A little bit of green...

Thank you, quilty friends, for all of your good wishes and encouragement since I first posted about my broken wrist.  Last week, when I saw the doc again, I came home with a brace instead of a cast.

Although this still restricts movement of my wrist (especially anything that involves twisting my arm), it does give me lots more use of my fingers!  So, little by little, I am figuring out what I can do and how I can do it!   

After I realized I could sew a little bit with precut pieces, I went hunting around in my leftover bits of binding and found some green that could easily be turned into a 16 patch block.

Then I got really brave and decided to try cutting!  Lol!  I don't even want to begin to explain how I did this, but I did make it work, and made one more 16 patch block.  However, I don't know if it was a good idea as it was a bit scary and included fingers awfully close to the cutting blade.  (No more trips to the ER, thank you very much!)

This is my fabric find of the week - so perfect for the forest green idea.

My 2 1/2 inch square bin held a few more greens, so I also stitched up some four patches.

So, progress is made, in little bits and pieces, and I feel like I am accomplishing something!  And I'll be linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday with Angela tomorrow!

May is for Makers

I really love the idea of supporting all of the creative people in our quilting community, so when I came across "May is for Makers" on various blogs, I decided I wanted to join in!  And who better to support than someone who has supported and inspired me since I first connected with her Scrap-a-Palooza series back in 2014, but our fearless scrappy leader, Cynthia Brunz!

I've had one of Cynthia's patterns on my radar for quite some time - Wiggle Time!  So this week I purchased it from her Craftsy shop.

This pattern is just my style!  Besides this cover illustration, Cynthia also shows a rainbow version of the quilt.

I noticed that it calls for 5 fat quarters for the blocks, and I immediately thought of the polka dot fabrics I've been collecting and haven't done anything with.

Maybe!  I have these and a lot more choices in my polka dot bin!












I also recently purchased a Kaffe Fassett charm pack and thought something like this could also work, with the right background.

I've also been wanting to make an all solids quilt, and this pattern could work for that as well.

It's fun to imagine, and I look forward to working on this quilt.  For now, it's going in the queue of future projects.  I don't think I'll ever run out of things to do!

Linking up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! party today for lots of scrappy inspiration!

Ready for Green!

In a desperate need for some fabric therapy, and after Angela announced that green is our May color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I have been pulling out and playing with my green scraps and stash and fantasizing about actually stitching with some of it!

I love the color green - especially at this time of year, when Colorado is finally greening up.  Beautiful spring green grass and leaves on trees and plants are so refreshing to me!   Back in 2014, when I first started following Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza series, I made this quilt from a bunch of the green scraps I had at that time.

Some of my favorite green scraps were used up in this one.

                            

I had sewn a few 16 patch blocks earlier in the year, so they can be added in to that pile!

And then I remembered that back in February, I won a giveaway from Linda at A Maidenhair Fern.  The prize was two mini charm packs of Morningside Farm by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman. 

I realized that there were most likely some green pieces mixed in there, so I got one out and, sure enough, there were!  So I decided to see if a person with a big, bulky splint and bandage on her left wrist and hand could sew something... anything!  Desperate times, friends, call for desperate measures!

And, the answer is Yes!  As long as you have precut squares and a 1/4 inch foot, it works!  Hooray!  So, there is hope.  Tomorrow (Friday), I'll see the doc again, and should be getting a cast on my wrist.  I am so hoping that it is lighter weight, and less bulky.  Maybe soon, there'll be more sewing!

I'll be linking up with all the other Rainbow Scrap Challenged on Saturday morning for some more green inspiration!

Blog Archive - Christmas Star Pillow Finish

Last November I shared this star block I made from a tutorial Alyce had shared on this blog.  The next week I finished up the pillow that I made, but never linked up with Sew Cute Tuesday to show the finish. So, to follow this week's theme of "Home," here is what I wrote about it back then.

I bought a charm pack and some yardage of Kate Spain's Jingle fabric earlier this fall, and saw Blossom Heart Quilt's tutorial earlier this week for her Christmas Star pillow.  I already posted about making the basic star block, but have now finished the pillow, and here it is!  I love it on the red Ikea chair in my living room.  It may not get put away after Christmas is over!

And, sure enough, I never have put this pillow away!  It's still out on my red chair - keeping Christmas in my heart and home all year round! 

RSC16 April Round-up

Monday morning, bright and early, I had surgery to put all the pieces and parts of my poor broken wrist back together again.  I'm so thankful for the skills of the orthopedic surgeon I went to.  He seems to think it will heal well and I'll be back to normal in a few weeks.  Fingers crossed!

So I have spent the week doing a lot of this...covered in my favorite quilt, wrist on ice or elevated, and my ipad tuned to the multitude of lovely quilt blogs for some fabric and pattern inspiration.

There's also been a tiny bit of this...thanks to a sweet friend who knew I was going to need something more to do!  Turns out, coloring is quite soothing and I think I will be doing some more in the days to come.

Since we are just about to the end of April,  I did want to get out my RSC blocks and see how I'm progressing.  I haven't figured out how to sew one-handed yet, but one-handed photography (with my tiny camera) is somewhat doable! 

Inspiration from Gayle got me started on some Monkey Wrench blocks, and so far I've made two in each of our colors of the month.  I love these little blocks!

I've also been making six 16 patch blocks every month, and here is my collection of those.  Somehow a green block squeezed its way into the picture.  I'm sure there will be some more greens in this quilt's future!

And my Scrap Jar Stars - loving these more each month!

I had been working on Double Four Patch blocks, too, but did only a few in orange before my fall from grace (or my graceful fall???), so those will have to wait awhile to get caught up.  

I am definitely having some sewing withdrawal.  To go from sewing everyday to not being able to do anything has been tough.  Somehow, I will figure out a way to get back to it!  Things could be worse - I met a funny little lady in Starbucks who told me she once fell and broke both wrists at the same time.  Oh dear! That had me counting my blessings!

Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend - and that you will share all of this week's progress for those of us who are just armchair quilters right now!

Check out lots more rainbow, scrappy sewing with Angela and Cynthia.

Unexpected

Here is what happened to me this week - darn it!

I was enjoying a lovely spring afternoon walk with a friend, and I missed a curb.  Down I went and fractured my wrist.  Those few seconds changed a lot about my life for the next few weeks, and maybe even months. Of course, one of the first things I thought was, "I won't be able to sew!"

Yesterday, I went to see the orthopedic surgeon who will be operating on my wrist on Monday, and he told me that sewing is good therapy for wrists, so Hallelujah for that!  Maybe it won't be as long as I thought.

Before all of this happened, I did have a chance to work on some more orange blocks for the RSC16 April color of the month.  A few 4 patches, one made into a double 4 patch, and my goal of six 16 patches for the month!

I am loving the variety of oranges that I found to work with!  Favorite fabric find of the week - these adorable birds flying through the clouds on an orange background.

Hope all of the rest of you had  a very routine week!  Lol!

I'll be linking up to Angela and Cynthia over the weekend so I can check out what everyone else has been up to.  Virtual quilting will have to take care of me for awhile.  (Maybe I'll get out a stack of fabric to pet!)

Quilty Math

I was a pretty good math student in school, and math was always one of my favorite subjects to teach to my 5th graders, but I am finding quilt math to be a bit challenging.  Fortunately, I don't have to do it very often!   This afternoon I've been playing with my Flying Geese blocks a little bit more.  I decided I wanted to make some that were half the size of the original ones I made last week.

Following the Connecting Threads tutorial again, but this time cutting all the dimensions in half, should give me some half size geese units, shouldn't it?!?  Look at all the math I had to do:

I made two new sets of flying geese units using the dimensions I figured out and here's how they turned out - 

They were a little bit more than half of my original units.  Looking back at the tutorial, and at my chicken scratches, I just realized that my mistake wasn't in the math, it was in getting confused between the "actual" size of the blocks and the "finished" size!  Oh well, that is how you learn, right?  It's a good thing I am just playing and not making something for an actual pattern.

Adding some solid strips and squaring up helps a lot!

And playing again with a layout (maybe for a red, white, and blue table topper for my dining room table), shows the new possibilities!

I'll be sharing over at Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework tomorrow!