Teal?

II can't remember the new color right now.  My brain has gone to mush.  I am pretty sure we haven't done teal this year though.  

Prayers for Mom

We left Florida just before 4 this morning thinking Mom would be home from the hospital by the time we reached Georgia.  All did not go according to plan and it was a very difficult and terrifying day.  They will keep her longer to try to stabilize her condition and hope that radiation will help with some of her new symptoms.  I am thankful for all the prayers and wishes as well as for being here with her during a difficult time.  I hope that tomorrow will bring better news.  I was happy to have some knitting in my purse today and finished a bright orange dish cloth while waiting.  I think I have some nice yellow for tomorrow.  I will have a new pattern to try if it is a quiet day.  

Last Yellow ScrapHappy Saturday

If all goes according to plan, I will be in a care headed to Georgia when this post goes live.  I have scheduled it ahead and am hoping that everything works as it should.  Yellow isn't one of those HUGE colors that never seem to end, so I am hoping that everyone made a good sized dent and came up with some nice blocks during the month.  Use misterlinky below to brag about your progress this month.  Be sure to check in and  see all the other scraphappy goodness going on in blogland.

Quilting in Science

I've been at training this week and have not had time or energy for quilting.  Mom is back in the hospital again and I've been doing a lot of talking to people on the phone.  We will be headed up this weekend so that I can help out in person for a while.
I couldn't go a week without any quilt related something though.  So today we were using an i-pad microscope to do epidermal peels of leaves in order to study the size and density of stomata.  Cool right?!  All you do is paint clear fingernail polish on a leaf and then use a bit of transparent tape to pull it up.  So we did monocots and dicots, top and bottom surface, they were all nice.  Then I got this peel from a fern leaf which is a seedless vascular plant and not an angiosperm at all.  How much does that look like a free motion quilting pattern to you?

Wait, here it is on high power.  Tell me that doesn't just scream meander to you?  So we each presented out findings to the class and I let them know that I would be posting my images on my quilt blog.  Now that I need to figure out how to overlay a grid on the image and calibrate it to get a density per square unit of surface area measurement.  Technology and science are both so cool.  I am having much fun at the workshop, learning lots of cool things to do with my students, and best of all, I get to take the toys back to my classroom to use and to play with!
Hopefully quilt related posts will continue someday soon.  

Aunt Brenda's Quilt

I've been busy this week with training but I did find some time in the evening to plan out Aunt Brenda's quilt.  I have a program called quilt Pro for the mac, which I am still trying to get used to.  The darker background fabric has been shipped, I got an e-mail yesterday saying it was in Ohio.  All the light blocks are done, along with the four patches.  I even have the light strips ready to go but can't put the blocks together without the dark strips.  Soon though.  

12 Stars Done

I finished 12 star blocks for Aunt Brenda's quilt!  All the parts are cut out for the rest, but I am waiting for a darker background fabric to arrive.  I have a vision.  I hope it turns out half as well as the plan in my mind. 

Today is the only day this week that I don't have to work so I am going to make the most of it.  Anna needs a drop off and pick up for camp of course, and there are some assorted errands to be taken care of.  First though, there is a quilt of the frame that could be finished with just a few minutes of focus.  I think it will be number 5 for June.  

Quilt Cut

I worked up a couple of practice blocks last night.  The first star was too small.  At that point I decided to stop practicing with my new batik fabric.  The sawtooth star will finish at 12 inches, I thought it needed a little something, so looked up the measurements to replace the center portion with a square in a square block.  Then I worked out an alternate block based on 2.5 inch squares with half light and half dark background.  TaDa!  I new quilt is being born.  I don't have any darker background fabric, but the rest of it is cut out and ready to be sewn together again.
The boys are off to Dungeons and Dragons this afternoon so the girls will have a nice lunch out with a trip to Joann's.  Anna needs a costume for her play on Friday.  She is going to be Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka Junior.  We picked up a dress at Goodwill yesterday which we are going to alter, so we will get supplies for that at the same time.  

Another Drawer

 Getting bored of before and afters yet?  One tiny project each day is keeping me moving.  So the big question for today, how much stuff do we really need on a daily basis?

Not that much as it turns out. 

New Quilt Schemes

 Look at the fabric goodness that came in the mail!  I have a very dear aunt who has asked me to make her a quilt.  I also have another aunt who loves to hand quilt and has offered to quilt it for her after I have made it.  They were shopping at a quilt shop with Mom and sent me a picture of a lovely Lonestar Quilt all made out of batiks. I've never worked much with batiks, but it sounded like a good chance to try something new.  I'm not sure I can accomplish the Lonestar idea quickly enough to get this thing done in a reasonable time, but I saw a quilt that got my creative juices flowing here.  Maybe because of the beautiful quilting?  Wanting to keep things somewhat simple for hand quilting, I remembered the Mariposa quilt I had made several years ago with a sawtooth star block.  Then I found this half light, half dark version of a chain block with some samplers stars.

Then I started to make some sketches.  In case you were wondering, this is how UFOs are born.  A new idea comes along and everything else that was in the works gets pushed aside.  So now I'm off to make a test block or two while inspiration is flowing.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Still Enjoying the Sunshine?

Yesterday was the summer solstice for some of us.  I hope you enjoyed the longest daylight of the year.  I sure did.  We are all off to a work picnic today during most of the sunshine hours, but I am hoping to get some quality sewing done before and after.  Just two more yellow Saturdays remain, so make the most of the sunshine before it dwindles!