ScrapHappy Saturday

 This will soon be my new sewing room. 

 Right now it is full of all of the things Anna left behind.  It will be wonderful to set up my machine again and get some real sewing done. 

The sunrise was late this morning due to a big cloud on the horizon.  So glad it was a Saturday so that I could stay and see it come up. 

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Tiny Tuesday - Quarter Log Cabin

What I have for you today isn't so much a block as it is a block starter.  Tomorrow is the day that we will deliver Anna to school in Sarasota.  I've just finished off my sub plans and my students are not at all happy that I'm going to be gone AGAIN already.
Right now, the house is officially all torn apart!  I broke down the quilting frame after finishing a quilt on Sunday.  It is temporarily stashed in Ryan's room.  He didn't exactly clear out when he left and there are lots of reminders of his presence all over the floor of his room. Today was the first day of classes at the University of Florida.  He wasn't exactly impressed with the fundamentals of programming, but it is required and they would not take any of his AP credits to replace it.  Anna was also required to take fundamentals of biology despite her AP credits, but she survived it well enough and was able to move on to more interesting materials soon enough.
The most exciting news though is that I will have official sewing space again very soon.  I think this weekend will be a time for deep down organization and settling in. It will be such a treat to be able to have a dedicated studio again -- its been a while!

Cutting directions

Collect together 1 inch strips of white and bright blue.  To avoid duplication you will need 5 whites and 4 blues.  You will cut these strips into rectangles of regularly increasing lengths.

White 1 = 1 inch
Blue 1 = 1 inch and 1.5 inches
White 2 = 1.5 inches and 2 inches
Blue 2 = 2 inches and 2.5 inches
White 3 = 2.5 and 3 inches
Blue 3 = 3 inches and 3.5 inches
White 4 = 3.5 inches and 4 inches
Blue 4 = 4 inches and 4.5 inches
White 5 = 4.5 inches and 5 inches

Start with the short strips and gradually build your way out.  I'll be back as soon as I can set up my sewing room with some real life photos to illustrate.  

ScrapHappy Saturday

And so we begin the transition.  Ryan is now officially off to college.  We drove him up on Thursday and got him all settled in.  He's in a triple, old style with bathrooms at the end of the hall.  Neither of his room mates had shown up yet before it was time for us to leave.

He took his t-shirt quilt.  I finished the binding on Wednesday night just in time to run it through the wash.  It might be the last time this quilt sees the inside of a washer.  

There was a beautiful full moon this week.  I read that it is called a sturgeon moon.   I find it so fun that full moons all have names.  

We are still trying to see the sunrises each day, though it get more difficult as they keep creeping later.  School is one full week in and we are all making the transition as best we can. I have a great schedule this year and I am really enjoying my students.  I've still got a quilt on the frame to finish up this weekend.  We had to move it out of the way because Ryan had a party on Wednesday before he left.  We are also working on the stairs some more this weekend.  We got the newel posts last week and just picked up the handrails yesterday.  Step by step the pieces are all coming together.  

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Tiny Tuesday Times Two

I am so thankful each and everyday for the gracious and awesome quilters who read my blog.  It is no secret that I am in a bit over my head right now with the start of school, getting two kids off to college and getting through the move and remodel on the new house.  I have one makeup block and Libby was so kind as to whip up a super simple block for us all to enjoy.  So here is a double nine patch, along with a nine patch and rails.


Double Nine Patch

 Start with 1 inch strips of blue and white.  The first set is white blue white and needs to be at least 3 inches long.  The next two sets are both blue white blue and they should be at least 5 inches long.  You can add more sets of strips to increase variety if you like. 

 In addition to the one inch strips, you will also need 4 squares at 2 inches each. 

 Sew the strip sets together and press toward the blue for all three sets.  Notice that the white blue white set has the seam allowances meeting in the middle, this is how you know that your quarter inch seam is perfect. 

 Here are your strip sets ready to go. 

 Sub cut these sets into 1 inch pieces. 

 You should have 5 of each set. 

 sew one piece from each set into a nine patch with the white blue white set in the middle flanked by the blue white blue sets.  Try to randomize the placement of the flanking pieces if you can to make the block look more random.  Open the seams and press carefully to reduce bulk.  Again, if you seam allowance if perfect, the seams should meet in the middle.  Each nine patch should be 2 inches. 

 Take your five completed nine patches and combine them with the four white squares. 

Sew as you would any nine patch and press the seams away from the bulk if you can. 

The makeup block from last Tuesday has kindly been provided by Libby.  Follow the link for directions to this great, simple and quick nine patch variation. 

Nine Patch and Rails

First Day of School!

I went into school yesterday to make sure that everything was ready for the big first day today.  Sometimes I enjoy throwing absolutely everything into a big stack and just working my way down.  

 By the end of the day, I was left with just a few notes and a nice "to do" list of non criticals.

 This was my favorite sunrise from the week.  I think it was from Wednesday.  Sunrise shots are going to be harder to come by as the days get shorter.  We left early to get the class pet situated today and I rushed out with hardly a glance toward the horizon. 

I did get Tiny Tuesday ready for tomorrow morning.  You may have seen that Libby made a makeup block for last Tuesday after I missed it completely.  Thanks Libby!  I added one more and both will show up bright and early tomorrow.  I got another quilt loaded onto the frame after I finished Ryan's college quilt.  This one was made by a friend of my husband's from work.  I was trying out thread colors, and the basic answer was that every color worked.  We decided to go with a neutral grey.  The back is pink, so I managed to find the thread after dinner tonight.  

It will be nice to finally get everything settled in properly.  As soon as I think we are making progress, something comes along and resets the goal post.  Last week we had a contractor in to add a door to Sydney's room.  While he was here, we decided to take advantage and move a few things around.  Now we are getting used to doors in new places and cleaning up construction dust all over again.  It is all moving in the right direction though.  

Most exciting news of the week?  We have a pantry!  There used to be a coat closet off of the front entry.  Who needs a coat closet in Florida?  So we just had the door moved to the other side, which is in the dining room/kitchen.  With just a few oddly shaped parallelogram shelves, there is lots of room for food, brooms and other goodies.  I've got a lesson plan which needs a bit of work before bed and then I'd better get some rest before day number 2.  That is when all the good behavior from day 1 starts to wear off.  

ScrapHappy Saturday

I blew right past Tiny Tuesday this week. So sorry to miss it. I'll try to put together two blocks this week to make up for it. Adjusting to back to school is a bit of a process. We are doing the college drop off for Ryan this week and for Anna next week. Today we are having one last family outing to go paddle boarding. Everyone is bringing a friend so it should be lots of fun.

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ScrapHappy Saturday

The best thing about starting back to work on a Friday is that it makes for a very short workweek.  We had breakfast, met the new people, did a few meetings and the day was almost done.  This weekend is my chance to finish up all those last minute summer things before school is really back in full swing.

Ryan's t-shirt quilt is about halfway done.  I'm on the row now with all of his class shirts from elementary school.  There is one more quilt in the queue which one of Kurt's work friends would like for me to quilt and then I can disassemble the frame again and focus on some scrap blocks.  

First though, we need to finish watching the sun get a little higher in the sky and maybe look for some turtle tracks on a morning beach walk.  

I hope you were able to get to a good stopping point on pink before digging back into blue again with the lights and brights this month.  I promise that you won't have to wait much longer for purple to take its turn.  

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Wee Wednesday

Step 1, make a template.  I found that a coaster and a quarter worked out well.  Anything that is round is up for grabs.  The smaller the circle, the fatter the petal.  My coaster is 4 inches in diameter.  

If you don't want to make your own templates, just print this handy dandy pattern which I will post for you.  The petal should be about 3 inches long.  (Please let me know if it isn't.  I'm not quite sure yet where the printer is, so I can't double check the size. ) 

I like to make templates out of freezer paper.  Feel free to use the applique method of your choice.  

You will need scraps of pink fabric  about 4 inches long and a tiny bit of a contrasting fabric.  They pinks can be the same or different.  In addition to the pink, you will need 4 squares of background fabric each 2.75 inches.  (feel free to use one single square of background fabric which is 5 inches if you want to simplify)

Prepare your pieces for applique and apply one piece to a background square.  Place the petal along the center diagonal and center it so that a quarter of an inch seam allowance remains at each corner.

Sew down your applique pieces and arrange your four patch.

If you don't want a flower, you could also arrange them this way which is a traditional orange peel layout.

Sew your four patch together.

Finally, place the contrasting center in the middle and sew it in place.  The advantage of the center circle is that it will camouflage any mismatched seams in the center.  

It is the last day of July, which is a good time to mention that the color for August will be light and bright blue.  Sorry for the purple fans, but it is coming soon.  Blue is one of those shades which needs a little extra attention for most of us.  

When I wasn't working on Wee Wednesday today I was working on Ryan's dorm room quilt.  Due to the temporary lack of extra rooms, I set up the quilting frame right in the middle of the family room.  Can't argue with the view!

I'm using a square spiral which I think feels like a circuit board.  

 Dave, our contractor and old neighbor, was back today and installed drywall around Sydney's door.  She will be so happy to have a little privacy as the garage entryway goes right past her bedroom

He also installed two new outlets to recharge cars in the garage.  He'll be back tomorrow to finish up the drywall and start working on the pantry.  Slowly but surely we are getting all settled in.  Just in time too.  One day left before back to school!

Tiny Tuesday - Violet

Ok, so violets aren't necessarily pink, but flowers come in many colors.  This should be another quick and simple block.  If  you are interested in an applique version, come back tomorrow for a bonus wee Wednesday block.

 Today's block is a four patch with snowball corners.  You will need:
4 pink squares each 2.75 inches
8 background squares each 1.75 inches
4 contrasting squares each 1.25 inches
 Start by drawing a line from corner to corner on each of the background squares.  Place one in a corner of each pink square.  Sew along the diagonal.  Flip and press the white square open. 

 With snowball or flip and sew corners, I like to look at the back of the block and trim away excess from the corners before trimming away the fabric behind.  I find the blocks end up much nicer this way.  Not everyone trims away the excess fabric behind, its all about choice. 

After you have snowballed one corner on each pink square, snowball the adjacent corner.  

 Next take a contrasting 1.25 inch square and snowball the next corner as you work around in a clockwise direction. 

 Here you go, 4 squares with 3 snowball corners each. 

 Arrange them so that the rotate around the center with the contrasting corners all pointed to the middle.  Sew as you would for any four patch.  The seams on the snowball corners will naturally face away toward the corner, if you want to manually reverse the seam allowance on one corner in each pair, you can reduce the bulk by a bit and get the seams to nestle. 

Here is the finished block.  Notice that the petals float a bit at the edges, this means you aren't going to have to match seams and the corners don't have to be perfect.  

When I wan't sewing today, we were getting a new door installed in Sydney's room.  She is super excited.  

We also got a new chandelier installed in the stairwell.  Just a bit more paint and finish work to go.  

T-Shirt Quilt

 Ryan is off to college in just  few short weeks.  It is time to get a move on with his dorm room quilt.  So far I've finished the ironing and cutting.  Now I'm off to the fabric store. 

I'm sure I have grey fabric somewhere, but finding it right now would be more work than it is worth.  The sewing room won't truly get set up until Anna is back at college.  It has been ages since I shopped for any fabric.  I'm looking forward to it.