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?

Green

A few green blocks have started to work themselves up onto the design wall. Slow if not steady. 

I am trying to puzzle the log cabin blocks together. The diamond subunit is pretty big and so I can't just repeat 4 times without making an absolutely huge quilt. I will need to make some half units I think or work out some sort of clever border design. I don't have a ton of open space though. I might piece this center together and move the whole thing to a bed. 

It is a three day weekend for those in the US. It is awkward to have a three day weekend with only 2 days of school left, but I will still enjoy every minute. I am trying hard to take a summer break this year. I seem to keep getting called in to school for various things. So I have things the first two weeks after the end of school this year and then the firs week before we head back. I am firmly turning down anything that falls in the middle of that. By my math that should leave 7 weeks in the middle of full vacation mode. I can't wait! We have a trip to Alaska planned and Kurt has been saving me lots of projects at the cabin. There is a garden planted and a tree that fell down and a big rainstorm that tried to wash away the driveway. I will have so much fun! 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Green Day

 

A bit more digging into the green bins revealed a bunch of partial crumb and orphan blocks. I remember using them to piece a backing at one point, but it looks like there were plenty leftover. Things at school are wrapping up quickly. We just finished two busy weeks of AP testing. There will be more makeups than usual because of some glitches with the new online testing system. I have some time in classrooms with the juniors to get college applications started before they go away for summer. This weekend there was an end of year school party and a birthday party for a friend.  So much going on and all of it is good. How about you? Lots of great spring sewing or too much going on? Either way, please link up and share with us all. 

ScrapHappy Saturdday - Growing into Green

I love green for May. It my Birthstone and both of my girls were born in May as well, so it is emeralds all around. So far I found plenty of green squares. Hopefully some of those will come together soon. How are your greens coming along?

Sydney is home for the weekend on the way to her summer internship and so there is the pitter patter of children's feet around the house again. Strange! Anna has headed to the cabin for her birthday weekend. Pretty calm honestly. We had a family game night last night and then they all went to do their own things. 

This week was lots of AP testing which meant that I got my steps in most days walking around while they did their thing. One more week of that before makeups and graduation.  There is an end in sight!

Green in Spring

It is starting to get warm in Florida, but I know in other places, it is still feeling like spring. I have two bins of green scraps, but it looks like the dark one is more full, so I will start with that. 

Thursday was the last day for seniors to make college decisions. We had a few last minute debates and changes, but everyone seems to be settled on a choice. There were awards for seniors and then AP testing starts on Monday. I will get in a lot of steps in the next few weeks as I proctor standardized tests, and then we will be ready for graduation. This year has flown by! I wish there were more time for sewing, but fabric is patient. How are your green scraps looking? I hope you find lots of fun variety and have some time to play.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Rounding out Red

I am starting to sound like a broken record when I say that it was such a busy week and I didn't find any time to sew. It is true yet again and I am looking forward to summer vacation. First though, there are so many end of year activities. We have had award ceremonies, and senior board presentations along with senior breakfast and grad bash. I am off at a field trip this morning with very few students because they are all also quite busy this time of year. There is some screaming football coach from LSU who is the speaker. I felt bad that none of my students were available and said that I would ride on a bus with other people's students. After that I will finish off this week's work for graduate school and then maybe sew some red? There are nice squares sitting by my machine and hope springs eternal. I hope that you are able to finish off some reds though. Next month is green and so it will look like an early Chistmas during the transition.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Ready for Red

My sewing room is moving at the pace of cold maple syrup. I have a stack of red squares prepped and sitting next to the machine in case I should get done with my school work early and find some time to sew. This too shall pass. Yesterday was originally planned as a holiday for good Friday, but we had to give it back as a hurricane makeup day. Attendance was not good. We also got an email from someone in human resources at the district office threatening to fire us all if we didn't show up to work. Honestly, it just made me want to call in sick. I did not though, and so it is a normal two day weekend. We spent Thursday contacting our recent grads who are at FSU to make sure that they were all OK. Some of them were still locked into classrooms waiting to be cleared, but thankfully they were all safe. Our school district has been in the news a lot this week. First we refused to renew the contract one teacher for using a students preferred name, then we sent another back into the classroom after a drunken kegger with students, then we put the drunken teacher back on leave and then another was arrested again for domestic battery. Then the state passed a bill drastically cutting funding for advanced programs. Not a good week to be a teacher locally. For now I am just glad to be away from it all for a couple of days. I will try to power through a couple of assignments and then find a bit of time to put some red squares together. How are your reds coming along? 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Rainbows need Red

I was a bit surprised at how many red scraps were in the bin. There are quite a few crumb blocks and many good size chunks. I will start with the strips first though and make some squares for my leaders and enders. After that I will replenish the supply and start again. 

How are your reds coming along? misterlinky is below. Please share your progress

ScrapHappy Saturday - Now in Red

 I hope that you find time today to dig into your red scraps. This is usually a big color for me. First blue, then green, making red a sturdy number three. I saw in the comments that some people interpretted my hunt for teal thread for the hexie diamonds as the color for April. If you started on teal, feel free to continue. We try hard not to judge at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. So far in the red month I am hand quilting a teal row in my quilt and planning a green and blue baby quilt. Just do what you can as always! We are in Gainesville for Sydney's parent's weekend at her sorority. She is busy getting ready for her summer internship and wants us to drive her on errands today before watching the big game. I guess UF made it to the final 4 in basketball? I don't watch sports much, but it is still fun to meet her friends and their parents. Maybe tomorrow I can dig into some red? I have been on a break between my graduate classes which has left me feelin unproductive. That means I have some catching up to do. How are your red scraps shaping up? Misterlinky is below, please share with us all.

ScrapHappy Saturday

 It's a new month! April is all about red this year. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Last Yellow Saturday

I have not made much progress on the yellow so far, but we will see what today shall bring. I have been in a hand quilting and sewing mode lately. The basket quilt is officially done and washed. I love the way that quilts look 100 years old as soon as they come out of the dryer. I used a Baptist Fan template to hand quilt this one and it went SO fast. I love the way that it looks.

Next up are the hexie diamonds, they are just getting straight lines with 12 wt thread to match each color. It looks like teal is up next. I had to hunt and hunt for teal thread, but I finally found some. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Homeward Bound

It is a car day today, on the way back from a perfect spring break trip. We took started the week cutting up a fallen tree that was blocking our pathway to the "upper 7" which is our patch of land going up the side of the mountain. That came with a nice hike to find that the rest of the trail was in excellent shape. Here is Kurt carrying some firewood up from the basement with the new carrier that I sewed for him. We don't keep the firewood in the basement, but there is a door that goes outside to our main wood piles. 

Then we did a bit of mortar on a rock wall that Kurt built under the open space where the master bedroom used to be a porch. That one will take a bit of time. There is a skill element involved, and I am sure we will get better with practice. 

Most of the time outside was battling a briar patch that we started taking out this summer to reveal a giant rock wall that has likely been buried for decades. More cutting of downed trees and yanking of vines with the winch left us both scratched and sore, ready for a soak in the hot tub.

I also painted the guest  bedroom, which we decided to call the green room. That is Jamestown Landing on the bed which is a Bonnie Hunter pattern, and leftover itty bitty nine patches on the wall that I randomly sewed together and ended up loving. I still find extras of those in the scrap bins from time to time. they were so much fun to sew. It did make me want to start saving 1 inch strips though, which is a dangerous precedent to set. I should paint the woodwork as well, but that is another project to add to the list. We do have a literal list. We started it when we bought the property and have made excellent progress, even though we keep adding new things. 

Not a stitch was sewn all week, but we will be home with a day left in the weekend and so perhaps some more yellows will come out to play soon? I sure hope so, the month is moving right along. How are your yellow scraps coming along?

ScrapHappy Saturday - Spring Break!

 

I am on vacation! Sewing and cutting wood and gardening are on the list for this week. First on the list was a drive to the mountains, now it is time to play. It is trying hard to be spring here. I can see a few crocuses and daffodils putting up that first effort to bloom. Thursday was glorious spring in Florida and it will be summer soon. I think there will be a more gradual progression in the mountains. 

I got some hexies sewn on the long drive. I never get quite as much sewing done as I think that I will. Kurt usually drives at the beginning and end when it is dark. I take the middle shift at the wheel when the light is good. Enough for some sewing though, and I have more ready to go for quiet evenings next to the fire. 

How are your yellows coming along? I am having fun with the various shades from lemon to gold. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Bright and Happy Progress

I know that I say this every week, but boy has it been a week!  Field trips and SATs and special assemblies, it seems like every day had something going on. I got a few yellow leader and ender squares sewn as I was putting together log cabin sections. I am now officially out of design wall space, So I will need to find a section of floor to clear out. 

I think this will be the design for my next hexie quilt. These are 1 inch blocks instead of the .75 inch blocks of the hexie quilt and they feel HUGE by comparison. I have yellow and blue hexies cut out and ready for the next long car trip. 

Spring has been strange in Florida this year. One day is beautiful and almost summer and then the next day a front moves in and I am pulling out a sweater again. This happy yellow hibiscus doesn't seem to mind though. It thinks spring has sprung. I hope that some signs of spring are starting to appear where you are, unless of course you are in fall. I think fall and spring are so much nicer than winter and summer. I guess I am just all about moderation. Misterlinky is below, please share your progress with us all. 
 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Sunny Day

It is a new month and a chance to dig into a fresh color.  I know that blue never seems to end, but I hope that you made a dent. Yellow will be the focus for the month, so I hope that you are feeling bright and sunny!

I got a few rows done on the hand quilting of the hexie diamonds, but there hasn't been much time for sewing this week. 

There were two evening events at school this week, one I had to plan and run. The other one I just showed up and talked. Then Thursday Kurt and I went to a concert in Orlando. On a school night! It was They Might Be Giants, a quirky band that we have been listening to together since college. It was a lot of fun, but also exhausting to get up the next morning. We are getting a bit old to stand in  a mosh pit for hours and hours. Thankfully there will be time this weekend to recharge and refresh. 

Sydney had a busy week as well with a conference and an industry night. She has an internship set up for the summer already, but it is good experience for her to go to events like that to talk to companies and find out what the job opportunities might be after she graduates - hopefully next year. It is a difficult time to be an environmental engineer, but she also does a lot of civil engineering, so that should be more safe right now. 

I think that the most exciting thing I have on the schedule for today is a haircut. I am definitely feeling good about having some quite time with yellow scraps. 

How many yellow scraps do you have to play with this month?