Block building

 Hello all! How is your life going this week? We went on a small trip last weekend, which was fantastic, and we came back just in time for some thunderstorms that brought a lot of cooler weather with them. It feels so great outside! Plus, the cicadas are almost all gone. They left quite some mess behind, but at least they aren't dive-bombing me any more.

With all of that, I did make some progress on projects so far this week. A little while ago I pulled out an old project that I called "old and new" and I've started working on it again. Here are some of the blocks I made over the last few days:

 

 

I'm not so sure about the colors for that block on the left, but it's staying. These blocks all finish at 6 inches, so yep, those hsts are only one inch square.  They took some time, but they really were fun to work on. I always think, "oh, that won't take long," and it takes forever to make. You would think a mini block would be quick, but no. Obviously these are all traditional blocks, just in a small size. I love the middle one, which is called Broken Windows.

 

Here are all the blocks for the project so far:

 

I really like it and think it's going to be lovely when finished. I have one problem, though-- I need more fabric. I don't know about you, but somehow I went through a *lot* of fabric over the last few months. My stash is looking really pathetic right now. I do like that it's small, but not this small. I guess I'll have to go shopping or something, don't you think?

I also made the next step for the Laundry Basket "mystery" quilt that I've been working on:

 

 

It happens that I overbought flowers, and now I need to find a place for those yellow ones. I wonder if deer eat them? The blue blocks are really pretty, though, aren't they? I didn't get a progress picture, but I only have three steps left to go on the mystery before I decide what to do about borders.

 

Also waiting for me when we got home was my gift from Sarah for the Hands to Help challenge:

 

 

This is great-- another block book! Thanks so much! More things to drool over and dream about.

 

Finally for today-- I've added a widget to the sidebar for you to sign up to get posts by email. >>>>> Just about everyone knows by now that the one we've been using for emailing posts is going away, and a lot of people have already stopped getting emails. I was shocked and humbled to find that there were almost 1500 people signed up through that service to get emails from this blog! Thanks! I didn't feel comfortable importing your email addresses into a new service, so please take a moment and do that yourselves.

The new widget is follow.it, and Sarah has a whole post about it HERE. I'll just second everything she said. The ads are not my fault. I did sign up for a couple of different services to test them out (because I got posts by email, too) and the one I liked best was Bloglovin'. I found follow.it somewhat difficult to figure out, long on flashy graphics and short on details. Feedly I didn't really like at all, mainly because I would like to filter my own content, thank you very much. I don't want artificial intelligence doing it for me. Bloglovin' was much "quieter," though it does have ads, and I signed up to get everything in just one email a day, so sometimes I will not see a post until the next day if it posts later. So, I've deleted everything else and kept Bloglovin' and it's actually turning out pretty well.

Probably more than you wanted to know! I actually could have written a whole post about this, but try them out yourselves and choose what works for you. And thanks for following along on my misadventures, too!

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

A new project and an old one

 Hi everyone! Well, the cicadas are still with us, and now they are making very loud noises. Also, I swear they wait for me to come out the door and then decide to fly all around. Several of them have now landed on me and I managed not to kill either them or myself. I did freak out, though, and I am taking joy in watching the birds have a feast. Can it be schadenfreude if we're talking about insects? I promise to stop complaining about them now!

Anyway-- I started a new quilt project. Yahoo! Now that I've had some sleep, all of a sudden I have about a thousand quilt ideas, so of course I decided to make a quilt from a pattern. I don't even have great pictures yet, but here is one that shows some of the colors and fabrics:

Yeah, not a great picture, but it gives you an idea. Believe it or not, this is a mystery quilt that ran for the last couple of weeks at Laundry Basket Quilts, which is the company and blog for Edyta Sitar. She does lovely fabrics in soft, nostalgic colors, and on her blog she gives away a lot of patterns. This pattern ran as a mystery quilt over 14 days. You know how well I get along with mysteries, so I watched the project take shape, then got pretty excited about it as it got closer to the end. After I saw the final quilt, I decided to make my own.

Of course, I had to do my own thing, so I'm making mine using scraps, and hoping to use up some of the gray bits I have hanging around here. If you look at the photos, you can see a couple of different grays. I got so excited about this project that I even laid out the grid that Edyta has in her pattern on my design wall, using pins. That is the picture above, and I'm filling in the blocks as I go. (Oops, I see I have to move one.) That's not too bizarre, is it? Might as well make use of that design wall now that it's finally empty. I'm following the pattern in order and red blocks are next. I am irrationally excited about this.

So, there's that project! It's actually really easy and I'm liking it a lot. The only rule I made for myself is that I can't use any new fabric. Sadly, I don't think that will be a problem. . .really sure that I'll have a ton of scraps left, too.

The other project I've pulled out to work on is an older project that combined traditional 6-inch blocks with more modern 6-inch blocks. I love these colors and I'm so happy to be working on this project again. Don't those colors just make you feel happy and summery?

That's just a small update from here. I'm actually thrilled to be able to spend some time in the sewing room again, and there are nice windows in there that almost shut out the sounds of the cicadas singing. I'll leave you with a picture of one of the little buggers (yes, those are eyes):

Hope you are all getting in some stitching time this week, too! I have several other things to work on, too, so I'm glad we're looking at some thunderstorms tomorrow!

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

Not a mystery to me

Hi everyone! Are you all done Christmas shopping? Me neither! I went out shopping last weekend and mainly just looked at all the decorations and enjoyed some Christmas spirit. I bought one thing, and I'm happy with that. I've actually only got a few things left since I got almost everything online. My parents have forbidden all of us from buying any more presents for them and the grandkids are still small enough to be happy with a box, so that only really leaves my husband. Anybody out there have ideas for a kinda nerdy engineering type who insists there's nothing he wants? Yeah, me too!

Anyway, in addition to being somewhat merry, I've also worked some on my repurposed Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt from several years ago.  Here's where I am:

For anyone who doesn't remember, I have 12 blocks from the original En Provence mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter, and tons and tons of parts and pieces that I made for that project. I'm recombining them into a different, smaller quilt, just because I don't want to make any more of the parts or pieces, and I want something usable that gets this project out of my closet.

As I said, I have 12 blocks, so I've been working on putting leftover pieces together to make pieced sashings.  I think I did okay with these, though now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have used more purple 4-patches instead of the neutral ones, but I'm too far along to even consider ripping those darned things.

Now it's on to considering border options.  Above is a picture of the quilt blocks with no border, which is okay, but I'm bothered that the stars along the edge are unfinished.  (Ignore the magenta and green star centers. I was trying to decide and settled on the purple 4-patches.)  The photo at the top of the post is one possibility for a border-- just the neutral 4-patches and enough other pieces to finish the stars.  Here is another possibility:

This would use up more purple parts, but it's kinda weird and I don't like the hsts in there.  And before anyone suggests it, I'm not expanding the border to let me make stars in the corners, too, mostly because that would mean making more 4-patches, and I already have hundreds of those suckers to use up.

The final idea I had was just purple 4 patches:

I don't like this either, so it looks like the best option for me is all neutral 4-patches. If you have another idea, I'd love to hear it!  The good news is that I might not have to make any more, and I'll almost certainly use up the ones I already have. That would be a major win for me.

Tomorrow I am taking the last packages to the post office and then I might make Christmas cookies, then I have to wrap some more packages. Gosh, that's an awful chore, isn't it? Just kidding-- it's making me very happy right now. And just to add to the Christmas feeling, look what we woke up to a few days ago:

It's not a lot of snow for folks from Wisconsin, but it's enough to melt any Grinchy heart, isn't it?

That's all for now! I'll have a finish on Friday and then I think that may be it for the year for me. There are grandchildren to video chat with and one close by to cuddle with, and holiday cheer to spread. Hope you are having a festive holiday season and getting some stitches in, too.  Happy holiday time, everyone!

A jump start

Hi all! Long time no see! I don't know what's wrong with me lately, but I seem to be in a bit of a creative slump. This doesn't happen to me all that often, and it is definitely no fun. Do you think it's related to moving and having all kinds of personal upheaval in my life right now? Hmmmm. . .

Whatever it is, I need to get out of this, so I decided to do the only thing that I know for sure will perk me up-- start a new project. Sure, I have a ton of projects in various stages of completion on the shelves in my sewing room closet, but none of those are exciting me at the moment.  Since this new project really should be something simple because I just want it to jump start some creativity, I decided to go with Alycia's Winter Quilt Along (which you can find HERE).  She promises just one hour per clue, and it's entirely possible that I can handle that.

I needed two darks and a light, so I decided to clean out the dark blue and dark green scrap bins, because you know I'll never use those anywhere else, and I paired them with some toned-down yellows:

That makes a pretty pile, doesn't it? Those blue pieces are literally all the darker blue pieces I could find without cutting into yardage. I think we can say that blue is not my favorite color. But yay for getting those babies used!

After a bit of cutting, and a little stitching, here's the end of clue one:

Notice that I said "clue one," not "hour one." Alycia definitely sews faster than me!

So now I've started another project that should go quickly, and it's already kick-started my mojo a bit. I already feel a little more energized about some older projects. I even worked on the En Provence quilt a bit! I'm feeling pretty good about that, and I hope to have the top for it finished soon.

Here's one more thing that's getting me more excited to sew things, though it's really difficult to get a good picture:

I told you it wasn't a good picture! But we've finally gotten most of my new design wall installed. I decided to go with the wall on this side of the room even though the design wall has to be a bit shorter because of the ledge.  The light from the window shines on this side, plus I can use the whole wall without a lot of obstructions. I have one more 4 by 8 panel to install, but I needed to get some more flannel to cover it with.  I used the panels from Lowe's found HERE, and wrapped them in THIS white flannel from fabric.com (no sales affiliations here!) Caution-- the flannel shrinks quite a bit, but it does wash up nice and soft, and everything seems to stick to it pretty well. Also, get plenty of duct tape to tape it to the back of the panels.

I could just weep looking at this, and I think I had something in my eye a bit earlier when I started sticking things on the walls. I remember sewing on the dining room table for a very long time, then I was so thrilled to be able to have a piece of flannel on the wall for a design wall, and now I have 24 whole feet of design wall (plus the little bit under the TV there).  My heart is bursting with gratitude.

Anyway! I think I'm getting a little bit of excitement back, and I'll be stitching things up. If you need me, I'll be downstairs!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday with Alycia with more gratitude!

Try, try again

Hello all! Here we are in November and it's definitely started living up to its name. It's gotten cold and windy, but of course I love it when its dark outside at 4 pm. It makes driving home even more exciting. At least most cars have their lights on now. The deer, not so much.

As you may know, Bonnie Hunter has released the colors and yardage for her yearly mystery quilt. (You can find that info HERE if you're interested.) I love Bonnie, and her quilts, but I have not had a lot of luck with the mystery quilts. I made Easy Street with no problems, then got hung up on Celtic Solstice. I tried again with En Provence, but I have once again failed miserably.  I think it's the Tri-Recs pieces. I just really dislike cutting them and making them, and they are crucial to those two quilts. Of course I didn't do the ones with no Tri-Recs, which now seems like a dumb move on my part.

Indoor pictures! Because outdoor pictures don't work in November.

I did finally finish Celtic Solstice (and I'm almost over the trauma-- just kidding! I actually like it now), but what I have now for En Provence are some blocks, a ton of pieces, and absolutely zero desire to make any more of either one.  I thought I might use the mystery time this year to finally get this baby out of the closet and off the UFO list.  So, here was my thought-- how can I put this together without stitching even one more unit, but still use up most of what I have?

The first thing I did was pull out all of these pink/ magenta pieces. I feel like I made a billion of them and it turns out that a billion is enough to make a completely separate quilt.  I plan to make some stars from them and do something else for an alternate block. Maybe in yellow? But that's a problem for another time.

I have enough of the purple and green units made to completely finish up 14 blocks, so I thought I would round that down to a nice dozen blocks and set them 3 by 4.  I played around with the other pieces for a sashing and came up with this:

I kind of like this, because of the secondary stars and the circle effect, and also because it does not require any more pieces to be stitched, just the quilt top assembled. Still a lot of pieces, but completely doable. It will not have as much color or vibrancy as the one Bonnie designed, or be as big, but it will be done and out of my closet.  And-- I can't stress this enough-- I will not have to make any more pieces!

I have no real idea what to do for a border yet, but I have these to work with:

I think I should be able to create a border from those, don't you? It may not look like much, but there are a *lot* of 4-patches there.

That's my plan for "mystery season." If you are making this year's mystery, I'll be cheering you on from here. Cheer me on, too, and maybe we'll both have quilts at the end of this!

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!

More testing

Hi all!  Did you have a good week?  The weather here was awful and so I spent a little more time in the sewing room, still cleaning things out.  Still feels like a mess in there, but at least I'm making some progress.  I finally packed up some things that are getting donated and emptied almost the last of the boxes.  I never want to move again.

I did make some progress on the medallion quilt, which I said I would have finished by this coming Tuesday but I probably won't.  Oh well.  Here's what I'm playing with for the first border around the medallion:

Just a mock-up!  White borders to be added in construction phase.

Somehow it always looks better in my head than in fabric.  I'm not sure I like this.  I like the unbalanced part, but I'm not sure the geese are going to work out.  They might be pulling attention away from the center block.  Maybe smaller ones would be better? What do you think?  I think I have to let it marinate for a little longer.

This quilt is all made out of hand dyes, and so is the Grandma's quilt.  I cut all the border pieces for that quilt, but I was left with smaller pieces that won't work in either one.  What's a frugal quilter to do but start making some crumb blocks?

I love it!  These are 6-1/2 inch blocks.  Don't know what they'll become, but those little pieces make a pretty block, don't they?

In a few spare moments I also made up these neutral 4-patches:

They're prettier than I thought they would be.  I don't know what they're for, either, because I am definitely not making Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, even though I just painted the guest room green and hung a purple and green quilt on the wall in there.  Frankly, I don't think a new one would work out, so it's definitely not on the agenda.

One last thing to show you.  This is how I'm storing my fat quarters now:

Wow, I can't believe how well this works.  I saw this on Pinterest and didn't really know how well it would work, but I found this shoe holder at Target for less than $10, so what was the harm in trying?  The silly thing is great!  The fat quarters fit just great, and frees up some shelf space.  And if I ever use those fat quarters, maybe I could put some shoes in it.  Or maybe some notions, it works either way.

Everybody have a great weekend.  We are going to the movies, which is good, because I'm really tired of working on things for the house.  Plus--movie theater popcorn.  Yum!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or not Friday and soscrappy.