Design Wall Monday - digging into orange

 Last week I took something for work to ship at the UPS store, and when the lady told me it should arrive on Monday, August 1 - I argued with her that it couldn't be August 1 already.  Somehow I lost track of a whole week in July.  And I'm not really ready for it to be August already!!

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August, and on Saturday I dug into the scraps and the stash to see what I have to play with.  

My scraps are basically sorted by color, but one bin has gallon size bags with orange, reds, and pinks all separated.  The orange baggy is pretty full and a lot of the scraps were strings of various widths, so making a Rainbow Connection block was very fast.

There are now 3 of these blocks hanging in the closet - purple, yellow, and orange.  They finish at 11" so it wouldn't take too many to make a child size quilt.  

I also pulled out the stash drawer to see what was available for other orange blocks this month.  All 5 Falling In Love blocks are cut now and ready to sew.  Since I've made 5 each month, there will be 40 of these by the end of August.  They are accumulating quickly. 

While I was on a roll with the cutting, I cut borders for Tulip Time from the green batik.  More on that tomorrow hopefully.  And I discovered one more UFO hanging in the closet with border strips already cut and hanging with the quilt top.  Halloween Party even has a lot of orange in it.  

One goal for this week is to get the borders on Tulip Time, and maybe on Halloween Party as well.  That would make 2 more ready to quilt this fall.  

Then I strayed from the orange and cut the pieces for 18 of the Beads (also know as Chandelier) Quilt of Valor blocks.  The parts are all stacked on paper plates, and organized.  I have lots of things ready to sew and keep me busy this week, no matter if I only have 20 minutes to sew or a whole morning.

What's on your design wall today?

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Tulip Time - ready for borders

 I'm thrilled to have all of the tulip blocks and sashing sewn together, and to have reached that stage where decisions are made on borders.  The blocks were RSC blocks for almost 2 years, so it's extra exciting to be at this stage now. 

It definitely needs a border and my original idea had been green piano keys, similar to how Bonnie Hunter did her original pattern.  I have a green layer cake that would work and I did a bit of auditioning to see how I liked it.  Nope!!  It was busy, and didn't allow the eye to rest.  This quilt is really busy and I decided that I want a single fabric for an outer border. 

OK - this one was close to what I have in mind.  The colors are good and the scale of the print works.  I even have enough of it.  But if you look closely - it's vegetables!  I can't mix veggies with tulips now, can I?  A few other options were auditioned as well.  But I did eventually find a really pretty green batik for that border on Wednesday when I stopped at The Pin Cushion. Once I get those borders on, then I'll share a new picture.

In the meantime, I'm excited to move on to orange for August even though my sewing time will be limited.  Check out the RSC site to see how others are finishing up July.

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Red elephants joined the herd

Two red elephants were born this week.  The first one is really my favorite, made with a very graphic batik.  He looks terrific.  

Elephant #2 is a bit more sedate in a subtle geometric print.  He's actually cuter in person. 

The August color is orange and I have lots of options in the stash for those elephants.  With the red ones there are now 14 in the herd.  I notice the colors are all a bit "off" in this photo, as the yellow ones look orange, and it's hard to distinguish between pink and red.  They are definitely cuter in person. 

I'm thinking that I should do a bit of orange sewing this weekend and early next week, while I can still get to my sewing room and stash.  The elephants and heart blocks will probably come first.  

One new RSC block - in purple & yellow

I know that the last thing I need is another project, but I've been seeing these scrappy blocks online for ages and finally just HAD to try it out.  The pattern is Scrap Happy Rainbow Connection by Amy Smart.  It's a digital PDF download from her website.  I really needed some mindless sewing on Monday evening so this is what I did.  

The pattern is really an easy one and should be a pretty good way to use up scraps.  There are 2 main parts:  a strip made from colored scraps, and 2 half square triangles.  Then it's squared up.  

The scrap bin (12" canvas cube) containing purple also has blue scraps in it.  As I was digging around for purple scraps I realized that the bin contains MOSTLY blue scraps, and not much purple.  There were plenty of little pieces, but not many strings that worked for this block.  Luckily there were enough to do this one block.  And if I dig deeper in that canvas cube I may find more purple strings.  

The yellow scrap bin also yielded enough strings to make a yellow friend for the purple block.  

My other mindless sewing after work this week so far:

** cut out 2 red elephant blocks since I didn't make any red ones in January. 
** sewed the final row and final sashing together on Tulip Time. 
** cut and prepped binding for 3 projects

Weekend review

 It was a really fun weekend, with a focus on family.  We actually swapped houses with our oldest daughter for the night on Saturday.  They headed to a wedding closer to our town and spent the night at our house, and we stayed with their kids and dogs at their house. 

Saturday afternoon we took their 3 kids and went to my husband's cousin Alan's house for a big loud FUN family gathering.  Only 2 of the kiddos in this group shot belong to us, and the rest are mostly 2nd cousins.  Alan and wife had a huge bouncy house set up on their acreage, plus they have a zip line.  Those kids had such fun, and there were no fights, no whining, and no injuries.  Just fun! The only times they came into the house was to eat or use the bathrooms.  

The adults enjoyed the chance to visit and catch up.  My husband and Alan were in the same class in school, and grew up as best friends.  Alan's sister was besties with Dave's older sister.  Their mothers were sisters, and their dad's even did some farming together. The cousins were always really close.  

Alan's daughter and family are visiting from their home in Australia, and it was wonderful to see them again.  Steph and my daughter grew up as best friends, just like their dads.  And they've stayed very close in spite of living on opposite sides of the world.  More cousins - 3 generations were gathered - Anita's daughter, and Alan's other daughter.  A fabulous day of eating, laughing, and talking!!

By the time we got back to our daughter's house that evening it was time for showers and bed.  Then in the morning we headed to the zoo with the kids.  

It was a beautiful morning for the zoo - cool enough that the animals were out.  The outdoor exotic bird exhibits were all closed, due to protecting them from Avian Flu.  And I skipped the reptile house entirely, although everyone else checked it out.  I really figured the kids were getting too old to want to ride the carrousel or the train but we did it all.  There were a couple of times when I waited on a bench while grandpa and the kids walked the extra distances to some exhibits further away.  The walking was not easy with the bad hips, but I was determined to enjoy the zoo.  And I did enjoy it - fun to be together.  And their parents were home again by the time we got back.

I will also admit that when we got home mid-afternoon my husband headed to the golf course.  And I took a 2 hour nap.  Guess I was more tired from the walking (hobbling) than I thought.  LOL  

Shop Hopping

 Shop hops are more fun with friends!  How about a bus load of friends?  I really didn't take many pictures last week on the shop hop, but I did have a really good time.  Full disclosure - some of these photos are "borrowed" from the websites of the shops. 

We left town (Mitchell SD)about 7:00 am, and our first quilt shop stop was The Old Alley in Sherburn Minnesota, right along I-90.  The building is an old bowling alley and the wooden alley floors are still visible inside. They have a wonderful selection of fabrics and patterns.  Since the Minnesota Shop Hop begins at the end of this week, the shop had this year's special fabrics displayed. We could purchase them but have them shipped after the shop hop starts.  I know a few ladies took advantage of having the Minnesota fabrics shipped to them.  

I found a couple of good blender fabrics to use for a new Quick Strippee baby quilt.  I had the elephant print already.  The teal herringbone and the peachy-orange blender will be perfect accents.  And there were some other purchases - one of which will arrive in the mail.  I didn't get too carried away with buying, but it was hard to completely resist some of the new Minnesota fabrics.

Our main destination for the day was New Ulm Minnesota. If you've never been there it's definitely worth a visit, and it's not far from where I grew up so I always feel like I'm in familiar territory.  Plus I've been there quite a few times.  It's a beautiful old town with lots of historical sites and reflects the German immigrants who settled this river valley area in the late 1800s.  Great places to eat, and 3 - that's right - quilt shops.  

Our bus parked downtown, and we had 3 hours to explore both downtown quilt shops, eat lunch at the location of choice, and check out any other shops we might have wanted.  I ate at Lola's Bistro downtown with a few of the ladies. They are known for their chicken pot pie.  Yum!!!

The Thimble Box is right on a corner downtown. It specializes in panels.  That shop had an amazing array of panels displayed along with lots and lots of coordinating fabrics and panels.  

I bought the perfect ombre piece of fabric for a sunset sky in a Halloween wall hanging I am planning. I also picked up some patriotic fat quarters, and half yard cuts.  I could have spent a lot more time and money in that shop.  

The other downtown shop, Spinning Spools is a short 1 block walk down the street and is so unique.  This is a very small shop with the entrance on the side of the building through a grape arbor, with a patio that just invites shoppers to sit and relax in the shade under the grapes.  They had fresh ice water with lemons or cucumber waiting for our group for refreshment on that patio.  I enjoyed sitting and chatting - and drinking icy cucumber water - under the grape arbor after my retail therapy purchases inside.  A small shop but so interesting!!!  They had really lovely samples displayed, and a surprising selection of fabrics in a small space.  

Our final quilt shop stop was Sewing Seeds Quilt Shop.  (Logo borrowed from their website!) This shop has been featured in the Quilt Sampler magazine a couple of times as a "top shop" to visit.  That is well deserved!  Fabulous selections - lots of Civil War, seasonal, batiks, Aboriginals, French General, Tula Pink, children's novelty prints, patriotic . . . and so much more.  There is a whole room devoted to wool applique!  I linked their website above, and it's worth checking out.  We were greeted by 2 of the "loose threads" who own the shop.  They made us feel so welcome with treats and a "bed turning" of some of their featured quilts!  I have some fun purchases from here that I may share some other day.  One purchase was a small wool applique kit to work on while I'm recuperating from my hip replacement.  

Design Wall Monday - winner, winner!

Our guild bus trips usually include the option to make a block (or several) to bring when we get on the bus, and at some point on the trip names are drawn to win some of the blocks.  This trip's block pattern was Old Windmill (8" finished), and we were to use bright colors.  And we signed them. 

I was one of the lucky winners on the bus trip last Thursday. Yay!  The "bus moms" divided the blocks into 3 sets.  The set I won has 15 blocks in it.  The funny thing is that I ended up with 3 of my own blocks in the random mix, but that is OK.  It will be fun to decide how I'm going to use these blocks.

Several years ago we made pine tree blocks for our bus trip to The Black Hills, and I was a lucky winner then too.  I made a house block to add to the trees, and the finished quilt is called Cabin in the Woods.  I think I also had to make one more tree block just to make the number of blocks work out correctly.  I might make a few more windmills too before setting them together. 

What's on your design wall this morning?

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/