Leaping over orange

Hello all, and happy leap day! I know why we get an extra day in February every four years, but wouldn't you all rather have an extra day in June? We had a minor snow squall here today, so I'm going with yes on June 31 instead of February 29.

There is a *lot* going on in my life right now. I mean, a LOT.  We went to my grandson's 4th birthday party and got to see all the grandkids, and as soon as we got home we both got hit with the worst colds ever, the kind that feels like you've been hit in the head with a hammer.  It could have come from anywhere, but I'm betting on our sweet 2-1/2 year old granddaughter, who hugged me around the neck and  said, "I love you guys," just before she sneezed right in my face. I think I have to forgive her, don't you?

Today all I have to show off is the last orange bit for this month:

It's the orange slab, quilted up into a new orange scrap basket!  And in the orange month, too, I want to point out. Yay me! I originally had the next picture at the top, but then I realized that a trick of perspective makes it look like the basket is as big as a car (it's not!):

Like the last basket, every bit of this piece is a scrap, including the batting and the binding.  I feel very virtuous about this, though it did not seem to make much of a dent in the scraps. But at least I now have somewhere cute to put them!

This one turned out a bit bigger than the last one, and I'm okay with that. They're improv, right? And the green one may have lost a bit of height because I messed it up a few times. The orange one went much, much more smoothly.And I love that I got to use a bunch of little pieces in the orange one.

I'm afraid that's it for my orange adventures, sadly. I spent a little time while I was outside taking pictures trying to get a photo of the bright orange foxes that live near our property, but they were shy and it was cold. Oh, well.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I'm looking forward to a new color and some more cold meds. My head is still pretty fuzzy.  And hey-- if you need a gift for a smallish person, try these Bugnoculars.  They were a huge hit with the short set. (No affiliations, just a happy grandma!)

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC2020

UPDATED TO ADD:  I've just learned that Paula B, who posted at the RSC often, has passed away. This is very sad, as she was a lovely, gentle person. If you would like, click over HERE and leave her family a message and read her obituary. She was more awesome than she let on. I will miss her.

Child's play

Hi everyone! Hope you have had a good week! Painting continues at our house, and the place is looking much brighter and sunnier. Much less depressing all the way around.  And hey-- has anyone else noticed that the spell check button is gone on Blogger? This is annoying, so if anything is misspelled today, it's because my eyes were too tired to proofread properly. I need that button back!

I'm just popping in today to show a small child's quilt top that I finished off this week. I had made a resolution that I would stop posting tops and wait to post until they were quilted, as a way of motivating myself to finish things up. Today is as long as that lasted, so take a look at the unfinished top for this fun child's quilt:

Oh, color and happiness.  This was a super-fast quilt to make, mainly because I only made a few of these blocks. I bought most of the blocks and the fabric from Myra at Busy Hands Quilts when she had her giant destash. It worked out because she got room on the shelves and I got a quick quilt top.

Do you like the design choice I made, with a wider border at the top and bottom than on  the sides?  Ha, ha, just kidding-- that was totally a cutting mistake! I kind of like it, though, so I might leave it.

This happy little quilt will get quilted up and donated later this spring. I have a nice piece of the border fabric left, so that might become the backing, and a nice piece of red for a binding.  This little quilt ended up at about 44 by 54, so it will be a nice quilt for a child.

That's all the time I have for now! There is a lot to be done around here, and I'd better get to it. Plus I have this little thing called "work," so I'm hoping to get some of that done, too. It's going to be a busy weekend! I'd better have a brownie or something to keep my energy up, don't you think?

Hope your weekend is really good and relaxing!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday.

A short dispatch

Hi all! I'm waving wildly over here, from the significant mess that is my life right now. After six months of living in this house, it is finally time to banish the brown and gray, and I could not be happier, even though it has made a real mess around here. For those of you who don't remember, or maybe I never said, every room in our new place in Maryland is painted either brown or gray, with gray floors. Yeah, not great, and seriously depressing. But now it's being painted over in some lovely, happier colors! I can't wait until they're done so that I can finally feel at home.

That's the long way of saying that there has not been a lot of stitching around here. I did do a few things, so here's just a small update:

That's not snow in the background-- it's bright sunshine. Spring is on the way!

This is the slab of fabric for the orange scrap basket. It measures about 18 by 24 right now, before quilting. It's just amazing to me that all those little bits can go together into such a bright and happy piece. I have plenty of orange bits left over, too. I'll be quilting this little one up and turning it into a scrap basket really soon.

The only other thing I got a chance to do was make a second block for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen:

This is a really cute block, and the new one is almost the last bits of one of my favorite aquas ever.  I will be sorry to see that one finished. You can still join in in the color challenge, and it looks like the next color up is orange, so I'll be all set!

To end this little dispatch, for anyone who's interested, we did find a new car. It is awesome and has all kinds of nifty bells and whistles, including a backup camera, which is changing my life. So, that nightmare is over!

Hope you're all having a good week! I'll just be over here, dodging paint cans and second-guessing my color choices.  Once this is done, the men with jackhammers and saws come to work on the other parts of the place, so I guess this is the calm before the storm. Happy stitching!

Sharing at Midweek Makers, Patterns by Jen, and soscrappy for RSC20.

Ohio in orange

Hi all, and welcome to the weekend! Lately it seems that I have just as much work to do on the weekend as during the week, but at least I get to do it in yoga pants. Good news for the day-- we sold the tragic vehicle that became a doorstop! I was sad to see it go, but now I'm just happy that we got something out of it. I really liked it, and it just seems weird that it went so fast. So now the search is on for a new (used) vehicle, a process I find extremely boring. They all look the same to me!

With all the drama about the car this week, this is as far as I got on my various projects:

Orange Ohio stars, which are nothing if not cheerful.  We have had rain all week, and yesterday it was waaayyy too windy outside to take pictures. Parts of Maryland had tornadoes, and I saw some awful pictures of uprooted trees. It seems we are stuck with indoor pictures today.

I also made a bunch of orange modern blocks to go with my green ones:

I'm not sure I like the X's, but these little blocks are fun and fast to make.

The only other thing I did was make one of the February blocks for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen:

 Those of you with eagle eyes will see that I made mine slightly differently than the instructions, but it turned out just the same. I liek this one and I might just make it again.

That was it-- some blocks! Sometimes you just have to go with it, you know? I'm sure I'll have a more productive week soon.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I will be out looking at identical vehicles and trying to choose between them. I already know I'll need a cookie or two after that!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC20

Things that go clunk

Hi everyone! You know how sometimes life is going along and then all of a sudden something comes along and smacks you in the side of the head? Yep, that's been our last few days. Here's what happened-- we got the oil changed in our car, and then it turned into a very large doorstop. As in, the vehicle no longer moves, and to make it move will cost more than $5000. It's a 2011, so that is not happening. But it has fresh oil! This was *my* car, and I loved it, and I hate driving my husband's car, so I am just a bit down.

Yeah.

So now I have been sentenced to spending my weekends looking at new (used) cars and listening to  my husband (God bless him) figuring out what to do with the vehicle-that-no-longer-counts-as-a-vehicle-because-it-no-longer-moves. There are a surprising number of options! And the financing options, which are even more boring, if that's possible. I've retreated to the sewing room several times, just to keep my spirits up.

Ah, well. Life goes on. No humans were injured, just engines, so there is a bright side. And some bright projects, too! Here is one that I almost finished last week, before the big car debacle:

Okay, that's pretty cheerful. I got most of these blocks from Myra's gigantic destash at Busy Hands Quilts, and then I made the remaining blocks from the fabric that came with these.  There's one more seam to be sewn, but this center will be about 32 by 40.  After I add some borders it will make a very nice kid's quilt, just right for donation. Here is what I have for a border fabric:

It will be busy, but bright. And fairly happy!

The walking foot quilting continues, too. Those babies are a quite something to wrangle through the machine and I got one wrinkle in the back that I had to stop and pull out. That's been my only issue so far, though, besides just being tired of quilting them.

I was also inspired by one of Preeti's posts and dug out these bits of flannel leftovers:

I think these will make a nice kid quilt as well. I'm not sure about how heavy it will be, but I think I can always make it without batting and just two layers of flannel if necessary. And these scraps will certainly be happier in a quilt than as mopheads for the Swiffer, don't you think?

Hope you are having a good week and that your wheels are still turning!  Cross your fingers that we find a new car.  I don't even care what color! Though yellow would be nice. . . just because.

Sharing at Midweek Makers.