ScrapHappy Saturday - The End Begins

What a week!  Just when I think things will calm down.  Such is the way with a new job though as we all figure out exactly what is going on.  They are painting my office this weekend and my new desk is on the way.   I still need to get settled into the new sewing space as well.  I am tempted to just start moving everything downstairs after packing it all up while Sydney was home sick last weekend.   We will see what the day brings.   

Hopefully everyone is starting to think about block assembly.  This is the time to pull out collections and see what is needed to finish up the top.  I encourage you to dig into the brown and black bins for a few extra blocks.  People tend to shy away from the darker colors in rainbow tops, but they can add a nice grounding effect and allow the colors to shine even brighter.  Give it a try!  They are only scraps after all.  You can always hide an ugly block on the back if you don't like it or add it to the orphan bin.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Fall and Fun

I took a group of kids on a college tour on Thursday.  This is them walking into one of the buildings on the Florida Polytechnic campus.  If you have driven from Orlando to Tampa, you have seen the big cage like framework of the main building on campus.   It was a fun day for the kids with no problems and we came home with the same 42 kids we started out with.  All just what you need on field trip day! We also managed to have the gifted meetings that were scheduled during the hurricane so hopefully we can start getting back to normal again. 

No sewing photos to share today, so here is a sunrise instead.   Sydney called yesterday sick with strep and wanted to come home to be sick here instead of her dorm room.   A hasty pack up of the sewing room followed.  I will start setting up the new sewing room at some point to avoid the constant packing and unpacking, but with Kurt working on remodeling the bathroom, it is still quite a bit of a mess most of the time.  

How are your sewing projects coming along?  There will not be "official" colors for the next two months.  The end of the year is reserved for assembly of blocks and finishing of tops.   However, if you still feel the block piecing vibe, I encourage you to dig into the browns and blacks to make some sense of the darks before the end of the year is officially here.  

 

ScrapHappy Fall Fun

 It has turned to fall here and pretending to have seasons is quite fun.   Not a lot of sewing time this week, but all sorts of goodness.   Sunday there was a ladies tea to celebrate a new grandbaby for a teacher friend who retired recently.  I brought a  quilt. Blogger isn't letting me upload any photos this morning, but it was blue with swirls in  snowball and nine patch arrangement.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Fall Fun

 

Things are finally starting to settle down again.  I decided on this sashing solution for the Carpenter's Star blocks.  It uses up some of the extra HST and extends the pattern to help the blocks join.  I am starting to see a nice secondary diamond where all of the blocks come together.  It also will make the quilt slightly larger, which is a bonus.  Given the block size, it is harder to get things to fit.  With smaller blocks it is easy to add an extra row or two, but these stars are giant!  There should be time today to finish the rest.   I have a few housekeeping things to do and a couple of work tasks to catch up on, but generally things are settling down again to a more normal level.   The post hurricane craziness has settled.  How are your scraps coming together?  I must admit to being completely out of contact with the world lately.  I look forward to catching up on that today as well.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Getting Back to Normal

 The hurricane was a 4 day inconvenience for my part of Florida.  For others it was much more.  We spent a few days without electricity or internet and a few hours picking up debris and reassembling windblown downspouts.   My main consequences came from the 3 days of school lost and having to reschedule all of that.  It has been busy!  Technically we have a three day weekend with a "work from home" day on Monday.  I am scheduled for a college event in Orlando though which should be fun.   Kurt has been working on a bathroom remodel for what used to be Sydney's bathroom and will now be part of my quilting studio.  I think we are scheduled to pick up the shower enclosure this morning and finalize tile choices.   

Looking forward to some sewing time too of course.  I did lots of binding during the storm, but having a machine and iron again will be a joy!   I do remember digging into the brown bin to make one last Carpenter's Star block.   Brown has been long overlooked.  I am hoping to make some layout decisions.  Sashing would make the sewing together easier with all those seams, but I kind of like the secondary patterns when the blocks come together.   It will be fun trying out different ideas.  Misterlinky is below. Please share your progress.   The beginning of the end is near!

ScrapHappy Saturday - Waiting

It is a new month!  I must confess to not having finished my baby blues.   Most of my sewing this week has been hand sewing of binding as we wait for the power to be restored after Ian.   October is scheduled either for lime and light green or for light neutrals as we work to finish off the rainbow.   Please feel free to finish up the blocks that you are going to need for your quilts.   Assembly is right around the corner!

The storm damage was minimal here, we still have water though we have been asked to conserve.   We have made quite a dent in the nonperishable food stash, but with everything around us back to normal, it feels odd to sit in a dark house.  Fortunately, it is quite cool post Ian, so not having an air conditioner has not been a problem.   I am sure most of the fridge and freezer will need to be tossed, but I guess this is a good excuse to do a little cleaning

I think we will try to reattach the downspouts to the gutters today, the upper elbow was knocking against the sliders in the wee hours of Thursday when the eye of the storm was approaching.  That was our mostivation to fasten the last of the shutters to wait out the worst.   The eye was large and lasted most of the morning on Thursday before the bottom of the eyewall made its way through with much less ferocity than the top.   The surfers were out in force, whooping and shouting in the waves.  I won't have much contact today, as my computer has just switched to battery saving mode. Enjoy your sewing, and welcome to the new month!

ScrapHappy Saturday - Storm Prep

 

It will be a weekend of watching the tropics.  Sydney is home from Gainesville for her first weekend visit, so sewing is not going to be high on the priority list.   Kurt was gone all week, and he is back just in time to start following Tropical Tidbits for the latest storm updates.   There might be a couple of days off midweek to sew the windy days away.   How are your projects all coming along?  Misterlinky is below.  Please keep us all up to date on your progress.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Loving Baby Blue

The weeks blows by in a blur of activity right now.  I have kids lined up to sign up for college visits and ask for advice on applications and essays followed by meeting with coworkers and then time to get work done.   I've got little guys rummaging for felt and glue for flags.  Then there is the administrivia that still comes creeping back.  The learning curve is steep, and it is something new everyday.  So far I am a big fan of the new job.  

The morning sunrise photos are getting just a bit harder to capture as the days get shorter.   If the sun rose straight over the horizon, I could still capture it and not get stuck in morning traffic, but with the usual banks of clouds delaying the appearance of the sun, it is often making a late start right now.  The clouds do help make such striking colors though. I look forward to finding out what the day will bring each morning.   

Sewing is isolated mainly mainly to weekends, but I have not been brining home lesson planning and grading, so there is time now that didn't use to exist.  I got the light blue star sewn together and the bright green is waiting for its turn.  I have cut out some parts for black and brown stars, but I don't think I have enough fabric variety yet.  Grey and black can coexist nicely, I will just have to rummage in the bins to find out what is there.  I will pull out another block collection today and take evaluate its progress.   I know September isn't really the end of the year yet, but it is starting to feel that way.  Holiday plans are just around the corner!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge -- Rounding out Collections

 It is time to start evaluating my project to figure out which one need more blocks.  Here are the Carpenter Stars so far.  Definitely a need for baby blue, then maybe a lime green and a brown and a black block.  I am liking he way these come together with the secondary pattern.  I pulled baby blue 2.5 inch strips, so that one will be next on the list. 

How are your blocks coming along?  I know that September isn't the end of the year yet, but I am still starting to enjoy the idea of putting some tops together soon.  

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - September

 

A new month!  Is there anything more fun than digging into a new bin of scraps!  I know we did blue earlier this year, but it is a color that truly needs more time to digest for most of us.  When I don't know what color to choose for a gift, I almost always go with blue because it works for everyone.   We are waiting on the rocket launch again.   It is scheduled for 2:17 today.  Hopefully things will go  better than Monday.   Because we are still waiting for the Artemis, here is a photo of a rocket launch from last September.  The halo effect is still one of my favorite visuals.