Forward Progress

 Last Sunday I put together these crumb blocks with a simple navy sashing.  I think I will add an outer border of the same fabric and then maybe some more crumbs.

Postage Stamp blocks were next on the list.  These were all leftover from finished quilts of long ago.  It is amazing that as many different fabrics as there are in these blocks, I still ended up with the same fabric next to each other repeatedly.  

 As part of my continuing quest to clear out orphans and extras, I quilted up this little table topper made from pinwheels of waste triangles.

 Then there is the continuing slow and steady binding progress.  I think this is number three of the hurricane finish parade.  These orange peels were appliquéd and then hand quilted.  After the binding backlog is taken care of, I'll need a new hand quilting project to work on.

Because it is Sunday, I'm going to link up with Oh Scrap! and Slow Stitching Sunday.  

Nervous Energy

Thursday I caulked all the windows and sealed stucco cracks in the outside walls of the house.  I was detailing the mini van when Anna wanted to know if I was going to be OK.  With two extra days off of school, it seemed like I should accomplish something.  Friday I washed all the laundry and cleaned up the inside of the house.  

That left enough time to finish one quilt.  

 So this morning I went for a run to replace the 5K that cancelled for obvious reasons.  Anna didn't take the ACT either.  Then I went to the store one last time and bought lots of junk food that made the kids so happy.  Sydney is in favor of hurricanes if it means that she can eat pop-tarts and Cheetos.  That left plenty of time this afternoon to finish another quilt.  I will get some better pictures in the morning.

There were two more flimsies hiding in the closet waiting to be quilted.  Those should keep me occupied in the morning.  They are both pretty small.  

Then tonight we had a family movie night and I finished the hand quilting on the orange peels quilt.  It rained a little bit today, but it wasn't particularly hurricane rain.  The wind has just started to pick up a bit.  We have been lucky I think with the westward shift that the storm seems to be taking.  It is still too early to know for sure, but it doesn't look nearly as bad for those of us on the east coast as we had all feared.  Of course, all of that means bad news for folks on the other coast.  I'll stay up for a while longer and watch some more weather.  That seams to be what I do most these days.
Many thanks to all who sent prayers and well wishes.  I appreciate them all more than you can imagine.  I will try to stay in touch as long as power and internet are going strong.

Turning the Last Corner

I have just turned the last corner on the border for my green Broken Dishes Quilt.  It is a fitting metaphor as the last week of summer vacation begins.  It is a good time to start finishing up odds and ends while trying to wade back in to thinking about the new school year.  I'm even talking to Mari about a challenge quilt for next year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I think that it is going to be awesome!

I am anxious to finish off this green quilt so that I can start quilting on my Orange Peels quilt.  I want to use pearle cotton for the quilting on it which will be something new for me.  

 Yesterday Kurt and I took his sailboat out for the first time ever.  He's been working on building it for the last year and a half.  There are still a few finishing touches he will work on now that we've taken it for a test run, but it worked great.  We were out on the river on a beautiful sunny day, sailing alongside 4 dolphins.  Not a bad life at all.  This morning I was up early to get in a quick run before it got to be too hot.  Then Anna and I did a few errands to start getting some supplies for school.  It is hard to believe that summer is almost gone!  I'm soaking up every minute.

Slow Down Sunday

These orange peel blocks were my hand applique project from two years ago.  I was trying to showcase the scraps of hand dyes and batiks from other projects.  The blocks have been finished for ages, just waiting to be put together into a top.  I seem to always get bogged down at that stage.  It is all together now though!  I have a backing fabric picked out, that won't take long to piece together.  After that a quilting decision needs to be made.  I'd love to hand quilt it, but I'm still not done with the hand quilting project that I have in progress.  Decisions!  Maybe if I go and pull out that other quilt in progress it will motivate me to get it finished up.  First though, I think there is laundry and the kitchen needs some attention.  Even on summer break, life happens.  If only everything didn't need such constant attention and upkeep I'd have more time for quilting.
The best way to procrastinate for a while longer though, is to spend some time with Kathy at Slow Stitching Sunday, and check out Oh Scrap before real life takes over.  

Border Patrol

I've been cutting border pieces today.  It is pouring rain outside and its just Netflix and I with baskets of scraps.  Bliss!  

Lazy Summer Days

I've been puttering around the house all week not accomplishing much.  I thought it would be nice to finish some things off though.  These orange peel blocks have been hanging around mostly done for a while now.  Today I finished trimming away the background fabric behind the applique and trimmed the blocks all down to size before squaring them up and sewing them into groups of four.  I had no idea how many block there were until everything was sewn together.  Now I can see that I need eight more blocks to have enough for a small throw quilt.  Somewhere I have the templates still I think.  If not, I can make another from the finished block.  It shouldn't take too long to make that happen.
Ryan is volunteering at science camp again this week.  Anna has three shifts at the hospital to keep her out of trouble.  Poor Sydney doesn't have much on her plate though.  She is taking great pride in sleeping until lunch and staying up until all hours of the night.  School is just around the corner.  We'll have to get her back into routine before then.

Slow Sunday - Rainy Day Edition

I enjoyed reading about Kathy's experience with fall and the onset of winter.  It has been so hot here that we aren't feeling and change in the seasons yet.  It is a rainy day though, so staying in to catch up on slow stitching sounds just right.

 I have these applique orange peels ready to prep and need to get it done before Thanksgiving when we will have some car time and some sitting around hanging out with family time.  I have new motivation to finish off the orange peels this year so that I can start on Quilty 365 circles on January first.  I want mine to be a true calendar quilt quilt with each month laid out in weeks.  I have a plan all drawn up, but won't start until this current project is on to the next phase.  To check out more slow Sunday stitching, head over to Kathy's Quilts.  

November is all about getting quilts ready to go to the next phase.  There are enough of these postage stamp stars for two twin sized quilts with a few leftover for fun. They will be set with wide lattice and cornerstones which had me digging in the 2.5 inch square bin yesterday.  There weren't enough  of all of the colors and so one thing lead to another and the rest of the day was spent turning strips into squares and scraps into strips and generally playing with scraps.  I have one plastic shoebox already sorted by color and another one ready to be sorted and organized.  So, whatever projects go on the list for next year, one of them will definitely need to use 2.5 inch squares.  I am thinking about Arkansas Crossroads which would make a nice thematic addition to the Missouri Puzzle that is in the simmering stage.  To take a look at more scrap happiness, head over to Oh Scrap.  

Slowdown for Sunday

 I woke up bright and early this morning ready to finish off the quilting on Mai Tai Sunrise.  I'm ready to make binding next.  I was thinking pink, but now that I look at it next to the top, I'm not so sure.  Maybe I'll dig a bit deeper into the stash.  Hopefully I can get the binding machine stitched down this morning and spend this afternoon slow stitching with a movie marathon.

 The quilting on Mai Tai was a freehand swirl, it doesn't really show up much, but it adds nice texture.

 I honor of Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts, I pulled out the Orange Peels finished up on our last trip.  It looks like 18 blocks got hand stitched during the driving time, all while enjoying an audio book with Kurt while the kids watched movies in the back.  His family is already planning the next vacation, so there will surely be more Slow Stitching to enjoy soon enough.

The poor t-shirt quilt was left awkwardly hanging out not quite done on the floor when I decided to finish up Mai Tai Sunrise.  It will be next on the list.  Just a few borders and I will pop it onto the frame.  I have a fabric in mind for the backing.  

When to Stop?

 Part of the quandary with long term scrap projects is figuring out when you are finished.  I prepped another stack of orange peel blocks for applique last week.  After getting caught in New York having sewn up all my prepped blocks, I wanted to make sure that the next trip has plenty of hand work ready to go.  I think this stack should keep me busy for a while.  I'll keep going on these until the end of the year.  Most of the fabrics are hand dyes and batiks leftover from my Sawtooth Sampler and New York Beauty quilts, so these blocks need to keep going at least until those two projects are done.  If you want to check out hand work, be sure to visit Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

Then I spent some time organizing my OMG Churn Dash blocks.  These little guys start with 1 inch strips that have been getting sewn in bits and pieces for several years now.  I need to get out some graph paper and colored pencils to figure out how many of each color I will need.  The plan is to have diagonal stripes of colors in rainbow order, but I'm not sure how many blocks or how big the quilt should be.  I guess I'd better decide that so that I can figure out how many of what to get ready to go.  It will still be a long term project, but it can't go on indefinitely.  Can it?

Slow Stitching Sunday at the Airport

We have just arrived at Syracuse for the start of Genius Olympiad.  On the two flights so far these 9 orange peel blocks were stitched.  It will be two hours until the next shuttle to SUNY Oswego, so I will get a few mire done today for sure.  So glad that these were all prepped and ready to go.  Now I feel that I am being productive rather than just waiting.