Thanksgiving!

I have been on a bit of an organizing binge lately. It started because the blue bin was overflowing. So now there is one bin for light blue and one for dark blue. If I had known ahead of time I was going to have two dark bins, the first one would have been darker, but now they are not overflowing. I still need black/grey and brown. 

I also pulled out strings, crumbs and triangles for their own sections. For fun, I started sewing these 2.5 inch strips out of crumbs. I might cut them down and use them around smaller squares. These were WOW layer cake squares that I got when Joann's was going out of business. They are too white and large, but I will still keep sewing some more crumb squares. They are small and simple to make a batch on a week night. 

In graduate school news for the week, my dissertation topic has been approved.  That means I am officially a doctoral candidate. I just need to wait for my committee members to be assigned. Now one of my two classes for this term is over. If I can power through a couple of assignments this weekend then I will have a nice long break for the holidays. 

I definitely have some plans to sew some more today. I have an entire week of for Thanksgiving! It hasn't quite sunk in yet, but I am looking forward to it. I have a few flimsies ready to quilt. That would be a fun way to spend a holiday. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Tangents

 I spent an evening this week catching up on you tube videos and taking the paper out of the string blocks that I brought back from Virginia. Some of these will be turned into circle blocks, but some will be cut down into 8 inch blocks with white sashing strips in a rail fence setting. I spent another evening sketching block ideas of graph paper. One extra evening was spent trimming down and sorting through more strings. At this point it is hard to walk through the sewing space, but it was still a fun week. I got my concept paper for my graduate school dissertation back as approved last night. So excited for that milestone! Today we are off to see the school play which is Beetlejuice, but there might still be some time to sew mixed in there. Perhaps a bit of a clean up and some hexie time? How is your weekend shaping up?

ScrapHappy Saturday - wrapping up and planning ahead

 

We are in Virginia right now on a weekend getaway instead of in Jamaica. We have resort credits and flight credits and can hopefully reschedule for spring break. I thought it would be good to bring some sewing with me. I've been thinking for a while about what I could bring here to have an ongoing sewing project that would be separate enough from everything else. And so I decided on strings, I had quite a few, and so that led to a bit of sorting out. 

That led to plans for what to do with strings, and this is one possibility. I stuffed in all the strings that would fit in my carry on along with a phonebook. I will see what I can make out of all of that. 

How is your end of year starting to wrap up?  Are you finishing up or starting to plan ahead?

ScrapHappy Saturday - November!

 

Welcome to a new month! There is no new color for November, instead it is time to collect and assemble.  My month needs to begin with a bit of a cleanup. I've got new scraps and partial collections and I am not sure what else all going on. Figuring that out is first on my list. 

Thursday trivia was Halloween themed. All the kids came to school in costumes yesterday which was festive if not educational. We will definitely not be headed to Jamaica next weekend. Our resort was spared the worst and hopes to welcome guests back before the end of the month. We might be able to reschedule for spring break. I hate to go to work when I have already taken time off, so maybe we will just head to Virginia instead. Kurt will already be there for work, so I could join him for some fall fun. I could chop some wood and do some projects. Not exactly the same as a beach vacation, but it could still be fun. 

Las night a palm tree cast a shadow on the side of a condo as we walked home from date night. How is your end of the year starting to shape up? There are two months left to assemble your blocks and think about what can still turn into a quilt before the new year begins. Misterlinky is below. Please share with us all. 

ScrapHappy Saturday

 

It feels like fall in Florida. I was at car loop yesterday and wasn't sweating!  Then this classic car came through all decked out for Halloween and I just had to smile. 

I couldn't do any graduate school work on Monday when the AWS outage affected Canvas which is the learning management system that we use. I took advantage of that down time to play with hexies a little bit. I didn't get any new blocks finished, but I fondled fabric and did organizing and planning. 

Today we are watching the tropics. Florida is fine, but Jamaica is not looking good, and we have a trip booked there in just a few weeks. That will be interesting!

How is your weekend shaping up?

ScrapHappy Saturday - Home Again

The hexie snakes are growing slowly. I added a few more to even out the short rows. Eventually they will catch up to the two long rows. 

I was at school late on Thursday for FAFSA night when my neighbor texted to ask If I wanted some fabric. She found a bunch at an estate sale and wanted to share!  I am finding a lot of great tone on tone shades that will be lovely for my rainbow quilts. 

And here is the view on our walk home from date night last night. Sometimes I just remember to take some time to appreciate the view. I have a bit of schoolwork to do today and then I would love to turn some of the new fabric into some hexies. How is your weekend shaping up?

 

ScrapHappy Saturday - The Beginning of the End of the Year

We are at the cabin this weekend because Monday is a teacher workday. It has been raining constantly in Florida and here it is crisp fall weather with meadows of prancing deer. We had spirit week as school and then had to cancel the flag football game yesterday. We will try again next week. My seniors should be busy finishing up early action applications this weekend. Three Florida schools have moved to October 15 deadlines which does a great job of getting the kids moving early. 

This was our sunrise this morning. We have some trees to plant this afternoon and then will take some time to enjoy fall color and perhaps clear the driveway a bit of fallen leaves. I also have a literature review to write for my dissertation concept paper, so there will be some inside time next to the fire as well. 

I love the end of the year at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Even though it hasn't been a hyper productive sewing year for me, I still love to think about rounding out block collections and finishing up quilts. 

Last weekend I finished sewing together my leader and ender project for this year which I think shall be called Starburst. Doesn't it look like the multicolored square candies? Also, the sunrise kind of colorwash idea is also a starburst. So it works on two levels. 

I also added some more hexie snakes to the collection and started to pay with the layout. I am thinking of rotating the dark sides of adjacent colors toward the center to create a kind of seam. Then the next thought was that I might run the rows vertically instead of horizontally. I didn't actually change them on the design wall, I just rotated the photo to try out the plan. Plenty of time to make those decisions though. For now I am just slowly making each row longer. The summer Alaska rows got a lot of love during days watching glaciers and riding on trains. The others will slowly catch up during quiet days at home. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Fall Fun

 

Yesterday was flag voting! This was one of my favorites. I still need to tally votes. Several classes turned in paper ballots because of the new cell phone ban, so I still need to add those in to the digital vote tally that happened automatically. I will share photos of some of the winners next week. 

I realized last week that I had almost enough blocks for a complete quilt with this years leaders and enders project. I decided on a colorwashish sort of sun bust arrangement with amorphous edges. I didn't have equal numbers of all blocks because some months were busier than others. I realized that I needed a few more purple and blue blocks to complete my quilt and then whipped those up in a hurry. 

Then I failed to get a photo of the final layout before starting to web the top. I have three more columns to add before I can start sewing the rows together. It feels so good to see a random assortment of blocks collected throughout the year turn into a quilt. We need another not too large lap quilt for the cabin, so this one will get put to use right away. 

How are you blocks rounding out as we get a bit closer to the end? This was obviously not a hugely productive year for me with graduate school going on, so I am pretty proud to be able to make one full quilt from start to finish while moving a few more along the road. It isn't a lot, but it is what I can do  right now. On the graduate school front, I got my dissertation topic approved this week! Now I just need to flesh out the details today and start digging in a bit. It looks to be a rainy and windy day here. We worried last weekend about a hurricane only to have it go the other way and then some sort of tropical mess just popped up right over us. Sounds like a good excuse to stay in a sew!

ScrapHappy Saturday - Falling

I always start to think about rounding out my collections as the end of the year approaches. I was in a hand sewing mood last weekend and started to add to my short rows on the hexie snake quilt. It takes longer to see progress on hand stitching projects, but there are quite a few new blocks up there compared to last weekend. 

That had me digging through my drawers of squares looking for sets of four. I think I will dig through some more this morning to fill up my leaders and enders supply. I haven't really got a main sewing project going on right now. I was thinking about finishing up the flimsy for my log cabin quilt this morning? I also have a quilt on the frame. Maybe I should pull out a UFO bin and dig in?  So many options. 

I spent Sunday last week digitizing slides that Kurt's dad sent home with us this summer. Here is one of Kurt and I at my senior prom. We were so young! This was one of the more recent photos.

This is Kurt and his brother with their father in England when he did a research sabbatical in 1969. 

September is almost gone. A new month is always about a new color here at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and so as you tidy up the light and bright greens and blues, it is time to shift to the darker shades of fall. Brown and black are ready for their turn this month. I know that some of you avoid the darker shades in rainbow quilts, so this is also a great time play with your light neutrals or to start rounding out your collections. The goal is always to start assembling blocks in November so that quilting can commence in December. How are your blocks coming together? Mister linky is below. Please share your progress. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - a Pause

 There is a current moment of calm. A couple of weeks between classes, a lack of any unusual events. It is blissful. Last Saturday I did some sorting and organizing. Sunday I sat in a comfy chair and quietly hand sewed hexies. I started to rough out a plan for the hexie snakes. So far it seems wider than it is long. With hand stitching, there is always plenty of time for design decisions though, so I will let it evolve slowly like the stitches. 

Even though Kurt and I were both in town all week, he had a meeting one night and I had a meeting on a different night, so we didn't spend all that much time together. That seems to happen a lot, so it was nice to walk to one of our favorite date night restaurants yesterday. 

Then the sun came up beautifully this morning and I ready to head down to the sewing room and putter. Not a bad plan for a quiet Saturday. How is your weekend shaping up? Misterlinky is below, please share your progress and plans.