Soft cut glass

 Hi everyone! How are you all today? Strangely, I feel very Christmassy. I am resisting putting up a tree or shopping, but I really feel like I could use a little Christmas. Why do you think that is?

I don't know about you, but the rhythm of my life has dramatically changed in the last eight months. Nothing seems to be going the way that it always has. Case in point-- today I have a finished quilt top! What? I know, and here it is on Saturday, when we all know Fridays are for finishes. Why not? Up is down right now, down is sideways, and sideways hasn't left the house in weeks. I didn't get a chance to take pictures earlier this week, but here is the latest top:

This is not what I had envisioned when I started making blocks, but it's finished nonetheless. And I think it turned out okay!

 

In 2019, I made the cut glass dish blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. And then a number of things happened, including moving to Baltimore, and somehow I got sidetracked and didn't finish the blocks. (I hate it when that happens.) They have been in a project box ever since.

 

 

This made me very sad, because I really *love* these blocks. I think they turned out really well and so pretty! I tried several layouts, but didn't like any of them, and as much as I love the blocks, I just didn't want to make any more of them. Maybe one, but not a dozen more, and I didn't want to do the math to make an on-point layout or something really creative. I just don't have the mental space to do that right now.

 

Alternate blocks to the rescue! I grabbed a bit of this fun confetti print that I'm pretty sure I purchased on a pre-COVID shopping trip with Preeti and cut some alternate blocks. After that, it was short work to put all the blocks into rows and add a small but colorful border. The border just acts as a frame and keeps the edges of the blocks from popping, but it includes all the colors in the top and I think it really adds something. 

 

This top finished at about 66 by 76, and is just the right size to be donated to a worthy organization, so off it is going, along with a backing and binding, to be quilted up and given away to give some comfort to someone who needs it. Someone gets a quilt, and I get an empty project box. Win, win!

Hope you all are having a lovely weekend. I will be painting the new garage door, then maybe I'll make some sugar cookies. You won't tell if I cut them into festive Christmassy shapes, will you? It will be our secret!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC2020.

56 blocks, no waiting

Hello everyone, and happy Friday to you. Can you believe that there are only two-- yes, just two!-- Fridays left in 2019? Where did this year go? On top of that, someone told me that the full moon this past week was "the last full moon of the decade." Yikes! 2020 is barreling down on us, and I'm not done with my 2019 stuff yet.

I did finish up one thing, though-- I finished putting together my tiny Tuesday quilt top! Once I got some of the numbers figured out and started on the rows, I just couldn't stop. Here she is:

It is a very gray morning here, but it does make for decent pictures, though I do prefer the sunshine. As soon as I got this quilt top hung up, it started to rain. Of course. But look at those fun tiny blocks! They give enough sunshine on their own, don't they?

I used a striped layout inspired by a Tula Pink layout in her 100 Modern Blocks book and I think it turned out well. I just couldn't do the solids, and I ended up going with a white on white and a beige print.  I was going to use some colors for the stripes, but in the end I thought those would distract too much from the fun blocks.

Since the blocks each finish at 4-1/2 inches (or so, there was some easing and some tugging in there) this isn't a huge quilt. The top is about 45 by 55, which is pretty good for blocks that finish at 4-1/2 inches.  For anyone who doesn't know, the block patterns were all a part of the RSC sampler over at Angela's blog, soscrappy.  All the block patterns are still there, so you could still jump in and make your own if you want.

My New Year's quilty resolution is going to be to get all the tops I have quilted up.  I just sent off two tops to the longarmer, and the mail carrier just delivered one that I had sent out a while ago.  So I'm planning to send this one off right away and get it quilted up.  No more adding to the pile!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Now that the grades are done, I am full of the Christmas spirit and am planning to go shopping. Yes, in physical stores! It will be a new and different experience, and hopefully not too frustrating. There's always online as a backup, but it might be nice to talk to some real humans!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.

Grading with a bit of stitching

Oh, hi there! I'm just coming out of my post-finals stupor to say hello. Okay, not exactly post finals, because I still have grading to do, but close enough. Some semesters I have an easy time with the grades, and some semesters I don't. This was a down semester, so it has been sucking up aaaalllll of my time. I think I'm even dreaming about some of it. Why should students have all the nightmares?

Thank goodness there are other things in life! It looks like I've finally gotten my sewing room to a good place where most of the space works for me. I'm still looking for a bookcase and a new cutting table, but I've got the design wall working over time and I've finally started hanging some things on the walls. I even put up curtains! It's starting to feel like home at last.

There are several things I've been working on in a few spare moments, First, I've started putting together the tiny Tuesday quilt:

It might behard to see, but if you recall, I'm using the Tula Pink striped layout, and I chose to use a white on white and a beige print for the sashing.  I made a mistake in how I placed the sashing on the top row, so I just flipped it around so that the darker pieces are on top.  I think it looks okay, but I still might go back and rip them all and put the blocks in the original order. (But I probably won't.)

I've also been putting together some of Alycia's Winter Quilt Along sections:

Looks like my husband may finally get the Packers quilt he's asked for!  I'm hoping the blues make it a little less Packer-y, though. I still have to make a bunch of hsts for the rest of the top, but that should go fast.  These pieces feel huge to me!

The last thing I've been working on is starting to lay out the rainbow rails quilt that I've been making for the RSC this year:

I still have a few rails to make, but I think it's going to look pretty good.  The centers are the same print that I used as sashing in the hollow 9-patch quilt. Hey, if you have a winner, go with it! 

Finally, I may not have been getting a lot of stitching time, but I have taken a few breaks to cruise through some fabric sales, and the packages are arriving.  It's my own private Christmas! I purchased this fun group from Wanda's pop-up shop:

These are really fun fabrics and I just like looking at them. Not sure what they'll become, but they sure are happy.

I also got these from Shabby Fabrics:

They have the best remnants, and I love it when they're on sale.  The oranges are going to let me finish off my nephew's quilt, though I know for sure it won't be done before Christmas. Good thing I didn't promise it!

Before I forget, does anyone out there know anything about metric measuring cups? Would a liter-size cup be too big to be useful? Does everything dry measure by weight and not volume? My daughter is trying some European recipes and having a bit of a time. I know nothing about this, so Canadian, Australian, and European friends, please send advice! Thanks!

More stash enhancement to come! Hope you all are getting in some stitching time during this very busy time of year.  Take a break and have a Christmas cookie, and cross your fingers that I finish those grades on time!

Simple, hollow, and pointed

Hi all, and hello to all the new followers I got this week! I don't speak Russian, and I have no need for "sexy ladies" at this time, but I really hope you enjoy all the quilts!  (I bet there are a lot of you who know what I'm talking about. Fun, hey?)

Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! We went to my daughter's and got to spend Thanksgiving with a tiny girl, and got to see some older grandkids, too. The weather turned out to be great, unlike other parts of the country, so I'm extra sorry for those of you who got stuck and couldn't get over the river or through the woods. Here's hoping the rest of the holiday season is better.

 So yesterday, after some nice leftovers, I finished up the first of the hollow 9 patch quilts.  Here she is:

Yahoo! I think this one turned out to be a beauty, and I am so, so pleased with it.

If you recall, I made 9-patches from 2-inch squares in the color of the month last year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Since I stitched the colorful squares around a white center, I called these "hollow 9-patches." I got enough of those 9-patches to make two small quilts. I guess I could have gone with one larger one, but I think these will be nice for some small people, and they need small quilts.

The sashing is a white print called Glee from Victoria Findlay Wolfe which turned out to be so perfect for these blocks that I'm also using it for the second quilt. The setting triangles are a print from Kim Schaefer, which also turned out perfect. No backing or binding yet, but I definitely don't want any more of my quilts hanging out here longer than they need to, so I'm hoping to quilt this up over the winter break.

I realized as I was putting this together that these 9-patches are the same size as the Tiny Tuesday blocks, and now I'm kicking myself for not realizing it sooner. I could've combined them or something, though they are very different. And speaking of the Tiny Tuesday blocks:

Up on the design wall! Don't they look great? I think this is the final layout, but they sure are fun to play with. This is another of my "over winter break" projects, I think, though I may not be able to wait.

Hope you all are having a wonderful, restful weekend with lots of sewing time. Apparently we'll be getting nasty weather tomorrow, just in time for the first of December, so I'm might be doing some stitching myself. And I think there might be leftover pie, if the hubs hasn't eaten it yet!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.

Bright spots for a gray day

Hi everyone! Are we all feeling motivated today? Hah! I am feeling a bit more creative than I have for the past few weeks, and I've actually pulled out a couple of RSC projects that I think I can get finished up pretty quickly. And hey-- I have a few days off next week for some small, obscure holiday, so I may have some actual sewing time, too!

The first little project I want to finish up is actually from last year's RSC. You may remember the hollow 9-patches that I made to use up some 2-inch squares. I ended up with quite a few of them, enough for two small quilts. Here is the first one:

Wow, nothing like a shot of color to wake up your creativity, is there? I've played with these for a while, and I think this will be the final layout. Maybe I'll move a couple.  I'm just going to use a plain narrow white for the sashing, and I haven't decided about borders yet. It will be small, but it will make a nice child-sized quilt.

Here's what I'm doing with the remaining hollow 9-patches:

Putting them on point!  This will be another kid size quilt, but it will still be a usable size. Thankfully, too, I know some small people who like colors.  The best part of these two layouts is that they mean that I have only 4 of the hollow 9-patches left over, and I just might stick those on the back.  Win!

So there's the plan for one set of older blocks. The other project that I pulled out to finish pretty quickly is from this year, and it's these blocks:

These are the Cut Glass Dish blocks, and I love them. I just don't want to make any more of them! The plan was to make 30 blocks, but I think a quilt made with just 20 blocks will still be a very nice lap size. Plus, the blocks will not be waiting in the closet any more but will get to be in a nice, happy quilt.

I need five more blocks, and I was thinking about using pink and purple, but what colors would you suggest? The red always throws me off, so I do need something to balance it. Do you think the purple would do that?  Plus, I thought I liked the layout shown above, but, wow, I really don't. It looks like I'll have to play with those blocks a bit more.  They do look like cut glass, don't they?

That's the update from here for now. I'll be stitching these together and trying to figure out a layout for the Cut Glass blocks. Oh, and then I might have to go to the grocery store. I'm wondering if it will be very crowded this weekend. Probably not, right?

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19 (soon to be RSC20-- eep!)

Almost enough blocks

Hi everyone! How is your weekend going? After massive storms the night before, I woke up yesterday to temperatures in the 40s, and there is a freeze warning for tonight, so now I'm really facing the reality that it's fall and winter can't be far behind.  But it can't be yet, because I have too much to do before winter! So top of my list for today is a new winter coat.  But first. . .

I made a few more of the tiny blocks this week!  This brings me to 49, which means I have only seven more to go.  Here's the latest installment:

In January, when we started, I did not know that I would like these so much, but I really do! Do you think it's because they're so small, or because they're so quick to make, or what? All I know is that these are fun to make and go pretty fast, though I had to do some fancy math for one of them this week.

Check out those colorful leaves in that picture! I was sure I wasn't going to make any dark or black blocks, but right there in the string jar was a long piece of the strawberries fabric, and it was enough to make the Bullseye block that Angela posted earlier:

I think that turned out ok. It's the right size, and I like the strawberries. The red block there is also one from Angela.

Since we started the orange blocks, I've wanted to make a Dutchman's Puzzle block, but since the tiny blocks are something of an odd size, I never sat down to do the math for the flying geese until just now, but I finally figured it out:

Okay, I turned the pieces and ended up with a star in the center, but overall this looks pretty good, doesn't it? For anyone who wants to know, the geese are 1-5/8 by 2-3/4 unfinished. To make 4 at a time, I used a 3-3/4 inch square and 4 2-1/8 inch squares, then had to trim them down a bit. But it worked!

My other orange block is a smaller version of the State of Georgia block from the Squared Away sampler:

You can make any of the Squared Away blocks by cutting the squares at 1-3/8 inch each.  Little, but they work!
 
And then I also made a raspberry colored Anvil-style block:

And then I was done for now!  The raspberry block is strobing a little, but it's not that bright in person. It's just against those dark trees, so it looks really bright.

Hope you're all nice and warm and dry and are getting in some stitching time this weekend. If we all think warm thoughts, do you think can we stave off that winter thing? I'm pretty sure I feel like skipping it this year. We can try, right?

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.

Catching up

Hi all! How have you been? I've been having quite a life.  So much to do, so little time. You know what I mean?

I must have something like 70 or 80 projects in progress (I exaggerate. . .but only a little), but I've really been wanting to catch up on some of my rainbow scrap challenge projects. I put away the Boston Common quilt in progress before we moved, and I've pulled it out to add the last rounds to it. Now that we have all the colors, I thought I could finish it right up. Here's how far I got:

I love the aquas, and the next color is orange. I have a whole bunch of oranges left over, but I can't decide if I want the orange next to the aqua--which is a pretty combination-- or if I want a round of white between them.  What do you think?

Right now I'm leaning towards the white. Dark blue follows the orange, but I know I can't do that, so I'm not sure what will happen there. I know I have a lot of pink and purple, though, so those should be easy enough.

I also started finishing up the string sections for the rainbow scrap happy rails quilt:

I've since finished off the aquas, which look really happy, and started on the oranges. I think it's going to look great once I find a fabric for the centers. And you can see that I still do like skinny strings. I just can't throw those little bits away! It's an illness, really. Making the string sections is very calming because they require almost no thought, just feeding through the machine.  Heaven knows I could use some calming right now, so I'm having a good time with them.

That's pretty much all the stitching I've done! Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who had written all her posts six weeks in advance, but we work in real time around here.  Hope you have had some time to get some stitches in!

A few more little things

Hi everyone! It's the last weekend in September, can you believe it? It's still hot, hot, hot here and still dry, so the grass is turning brown and the leaves are falling.  We don't have a lot of color yet, but I have seen a couple of trees starting to turn a lovely yellow.  It's going to be really pretty around this property in a few weeks.

I just have a few tiny blocks to show today.  I thought I would finish something small, but I didn't finish binding it yet. Oh, well! Here are my tiny blocks for the week:

These are the last of the purples, and I love them all. I think they turned out great, but you can see that the lantern block is just a tiny bit too long. The seams appear to be off by about 1/32nd of an inch each, which doesn't show in bigger blocks but certainly shows here. Not sure what I'll do about it, since I don't want to rip it all out and they're off by about the width of the thread. I'll probably trim it and then make it fit. It's still very cute, though! The other two tiny purples are my own and weren't offered by Angela. I think they're cute, too!

Since we're nearing the end, I thought I should pull out all the tiny blocks and take inventory, so I pulled out a small design board (foam core board covered in a batting scrap) and took them all outside.  Here are the reds and yellows:

And then the pinks and oranges:

And last but not least, the greens to purples:

That's 44 blocks, with the Bow tie repeated twice. Not sure how that happened. I think I need more pinks and more yellows, and maybe one or two more reds. I started out thinking that 56 blocks would make a lovely little quilt, and I think I'll still aim for that.

As for a layout, I was thinking about making them shadow blocks, or else there is the striped quilt layout from Tula Pink's Modern Blocks that I like a lot. I'm not sure! How do you plan to set your blocks?

There's where we are-- lots of color in little bitty blocks, with the end in sight. Not sure what I'll do for the "dark" month next month, but I'm pretty sure it won't be brown. Maybe multicolors? Decisions, decisions!

Have a great weekend! Linking up with Angela for RSC19.

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.

Five little blocks

Hi everyone!  Are you all enjoying the heat dome so far?  Yeah, me neither.  I'm seriously fantasizing about snowstorms right now.  We had a minor bit of panic yesterday when we thought the AC had gone out, but it turned out that the batteries in the thermostat had died.  Whew-- easy fix! It did get up to 87 in the house before we figured it out, though. I've never been so relieved to have dead batteries. 

It's been a busy, hot week, but I managed to make a few of the Tiny Tuesday blocks:

Doesn't that Bear's Paw block look enormous?  It's the same 5 inches as the others.  I've said it before, but these blocks are so darned cute and most of them are fun to make.  I can't wait to see how the whole quilt turns out.

I didn't make very many blue blocks during the blue month, so I went ahead and made a really simple blue one, just to have a bit more blue in the quilt.  If you're interested in making one of these, I just used 2 inch squares from the 2-inch bin.  Super easy and quite cute!

I also made the fish in orange, because they must be goldfish, you know?  And the orange tabby cat got a gray basket.  My fabric is kind of limited now and that's the piece I could find, in the string jar, of all places.  The cat was really easy to make and I like how he turned out.

Finally, there is a pink polka dot pig!  Good thing this little lady is cute, because she was a bear to put together.  I had a hard time following and kept doing things backwards, plus I cut a lot of things the wrong size.  Must have been the heat. Miraculously, she turned out the right size and reasonably pig-shaped. And she's covered in pink polka dots-- what could be better?

I think that catches me up until next Tuesday.  Hope everyone stays nice and cool and safe during this awful heat.  Have lots of Popsicles and lemonade.  We are going to the movies because we have several house showings, then I might dive into some ice cream and wait for the heat to break.  Don't forget to check your thermostat batteries!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.

Blocks among the flowers

Hi everyone, and welcome to yet another hot, sticky day.  Gosh, it has been sooo hot and sooo humid all week.  The fourth was so bad that there were a few times I started to think that it was getting hard to breathe, so we skipped the fireworks and watched some of them on TV.  Not the same, but apparently the humidity made it so that the smoke just kind of hung around instead of drifting away, which made everything really unpleasant.  Best to be in the air conditioning, I think!

We did have some house showings on the holiday, but I was able to get in a little bit of time with the machine.  I decided to catch up on the tiny blocks for the RSC19 sampler:

The flowers are loving the heat and humidity, can you tell?  I was too lazy to get down off the deck and take pictures elsewhere, so they're all with the plants today.  Oh, well!

If you recall, these blocks will finish at 4-1/2 inches, so the pieces are really small.  I've been trying to use as many pieces as possible from the square bins, and it's worked out pretty well.  Since these pieces are so small, I can usually trim down the squares to fit, and that gives me a lot more variety, too.  The squares for this checkerboard (which is my own block, not one that Angela gave a pattern for) were cut from the 1-1/2 inch squares, down to 1-3/8 so the block would be the right size.

All of the pieces for the blue blocks also came from the bins, including the accent pieces in the block on the left.  The block on the right is all from the 2-1/2 inch squares.  I made "cheater" hsts for the corners and then cut up a couple other squares for the side pieces.  It worked!  Good thing, too, because I don't have very much blue to begin with and it was just lucky to find matching squares in the bins.

The butterfly had to be cut from a bigger scrap piece, but that worked out okay, too.  This guy gave me some trouble, and there may or may not have been some butterfly parts laying all over.  In the end I gave up and ended up with an imperfect butterfly.  But at least he's still pretty good looking!  What he doesn't know is that he may get remade yet again, if I can figure out where I went wrong to begin with.

I'm so happy that pink is the July color, not just because it's one of my favorites, but also because I haven't packed that scrap bin yet.  It wouldn't fit in the box with the others, so I guess I got lucky there.  The first pink block was so easy that I finished it in just about 10 minutes.  At that rate, I could make a whole quilt from these!  But probably not at 4-1/2 inches each, though.

So, there is the result of a couple of happy hours over the holiday! It was a nice time in the AC, watching the clouds roll in and drop a little more rain, then get plenty hot again right afterward.  I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon, can't you?

Hope you're having a good weekend and staying nice and cool! Ice cream and Popsicles highly recommended!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.