ScrapHappy BooDay

Happy Halloween!  Not too much happening on the holiday festivities front around here, so that leaves more time for sewing!  I set up the quilting frame last weekend and loaded up this ocean themed quilt which I agreed to quilt for a friend from my husband's office.   I think I've done three for her so far and this one is meant to be a Christmas gift.   I am thinking about teal thread with a wave pattern.   

As long as the frame is set up, there are a few more tops waiting for their turn.   It might be a long arm filled weekend.  

 

Fall Festivities at ScrapHappy Saturday

Sprouts is next on the list!   I have another column which does not fit on the wall.  I think I need to add a few more blocks in blue.   The framed nine patches are my current thread catcher project, and again, it looks like I still need more purple and blue.   I guess you can tell when my life got all crazy this year.   

I wasn't at school yesterday because I got volunteered for the interview committee for teacher of the year for the south area of our county.  Usually they invite back all of last years teachers of the year and have a big panel interview extravaganza.  This year it was (of course) on Zoom, which meant there were just three of us doing the interviews.   It was a fun day with lots of passionate teachers, and it was fascinating to hear of all of the struggles we all share with the current hybrid teaching situation.   

The weekend is looking wide open, so I will have time to sew and putter around the house.   I feel like things are going to start getting hectic again at school as the cases are starting to spike again, so I am going to stand in the metaphorical eye of the hurricane and breathe for a bit.     

 

The End Begins

I took a day off on Wednesday because most of my students were taking the PSAT.  It was a great opportunity to get Soul Searching bordered and ready to quilt.   I do enjoy seeing a years worth of quilts all start to come together.  

I never have large quantities of any backing fabrics, so I pulled out everything black and cut it into 10.5 inch squares or rectangles.   Here they are in a brick layout ready to be sewn together.   I have a quilt that I agreed to quilt for a coworker of Kurt's.  That means I will be setting up the quilting frame again.  If I plan strategically, I can get several quilts finished while it is out.   

How are your year end plans working out?  Hopefully you have a quilt or two ready to get finished up before 2020 is gone forever.  I am hopeful that 2021 will be a less eventful year.  
 

Wrapping Up

 I added two more blocks to Soul Searching yesterday and got the top webbed together  I'm thinking of a black border.  I also need to get a quilt ready to take to our teacher who is out with Covid.   It is nice to have a stash of finished quilts ready for emergencies.  OK, so maybe I have more than a few quilts ready and waiting.  Hopefully I won't need them all before everything settles down.  

We had a new window installed in the upstairs bathroom and spent the morning painting the stucco.  A new tub and shower enclosure are next on the list.  Everything is still working, but it is a bit torn apart right now.  We are  still tile shopping but I have a tub picked out.  I liked one with a swoop on one side because that seems like it would be a nice place to rest your head while soaking.  With the new window we have ocean views on two sides, so staring at the ocean seems like a nice idea.  

Kurt picked a square tub, but it doesn't seem like it would be as comfortable to me.  He also found some Japanese soaking tubs that have built in chairs, but that might be a little too strange.  I'd have to try one out first I think.  I don't think that bathtubs work like mattresses when you go and lay on them.  

It has started to cool down a bit lately.  It is now possible to walk on the beach without dripping sweat, which is refreshing.  Unfortunately, it is too dark to get a walk in before it is time to leave for work right now so the beach walking gets saved for weekends.  There should be some morning light again after daylight savings kicks in.  I think that is around the end of the month.  

Right now I'm sitting with Sydney while she takes a practice PSAT.  All the sophomores and juniors will be taking it at school on Wednesday.  Since I'll be sitting here for a bit longer, I think I'll go over and check out Oh Scrap!  It had so frantic and exhausting that I haven't been keeping up with everyone else's progress.  Things seem comparatively calm right now though.  I am hopeful that it will stay that way for a while.  It will be nice to spend some time finishing quilts.  

Sunshine After Rain

As much as I love making blocks, seeing them start to come together is strangely satisfying too. I will be missing a few colors this year as the school year has been unusually frantic, but I'm starting early so that I can fill in the gaps as I go along.  Soul Searching will need one blue and one purple to round things out.  If I am feeling especially energetic, I might add one more row.   It is always nice to add in black and brown to ground the rainbow.

Kurt built me a design wall last weekend and I have flannel and batting all ready to go so that I can arrange my blocks as finished quilts start coming together.  I had flannel backed table cloths thumbtacked to the wall, but they were getting pretty frayed and I threw them all out during a quarantine cleaning spree.  

Things seem to have settled down at school.  So far we have officially had only one positive student and one positive teacher.   We had a big batch come back from quarantine on Wednesday and they were all so happy to return.  The teacher is still out and has some underlying health issues, so we are all hoping and praying that she will be OK.  One nearby high school had to quarantine the entire football team, they ended up sending 115 kids home in total.  Parents are livid that they will have to forfeit the next two games.  

It is looking like it might be a bit of a rainy day.  There is a wall that needs to be painted after we had a window installed, but since I can't do that in the rain, I might have to sew a bit instead.  

Yay for Yellow!

 Is anyone else desperately ready for a bit of cheer amongst all the really scary happenings in the world?

I feel ready to lock myself in the sewing room and stream something happy while digging into some bright and sunny scraps today.   We are nearing the end of the year and I am already starting to make a list of what blocks need to get caught up so that I can start finishing up some quilts in the next couple of months.