some roses that the deer haven't eaten yet. Maybe these aren't very tasty? Good thing they're pretty!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19. So glad the hurricane missed Florida and that Angela and family are safe!

Fabrics and boxes

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to see you all again! I bet you thought I fell off the planet, didn't you? Nope, things just got very, very busy around here.  We moved 2-1/2 weeks ago, I started my new job 2 weeks ago, and students started classes 4 days ago. Which all means that we are still surrounded by paper and boxes, but at least I get to leave it behind for a while every day. Why does unpacking take longer and make more mess than packing up does? And if I labeled all the boxes, why can't I find anything?

So, I haven't done any actual sewing, but I really missed blogging and I just wanted to say hi again. There are a few fabric-related things, though! I've been unpacking and putting my fabric away, so at least I've gotten to touch fabric.  Plus, check this out:

This small niche is in the wall of my sewing room, and the fabric bolts fit perfectly in it! It's like this area was built just for them.  And just so you know, those are only about 3 or 4 yards apiece, mostly for backings.  No full bolts here!

Other than that, I've bought these fun pieces to add to the fabrics on the shelves, mostly because they are bright and happy:

These yards are from Good Day by Me and My Sister and I got them from Fat Quarter Shop.  You know, sometimes I just can't resist those emails, especially when it's raining and gross outside.  And these are really pretty ones, so I couldn't think of a good reason to hold back.

And one other bit of new fabric:

Cute aqua fat quarters from Shabby Fabrics.  I know I shouldn't buy fat quarters, but they look so good together.  And can't you just see them in a lovely aqua and white quilt? Maybe baby-sized?  Okay, just me then!

So there we are-- some fabrics put away and some new fabrics soon to join them. We're loving our new home here in Baltimore and getting settled.  I actually hope to do some sewing this weekend, just as soon as I find the power cord for my machine.  They got separated somehow, but I'm sure the cord is down there in the sewing room, probably stuck in a random box.

Everybody have a good weekend! It's the end of August, so you know that cool weather can't be far behind, and then comes the season that shall not be named, so we need to enjoy the bright sunshine while we can!

Home sweet home

Hello from Baltimore, everyone! We managed to move and it was not quite painless, but it's done now and we're setting up our new home.  We spent last weekend cleaning (oh, baby, was it dirty) and then the truck brought our furniture on Monday.  So far Baltimore is great! It's very nice here (but quite warm) and it's been a pretty good experience. Bonus-- it only took me 17 minutes to get to work! This is a very big difference in the commute!

So, I guess you'll want to see my new sewing room, right?  First, a quilty picture, just so there's something quilty in this post:

This is a Tiny Tuesday block that I made with my pink scraps.  It's a variation on one of the blocks for last year's Squared Away project, and I'm calling it a Jumping Jack star.  You can make any of those Squared Away blocks into a Tiny Tuesday block if you cut the squares at 1-3/8. Yep, that's tiny! Now that I've made this one I think I'll make them all as tiny blocks.  In different colors, of course!

Okay, now to the sewing room. Here it is:

Yes, it's gray, but do you see how big it is?  This room is, unbelievably, about 12 by 29 feet.  And see that closet down at the end?  It's another 10 by 12 room, complete with shelves, hanging bars, and lights.  They tried to sell this as a fourth bedroom, but it definitely is not.  It's in the basement, but it has full size windows and a walkout door, but no wall to close it off from the rest of the basement.  This is okay, because the other finished rooms will be an exercise room and a storage room, so it doesn't have to be closed off for me. 

The room needs some warmer paint before I can even begin to work in there, along with some new lighting.  There is carpet on the floor, which is not ideal, but it's almost new and it's not in the budget right now to replace it, so it stays.  I really don't mind; I just want to get creating in there.  My fingers are itching to make some things.  And I'm thinking 12 foot design wall, what do you think?

As for the rest of the house, let me show you the whole reason we bought it:

A whole wall of windows looking out over the yard, which includes lots of trees and a small stream:

I saw three deer out there this morning, which almost makes up for the fact that most of the house is a dark gray, except the window room, which is kind of a mustard color, and the master bedroom, which is brown. Yeah, there's a lot of painting to do. And we won't even talk about the window treatments, which all need replacing.  I took down the really dirty ones with the dead bugs, but I had to leave some of them for privacy.  Those will be replaced even before the paint goes up, because I can live for a while with brown paint but not with dead bugs in the pleated shades.

So here we are and thrilled to be here! I think it's going to be a good place for us, and I hope to get the sewing room painted this weekend so I can unpack some fabrics.  Some bright pretty things should really brighten the place up, don't you think?

Everyone have a great weekend! I'll be unpacking and painting!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday (the last one for Myra), and soscrappy for RSC19.

Sweet Caroline

Happy Thursday everyone, and hello from somewhere on the road to Baltimore!  There's a good chance that right as you read this I am lifting and carrying boxes or something else that people my age really should be past by now. We'll be settling into our new home in no time, but in the meantime I took some beauty pictures of a pre-blogging quilt for this throwback post.  Please enjoy, and please think good and happy thoughts for us and the move.

Here is my throwback quilt, and I'm not throwing it back:

Gosh, I love this pretty quilt!  It's pink and green, which is one of my favorite combinations, it's cozy, and it's just the right size for cuddling with my granddaughter.  Plus it reminds me of a very nice time I had with friends at my favorite quilt shop, Patched Works.

I made this quilt in 2012, I think.  May have been before that.  It was a sew along with each block designed by individual designers.  I wish I had kept the patterns so I could tell you more about it, but I do remember that we got them at the quilt group meetings.  They were printed out in color, so that alone tells you it was a long time ago!

I think this may have been a Civil War themed project or something similar, because I recall the sample quilt (and the patterns) being in reds and browns.  Of course, I chose a much more cheerful color combination.  The fact that I had virtually no red or brown had nothing to do with it, really.

I'm pretty sure this is one of the first quilts I had longarmed, and it certainly was worth it.  It turned out to be a good investment that I have repeated many times.  This quilt has a lovely texture that I really like, with all the swoops and swirls.  Plus the quilting pattern almost matches the swirly pattern in the border fabric, which was nice but completely unintentional.

Striped binding!

The name of this quilt is Sweet Caroline.  At the time, I thought it was a perfect name for this happy, girly quilt (and it had nothing to do with the Red Sox, Boston fans).   Years later, when one of my granddaughters was born, I discovered that this quilt had indeed been perfectly named. I'll leave it to you to connect the dots and figure out why that is.  Needless to say, this beauty will be hanging around here for years!

So, there's another throwback quilt from my pre-blogging collection! There are quite a few others, but for now this one is my favorite.  (Guess why.) I'll save the others for another time, but it will definitely not be when we are moving, because I am not moving again.  I said that before, but this time I really mean it!

Pieced cornerstones!

Hope you're all having a good week and getting lots of stitching done.  I'll see you next week from our new home, hopefully with some pictures of my new (enormous) sewing room!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, Brag about your Beauties, and Sandra's next Throwback Thursday.