Two Flimsies in One Week!

Y'all know about my Parts Department. You may also remember I started making postage stamp stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge a couple of years ago. Some of those have already gone into quilts but I had a fair stack left still. At one point I made some scrappy 16 patch blocks to go with the rainbow stars. I wasn't sure I had enough to actually do anything with them but last Saturday seemed like a good day to find out. Taadaa!

These are 8" blocks so the flimsy measures about 48" wide by 56" long. I'm not going to even attempt a border to make this any wider or longer. It will make a fun quilt for a small child or a cheerful lap quilt for a Hospice client. I even have enough of some yardage I bought on clearance to make the back. 😊The 16 patch blocks are nearly all gone now. There are plenty of postage stamp stars left but they won't make a rainbow anymore.

On another front, I've been plugging away at some red and white blocks to go on either side of this Christmas panel by SusanWinget that I showed last month.

I'd decided to make this quilt in a horizontal format rather than vertical. I began with more sawtooth stars but with fussy cut center patches this time.

I added the Seesaw blocks to make it more interesting and to use up more of the small scale Christmas prints that had been around forever. Here's the freshly completed flimsy:

After quilting it will finish at about 80" wide by 60" high. There's yet another older Christmas print in red that will be the back for this one. 😀Next up, probably another Halloween quilt!

Let's See If This Works...

We haven't made the trip to the Tech Dr. yet. I have a work-around in place for the time being. We'll see how long it lasts.

We had a couple of lovely, cool days this past week. It was absolutely delightful. There was even a tiny bit of moisture that cleared the air. Now we're looking at a heat wave similar to what the rest of the nation has endured/is enduring. And there are wildfires burning to the east and south of us. Probably in the north as well, I don't know for sure. It's the particulates in the smoke that do me in at times like this. Well, in addition to the heat.

I have my Botanical Blur top assembled but the final seams still need to be pressed. Hopefully I'll be able to find another cool morning in which to get that done. In the meantime, I've been looking for things I can do without needing the iron so much. Parts Dept. to the rescue!

I have an embarrassment of blocks I could do something with in the Parts Department. I chose to pull out the postage stamp stars I'd made in conjunction with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge the last couple of years. The ones I hadn't used elsewhere anyway. An actual rainbow quilt does not seem to be in my future. This time it was the pink and purple stars that made it to the design wall. There were enough for three columns of six blocks each. With sashing and alternate columns I could easily make a quilt top that would finish at 48" x 60." The next question was what those alternate columns could be.

My first thought was the multitude of Shoo fly or Hole in the Barn Door blocks I've made out of scraps. But I felt I wanted to keep to a pretty controlled color palette this time around. I have used, and enjoy, Karla Alexander's stack, cut, and shuffle method for making crazy patch and string blocks. Crazy blocks don't require a lot of pressing inbetween steps. My only frustration with this process is that the same prints repeat with more frequency than I care for. My solution was to make six different stacks of six assorted prints each and then mix them up as thoroughly as I could manage. Here's a sample of three of the blocks.

That gave me 36 blocks; I needed 40. (They will finish at six inches each.)

This is when my Shoo fly and Barn Door blocks came into play. There were a couple in the collection that I'd feared I would have a hard time using - ever. As it turned out, this was the place for them!

I've sewn the columns together but have yet to press those seams so I can finish assembling the top. Hopefully there will be a time for that soon. 😊

The Dark Side of the Rainbow

We're coming up on the end of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2017. I've made a handful of blocks out of my dark neutrals, which it the prompt for November if you aren't ready to start putting blocks together into quilt tops.

I honestly thought there were more than that! I wonder if I've put some away without photographing them? It's a distinct possibility. In which case they are somewhere in these piles:

The tallest pile, at the top of the picture, are my postage stamp stars on white backgrounds. That stack is 4" tall. I haven't counted the individual blocks yet. The pile of 16 Patch blocks is only an inch tall. In the foreground are my stars that have light neutral or dark grounds. That's not all of them; I think there are others in a bag in the Parts Dept. drawer.

Right now I'm finding this stack of stars overwhelming. I doubt there are enough 16 Patch blocks to go the distance on their own but I might be able to create a reasonably sized top using a combination of stars and 16 Patches. That was the plan back in January. A quick ruffle through the 16 Patch blocks shows me I'll probably have to make up a few blocks in specific colors if I want a balanced rainbow effect. 

I'm linking up with the other RSC bloggers, many of whom are actually building quilts out their scrappy rainbow blocks!

Not Quite So Pink

This is the last Saturday of October, thus the final pink link party over at So Scrappy. I've been making blocks all week long, but not all of them have been pink. ;- )

I might have made more if that visitor hadn't come to hang out on the design wall!

There was one new postage stamp star and a 16 Patch like I've been doing all year. Somewhere along the way I was seized with the urge to make Churn Dash blocks. But I had to make a couple of Turkey Tracks too!

The pink scraps tended toward coral for me this week. I haven't used them all up but I think I'm done for the time being.

Head on over to Angela's blog to see who else has been playing in pink this week. I'll be back tomorrow with a report on the needlework I've been doing lately.

Penguins in Pink Scarves

There's a new arrival on the horizon in our clan. To that end I've been pondering baby quilt options. At one time I purchased somewhere between a half and a yard of this delightful print:

Since the baby is due at the end of January I thought this might be more appropriate than the more summery print I was considering. The trouble with both prints is that their framed images do not fussy cut to easy-to-use sizes. Eventually I discovered that I could isolate a 15" square of this print without compromising the penguins. Some while after that it dawned on me that I could make 6" blocks, separate them with 3" sashes, and come up with alternate 15" units. There's nothing like a good plan to get things moving. :- )

After I cut the 15.5" squares from the yardage I realized I could also cut 3.5" patches featuring the penguins and snowflakes. I'd have preferred to have included more of the borders around the images but I could make 3.5" patches work. In fact, they led me to the solution for the 6" blocks.

Except that there weren't quite enough snowflake panels to go the distance. Fortunately it didn't take long to come up with a solution for that little dilemma.

So now I have a top that looks like this:

I'd really like to add an outer border but don't have enough of that black print to do the job. I do, however, have some penguins left over that I could use for cornerstones in the border.

We'll see if I can find a suitable border print in the coming week.

While I was working on this project I came across a long-forgotten pink remnant. I cut it up to create a 10" Wrench and another Turkey Tracks block. Over the course of the week I also managed to get a a few other blocks made out of pink scraps so I'm linking this post with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. :- )

Scrap Happy and Pink

Today is another of those opportunities for me to show what I've been doing with scraps in general for Scrap Happy Day hosted by Kate and Gun and scraps in pink in accordance with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela. :- )

I'll begin with my scrappy pink blocks. Four 8" blocks...

And five 6" blocks:

 Then there's this quilt top I pulled together out of the Part Department:

It began with the 12" Lego blocks I'd been making out of my 2" scrap strips in conjunction with recent Scrap Happy Days (on the 15th of each month).

I'd reached a point where I was pretty much out of scrap strips and didn't feel like cutting more so I went fishing in my orphan blocks to see what I could pair up with the Lego blocks.

I ended up using an assortment of 9" blocks in two columns to separate three columns of Lego blocks. I felt a border would bring it nicely up to size and corral all the activity in the various blocks. But with all those prints and colors, what would work? The fussy cut patches in some of the 9" blocks lent a juvenile flavor to the quilt so I looked among my more whimsical prints first. Ta daa:

There was enough to put a 3" (finished) border all the way around the flimsy. The eventual quilt will finish at about 60" x 78," a good size for either child or adult. I even had yardage in my stash that worked for backing. :D

I'm linking up with the RSC over at So Scrappy, and you can see the rest of the Scrap Happy Day efforts by visiting Tall Tales from Chiconia (Kate's blog).

The First Week of October

I'm happy to report that I've had more good days than bad as we've moved into October. Yippee! I've completed four quilt tops and prepared backs for them. You've already seen the Piggies in the Garden and my Bee, Myself and I quilt top (in the last post). The other two will be revealed in time. For now I want to share the blocks I've been making most recently.

If you're a regular visitor you know there are turkey tracks all over my Nest.

One more showed up this week, along with a wrench and one more orange 16 patch block for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge effort this year.

8" 16 patch, 10" Wrench, 9" Turkey Tracks

Orange was the RSC color for September. Now we're working with our pink scraps. I have more scraps in pink than any other color (except maybe blue) because of the pink quilt I made for my granddaughter last year. I started with a couple of my larger pieces and made 8" basket blocks.

Those Hole in the Barn Door blocks are 6" and were assembled between seams (as leaders and enders) before I realized pink was the focal color for the month.That worked out well, didn't it? :-)
I'll be linking up with the other Rainbow scrappers over at So Scrappy.

When I went to the kitchen for breakfast this morning I saw something unusual on our back deck:

Can you see them? I think it's a pair of Northern Flickers. They didn't look exactly like the images I've seen elsewhere of Flickers but they don't look anything like other bird species that would be found around here.

I was shooting through our sliding glass door and the screen because I was afraid of scaring them away. The strangest thing was that both would be perfectly still for a time and then simultaneously start a sort of head dance. It's fall here, which seems an odd time for a courting ritual to take place. I guess I'll have to find out whether they migrate and then breed elsewhere!

All Over the Map

First, before the weekend gets away from me altogether, let me show you the last of the light neutral blocks I've made out of my scrap patches in conjunction with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. There have been two sets of blocks I don't think I've shared yet. These were made over a week ago:

And these I whipped up on the last day of the month:

I don't know if I've said it before but I was surprised at how soothing I find these blocks to be visually. While I was assembling them the voices in my head were going on about the lack of contrast and how awful they were going to look. Take that, Miss Pessimist! Next we get to play in our orange scraps. I've already put away the neutrals and brought out the oranges. What a pitiful pile it is! I believe I'm going to have to create some new orange scraps... what a pity. ;- )

I'm linking up with the other RSC bloggers late though it may be.

On another note, Claire over at Knitnqwilt reblogged a post by Melanie McNeil that is very timely and wise regarding the donation of quilts and other goods to victims of major disasters. Let me do my part to spread the word by suggesting you hop on over to Catbird Quilt Studio to read it for yourself.

For those friends who have left comments on recent posts of mine let me just say that I've been taking full advantage of slightly cooler weather and healthier hours to accomplish things other than responding to comments or reading blogs. Apparently we're looking at a week's worth of hot weather with possibly smoke tainted air so you may not hear from me in the immediate future. I don't believe I've ever been so anxious for cool, gloomy days to return!

Heat and Smoke

The cool, damp Pacific Northwest has been suffering from an unusual heat wave this week. We are not accustomed, in this area, to temperatures over 80 (F). We may reach 80 at the peak of summer - which we are in - but anything above that is record breaking. We broke records this week. We've also been the recipients of the smoke from wildfires burning to the north of us in British Columbia, Canada. Needless to say, I've had a tough week. Even the dog didn't want to go outside yesterday. I don't think it was the heat that bothered her, it was the smoke in the air. We don't have cloud cover right now, we have haze. Thank goodness for the portable air conditioning unit my husband purchased last year (or was it the year before?). We've needed it to clean the air as much as for cooling. It looks like we might be in for another full week of this kind of weather too. Yikes. No rain in sight. I've been out to water my flowers (with my mask on of course) but we may have to invest in some soaker hose to keep the hedges on two sides of the house from drying out.

David Austin rose "Charlotte"

When it gets this warm I'm reluctant to use the iron, and I use the iron frequently when I piece quilt blocks. Consequently I have a pile of piecing on the ironing board, waiting to be pressed.

The RSC color for August was announced as light neutrals. I quickly pieced up three 4.5" postage stamp units and a 16 patch block (8" finished). On the board we also have a couple of 6" scrappy Barn Door blocks and a pile of HST's for bear paw units. Earlier in the week I pulled out this work in progress...

... and I'm thinking I'll use the bear paws in a border treatment. I may repeat the flying geese too, we'll see. I started this project last year in August and haven't been inspired to work on it since I put it away last fall. I've been referring to this as Camping Princess in my mind but now I'm thinking I should call it August Nights! 

I plan to link up with the other RSC bloggers Saturday morning. My apologies to those of you who have come to visit, been so kind to leave a comment, and have not heard back from me. Blame it on my weakened endocrine system.

It's My Own Fault

Today's headache I mean. No sooner did I recover from the last one (brought on by another hour in the vet clinic with Luna. She's finally beginning to act more like her old self, thank goodness.) than I braved the sale at my local quilt shop in order to get some more appropriate fabric for backgrounds for my embroidery project.

Of course I couldn't resist a couple of other pieces, just because. ;- ) Turns out I already have some of the light orange batik, fourth down from the top. Guess I really like that print and color!

It's been deliciously cool in the mornings this week. I ventured out one day to find the first bloom on one of my new David Austin rose bushes.

This is the Queen of Sweden. Judging from the spots on the leaves some bug is also enjoying my new plant.

Here it is the next day, before I brought it into the house. There's at least one other bud on this bush. I found two buds on the Charlotte rose bush. They will bloom yellow. Looking forward to that!

I've been pondering which caravan to embroider next, and what theme to give it. That's partly why I went out for fabric. I thought a broader choice of backgrounds might help move things along. Most of what's in my stash is too busy or too loud to stay in the background. In the meantime I sewed up some more blue scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Managed to get in a few other scrappy blocks as well.

So in spite of the headaches and recovery periods this week I've been relatively productive. You couldn't tell by the number of blue scraps and remnants laying around. I'll link up with the other Rainbow bloggers on Saturday. We should be getting a new color prompt soon now that I think about it!

Scrap Happy Day and RSC Twofer

Not exactly a once-in-a-blue-moon event but occasionally Scrap Happy Day hosted by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden falls on the same day as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge link party. So you'll get to see more scraps than ever if you choose to follow all the links. :- ) I actually have some blocks that fall into both categories to share. That's also become something of a rarity! 

The color prompt for July for the RSC is blue. That worked out well for me as I was just finishing up my patriotic Welcome Blanket Project quilt. So my first blocks are in darker blues and patriotic prints.

As it turns out, I have lots of blue scraps. They are about evenly divided between these darker hues and lighter, brighter blues.

Hmm, I seem to have photographed the some of the blocks twice!

So far there are only the two 16 patch blocks. I bet there are enough patches sitting on my sewing table for at least two more. And of course there's more fabric that could be cut into patches. ;- ) I don't have specific goals or plans for any of these blocks yet, I'm just making them and adding them to my Parts Department for the time being.

The stars will finish at 8," the other blocks will be 6" finished.

I've even made up a couple of blocks out of batik scraps.

These are all 6" blocks.

Those that have no blue in them I'm counting as my Scrap Happy Day effort for this month. I've been making Scrappy Trip blocks each month up 'til now but just wasn't in the mood this time around. 

You can check in with the RSC every Saturday. Scrap Happy Day is the 15th of each month. You're welcome to join us if you're not already playing along. :- ) 

End of Yellow, Beginning of Blue

Since this is the first day of July it's also the first day for the new color in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. It just so happens that the color for July is blue. The quilt I made for the Welcome Blanket Project was made almost entirely from scraps and is predominantly blue so I'm sharing it one more time. :- )

If you'd like to see how this quilt came to be you can read about it here and here.

I made a few more yellow blocks before the end of June too:

Now it's time to put the remaining yellow patches away and get out the blue ones! If you'd like to see what others are doing with their rainbow scraps you can click over to Angela's blog for the link party. In the meantime, I hope all my friends in the USA have a safe and happy Independence Day celebration!

Scrapping Along

While I was busy playing with yellow this week someone else decided to make herself more comfortable than her fleece blanket alone allows.

To my shame, I have two tall-ish stacks of prints that have been living on the floor of the studio because there's no room for them on the shelves. I haven't been able to work fast enough or hard enough to clear space for them yet. And then I was blessed to be given this bundle of fat quarters for my participation in Hands 2 Help this year!

They will be fun to use; the colors and prints are happy and whimsical. However, this week my efforts have been focused on my yellow scraps. I've had to pace myself as it appears I've abused my hands and wrists recently, perhaps through the spurt of gardening I did. It was bad enough that I called my osteopath for an appointment. She's booked up (and out of town) until the first week of July. I made the appointment but I'm hoping if I pamper myself I won't need to see her by then. Nevertheless, I made quite a few blocks this week!

It was fun to make a few boats again. If you look closely you'll be able to see that I've thrown in some batik scraps too. I've pretty well decimated my yellow scrap patches at this point. I could easily make more - well, maybe not easily, but I have plenty of yellow that could be cut up. ;- )

I'm linking up with the other rainbow scrappers over at So Scrappy. There's so much scrappy goodness over there!

Sunny Saturday

I didn't get many green blocks made per the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in May. I  doubled my output during the last couple of days of the month, but not without a bit of a challenge to begin with!

Once I corrected that mishap I made five more blocks:

That orange shoo-fly block at the bottom is actually on a gray-green background so I'm counting it with the others. ;- )

The focus color for June has been announced as yellow. Yippee! One of my more favorite colors! I've already made seven blocks with yellow, two that include both green and yellow. I was able to make up one more green shoo-fly too.

I'm linking up with the others playing with their rainbow scraps over at So Scrappy. Everyone is doing their own thing; there's lots of inspiration to be had if you're so inclined!