Hello all! How is your life going this week? We went on a small trip last weekend, which was fantastic, and we came back just in time for some thunderstorms that brought a lot of cooler weather with them. It feels so great outside! Plus, the cicadas are almost all gone. They left quite some mess behind, but at least they aren't dive-bombing me any more.
With all of that, I did make some progress on projects so far this week. A little while ago I pulled out an old project that I called "old and new" and I've started working on it again. Here are some of the blocks I made over the last few days:
I'm not so sure about the colors for that block on the left, but it's staying. These blocks all finish at 6 inches, so yep, those hsts are only one inch square. They took some time, but they really were fun to work on. I always think, "oh, that won't take long," and it takes forever to make. You would think a mini block would be quick, but no. Obviously these are all traditional blocks, just in a small size. I love the middle one, which is called Broken Windows.
Here are all the blocks for the project so far:
I really like it and think it's going to be lovely when finished. I have one problem, though-- I need more fabric. I don't know about you, but somehow I went through a *lot* of fabric over the last few months. My stash is looking really pathetic right now. I do like that it's small, but not this small. I guess I'll have to go shopping or something, don't you think?
I also made the next step for the Laundry Basket "mystery" quilt that I've been working on:
It happens that I overbought flowers, and now I need to find a place for those yellow ones. I wonder if deer eat them? The blue blocks are really pretty, though, aren't they? I didn't get a progress picture, but I only have three steps left to go on the mystery before I decide what to do about borders.
Also waiting for me when we got home was my gift from Sarah for the Hands to Help challenge:
This is great-- another block book! Thanks so much! More things to drool over and dream about.
Finally for today-- I've added a widget to the sidebar for you to sign up to get posts by email. >>>>> Just about everyone knows by now that the one we've been using for emailing posts is going away, and a lot of people have already stopped getting emails. I was shocked and humbled to find that there were almost 1500 people signed up through that service to get emails from this blog! Thanks! I didn't feel comfortable importing your email addresses into a new service, so please take a moment and do that yourselves.
The new widget is follow.it, and Sarah has a whole post about it HERE. I'll just second everything she said. The ads are not my fault. I did sign up for a couple of different services to test them out (because I got posts by email, too) and the one I liked best was Bloglovin'. I found follow.it somewhat difficult to figure out, long on flashy graphics and short on details. Feedly I didn't really like at all, mainly because I would like to filter my own content, thank you very much. I don't want artificial intelligence doing it for me. Bloglovin' was much "quieter," though it does have ads, and I signed up to get everything in just one email a day, so sometimes I will not see a post until the next day if it posts later. So, I've deleted everything else and kept Bloglovin' and it's actually turning out pretty well.
Probably more than you wanted to know! I actually could have written a whole post about this, but try them out yourselves and choose what works for you. And thanks for following along on my misadventures, too!
Sharing at Midweek Makers.
7 comments:
I'm already following a few on Follow It, so I'll add yours in. Those little blocks are quite nice, all bright and cheerful. Fabric shopping - yippee! I have done far too much of it this month. Ha!
I follow most of the blogs I read via Bloglovin. I haven't chosen to follow any of them by email however because I had so much email coming in for work that I just didn't want to deal with any additional ones. Maybe that will change now.
I love the blue and white blocks. The color is just the best! And the pastel sampler blocks have a charming "vintage" look.
Your blocks are yummy Mari, but I’m distracted (in a good way) by what you said about the email notifications. I found a lot of followers, too when I checked my e-mail subscribers. I’ve never heard of most of them, though, so I have no idea if they are real folks or not or if they still are around. Does follow it cost anything? Yes, I’m cheap. Also, not at all tech savvy so I need something easy to set up. (I’ll check Sarah’s post. I knew a fellow quilter would come through because once again our blogging service is leaving it all to figure out ourselves. I hate change.) I will have to see how to set up notifications from bloglovin’. I have an account but always thought I had to go to it to see what blogs were up, which I always forget to do. Anyway, back to the blocks. The orange/pink colors and prints are just luscious!! I’m glad to see you are in summer mode.
Hi Mari! Thank you for the Follow.It link on your website. I understand why you like Bloglovin' (I do, too) but I cannot see posts until I'm at home. Once I get home, time is more limited just as it is for everyone. Emails I can read at work and sometimes even respond to so I'm thrilled to be able to keep seeing your posts. I don't know who I'll be missing until the emails stop coming - I hate to think about it. {{Hugs}} Gosh, Sarah is such a good egg, isn't she? She is so great about organizing the H2H each year and then having such wonderful sponsors as well. What a nice happy mail to open! ~smile~ Roseanne
smaller blocks are harder because we have to be so very precise to make them right. Good job!
I love the thought that you "have" to go shopping! Good job of paring down your stash. I wish I could say the same. I have been hemming and hawing on what to do about my email followers. And, like you, I had a ridiculous number of followers -- I didn't recognize any of them on the pages I looked at. I did save them to my computer though. I doubt if I do anything with them. And, once you mentioned not wanting to just download the whole list I realized that was probably why I haven't followed through with Follow.IT. I think I'll wait a bit and see what happens. I hate to see my blog with tacky ads on it. And, not even having any payment go to me! Have fun fabric shopping.
I use bloglovin as well but I just log in to it when I want to catch up on blogs so that works well too. I don't really follow anyone by email unless I can't find them on bloglovin which is sometimes the case. Hope this transition works well for you Mari.
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