ScrapHappy Saturday

Another week has zoomed past. We have now finished two full weeks of school and things are starting to settle into a routine. Days are busy, but all with good things. We had a nice trip to Sarasota last weekend to look at Anna's wedding venue. 

Sydney has started her last year of college classes. Ryan is doing well at his new job and Kurt was travelling for work. This week I had a quick half day conference in Orlando and open house night at school.  I also finished sewing flags and wanted to bring my machine home from school, but it was pouring rain when I was coming home. That means that I can spend a bit more time hand stitching though and get some of the hexies that I prepped in the car put together. I hope that you are finding some time to sew as well. Believe it or not, there is still one more aqua Saturday in the month. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Ocean Hues

  Am I just in love with aqua because I live near the ocean? That may be true, but I am enjoying the range of shades that live between blue and green. I finished my school work early last weekend and enjoyed an afternoon of digging though the scrap bin and cutting out hexies. I have a few prepped, and the rest will come along today in the car. We are driving to St. Pete to look at Anna's wedding venue. Plenty of time to stitch and relax and enjoy. 

    How is your weekend shaping up? I hope that you are finding some time to relax and enjoy your fabric while exploring creative options. I am savoring some down time after a busy first week of school and looking forward to recharging to do it all over again. The teachers and kids were all so excited to get their felt for flags. I can't wait to see what the came up with. I was subbing for a new 7th grade homeroom all week and they want to be Abreu's Artists. Ms. Abreu should be here next week to help them move on the the next step. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Aquamarine Vibes

 

I am on a bit of a rainbow sewing streak today, but not with my beautiful aqua scraps. Instead. I have finally acquired enough felt to make our homeroom flags for school. I used to get felt from Joann's, so this year had to scramble a bit. Amazon and Michaels both had felt yardage available, but a few of the colors came from separate vendors and the shipping was extra. They aren't a school approved vendor, and that caused a few wrinkles, but eventually, with persistence, I was able to acquire felt! So today I will turn these into flags before school starts on Monday. It is just a bit of quick cutting and one L shaped seam for each flag to make a pocket for the flagpole. It should go pretty quick. 

School starts on Monday. It has been a busy few weeks. I used to just go to preplanning and sit while other people presented before getting my own work done. Now, I am the one presenting, and that takes a bit more effort. Then teachers need things, and I get busy helping and supporting them. But now the kids will be back, and once the teachers are in their classroom teaching, I can get back to getting some of my work done. That is the idea anyway. I will let you know next week how that goes. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - New Month and Switching Gears

It is time to put away the purple and dig into aqua. I had to scramble a bit to find the aqua, because my sewing room has been taken over by 2 children who are home at the moment. I did unpack my purples from the summer along with a panel from Alaska and a nice stack of hexagons that were sewn on the road. 

Ryan has been home for a bit while he works full time and finishes his degree, but his lease only ended last week. Sydney is back for a month between the end of her internship and going back to school again. They both came with all the stuff from their college apartments. Sydney doesn't have quite as much. She just moved out of her summer sublet and still has an apartment from last year. Ryan however, no longer has an apartment, and has not yet decided on his future plans. He initially thought he would move to another office with the same company after graduation, but he really likes the office here and might just decide to stay. He didn't think that he was going to keep the furniture that we cobbled together for him from garage sales and Facebook marketplace, but somehow he fit it all in a car and hauled it home again. Until he decides on his plan, I will need to figure out how to make space to sew.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Last Purple Weekend

First, let me apologize again for missing Saturday last week. I love Kurt's family, but they can be a bit overwhelming. I got totally bogged down getting ready for their visit, and then when they got here, it was all hands on deck to keep things running. I feel horrible for forgetting to post. 

Today is the last Saturday for Purple. August first doesn't roll around until next Friday though, so feel free to spend a few days wrapping things up. Next month will be aqua. I never used to sew with aqua, I just put everything into either blue or green. There are too many fabrics though, that don't fit into either of those well. Living near the beach, I gained a new appreciation for all of the shades that live between blue and green. If you are not an aqua segregator, you can dig back into blues and greens to look for some oddballs. Both of those colors are always so big for me that I look forward to having some more time to try to tame them. 

We are probably in a car right now, headed back to Florida again, but I am writing this on Friday night between packing and sorting to make sure that I am not a bad blogger for two weeks in a row. I am busy now finishing up some school work and we are just back from a driving tour in a U-Haul. Spending many hours in a U-Haul is not my idea of fun, but it seemed like a good idea when Kurt thought of it. His father is getting ready to downsize into a continuous care retirement community and doesn't want all of his furniture to leave the family. Anna has moved from her tiny college apartment to a slightly larger version and has found that she has empty rooms to fill. So we did a shuffling dance and drove around in circles for two days to deliver some things to her while also upgrading our dining room set and taking a few odds and ends for the cabin. 

This is a bear ottoman that matches a bear Christmas tree. It seems to fit the vibe here. We are tired and sore from both lifting heavy things and from bouncing in a big ole rental truck. Getting old is no fun! I hope to be able to catch up again once I am back home and settled into a more normal routine. I am back at school starting on Monday, but it is still a couple of weeks before the kiddos come back, so there will be some transitional time to adjust to normal life. It has been lovely to hide away in the mountains and try to ignore the world, but real life is just around the corner. Please use the linky below to share your purple passions, I am going to schedule this to go up nice and early so that I can check from the road to make sure it all works. 

Cabin Projects

I just realized that it is Sunday! I completely blew past scraphappy Saturday. We had Kurt's family come to visit this weekend and it has been a bit of a blur. It isn't like me to forget the days of the week. I am so sorry! Being out of a normal routine can really lead to issues!
Check out my new quilt ladder! I made it from branches that came from a cherry plum tree that fell down. Actually, about 2/3 of the tree fell down, the other third is still gracefully bordering the driveway. I just found some straight and similarly sized branches and connected them to two by fours cut at a bit of an angle. Now I have a place to hang quilts at the cabin! I have a nice oak rack that I got from someone on Etsy at our main home, but this one fits the vibe here much better. 

This recycling box bench was the other big project last week. 

It holds all the various cans for plastic and carboard and such. I made some pillowcase type liners for each bin that have elastic and can be pulled out to go to the dump. They are washable and should help to encourage Kurt to take the recycling when he goes to take the trash. It also serves as a nice place to sit and take off shoes in the mudroom/laundry room rather than traipsing through the house. So that was the extent of my sewing this week. We are wrapping things up at the cabin and getting ready to head home soon. Sorry again for the mix up on days of the week. I will make sure to auto schedule for next weekend as we are likely to be in transit while helping to move some furniture for Kurt's dad who is getting ready to move into a continuous care neighborhood soon. He is sharing some furniture from the downsizing with Anna and we are going to store some here at the cabin as well. I will get everything prescheduled though in case life goes crazy again. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Purple Passions

 

Check out that purple moose batik. It is one a fabric that I picked up on our trip to Alaska. I got a purple jelly roll to have some purples to play with this month. It is sadly matchy matchy, which is why I usually love scraps so much more than precuts, but I am still happy to have some purple with which to play. How are your purples coming along this month? Misterlinky is below. Please share

Wrapping Up a Week at the Cabin

I had to get a full shot of the hexie diamonds now that the last stitch has been sewn. I searched back through old posts to figure out that I started this quilt in January of 2018. That isn't nearly as long ago as I had guessed. I even linked to some of the design inspirations, but those links seem to have died. A blog is a nice way to remember long term projects like this one that seem to have always existed. 

The backing is a rainbow of fabrics. Since the quilting was done in rows, it didn't interfere much with the hand quilting. From time to time I would start running into a stubborn spot and realize that I was trying to sew along a seam in the back. 

I even got two more sets of snakes done on the new hexie project. It is much easier now that I have them paired and clipped together. One individual snake is pretty flimsy, but when they go together the nesting gives them some stability. I cheated and ordered a purple jelly roll so that I will have some July snakes to add to the collection. 

Yesterday, Kurt decided that we should go out to a winery. I am always so happy to stay home forever. It is nice that he suggests outings to change up the scenery from time to time. It was a very fancy winery and we enjoyed the trip, even though we are not fancy people. After that we watched the fireworks from our own front yard. The local 4-H hosts a show each year and we have a beautiful view from our perch on the side of the mountain. 

We have some tiny tomatoes growing in the garden. It was horribly neglected for a very long time, so I am a bit surprised that anything has survived.  Deer and racoons at most of what we planted, but it is nice to see that a few things are still growing.  I hope you are finding some time to slow down and enjoy the end of the week. Be sure to head over to Kathy's blog to enjoy some slow stitching. 

 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Now in Purple

July is all about purple this year. I think that I mentioned I forgot to bring any of that with me to Virginia. It seems a strange choice for summer, but It it reminds me of blooming wild flowers. Another week at the cabin has zoomed by and I keep chipping away at the list. Most of the main bedroom is painted, but I ran out of paint and the kind that I like comes from Home Depot which is on Kurt's way to work. He worked from home on Thursday and yesterday was a holiday, so it will wait until next week. 

I realized when I started working on recycling bin liners that the only bobbin I had was full of red thread from sewing Christmas stockings. Thanks to next day delivery, I now have a multipack of assorted threads along with some empty bobbins and new rotary blades. After that, I sewed some throw pillows and hemmed some curtains. The big news though it that I took the last stitches on the hexie diamond quilt last night! This is a finish that is years in the making. Every hexagon is lovingly stitched together with rainbow rows of hand quilting to finish it off. 

In addition to the usual cabin projects, it has been quite the week for wildlife spotting. Every time that I look out a window, there seems to be someone looking back at me or peacefully wandering by. 

Usually it is a groundhog, deer or squirrel, but on Wednesday it was this mamma bear. I was chilling on the couch when she just strolled by on the front deck. That was a bit of a surprise! It seems to be a summer of bears for me. I was glad to be safely inside this time and so remembered to get a video. I hope that you are finding some time to sew and recharge your batteries. For those in the US, it is a long holiday weekend. Hurray for more time to create!

Slowdown Sunday

 

There are so many projects that need to be done in Virginia. The mower was broken so we had quite a wheat filed going on. A giant rainstorm tried to wash away the driveway and then some trees fall down. I spent a couple of days cutting downed trees into logs. Then, when I was nice and exhausted, our kind neighbor with a tractor came to help us dig up the old drainpipe under the driveway to put in a bigger and longer version where the water wanted to go. Boy is my back mad at me today. Our dirt always seems to be more rocks than soil. I guess that is what happens when you live on the side of a mountain. 

I think that makes today a perfect time to finish up the hand quilting on my hexie diamonds. All that is left is orange, red and the black ending border. I was smart enough to pack up the correct thread colors which I keep in this adorable tin that came with the scissors. I use a button magnet to keep the needles handy and make sure it is all in my "on the go" zipper pouch for sewing on the go opportunities. I have some cheap school scissors that I use on flights in case TSA objects to sharp objects. Dental floss also has a built in thread cutter in case of emergencies. I am quilting in straight rows with matching 12 wt. pearle cotton thread, so the quilting goes pretty quickly. I marked the rows with a fixion pen, but it is pretty easy to find the center of each block. I have been finishing the edges as I go to the point that Kurt woke up in the middle of the night and pulled it out to snuggle up. He seemed confused when I told him it wasn't done yet. It is a good thing that I used wonder clips instead of pins to keep that last edge secure. 

We are enjoying the deer and they are enjoying the garden. I found some more plants on 75% off clearance at Rural King, so I we will see if they have enough time to grow anything. I think there were peppers and tomatoes. We covered everything in the raised beds with fences and netting to try to keep the wildlife away. Did I mention that my back is really unhappy that I overdid it?  Back to hand quilting with rest breaks to stretch and recover.  I have been streaming quilting videos on youtube. If it weren't for graduate school and my job it would be fun to make some youtube videos. Maybe when I retire?  My next set of classes don't start until next week, so I have plenty of time to relax and enjoy. I plan to enjoy every minute! Are you taking some time to recharge your batteries today? Be sure to visit Kathy for slow stitching Sunday if you are looking for some hand work inspiration.