Sparkly stars

 Hi everyone! Somehow, it was 72 degrees here today. Has someone checked to be sure it's November? I know some people have had snow already, but it looks like we're sticking with rain and above average temperatures for the next little bit. Totally okay with me, except for the leaves that keep falling.

 

I've got a finished top to show off today. It's my stars top from this year's rainbow scrap challenge, and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Here she is:

 

 

Well, that is different, isn't it? But quite sparkly! Not at all what I thought I would get at the beginning of this year, but this year itself has not been what I thought it would be. Looking at it hanging up like that, I think it needs a narrow border all around, like 3 inches or so, just to make it look more finished.

These are the stars I made all year, plus one more that I made to finish out a row. The stars are 9 inches finished, and you can get Angela's directions for making them right HERE. Mine are, of course, a little different because I used the white square in the center instead of another scrap. I like the open and lacy look, and it sure makes this layout very sparkly.

You may notice that not all the colors are in this quilt top. That's because I sat down to make some orange and some bright green stars (both great colors for stars, by the way) and it just made me tired, so I thought "what if I didn't?" What if I didn't make more stars and just challenged myself to come up with a new layout that used only what I had?

 

 

I felt energized right away, and then started laying out the stars in a rough pattern. As I made it, I cleaned things up so that it's actually symetrical, with the bottom section a mirror of the top section, with a different row right there in the middle To finish off that middle row, I had to add in another star, but I'm not telling which one it is. I'm just really, really pleased with the way that it turned out, even though it doesn't have any orange stars.

One RSC project down, two more to complete! I have a very good idea about the birds, and I finished off the orange round on the medallion quilt. The final border for that one is paper pieced, so it's taking a little longer, but it's going to be spectacular.

Hope you all have a spectacular weekend, no matter the weather. It's November, though, so it's probably best to hedge your bets and just stay in and sew. With some chocolate on the side, of course!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

 

Bright green wings

 Hi everyone, and happy Saturday! Have your leaves started to turn yet? Though we have a lot of leaves on the ground, there has not yet been a lot of color. I attribute that to all the rain we've had. It rained here for five days straight and the ground is still pretty soggy. The creek behind us and on the property beside us has been quite full, too.

Today I have the last of the birds for this year's RSC quilt to show. I gave them bright green wings and some colorful feathers:

It appears the green birds have an odd friend joning the flock! More about him in a minute, but the green birds look quite cheerful, don't they?

The only bright green birds I know of are parrots and parakeets, but I don't think these look like either one. They aren't green herons or mallards, either. I guess they're just themselves!

Last month's color was light blue, a color I am not particularly fond of, though I do have a lot of it that is years old. I didn't make any light blue birds, but I found I had to make this guy:

There is a great blue heron who frequents the property next to us, which is something of a wetland and is owned by the county. He's a very majestic bird, and if I was going to make a light blue bird, he was going to be it. I even managed to make his neck look fairly proportional, as great blue herons have very long necks. I'm thinking of adjusting the flamingo the same way. He's not a colorful bird, but I like him a lot.

I also put all my birds up on the wall to see what I have and how I might arrange them:

Quite the flock! I love them all. I know for sure I don't want them in rows, and I'm thinking of using a pale green background color to tie them all together. It looks like I might want two more to fill in some spots that are far too open, too. I think this will take some serious playtime to get right. Oh, no. Doesn't that sound awful?

Except for the two others I might need, I think that's it for my flock of birds for this year. It will be fun to see how this turns out. I made my birds using Lynne Tyler's Liberated Birds tutorial, which you can get right HERE. Try them, they're fun!

While we're talking about flight, the hubster and I visited the College Park Aviation Museum not long ago ans had a really nice time there. They have some unusual stuff, but also this display, which is in every aviation museum I've ever seen:

Quite common, but still well done! Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

Radiating stars

 Hello everyone, and happy first real day of fall. The high today is supposed to be below 70 degrees, so I guess someone remembered to flip the switch to make things cooler. I noticed on my way home the other day that there are some trees that are definitely changing color already. Can raking be far behind? 

The family crisis continues, and so does my heavy heart, but it has motivated me to clean the sewing room and pull out a few things. The hubster wishes it would motivate me to install a new mantel for the fireplace, but I'm not that desperate yet. I was poking around in the sewing room closet and found a container of blocks, so I put them together really quick:

It was very windy when I was taking pictures! I tried to get a full picture with everything straight, but it was not happening. I made these blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge in 2020, but somehow never put them together. I think I intended to make more, or add some colors or something, but it was 2020, the nightmare year, and it didn't get done. But now they're saved, so yay!

There are a lot of ways to put these blocks together, and I played around and finally put them in this radiating design. I like it, and when it comes time to quilt it I think a spiral will work really nicely. I could change my mind, and probably will, but it's nice to have a plan for now. 

 

 

These are very simple blocks, just a colored square placed on a plain square and stitched into a flip triangle, but they make such a nice statement, don't they? And there are so many fun fabrics in here, even the darker ones that I don't usually use. I put all the blocks I had together, then added a bright aqua small border and a wider multicolored border. I think they work nicely with the blocks. 

This little quilt finished up at just about 43 by 53, which will be a nice toddler size. I should have made bigger blocks or many more of them, but I'm happy with the toddler size and the empty block box. I now have three empty block boxes or project boxes, so I really should take my temperature or something. Or maybe find a new project to fill them up?

Hope everyone is doing well and has a nice weekend planned. It's my birthday this weekend, so the hubs and I are planning to go hiking and spend the day in nature. Afterward there will be chocolate cake, so that's a happy day, right? Have a good weekend, all!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique, and soscrappy for RSC22.

Orange and purple flock

 Hello all! So here we are at August, which means that the end of summer is coming faster than we think. In honor of that, while you are reading this, the hubster and I are off on our last summer adventure, to a place where the chances of rain are much lower than they are at home, so I'm hoping for blue skies and cool breezes.

 

Before we left I finished up the orange and purple birds for the rainbow scrap challenge, so here they all are together:

Yes, it is not a great picture! One of the poor birds is so embarrassed that she's hiding in the back. I tried to get a picture all together out in the tree, but that takes time to arrange, and it was about to rain, so I hurried a bit. The sky opened up right after this, so here is an indoor picture where you can see all the birds:

 

Birds in the house! A little boring, but at least you can see everyone. I love these birds, and I've had fun making them. I think I've got just about enough to put them together by now. I'll have to put them all up on the wall to see for sure, but it's very close.

The orange birds certainly look like a happy bunch, don't they? I made a mistake and made three of them facing the same way instead of only two, but I think they'll forgive me for it. I love the bright red beak on the one on the right! The beaks really give them some personality, don't you think?

Since we live in Baltimore, I had to make an orange bird that looked at least a little bit like a Baltimore oriole, too. Come to think of it, I should make a raven, too, shouldn't I? Strangely, I have not yet seen an oriole in person in Maryland, though I have seen some interesting birds, including the herons that like the stream that runs near our house. I think they're green herons, but I haven't looked them up yet. 

The purple birds are left over from last month, but they are a fairly festive bunch as well. Look at that wild plumage! These are not purple martins, that's for sure. A couple of these turned out smaller than intended because I cut them wrong, but I won't tell them that they're short if you don't.

And there are the birds! Hope you all are having a lovely last couple of weeks of summer and packing in all the fun you can. Hope you're in the sunshine with a nice cool drink, or at least in some air conditioning!

 

Oops! Updated to add that the birds are made using Lynne's Liberated Birds tutorial, which you can find right HERE. An excellent purchase for these very addictive birds!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

Steamy stars

 Hi everyone! I would ask how you all are doing, but I'm pretty sure everyone is hot right now. Good golly, this is crazy! It's supposed to be 100 degrees (37.8 C) here on Sunday. Pretty sure I'll be staying inside, as long as the air conditioning holds out. Even the birds are not flying right now, and I haven't seen the deer all week.

It has not been a great week for me, with lots of medical appointments. You know how much time and frustration those can take! But I did manage to sew a bit and I finished off the purple twinkle stars for the rainbow scrap challenge. I started on some purple birds, but lost some momentum somewhere. Probably in a waiting room. Anyway, here are the stars:

I don't know why, but I just love these things. They look kind of lacy and delicate. I don't have a lot of purple scraps, but I did have a nice selection of different values of purple. Anyone else ever have an art teacher who terrorized them about mixing certain colors together? Pretty sure that purple and yellow together were a no-go. I've always been kind of a rule-breaker, you know.

Believe it or not, there really are purple stars in the sky, but apparently we can't really see them as purple, because they also emit blue light, which is easier for us to see. The more you know! If we could see them, though, I like to think they'd look like the one above. I just love that fabric and am glad one of the last bits of it is going into this quilt.

And there is the sum total of my progress for this week. Next week will be better, though still hot, I'm sure. I'm not pining for fall yet, though, and winter can stay away, too, so I'm sure I'll get through another hot week. And hey--it means more ice cream and less yard work for me!

Everyone have a lovely weekend. Feet up and cool drinks all around, with lots of ice, too!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

A circle of purple houses

 Hi all, and welcome to another summer weekend. It is the weekend, isn't it? I seem to have lost track of time this week. It has been a massive migraine-style headache week, for unknown reasons. Okay, it's probably a mix of Satan's own allergens and all the weather changes. And maybe I ate a little too much sugar. Who knows? I am feeling a little better now, though.

 

In between headache attacks, I managed to get the purple round put on my medallion quilt. I've been looking forward to this one, though I didn't know what color it would be until Angela told us. I'm glad that it's purple because it looks great this time around. Here it is so far:

Didn't I tell you that it looked good? I was concerned that I had chosen a purple that was too light, but now I think it's good because it's next to the dark blue and close to the dark green. This also took more of the purple than I thought, so I had to go with the piece that I had, too.

I call this block or unit "houses" because, well-- look at them. Don't they look like houses? They are super easy to make and this round went really fast. One reason it was so quick is that I used the diagonal seam tape from Cluck Cluck Sew to make all those stitch and flip corners. It really speeds things up when you don't have to draw lines! 

The houses are 3 inches finished, and the quilt itself is now about 54 inches square. With three rounds to go, it looks like this will finish right at 70 inches square, unless I change my mind about a block or leave out a color. Light blue could be an issue. I guess I could always switch the colors or the blocks around, right? We'll see how it goes.

Finally, I know we've talked a lot about the wildlife around here, and I definitely saw the foxes this week, and also plenty of squirrels and our buddy the hawk. (I think I love him. He's so majestic!) Of course there are the deer, too, and look who was out there this week when my head was in a bad place:

A mama and two fawns! The fawns were quite cute, running around and jumping, and they definitely cheered me up. I think they're chowing down on some wild strawberries, so no wonder they're so energetic!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I think more resting is in my future. I couldn't get in to the doctor until next Wednesday, so handfuls of ibuprofen are on the menu. The good news? Takeout is on the menu too! All weekend!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, soscrappy for RSC22, the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique, and Oh Scrap!

 

Starry, starry birds

 Hi everyone! How are things where you are? We had our house painted this week. It looks amazing, like a brand new place. I'll need to take some "after" pictures, but I am so thrilled with it already. The only downside was that they started super-early, like dawn, so it was quite noisy quite early. But it's done and I am sleeping in tomorrow!

Since I was up, I worked on a bunch of my Positivity blocks, and then I caught up some on the rest of my RSC blocks. First up are the blue stars:

 

 

Look how great! Every time I make these I am thrilled with how they turn out. This time I made the triangles oversized and cut them down and the final blocks were so much easier to construct. I searched all through the blue scrap bins and chose the happiest brights I could find. Really, all that's left in those bins are the lighter blues. I am happy about this, because dark blues are not my favorite. Here's a slighter closer look at those fabrics:

I'm thrilled to use these up, and they make great stars. I swear the one on the top right is a deep blue, even though it does look like a black fabric in the picture. And isn't that paisley fun? 

 

Next up, of course, are the blue birds:

 

Gosh, what a bunch of personality these guys have, and they certainly seem to like hanging out in that tree. Check out those checkered orange legs! These are free-pieced birds, made without templates, with a tutorial from Lynne at Patcherie Menagerie. You can get the tutorial right HERE. The tutorial is completely worth it, because every time I make these birds, I get happy.

You can see the fabrics a little better in the picture above. Most of those scrap bits were just laying around, waiting to be used for something, and here they are in some happy birds. Not a lot of bright blues for these either, but just enough to make it work. 

Since we are halfway through the RSC, I thought I'd get a couple of progress photos of the whole lot of blocks so far. Here are the stars:

That is a nice constellation laid out on the 'design patio,' isn't it? Right now I'm thinking of setting them with blue sashing, but we'll see. 

Here is my lovely flock of birds so far, laid out on the design lawn:

Well, they are cute, but it appears that I failed to make green birds. Oh, well! They might get made another time, might not. I'm pretty cleared out of dark greens, thank goodness. I don't really have any black birds, so maybe I could substitute those. I do have some black fabrics that would make great birds.

So, there we are! A painted house and caught-up projects! What could be better? Hope you all have a great weekend. I'll just be over here, plotting what to plant now that the house is done!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

 

Blue and green all around

 Hi all! Long time no see! I've been away for a conference in Atlanta, which was hot, sticky, and expensive, but so great to see people in person again. Everyone was so excited that it almost overwhelmed the presentations. Also, true fact: we shared the hotel with a comics convention, so there were people dressed up as various characters, including a full set of Power Rangers, interspersed with our very serious group. It was interesting! After the conference, the hubster and I may have made a couple of detours on the way home. It was fun!

Obviously, I did not take my sewing machine, and the mental break from everything was great. I came back raring to go on a bunch of things. First up in the sewing room was catching up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

 

 

Yes, this is the latest update of the medallion quilt I'm making in the colors of the month, one round for each color. I love how it is turning out, even though I've made a couple of mistakes in these rounds.

 

The green round was for last month, and this is the block, if you can't tell:

 

 

This is a traditional block called Cracker, from Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia. It was super-easy to make, but I didn't really pay attention to the column I was looking at, so I made the wrong size. There was supposed to be one more block per side, but they didn't fit. Oh, well! I think it looks just fine anyway, and I like the movement in that round.

 

 

The bright blue round is simple flying geese attached side by side to make a nice border. You can see that I needed a coping strip in there to bring the center up to the right size for the geese to fit. I think it works. The medallion is now about 44 inches square, which is right where it should be with 4 rounds to go. (I think.) Looking forward to that next round, which is also spectacular. Hope it's a great color!

I said at the top that we may have made a few small detours on our way home, and here is one place we stopped:

This is in North Carolina, and was a beautiful day. On the mountain it was about 70 degrees, at least 25 degrees cooler than down the mountain. The view is looking northeast toward Tennessee, which I'm pretty sure is actually in the photo, too. And that's me and the hubster with the sign, of course. We got talked into taking the sign picture by a lovely Ukrainian family (long in the US), who talked to us a bit about their country. They were very happy that their children and grandchildren in Ukraine had made it to Moldova and are safe. We took their picture, so of course they insisted on taking ours. It was a super-nice interaction.

So the medallion is caught up, and I may have pulled out some fabrics for some birds, too. I guess they're next! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and I'll let you know how they turn out!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique, and soscrappy for RSC22.

Pink and green lace

Hi everyone, and welcome to summer. It may not officially be summer, but it's supposed to be 97* today, so I think that counts. I seriously hope no one gets too hot and passes out at baccalaureate tonight. I doubt that the AC in the chapel will keep up. Do you think that I can smuggle in some ice packs under my robe?

Well, thank goodness the sewing room is cooler, and I got to stitch a few things up this week. I'm catching up on the RSC projects, and I made the pink and green stars this week:

 

It has been so wet and rainy that I tried to take pictures earlier in the day, but they got washed out from the sun, and by the time I went back out it was very still and cloudy. This is why the colors of those leaves are so bright. But aren't they pretty with those star blocks?

I swear these were not dragging on the ground! It's an illusion.

These stitch up pretty fast, but I have discovered that I need to be really careful about seam allowances. I cut these with the Accuquilt and there is no wiggle room at all there. Believe me when I tell you that you need wiggle room for those triangles. I'm thinking seriously about making the next size up and trimming them down. Thoughts?

Above is a closer look at the green stars. I tried to go for darker green, but they weren't very twinkly, you know? I kind of prefer the black ones, if I'm honest, and I'm really glad that I'm using all yellows for the stars. It's a nice constant.

There's a lot of green in this post so far, what with all the grass and trees and such. How about a closer look at the pink stars? Here we go:

They are so festive! Pink and yellow might be my favorite colors, and I love them together. Okay, back to the greens:

For those of you who were wondering what I was doing with all those green triangles I was cutting earlier this week, these are the blocks I'm making. They're huge! They're 16 inches finished. I want to use up all those dark and medium greens I have, plus I thought I would throw in a few of those leftover dark blues just for variety. When I'm done with this quilt (which is astoundingly easy), I think I'll just turn all the rest of those scraps into squares and then. . .I don't know. You tell me.

So there we are! Just to end with a pretty pink something, I saw these out on my walk this week, very early in the morning:

I'm not sure what they are, but they are very pretty! They might be flowering pears? Don't know! 

Everyone have a wonderful weekend! Stay inside and stitch, though I understand there are some people in the US who are really cold while we're really hot. Anyone remember when the weather wasn't truly weird?

 

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

Suddenly spring

 Holy cow, folks, it's the end of April. On Sunday it will be May! How in the world did that happen? Plus, one day this week I got up and suddenly the whole world looked green. The leaves have popped on the trees and we have all kinds of shade again. Many of the trees are flowering now, too. Spring has definitely sprung.

If it's the end of April, you know it's also the end of the academic year, which means I've been really busy this week. All those meetings, all that grading. . .not nearly enough stitching, but I did manage to add the pink round to my medallion quilt for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Have a look:

 

 

I am really, really pleased with this! Who doesn't love pink polka dot fabrics? Plus, if you squint a little, it looks almost like a white ribbon waving around the quilt top.

 

All of the blocks in this quilt top so far are different sizes, and this block is 3 inches. For reference, the yellow round blocks are 4 inches, and the aqua are 2 inches. The actual pink block is above, for anyone who would like to make it themselves. I strip pieced everything and it was super easy, which is not always true with 3-inch blocks!

 

As you can see from the artsy-looking picture above, the azaleas are also blooming in the yard! I forgot about these, really. They're in a part of the yard that we are planning to clear out, and we just didn't get to it last year. I really did mean to cut them down, but it just didn't happen. Oh, well! Maybe this year? In the meantime, we'll enjoy the pretty flowers.

So, that's it for my current RSC progress. I have some of the pink stars cut out, so I'm a little behind, but I'll do those with the next color. Just as soon as I finish this grading. . .

Everyone have a great weekend. I'll be chained to my desk, but I hope that you all have some nice weather and some pretty flowers to enjoy! Here's another beauty from my forgotten garden!

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday and soscrappy for RSC22.

For the birds

 Hi everyone, and happy (soon to be) Opening Day! This is a true sign of spring and is a big day in our household. It happens that our favorite team is opening here in Baltimore, so guess what we'll be doing next week? I hope we can find parking!

It has been a very busy week here, so all I got done was making some birds for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. They are super cute, though, so they have been hanging out here and cheering me up. Here's the whole flock of pink and yellow birds:

 

Aren't they cute? It's hard to get them all in one picture because there are so many, and I'm not tall enough to reach higher to get them closer in the tree. But look-- the leaves are beginning!

Here's a closer look at the pink birds:

I had a great time making this group, and I remembered to make some facing in each direction. And since I was making pink birds, I had to make the most famous of the pink birds, a flamingo:

 

 

Yes, she knows she's gorgeous. She could use a better pressing, but she still turned out great. The legs took a bunch of trial and error, but I think I came close to making those resemble a flamingo's stick legs.

 

And now for the yellow birds:

More fun color combinations! The yellow with turquoise markings on the left is the last of that fabric I had left, and it worked great for this happy bird. The bench they're on came from our daughter, who got a new bench rather than paint this one. It may have a few dings, but it made a great backdrop.

I'm so glad I chose this as one of my RSC projects this year. Half the fun of the birds is picking out all the different color and fabric combinations. All of these birds are made from little bits of stuff that I saved, so they are all truly scrappy. And all different!

 

These birds are not paper pieced and are made using a tutorial by Lynne, which you can get right HERE. It's totally worth it, because these little guys are addictive and you'll find yourself making a ton of them. And they bring such happiness!

 

Here's another little bit of happiness from in front of one of my neighbor's houses:

 

 

Bright pink hyacinths! I don't think I've seen that color in hyacinths before, but it certainly is cheerful.  

Have a good weekend, everyone, and happy spring!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22