To Do Tuesday

 I'm still trying to focus this week on finishing those tasks first that are the easiest to accomplish.  That included making this week's challenge blocks for the online Farmers Wife Sampler I'm doing.  Whirlwind and Wrench - it couldn't get much easier than these 2 blocks.  Our host hinted that next week's blocks will be more complicated. Since these are 6" finished blocks, I know that means lots of small pieces or odd shaped templates.  But it has been fun so far.

All 6 rows of Gingham are sewn together.  Next step is to press those seams, and assemble the rows into a finished top.  The 2 skirt hangers holding these blocks in the closet are now empty, and ready for new block sets.  I love organizing my RSC block sets clipped to skirt hangers.  

I finished that gold block for Laundry Line.  That is block 3 of the 9 for that Kim Diehl project.  One block at a time is slow going, but I'll eventually get them all done.  The pieces are all cut and organized on my design boards, so it is easy enough to move a board back over to my table when I want to work on these.  

My cutting station needed to be tidied up again, so I kitted up 8 more Tulip Time blocks from the scraps I had laying around.  Because my 3 design boards are all in use right now, I layed those little sets on paper plates.  I have a whole stack of them after using them to organize my One Block Wonder quilts.  These are ready to sew as Leaders and Enders whenever I need them.  And better yet - my cutting station is clean again. Yay!!

I also kitted up a Spiderman pillowcase for Jack's 6th birthday in early June.  I've had the fabric laying around for ages.  Again - it's something I can grab to quickly finish up.  

Forward steps on several projects - and it's only Tuesday!  It's amazing to me how much more sewing I am getting in now that my work hours are shrinking a little bit. 

I'm linking up with Chris' To Do Tuesday because writing these down helps me stay accountable to what I want to accomplish :

https://chrisknits.wordpress.com/

Design Wall Monday - April 19

 My design wall/floor today is holding all of the blocks for a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt made from a block called Gingham.

I posted on Sunday about using the Dave Ramsey financial advice to "pay off the smallest debts first", and so I looked at my goals for the month.  This one was so close to being done, that it made sense to just dig in and finish putting that top together.

The photo above was taken before I rearranged a couple of blocks, but you get the idea of it.  I plan to get the top sewn together by the end of the week.  The gingham blocks are made entirely of 2.5" squares, then framed with 1.5" strips to make it a 12" finished block in the quilt.  

What is on your design wall today?  I'm linking up with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Pay off the smallest debt first

 This weekend I'm using the Dave Ramsey method to plan my sewing project - paying off the smallest debt first.  So, what project or projects were closest to being finished? 

I have 2 quilts ready for binding.  So I made that binding for the smaller of the 2.  I'll get that attached today I hope, and work on that during the week.   

And then I remembered that Rainbow Scrap Challenge Gingham project only needed 3 more blocks to become a flimsy.  Those 3 blocks are now made and I plan to lay them out on the floor and plan the block arrangement later today too.  

Paying off those smallest debts first might be the quickest road to more finishes.

Playing with light blue - Week 2

One random light blue scrappy block made just for fun a couple weeks ago - became "seed" for a bunch more - 16 so far.  This is the Roll On block, just like the quilt top I finished a week ago.  I couldn't resist playing with the scraps to make one just for fun after I finished the top.  Since this one is so easy I know there will be more of these made from scraps. 
  

The string blocks with half color, and half neutral are interesting because they cause me to dig through those scrap bins.  Unfortunately, that digging just "fluffs up" the scraps and makes the bins look more full than before.  So I can unequivocally say that these string blocks do NOT seem to decrease the quantity of scraps.  The combined blocks are 18" square, and pieced on muslin. 

The house block from Pat Sloan's "Home Is . . ." sew-along has a good variety of blues in it.  And again, it's from the scraps except for that bright blue on the house side.  That was a strip from a fat quarter I recently picked up, and I was worried that it was too bright.  But after laying this house block with the first 3, it really does look fine.   

The houses have turned out to be one of my favorite RSC block choices for this year.  I love them even more as I get new colors added.  I will note that I took this photo on the floor, in the evening, so the colors are really much brighter in normal lighting.  

I'm linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Second post today - more RSC blocks

 After making that baby quilt using the Roll On blocks from charm packs recently, I realized this block design would be ideal for quickly adding scrappy blocks to the collection for future RSC projects.   And to be honest, I needed a break from sewing tiny pieces.  I had already made a couple of "just for fun" blocks, one being the monkey print below.  So I dug in, pulled more light blue charms, and started sewing.  I'm using a mixture of white-on-white backgrounds for these, but a neutral print would be fun in the future.  They are 7.5" unfinished. 

It was easy to find pink, yellow, and green to represent the previous 2021 RSC colors.  

And while I was picking out colors and prints, these random colors selected themselves as well.  The cat print on the bottom left was the other block I made a couple of weeks ago just for fun.  The baby quilt I made had 30 blocks made of 30s prints, layed out 5 x 6.  So far I have 16 blocks and I think these can continue to collect in 2021 for a larger quilt but still probably for a child because I have a LOT of leftover kid prints from previous projects.  

The block is so quick and easy, and I have a small container full of 5" squares, plus lots and lots of other fabric - obviously.  Some of the 5" squares are left over from other projects, and others were cut from scraps over the years of trying to be more organized. 

If I've learned anything the past couple of months while emptying fabric drawers, sorting and trying to reorganize that stash, it's that I could sew for many many years mostly from the stash and the scraps. It's time to dig into them more often.  And these will make a great change when I'm struggling with tiny pieces and need a break.  

Life activities BC

 Do you often think about what you miss the most from BC days - Before Covid? What have you missed doing the most, besides spending time with your loved ones?

My list would be long, but yesterday I feel as if another step toward normalcy occurred.  I played cards with friends - indoors without masks or hand sanitizer bottles!!  

I loved getting together every week or two with a small group of ladies to play cards for an afternoon or an evening.  Our favorite game has been Hand and Foot, which is fun and simple enough to play and talk at the same time.  Everyone brought snacks or something to contribute to a meal, and we just played cards and visited.  But because of fragile immune systems and our ages we quit playing in March.  Once summer weather arrived we did play a few times outdoors with masks and hand sanitizer, but SD wind wasn't the best for playing cards outside.  And it's been along, cold winter.  

But yesterday we got together, celebrated a couple of birthdays, and played cards indoors.  Now that we're all vaccinated, and the Covid numbers are dropping again around here we felt we could begin playing again.  We played Five Crowns and enjoyed an afternoon chat.  It was wonderful and I can't wait to do it again.  It was good for the soul. 

And on Saturday evening we are getting together with 2 other couples at one house to grill burgers and catch up.  We haven't seen each other in person for over a year!  Another sign of getting close to normal life again.  

Catching up

Catching up on my sleep might be my first priority today.  I rarely have insomnia, but for 2 nights in a row now I've seen every hour go by, plus had weird dreams in between.  This morning I got up at 4:00 am and went out to the living room rather than toss and turn and wake up my husband.  Falling asleep on the sofa sometime after 5:30 gave me a short nap at least. 

Laundry Line is one of the Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots projects from this year, and after making one block it was set aside to focus on other projects.  It's time to get back to it and finish it.

 I made that green block at least a month ago.  Now there is a red block and a gold block is well on its way to being done.  There are 9 of these blocks total in the project so I still have a ways to go, but I'll keep plugging away on it because I love this one.  The blocks however have an interesting - but easy - process of construction in order to arrive at that Churn Dash.  

Farmer's Wife Sampler is an online challenge I'm working on this spring, and I was in danger of falling behind.  Every Monday, 2 blocks are posted to the Facebook group.  Last week I only got 1 of the 2 blocks done because I couldn't decide whether or not to follow the original design of the other block.

Cut Glass Dish is an old traditional block with 24 little HSTs - all facing the same direction.  I prefer symmetry and balance, so I just cringed over that right side with the red HSTs touching the bigger red squares.  It didn't feel right - off balance.  So this week, after making the 2 new blocks for the week, I went back to this block.  Just changing the colors didn't help, so I turned those HSTs.  

Notice the change I made - those HST now all face outward.  I'm much happier with this block now.  The challenge is in its 7th week, with all 14 blocks made.  This week's blocks were Economy (red/cream) and Flock (teal).  And now I'm all caught up.