Brown plus red plus progress

 Hi everyone! How is the beginning of summer around your place? This weekend I stained the small deck off my bedroom. Only two cicadas landed on me, which means I only got huge wipes of stain where I screamed and swatted them away with the brush on one arm. I didn't even spill the stain, as freaked out as I was. This is a major win for me. I still have to do the floor, but the new planters have been screwed into the deck and there are flowers in there! It's very exciting.

You may have heard that my friend Preeti is hosting the Positivity Quilt Along, which is a nice and relaxed QAL that doesn't end until just before Labor Day. It is completely free and Preeti has already shared the patterns and more than a dozen different layouts and the fabric requirements for each. The goal is to create charity quilts, many of which will go to Mercyful Quilts, but all worthy causes are fine. (Jump over to Preeti's for more information and inspiration!) You knew I would jump in, so here are my starter blocks:

 

 

Why is that photo so weird? The blocks are brown, with a red print plus sign. I wanted to make a quilt that felt more neutral, for a man or for someone non-binary, or really anyone who would like something with some darker colors. I had some fabric that I wanted to use, but (as usual) I didn't have enough to make a whole quilt just from that fabric. I added the brown and drew myself up a new layout, moving some of the colors around, and I'm pretty happy with how it's starting to look. Here are the fabrics I'm using for the quilt:

 

 

I know what you're thinking-- those are too many fabrics for the quilt! Not to worry! I have a plan, and it's going to turn out pretty great. 

To make my blocks, I've been strip piecing, which has made it all go really quickly. If you're not using scraps, you can save yourself quite a lot of time by strip piecing:

 

 

The colors in the picture above are much closer to the real colors of the blocks. I think the green grass in the top picture threw everything off. I would have hung them on a tree for a better shot, but you know-- big ugly bugs.

So there's the beginning of my Positivity quilt! It doesn't look like much now, but it will soon. And in that same vein, here is my progress on the Edyta Sitar mystery quilt: 

 

I'm up to step 7 of 12, and it's starting to look like a real quilt top. I've really enjoyed working on this, and I hope to finish off the piecing really soon. Laying out the grid as it is in the pattern and filling it in as I go has been really motivating. I may do this with other patterns, because it really does keep me going to see all the progress. 

 

One last thing before I wrap this up: my friend Bernie is retiring and closing her Etsy fabric shop. Sadness for us, but great for Bernie, who will get a lot more Grammy-time. She is having a big sale on everything, so hop on over if you need some fabric, and who doesn't? 

 

 

Hope you all are having a wonderful and positive week and making lots of progress, and that you find some treasures over at Bernie's shop. Happy stitching!

Sharing at Midweek Makers.