As the medallion grows

 Hello all! Well, here we are at the last day of March. How did that happen? Where did the month go? I don't know, but it's certainly blowing out of here loudly today. The wind is quite something, and tonight we're supposed to get a huge storm. Out like a lion, indeed!

Good thing I got quilty pictures earlier today! I really wanted to get my RSC projects posted before the month is out, so I started with this one:

 

 

Yes, the medallion! I think it looks really awesome and is turning out even better than I thought it would. These are simple Birds in the Air blocks arranged in a cool pattern. It almost looks like a big star, doesn't it? At this point, it measures about 26 by 26. It's growing nicely, I think.

 

I was lucky to get this picture, because it really is windy, and I just managed to catch the top when the wind caught it and nearly blew the whole thing away:

 

And here's a bit of serendipity:

 

 

I didn't know when I did it, but the next color is pink, and there is pink in this golden yellow print. Sometimes you win.

 

I also, finally, finally, made a yellow scrap basket:

 

Whew! Those of you who have been here for a little while will remember that I made a bunch of scrap baskets in 2020, one for each color, but somehow I skipped yellow. It didn't get made last year, either, but this year was finally the time. It's more than half full, so hurray for finally having a place to put all those pieces. A tutorial for the baskets is right HERE.

 

Last thing was the yellow 4-patches for the Rainbow Blues quilt. You thought I forgot, didn't you? Nope, we are making tons of progress for a nice finish late this year.

 

 

And that is the yellow report for this month! I have a plan to make the yellow birds and the pink birds this weekend, so they'll make an appearance soon. Birds are more fun when they have friends, after all. 

Everyone have a good, dry weekend, and remember-- flowers are on the way! For proof, here is a flowering pear tree that I saw on one of my walks this week. 

 

Spring is busting out all over!

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

A cool spot in the heat

 Hi everyone, from a very warm and very wet Baltimore! It was more than 100 degrees on my home thermometer twice this past week, and 104 degrees on my car thermometer. I've said it before, but God bless Willis Carrier. Plus, we had some storms with spectacular lightning and very loud thunder. It was quite exciting. As of this week, we have now lived in Baltimore for two years, so I'm trying to think of the flashes and banging as a celebration, kind of like fireworks.

 

This is when I'm happy that my sewing room is in the basement bedroom. It's much cooler down there!  And here's what came out of the room with me when I had no choice but to go back upstairs:

Slightly drenched flowers and the final scrap basket for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! Yay! The picture isn't the greatest because I was in a huge hurry to get back inside before the skies opened up again, so here is one that is a little more focused:

 

Look at those pretty and cool aquas, with some turquoise tossed in. I love aqua and turquoise and had a lot of scraps to choose from. I've made all of the baskets differently, and this one is strips of aqua in random widths, assembled quilt as you go style. It worked really well and went fast, and hardly made a dent in the scraps. They're all so pretty that I don't mind looking at them, though.

Here is the whole scrap basket family (ignore the creative mess):

 

I promise that they are mostly the same size, but some of them are a little more squished than others. Taking this picture is when I realized that I somehow skipped making a yellow basket. Yikes! I don't know how this happened, because yellow is one of my favorite colors. More to the point, where did I put the bin of yellow scraps?

That's a question for another day, because this weekend I'll be finishing up those positivity quilts for the quilt along, which ends next week. I never finish on time, but this time I feel like I have to get it done before school starts. We have meetings next week, so I'd better get a move on!

 

 

I hope you all have a great weekend! If you feel like doing some shopping from your sofa, my friend Bernie at Needle and Foot has marked down the fabric in her shop even further, with some really good bargains. Check it out HERE and be sure to tell her I said hi, too!

Colorful trio

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Hanging in there?  I ventured out into the previously-closed world once this week, and it was odd.  There are a lot of empty shelves at Target, folks.  Thankfully, Mr. Academic Quilter now has a replenished supply of essential snacks, so it looks like we may be good for a while. I did go to a farmer's market, too, which was a very happy experience. Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes!

I also made my way to the sewing room a few times. I may have finally gotten all of the fabric that I bought online over the last few months put away, and I worked on some of the projects I showed last time. It was quite invigorating! So much so that I finished up these three happy pieces this week:

Look at those flowers and the green trees! How happy is that? These are three fabric scrap baskets, which is one of my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Angela's this year. I am still trying to catch up from the last few months, and so I made this month's color, which is the pink, and one of the colors I missed, which is the green, and an extra black basket just because.

You'll notice that the green basket is a bunch of different green hues. I don't have enough of any one green to merit separate baskets for dark green, sage green, light green, etc., so this one is for "mixed greens." Of course, bright green is the exception, because I have plenty of that in its own fabric home.

The black basket was a surprise, because who knew I had that many black scraps? But I did, and it turned out to be much, much prettier than I thought it would be. Of course, I don't have much black fabric, but this one is big enough to hold the few gray bits I have left, too. 

 Those were my big finishes for the week! I am super happy with them and have already put them to their intended use. Not surprisingly, the pink basket is pretty full, so we may need to do something about that later this year.  Is it me, or would those three colors look great together in a quilt? Perhaps that's how these baskets will get emptied!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. It's raining here, but there is plenty to do in the house. You thought I was behind in the sewing room! Do you know what happens when you barely clean anything for a couple of months? It isn't pretty, but it has to be dealt with. Pass the Mr. Clean and cross your fingers for me!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and soscrappy for RSC20.

Leaping over orange

Hello all, and happy leap day! I know why we get an extra day in February every four years, but wouldn't you all rather have an extra day in June? We had a minor snow squall here today, so I'm going with yes on June 31 instead of February 29.

There is a *lot* going on in my life right now. I mean, a LOT.  We went to my grandson's 4th birthday party and got to see all the grandkids, and as soon as we got home we both got hit with the worst colds ever, the kind that feels like you've been hit in the head with a hammer.  It could have come from anywhere, but I'm betting on our sweet 2-1/2 year old granddaughter, who hugged me around the neck and  said, "I love you guys," just before she sneezed right in my face. I think I have to forgive her, don't you?

Today all I have to show off is the last orange bit for this month:

It's the orange slab, quilted up into a new orange scrap basket!  And in the orange month, too, I want to point out. Yay me! I originally had the next picture at the top, but then I realized that a trick of perspective makes it look like the basket is as big as a car (it's not!):

Like the last basket, every bit of this piece is a scrap, including the batting and the binding.  I feel very virtuous about this, though it did not seem to make much of a dent in the scraps. But at least I now have somewhere cute to put them!

This one turned out a bit bigger than the last one, and I'm okay with that. They're improv, right? And the green one may have lost a bit of height because I messed it up a few times. The orange one went much, much more smoothly.And I love that I got to use a bunch of little pieces in the orange one.

I'm afraid that's it for my orange adventures, sadly. I spent a little time while I was outside taking pictures trying to get a photo of the bright orange foxes that live near our property, but they were shy and it was cold. Oh, well.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I'm looking forward to a new color and some more cold meds. My head is still pretty fuzzy.  And hey-- if you need a gift for a smallish person, try these Bugnoculars.  They were a huge hit with the short set. (No affiliations, just a happy grandma!)

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC2020

UPDATED TO ADD:  I've just learned that Paula B, who posted at the RSC often, has passed away. This is very sad, as she was a lovely, gentle person. If you would like, click over HERE and leave her family a message and read her obituary. She was more awesome than she let on. I will miss her.