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? 

March Madness

 It is going to be March so soon! I know that many of you are not done with blue yet, don't worry, there will be a catch up month later. For now though, do what you can before the end of the week and then think about digging into your yellow! Yes, yellow for spring. 

I started a rope rug this weekend. Everything started well enough, so far so good.

But then I got impatient, and I guess I thought it would all work out eventually. The rounded corners didn't want to lie down though. And so after a bunch of wrestling and stretching and swearing, I decided to let them fold back instead of lying down. It started so well, but this isn't how it was supposed to turn out. Not to worry, I will try again. I really do like the idea of a rope rug. I will pay more attention to the ends lying flat next time. Everything gets easier with practice, right? 

After I gave up on the rope rug, I went back to hand quilting the hexies. I have pink thread for the basket quilt on order, but I have almost all of the colors of thread that I need for the hexies. The quilting will be just straight lines thru the center of each row of hexies. It goes pretty quickly. I am finding hand quilting to be very relaxing right now. It is nice not to be in high gear from time to time. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Short Blue Month

Next Saturday will be March! That means just one more week to finish up those blues. There will be a catch up opportunity at the end of the year in case you aren't quite done yet. Blue is just one of those colors that keeps going. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge is all about doing what works for you though, so don't feel like you have to "finish" every color every month. Every new quilt brings new scraps and the cycle starts over. I did a good job of using up the precut squares in blue, but not so much on making more. 

In general, I have been making good progress this week on using things up. I did a deep dive into batting on Sunday and came up with enough to piece together for the hexie quilt. 

It has a rainbow scrap striped backing as well, so lots of good use it up energy going on there. I have been watching youtube videos and thinking about making a jelly roll rug to put in front of the fireplace in Virginia. It seems to get grungy with ashes and bark. 

Then, while I was busy trying to make do, I ran out of thread right in the middle of hand quilting the baskets. I got an adorable sampler of 12 wt. variegated threads and the spools were tiny. I can't buy just the pink that I used up, which means I will need another sampler pack of 4. 

I will try to put the other colors to good use in the hexies though, so no need to worry.

When finishing up long-term projects, I always start to think about what is next. I was pondering a snake like arrangements of monochromatic hexies in a larger size. The rainbow diamonds are 3/4 of an inch, which made me order a cutter for the go that makes 1 inch hexies. They seem huge by comparison! I am not ready to start a new quilt yet, but it will be nice to have a portable project to carry along the next time we travel. Spring break will be in the mountains, but we have a trip to Alaska booked for this summer! It is one for the bucket list. 

Misterlinky is below, share your blue progress with us all. 

ScrapHappy Saturday Progress

 

The hexies quilt is getting so close to being done. All the light edges are done, it is just a few more dark hexies that I need to add to the bottom row of dark. Honestly it is just a few hours of work. I am thinking of making stripes of each color for the back. I want to hand quilt it with horizontal lines, so that should not cause too many problems. 

I am still chipping away at the log cabin blocks. I lay each one out of the floor and then double check the layout before sewing it together. There is only one so far that got twisted during sewing. What are you up to in the sewing room? 

Hand Sewing on Sunday

I am evening up the edges of the hexie quilt! The half hexies are different on the top than the bottom, which made me pause for a minute. Now that I am halfway done though, I have the routine down. 

 

I also have two and a half rows done on the basket quilt Baptist fan quilting! Look at that texture. I will be sure to get a bit more done during the super bowl tonight. Anna and Jordan came in for the weekend to go a birthday party and are just now back in time for the big game. Of course, after they showed up, it occurred to us that we don't have a television. Kurt and I just watch things individually on our own devices these days. We do have a projector though, that we got to watch Christmas movies with the kids. We will get that all set up and watch some sports during family game night tonight. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Catching up on UFOs

I got some more blue blocks made while I was working on a UFO. After finishing the basket quilt top last week, I dug out a log cabin UFO to figure out why it got stuck. I had started enough blocks, but then got stuck when I ran out of light colored logs. Once I cut a few more of those, I was good to go and quickly finished up enough blocks for the full sized quilt that is in my mind for the main bedroom at the cabin. 

I really wanted to a barn raising layout, but there isn't really enough space to lay it all out at once. Instead I settled in this alternating light and dark diamond layout. I can lay out a set of 16 blocks and then sew those together pretty quickly. The blocks finish at 7 inches each and I need enough for a king sized bed with a good amount of overhang which should make the layout about 15 by 15. What is going on in your sewing room this weekend? 

 

A New Hand Quilting Project

 

I got a couple of borders on the basket quilt yesterday. The inner border was a bit sketchy. The combination of a thin border on a stretchy bias edge was almost too much. The second border seemed to bring everything back under control again, but it was touch and go for a while. I ordered a Baptist fan stencil, it should be here tomorrow. I was kind of surprised that I did not have one. I love doing fans, but they are usually free form. This quilt seemed to want something more regular though. I also ordered some 12 weight thread in a nice variegated yellow and pink shade that I think will work nicely. I have been streaming The Last Homely House on you tube while sewing lately and Kate does a lot of hand quilting with that type of thread. Sew, I thought I would give it a try. I have used lighter weight quilting thread as well as heavier Pearle cotton, so I am hoping that this will be somewhere in between. I got the back ready and pieced together some extra batting, but I don't want to layer it all up until after the stencil arrives. I am going to mark it with frixion pens that I have been using for my planner lately. I usually use Crayola washable markers, but they do tend to rub off over time, so I will see if I like this better. I am a slow hand quilter, so it needs to be sturdy to still be in good shape years from now when it is done.

There was a retirement party at work on Friday for our guidance clerk. She has always been so sweet and supportive of my quilting, so I just had to find a quilt for her to take with her. I chose a bullseye quilt which was one of my RSC22 quilts.  I am happy for her, but still sad that she will be gone. It is nice when people really want to help the kids. 

I have a draft of a paper that is due tonight on constructivist learning theory and educational standards. I will just give that a quick final edit and then make my way back down to the sewing space. I am thinking about pulling out a log cabin UFO that could be my next flimsy finish. I hope that you are finding time to sew something on this lazy Sunday. It is good to rest up before a new week comes on full force. Be sure to take some time to see what other slow stitching is happening at Kathy's Quilts before the weekends slips away. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Bold and Blue

I haven't put away the pink bin quite yet, but that will be first for today. The blue bin is a bit overflowing and will take some time to sort out. There are a few new blue blocks on the leader and ender project that is new for this year. I had a couple of random four patches lying around that got worked in as well.  

That all happened while I was webbing the top together for the basket quilt. You can't do simple stack and sew of of blocks with a diagonal setting like you can for a straight set, so it was a slow and steady process of sew a row and then check to make sure it is good before adding the next row.  I think some kind of border would be good. I would like to use the pink, but I pulled a 3.5 strip out of the scrap bin for the cornerstones and I think that is mostly used up. I will do a bit of digging and see what there is. It is a small quilt, so it won't take much. 

Even though it was a busy week at work, it looks like a nice calm weekend. I am thinking about loading another quilt on the frame. I think I have several with backing already pieced and I have a fresh new roll of batting to use along with some new spools of thread. Ah, the possibilities!

Sunday Slowdown

When I was clearing out and organizing for the new year, I found these hand applique baskets that have been done for quite a while. The last time I rediscovered them, I planned a layout and I figured out that I needed 4 more. I made the 4 more, but then set them aside again. I don't know why. 

Yesterday I submitted all of my work for grad school. It was an easy week. A very short paper and a presentation with a script. Easy and fast. So today I get to play before I start on next week's work. There were not a lot of choices for sashing, because it needed to read as solid. There was enough of the teal and so that won. Most of my yardage is for backings and borders. I usually work from the scrap bins. The cornerstones came from the pink scrap bin because it is still January and that is the one that is available. I don't know if you can see the backgrounds, but they are all different pastel dots. I had some multicolored dots for the setting triangles and so this one is ready to sew together. I tend the make the setting triangles extra large so that they can be trimmed up later. I think this will be one to hand quilt. Maybe a nice Baptist fan? Definitely something nicely traditional. 

Yesterday I went to a luncheon for Cuban missionaries. My friend Linda was organizing it and my friend Sherie was there from a different to support the cause. We used to work together and had so much fun collaborating. She retired though and we fell out of touch. Everyone who retires seems to be loving life all the time. Every so often I wonder why I keep working. Work is a tomorrow problem though, today, I will start sewing some rows together. Right after I go and visit Kathy at Slow Stitching Sunday to see what other handwork people are up to this week.