The best-laid plans

 Hi everyone! Here we are at the last weekend in July. How is that even possible? This was a very productive week for us here at the AQ household. Last weekend we decided to take down the enormous mirror that took up an entire wall in our bathroom. Seriously, it was about 8 feet by 6 feet. Huge! If you've ever wanted to watch yourself shower, this was the mirror for you! We managed to get it down, in many, many pieces, only to discover that there really wasn't a wall behind it. They had put the mirror over some plywood and the very old built-in medicine cabinets.

Those of you who have done home improvements know where I'm going with this. One thing lead to another, and now we have completely re-done the bathroom. Yeah, we had a "good" time with wallboard and new lights, and new mirrors and rugs, and a shower surround, and everything else. I wish I could say that it was fun, but at least it's now over. It took forever!

All of this is leading up to this week's small finish, which I had planned to quilt this week, but did not get a chance to, what with all the scraping and sanding and whatnot. Here is my project:

 

Ah, it's luminous, is it not? I love these colors individually, and together they look even better! I started this project quite a while ago, and intended to make a full quilt from it, so I had plenty of fabric for the small borders. After it's quilted, I'll use the green that's in those little squares for the binding. I think that will be just right and really make the whole piece.

 

 

I did intend for this to be a full-size quilt, but, alas, it was not to be. The project went into a box when we moved, and it's only now come out. I still had dreams of a nice lap-sized quilt, but it was either make a smaller project, or keep it in the box. I made the (really hard) decision to make it into this small table topper or wall hanging instead of shutting it up in the box again. I've done a lot of repurposing this year, and I don't regret any of it, even though giving up on the bigger quilt was really difficult in this case.

 

 

I love this whole thing-- the blocks, the sashing, the colors, the fabrics-- and now at least I'll get to look at it every day, even if it isn't a full-size quilt. If you want to make the block yourself, the instructions are HERE. (It doesn't look like the same block, but it is! Color placement is everything.) I wish there was a pattern for the sashing, but I just made that up myself. You could try a piece from a Storm at Sea block, though, to get the same effect.

But I do regret not getting to quilt this piece this week! I really should have known better-- a mirror that size had to be covering up something. I do plan to quilt this little topper really soon, and I already have a quilting plan all drawn out, which is really unlike me. It might not be a big quilt, but it certainly will be a pretty one!

Hope you all have a really good weekend as we move into August. (August!) I know for sure we're not doing any home improvements this weekend because my niece will be here, and we will be showing her and her hubby all of the wonders of Baltimore. It should be fun! 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, and Finished or Not Friday.

Blocks and flowers

Hello from the very warm East coast! I know it's July, and I know it's warmer in other places, but holy cow it's been warm here. I've been getting some things done in the house in order to stay out of the heat, like cleaning the kitchen cabinets, and ordering wallpaper for the hallway, and hanging up some more photos. Oh, and I did some sewing, too. A lot of it was boring stuff, like hemming pants and taking in a dress, but I did manage to move a couple of projects along. It always feels good to do that, doesn't it?

The main thing I've stitched away on was the old and new quilt. Here are some more blocks:

 

 

Sorry, I just love the flowers and had to get them into the picture! I do love samplers. Every block is a new challenge, and it's hard to get really bored because they're all different. These blocks will finish at six inches square, and are a mixture of modern blocks and traditional blocks from the many block books that I own. Eventually there will be at least 48 blocks, half modern and half traditional, and I'm nearly finished with the modern ones, as you can see:

 

 

I love these colors all together and I think it's going to be a really cool quilt. I have no idea what the layout will be, but it will be interesting to figure out! 

Other than the clothes I altered, which no one wants to see (really), I also made myself a small treat:

 

I think the context with my messy desk there tells you that this is a bulletin board! I spared you most of the mess by cropping out the teetering pile of paper on the side there, but this is my new "home office." I taught classes from this bedroom for a year, and now I've decided to keep it as a home workspace, though I sincerely pray that I'll never have to teach from here again. If I'm going to work here, it might as well be nice, right? I covered a piece of foam board with quilt batting, then covered that with a pretty but non-distracting piece of fabric. This is a piece of Spring Brook by Corey Yoder. I also got some of the yellows, but why use them on the wall?

 

I hope all of you are doing well and not melting or anything else in the weather extremes. I have a binding to put on a finished quilt, but I just can't bring myself to do it! Before I finish up, you all know that my friend Bernie is retiring and closing up her online fabric shop. She's now marked things down even more, so hop over and see if there isn't a treasure there that you can't live without. I'll bet you can!

 

 

Sharing at Midweek Makers. 

Piecing a sashing

Hi all!  Well, it's still hot and sticky and rainy, our house still hasn't sold, and I'm still stressed.  We have a moving date, though, so maybe things are looking up!  I'm meeting with my new colleagues this week and making good progress on getting ready for this fall, plus I've packed up most of the kitchen, so it's takeout city around here-- my favorite thing!

Over the last few days I was trying to figure out the sashing and cornerstones for my coral quilt.  If you recall, I am making these blocks for a quilt, and I got the idea from the Pantone quilt challenge from Bryan House Quilts and no hats in the house. I know, I missed the challenge deadline, but that was not my motivation anyway, especially once I made a few blocks.  After several tries, here's what I came up with for the sashing:

What do you think?  It took a little while but I think I finally hit on the right thing for this quilt.  I love these blocks and I really wanted a pieced sashing that would complement the blocks without taking away from them.  The cornerstones will be the coral square in a square pieces. 

To make these sashing pieces, I started out by drawing them out, intending to paper piece them.  That worked okay, but I did eventually just cut the pattern up and use it as a template instead.  It worked out better for me that way.

When I drew out the sashing, I forgot that I would need to put the pieces under the paper before stitching to make it work.  The way it was drawn wouldn't allow for that,  which is why I'm not a paper piecing designer.  But it worked great as a template!

I'm thinking of putting some of the green in a pieced border, though I haven't sketched any of that out yet.  I definitely think it's going to need a pieced border, though.  Maybe with some flying geese?  Or maybe the green should be the binding?  Hmmm. . .

Anyway, that was a kind of a nice exercise for me, and now the quilt is all designed, so it's time to finish making those blocks.  I'm still having to do this in short bursts, so maybe one or two at a time will work out.  I'll definitely finish this quilt this fall (she said!  We know that's a long shot, right?)

Hope everyone is having a good week!  People keep trooping through the house, and one of them is bound to buy it, right?

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.

Fresh block piecing

Hi everyone, and happy summer! How are things going for you?  Our housing saga continues. We thought we had found a house but it did not work out.  The search goes on.  We're coming up to a deadline, though, and it's a hard deadline, because we have to move before school starts, so we will find something else this week.  Somehow it seems harder to move now than it did to move across the country.  And real estate, which is weird to begin with, is really weird here. Lots of odd rules to get used to.

In spite of the drama around here, this past week I actually managed to sew some blocks! It's been an experience with my stitching stuff stashed everywhere and needing to be put away the second I'm done with it, but I finally figured out that I could fit in a few minutes of cutting without too much mess, and then stitch up what I had cut when I had a few minutes longer.  It worked!  Here are the blocks I made the past few days:

Oh, gosh, those make my heart happy! These are 6-inch blocks for my old and new sampler quilt.  It happens that these are all blocks from Tula Pink's sampler book.  I decided to work through those before I tackle the more traditional blocks.  If you recall, for this sampler I'm making 48 blocks that each finish at 6 inches.  Half are the more modern blocks from Tula Pink, and the other half are traditional blocks, many with lots of pieces.  The Tula blocks have fewer pieces and are much simpler to put together, which certainly suits my life right now.

I cut these blocks in some quick moments and stored them in sandwich bags until I could stitch them.  Here's a tip-- be sure to label your sandwich bags! I spent way too much time trying to remember which cut pieces went with each block.  By the way, don't those flowers look great?  They are a spot of sunshine for me.  I only planted pots this year so I could take them with me when we leave.  ~Sigh~ I really do love flowers.

Anyway, I now have 17 of the 48 blocks finished:

I love them all!  It's kind of funny to see how alike they are, and yet so different.  When the whole thing is together I don't know if it will be really apparent which blocks are Tula blocks and which are more traditional. Or maybe it will be super easy-- we'll see! Stay tuned!

Hope you all are having a good week.  Last week, in addition to house drama, I had a part of the orientation for my new job and got the keys to my new office.  This week I'll be moving books and such into the new place and trying to get things set up.  This is very exciting! I really can't wait to get to work in the new place.  Not really looking forward to moving all those boxes, but it kind of goes with the territory.  Keep your fingers crossed that it goes well!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.

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.

Old meets new

Hi everyone! I hope you have begun to thaw out from the major storm that hit most of the US this past weekend.  Amazingly, we did not get snow, just lots of rain followed by rapidly falling temps.  The high on Sunday was 48, with a low of 16.  It was crazy!

Since we couldn't really go anywhere or do anything, and I didn't want to work on a paper, I spent two days in the sewing room and got a lot accomplished while the hubs was in the other room screaming about sports.  Something about pass interference.  Anyway, I went through the UFOs and discovered that I only have eight that need some piecing work.  I tossed one and repurposed the fabrics set aside for it, and made an actual paper list of the others.  We'll see if that helps get them done.

After that, I felt so virtuous that I went ahead and started another project!  Hey, I also worked some on a UFO, which should be done soon, so I felt entitled. Here are the first three blocks for that new project:

I guess I officially have another work in progress!  These blocks use some of the coral fabrics I pulled last week, and a few other fabrics, too:

I decided to go ahead and add some olive-y greens and some happy yellows to the corals, and then threw in a few aquas for a little zing.  Some of these are small scrap pieces, but mostly these are fat quarters and half yards.  More than enough for the blocks I am making.

When I was making those two mug rugs for my sister's birthday, I was looking through the Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks book and really liking some of the blocks in there.  Since all of those blocks finish at six inches, I decided to combine the old with the new and make a sampler using half modern Tula Pink blocks and half older traditional blocks.  It happens that I made a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler before I started blogging, and I still have the book, and all those blocks finish at six inches, so that was an easy way to pick out some traditional six inch blocks.  I think the "old" and "new" blocks will blend together just fine.

I've chosen 48 blocks for a sampler quilt that should end up a nice lap size.  I have no time line for this, but it should make a nice project to work on when I feel like it.  You know I chose traditional blocks with lots of little pieces, right?  Should keep me busy for a bit.

Finally, in the spirit of "old meets new," last night our daughter safely delivered a baby girl, so we are grandparents again! Just as thrilling as the first time.  Of course, she is absolutely beautiful and I can already tell that she is very smart, just like her mom and dad.  Lots of baby snuggles in my very near future!

Hope everyone is having as great a week as I am, and that you're staying warm!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.

Needing some spring

Hi everyone! How is your week going?  We had a small snowstorm last weekend, which gave many students a bad excuse for missing the first day of classes.  I can't really blame them-- because who likes trudging through melty, gross snow?-- but really, they live a block away in the dorms.  It's not that hard!

I don't know about you, but as soon as the holidays are over I'm ready for spring.  Snow is great in December, but not so lovely in January.  Since I can't do anything about the weather, I've pulled out an unfinished project that uses pretty spring-like fabrics:

Yeah, the springy colors look a little odd against the snow, but don't they look happy?  This is the last block I had to make to finish off the Community Sampler, which was a summer project from Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell.  I have no real idea why I didn't finish this, except that I hit that wall where you have only a little bit left to do but it just seems impossible.  Does that ever happen to anyone else?

So, I've been working on the sampler, which is actually all cut out, so I have high hopes of finishing the top soon, plus I've been adding to these:

Yes, the blocks are in the snow, which is why everything looks a little blue. These are blocks for a quilt like Bonnie Hunter's Tulip Fields quilt.  My blocks are much bigger than hers, though, because I made these string blocks as an RSC project a couple of years ago and I wanted to use them up.  And yes, I cut mine across the strings instead of down the middle and I'm not sorry at all.  My quilt won't be exactly the same, but it will be equally cheerful and spring-like!

 That's pretty much all I've been working on since it's been a pretty busy week so far, but I do have a question.  I have a bunch of fabrics that I would call corals.  You know what I mean by coral-- not red, not orange, not pink:

I have a project in mind to use these fabrics, but I'm not sure what colors to put with them.  What colors would you use?  I'm thinking green, but maybe yellow as well, like in that small print piece?  Or would you stick with the cooler side and add in some blues?  I really don't know, but I do want to get started on the project. (Because I have no others to work on, don't you know.)

Thanks for any help you have to offer with those colors.  I hope you're all having a good week, and that you're not facing down another snow event. There haven't been many for us this year, but I'm already done with it!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.