In order to deal with all my stress, I spent some time making up some string blocks in light blue:
The blocks are a little washed out, but they're pretty boring, so I took them out to the garden for a glamor shot. I don't have much light blue at all, so this is all I got out of the strings I had. Sad, I know.
I also made a light blue "crumb" block, in the same style that I made the green one last month:
These were the teeny pieces that I had at the very bottom of the light blue scraps bin. That bin is just about empty now. Cause for happiness, or cause for despair? Hmmm.
And just because I never showed them, here are all the green string blocks I made last month:
Two. Yep, that's all the green strings I had, and I had to scramble for those. That bin is just about empty, too. But don't they look nice with the flowers?
So that's it for the string blocks, BUT! Nancy at Pug Mom Quilts has nominated me for One Lovely Blog! Thanks Nancy! She has a wonderful blog herself and the cutest pug dogs ever. And great quilts, too.
So, for the blog hop, the only thing I really have to do is tell you 7 things about me. I hope I can think up 7 non-quilty things! Here goes:
1. I've been to almost every ball park in Major League Baseball. Really! Wish I could say "all," but they keep building new ones and it's hard to keep up! Our favorite (except for Miller Park, our hometown park, of course) is PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Not saying what the least-favorite is, but trust me, it's a pit.
2. I hate cooking and will do almost anything to get out of it. All food tastes better if someone else makes it. (Especially salads, for some reason.) As far as I'm concerned, restaurants are the happiest places on earth. Maybe that's why our son became a chef.
3. I love books and read every day, usually while Best Husband Ever is watching a sporting event on TV. I have too many favorite books to list, but almost any genre and any well-written book is good with me. Sometimes I feel like the characters are my real friends. I wonder what that means? (If you have a young adult in your life, check out Seven Stones, a new book by Julia Lee. I know the author!)
4. I also love movies! Especially action movies. Romantic comedies, not so much. My favorite movie ever is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which I first saw in high school. Some things never get old. "Try sculpture!"
5. I can read in 7 languages (besides English), most of them for research purposes. I can only say "where is the restroom, please?" in four, though. Gotta work on that.
6. I'm the author of 3 books, with another coming out next year and yet another in progress for 2017. Hope to be done with that manuscript by December. They're not quilty books, so most people would find them very boring. Heck, sometimes I find them very boring!
7. I am a volunteer literacy tutor, teaching adults to read (or read better). It's probably the most rewarding teaching I'll ever do.
Hey, that's 7 things. Hurray! That was hard.
The last part of the blog hop is to nominate ten more blogs. Most of the blogs I like have already been nominated, so I'm just going to tell you a few of my favorites, in no particular order with no obligations attached. Some are newer, and some are old friends. I'm afraid to leave anyone out! If your blog isn't here, there just wasn't room!
Angela at soscrappy.
Lane at That Man Quilts?
Bernie at Needle and Foot.
Jo at ButterZ.
Kevin of Kevin the Quilter.
Leeanna at Not Afraid of Color.
Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.
Connie at Freemotion by the River.
Wanda at Exuberant Color.
That's a good mix that should give everyone some good reading! Hope you all find some new friends to visit.
Thanks again to Nancy, and everyone have a really good week! (Also, if you are interested in adopting and finishing one of my orphan projects absolutely free, check out last Sunday's post.)
Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and soscrappy for RSC15.
17 comments:
Hello, I'm visiting from Let's Bee Social, and I have to say, I love those blues! I wish my scrap bin had such lovely leftovers as these! I'm about to try some string piecing today, thanks for the inspiration!
Saw you through Let's Bee Social. The blocks are so cute, but, even more than that, I really enjoyed learning more about you! We quilters are a quirky little family. It's fun to get a glimpse of the personality behind the work!
The string and crumb blocks are so nice Mari and they look even lovelier in the garden settings.
I'm glad I happened to catch this post, because it is fun to learn a bit more about you through your seven things! You are really an amazing person! I am so impressed with your being able to read in seven languages and having visited so many ballparks and being a volunteer literacy teacher. I take it you the books you have authored are academic? I like to read those "boring" books in order to keep my mind exercised. Well...as long as they aren't too hard a subject... physics and chemistry lose me.
Such a great post Mari! Like you, I'm a prolific reader. I can only speak one language though, although I can read French and Hebrew a little.
Pugs and kisses,
Nancy
I love your blue string blocks and don't find them boring at all. Way to go, exhausting your scraps!
It is such a happy occasion to get to the bottom of the scrap bin, but also sad at the same time. Nothing to be done but to finish off some more projects in order to make more scraps. All part of the process.
Thanks for including me in the list of blogs . . . that's a high compliment to be in the same list as Wanda!
Great blocks! And if you run out of scraps, you need to be sewing faster to make more scraps, or you might need a trip to the quilt store. :-)
Fear not! There's something about quilting and scraps just generating. I'm sure the light blue bin won't be empty for long. Great strings.
Can't wait to see all your rainbow string blocks at the end of the year! That style of string-pieced block is one of my favorites. I'm envious of your record for visiting MLB stadiums; Miller Park is on my bucket list!
I love the blue crumb block with all the colorful flowers in it. So great to learn more about you through your sharing. And the St. Peter's floor blocks really look like stone flooring with the batiks. Lovely choices. At least you could use a rotary cutter for your blocks and not some kind of sawing through stone! Have a good trip and come back raring to go.
Your stress stitching provided pretty results!
Great way to bust scraps and stress!
The blocks look great in those nature shots. Hope you get all your stuff done for your conference.
Love all those scrappy crumb and string blocks.
what fun reading all the facts. I am amazed at all the languages you can read! I try to speak French, a bit of Italian and German but not fluent in any of them. I love books. Love a well chosen word...there are some books I hate to finish. Your blocks are calm. When I whined once about getting low on green scraps, DH asked if I wanted him to cut a strip from every green in the regular fabric drawer. Ha. Ha. Hon.
BTW have you been to Baltimore's field? LeeAnna
I really like your string blocks. They are wonderful.
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