Still brown, but bright

 Hello all! How was your week? We had a decent week here. The weather has been more like spring than winter, though you can see from the pictures that we still have that winter landscape. I am really starting to long for spring, even though we have not had a very harsh winter. We're starting to get longer days, though, and the extra light is making me happy. I am looking forward to some serious sunshine not so long from now.

And in this still-brown winter landscape I have a very green quilt to show off! It's a bright spot, that's for sure. Take a look:

Is that not bright and happy? And scrappy as all get out, too.

I made this quilt last year during the purple month for the rainbow scrap challenge at Angela's blog. Just about every bit of it, including the backing, is a leftover or a scrap. I started out with the plan to use up all those leftover purple 4-patches. Long ago, I started to make Bonnie Hunter's En Provence pattern and instead ended up finishing it (much later) as THIS quilt. But it's the quilt project that keeps on giving, because this is the fourth quilt that has used up the pieces that I made for that quilt. Gosh I hope all those pieces are gone now!

If you notice, the green in the current quilt is the leftovers from the backing of the main quilt. I had to stitch some bits together to get it all to work, but it did work! I love this green and I think it works so well with those purple 4 patches. The backing is the final pieces of backings left over from other projects. I did cut the binding from a half yard I had, mainly because I was feeling too lazy to piece one together from scraps. Ah, well.

This was quilted in a nice swoopy design by Alycia, who did a great job, as always. It just ties all those weird bits together in a really nice way. Her blog is really interesting, too.

See that blue tarp on my neighbor's roof? A tree fell on it and there is a ton of damage, as you can tell from the size of the tarp.

So that's my bright spot in a brown, dreary February! I love how this turned out and am happy to have used up those purple 4-patches at long last. Now I can stop feeling guilty about them! That's as good a reason as I've ever heard for making a quilt.

Hope everyone has a lovely, relaxing weekend. I hope I do, too! I'll be packing up stuff and moving furniture so that we can finally have the floors repaired after the roof leak in December. I can't wait!

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

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?)

Positively green

 Hello all! Bet you thought I forgot about the blog, didn't you? I didn't, but I did have quite the week. I am getting a little tired of the rain, but we had a good bit of it this week, and it was very hot, and I still had to go out and have some more fun medical tests. I think I passed, because I don't have to go back until the end of September, but who can really tell at this point? Also, I am walking out on the next doctor who says, "you know, you're getting older. . ." as though that's an excuse to ignore how I feel.

Yikes! Did not mean to rant! Today is a day for positivity, after all, because I have finished the green quilt top for the Positivity quilt along offered by our friends Preeti and Bernie! Take a look:

Yes, that is very green! And, as you can tell, I did not follow the pattern offered by Preeti exactly. I made one row with just the leaves, but it looked so bland that I had to add some zing. As you can see, I added pots for the leaves to grow out of. I think they added just enough zing and some nice depth, too.

The leaves of these plants were made from neutral scraps, which paired well with the green background. All those neutrals were hard to photograph in the outside light, but I promise that there is a nice variety. And do you like my "tree farm" on the balcony? They'll have to get planted in the ground soon, because those pots are not going to hold them for much longer.

The quilt was easy to make, and mine turned out a little smaller than Preeti's, at about 55 by 68. I think this size will still work for a Mercy quilt, and I do think someone will really like this one. The green is one of the tonals from Connecting Threads, and I got it a while ago for a backing. It turned out to be much too bright for the quilt I bought it for, but it worked well as a background here. I have a backing for this and I plan to quilt it in a nice crosshatch. What can I say? It always works and always looks good.

Oooh! Accidentally artsy!

So there is one quilt top finished! The second one is still in progress, but I had to put it aside for a while while I finished off the wedding quilt top that I've been working on. That quilt will be a bit late, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Hope you all are having a great weekend, and if you want to, you can still jump in on the quilt along. Just hop over to Preeti's blog and check out all the details!

 

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique, and the Positivity linkup at Needle and Foot.

Puzzle on the front, party on the back

 Hi all! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. Ours was good, but every time we tried to go outside for a while it rained. And so we went inside, and the sun came out. And of course that meant we went back out, and that meant a short but loud thunderstorm. It was a wild weather weekend, and very warm. But it's July, so you have to expect that, really.

Have you ever had a quilt that you wanted to name "This Took Forever?" That is the quilt I'm showing today, though it does include a fun surprise. Have a look:

Almost all green, finished, quilted, and bound! Hurray! I started calling this the puzzle quilt, which is way better than what I had called it before ("stupid green thing" just doesn't have a good ring to it) and I'm so happy it's all done, even if it took a whole year. Things have to marinate, you know? 

Is the surprise that I finished it almost exactly a year after it was pieced? Nope, it's this:

Definitely a party on the back! I couldn't resist these fun sunflowers. They're a nice contrast to all the dark greens, plus they give it a nice shot of color. And you can use it as a mood indicator, too-- sunflowers up means "let's chat," while green side up means "leave me alone." It's a multi-talented quilt!

If you recall, I made this quilt from a picture in a quilting magazine I saw in the library, using every bit of dark green I could come up with, plus a few blues and blacks thrown in for variation. It just about cleaned out that scrap bin, which is all I can ask for from a scrap quilt. 

 

 

What about "this took forever?" Well, I decided not to take it to the quilt shop and use a panto on the rented longarm and instead used a walking foot to follow all the zigzags in the quilt. It took forever, and was seriously boring, but it worked! The border is a set of straight lines, which also was boring but it got the job done.

I used a dark olive thread on the green parts, which blended with almost everything, and white on the text print parts, and then bound it in yet another dark green. The backing thread is a muslin color-- I think Aurifil actually calls it 'muslin'-- and it blended okay. I wish I'd used one shade darker, but what's done is done. I'm happy enough with it.

So there we are-- another finished quilt! I think I may send this to Quilty Hugs. Can't you see someone being cheered by this? And the 'mood' part could come in handy, too. Here's one last picture, with the tree that is about to come down. It's old and hollow, and it might fall any time, so time for it to go:

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are seeing the grandchildren this weekend! Hurray! Gee, you have one little life-threatening incident and suddenly everyone wants to show up. . .but I'll definitely take it!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique, and Oh Scrap!

Hot and smoky

 Hi everyone, from my safe perch inside and away from the smoky air outside. Yes, it has rolled in again, though not as bad as last time around. While I like barbeque that is hot and smoky, I can't say I care for it in the air. Canadian friends who are feeling the brunt of the wildfires, I really feel your pain! I hope those fires are under control soon.

 

So here we are at the first of July, and I already have some red blocks to show off. Warning, I took all of these pictures just as it started to rain, so the colors are a bit off. The haze and smoke did not help, either, though these pretty blocks shine right through:

 

 

Yes, the red Peace and Plenty blocks. And look at those great red fabrics! I have no idea where those prints came from. I'm guessing they were something I got in a fat quarter sale somewhere, but they look great in these blocks. I don't have much red, but these are making me happy!

I also finished off June by making these fun lime green blocks:

And then, just because the blue basket was right there, I also made three light blue blocks:

 

You can see that I ran out of time and it had definitely started to rain by the time I got the blue blocks out. Those are raindrops on the blocks, not dirt! Plus, light blue is always hard to photograph, but I think you can see them okay against the grass.

Because it's the start of July and we're now more than halfway through the year, I also pulled out all the Peace and Plenty blocks and laid them out:

Somehow I have ended up with 24 blocks, but this is going to be a spectacular quilt. I only count yellow and aqua after this in terms of colors, but I must be missing one. Any thoughts?

And there we are! A good finish to June and a nice start to July. You can get the pattern and cutting directions for these blocks right HERE, if you're inclined to make a few. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend with breathable air, and a very nice holiday on the 4th. And happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the north, too!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23

Positive progress

 Hi all! How are things going for you? I'm just hanging out, watching it rain and getting over that stupid embolism. I am feeling MUCH better, plus I'm glad to see the rain, even though it's been going on for a while now. Unbelievably, we still haven't made up for all the rain we didn't get for weeks, and we're still way below average for the year. It hardly seems possible given the amount of water that has fallen from the sky over the last week.

While I'm lazing around, I'm working on several projects, including this year's Positivity quilts, but first, here's one that I just recently started:

This is the very beginning of what will be a gift for the wedding of a friend and colleague. I love this center part because it's so hard to get gradations in yellows. I'm very proud of myself for this! It's not a hard pattern, so I'm hoping to have all the blocks made this week, so that I can get a longarm rental appointment and get this quilted up and sent off in time for the wedding at the end of July.

Then I have the two Positivity quilts. First are some of the blocks that have the green background:

I just love how these have turned out. You know how sometimes you get an idea in your head and you're not sure how it will work out? That's how I felt about these, but they are turning out okay.

And then I have the fall-themed Positivity quilt:

I have a bunch more of these blocks in pieces, but not together yet. The scrap thing is working out pretty well, though. I'm liking the half-drop in this layout, too, so that might make its way into the finished quilt.

So that's what I'm up to, other than re-doing some travel plans. I can't fly for a while, so it looks like we'll be driving to various places around the country. Not California, though! Still too far for me to drive. Hope things are going well for you. We're expecting more smoke from wildfires, so that will be fun, won't it? I understand it was quite smoky in the Midwest over the last few days, so believe me, we feel your pain. Ick.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Sharing at Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss.

Starry, starry haze

 Hi everyone, and happy smoky Friday! If you are on the East coast, you probably know what I mean. It has been very hazy here from the drifting smoke from wildfires in Quebec, Canada. Today might be a little better, but the last few days have been surreal. Very hazy, the sun looked orange, and the air has been like breathing mud. Oh, and I was out watering the plants and it seems like everything is coated in a sticky film, like a soda exploded and sprayed everything. Just all kinds of fun.

This week I was getting ready to go to a conference, so that was work, but I also made time to crank out a few stars for the rainbow scrap challenge. The color for this month is pastel blues and greens. I don't have a lot of pastels, but I do have a few lighter and brighter greens, so I mananged to make three green stars:

How do you not fall in love with that star on the left? These are 9-inch blocks, so some of those pieces are quite small. It was very fun to make. The others will be fine in the quilt, but they aren't nearly as festive, or as fun to make.

Since this month is about light blues and light greens, I also made one light blue star:

Okay, it's more medium than light blue. Truth be told, there are not that many light blues hanging around here. I think I may be able to find a couple more, and I might make a couple more blue stars, though there's already a lot of blue for this quilt. 

One thing I do have in a very pale (and hard to photograph) blue are these little hourglasses:

I have 32 of these, all untrimmed, and I don't know what to do with them. I thought I might make something small with an alternate block, but I don't know what that block should be or what color it should be. I could also combine these into some blocks, but again, don't know what block that would be. Any good suggestions out there?

And speaking of good suggestions. . .

I showed this block as a failed block last month. Here was the original block:

A couple of readers suggested turning the hourglasses to make an orange star instead of the hard-to-see white star, and it worked! Thanks guys! It doesn't look as first intended, but it will work well as a fixed block. And really, all I did was turn the hourglasses the other direction. What a difference!

And with that, we're off to my conference! I hope to find some more breathable air there, because one of the side effects of this haze has been that I've almost lost my voice from hoarseness. I sound awful, so some better air is a must. Wish me luck with my presentation, and everyone have a great weekend!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Crossing off two more

 Hi everyone! We got everyone safely graduated this week, I cleaned up my office and shut down the work computer, then I pulled the blinds and locked the door. See that place again in August! It feels great. This was a long year, but every time I think it was a hard one I remember 2020-2021 when we were trying to teach all those students over Zoom. No teaching challenge will ever be as hard as that!

Back at home, I tried to finish up another of the bigger quilts this week, but I didn't get all the way through. Oh, well! I did, however, finish off two smaller pieces that have been kicking around here for a while:

Those don't look very familiar, do they? Well, once again, they are repurposed pieces. In 2017 and again in 2019 I started to make temperature quilts. I did not get all that far, maybe to part of April. Turns out I fail at even stitching a 3-inch seam every day. I also fail at throwing things out, or ripping them apart, which is what I should have done long ago. Instead, they have become a doll quilt and a table runner. Now that they're quilted, they may actually be useful!

Hey look, flowers! The bigger piece is the one from 2019, and is becoming a table runner since it's about 21 by 54. I think the tiny blocks in there are for family birthdays, based on where I think they fell in the calendar. I didn't get pictures of the backs of the pieces, but they are the same blue that was left over from  another backing. More repurposing!

Oh, wow, roses too! The smaller piece is the one from 2017, and it looks like it was a colder year! It looks like I cut this one into two pieces and joined them to make a rectangle. This one is 24 by 27 and will make a lovely doll quilt, or maybe the top of a nightstand. We'll let the small person decide.

The smaller piece was quilted using the ever- trustworthy cross hatch in a pale yellow thread. I bound it in a blue binding from the basket o' leftover bindings and various other things, and it turned out great. It went really fast, too.

I got a little tired of cross hatching, so the bigger piece is quilted in random lines across the width of the piece in a pale green thread. Sometimes they cross, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they're straight, sometimes they wobble. It will look good on a table no matter what. I bound it in another leftover piece of green. So, that's two more pieces out of the closet and another piece half-finished. Not bad for the week! 

This is Memorial Day weekend here in the US, the unofficial start of summer, and I am so ready for it. Bring on the picnics! Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. And just to wind this up, I'll leave you with a picture of the wild strawberries in our backyard. This is why we don't spray the yard for weeds or anything-- these feed the deer and the foxes!

 

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or not Friday, and the Quilting, Patchwork, Applique linkup.

Filling the borders

[There is a small giveaway at the end of this post!]

 

Hello everyone, from a still-soggy Baltimore! It rained two inches today and is supposed to rain all weekend. I wouldn't mind since we planted grass seed and such, but it also got cold again. The heat is back on and the gutters are working overtime. 

All of which made getting pictures of this week's project pretty difficult. Here is the best outdoor picture I got, on the covered back porch:

 

Not too terribly bad for a rainy day! At least you can see the borders pretty well. If you recall, this is the purple month for the rainbow scrap challenge, and I had half a million purple 4-patches leftover from another project. (You can read that whole story HERE.) I made them up into blocks and then arranged those blocks into a fun border. Then I had to fill the border!

This was not as easy as it sounds. There were so many options! Plus, I had used a really strong green for the border, and everything else just faded away with those borders. Because I did not want to do a lot of piecing, and because I had never made them, I decided on Disappearing 9-patch. The first attempt using some fabrics from a re-discovered kit was not a success:

See what I mean? They did not look good. The green is just so strong. So I dug out every single scrap of that green that I could find, including a few small pieces from the trash, and cut every piece of purple I had that was big enough, put them together and made some blocks that looked a lot better. It was a major pain to do, but it was worth it! 

I used every piece of purple I could, and I think it turned out well. I don't think I'll make the DNP blocks again soon, but they went fast and filled in the quilt, which finished at just about 48 by 60. 

So there is that quilt top done! Hurray! It used up a lot of purple, and I only have little pieces left. I managed to scrape together enough pieces to make two 6-inch blocks:

Cuties! I didn't get to make a couple of crumb blocks, but I definitely will, because I finally figured out what I'm going to do with them. For now, though, I am pretty tired of purple and ready for some new projects. I am really happy to have used up those purple 4-patches, though! They hung out here for way too long.

And now for the giveaway! In the spirit of letting go of things that do not give me joy, and clearing out some older stuff besides, I'd like to give away what remains of the old kit that I dug out:

As you can see, there are some themed charm squares that came with the kit (minus most of the purples), along with a bunch of others that I found hiding in there as well, the two "failed' blocks, a yard and a half  of themed fabric (in 2 pieces), and the pattern that was stuck in there, too. The fabric is Natural Garden by Holly Taylor, and I'll warn you that the reason that I never made the pattern is because it requires a specialty ruler. 

If you are in the US and would like to have this package sent to you free of charge (though I won't say no to postage), all you have to do is go and fill out this Google Form right HERE. You'll see that this comes up as a quiz, but you know both answers! This is the first time I've tried this, but I can't afford one of the services and comments get bulky, so try it and we'll do the random number thing on Wednesday, May 3. If the form doesn't work, I'll delete this and do something else, but I've used Google quizzes and they do work.

Okay, enough with the purple! On to something else! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

 

Super soggy! It was worth a try!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.