O is for orange

Hi everyone! How are you doing these days? Are you getting ready for 2020 to be finished? I certainly am ready to kick this year to the curb and move on to something else. Before that, though, I have to finish grading these confounded exams and finish up a bunch of quilty projects. Which of those do you think I am looking forward to more? At this point, I honestly couldn't choose!

I hope you are all in the mood for color and brightness today, because I have a finish to show off that is very, very bright and very, very orange:

 

Yep, the big orange quilt is finished and ready for my nephew! Everybody do your happy dance now, because this was a bear to get done and I am so, so happy to see it finished and in the mailing box.

 

 

This is the Elvira pattern from Gudrun Erla, and she had a quarantine quilt along for it some time ago. Somehow I hadn't made a quilt for my nephew, even though I know he likes them because my sister-in-law's mom was a quilter before Alzheimer's took her. He's grown quite a bit since then, and he needed a couch quilt that would cover his 6 foot 4 frame. I (foolishly!) asked him what color he would like, and he requested orange. I think this fits the bill!

 

I was determined to quilt this myself, which I eventually succeeded at, but I have to tell you-- it was a bear and a half. This quilt finished at about 65 by 87, which is much larger than I usually think I can handle (but a great size for Joe!) I knew I'd quilt this with a walking foot and just straight lines, so I thought it would be okay. Well, it took me four days to baste this monster, and even then I was obsessive about flipping the quilt and checking the backing after every stitching line. I even resorted to a few small spots of spray basting to keep things from shifting.

 

The lines here are about an inch and a half apart, and they took forever. There are a few wobbles, but mostly the lines turned out straight because I was obsessing over them and stitching pretty slowly. I'm not sure it's apparent in the pictures, but on the top half of the quilt, the lines go diagonally, and in the bottom half they are straight. In person this looks great, and it was easy enough, but it did take a long time, and then I had to bury the threads from the bottom half. After all that worrying, it worked out fine. I used an antique gold thread for the top and a gray for the back, and somehow that worked, too!

 

 

The backing is a geometric gray print, and I used whatever pieces I could find to make a scrappy orange binding, which I then spent several evenings stitching to the back. I love the binding, and it used up a whole lot of the leftover orange pieces that I still had. Looking at the scrap basket, it seems like I'm back to a "normal" amount of orange scraps, which feels pretty nice. Orange may be Joe's favorite color, but it isn't mine!

 

I hope you've enjoyed this bright and happy quilt, and that you got a nice dose of happy color. It does brighten the day, doesn't it? I'm hoping to have a few more finishes before the end of the year, so stay tuned! And please stay healthy and safe, too! 

 

 

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

Challenge met

 Hi everyone, and welcome to December, the last month of this wretched year. Has winter arrived in your area? I understand many places have had snow. We haven't had snow, but we did have a lot of rain and it's gotten a good bit chillier. I am not up for this, I have to confess. It seems like the cold is just 2020 piling on. I really dislike beaches (sand is just dirt, you know) but for maybe the first time ever I feel like a beach would be a good idea. This year has definitely turned everything upside down.

By the time you read this, I will have taught my last class for 2020. Yahoo! Let the chorus of Hallelujah begin! We still have finals next week, but my exams are all written and so for the next few days I am relaxing just a tiny bit for what feels like the first time since July. As a part of this new relaxation regime, I finished off the Color Challenge blocks this afternoon after class:

To be clear, I only made the red ones today. The "buff" ones were for November, though somehow they never got posted. Oh, well! I know the December block just came out yesterday, but there it was, all ready to make, so why not? It was easy enough, though it did involve a lot of pieces. I'm not sure I like either of these blocks, but they're finished, so let's call that good. No fair checking the points on those blocks, either.

And speaking of finished, here are all of the 2020 blocks:

Twenty four finished, colorful blocks! The question now is how to set them. I'm thinking that I should make one more block and set these five by five, just like they're shown here. The other option is to just set them four by six, which might make for a better donation quilt. Thoughts?

I'm so happy to have finished these off and be at this stage, and I can't believe I kept up with it! Seems like a miracle right now. And I'm really, really happy to have spent some time in the sewing room today. A little relaxation is good, right?

Hope you are all having a relaxing day and are getting some stitches in, too. And maybe dreaming of beaches. . .

Sharing at  Midweek Makers at at Patterns by Jen for her linkup.

Strung from the trees

 Hi everyone, and happy after-Thanksgiving! I hope you are having a really restful weekend following what was, for us, a very strange holiday. It was just us here, which was very, very different from what we usually have. I actually did my first 5K the first thing in the morning (see sweaty picture at the bottom of this post), then relaxed and cooked a small dinner for the two of us.We had turkey thighs (which are incredibly inexpensive), potatoes, gravy, and Zoomed with the family, and somehow we polished off a whole pie. I have no idea how that happened. 

I've been going through some of my old, unfinished RSC projects and finding ways to repurpose them or combine them or something because I've finally admitted that they're not going to get finished in their present state. That's the first step, isn't it? Last year I was making these strings:

 

I had planned to turn these into another Scrap Happy Rails quilt like the one I made for my niece, but it just didn't happen because . . .life, I guess. We're not here to judge, we're here to make progress, right? I looked for a project to repurpose these for a while, then I came upon Bonnie Hunter's pattern called Pine Tree Point, which you can get HERE. One thing led to another, and so. . .

Turns out these are the perfect size to repurpose into some cute pine trees. Yahoo! I was even able to use the background fabric that I had already cut to use in the planned quilt as a nice background for the trees. It works, doesn't it?

But wait, there's more!

 

Well, I didn't just make green strings, after all! I had made several months worth of RSC projects, then I think I got distracted packing and moving. (I knew that moving thing would mess me up!) I have tons of strings, but somehow I never went back to these. But now they are made up into some fun trees, and that's going to use up all the string pieces I have. Plus the quilt itself turns out really cute, I think, and the multicolor trees will be quite festive, though not exactly Christmassy. 

Miraculously, I have enough strings done for eight and a half trees, so I only have about 5 inches of strings left to piece together to finish that last tree. That sounds like a good project for today, I think, and I might have to make another pie. Oh, and here's that sweaty picture from the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning: 

 

Did not know I had it in me, but it felt good! (Ignore the fact that I could really use a hair coloring appointment, please.) It was all virtual, of course, but there were several of my neighbors doing it, too. I gather that it is a big deal in Baltimore every year, so this could become a tradition. I guess we'll see when there's a bigger turkey to cook!

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC2020

Soft cut glass

 Hi everyone! How are you all today? Strangely, I feel very Christmassy. I am resisting putting up a tree or shopping, but I really feel like I could use a little Christmas. Why do you think that is?

I don't know about you, but the rhythm of my life has dramatically changed in the last eight months. Nothing seems to be going the way that it always has. Case in point-- today I have a finished quilt top! What? I know, and here it is on Saturday, when we all know Fridays are for finishes. Why not? Up is down right now, down is sideways, and sideways hasn't left the house in weeks. I didn't get a chance to take pictures earlier this week, but here is the latest top:

This is not what I had envisioned when I started making blocks, but it's finished nonetheless. And I think it turned out okay!

 

In 2019, I made the cut glass dish blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. And then a number of things happened, including moving to Baltimore, and somehow I got sidetracked and didn't finish the blocks. (I hate it when that happens.) They have been in a project box ever since.

 

 

This made me very sad, because I really *love* these blocks. I think they turned out really well and so pretty! I tried several layouts, but didn't like any of them, and as much as I love the blocks, I just didn't want to make any more of them. Maybe one, but not a dozen more, and I didn't want to do the math to make an on-point layout or something really creative. I just don't have the mental space to do that right now.

 

Alternate blocks to the rescue! I grabbed a bit of this fun confetti print that I'm pretty sure I purchased on a pre-COVID shopping trip with Preeti and cut some alternate blocks. After that, it was short work to put all the blocks into rows and add a small but colorful border. The border just acts as a frame and keeps the edges of the blocks from popping, but it includes all the colors in the top and I think it really adds something. 

 

This top finished at about 66 by 76, and is just the right size to be donated to a worthy organization, so off it is going, along with a backing and binding, to be quilted up and given away to give some comfort to someone who needs it. Someone gets a quilt, and I get an empty project box. Win, win!

Hope you all are having a lovely weekend. I will be painting the new garage door, then maybe I'll make some sugar cookies. You won't tell if I cut them into festive Christmassy shapes, will you? It will be our secret!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC2020.