Some yellow, some purple

 Hello all! How have you been? I don't know how it is where you are, but wow the pollen has been amazingly bad this year. Everyone I know has itchy, watery eyes. And the cars turn green. And the sneezing, and. . . yeah, you get it. It is zero fun on top of everything else.

I have made a little tiny bit of progress on my RSC projects. Hurray! It's been hard but rewarding to work on the stitchy stuff, even if it's a little bit at a time. I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a couple of nice quilts at the end, no matter how slow it is.  Since it's the yellow month for the RSC, first up are my yellow blocks:

                     

Oh, very cheerful! And will you look at those happy trees in the background? Even if they're shedding a bunch of pollen, it's like seeing old friends.

If you recall, I'm making Preeti's Granny Long Legs one color at a time. It's a really easy pattern, and would be even easier if I strip pieced it and made it like she wrote the pattern. Oh, well! Here are the purple blocks:

Purple and green always look so good together, don't you think? The whole quilt would look great in purple with a green background. An idea for later!

And of course, the blocks so far all together:

Yep, it's going to be a cute quilt! I skipped the red, but only because I didn't have the energy to sort through the red bin. I'll do those next and then whatever color comes after. I think it will really come alive with a few more colors. 

That's it for me for now. We are heading into final exams and my energy level is at an all-time low, except for maybe when I had newborns. I know I haven't answered the lovely comments you all have left, and I feel bad about that, but I just have no bandwidth right now. Please forgive me, and know that I appreciate every one. 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, and try to stay away from that pollen!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC24.

Snowy but still green

 Hey all! So here we are in this wintry less than wonderland, where we have been for several days now. I have to say I'm a little tired of it. Everything was closed yesterday because of the weather, and I once again had to shovel snow. Once was a fun novelty, but I'm over it now. Like, really over it.

I've been getting ready for the coming semester, which hopefully will start on Monday if all the students can manage to get to campus and move in, but I did find time to start in on my second RSC project for this year. Here are the two blocks, photographed in the snow this morning:

Those are different, aren't they? I've seen several people in RSC-land who have made quilts with tons of pieces and they have turned out amazing. The pattern I chose doesn't have a ton of pieces but I think it will look cool in rainbow colors. It's called Granny Long Legs, by our sweet friend Preeti. (Surprise, Preeti!) 

This pattern is not complicated, but I'm making mine scrappy so I had to figure out how to make just one block since the pattern is strip pieceed. Once I did that it went together really quickly. It's much less complicated than it looks!

I almost didn't make the bright green block, but I was able to dig out enough of these fabrics to cobble one together. I think the dark green one could have used a little more contrast, but I'm sticking to the scraps I have, not making more. I'm really, really pleased with how the bright green turned out. Better scraps in that bin!

The pattern has 25 blocks, but I'm going to go for 16 blocks and see how things turn out. I know for sure that there are a few colors that won't make it into a quilt (no light green! maybe no dark blue!) but I'm confident there are enough scraps in most bins to make a block each month. 

Okay, back to my reading list! Must write some more assignments to be ready for Monday.  Everybody stay warm and dry. If the snow is going to melt in a few days, why shovel it now? :) (And hey--do you like the larger print? I'm on the fence.)

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC24.

New year, new rainbow

 Hi everyone! How's 2024 in your corner of the world? I'll tell you about ours at the end of this post, but so far it's been a real trip. Over the holiday I did almost no sewing! Can you believe it? I just needed the break from everything so much. My brain needed a massive rest. It was lovely, and now I'm back to my regularly scheduled life. Classes don't start for a bit yet, but the getting ready is definitely in full swing. 

For the rainbow scrap challenge this year I've decided on. . . Drunkard's Path blocks! Giant ones, too. Take a look:

In December, AccuQuilt had a 'buy one, get one' sale on their cutting dies. This was huge, because those things are really pricey and I generally can't afford them, so I treated myself to two new dies. One that I got was the 7-inch finished Drunkard's Path block. It's a departure for me, that's true, but it makes the cutting so, so much easier and means that my blocks will actually turn out.

In comparison to the blocks that I usually make, these blocks are enormous. This makes the curves so much easier to sew, too. As a bonus, I figure that by the time I make 80 or 90 of these I'll be an expert at piecing curves.

I'm pretty cleaned out of dark green, but I do have some bright greens, and I think they made lovely blocks. Each cut makes two blocks in opposite colors, and I did manage to find a piece of dark green that works. You need those darks for good color balance, you know.

Trying to be artsy! Failing!

So that's one RSC project begun! I have another one in mind and I may join in on some of Angela's tiny blocks, too. We'll see.

Here's why 2024 so far has been a trip and a half:

Our brand new roof leaked, and those are the industrial dryers that are drying out the wood rafters after everything on the roof got fixed again. They've been here a week.They are seriously loud and are making me crazy but are doing the job. I don't care so much about the drywall in the ceiling, but I can't even think about the damage to the wood floor without choking up. The insurance guys said they'll make us 'whole,' but gosh, what a way to get there!

Okay, we're keeping a good thought, right? Nothing to do but break out the rainbows and get stitching!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC24 (can you believe it?)