Pink flowers and yellow blocks

 Hi everyone! I hope it's been a nice week where you are. We had a freeze a few days ago (!!) here in Maryland, but I have been too busy/ lazy to get any plants in yet so I was just cold, not traumatized. At least there was sunshine!

 

Continuing in my quest to keep on keeping on, I've made a few more things in the last couple of weeks. We're coming to the end of the semester, so 'just blocks' is okay with me right now. Take a look at the next step in the Angela Walters' Build a Quilt:

 

 

Check out those azaleas! Can you even see the block past those beauties? The bushes are really old and scraggly and every spring I think "I need to cut down those ugly bushes" and then they spite me by blooming really profusely. The deer have eaten them so only the tops bloom, so there are flowers kind of floating in mid-air on top of basically bare branches. Someday I will cut them down-- just before I move.

 

When I first showed the Build a Quilt blocks a couple of weeks ago one of my friends got a hold of me and told me she had gotten the Build a Quilt from last year, but she didn't like the fabric she chose so she never made it. Have you ever done this? Of course, you can't cancel, so she sent me the kits for all 10 blocks from last year. (Thanks El!)  I made the first three so far:

 

 

A little washed out in the sun, and not my favorite colors, but they look okay! I can at least get a charity quilt or something out of it. This is a better representation of the colors:

 

Not my favorite, but not bad! Like I said, probably a nice charity quilt. 

 

Just to end on something really pretty, I was out walking and took some pictures of the cool spring blooms and look what happened:

 

 

Serendipity! Truly one of the best pictures I've ever taken (except of my favorite people.) I never planned to get such a great picture, but sometimes things come together. These are apple blossoms on a tree down the street and I'm pretty sure I've never seen apples on it.

 

Everyone have a great week and a great weekend! I'm going to write a final exam today. Can you feel the excitement?

 

A small splash of sunshine

 Hello all! How is your day going? I'm just working through some stuff, trying to get some grades done and maybe find a few minutes to throw in some laundry. Long ago I read a column or something about the "eternal three--" kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry. No matter how much you work on them, they always need more work. That author was not wrong.

Thankfully, I also found a few minutes to make two lovely yellow blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge. I have a bunch of yellow, mostly in smaller pieces, but it worked out this time. Here are the blocks:

I definitely like them! I love yellow, but it can be such a difficult color to work with, especially when you are trying to showcase it. It's hard to get gradations, and a lot of yellow fabrics slip into orange or have a tint of green or something. I think I chose wisely enough for these blocks.

This block is called Golden Samovar (what a name!) and it came from one of my Judy Hopkins quilt books. I have the BlockBase software, but I find that books give more realistic cutting directions and sizes and you generally end up with a better block. The software can be helpful, but no one has updated it for how we sew today and often the cutting directions are not suited to piecing with modern methods. I think no one has updated them since hand piecing days, really.

This block is called Double Aster and just looking at it makes me happy. All that sunny yellow goodness just shining out! It's also a good illustration of what I mean about the difference between the block books and the software. See those light yellow hsts? You'd piece them from squares in some way, right? The book tells you what size squares to cut to get the hsts you need. The software has you cutting a square in half twice to get four halves of an hst. Also, if you look at the medium triangles that are pieced to a yellow triangle and then pieced to the larger dark yellow triangles, all of those triangles should obviously come from squares cut in half twice to make four pieces, right? The software has directions for cutting single triangles with various degrees of angle. Better to just look it up in the book!

I could go on about this all day, but I won't! Time to throw some laundry in and get some more grading going. Those essays won't read themselves! Enjoy these happy yellows, and I hope to see you again later this week. Maybe I'll have some clean shirts by then, too!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23

Peace and plenty of color

 Hi all! How has your week been? We have moved on from hot and dry to extremely hot and just about to storm like crazy. We broke temperature records four days in a row this week. Try to imagine college students in a classroom in a building built in the 1890s when it's 100 degrees outside. Zero fun, do not recommend.

I have a fun finsh to show off today, though-- I have finished the top of the Peace and Plenty quilt! Take a look and see if you think it's as gorgeous as I do:

Wow, that's a lot of color! This was one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for this year. We're finishing off with aqua for this year, and after I made those blocks it was only a short step to completing  the top. That idea of making a few blocks a month really works out!

Above are the aqua blocks by themselves. Aren't they pretty? Aqua is such a great color and I tried to choose one that was 'greener' and one that was 'bluer' and one I just liked. The truth is I love them all, of course. And that pink rose is a lovely contrast!

I love how this turned out, but I do recognize that all the colors kind of break up the pattern and the movement in the top. If all of the blocks were in one color there would be a lot more secondary patterns across the quilt top. There are plenty of secondary patterns in here, though, and all the color is definitely more fun. If you'd like to make some blocks yourself, the directions and cutting sizes are right HERE. I made my blocks in the 12-inch size.

I wasn't going to add a border, but I added the very colorful one just to finish off all those raw edges. Why not? It was all the perfect colors and finished everything off nicely. I think I have enough for the binding in that same fabric, too. My top finished at just about 66 by 78, a nice cozy size.

Now that this top is done I've started getting last year's projects ready to send out for quilting. I love long arming, but it would work so much better for me if I could load a quilt one day and stitch it over the next few days instead of having to get two quilts done in the space of less than 6 hours, including loading. It's time to admit I'm not going to do that and get these tops sent out so a real longarmer can finish them up.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I am going to try not to get too wet in the storms and I also have to take my main machine to the machine-fixer-people. I was stitching away happily and hit a pin, which broke the needle, which then fell into the machine. I couldn't get it out, and the timing is off now too, so time to call in the pros. Hope that never happens to you! I'll close with a picture of a volunteer coleus that sprung up in one of my pots. It's so pretty-- and it kind of goes with the quilt!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23 and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Firecracker reds

 Hello all! I am waving wildly, even if you can't see me. Welcome to mid-July! Yep, summer is going away super fast. A month from today we'll be ramping up for the fall semester. Yikes! I think I just had a moment of panic. Here's hoping it passes quickly, because I just don't have time for that right now.

What better color for a hot and wet July than red? As you may know, red is not my favorite color, and I haven't historically had a lot of red. But I do have some, and some of them are quite nice! Take a look at my four 9-inch blocks:

Okay, that is not the best picture. It's not entirely my fault-- the grass was too wet to lay the blocks out there. The stone patio was actually not wet, even though it looks it. Still, those reds really stand out, don't they?

Thankfully, I got some better pictures separately:

 

See? Cute reds. The red on the right is very old and I'm glad to see the last of it. And in my Judy Hopkins block book the block on the left is called Foxy Grandpa. Who could resist? 

And a closeup of the other two as well:

 

These red blocks were really easy and went together fast. I love the one on the right, with the red print. Such a great block. Jusy Hopkins calls it Christmas Star, but its historical name is Best of All.

Astonishingly, that's not the end of the reds! I also made two red 6-inch blocks for a separate project:

Or maybe I'll combine the two sizes of blocks! Not really sure at this point, just making blocks to make myself  happy. You know, it's the little things. (I swear that block on the left is made properly! It's just hanging weirdly on the flower pot.)

Finally for today, I never showed the green and light blue little blocks:

Last month I was very confused about the color, so I went with both pastel blue and lime green. If lime comes around again I'll sub in black or brown or something. Variety is good, right?

So that was a lot of blocks, but that's what I could manage after wrestling (literally) with some very active grandchildren. Where do they get all that energy? As my hubby always says, youth is wasted on the young. They eat like birds, too, so I really don't know where it comes from.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm working on my Positivity quilts while it rains. I think there's also laundry to do, but that can always wait, right? 

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Pink scrap energy

 Hi all! Welcome to the weekend. I don't know about you, but boy do I need this one. I'm exhausted from the bureaucracy and meetings, plus I'm trying to get a Big Important Thing done. It's a little much. I've been cheered, though, by some seriously strange weather we've had-- it was 66 degrees yesterday! No way it lasts, but it sure smelled nice outside!

 

You know what else is cheerful? Pretty pink blocks made from scraps! I did get a chance to make some scrappy things this week, in very short bursts. Here is the first block:

How could I resist making a pink star block with a heart in February? This is a block called Hearty by Corey Yoder and it was part of Fat Quarter Shop's Sewcialites sew along last year. You can still get the free pattern (and all the others) HERE.

I also made this block:

 

 

Can you tell I had breakfast on the balcony? This one came from one of my Judy Hopkins block books. I love those books, even after all this time. Very useful!

 

The Peace and Plenty blocks also got finished:

 

 

Check out those metallic stripes! The fabrics for these blocks were chosen entirely based on the size of the scrap. I didn't have a lot of pink scraps that were big enough to cut for the 12-inch blocks, but I think these were good choices.

Finally, thanks to everyone for your suggestions about what to do with the unused triangle in a square blocks. Here's what I chose to do with them:

These look like flowers, do they not? I appreciated all the suggestions for star blocks, and they would have made awesome stars, but the thought of all that cutting and piecing just made me tired. I just wanted to be done with them. Lynne suggested a one-block quilt, and Kathleen sent some layouts, and I kind of combined those ideas into these blocks. I put them together mostly as leaders and enders between the other pink blocks, so it really worked out.

I think I'll set these with some alternate blocks, made with these units:

Unbelievably, these are from the same quilt project, and I have dozens of them. There might be enough for 16-patches, but I'll probably end up making double 4-patches. And then they'll be used and out of my closet!

Okay, the rest of that pink scrap basket is getting cut up into crossed canoes blocks, and then it will be largely used up! That's coming next week, though, because for the rest of the weekend I'm going to read books and watch movies. Hope you are all doing something similar!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Blue scrap obsession

 Hi everyone, and welcome back to another exciting episode of "blue scrap obsession." I have had a very busy week, but for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about getting those blue scraps used up. Does that ever happen to you? I think I was just trying to distract myself from some very boring stuff I had to do. Now that the boring stuff is done, maybe I can work on another project. Maybe?

I'm happy to report that all that thinking about the blues also led to stitching up the blues, and believe it or not, most of those blues are used up! Here is the biggest thing I put together this week:

This is about 24 by 28, with 4 inch finished blocks. It was super-easy to put together and went fast. See those happy yellows? They came from the box of 2-inch squares. I think most of them were from when I cut some squares in the wrong size and I'm thrilled to get them used up in a quilt top. I didn't get a chance to quilt this, but I will at some point, maybe after I have another mini to do at the same time.

I also made these two 6-inch blocks:

I made these thinking that I would quilt them and bind them and use them as coasters. This could still happen! We'll see.

Finally, inspired by Julie's awesome crumb projects and Preeti's scrap vortex quilts, I stitched the remaining weird bits into two small scrap slabs:

No idea what will become of these, but they saved those little bits from the trash. 

After all that, here is all that I have left of the dark blue scraps:

 

Can you see me happy dancing? Honestly, I could have made a whole lap-sized quilt top just from that bin, and I almost wish I had. Whatever! I am so happy they are gone into some useful things, including starter blocks for two new quilts.

 

So now I'm done with blues! I still have a bunch of lighter and medium blues, but I think those will get used in a different RSC month, and here's hoping it isn't next month because I'm now incredibly tired of blue. Looking forward to a more joyful color next month.

Everyone have a good weekend! I believe it is a small person's birthday, and so we are headed for a birthday party. Looks like cake and ice cream is in my very near future!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Blocks in blues

 Hello quilty friends! How are things today? Today I finished my syllabi for the coming semester while I watched the temperature drop. It was nice and warm (for January) and now it's cold and more January-like again. Complete with rain and the possibility of snow. Yay?

This week, in between planning my classes, I made some progress on starting this year's RSC projects. As I said last week, I am going to clean out those danged bins this year if I have to sew all day and night to do it. To start, here are a few blocks from this week:

 

Aren't those pretty? I've decided to make a star quilt this year, and these are the first blocks. These are 9-inch blocks, so some of the pieces were very small, but they were all fun to make. And I got to use up this beautiful, long-saved bit of leftover fabric:

But wait, didn't I make a star quilt last year? Yep, but this one is different. I made a list of about 40 star and star-like blocks that look interesting to make, and every month I'll make a few of them in the color of the month. I have no layout yet, just a few ideas, but I think it will be fun and interesting to choose some blocks every month and see what I can come up with. Why make them all the same when I can make them all different?

Nine inch blocks, even 40 of them, won't use up very many scraps, so I'm also making these to use up the bigger pieces:

These are 12-inch blocks called Peace and Plenty, a classic block from the 1870s. The block itself has some neat secondary designs, depending on how long you look at it, but when you put the blocks all together without sashing they make even more fun patterns. I think the final quilt will be really interesting.

 

 

I made this block for a row quilt project in 2015 (!!!) and lucky for you, the tutorial for making it is right HERE. No hsts or qsts to make, and much, much faster than it looks. And don't they turn out cool? I think this quilt will finish at a nice size for a donation quilt once all is said and done. I'll aim for three blocks a month, but it all depends on the scraps. Pretty sure there won't be three in dark green as those scraps are almost gone (hurray for that!)

 

Sad to say that's as far as I got on those scraps. There are a bunch more in that bin, but the pieces are getting smaller and smaller. I may make a bunch of hsts with some of it, and maybe cut the rest into strings. We'll see how desperate I get. 

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone! January is the best month of the year to just stay inside, so I hope you make the best of it!

 

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Making blocky progress

Hi all! How is your week going? We are still hot and sticky, and expecting more rain. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As you read this, I'm probably in yet another meeting getting ready for the upcoming school year. I really like teaching, but I could really do without the meetings. Apparently, Zooming meetings was too productive, so we can't do it any more. But sitting in meetings does make for fun quilt idea sketching time!

In between meetings, I've made some progress on the two quilts that I'm currently working on, the Snail's Trail and the old and new quilt. First up, here are the last of the modern blocks for the old and new quilt:

Yay! Aren't they cute? As I said, these are the last of the "modern" blocks for this quilt. I have only eight of the more traditional blocks left to piece, and they are the ones I need to paper piece. I've printed the patterns and chosen the fabrics, so I'm looking forward to finishing these blocks really soon.  And many, many thanks to Preeti and Wendy, who sent me some of the fabric I was missing. It really makes a difference in the quilt!

So, there's the update on that quilt. The other quilt I'm working on is a scrap Snail's Trail quilt, trying to use up some of the many blues and beiges that I have. I've made about a dozen blocks:

Once you cut all the pieces, these blocks go together really easily. It's fairly mindless and soothing. My only issue in putting them together is variety-- I don't want to repeat the same fabrics in the same block. Sometimes it happens in spite of my best efforts. Really, though, that's the only problem with these. Well, that and the fact that they haven't used nearly as many scraps as you would think. I still have tons!

Last time I posted about these, I asked if anyone knew the math to make the blocks a bit bigger, since the original blocks would have finished at 8 inches. A very helpful reader named Ila emailed me a super-cool and very mathy diagram, and it worked! You can see the difference in block sizes above. The bigger blocks finish at a weird size, about 11-1/3 inches, but it doesn't matter because they are all connected to each other. Thanks so much, Ila!

So, two quilts, moving right along! Perhaps during the next meeting, I'll try to sketch out a layout for the old and new quilt. I haven't decided on one yet, and it would be a good thing to think about. And if anyone needs some fabric, be sure to check out Bernie's retirement sale right HERE. There are still many fun bargains left! 

 

I'll leave you with a photo from one of the flower pots. The heat and rain have been really great for the flowers and grass. Enjoy the rest of the week!

 

 

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

Color challenged

 Hello everyone! We are having some beautiful fall days right now, interrupted by furious bouts of banging and hammering. I'm happy for both! I have been outside every day, and it's been quite chilly when I go out walking in the morning. Why does 55 degrees feel so great in April and so bad in October? 

Today I have the September and October blocks that I've been doing for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen. This has been a fun project for me during this crazy stressful year. I don't usually go for blocks with big pieces, but they have saved some of my sanity and given me a nice distraction. Here's September and October:

 

Hey, look at that, they're all the same size! And the right size, too. At least one thing this year is going right. 

My big challenge with these blocks was the colors, though September also gave me a challenge with the layout of the block. September's color was cinnamon, and this warm brownish batik is as close as I got:

I think it looks cinnamon-y enough, and coordinates well with the leaves that have started to fall, too. Jen's block had only four flying geese with large plain sections, and I just couldn't do that. I kept the flying geese but added some others to make Dutchman's Puzzle blocks. I like them! They fit my style a bit better.

October's blocks are olive, which is yet another color I don't have. (Amazingly, I have a bunch of next month's color, which is buff.) I knew going in that I didn't have olive, but I figured I would just substitute another green, so I did:

 

This is a dusty-ish green, and I really like how these blocks turned out. Those of you with eagle eyes will notice that I re-drafted the block and pieced it a little differently so that I would have solid pieces in the middle. When I first saw the block all I could see was the cool diamond design in the middle, and I really liked that and wanted to be sure it was emphasized. Plus, at this point, who could be sure that all of my pieces would actually meet in the center?

So, there's those blocks! I do love blocks, you know. And somehow I am all caught up on this project. How does *that* happen? I couldn't tell you, but I'm enjoying it for now!

Hope everyone is having a good week, in spite of the upheaval in our country right now. It's too much to even think about, and doing so just makes me tired, so here is an artsy picture instead of a comment:

 

Everyone stay healthy! And sane, too!

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

A fresh start in coral

Hi everyone!  I hope you're having a good week!  I am super-duper busy because I don't know if you've noticed, but it's about to be May.  May! We are racing toward the end of the semester and it's just getting away from me.  So many things to finish, so little time!

The only logical response to all of this is to start a new quilt, right? Over the last few days I started making the blocks for my quilt inspired by the Pantone Quilt Challenge.  Here is the first of my blocks:

It's a little more yellow than anticipated, but otherwise I like it! And look-- I planted some geraniums and petunias out on the deck.  This is very exciting!  The weather has been fairly decent so far this week and I've been enjoying some time out there.

I made a couple of changes in the fabrics for this quilt.  First, I switched out the Kona Butter that I had originally chosen as a background for one that has a very subtle crosshatched print.  Butter is a beautiful color, but I think pairing solids with prints just makes the solids look really flat, which was certainly the case here.  I also added in that really pretty apple green in the center.  It really needed a little zip to add something to the aqua and yellow. 

I've made this block before (you can find it HERE) and so of course now I'm second-guessing myself.  In that previous block, I used a red center which coordinated with the red hsts and geese, so that it looked more like a star.  Here I used the background for the center, which gives it a more open, lacy look.  I like it, but I'm wondering if I wouldn't like a bit more of the coral in the quilt.  Any opinions?

I went a little crazy and cut out enough pieces for 20 blocks, so those are ready to stitch up, though so far I've only made up these four so far.  I think these blocks are just screaming for a pieced sashing and maybe even a pieced border, too.  I don't have any fancy software, so I'll be pulling out the graph paper.  I'm thinking a square in a square has to be in there somewhere, with plenty of the aqua. 

So there's a start to a new project! New projects are so much fun, aren't they?  So much better than those ones hibernating in the closet.  I'm pretty sure I hear one of those calling me, though, so I'd better go see what that's about.  Hope the rest of your week goes well!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.