2 finishes and a trip to Chicago

While I have not blogged in a while, I have been busy.  In fact I am not sure how the time has flown by so quickly.

First, my finishes:

This was my rainbow scrap challenge from 2017.  There are 99 blocks made, no 2 of them the same fabric.  Each month was a different color: and I made country shades rather than bright colors. Most, but not all the fabrics are Thimbleberries or similar.

Here are a couple that I made so you can have an idea what one 6 inch block is like: ( These are 4 put together.

Taking pictures has been a challenge due to the reoccurring rainstorms we get.

The top was put together in January, and the border in March. 

I finally sent it off to a quilter and got it back this month: a beautiful feathery all over pattern.

My back is a Kansas Trouble red as is the binding. 

TA DAA!!!!!

Second, I quilted and bound another tree skirt. 

It is almost identical to the one I made for the wedding in March.  

And I am so glad to get it off my plate, much overdue. 

It is mostly made of a batik jelly roll called Jingle. 

Drum roll:  Crash (can't you just hear the cymbals!)

Here is some of the back with it: 

A  gold polka dot on bright red background

And for my trip to Chicago. My daughter had a business trip and offered her room to share right downtown near Grant Park.

We walked lots, had fun seeing the sights and ate good food>

 This is a reflection at Millennium Park on the Bean of my spouse and I who just had our 39th wedding anniversary.

Here is the Apollo space craft that returned to earth following the moon landing. 

We toured the Adler Planetarium and saw lots of history and loads of information:

astrolabes, telescopes, pieces of the moon, and more.

 Perspectives by important astronomers and how they were proven. 

Additionally we toured the Art Institute of Chicago. Amazing pieces of work from paintings to sculpture, jewelry to swords, modern to ancient and all across the globe.

My favorite work though was found in the Chicago library: 

This is merely a portion: but is was a huge display hanging from the ceiling. 

Little did you realize until you got to the top floor that it is all recreated dog tags of soldiers who died in the Vietnam War: some 68,000 of them. 

Flimsy and a concert!

Finally!!! 

I got my pinwheel party from RSC 2017 together. I have been working on the borders the past week or so. It looks great here...and took hours pressing .  Some intersections not as perfect as I had hoped.  A lot of time has gone into this. But I am happy with the product. Now to be quilted!

Great, fun concert with my daughter and her beau.  The tickets were a Christmas present for a group called We Banjo 3, an Irish group with great talented instrumentalists and voices.  Not your average concert at the  Pabst in Milwaukee, but a fun night. As the singer said, "Not a sitty downy concert,  a standy uppy kind."

Retreat

I had the pleasure of 2 days away fully devoted to quilting and friends. I can't  tell what joy it was to be with such talented ladies sharing meals and ideas together.

We listened to old musicals and Broadway hits while hunkering down to our machines and tools creating quilts.

We had a great facility near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was a side by side new building each having room for 6 quilt/crafters which can be opened up to 12 all together.

We took turns with meals, snacks, and such and had a wealth of good food.

Here is the quilt I pieced together while there.  This is my RSC challenge from 2017.  Each month was a different color and I chose the  muted tones.  These are 2 of the blocks: each is a finished 6 inch block.  

I had completed 112 blocks of which I put together 108. All I worked on was sewing the finished blocks into a 9 x 12 arrangement, having laid them out on New Year's Day.  I need to check my corners and resew as needed, press well and then add the 3 inch half square triangle border. 

Here are a few of the projects the others were busy on: 

This is a Kaffe Fasset fabric collection. It is from a quilt store in Mukwonago called Quilt-agious and is featured on their website: http://www.quilt-agious.com, if you are interested. I don't know the pricing at all. 

The next is the beginnings of our guild's raffle quilt for 2020 featuring an Edita Sitar pattern from her book on Patches of Blues and the fabric line to go with it.  The outer border will be applique with lots of vines and small circles. ( I prepared 400 or so inches of bias strips.)

This is a T-shirt quilt by a friend for a nephew who attended Loyola University in Chicago.

I hated having to return home and go back to work.

RSC blocks and more

I was able to squeeze some sewing time in tonight. I did not have to go help my son and grandboys as mom was home from work tonight.  I made turkey tetrazzini with leftover turkey. And we have enough for a 2nd meal.

I sewed the basic part of the package for these Christmas mug rugs/ potholders.

And now I have my brown Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks completed.  There are 8 brown blocks bringing my grand total to 98 blocks and I have extra 3 inch half square triangles for a border. It will look great together.  But I probably won't have time for this until after the holidays.

Little by little...Bit by bit.

Busy week

School was crazy as the staff and students prepared for our football team playing at the state championship for Division 3. There were 8 buses of students, the band, the dance team, cheerleaders, and multitudes of cars traveling to Madison, WI to play at Camp Randall home of the Wisconsin Badgers. The excitement was crazy and Friday was a no classes day as the game was at 10:00 A.M.

But we lost after such a great season. The best part was being in the cafeteria as the crowd clapped the whole team to the locker rooms; it went on and on as the players descended from the bus across and across the room They were disappointed, of course, and their heads hung low. But we were proud; they still were amazing to have gotten that far.


The picture is from the regional championship.

On another note, my daughter in law has had a tough week with her diabetes and went in the hospital last night to bring her blood sugar levels down. I feel for her and my son and the boys.

As far as quilting in my world:

I have started Christmas and have made the tops to some mug rugs/ pot holders.  Cute pattern found on Pinterest, of course.  They went together easily and the scraps were in my Christmas box.  It will be perfect to send to my mom especially as mailing to Canada is costly, but fabric isn't. But they will also be great small gifts for others as well.



Then I found the Covered in Love block drive.  Many hands make light work. I love being able to do small things with my fabric and be creative, but not having to devote time to a large project. Plus I feel it is one way I can make a difference by sharing my talents.


Lastly, I finally have some RSC blocks to show:  brown.  Each time I make this block, I try to be so careful meeting the center of the pinwheel. Ahh.  sometimes it is just not to be.  But the more I make them the more I love the blocks and how they look together.

More blocks

It's Friday and I have had a little time during the week as well as this evening to sew.  I even got to pick out dinner I liked and chill by myself as hubby had a concert  in Madison.

So progress:

Here are all the rest of my pink blocks for my rainbow scrap challenge. Then all that is left to complete are brown squares and a few odd colors I have found and cut out. And THEN I can assemble the quilt. this gives me a total of 9 pink blocks.  The more I make these pinwheels the more precise I am getting with the centers. Matching all those triangles can be a tricky and need to be resewn a time or two.

Next up are the 2 latest Blockheads blocks. Dutchman's puzzle was quick to assemble and I even accidentally got it spinning in the right direction. The 2nd block I cut out the wrong colors and had to remake a the half square triangles.  But it turned out nicely in the end.  Again these are 6 inch blocks for a total of 33.  All of mine are in Kansas Troubles fabrics.

Lastly I am making a lap quilt for a veteran for a wheelchair. Here are 8 friendship star blocks to start it out. They are 6 inch blocks.

Pumpkin RSC and more blocks

I am all caught up with my Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 14 blocks completed for September.

Each block is 6 and a half inches.

And now I have all my Blockheads caught up, too. these blocks are also 6 and a half inches.   Total all blocks thus far  81!!!!!!!

All are made in Kansas Troubles fabrics.

( I haven't measured the triangles to see how far off I am yet. )

These little triangles are terror for the substitute applique for number 28.  Lisa Bongean said she was able to put it together in 45 minutes. 

I only wish...                                                                 It doesn't want to lay flat although I pressed it.

the amount of seams are crazy on the back. 

Here is number 29 in purples and reds.  The lighting was not cooperating.

Homecoming and block

I was finally able to have some concentrated time to sew. Ahhh.

I made the blockheads number 30. But need to finish and complete numbers 28 and 29. I had bee so good at keeping up, too.

Then I made 3 more pumpkin colored blocks for the RSC challenge with 3 more cut out to bring September to a total of 14. 

This week was homecoming at the school where I work. We have theme dress up days for each day of the week, and Tuesday's was 50s and 60s. So I found this old lovely blouse of my mother's from them and wore it.  (Boy, am I looking tired.)

Rainbow Scrap Orange

As I didn't see any neutrals, this is the first post for a while . So here are 8 rusty/orange blocks. I have 6 more cut out.

Odds and ends

It's a new month!         Happy Canada Day late for those up north, a little late. 

Happy 4th of July for the Yanks!

I made my Stash Bee blocks:  They are string blocks using muslin foundation.  The hard part was selecting the strings. I sorted my scrap bags. I really don't have a lot of strings and was unsure what colorways to choose. But they are done.

Then I started my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blue blocks.  I know; one of them looks more gray than blue. But it is a good start. 

But mostly I am glad to post this start on the 2nd panel of " Over the River and Through the Woods by Crabapple Hill .  Yeah! The first one is done. But this one has a whole lot more lines to follow. 

It has been a year since I cut the panels and traced them, followed by hand basting them together.

Oh, and here are my dear daughter and husband from our day Sunday. We did trivia at a bar which was fun, and then walked the lakefront of Milwaukee.

I love the water and the reflections of light. It was kind of a cloud-ish day. 

And I loved this flower that looks like little white spiders in clumps. So delicate and beautiful!

Finish gold RSC and panel 1

I finished the last of my gold/yellow for RSC for June. Here is a picture of the last 4 although I have made 7 others, totaling 11 golds.

For the year so far: 8 purple, 8 teal, 12, red, 13 rainbow, multicolor, 12, green and 11 total.  

SUM  64 blocs,  Plus  2 half square 3 inch blocks for each color.

My goal is to finish the last fence row on this panel today!: 

The decision will be to do the panel with only the wording, or the one with the most to do?  Hmmmm.

Saturday play day

I am finally stitching  away at my yellow/gold Rainbow Scrap Challenge for June. As my colors are muted in hue, I am going with golds. My fabrics are mostly Thimbleberries. 

So here are four blocks.

I am still working away at my Go 4 it I GO.  Six more blocks this morning: total up to 62 blocks and counting. Too bad they are only 6 inch blocks.

Finishing Green

Thursday was a productive evening for sewing. (So much for the cleaning projects on my list.)

I finished all the rest of my green rainbow scrap challenge blocks totalling 12 for the month.

Another finish: Blockheads number 13. This is 4 bow ties put together in a ring. My knot in the center of each had only used 1 inch squares; if I were to do it over again , I would increase the size.  Looks good though.

Memorial Day weekend

Hooray for the weekend and it is a  long one.!

This week has been long for me.  I just felt blah!  I don't know if it was overload from the quilt retreat, catching a low key bug, or what.  Even people at work were saying I look so tired. Finally by Thursday I felt more like myself.  So absolutely NO SEWING all week.

I didn't even unpack my sewing machine until Saturday.  I have started on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge of Greens.  Nine blocks have been cut out and ready for most of the month. Hope to get them done today.

Saturday was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining and so warm.  It seems strange for our weather of late!   We have had such a wet and cool spring.  So my hubby and I went to the farmer's market and bought great cinnamon rolls, and my zinnias for the back porch.  Then we attacked the yard.  I weeded the front beds and removed buckets of winter leaves  ( and a bunny nest no longer in use).

And last night we went to my favorite Mexican eatery by the lake.  Ahhh the first margarita of the summer. And the sunset on the water... the boats running back and forth ... the kids in the sand... the water.   Yes I love, love watching it.

And now it's Sunday and it started out raining.  But about noon it cleared and hubby and I cleaned out the back flower beds. We must have pulled about a hundred Buckthorn. Ugh.  From a couple inches to a couple feet.  And all the leaves and brush are mostly gone. We quit after about 2 hours.

So I then started sewing.  Yeah!  I got several of my Rainbow scrap challenge blocks done.



As a review each block is 6 and 1/2 inches; that means 8 half square triangles of 1 and 1/2 inches each. My method has been Thangles.

And now for my Slow Stitching Sunday.  I trimmed my homespun Squarely Red quilt and attached the binding.... Now for the hand sewing.  I am going to get the TV going.

Stash bee and more

This week I have not sewn much.

I have successfully finished 2 weeks of walking for a mile every morning at 5:30 a.m. Yes , 5: 30 A.M. ( ONLY  a half hour earlier).I am happy to be getting progress on removing that winter padding I gained from eating extra sweets.  It is progress, not results.....yet.

And that has left me with little energy to sew at night. ...yet.

So last night I assembled the 4 colorful 9 patch 9 inch Stash bee blocks to mail off. The only hard part was getting 8 squares cut for each color.

And then I made the BOM for my guild, easy peasy 3 and a half inch squares.

My RSC blocks were cut out for April, (multi-color was my version of rainbow) but didn't get assembled and photoed until today.

At least it is a start for May.