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).

Seriously??!!

All the embroidery I've been doing lately as been done with needles out of a package of assorted sizes. I've learned that the largest and the finest ones are not generally useful for the work I'm doing. It took some effort, but I finally figured out the size of the needle I prefer. Of course there's a limited number of that size in the package. When you've got four projects going at once and you misplace a needle what are you going to do? Buy more needles of course. And I wanted to get a packet of needles all the same size, not another assortment.

My go-to online retailer these days is Amazon.com. I wasn't confident they would have the needles I wanted but to my surprise and delight they did. :D There were a couple of books on my radar so I ordered them at the same time. I didn't really expect all three items to be shipped in the same package - that would have been too efficient. What I did not anticipate was that all three items would be packed and shipped separately, from the same location (as far as I know) and on the same day. Each book was in its' own padded envelope. In my mind that would have made sense for the needles as well. However, this is how the package of needles was shipped:

For reference, this is the box known as A1.

It's a good thing I knew what to look for in the box!

Not only were they under the air pillows, they'd slid under the flap on the bottom of the box.

Ta daa!

Now I can start yet another project without fear of being short a needle. But why the needles couldn't have been slipped in with one of the books I doubt I will ever understand.

More Embroidery

Since I signed up for Nancy's limited edition floss club - a monthly delivery of six skeins of her lovely hand dyed floss - I've been looking for opportunities to put those lovelies to good use. I used the hand dyed floss exclusively for my sister's needlepoint case but that was only two colors (see previous post). I've also been using a dark green of Nancy's for the scrolling on the pair of stamped pillowcases I bought on sale recently.

Until this weekend I didn't know what I would do for the flowers. I didn't particularly care for the palette suggested by the pillowcase packaging. I've been working with brighter hues lately as they are nearly always my first choice. Like in this friendship block for example:

Much of the floss I've received from Nancy is in more muted tones however. I have enough in that collection now that I was able to pull focal colors and shades in three different hues for the pillowcases.

They're going to be autumnal pillowcases, that much is certain!

Nancy is sponsoring yet another give away. Hop on over to have a look at what's on offer. :- )