A short dispatch

Hi all! I'm waving wildly over here, from the significant mess that is my life right now. After six months of living in this house, it is finally time to banish the brown and gray, and I could not be happier, even though it has made a real mess around here. For those of you who don't remember, or maybe I never said, every room in our new place in Maryland is painted either brown or gray, with gray floors. Yeah, not great, and seriously depressing. But now it's being painted over in some lovely, happier colors! I can't wait until they're done so that I can finally feel at home.

That's the long way of saying that there has not been a lot of stitching around here. I did do a few things, so here's just a small update:

That's not snow in the background-- it's bright sunshine. Spring is on the way!

This is the slab of fabric for the orange scrap basket. It measures about 18 by 24 right now, before quilting. It's just amazing to me that all those little bits can go together into such a bright and happy piece. I have plenty of orange bits left over, too. I'll be quilting this little one up and turning it into a scrap basket really soon.

The only other thing I got a chance to do was make a second block for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen:

This is a really cute block, and the new one is almost the last bits of one of my favorite aquas ever.  I will be sorry to see that one finished. You can still join in in the color challenge, and it looks like the next color up is orange, so I'll be all set!

To end this little dispatch, for anyone who's interested, we did find a new car. It is awesome and has all kinds of nifty bells and whistles, including a backup camera, which is changing my life. So, that nightmare is over!

Hope you're all having a good week! I'll just be over here, dodging paint cans and second-guessing my color choices.  Once this is done, the men with jackhammers and saws come to work on the other parts of the place, so I guess this is the calm before the storm. Happy stitching!

Sharing at Midweek Makers, Patterns by Jen, and soscrappy for RSC20.

Ohio in orange

Hi all, and welcome to the weekend! Lately it seems that I have just as much work to do on the weekend as during the week, but at least I get to do it in yoga pants. Good news for the day-- we sold the tragic vehicle that became a doorstop! I was sad to see it go, but now I'm just happy that we got something out of it. I really liked it, and it just seems weird that it went so fast. So now the search is on for a new (used) vehicle, a process I find extremely boring. They all look the same to me!

With all the drama about the car this week, this is as far as I got on my various projects:

Orange Ohio stars, which are nothing if not cheerful.  We have had rain all week, and yesterday it was waaayyy too windy outside to take pictures. Parts of Maryland had tornadoes, and I saw some awful pictures of uprooted trees. It seems we are stuck with indoor pictures today.

I also made a bunch of orange modern blocks to go with my green ones:

I'm not sure I like the X's, but these little blocks are fun and fast to make.

The only other thing I did was make one of the February blocks for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen:

 Those of you with eagle eyes will see that I made mine slightly differently than the instructions, but it turned out just the same. I liek this one and I might just make it again.

That was it-- some blocks! Sometimes you just have to go with it, you know? I'm sure I'll have a more productive week soon.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I will be out looking at identical vehicles and trying to choose between them. I already know I'll need a cookie or two after that!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC20

Prickles

Hi all! How are you? It has been a very, very stressful week for me. Mostly work stuff, but also we're gearing up for some home remodelling, and you know how that goes. I have to tell you, we haven't even started and I'm already tired of it.  At least the gray will be entirely gone and there will be a lot of satisfaction in that. And there will be an actual closet, which will be a huge bonus.  You don't really think about closets until you don't have a place to put your coat, and then you really need one.

I was so stressed this week that my husband said, "don't you have anything to sew?" and pretty much forced me into the sewing room.  The one thing I finished was all done by hand, though:

Yep, it's the little Prickles stuffie that I got from Bernie's shop.  I had thought that I could make it for my granddaughter, but it's really not a children's toy.  It was super easy to make, though, and was pretty relaxing.  It will make a nice "look at" toy for Grandma's house. 

This is really designed to be made by hand, and that's the only way that I could find to make it. It's been a long time since I made anything entirely by hand, and it was not a bad experience.  The one thing I would do differently is baste a bit before stitching, and go get my own thread that matches the dark brown a bit better.  I don't like the way that the floss that was provided doesn't really blend.  Just too lazy to go get my own, though!

I did finish up a couple of blocks, too: 

These are the first blocks for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen. These are much, much cuter in person, but it's hard to get a good picture in the brown that is January right now.

Ok, back to the grind! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and get some stitching in. I'll be working on some RSC projects today, so maybe those will be done tomorrow.  We live in hope!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday.