A circle of purple houses

 Hi all, and welcome to another summer weekend. It is the weekend, isn't it? I seem to have lost track of time this week. It has been a massive migraine-style headache week, for unknown reasons. Okay, it's probably a mix of Satan's own allergens and all the weather changes. And maybe I ate a little too much sugar. Who knows? I am feeling a little better now, though.

 

In between headache attacks, I managed to get the purple round put on my medallion quilt. I've been looking forward to this one, though I didn't know what color it would be until Angela told us. I'm glad that it's purple because it looks great this time around. Here it is so far:

Didn't I tell you that it looked good? I was concerned that I had chosen a purple that was too light, but now I think it's good because it's next to the dark blue and close to the dark green. This also took more of the purple than I thought, so I had to go with the piece that I had, too.

I call this block or unit "houses" because, well-- look at them. Don't they look like houses? They are super easy to make and this round went really fast. One reason it was so quick is that I used the diagonal seam tape from Cluck Cluck Sew to make all those stitch and flip corners. It really speeds things up when you don't have to draw lines! 

The houses are 3 inches finished, and the quilt itself is now about 54 inches square. With three rounds to go, it looks like this will finish right at 70 inches square, unless I change my mind about a block or leave out a color. Light blue could be an issue. I guess I could always switch the colors or the blocks around, right? We'll see how it goes.

Finally, I know we've talked a lot about the wildlife around here, and I definitely saw the foxes this week, and also plenty of squirrels and our buddy the hawk. (I think I love him. He's so majestic!) Of course there are the deer, too, and look who was out there this week when my head was in a bad place:

A mama and two fawns! The fawns were quite cute, running around and jumping, and they definitely cheered me up. I think they're chowing down on some wild strawberries, so no wonder they're so energetic!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I think more resting is in my future. I couldn't get in to the doctor until next Wednesday, so handfuls of ibuprofen are on the menu. The good news? Takeout is on the menu too! All weekend!

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

 

Blue and green all around

 Hi all! Long time no see! I've been away for a conference in Atlanta, which was hot, sticky, and expensive, but so great to see people in person again. Everyone was so excited that it almost overwhelmed the presentations. Also, true fact: we shared the hotel with a comics convention, so there were people dressed up as various characters, including a full set of Power Rangers, interspersed with our very serious group. It was interesting! After the conference, the hubster and I may have made a couple of detours on the way home. It was fun!

Obviously, I did not take my sewing machine, and the mental break from everything was great. I came back raring to go on a bunch of things. First up in the sewing room was catching up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

 

 

Yes, this is the latest update of the medallion quilt I'm making in the colors of the month, one round for each color. I love how it is turning out, even though I've made a couple of mistakes in these rounds.

 

The green round was for last month, and this is the block, if you can't tell:

 

 

This is a traditional block called Cracker, from Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia. It was super-easy to make, but I didn't really pay attention to the column I was looking at, so I made the wrong size. There was supposed to be one more block per side, but they didn't fit. Oh, well! I think it looks just fine anyway, and I like the movement in that round.

 

 

The bright blue round is simple flying geese attached side by side to make a nice border. You can see that I needed a coping strip in there to bring the center up to the right size for the geese to fit. I think it works. The medallion is now about 44 inches square, which is right where it should be with 4 rounds to go. (I think.) Looking forward to that next round, which is also spectacular. Hope it's a great color!

I said at the top that we may have made a few small detours on our way home, and here is one place we stopped:

This is in North Carolina, and was a beautiful day. On the mountain it was about 70 degrees, at least 25 degrees cooler than down the mountain. The view is looking northeast toward Tennessee, which I'm pretty sure is actually in the photo, too. And that's me and the hubster with the sign, of course. We got talked into taking the sign picture by a lovely Ukrainian family (long in the US), who talked to us a bit about their country. They were very happy that their children and grandchildren in Ukraine had made it to Moldova and are safe. We took their picture, so of course they insisted on taking ours. It was a super-nice interaction.

So the medallion is caught up, and I may have pulled out some fabrics for some birds, too. I guess they're next! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and I'll let you know how they turn out!

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

Suddenly spring

 Holy cow, folks, it's the end of April. On Sunday it will be May! How in the world did that happen? Plus, one day this week I got up and suddenly the whole world looked green. The leaves have popped on the trees and we have all kinds of shade again. Many of the trees are flowering now, too. Spring has definitely sprung.

If it's the end of April, you know it's also the end of the academic year, which means I've been really busy this week. All those meetings, all that grading. . .not nearly enough stitching, but I did manage to add the pink round to my medallion quilt for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Have a look:

 

 

I am really, really pleased with this! Who doesn't love pink polka dot fabrics? Plus, if you squint a little, it looks almost like a white ribbon waving around the quilt top.

 

All of the blocks in this quilt top so far are different sizes, and this block is 3 inches. For reference, the yellow round blocks are 4 inches, and the aqua are 2 inches. The actual pink block is above, for anyone who would like to make it themselves. I strip pieced everything and it was super easy, which is not always true with 3-inch blocks!

 

As you can see from the artsy-looking picture above, the azaleas are also blooming in the yard! I forgot about these, really. They're in a part of the yard that we are planning to clear out, and we just didn't get to it last year. I really did mean to cut them down, but it just didn't happen. Oh, well! Maybe this year? In the meantime, we'll enjoy the pretty flowers.

So, that's it for my current RSC progress. I have some of the pink stars cut out, so I'm a little behind, but I'll do those with the next color. Just as soon as I finish this grading. . .

Everyone have a great weekend. I'll be chained to my desk, but I hope that you all have some nice weather and some pretty flowers to enjoy! Here's another beauty from my forgotten garden!

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday and soscrappy for RSC22.

Twice around

 Hi everyone!  Gosh, what a week I have had. If it wasn't one thing, it was ten others. I feel like I've run a marathon every day this week. You ever have a week like that? With rain, to top it off? I am glad to put this one in the archives. The happiest part of my week was the response to the announcement earlier this week about the Hands2Help Challenge. Thanks to everyone who is enthusiastic about participating! I'm looking forward to it as well!

With all that was going on, I only had time to make a little bit of progress on a couple of projects this week. Thankfully, one of them was my medallion quilt for the RSC this year.  Here is the aqua/ teal round:

 

I love that dark aqua fabric. It's so pretty, and it looks really good next to the red. This is now 16 inches square, but we have eight rounds to go, so it will grow quickly.

The only other thing I worked on was the Stay at Home Round Robin quilt. This round was stars, so I took the opportunity to add stars to the top and bottom to make the quilt into a rectangle:

Gosh, this is a happy quilt, isn't it? The stars are what I call spinners and they remind me of those whirligigs that come on a stick that some people put in their gardens. I guess if you made them in black they could be ninja throwing stars, too. These are much cuter, of course! The stars finish at 4-1/2 inches each, and you can find a tutorial for them right HERE. The quilt now measures about 27-1/2 inches wide and 36 inches long. It's really shaping up!

Okay, that's a short post, but that's all I have in me right now. I hope you all have something really fun planned for this weekend. I'm going to try to read a book and maybe watch the Olympics, or something equally mindless. Do you think brownies go well with that? Let's find out!

 

(Brown bat update: still hanging out. Hasn't moved. I think he's with us till spring!)

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22 and Home Sewn By Us for the SAHRR, and Finished or Not Friday, too.

Feeling centered

Hi all!  How are things going for you?  We are in a tizzy here, as the semester is wrapping up with exams and papers and all, plus the carpenter has promised to show up this week to finish in the living room.  Cross your fingers that he actually shows, because I am tired of living with construction.  Plus it has been raining like crazy! Too many years of 20 degrees in December has me a little freaked out by 50 degrees in December.  And the allergies hate this!

When I get tired of reading papers, I've been working on the center for my medallion quilt.  After about a half dozen different tries, here's where I am now:

I don't know if this looks boring to you, but it looked the best to me.  I tried several traditional things, like flying geese and diamonds, and none of them looked good to me.  I really wanted the central block to stand out, and everything else detracted from it.

This border is a 1 inch green frame, a 1 inch white border, a colorful rectangle border that finishes at 1 inch (!!!) and another 1 inch white border so that the rectangles seem to float in the white space.  And how happy am I that that rectangle border actually did finish at at 1 inch? 

Happy dancing!  And just for grins, the 4-patches in the corners also finish at 1 inch:

The next "round" is the pieced blocks.  My current plan is to frame those blocks as well, but I'm not sure what color to use.

I'd hate to use gray, but that's what I keep coming back to.  If I had more of the green, I might use that, but I don't have enough of any one color to use it for all the blocks.  I do have some solid gray, though.  I guess I'll have to try out some things and see.  The seam ripper is getting a huge workout on this quilt.

Finally, I want to recommend this book:

It's a little bit older book (2012), but I did find it really helpful in testing out different border options and thinking about which borders would best enhance the quilt.  Bet you could find this one at the library, too!

Hope you're all having a great week!  Off to read more papers, grade more exams, and ponder the border options!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Oh, Scrap!, and soscrappy for RSC16.