First Day of School!

I went into school yesterday to make sure that everything was ready for the big first day today.  Sometimes I enjoy throwing absolutely everything into a big stack and just working my way down.  

 By the end of the day, I was left with just a few notes and a nice "to do" list of non criticals.

 This was my favorite sunrise from the week.  I think it was from Wednesday.  Sunrise shots are going to be harder to come by as the days get shorter.  We left early to get the class pet situated today and I rushed out with hardly a glance toward the horizon. 

I did get Tiny Tuesday ready for tomorrow morning.  You may have seen that Libby made a makeup block for last Tuesday after I missed it completely.  Thanks Libby!  I added one more and both will show up bright and early tomorrow.  I got another quilt loaded onto the frame after I finished Ryan's college quilt.  This one was made by a friend of my husband's from work.  I was trying out thread colors, and the basic answer was that every color worked.  We decided to go with a neutral grey.  The back is pink, so I managed to find the thread after dinner tonight.  

It will be nice to finally get everything settled in properly.  As soon as I think we are making progress, something comes along and resets the goal post.  Last week we had a contractor in to add a door to Sydney's room.  While he was here, we decided to take advantage and move a few things around.  Now we are getting used to doors in new places and cleaning up construction dust all over again.  It is all moving in the right direction though.  

Most exciting news of the week?  We have a pantry!  There used to be a coat closet off of the front entry.  Who needs a coat closet in Florida?  So we just had the door moved to the other side, which is in the dining room/kitchen.  With just a few oddly shaped parallelogram shelves, there is lots of room for food, brooms and other goodies.  I've got a lesson plan which needs a bit of work before bed and then I'd better get some rest before day number 2.  That is when all the good behavior from day 1 starts to wear off.  

ScrapHappy Saturday

I blew right past Tiny Tuesday this week. So sorry to miss it. I'll try to put together two blocks this week to make up for it. Adjusting to back to school is a bit of a process. We are doing the college drop off for Ryan this week and for Anna next week. Today we are having one last family outing to go paddle boarding. Everyone is bringing a friend so it should be lots of fun.

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ScrapHappy Saturday

The best thing about starting back to work on a Friday is that it makes for a very short workweek.  We had breakfast, met the new people, did a few meetings and the day was almost done.  This weekend is my chance to finish up all those last minute summer things before school is really back in full swing.

Ryan's t-shirt quilt is about halfway done.  I'm on the row now with all of his class shirts from elementary school.  There is one more quilt in the queue which one of Kurt's work friends would like for me to quilt and then I can disassemble the frame again and focus on some scrap blocks.  

First though, we need to finish watching the sun get a little higher in the sky and maybe look for some turtle tracks on a morning beach walk.  

I hope you were able to get to a good stopping point on pink before digging back into blue again with the lights and brights this month.  I promise that you won't have to wait much longer for purple to take its turn.  

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Wee Wednesday

Step 1, make a template.  I found that a coaster and a quarter worked out well.  Anything that is round is up for grabs.  The smaller the circle, the fatter the petal.  My coaster is 4 inches in diameter.  

If you don't want to make your own templates, just print this handy dandy pattern which I will post for you.  The petal should be about 3 inches long.  (Please let me know if it isn't.  I'm not quite sure yet where the printer is, so I can't double check the size. ) 

I like to make templates out of freezer paper.  Feel free to use the applique method of your choice.  

You will need scraps of pink fabric  about 4 inches long and a tiny bit of a contrasting fabric.  They pinks can be the same or different.  In addition to the pink, you will need 4 squares of background fabric each 2.75 inches.  (feel free to use one single square of background fabric which is 5 inches if you want to simplify)

Prepare your pieces for applique and apply one piece to a background square.  Place the petal along the center diagonal and center it so that a quarter of an inch seam allowance remains at each corner.

Sew down your applique pieces and arrange your four patch.

If you don't want a flower, you could also arrange them this way which is a traditional orange peel layout.

Sew your four patch together.

Finally, place the contrasting center in the middle and sew it in place.  The advantage of the center circle is that it will camouflage any mismatched seams in the center.  

It is the last day of July, which is a good time to mention that the color for August will be light and bright blue.  Sorry for the purple fans, but it is coming soon.  Blue is one of those shades which needs a little extra attention for most of us.  

When I wasn't working on Wee Wednesday today I was working on Ryan's dorm room quilt.  Due to the temporary lack of extra rooms, I set up the quilting frame right in the middle of the family room.  Can't argue with the view!

I'm using a square spiral which I think feels like a circuit board.  

 Dave, our contractor and old neighbor, was back today and installed drywall around Sydney's door.  She will be so happy to have a little privacy as the garage entryway goes right past her bedroom

He also installed two new outlets to recharge cars in the garage.  He'll be back tomorrow to finish up the drywall and start working on the pantry.  Slowly but surely we are getting all settled in.  Just in time too.  One day left before back to school!

Tiny Tuesday - Violet

Ok, so violets aren't necessarily pink, but flowers come in many colors.  This should be another quick and simple block.  If  you are interested in an applique version, come back tomorrow for a bonus wee Wednesday block.

 Today's block is a four patch with snowball corners.  You will need:
4 pink squares each 2.75 inches
8 background squares each 1.75 inches
4 contrasting squares each 1.25 inches
 Start by drawing a line from corner to corner on each of the background squares.  Place one in a corner of each pink square.  Sew along the diagonal.  Flip and press the white square open. 

 With snowball or flip and sew corners, I like to look at the back of the block and trim away excess from the corners before trimming away the fabric behind.  I find the blocks end up much nicer this way.  Not everyone trims away the excess fabric behind, its all about choice. 

After you have snowballed one corner on each pink square, snowball the adjacent corner.  

 Next take a contrasting 1.25 inch square and snowball the next corner as you work around in a clockwise direction. 

 Here you go, 4 squares with 3 snowball corners each. 

 Arrange them so that the rotate around the center with the contrasting corners all pointed to the middle.  Sew as you would for any four patch.  The seams on the snowball corners will naturally face away toward the corner, if you want to manually reverse the seam allowance on one corner in each pair, you can reduce the bulk by a bit and get the seams to nestle. 

Here is the finished block.  Notice that the petals float a bit at the edges, this means you aren't going to have to match seams and the corners don't have to be perfect.  

When I wan't sewing today, we were getting a new door installed in Sydney's room.  She is super excited.  

We also got a new chandelier installed in the stairwell.  Just a bit more paint and finish work to go.  

T-Shirt Quilt

 Ryan is off to college in just  few short weeks.  It is time to get a move on with his dorm room quilt.  So far I've finished the ironing and cutting.  Now I'm off to the fabric store. 

I'm sure I have grey fabric somewhere, but finding it right now would be more work than it is worth.  The sewing room won't truly get set up until Anna is back at college.  It has been ages since I shopped for any fabric.  I'm looking forward to it.  

Last Pink Saturday

Where does the time go?  I hope that you have made some great pink progress.  This is my last weekend of summer before teachers go back to work next week.  I'm going to soak it all up like a sponge.  Looking forward to seeing lots of great pink today.

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Tiny Tuesday - Wonky Star

I thought a nice simple block was in order for this week.  Stars are always a favorite for me.  This one is an improvisational  version that comes together so quickly . 

 Gather together some squares.  The background squares are cut 2 inches and the star points can be anything between 1.5 and 2 inches in a square or rectangle.
Cutting:
8 squares of assorted background fabric 2 inches each
1 square of pink for the star center, also 2 inches
8 scraps of pink, about 1.75 inches square (exact size not important. 

 Start with 4 squares of background fabric and place a pink scrap in one corner.  Sew diagonally across the corner, no necessarily from corner to corner.  Try to get a little bit of variety of angles and sizes. 

 Fold the star points back and finger press to make sure that they cover the background fabric.  You can leave these untrimmed for now or iron and trim the pink fabric even with the background fabric. I chose to wait  because my iron is on a different floor from my sewing machine right now.  I know that sounds lazy, but I'm getting in over 50 flights a day at the moment.  Saving one or two of those  can't hurt. 

 Repeat the same procedure on the other corner. 

 Press at this point and make sure all your corners are covered. 

 Trim the pink so that it exactly covers the background square. 

 At this point you can either trim the background fabric away from behind the points or leave it in place.  It depends on how much you like to reduce bulk.  I'm a trimmer. 

 Now just arrange your star points around the center pink square and fill in the remaining background squares to make a nine patch. 

 Sew  the nine patch together and feel free to trim it up if it isn't quite 5 inches. 

Set it on the diagonal for the finished quilt and enjoy your quick and simple block.  I could make these all day!

ScrapHappy Saturday

There was a wedding on the beach this week.  I enjoyed sitting on the deck and watching.  Usually couples just come to take photos on the beach and get married somewhere else.  This couple seemed to have the entire ceremony on the beach.   So sweet.

As far as pink scraps, I gifted this pink baby quilt for a dad at my husbands office who just had a baby girl.  I'm out of baby quilts now.  I try to keep one for each gender on hand just in case.  One of my coworkers had a baby boy earlier this year though, so I'd better think about replenishing the supplies.  

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Tiny Tuesday - Tiny Piglet

Sally Trude has designed another adorable animal block this week.  Wow is it tiny!
Link to Tiny Piglet block.  Don't worry too much though, it is all squares and rectangles.  Tiny squares and rectangles. 

Just in case that is too scary though, there are some friendlier fish to try as well.  Please set these straight.  They don't want to get dizzy!  Thanks so much Sally for your creativity and adorable designs.