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. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Home Again

We are back in the continental US again after an amazing trip to Alaska. Truly a once in a lifetime trip full of so many bucket list checkmarks! We had the perfect itinerary with each day better than the one before. 

It looks like both scheduled posts went up as planned while I was away. Orange is wrapping up and I am excited about purple for July. Yay!

We were traveling during the summer solstice and experienced 20 hours and 29 minutes of daylight. Thanks to room darkening curtains we were still able to sleep at night, though with the 4-5 hour time change and extended daylight, we were never quite sure what time it should be. Fjords, trains, moose and bears were all on my list of things to see and I was not disappointed. 

We got two train trips! One up a mountain in Skagway and the other from Denali into Anchorage at the end of the trip. 

I made sure to have some hexies along for slow stitching during those trips. There was also some stitching time on buses and a long days of glacier viewing in Glacier Bay and the College Fjords

This is my progress so far on the new hexie snake quilt.  I took some time one evening after Kurt was out cold at 8:30 to pair up lights and darks. I still have plenty of yellow and blues to stitch, but sadly, I didn't remember to bring along any purples for July. I did pick up some purple fabric at a quilt shop during our trip though. There was a shop in Skagway that was looking for seasonal help. Housing provided.  So tempting. 

Our day in Glacier National Park was amazing! Glaciers of course, but also whales, grizzly bears, sea otters and bald eagles. We should have brought the good camera to be able to zoom in on some of them for better photos. 

Then we moved on to the land portion of the trip with stops in Denali state and National Parks. Our goal was to get in some good hiking. I think our best day was 23,000 steps. 

Everyone was so worried about how dangerous the moose were, I was safely on a bus headed into Denali for this sighting and never saw one during our hikes. We hiked so much! Up mountains and around lakes and through a big rain day in Ketchikan. So many beautiful sights!

There was only one hike we missed. The last lodge we visited had a treehouse, but the trail was closed for a moose sighting. We kept trying, but eventually it was time to head back. 

We ended with one night in Anchorage before our flight back home which is when we had our scariest wildlife encounter. We were on a walking path. Not a hiking trail, but a path with moms and kids and joggers. Quite populated. Then suddenly this black bear came rambling around a corner headed straight at us. We "calmy" reversed our path and warned a nice mom cycling with her three kids that there was a bear coming our way. Then we all just stood wondering where to go as he ambled right past us and scrambled over the fence, apparently confused by all of us staring at him. Who would have thought that our scary wildlife encounter would be in downtown Anchorage and not in a national park?

ScrapHappy Saturday - Vacation Edition

If everything is going well, then I am gazing over the fjords of Alaska while stitching away on my new hex-snake quilt. I finished one orange set in car, but made sure to go through all the orange scraps and use my new die to cut as many sets of four as I had varieties of orange. So hopefully I will come back with a few nice oranges to start a new row. I am not sure whether I will sew the rows together or keep them in pairs for now for portability. The plan is to have a row of each color with the intertwined light and darks. It feels strange to be working with such large shapes after the last hex-diamond quilt, but this is the more standard size I think with 1 inch sides. 

I cut up all of my school junk mail to make the hexies and it felt great to clear out a bunch of stuff while still making something useful. I use cardstock weight papers and then sew through the fabric but not the paper. I put a hole punch in each hexie and then will use a chopstick or crochet hook to pop out the paper after the blocks are all sewn together. The die cuts a slightly smaller seam allowance than I would leave if I were cutting the fabric by hand, but it sure is quick and easy for tackling a big stack of scraps. I did find a couple of forgotten papers in the last hexie quilt as I was doing the hand quilting, it was smaller hexies with bigger seam allowances, so the papers weren't easy to see. I don't think that will be a problem this time. These papers would be hard to miss! I was watching Last Homely House on You tube and she uses lighter weight paper and sews through both the paper and fabric. There are so many ways to do English Paper piecing and none of them is wrong. I used to use glue basting, but I really hated trying to get the papers out after, so this way works best for me. I hope that your oranges are coming along well. I should be back from my trip any day now and will check in then with updates on the new color for July. Next Saturday is still an orange day, but I will try to post the new color a bit early as I know not everyone is overflowing on orange. This is also a good month to catch up if you got too busy in any of the earlier months. I know my greens could use a bit more attention. It is my second most abundant shade after blue. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Orange Haze of Summer

It is finally officially summer! I had two days of a leadership conference this week and then we headed out to the mountains! Just enough time to make sure everything is packed and then we are off to Alaska. I will schedule posts for this Saturday and next while hoping for the best. I can at least check on this one, I have it set to go out super early so that I can make sure it is up before we leave for the airport. I try to never get Wi-Fi on cruises because it forces me to go offline and relax a bit. Kurt might need to check in for work, so at least we won't be completely cut off if something drastic happens. Right now I am busy making sure that I have enough kindle books and audio books to keep myself entertained on the days at sea. We have whale watching glacier trekking and a train ride scheduled for the days in port and then there is time at some national parks for hiking. 

I carried the hex-diamonds along in the car for hand quilting. I am mostly done with the yellow row and started on the orange. I made sure to pack a spool of red thread and then one of the variegated for the dark row. This one should see a finish before too long. I have never done the knife edge before, so it isn't perfect, but I love the borderless look for this quilt. It has been in progress for the better part of a decade, but I am still happy every time I work on it. How are your oranges coming along? 

ScrapHappy Saturday Orange

 

The hazy days of summer are starting to settle in. Yesterday was my second day of vacation and I hand quilted for  most of it. How are your oranges coming along? I need to spend a bit of time cutting up a few more squares for my leader and ender project.

Then I hope to get to the orange rows on the hexie quilt. I have two days of work next week but then it should truly be summer. I am looking forward to having some time to catch up on projects. How are your oranges?

Last Green Day

It is the last day of May and I hope that you have made some progress on greens. June is going to be orange this year, which is quite a change from green. I will admit to having trouble finding any orange at all in my stash when the Rainbow Scrap Challenge began, but I make an effort now to have at least some representation for all the colors so that no month is left feeling sad. I have, amazingly, had several days this week to sew! Monday was a holiday, and so I got worked ahead on my graduate school assignments for the week so that I had an entire day to sew. It was lovely. Then yesterday marked the official first day of summer vacation. And so I sewed some more. There are some greens working their way into the leaders and enders project. 

And the log cabin blocks are done! I just have a few of the large subunits to sew together and I might be able to load this guy onto the frame before our vacation. It will take some digging to find all of the pieces to extend the frame to its full length. The final size is 112 by 112. First though, I have a summer college application bootcamp next week, but only for partial days. Then the next week there is some district leadership conference, but only for two days. So it isn't fully vacation time yet, but it is looking more like fun and less like work every day. 

How are your greens wrapping up? Misterlinky is below. I would love to see how everyone is coming along. I just spotted a couple of rotated blocks in the log cabin quilt. Isn't it funny how you never see them until the photo is posted?