Orange Organization

I will readily admit to being out of the sewing flow since school started.  I'm a bit behind on teal and have just now started to dig into the orange.  The dark month, well, it was dreary around here.   So it felt good yesterday to start pulling down purple blocks (from June!)  and to start assembling the random scraps into blocks.   Crumbs are always fun and meditative, so those were the first to come together.  Then the Sister's Choice blocks were nicely simple.  

I even dug into the hexie bowl and found a treasure trove of prepped and unprepped pieces.   I have a backing for the Chopsticks quilt of last week roughed out, so as I get that put together, I will continue to turn the fabric chaos that is my sewing room right now into some more RSC blocks.  There will be a few holes to fill in when block assembly begins, but as long as life has a few moments of calm, I can deal with those when the need arises.  

I am linking up today with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework to enjoy some scrappy goodness, and Kathy's Quilts where quilter's are slowing down to hand stitching on Sunday.  You should stop by as well and enjoy all the beautiful projects that quilters have to share today.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Orange you Glad for Fall?

I have just started to dig into the orange scrap bin for September.  Things are still pretty busy at work and I am just a bit overextended at the moment.   I am going to take some sewing time this weekend though to put together some orange blocks.   Cases are way down since the mask mandate, but it will be expiring at the end of the month, so we will see what happens then.  They still might extend it at the next school board meeting on Tuesday, but that just doesn't seem to be likely.  There is a very vocal group of protestors at every meeting yelling loudly and burning masks.  

The sunrise was beautiful this morning and there was a stunning rocket launch on Wednesday

It started out looking like any normal launch, but then it just burst into a halo of light that pulsed for a remarkably long time.  It was the first rocket to carry only civilians.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Fall Festivity

I will be the first to admit that it doesn't feel much like fall yet, but I am enjoying the idea of fall. Things are much more calm at school and cases are more managebale with the mask mandate in place. The courts continue to issue new rulings on what seems like a daily basis, but every masked day is a victory with more kids in school and fewer sick teachers. Sydney is fully recovered and working to make up on the school work that she missed. She is taking the ACT this morning. She missed the SAT during quarantine, so we will need to schedule another session for that. Senior year is starting to feel more real as we get ready for the junior versus senior powder puff football game. There is no dance this year, but they will still have a homecoming court at the football game. Every little bit of normal is so much appreciated at this point.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Downward Slope?

I feel that things are starting to calm down a bit here after the big Covid bump that followed back to school. Kids are masked now and most of the initial batches of positive teachers and quarantined students have returned. Sydney will be back on Tuesday after labor day and is feeling completely normal again. She tested negative yesterday for the first time! Anna even came home for quick weekend visit to pick up a few essentials that she forgot to take with her for back to school. Ryan is settled in to his new rental and we won't see him again until Thanksgiving. He would be happy enough to spend that with his college friends as well, but we have decided to visit our Georgia relatives instead. Hopefully things in Florida will be calmer by then. We are still hitting daily and weekly death records, but the curve of new cases might be trending down now, so that is promising. Hopefully there will be time for sewing as this is a long weekend. I still have quite a bit of organization to do in the sewing room, but that will gladly wait while I spend time with the girls this weekend.

Orange is the new color for September, which I completely forgot to announce when September started 4 days ago.  I am feeling fall for sure.   I will also work on the new block for #Full stop which will be a dash.  Nice and simple which is just about where my mind is right now!

Still Moving Forward

Sydney seems to be feeling better.  She is not happy about having to quarantine, but I have convinced her that she should make the best of it and try to enjoy some quiet time to relax.  She started trying to crochet this morning but did not get very far.  She did paint her nails, give herself a facial and find a new series to stream.  Not a bad day overall.  I sewed together the extra OMG blocks into a flimsy that I have decided to call LOL.  That helped break up spurts of cleaning and sanitizing that help me feel like I am doing something productive.  

I was late to the sunrise this morning.  I wish I could say that it was because I was up at 4 for the rocket launch, but I slept right through that too.   

While still n the mode of using up extras, I pulled out a bag of random 26 patches which I am starting to play with now.  I think I will randomize the fat pink and skinny green strips and call this one Chopsticks.  It is quite relaxing to just play with layout and design knowing that everything was leftover from some other project of long ago.   

 

We've Hit a Wall

I was watching the school board meeting on Tuesday knowing that they would refuse to consider a mask mandate and that I would be returning to a room full of unmasked children again on Wednesday. One of the people to speak was the lady at the district level who coordinates quarantines. That isn't supposed to be her job, but it is now what she does. We have quarantined 15,750 people in the first three weeks of school as a result of 3033 positive Covid cases. And as she started to tell us about the new statistic they were gathering this year, which is the number of teachers and students in the ICU or on a ventilator, she started to break down. She said that we have hit a wall with quarantines and cases. The new focus is on increasing availability of testing for students and staff. 

 On Wednesday Sydney started to feel congested and tired, so I got her in for testing on Thursday to learn that she is positive for COVID. As a critical infrastructure worker, I am still required to go to work every day until I test positive or develop symptoms. I have felt the benefits of the new available test resources, so that is a good thing. I managed to get swabbed yesterday and I am still negative.

While all of this was going on, Kurt was out of town for the week on business and Ryan was living in a hotel and shopping for an apartment in Gainesville after his housing plans fell apart. That is when the car he was using broke down. So all in all, quite a week! Kurt is taking a U-Haul full of furniture to Ryan to help him move into his newly rented townhouse, get the car fixed and then drive home again. They don't go in to the office when there is a household case, so he will be working from home this week. That will let him take care of Sydney who is already bored and sick of quarantine. I think I might sew a bit and then maybe take a quite moment in a dark room to recover.   

 

Mindless Sewing

 I am mindlessly sewing and it feels good.  No plan today other than to empty bags of extra bits and pieces.  These tiny nine patches and churn dashes were from the OMG! quilt of several years ago.   They are fairly random, but I'm enjoying the fondling of the fabric today.   NOT thinking about the 1,623 Covid cases and 8,303 quarantines my district has managed to accomplish in the first two weeks of school.  NOT thinking about the 11 positive staff members at my school.   Most of them should be back soon, not the ones who were very sick, but the mildly symptomatic and vaccinated portion of the group.   Celebrating small victories.  

ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Its been two weeks since school started, and things are clearly not going well.  I will try to put all of that out of my mind for the weekend though and think of other things.   I have two days with no plans and I will enjoy every minute.  The sunrise was beautiful, the sea turtles are still nesting and with my daughter back at school again I have access to my sewing room again.

ScrapHappy Saturday

 We have just finished the first week of school.  In case you haven't seen the news lately, things are not going well in Florida.  I'll start with my own tiny  corner of the universe.  At my school, we had 12 teachers out on Friday for COVID.  8 have already tested positive and the other 4 are still waiting for official results.  They had to send in staff from the district office to act as substitute teachers because we don't have enough.  Our first student came to school positive which has lead to a round of student quarantines.   I bought at home antigen test kits because the wait for a testing appointment is currently 3 days without a doctors order.   Nobody has died yet in our county, so that is better than others who are near. We have over a thousand students quarantined district wide and have identified 700 positive case this month.   Those numbers don't include Friday when things really started to get messy. My friend texted from her school where they had 132 kids out on quarantine and decided to have a pep rally.  I'm still standing though.  I'm starting to adjust to the absolute horror of standing in a room full of unmasked children during a global pandemic as if it was a normal thing.  The school board meeting on Tuesday ended in the wee hours of the morning with a vote against mandating masks.  It is ironic to add that one of the school board members voting against masks wasn't physically at the meeting because he had COVID.  

Anna is home this weekend sleeping in my sewing room, so I'll enjoy a bit of handwork on the balcony in between rain from Fred.  Please stay safe! Sewing is the perfect socially distanced thing to do when outside is scary.

ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Though I won't be sewing much for the next couple of weeks, I hope you are digging into your teal, aqua, blue-green stash.  I love this color and am using it so much more than I used to.   School is back in session on Tuesday though, and my list on non sewing tasks is long right now.   We've been busy with teacher meetings all week and there hasn't been much time for my own curriculum, planning and class prep yet.  I am looking forward to digging in today.  On day one of meetings, there were 5 teachers with masks.  On day 5 of meetings, about 60% of teaches were wearing masks, one teacher had tested positive and another was awaiting test results. This year will be a fascinating epidemiological experiment.  

 There is an August block though, so please scroll down if you are playing along with the #Fullstop quilt.   For everyone else, please share your projects with us all.  

#Fullstop August Block - Question Mark

Start with a 2 inch strip of teal and of background.   Cut the following pieces:

Teal:

5 inches (1)

3.5 inches (2)

2 inches (1)

Background: 

5 inches (2)

2 inches (4)

Next, from a 1.75 inch strip, cut 4 squares

The 1.75 inch squares are for sew and flip corners.   Place one on either end of the top 5 inch rectangle and use a pencil or erasable marker to draw a sewing line from corner to corner of the square (look at the picture to see how they are arranged).   Each of the 3.5 inch teal strips will get a single flip and sew triangle as well.   

Sew on each of the drawn lines and then flip open the triangles, press and check the alignment before trimming away the waste triangles behind.   You may double sew these if you like for tiny little HST units.   

You should also sew the three two inch squares together to form the bottom row.  Press toward the teal square.   

Arrange your subunits as shown, three vertical strips form the center, with one horizontal strip above and two below.   

Sew the three vertical strips together and press toward the left to reduce the bulk of the seams.   Sew the two horizontal bottom strips together as well.  Press away from the pieced unit toward the solid strip.   

Now you just have three section to sew together.   Press away from the center section.   

Unfinished, this block is 5 by 9.5.  It should finish as 4.5 by 9 in the final row.  Separate each block with a strip of fabric 2 by 9.5.  Make four to six blocks, depending on how many colors of teal you have to work with.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Last Day of July

 

I am ready to put away the dark blues and blacks and dig into a lighter shade.  August will be about aqua.  Anything that isn't quite blue or green counts for me.  Teal, aquamarine, ocean..... all the colors of the sea.   This month's Fullstop block will be a question mark.  I will work on having that ready for first thing in the morning tomorrow.   Today though, I hope everyone has time to finish off the last bits and pieces and tidy up the blue and black bins.   

ScrapHappy Saturday

There is STILL one more Saturday left in July. Hopefully you will be able to catch up on any colors you missed along the way. I've been sewing a combination of purple and black so far, my sewing room looks like a big healed bruise!  There isn't a lot of black up on the wall quite yet, but everything is cut and organized.  I should also use today to get a head start on August blocks.   School is just around the corner and things are sure to get crazy in a hurry.  I've been in for meetings already and people are looking a little frayed around the edges.    Our COVID numbers in Florida right now are pretty similar to the same point last year when we had half as many kids all wearing masks.  Just hoping enough of us are vaccinated to make up for all the extra humanity I will see on a daily basis.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Lazy Days of Summer

 

\ I never seem to get as much done over summer break as I had hoped. We spent last weekend visiting family in Georgia and doing a few college tours. Add in doctors and dentsists, and another week has come and gone. There is stil time though, before the shift to back to school and I hope to get in some more fabric play time. I hoepe you are making progress on your projects this weekend.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Dark and Dreary

 

There has been a lot of car sewing going on as we are doing college visits right now.   Here are a few hexies that got finished on a road trip to Georgia to tour with our cousin who is also graduating this year.  

We spent the 4th of July in the ER with a massive back spasm.   Still trying to get Kurt to relax a bit and let things heal. 

#FullStop July Block: Colon

A colon is a punctuation mark used to precede a list, quotation or description within a sentence. It is adds a pause to spoken English which is intermediate in length between a comma and a period.   Generally, the fragment that precedes the colon is a complete sentence.  The portion of the sentence after the colon is often an aside and does not need to be a complete sentence.   A colon is also used to separate the speaker from the dialogue in a play.  Mathematically, it indicates ratios and has several computer programming functions.   It is also used to separate minutes from hours in time and to separate chapter from verse in quotations from the Bible.  

This month's block will be a simple one.   Start with 2.5 inch strips of dark and background.   Cut 2 squares of dark and a rectangle of the background that is 3 by 2.5.   

Sew one dark square onto either end of the rectangle.  Press toward the dark.   Next, add a 7 inch strip of background to separate the blocks from one another.   

This will be a short row.  I had two navy blues, two browns and one black to use.   Here they are sewn together.   

 

ScrapHappy Saturday - The Dark Side

I am excited to dig into navy blue, black and brown this month.  I tend to shy away from the darker shades, although I do enjoy how they add dimension to finished quilts.   I have used a lot of black and white prints in backings lately, so I should have some extras to play with. 

 This was the back for the Soul Searching quilt from last year.  It made quite a dent in the dark stash.  Hopefully the little bits that it liberated will make fun blocks this month.

July is Blue again

 I promised that blue would have another turn.  If you are done with blue, feel free to dig into the dark neutrals as well.  This is a chance to play with black and brown if they fit into your plans.  The #FullStop block will be a colon.  Much like the semi colon of last month, but even easier.  

ScrapHappy Last Purple Saturday

 

(Random Purple Frog)

It is the last purple Saturday, though the new month won't start until midweek.  I plan use the next few days to get caught up again.   Poor purple has been the victim of a busy beginning of the summer.  I'm back though from my week in St. Pete and AP Bio reading is done. This week should be nice and calm!  I am looking forward to lots of fun purple blocks to come!

Misterlinky is below.  I know he has been temperamental lately and I will work on the switch to a different service.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Purple Pursuits

 I have been looking forward to purple for so long!  Its been crazy busy so far, but it will be very calm in a couple of weeks and I hope to dig in more then.  I got as far as a nice stack of purple crumb blocks before getting sidetracked with log cabins.  These are extra strips from the Soul Searching quilt of last year.  If there are still more after this I might go with a courthouse steps block.   

This will not be the week for sewing though as it is AP Biology reading week.   I am also traveling over to Tampa St. Pete for the end of course question review that usually happens in October.   After that though, things will calm down considerably.  I think I have a meeting scheduled with the librarian during the second week of July, other than that, the schedule remains wide open.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - And so Begins Summer

 

It doesn't feel like summer quite yet. As soon as school ended we were shuttling Anna off to the airport for camp and them jaunting away for a grown up getaway. We are back home today and starting to reassemble everything again. Why is it that everything seems to break when you leave for a few days? The dryer isn't hot and the van won't start. Those should both be fixable, but there were 22 dirty towels and it will take a while to dig out of that. First though, is turning Anna's room back into my sewing room again.  It looks like a strange mashup of sewing studio and college dorm room right now.   That situation is easily remedied.  

I also start teaching the first of two online summer classes that I am signed up for this summer.   I'm not sure how it will all work out, but I have a bit of organization to start to get that all arranged.  I am also looking forward to digging out my purple scraps though.  Even though there is plenty going on around here, there should still be some sewing time in there somewhere.   

 

Misterlinky is being difficult today and not uploading images consistently. I tried to do what I could from my end, but was unsuccessful. I have turned in a help request and hope to have the issue resolved soon. Feel free to leave a link in the comments until the issue is resolved.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Purple Month Begins

 I love purple.  As I kid I always wanted a purple bedroom and my mother would never let me.  Apparently she had a purple bedroom as a child and got tired of it quickly.  That never happens to me.  Purple comes in too many fun shades from lavender to violet with all the shades in between.  I pulled the sewing machine down onto the kitchen table yesterday to whip up a couple of  #FullStop blocks and worked up tutorials for a blocky and fancy version of this month's semi colon.  (scroll down for those).  Anna also wanted 4 new masks for camp as kids under 12 are not yet vaccinated, they are still taking precautions.  She will leave for the summer tomorrow, and though I will miss her, it does mean I will have a sewing room again.   She is SO excited to be back teaching sailing again.  Ryan and Sydney will still be here though, so it isn't quite an empty nest yet.  

Semi Colon - Fancy

 

The fancy version of the semi colon uses a lot of flip and sew triangles.  It is a little bit fussy, but I think it is worth it for the final effect in this case.  

Start with three purple squares which are 2.5 inches each.  In addition to the the purple, you will need grey squares: 7 that are 1.25 and 2 that are 2 inches.  Finally, you will need a 2.5 by 1.5 inch rectangle

Though that seems like a lot of little squares, sewing them is super quick.  Just layer the grey squares on top of the purple and then sew along the diagonals, working yourself around in a circle.  I just needle down and pivot at each top center point.  One purple square will get 4 grey squares sewn on top, while the other one will get three.   Notice the placement of the three grey squares, semi colons are directional so it does matter.  The bottom right corner is left uncovered.   Next, place a two inch grey square in the upper left hand corner of the final purple square and sew from corner to corner.   

Here are the three purple squares, each with grey squares on top.  The bottom square with the two inch square will need another round, you will need to flip open the first square to make room for the second.  

Here is the second grey square added to the opposite corner.  Now go to the ironing board and press all the squares open, making sure the top triangle covers the purple before trimming away the waste triangles behind.  

Here are all three subunits ready to be sewn into a row with the extra grey square to separate the period from the comma.  Sew them together and press toward the section with the fewest seams.  

These are the two blocks side by side for comparison.  Notice that the fancy block is a little bit longer than the blocky version.  I went with the block version for the quotation marks eelier this year, but I am seriously enjoying the fancy blocks this month.  Now I just need to dig deeper and find enough purples to make 5 blocks.  This will be a short row, but I feel the need for a little negative space right now.  

Semi Color - Blocky

 

There are two choices in semi colons this month.  They are the same as the quotation mark from February but with the addition of a period above.  As with the quotations, there are two versions available. I am calling them block and fancy.  This post will discuss the blocky version, and I will be back shortly with the fancy.   The dimensions are slightly different, but it is really a matter of taste and preference.   

Start with a 2.5 inch strip of purple.  From this strip, cut one square and one rectangle which is 4 by 2.5.   In addition to the purple, you will also need a 2.5 inch square of grey and a 2.5 by 1.5 inch rectangle of grey.   (two purple squares are pictured, I was making both blocks at one and didn't realize I would only need 1)  

Start with the rectangle and place the grey square along the bottom edge.  

You can draw a line on the grey square from corner to corner, or just "eyeball" it.   Notice the the line goes from upper left to lower right.  The semicolon is directional.  Sew along the drawn line, or from corner to corner with the "eyeball" method.  

Press the grey triangle open toward the bottom left and trim away the bonus triangle behind.  Feel free to harvest this by double sewing if you are a fan of bonus triangles like me.  

Now you just need to sew the three pieces together in a row (purple square, grey rectangle then pieces purple rectangle) and press toward the grey.   You will sew your individual semi colons together with 1.5 inch wide dividing strips, but don't start yet until you see the fancy version and decide which you like better.  

Purple for June

 

The new color for June will be purple!  The new blocks is semi colon.  Tutorial coming soon, but it is basically just the quotation with a period over it.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - End of Red

Welcome to the last weekend of red! Just a few more days to finish off all the odds and ends. My red plans came to an abrupt halt last Saturday when Anna came home from college. Her bedroom is also my sewing space at the moment. She swears that she told us all when she would be back, but nobody had a clue! So hasty cleaning was inspired. Since then I have been happily hand stitching some red hexies to round out the month. Now she wants some more facemasks for camp, so I will have to haul the machine down to the family room for a quick sewing session.

We used date night last night to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary.   It is nice to be able to go out and start doing normal things again.   

 Tuesday we had teachers over to celebrate the retirement of two of our science teachers.   Linda and Paula are both done.   I think the official count is 8 teachers so far from our school, but there are lots of rumors of others who are making other plans.  It has been a hard year in the classroom.  It is going to take a long time to recover from all of this for everyone associated with the school system.  

We do have a vacation coming up, so I will mention now that June will be purple!  I know that some of us have been anxiously waiting for it to come up and I can't wait to see a new color.  

 

SrapHappy Saturday - Red Rebel

 I am still adding little log cabin blocks to the red wall.  It is a slow and steady process.  Other than a few more Sister's Choice blocks, think that red is ready to go.   I will need to clean everything up again for my oldest who will be home from college for a very short stay before heading off to summer camp.  The middle child is back and working for the summer.  That just leaves the youngest with one more year of high school.  

Just 8 more school days and teachers are running away like rats from a drowning ship.  I volunteered to host a retirement party on Tuesday for our exiting science teachers.  Each day there is a new rumor of someone else leaving.   It is easy to be unhappy right now, but things can't stay this way forever.  

Wrapping Up

I took a personal day yesterday and used the time to add some red blocks to my design wall.   Crumb blocks are such a mess, but getting them trimmed and framed is always make them seem so organized and tidy. I got a few more little loggies added to the collection as well.   They take a long time to sew and trim, but they are so adorable!    

It has been so windy for the last few days.  Seaweed is piling up on the beach and the wind just whistles all night long.  I just cleaned the windows, but they are already coated in salt and grime.   There was a rocket launch on Tuesday, but I was at school.  Ryan and his coworkers went to a rooftop restaurant and watched from there.   Just 9 more school days!   Things are winding down quickly.