RSC25 - Week #31

One final dip into purple - 2 Friendship Star blocks.  Because I've finished up a couple of the RSC block sets now, it was time to choose a new block to add to the monthly mix.  I have a couple of other block ideas going forward, so we'll see what August brings for RSC plans. 

And then 2 more Friendship Stars with aqua and teal joined in.  These are 9" finished blocks.  But the more I keep looking at them, I feel that those star points are spinning backwards.  Are they backwards? Should I take them apart and reverse those star points?  With only 4 blocks it wouldn't take long to fix.  Or should I just keep making them all this way?

  I did make 2 aqua Give It a Whirl blocks on Thursday, but need 1 more.  I've been doing 3 each month with the RSC color.  These both lean toward the aqua, so maybe I'll look for pieces more on the teal side of the color.  That would give me 24 blocks so far, enough for a baby quilt.  Or I could just keep making lots more for a bigger quilt.    

The scrappy bowtie placemat is all done too.  Yay!  My donation stack of placemats for Meals On Wheels is growing.

This UFO will be one of my aqua projects for August.  The gingerbread people blocks were begun years ago, and it's time to do something with them. 

One more new project using aqua is on the list for August.  These fabrics will make a cute 3-yard child's quilt.  I haven't decided yet what pattern I'll use.  The whale print and the aqua have been in the stash for a couple of years.  I picked up the dark blue this week to "get ur done" finally. 

Let's see what else is going on in the RSC world this week.

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/  

Planning ahead & looking back

 It's that time of month, when I begin to plan ahead for the next month's goals.  For Rainbow Scrap Challenge, our color for August is AQUA.  So - what UFOs or PIGS are living in my sewing room that have a lot of aqua?

I have a 3-yard quilt planned that has teal and aqua, but I'm rethinking one of the fabrics I had set aside for this one.  That tan fabric isn't speaking to me!  The teal on the bottom works, but now I'm thinking a lighter aqua would blend with the forest print better.  What do you think?

There is a small-ish UFO project that has a lot of aqua - the Gingerbread Joy blocks.  There were 5 of these applique gingerbread people blocks for a long past Saturday Sampler, mixed in with pieced blocks for a Christmas quilt.  I used the pieced blocks in a quilt at the time, but skipped the applique blocks.  Three of them are partially done.   I think I'll finish them up for a wall hanging.  All the parts are in this project box - waiting. 

No matter how much I work these UFOs it seems like I don't make much of a dent in my stash or the collections of kits.  Sigh!!

Reviewing July goals will prove to myself that I did make lots of progress however . . . everything cross off below is finished.  Yay!!

• Saturday Sampler - row 6 for July
• Blockheads blocks each week
• Binding projects IF READY
• Pyramid quilt
• Mickey Mouse Quick Strippie
• Pumpkin door hanger
• Valentine door hanger
• Quilt the Sunflower wall hanging myself - didn't happen
• Finish Sweet Potato Puff bag
• Rainbow Scrap Challenge - PURPLE is July color
• Buckeye Beauty blocks
• Brighten blocks
• Triple Triangle (string) blocks
• Hollow 9 blocks
• Give It a Whirl blocks
• Gameboard blocks
• Paint Chip
• Quilt of Valor blocks 
• Indigo Way
• Spools
• Misc other QOV block sets
• PIG projects for this month
• RWB mini quilt - popsicles
• Beach Bums wall hanging - not touched

Lots of red, white, and blue

A couple of years ago Bonnie Hunter introduced the Indigo Way for her winter mystery quilt, and as usual I played along.  But instead of making a BIG quilt, I only made about a third of the number of blocks in her pattern.

I finally decided to use Indigo Way for a Quilt of Valor, but needed to add borders to make it large enough.  It has been sitting around for about 2 weeks now with that final blue border all ready to attach.  Procrastination must be my middle name!  Border is on!!

  Another set of Quilt of Valor blocks is nearly enough for a complete top.  It looks like I need just a couple more of these Spool blocks. I might even get those 2 blocks made this morning before going to lunch with the retired group from school.  

The Sunflower mini

Good news - the opossum in my sewing room window well was gone by Monday morning.  I discovered him Sunday afternoon when it was 98 degrees outside, so was quite concerned that it would die down there from the heat.

We're guessing he crawled up the ladder after it got dark on Sunday night.  Plus it was raining by dark.  I was very relieved that the critter was gone when I went down to sew in the morning. 

One more small kit has become a finished project.

The Sunflower Spools mini quilt is all done and displayed in my family room until the end of summer comes around.  These spool-themed mini quilts are so cute.

The binding is attached to the 3 red/grey placemats and 2 mug rugs.  The red/grey hourglass units were 3.5" square and all made from trimming of a Christmas themed quilt from a few years ago.  I've used up every single one of those hourglass units now.  The binding will give me some hand stitching for evenings this week. 

The bowtie placemat is nearly done, with only 1 side left to hand stitch.

Design Wall Monday - July 28

 It was a HOT, humid and windy weekend, but with lots of things going on.  No sewing at all happened on Saturday.   

Saturday I spent the afternoon in a lawn chair under a tree watching wrestling held outdoors - in the heat at a baseball diamond.  They had to move the girls' mat twice trying to keep it in the at least partial shade.  Our granddaughter lost 2 matches, but pinned her last opponent.  She wore a long sleeved swim shirt under her singlet because the mat was so hot to the touch, even in the shade.  

Sunday morning I made a quick trip to the Arts in the Park - before the temps hit the 90s.  I got there as they opened up.  This park has a lot of shade thankfully.

My big purchases - fresh flowers, jam and syrup from The Jam Man, and ice cold lemonade.  Then I hustled home to hide out in my sewing room, out of the heat and humidity.

And found this in the window well of my sewing room.  It's a young opossum, and very much alive.  I have no idea if it just fell in there overnight, or had spent all day Saturday there too.  Poor thing!!  My husband wasn't home to help me, but I found a board in the garage and drug it out to drop into the window well - hoping the opossum could climb up the board to get out.  He didn't . . . so now my husband put down a ladder for the opossum to climb.  Hopefully he is gone this morning, but I haven't checked yet.

Eventually I did manage to get some sewing in.  The sunflower mini quilt is a flimsy, and sandwiched for quilting.  The binding is made too.  This might be the first thing I finish this week.  

 The placemats made from orphan blocks could be the second finishes for the week, if I can get them bound.  The bowtie placemat has binding attached, but these red/grey ones (3) will get some grey binding if there is enough. 

Overall my goals for this final week of July . . .

**  Sunflower mini
** bowtie placemat
** red/grey placemats & mug rugs
** last border on Indigo Way

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog  

RSC25 - Week #30

Hmmm - I got carried away with purple at the beginning of the month, so I haven't played with the purple scraps this week.  But I did play with plenty of other scraps, in a variety of colors.  Since my purple blocks are done already, I have plenty of time to do something with other scrappy leftovers. 

Some readers pointed out to me this week that the Gameboard blocks have a "bowtie" vibe to them, which I hadn't even noticed until laying them out together like this.  And they do look like a bowtie variation.  So cute!!  Of course that reminded me that there was a small collection of actual bowtie blocks hiding out somewhere.

In one of those small plastic 3-drawer craft supply units (Walmart) is a collection of small orphan blocks.  Most are 2-4" finished leftover units (from lots of previous projects), such as 4-patch, Hourglass, and pinwheel units.  One drawer had those missing bowtie blocks, and a bunch of other things - all leftovers from previous projects.  

There are just enough of the bowties to make 1 placemat.  Those red/grey hourglass units are plentiful, maybe enough for 2 placemats.  

After a quilt on Pinterest caught my eye, I had to pull out the strings again to play.  These string diamond blocks were made with 2 Tri Recs triangle blocks.

Let's see what else is going on in the RSC world this week.

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/  

Alternate project

It all began because I was looking for a hand written index I made of the 200+ photos that were scanned when my MIL passed away 14 years ago. 

I've decided that one day each week I need to devote to dealing with the family photos and genealogy materials that have accumulated in a very disorganized way around here.  Yesterday was that day for this week. Today I hope to get back to sewing. 

Yesterday I needed to stay upstairs most of the day while having a contractor working on our rain gutters because I can't hear the doorbell from my sewing room in the basement.  So . . . I dug into that mess of genealogy "stuff" hoping to find that index list.

Remember last month when I finished up the books about my father-in-law during WW2?  His siblings all have their copies now, and his sister asked if all 4 of her kids could get copies of their own.  Since I was already planning to do copies of both for our daughters, it was easy enough to just get 6 copies of each book. 

I wrote a letter to the nieces and nephew explaining what is in their package, clipped it to one book, and all 4 of these went to the post office at the end of the day yesterday.  I'll hand deliver the books to our daughters next time we head that direction.  I'm excited to have these all distributed.  

Next, I removed all of the genealogy containers from my office closet, and began sorting in order to organize things better.  Yes - there is A TON of stuff here.  Guess that's because I've become the family historian.  The smaller stack on antique chair is all stuff that needs to be copied and then given back to my sister-in-law.  Yikes!!

The file boxes are now labeled for the branch of family to be found in each box.  As I sort things they can go into the appropriate container for that lineage.   What a big job!!   Wonder how many weeks it will take to do this. 

And it seems like the pile of old photos needing to be scanned is endless.  I found this box that I didn't even know we had, all old photos from my in-laws.  There are several boxes of old photos from my side of the family, and even from early in our marriage - waiting to be sorted and scanned too.  Endless task . . .

And I still have NOT found that hand written list.  Grrr!