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?

 

Bit of this, bit of that

Hi everyone! Apparently the trees have gotten the message that it's now fall because the leaves have started falling around here. Or maybe it was the fact that it was 95 degrees here on the first day of fall, I don't know. I do know this: it rains a whole lot less here than it did in Delaware, which is odd because it's not that far away. Huh.

So, it's been hot and dry, which is okay and makes having the sewing room in the basement pretty comfortable. I'm making progress on getting things put away and cleaned up, but I still need to get a cutting table and a wastebasket.  Somehow my wastebasket got lost in the move.  How crazy is that? I've been basting some small quilts and just generally still getting organized, so I've been working on a couple of small things in between over the last few days.

Here's my first little project:

Yes, this is a new thing, because why not? A while ago I made a little bitty free-pieced word quilt called Joy, and now I'm making a small free-pieced word quilt to go with it to hang in my office.  Can you guess what this word is? I'm not that happy with the Ns, but I'll probably leave them since I know I'll be cursing over the dreaded S letters. Kindness indeed!

I also dipped into those pesky purple scraps and made a couple of Tiny Tuesday blocks, but I'm really looking for a way to use up this scrap:

This is a years-old piece of leftover strip set, and I just can't bring myself to toss it.  I have this weird thing about it, but I really would like to use it up, maybe in a tiny block. Any suggestions out there?

Finally, I've been finishing up the gray 4 patches for my nephew's quilt:

I have about 30 more of these to make (because the pattern calls for something like a billion of them) and I've used up a LOT of the gray scraps I had. The only ones I left out were the flowers, and I don't think I'll need to sneak those in at all. Just have to add here that 4-patches are boring to make, and gray 4-patches are doubly so.  The quilt is going to look great, but getting there is not half the fun on this one!

So that's the dispatch from my sewing room for now.  I do have some things basted and I'm looking forward to getting a couple of them finished up really soon.  And the search for a cutting table goes on! Hope you're all having a good week!

Four patch frenzy

Hi all! How's your life been? We've had quite the time around here. Let's start with this-- I am allergic to cats. So if, theoretically, I moved into a house with carpets and window treatments and such and a cat had lived there before me, my sinuses would swell up and I would have a big headache until I either moved out or employed someone with big industrial rug-sucking machines to clean the place.  And of course ripped out all of the offending window treatments, washed down the walls, and used the big sucking machines on all the nooks and crannies, too.  So when a neighbor mentioned the cat that used to live here, it solved a couple of mysteries and caused some trouble, but at least I'm feeling better now.

And how have you been?

Now that I can breathe again, I've started working in earnest on the quilt for my nephew. If you recall, he wanted orange, and I've been working on making four patches for Kevin the Quilter's mystery scrap quilt. It's turning out pretty well, even though there are a ton of four-patches to be made. Here's how far I am:

Okay, that doesn't look like much, but there are tons of four-patches waiting in the wings. I decided to make the center from two patches so that I could get more variety in the center, which is a pretty solid block of orange. I just don't want to have the same fabrics next to each other. Is that weird?

Of course, I did not have this many oranges in the stash.  I used most of the orange scraps I had, plus I purchased some orange fat quarters to cut up. I thought there was plenty of variety, but you know that you can always use more.  I get bored with stitching the same fabrics over and over, and a little stressed about making sure that there aren't too many that are the same. I'm not done with all the four patches in orange yet, so I think I might get a few more pieces just for a little more variation in the four patches. I think it might need some lighter oranges, just for a little zing. A few brights never hurt!

This is a two-color quilt, and I chose to use gray with the orange, because, you know, Joe is a guy and I wanted it to look masculine but not Halloween-ish:

I think the gray is going to work!  As you know if you have read this blog at all, I am not a big fan of gray and I generally don't have very much of it around. I used every single piece I could find, plus I bought some fat quarters, and I was able to eke out all of the gray that I needed. I *may* have cut one strip from a piece of yardage, but you can't fault me for that, can you? And I used up a lot of gray that was never going to get used in anything else, so that's a win, too.

I actually liked working with the grays a little better than the oranges. They're a little easier on the eyes, and for some reason I didn't care quite as much about how the different fabrics went together.  (I wonder what that says about me?) The grays don't photograph nearly as well, though!

So, now that our new place is cat-allergen free, I am back to it. The sewing room is not yet all together, but all the fabric is out of boxes (again), I've wiped down all the shelves and washed a few things, and I've gotten the books arranged.  And I found the walking foot, too, so maybe there will be a fun finish later this week.  We can hope, right?

This last photo is from the window in my office. By far the best view I've ever had. Usually I'm looking at some kind of building they put up in the 1970s, but all the offices in our "pod" have these huge, tall windows. It's great, and I'm happy to be looking at trees instead. Allergic to those, too, but at least they stay outside!

Hope you're all having a good, allergy-free week and getting some stitching in. And if you're selling your house, be sure to tell people about your pets! Or at least spring for some rug sucking when you move out!

Serendipity

Hi everyone!  How was your week?  Is anyone else having really strange weather?  It's been in the 60s here and yesterday it rained like crazy.  It was like a semi-pleasant, soggy, spring day.  It is still December, isn't it?  Just making sure I didn't somehow skip a whole season while I was in the library.

So, this week I didn't have a lot of time to sew because I was grading exams and doing other end-of-semester work.  But I did finally finish and then actually sewed up this lovely thing:

Isn't she a cutie?  Because of yesterday's rain, and the aforementioned job duties, I had to wait until today to get some pictures.  It was still super-wet out, though, so if you see dark spots, it's not dirty, it just got a little damp.

Amazingly, there are three shades of gray in this quilt.  I would never have guessed I would ever make a quilt that was mostly gray.  It was a challenge, but I think I conquered it.  I was afraid it would be too dark and drab, so I included the lighter gray cornerstones.  I tried multicolored ones, but they looked bad. You wouldn't think they would, but they did.I think altogether the grays make the blocks really stand out.

If you remember, these are the 12 inch blocks from the Classic Stitches tutorials and are all scraps.  I didn't start out thinking that I'd make another quilt from those blocks, but it just kind of happened, so I'm calling this quilt Serendipity--a happy accident.

Serendipity is probably my last finish for 2015.  I don't know about you, but this has been a tough few months for me, and right now I'm exhausted.  Plus, we are travelling for Christmas!  We are heading back to Wisconsin and I can't wait.  We will be staying with our son and are hoping for snow.  I don't think that will happen, but it's nice to think about!

Now that two of my RSC15 quilts are done, next week I will post my plan for a new quilt for RSC16.  In case you don't get a chance to stop by, though, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, some time with your families, and some rest.  And if you want it, maybe some time to stitch a few seams, too.

I have to go pack!  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sharing at  Confessions of a Fabric Addict,  Finish it up Friday. and soscrappy for RSC15.

Finals week!

Hi everyone!  Yes, it is finals week here at the Academic Quilter.  I even have a final to give today (Saturday)! This means tons of paper instead of tons of fabric!  Not to worry, though--it will all be over soon. And then there are many fun things in store towards the end of the month.

For a low-stress project for this week, I've been working on getting these blocks in order:

These are the 12-inch blocks I made as samples for the Classic Stitches tutorials. I didn't intend to make them when I started out, but they just kind of happened as a part of the tutorials.  So now I'm putting them together into a throw quilt, because who needs a dozen blocks just laying around?  They already look good together, so why not?

I got this fabric to use as a background for the blocks:

Yes, it's gray!  I never buy gray, but I have to tell you that the manufacturers are coming out with some pretty nice grays now.  This is a dark gray from the Good Neighbors line by Amanda Jean of crazy mom quilts.  Isn't it great?  This fabric feels so good.  I liked the print so much that I also got some in orange, plus I may have purchased a few other pieces too.  Hey, a girl's gotta have some pretty things!

I decided to frame the blocks with this light gray polka dot.  I was going to use white, but that was very stark.  The two grays also make the blocks really stand out.  The frames will finish at only 1 inch wide, but I think they add a nice touch.

After I took this picture I started second-guessing myself.  Is the gray frame too light?  I can't decide.

Since the RSC was only 11 months, I also had to add another block to make an even 12. (I like symmetry.)  I chose this orphan Wedding Ring block:

It's all solids, but they were scraps, and I figure that an orphan block is scrappy by definition, so into the quilt it goes.  Why not?

Lots more to come on this quilt, but for now I have some student papers to read. I'll keep working on this off and on between grading sessions, and maybe I'll have something fun by the end of the week.  Plus I have done no Christmas shopping yet!  Ahhh!

Wishing you some stress-free sewing!  When your college student gets home, give them a hug, because I know for sure some of those tests were hard!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC15 and Oh Scrap! on Sunday. Happy sewing!

The elephant in the room

Hi all!  Hope everyone has had a great week and been very, very productive. I had a fairly good week, but didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to, in sewing or other things. I blame this:

Notice the sunshine! And the extra-deep snowdrifts!

Pretty! But a pain in the butt to shovel and drive through. And very cold! It was -2 degrees when I took today's pictures. Thankfully, we are just having a normal Wisconsin winter. Our daughter in Maine had 70 inches in 10 days, which is enough to make anyone think twice about leaving the house.

Anyway, I did finish a few things sewing-wise. Mostly I worked on cleaning and sorting in the sewing room (more on that later) and making this guy:

An elephant! Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts is having a quilt-along with her pattern Elephant Parade. It is a very cute pattern and she's basically giving it away as a part of the quilt-along, in that all the cutting and sewing instructions are given on the blog. I wasn't going to make it, I really, really wasn't, but I thought I'd make just one elephant. You know what happened next:

I made him a bunch of friends! I guess I am making an Elephant Parade quilt. Or at least some more elephants. Because after I made these, I thought "who says that elephants have to be gray?" So. . .

Yep, a pink elephant! I'm sure she'll make it into the quilt somewhere. I'm also thinking a polka dot elephant would be darned cute. Maybe a polka dot baby elephant? We'll see!

Anyway, that was what I actually finished this week! Hope you got a lot more done than that. Everyone have a great weekend! I'm hoping to sew and move my fabric into the newly finished closet.

One more thing to mention--if you look at the sidebar, there's an ad for my good friend Leanne's custom embroidery business, The Sewcial Life. You should definitely check it out! She does beautiful work at very reasonable prices, and she made me some fantastic quilt labels. I'll bet she would do the same for you!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Amanda Jean at crazy mom quilts. Stop by and wave!