ScrapHappy Saturday - Oddball Triangles

I debated with myself about which sewing projects to bring up to the mountains. I ended up grabbing a project bin with triangles. You know the type that I mean -- extra bits leftover from making binding or trimming other things. I try to cut everything down to uniform squares and strips, but these are the oddballs. I had some strings here already, so I think I will work on those next.

I have some foundation paper piecing that I am trying out.

The first pattern is a set of three flying geese. So cute and so tiny. Also some economy blocks. The long side on both are 3.5, so I am working with the tiny bits.  

Our progress on the windows is slow and steady. We ran out of the tape that goes around the frame though and so took a pause yesterday afternoon to visit a winery.  Yesterday was a work holiday for Kurt, so he wasn't going back and forth to meetings. We are getting more efficient at the installation, but it is a very old house and nothing is ever straight or simple here. Having the windows will be nice, some of the old ones were broken and many were painted shut. I think we have one more to go after this dining room bay which is a set of three. Kurt loves having projects to work on. He wanted to build a log cabin from a kit but I was concerned that we wouldn't have anywhere to sleep while it was under construction. So this was our compromise. I love having the land to tend and logs to cut while Kurt has so many projects to enjoy. I used to think that he worked too hard, and then one day I saw him standing on his newly completed deck with this look of absolute joy on his face. I wouldn't have guessed we could do so much but I guess you never know until you give it a shot. 

Then it was back to our window wildlife sightings. The same deer comes through the front yard most evenings. We are calling him John (like the John Deer the tractors).

Then Bill came around the other side of the house on the edge of the driveway. He has been around for at least three years now and we named him after Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Mountain Edition

I have not yet set up my sewing machine in Virginia. There has been hand sewing of hexies.

Most of the time though, there have been projects and quiet relaxation. This deer stood outside the family room for ages last night grazing on grass and trees. 

I got the last room upstairs painted. We call it the bunkbed room. It is where Kurt has meetings when he is working from home. He hasn't been into the office yet, but has been working part time when needed. We aren't taking a summer vacation this year, so he is enjoying some down time. 

I tamed grass. We keep trying to get some low maintenance ground cover to take over, but for now, there is still mowing. Kurt does not enjoy mowing and somehow he always ends up with a broken mower when he is here on business. That means it is always the first thing that I need to do when I get here. 

Kurt spent most of the week in North Carolina visiting his dad who is in the hospital with pneumonia. 

We did spent some time yesterday getting a few new windows installed. The delivery came while Kurt was gone, so we will keep working through those in one by one. I think we have three in and four to go. Maybe five. There is an awkward door that goes out of the master bedroom that we are going to swap for a window instead. After that we will have to redo the siding and so the cycle of projects continues. Kurt really wanted to build a house from scratch, but there seem to be plenty of projects here to keep us both busy. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Pastel Month

I tend to focus on primary colors when using up my scraps for RSC. As much as I try to get a nice variety of all the tints and shades, sometimes the lighter shades get left behind. This is a catch up month of sorts and a chance to focus on those neglected pastel shades that often get forgotten when the colors are too big to finish off during a month. I know that blue and green are both huge for me, and I don't get them whittled down as much as I would like when it is their turn. 

 

We made the drive to the cabin yesterday and so I had a few hours to hand sew hexies in the car. After I got tired of sewing snakes, I started to pair up snakes. I had just gotten my first pair of snakes done when we got into the winding mountain part of the journey and so I have a bit more to work on while we are here. 

It took a while to finish the quilting on the log cabin blocks. This quilt is HUGE and exceeded the capacity of my quilting frame. I would have done it in two chunks if I was smart. Instead, I used the incredibly inefficient method of quilting as much as I could and then unloading it from the frame to finish off the parts that hung off the edges of the frame. I did those on my domestic machine using the same Baptist fan pattern. After it was washed it all looks just fine. 

The back is recycled men's flannel shirts, so the quilt is both huge and heavy. Very snuggly and soft for cold cabin winters.