Rainbow Scrap Challenge for March

Well, I'm barely making it under the wire for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of Aqua for the month of March.  I thought there was one more day in the month - you know it's harder to keep track now that we're all staying in place.  All of the days are running together!

This is how my lovely aqua blocks are shaping up:

And this is why I got a little behind in my sewing:

Yardwork!  I haven't been able to go to the gym so decided to do some yardwork for exercise.  I asked the lawn guy to cut the crepe myrtles for me but then to just leave them where they fell and I would cut them up myself for the yard waste collection.  And I did:

Bad timing on my part.  They just suspended yard waste collection in order to concentrate on and keep up with house waste collection.  Bummer.  I'm left with my buckets full and more limbs to trim with no buckets to put them in.  This is the side I haven't finished:

I'll figure something out.  If that's my only problem, then I consider myself blessed!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Feb

The color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for February is ORANGE!

That's not in my top five color favorites, so I thought I'd have trouble finding much in my bindings scrap bin.  Au Contraire!  I found all of these:

I guess I use a bit of orange for bindings!

I'm continuing on with my Faux Log Cabin Blocks and have already cut myself a bunch of orange pieces to make my blocks this month.

Trying to keep on top of my projects/challenges.  We'll see how long that lasts, but right now I'm having fun with colors...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January

I decided to make blocks from the Faux Log Cabin pattern for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2020 (see this post).

All was going well with my greens until I spotted myself starting to put together this block (the one at the top is correct - the two strips at the bottom left are goofy):

No, you can’t make some right-handed blocks and some left-handed blocks and expect them to fit into these design choices – lol !!

So a little rip-rip-rippit occurred, but eventually I finished this lovely batch for the Challenge:

Now waiting for February’s oranges to be selected from my scrap bins...

Check Out the Multi-Color!!

Speaking of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge, I picked out my multi-color scraps for more elephants last weekend (see this post), and finally started making them last night.  I’m lovin’ the newest additions to the herd!

Only two are done, since I am undecided about the third fabric.  But I’m pretty sure I want to go ahead and work with the directional rainbow fabric, so watch for that elephant soon!

 

This is the quilting design I picked for the giant Project Linus chevron top that I have mentioned:

It was a panto called Cool Beans and it stitched out beautifully – nice easy curves.  It’s finally finished and already returned to the Project Linus local group – whew!

I must repeat that it’s such a joy to return to smaller kid’s quilts … this one was 63 x 65 and seemed huge!

And in news of the weird, my poor dog has been in the cone-of-shame this week:

 

Although the vet really couldn’t pin down the origin, she somehow got an infection in her paw at the nailbed of one toe.  I suspect that she either got cut when they tried to trim the dark toenail or when trimming the fur between her paw pads, or she cut herself on the sharp acorn tops due to the bazillion of acorns we have had this year.  I’m not kidding about those acorns – they have been so abundant that it’s been hard for her to walk on the grass – it’s been like walking on gravel around our pond and you can’t avoid the oak trees that drop the acorns around here.

Anyway, after paying the ransom for antiseptic wipes, oral antibiotics and an antibiotic ointment, she is doing much better.  She only limps now when she has to go on the grass and then it’s much less than it was.  She doesn’t limp anymore when walking on the sidewalk, so the cone might come off tomorrow.  She will be so happy!

National Quilting Day 2017

Since today has been designated as National Quilting Day by the National Quilt Association, I thought you’d like to read the 10 Historical Facts About Quilting at the AGF (Art Gallery Fabrics) blog:

  http://www.agfblog.com/2016/06/10-historical-facts-about-quilting.html

Fascinating facts – especially #5 about the earliest known surviving American quilt from 1704.  Imagine something you made lasting 300 years and still admired!  Awesome …

There are also some wonderful free patterns on their site – check out their gallery at:

http://liveartgalleryfabrics.com/free-quilting-patterns/

And, since it’s Sewing Day, I’m working on a Disappearing 9-Patch.  Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Rainbow Scrappy Day!

And now that we've moved into March, it's time for another color challenge over at SOSCRAPPY and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The color for March is RED!  Here are my red elephants:

Left side of the line

Right side of the line

And here are the Jan and Feb elephants with their new friends:

Did that elephant on the right look a little suspicious to you?  Do you think that maybe the sea green/teal/aqua elephant was messing around with the red elephant?  Or is that too personal to ask?!!

And did those purple dogs from the bottom elephant jump up and walk all over the red elephant in the middle and leave paw prints?  Maybe a surveillance camera in the sewing room is required - LOL ...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017

Since I've joined the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017, I've had fun making my preferred block in various scraps.  And today I've made progress on the February color of Sea Green/Aqua/Turquoise/etc. 

Three more elephants have been added to the elephant parade.  January's color was Purple so they are on the bottom.  If you'll notice, one of the January elephants has gone to the dogs and one of the February elephants ate a dinosaur (maybe he wasn't an elephant - maybe he was a Wooly Mammoth?).  I'm really liking these ... they are going to make great children's donation quilts!

Thanks to Miri at Milk and Honey quilts for the free elephant block pattern:
http://milkandhoneyquilts.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-pattern-elephant-baby-quilt-block.html

Sunday Sewing

I’m joining with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at: http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

My intention is to make various animals this year in the Challenge colors-of-the-month.  The January color is PURPLE, so these pieces were on the cutting mat this morning:

And sewn together, you've probably guessed that they make this (I have cut out all of the parts and will be making three):

This cute elephant block was designed by Miri and a free pattern is offered on her blog Milk and Honey Quilts:

http://milkandhoneyquilts.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-pattern-elephant-baby-quilt-block.html

And then I got distracted with organizing a little of the sewing room to decide what to put next on the quilting frame.  First, I put all of the UFOs into the purchased bins and labeled them:

Then I went through the cloth baskets of tops and backings and put each top with an intended back:

They look lovely now and all ready to pick one and quilt it up!  It feels good to be a little more organized.  Unfortunately, I discovered several more UFOs in one of the cloth baskets:

They never end!  Whatever made me think I had corralled them all?!

I just had to stop and unplug everything since we are expecting bad weather.  We are under a tornado watch until 10 this evening and there will be severe thunderstorms.  Our Sunshine Skyway bridge is already closed to all traffic due to high winds.  I definitely want to protect my expensive equipment, so it will have to be hand-sewing this evening.

Out of This World Quilting!

I missed seeing a major event last year and in case you did, too, I am reporting it here so we can all take part in the Block Challenge part of it.  And maybe, if you can get to Houston in Oct-Nov 2014, you can go see the results.

What I missed was the fact that Quilting has gone out of this world – literally!

No, really ... it has.

Astronaut Karen Nyberg went on a routine 5-month mission to the International Space Station in May of 2013 and, get this …, she took her quilting with her!!

Well, of course, one would need breaks in between studying the human microbiome, nutrition studies as they relate to bone loss in space and maybe how combustion works in zero gravity – oh, and working on that pesky leaky space suit – even if your free time is very limited.  Wouldn’t you want to turn to quilting?!

This is Nyberg’s 9-inch block and her description:

“Now that I’ve tried my hand sewing in space, I can say one thing with certainty: it’s tricky,” Nyberg said in a video sent down from the space station. “This is what I’ve made. It’s far from being a masterpiece, but it was made in space.

And Astronaut Nyberg, a lifelong lover of sewing, has invited us all to join her in stitching together a global community space quilt.

You still have time to participate in the Astronomical Quilts! Block Challenge – entries are due by Aug 1, 2014.   The block is to be any 9.5 inch star-themed (but not embellished) quilt block – one entry per person.  All blocks will be made into a quilt to be displayed at the Quilt Festival in Houston in Oct-Nov, 2014.  Check out details at this link:

http://www.quilts.com/home/contests/viewer.php?menu=entries&page=../../contests/y2013/2013AstronomicalChallenge

For more about Nyberg’s personal hobbies, see:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition36/nyberg_profile.html#.Uz9OHaKTk40

And for more about the troubles Nyberg encountered cutting, sewing and otherwise handling fabric in space, this write-up by Helen Fields is very interesting:

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/11/05/womens-work-in-space/

Congratulations, Astronaut and Quilter Karen Nyberg.  Let’s hope we always shoot for the stars!

Soccer Weekend for Me

No, I didn’t play soccer!  That would be like exercising … and we know I shy away from that.

I played with lots of soccer fabric and came out with two cute tops.  Yesterday’s was inspired by an on-line friend’s lotto blocks using the Bow Tie design.  I hadn’t made any Bow Ties in a long time, so I made up this fast top:

 

I call this one "Sportin' Ties"

And I found out that if you twist the bow ties 45^◦ you get a soccer ball shape, but you could get there a lot quicker if you made giant snowballs and squares, so I didn’t do that – maybe next time!

And then I looked through a few books to see what I had marked but never made and found Frolicin’ Frogs from this book:

It was s-o-o-o-o easy to make with strip sets.  Mine is called Soccer Frolic, of course.

It is raining here today – and that’s a good thing.  We really needed the rain as the ponds are low again and the grass is dry.  I had put out a different brand of bird seed that included cracked corn and guess who I attracted:

 

follow up the trunk of the palm to see how tall that left guy is

I guess that with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners over, it is safe to come out of the woods – Lol.

And the soon-to-be Monarchs have munched away on my milkweed.  I had bought them five new plants last year, so they didn’t get anymore this year, but what was there seemed sufficient.  These are now in cocoons …

 

before

almost done eating

And this, my friends:

count the number of hops you see!

is a Squirrel Path!  You can see where the little critters hop from one plant bed to the other.  I put birdseed on the ground in the bed in the foreground and also in the birdfeeder (where the post is barely visible in the background), and they help themselves to both.  Oh well, they’re entertainment for my dog!

Gorgeous Weather!

A friend from our Sunshine On-Line Quilt Guild posted this on Facebook today:

Made me laugh out loud!  Because it’s all too true … it was wonderful outside here today.  The dog and I romped in the yard a little bit and I wandered around taking some pictures of the flowers in my yard:

 

Daisy Bush

Azaleas

And I watched the Monarch caterpillars munch away on these:

They will soon have these milkweed plants stripped and eaten down to stalks.  I bought them 3 extra plants last year but I haven’t gotten any more this year – everybody’s going on a diet …

or not - I'll probably get them another plant or two tomorrow.

 

And just to continue the cheer, I pulled out this Moda fabric bundle and started working on some blocks from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and the 3 Dudes.  It’s the Amazing Jelly Roll Pattern and works up fast.

Isn't this a happy print?

Soon I'll have lots of variety to rearrange the blocks

Two days ago, I finished picking up this design from the floor.  In my Quilts of Valor group, we are in the process of changing our "signature" quilt design to another pattern and trying to use up previously made 4-patch blocks .  I had made up a bunch of HSTs for an easy layout to alternate with the 4-patches.  Once I have the layout in a pleasing pattern, I just number the blocks and rows and somebody else will sew it together at the meeting this month.  They will also add the borders.  Easy-peasy.

So there is some progress to report in the sewing room this month!

PS  The high tomorrow will be about 74 F.  I might have to break out a sweatshirt (not!)-LOL.

Too Many UFOs?

Can there be such a thing as too many unfinished objects?  Can there be too many works-in-progress?  We have a mini guild, maybe more like a quilt club, that has begun meeting at my LQS.  They decided that we should all bring one of our UFOs to the January meeting and vow to complete it in 2014.  So I took a look at what I had piling up … NEVER do that ... you really don't want to know!  I do know what I want to take in January – more on that later.

But I did find out I have a few simultaneous projects being made into tops:

        The Dr. Seuss baby quilt

        The Mystery Quilt for Military going on now

        A Celtic Knot for Quilts of Valor

        A 5-Yard Quilt kit for a child

So I decided to finish a few quickly so they don’t qualify as UFOs in January!  This was the 5-Yard Quilt that was begun, but was turned into a strippie to get it done today:

 

Swimming with the Fishies

detail

This is the Celtic Twist that I will be getting done this week:

 

those boys like their Army green and cammo

It is from a free block offered by McCall’s Quilting.  Here’s the link.

It's all gray and raining here today and my camera is taking yellow pictures, so no more of the projects, but here’s a photo from my walk the other day - just for a change of pace:

Isn’t that little vignette cute?  It’s in front of a townhouse and they made excellent use of a small space.  Now, let me get back upstairs to get those projects done …