Slow Stitching Sunday - A Finish!

 

I took the last stitches in the Leap Year quilt last night and ran it through the wash. I use Crayola washables to mark the quilting lines. Those are all gone now and all the wear and tear from being carted around for years and years is gone now.  I started this quilt in 2016, appliquéing a circle in each block to represent whatever was going on in the sewing room on that day. For the most part it represents the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors of each month. 

The quilting was done with perle cotton in a rainbow of colors. Diagonal lines form crosses through each block and then a scalloped half circle form the border. I love the way the quilting crinkles up after the wash. Even if it does take me years to finish a hand quilted project, it looks great when it is done.  I am going to link up with Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts today, so be sure to head over and see the lovely hand sewing projects that are in the works

I started an organization project for the new year. I brainstormed a list of all the projects that need to be done in house - areas of chaos, backlogged clutter, messes galore. Rather than trying to tackle them all at once, I wrote each on a piece of paper. The idea is that I will pick a random task when the urge strikes and then do that thing. Yesterday, the job was the downstairs bathroom. It is connected to my sewing room and doesn't get used very often. We redid it a couple of years ago, but never fully finished it off. So first I cleared out all the randomness before giving everything a good scrub. 

I found some bathmats that used to live in a different bathroom and made a plan for towel holders and a tile backsplash. 

Kurt is going to do the backsplash for me and hang the towel bars, but it all looks a lot better and should be more useable now that it isn't a dumping ground. I also added two more jobs for me to the stack, the door needs to be painted and the walls need a second coat of paint. Today's project is sheets. That is another dumping ground that needs a good clear out. Wish me luck! 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Starting Fresh

A new year is always such a great chance to think about finishing off old things and starting something new. This will not be a big year of new starts for me as I focus instead on paring down the list on long ongoing projects. First up is Leap Year. This is a block a day quilt that has been hand quilted over a very long period of time. Hand quilting is a long and slow process and it feels good to finally be stitching the binding on to this one. It is ready for a trip through a washing machine after that as it has seen a lot of love while being carted around from place to place. You can see the ongoing t-shirt quilt in the background, that will be next on the list of projects to move along today. 

I am up bright and early this morning thanks to the renourishment machinery that is beeping up and down the beach. We are usually up early, even on weekends, but I do feel badly for the people that came for a nice relaxing beach vacation only to be greeted by giant piles of sand on a closed beach. 

Here is my one new project for now, a set of two blocks to be done as leaders and enders. The plus blocks are sashed 2.5 inch squares while the dot blocks are framed 2 inch four patches. Together they make a nice and easy background project while I find the next thing to cross off my list. A bit of organization is sure to reveal a fun ongoing project in need of a little bit of attention.

What new schemes and plans are in the works for your new year? Pink is the color for January and I hope that you have some scraps to play with this month. Whether you are new this year, returning or ongoing, it is always great to see what beautiful projects and plans come from the simple idea of using up scraps, one color at a time. 

Hand Quilting in the New Year

With a long car trip to enjoy today, I had plenty of time for hand quilting.   This block a day quilt called Leap Year is overdue for a finish.  I got the purple blocks done yesterday and made quite a dent in the blues today.  We are home again after a few days in the mountains.  My new car handled the icy roads beautifully.   We had our driveway resurfaced before winter hit, but there is a nasty section of rough road to make it through before our property starts.  By Friday though it had all warmed up nicely and we were able to putter around outside.  I gathered fallen branches for firewood and hauled stones to make boarders.   The washer wasn’t working though due to a frozen pipe, so tomorrow will be laundry day for sure.  

Superbowl Sunday

 

We were lucky to get in our morning walk before the rain started this morning.  It is really pouring now!   I hope it has moved out of Tampa ahead of the big game tonight.  

I don't really follow sports all that much, but I have some hand quilting to enjoy during the game and we are having appetizers for dinner while enjoying the commercials as a family.  I finished the December block during some family TV time last night and decided on half circles for the border.  I'm still trying to decide whether the circles will be a single or double row.  Plenty of time for those decisions.  I think I still have three more months to finish before the border becomes top priority.  

Yesterday I worked on pieced backings.   This was the challenge quilt for RSC in 2016.  It has been done since then, but just sat waiting for its turn on  the quilting machine.  I added a thin grey border, more for ease of quilting than for aesthetics.  

Then I found some extra hand dyed fabric and used it to spice up the backing.   

Frameshift was next on the list.  It was from the RSC in 202, and I got some fabrics last week to put together a backing.  I just don't have any large quantities of fabric on hand these days, so backings is a good excuse for necessary shopping.  

The floral is heavy on pinks and limes, but I am trying to enhance my scrap stash in the areas of yellow and orange, so I got some of those instead.  So now I've got two more quilts ready to go the next time I set up the quilting frame.  I've got a quilt that I said I'd finish for a coworker of my husband, so I'd like to get several quilts finished while the frame is assembled.  

What are your plans for today?  I'm off to check out slow stitching Sunday with Kathy and Oh Scrap! with Cynthia before I see if there is enough yardage squirreled away somewhere for another backing. Then there is laundry, an online tutoring session and a grocery pickup.   

Sunday Finishing

 

I finished the yellow block of Leap Year last night while we were finishing off watching Shitt's Creek as a family.   

This was the very last Dear Jane block, left side number 6 which is also known as tumbling blocks.  It was English paper pieced.   Though I haven't done much of it, the inset seams worked well that way.  

This is the final border, the right side, ready to be sewn on.  Hard to believe that all these years later I will finally have a finished quilt top.  I started this quilt in 2013 right after finishing my Tiny Tuesday Midget quilt from Sentimental stitches.   A lot happened at first, most of the top was finished before the end of that year.  Then it got set aside, and the longer a quilt is in hibernation, the harder it is to wake it up again.  It will be done today though, at least the top part.  The quilting is another story.  I'm  linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap! today.  

Monday Feels Like Sunday

Tomorrow is a new semester at school.  Sydney will be going back in person for the first time since we were all sent home last March.   While I was happy to keep her home and safe, the e-learning is getting more difficult over time and she is one of many who will be returning in person tomorrow.  She asked for black masks in a child size.  Anna wanted more from of sailing fabric.  I don't have any blues to match exactly so I used a variety of greenish blue hues.  I had cut out some atom fabric earlier and blue goes with everything.  I'm awfully tired of mask sewing now, but I'll add the elastic and be done with this batch.  A friend from school wants some for her wedding, and I fixed some elastic for another, but after that  I should be done for now.  

I finished off the orange block of hand quilting on Leap Year and so started on the yellow.  

The plan had been to sew on Dear Jane today, and I did get one block done this morning.  This is block number 12 on the left side.  I stitched a tiny applique diamond to the top and added it to the collection.   Most of the day though was spent moving my sewing room -- AGAIN!   Since we've been here I have moved my machine several times.   Ultimately, Sydney's room is meant to be the sewing studio, but until then I am camped out in Ryan's room.  His spring break was tacked on to the end of the winter vacation, so we are unlikely to see him again until summer.  He called last night and was able to switch his schedule around to have in person classes!  Two and a half of them.  Good news indeed.   Now I'm off to wrap my mind around having a new schedule tomorrow.  I've traded 8 seniors in Capstone Research for 24 9th  graders in Honors Biology.  We are on block schedule now, and some unknown number of students will still  be learning from home, so even a familiar class will seem new again.   

Circling in on a Finish

I finished sewing down the last circle last night while watching Barefoot in the Park on Netflix.  After spending most of the day crawling around on hands and knees, Leap Year 366 is finally a flimsy!  It just needs an outer border which is already cut out and waiting.  Then I can get it layered and basted.  The plan is to hand quilt this one.
First though, I'd better go and hop through the shower.  These hurricane cancellations are starting to feel a lot like spring break.  Ms. Johnson is having a teacher pot luck get together tonight and I need to think of something interesting to bring.  Food at the grocery store is a little sparse so it will be more about what they have than what I would like to make.
Anna has been working on college applications today and Sydney fell off her bike and skinned her knee and elbow.  We all went to Goodwill this morning to do a bit of shopping for spirit week.   Anna had all the themes from the senior chat group.  School starts again on Monday.  Getting back to normal is going to feel good.    

Sunday Gear Switching

Tomorrow it is time to head back to school again.  As much as I want to jump back in again, there are still plenty of people without power, water and internet access.  I'm sure that it is going to take some time to transition back.  

 I am lucky enough to have this nice stack of 5 quilts waiting to have the bindings hand sewn down.  It is amazing what can be accomplished with 7 unscheduled days off of school.

 I wasn't quite ready to settle down yet, so I put an outer border on Leap Year.  This one is next in line for hand quilting now that the Orange Peels are finished.  The original plan was to use pearle cotton to quilt inside of each circle, but now that I look at it all together, I am thinking that diagonal lines might be fun?  Giving the effect of crossing days off the calendar.....

 Lizzie gave her seal of approval.

 She is always quick to check out every finished quilt.

Still in sewing mode, I put together the rows for the RSC16 quilt.  It was my first attempt at a row by row quilt.  It might need one more row.  The proportions seemed fine when I laid it out, but it got a little skinnier with the seam allowances gone.  

Still not wanting to call it quits, I pulled out a stack of postage stamp star blocks which had been done for a while.  They were all sorted nicely by color and pinned together with cornerstones just waiting to be webbed into a top.  I had originally planned to use grey sashing strips throughout, but as I worked, I thought it might be nice to try out some random colored strips instead.  I think it gives a nice border effect.  I'm about halfway done webbing the top now, but my sewing machine got temperamental.  Maybe I tired her out?

I'm linking up today with Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap!  Be sure to take a few minutes to visit before you get carried away with your day.  

Sunday Switching Gears

It is hard to believe that there will be school again on Monday.  It was originally a teacher inservice day, but after 7 days missed for the hurricane, getting everyone back is more important right now.

 For handwork today, I have a stack of 5 quilts waiting for the binding to be hand sewn.  These were all finished during those 7 missed days of school.  I've got the machine stitching part done, it will be nice to have handwork for the foreseeable future.

 I also got a border on Leap Year.  I pulled out fabrics for the backing, but as I am out of batting, this one can wait for a bit.  It is meant to be hand quilted.  I was originally planning to quilt with pearl cotton on the inside of each circle, but I am now thinking about diagonal lines through each block.  I'll have to think about it some more.

 Lizzie came out to help with the quilt photography of course.

 She is always the first to give her approval to finished quilts.

With that flimsy finish, I pulled out the RSC16 Row by Row Sampler to finally finish it off!  October is still missing, but I might leave it this way.  It was fatter before I sewed the rows together, it might need one more row now that I look at the proportions.

Then, because I was in a finishing mode, I pulled out one of the sets of postage stamp stars which had been an ongoing RSC project for a while.  They were pinned into rows with cornerstones already picked out in handy Ziploc bags.  I found a grey star fabric to use for the inner sashing. It was going to continue to the outer border as well, but I changed gears a bit and decided to pull random 2.5 inch strips instead.  I think that it adds a nice border effect.  I'm about halfway done with sewing all the rows together.  Hopefully that will be done before the end of the day.  

I'm linking up today with Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap! today.  Be sure to go and visit before your day gets underway.  

Sunday Transition

It is going to be hard to switch gears and go back to work tomorrow.  The next few weeks promise to be even busier than usual, so it is my last chance to take a breath before diving into again.

 I spent most of the morning today sorting through the scrap bins and cutting out circles for my Leap Year Quilt.  It is so much easier to do the applique part each day if the circles are all ready to go.  It was kind of fun sorting through each color and picking one of each fabric.  I got quite a few circles sewn down over the break, so I am almost caught up again.  Looks like there are plenty of circles for the next few months at least.  We've just finished an Easter Sunday Ham dinner and all the kids are happily playing video games together.  Maybe I can get another color done before it is time to switch gears?

Once the circles are all prepped, I have a few new Works in Progress bags to put them into.  The pink one has been around for a while, and it was so handy to use that I decided to make a couple more yesterday.  I saw the pattern on Crazy Mom Quilts and she had it for sale on Craftsy.  I chose fabrics to go with the whatever zippers were on hand.  There are still plenty of zippers, thanks to a great ebay find, but I ran out of vinyl and had to stop for the day.
I'm linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.  And Cynthia for Oh Scrap!  

Molasses Sunday

Some days I move faster than others,  Today I am moving like syrup on a cold day.  

I set up a little assembly line yesterday and got all of the pieces ready to go for patience corners.  We ended up having to run around most of the day, and a little fabric cutting was all I could manage.   

So Sydney now has some new Ikea drawers for her closet, and Kurt got his car back from the dealer in Orlando and I have some antibiotics that the doctor says should help me feel better any day now.  After all that running, hanging out on the couch last night was a top priority.  

 This morning though, I was able to sew together the February column along blocks. I decided to just put pink in two of the squares and use light brown for the corners.  I think it adds nice motion to the blocks.  I was surprised when I laid the blocks out next to the January blocks to find that they were not the same length!  I had to go and dig out a tape measure to find out that January was too long by 1.5 inches and February was too short by .5 inches.  I will work on making all the math add up later I suppose.  Ideally, all the rows should be 72.5 inches unfinished.

 While playing with the browns, I was happy to find this football fabric in honor of super bowl Sunday.  Maybe I will stitch it down during the game.  We are supposed to go to a party, but I am thinking of letting Kurt go without me.  I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

That would give me some extra time to finally finish the binding on my postage stamps.  I thought it would get finished up during Lacrosse on Monday, but not quite.  Then it was so cold on Friday that I went to a nearby mall and hid in a restaurant eating fries until practice was over.  Poor Sydney said she could hardly hold the stick because her hands were numb.

Check out this photo I got yesterday from Jill who does not have a blog.  She made it for last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Isn't it fabulous?  I really love the look of the black and white prints with the rainbow brights.  It looks like she is also on the binding phase.  Hope she is enjoying some slow stitching too on this Superbowl Sunday.  Be sure to visit Kathy for more slow stitching and Cindy for Oh Scrap!  

Sunday Wrap up

There are just two more circles to applique down for the January block of my leap year quilt.  So handy that February will start on a Monday.  There is something nice about a new week and a new month at the same time.

The circle and the binding to this postage stamp quilt should be plenty to keep my hands busy during Downton Abbey tonight.  First though, Sydney is out of shorts that fit and I promised her we could go shopping today.  She is almost as tall as Ryan and her feet are already bigger than Anna's.  They do grow up so fast.
Be sure to keep scrolling down to the last post to enter the February fabric giveaway.

Leap Year Progress

Oh what a week it has been.  Kurt was out of town, leaving me as a temporary single parent. So much time in the car driving around in circles!  Thankfully, he is home again safe and sound.  I was at tech training today, using the new chrome books, so that was much fun of course.  I'll be regretting it on Monday when I come back to school with a huge stack of waiting tests.  Such is the way of the world though.

I did take time in the evenings, to catch up on my Leap Year quilt.  Just 2 more days left in January!  I am looking forward to having a new color to play with.  I wonder what it will be?  OK, so I already know what it will be.  Silly me.  

Hit a Wall

 All of my handwork time for the last few days has been spent on finishing up Jane.  So here is some handwork to keep me happy tonight while I am snuggled under a quilt sipping hot cocoa.  It is COLD here today.  It is 47 right now with a high for the day of 54.  I know that doesn't seem cold to normal people, but for Florida kids who don't own long pants, cold it is.  There is a snowman from some Christmas fabric for today's circle.

I was on a great roll yesterday, getting lots accomplished, when suddenly, I was just DONE.  So the Chevron postage stamps will wait patiently, probably for a weekend to get some more attention. Circles and binding should be plenty to keep me out of trouble until then.  

Sunday Scraps and Stitches

I took my Dear Jane with me to Science Olympiad yesterday.  Even though the kids are all running around madly most of the day, once they are in their events, it gets very quiet.  So I moved the hoop twice during the day.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  A perfect day to sit outside and hand quilt.  Just three more moves of the hoop should get me back to the begining!  While cleaning out the blue scrap bin, I even found the binding that I had made from the same fabric as the inner border.  

Knowing that Jane is almost done, I pulled out the broken dishes stars and got two new spools of hand quilting thread.  I had wanted to try pearl cotton with some big stitch quilting, but I couldn't find just the right combination of sizes and colors.  I think that regular quilting will work better with the scale of the blocks on this one.  

I was going to do the Bonnie Hunter Mystery last year and cut out the first step before I changed my mind.  That left a lot of pointy spikes which I sewed together into a long strip.  I think that I will use them as a border for these bonus triangles which have been hanging out for many years.  They could also go as stripes into a Chinese Coin type quilt.  I think there are enough of them that I could do both.

Finally, I will use today to catch up on my Leap Year quilt.  I've chosen the fabrics and rough cut circle to hold the days toward the end of the week.  Tuesday has stars from the state of the union.  Friday has tiny buckets for all the rain.  Saturday is a rocket ship for science and today I chose little ice skaters in winter coats for the cold front that moved in last night.  Monday is a school holiday which means an extra day to sew!  Looking forward to every minute of that!  I'm linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday as well as Cynthia for Oh Scrap!