Strawberry bed runner ideas

The Strawberry blocks have reached the layout stage. 

My plan with these fun blocks has been to make a bed runner.  One possible layout idea is to use 4 big blocks and 2 small blocks, with some sashing in between.  The big blocks will finish at 14 x 18. Without sashing this is about 70" wide which would work OK, but might not drape as far off the bed as I want.  So maybe it will require more blocks, or possibly just make the sashing a bit wider.  

I also have 2 blocks (1 large and 1 small) made to take for our guild bus trip next week.  Depending on how much time I have, I might make another large one for the bus trip.

Murder and mayhem

 We had a murder on our deck 2 nights ago.  I didn't get any crime scene photos before the clean-up began but it was a big mess.  The victim was a dove, but we're not sure what predator was the perpetrator.  It happened sometime overnight, and before 6 am as that is when we discovered the body.  

Our best guess is maybe a hawk or a cat. We have both around here. We've watched hawks dive quickly to attempt to catch rabbits and other small prey.  But we also have stray cats around. We'll likely never know for sure what critter was tearing apart it's dinner next to our deck table. 

The mayhem?  A home improvement project.  After cleaning up the mess made by dead bird parts, blood, and feathers scattered across the deck, my husband decided to pressure wash the deck floor and that led to a decision to stain it again.  The chairs are out on the lawn, but my big heavy flower pots, the grill, and the stone table were just moved to one side while he stained one section.  The next day we moved it all again so he could do that other section.  About an hour after he finished that last section of staining - we had a sudden thunderstorm roll through.  We'll see how the rain impacts that new stain. 

My task - but not today - is to use the small sander to sand the railing and we'll eventually get that stained again too.  I'm not one of those people who enjoy doing these home improvement projects.  It cuts into my sewing time.  LOL

All 7 rows of Shibori Blues are assembled.  I need to cut the strips for the inner and outer borders yet, and finish the big Flying Geese for that outer border.  Before borders it's 60 x 70.  

Mid-week progress

The 42 main blocks made from the Shibori Blues layer cake have all been sewn into rows, and 3 of the rows have been sewn together so far.

Rows 4-7 still need to be pressed and added to the first 3.  Each block is simply a 10" layer cake square with a white corner added.  Hopefully I'll get this much assembled yet today.

In between the Shibori blocks, I made 2 of the Strawberry blocks for the upcoming guild bus trip.  However - looking at the photo as I write this post, the big block looks like the strawberry is sitting on a stick.  I'm surprised I didn't notice it when I had the rows all layed out before sewing.  That center bottom "neutral" square is a bit too dark, so I may replace it.  Picking out the seams around that little 2.5" square won't be a big deal.  

To Do Tuesday

As always, there are multiple projects on my To Do list happening all at the same time. 

A very important task on that To Do list was to get new cushions for my front porch chairs.  I've been looking locally and online and just never could find what I thought I wanted.  But Monday I tagged along to Menards with my husband on an errand . . . and bought these.  It's a huge improvement over the old faded solid red ones.  I think they look quite summery and nice.

Row 1 of Shibori Blues is all sewn together, and the other 6 rows are pinned into sets and ready to go.  This may be my primary project this week, but in between I have a couple of other things ready to sew as well.  When I get bored with Shibori, I'll just work on something else for awhile.

Last month while reorganizing some fabric and dealing with scraps, I cut the black and white parts for several more Night Vision blocks.  Each month I've been making 3 with the RSC color, so this month will be blue.  I have one block begun using a lighter blue, and the pieces are cut for a brighter/darker shade of blue.  Also, when I did the pink ones, I had cut one piece that was too "peachy" and so now there are 4 peach/coral pieces cut.  I need to find 4 more blue chunks for my third blue block, but haven't decided yet if I want to stick with those lighter shades or go darker.  

As a leader/ender this week I'll work on making a couple more of the strawberry blocks.  I need at least 3 more for my bed runner, but also want to make at least 1 for the guild bus trip in just over a week.  Maybe I'll get lucky and win a whole bunch of strawberry blocks on that bus trip.   

These 3 projects should keep me busy all week - in between more paper shredding for work.  

Design Wall Monday - Hanging the Sea Otter

 Time is flying by way too quickly for my comfort!  Yesterday was our oldest grandson's 13th birthday. How did he get to be a teenager already?  

Happy birthday Mason!

Meanwhile back at Grandma's house on Sunday, I got the Sea Otter wall hanging hung up in the guest bedroom.  I specifically ordered the metal hanger in a size (36") that worked for this quilt.  Every time I walk into that hallway I'll have a view of the Sea Otter hanging above that bed.  

The old maple bedroom set in that room belonged to my aunt and uncle originally.  Our girls slept in it when they were little and shared a room in both houses we lived in while they were growing up.  Now it is our guest room.  I have 2 different blue and white quilts that usually grace that bed.  Years ago for Saturday Sampler we were challenged one month to make a bonus block in blue/white and anyone bringing a block had their name entered into a drawing to win all the blocks.  My name was drawn and I used them to make this star quilt.  

I also got the 4 new blocks made for Saturday Sampler.  This was month 3 of Rising Above, this year's 

Saturday Sampler at our local quilt shop, The Pin Cushion.  Solids are not usually my jam, but I'm liking the bright colors and high contrast so far.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday . . .
https//smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

and with Monday Musings . . .

https//songbirddesigns.blog

RSC24 - Week #23

So far I've only made a shallow dive into blue for my various on-going sets of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. But - my time at the sewing machine this week has "mostly" focused on blue in some form or another. 

First on my list this week were these Churn Dash blocks.  The centers were the 16-patch units I made back at the February retreat with 1.5" squares.  So the Churn Dash blocks have come together quickly using the monthly color.  Honestly - these 3 were all finished in about an hour one day.  I think there are only 2 orange and 1 aqua 16-patch squares still in the project bag.  There are currently 23 finished blocks, so I'm kind of aiming for 30 total, which means I'll need a few more of the 16-patch units eventually.  That's OK because I have literally thousands of 1.5" squares in cookie tins.

Blue Shooting Star blocks were next on my agenda, along with 1 Kitty block.   I also made 6 other scrappy Shooting Star blocks in other colors, along with 10 of the alternate blocks that the pattern calls for.  

The alternate blocks will make easy scrap management as the colored parts are all cut from 2.5" strips.  I actually sewed the 10 alternate blocks to 10 of the main blocks on Friday morning just to see how I like them, and scrappy definitely works well for these.

But my primary blue focus this week was the new Shibori Blues layer cake project.  I had hoped to have the top together by today, but obviously I got distracted with other things this week and didn't get quite as far along as I thought I would.  But hey - there has been good progress.  All of the big blocks (42) are done, and pinned into rows ready to sew.  I actually rearranged a few of the blocks after taking this photo but you get the idea.

About half of the HST blocks still need pressing and trimming, but they go into the outer border so I'm not too worried about that until they are needed.  Once trimmed to 5" square they will become 20 big Flying Geese for that border.  

I'm linking up today with RSC . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

More Shooting Stars

Every week I try to "manage" more scraps.  And every week I realize that those scraps must just multiply in the dark when I'm not there.  

From this week's scraps, these 4 new Shooting Star blocks were sewn.  There were also 4 new blue ones, but I'll save that photo for tomorrow's RSC post. There are parts cut for a few more as well. 

The more I looked at the Shooting Star pattern, the more I was convinced that the alternate block was really needed to make the design work best.  

So, I'll continue making some of the alternate blocks too as I go along.  

 

Some of the parts that I've cut for additional blocks came from random jelly roll strips left over from other projects.  Two strips will make 2 new alternate blocks and 2 Shooting Stars.  The remainder of both strips were cut into bricks and squares and put into the "precut" bins instead of dropping them back into the scrap bins.