It's been a few weeks since I shared the hexie flower blocks I've been making, and now they're sewn into a quilt top. I ran a little low on the green sashing/border print, so added in some additional pink instead! I'm working on cutting out the background behind the flowers, and have a backing picked out. Hoping to get it all layered for hand quilting in the next couple days.
Meanwhile I've been finishing up the orange plus blocks for August. #5 is actually done now, and just #6 to go, which will be my Sunday slow stitching for today.
And whenever there's nothing else prepped, I add a few more stitches into this little design. Just a bit more to go now!
Crumb Hearts was finished up last weekend, a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt that I started in 2021 with lots of little bitty scraps.
A few more details can be found in my Tuesday post, here.
That freed up my sewing time for working on this year's RSC blocks in this month's color, orange. I started with a couple of chandelier blocks. These were started last year, too, and I've been adding two more each month for a total of four in each color. I'm not sure I shared last month's purple chandelier blocks, so they're also in the photo.
I think I've made all the blocks I'm going to make for this quilt, and it's time to work on layout ideas. In this picture, the blocks are in columns by color, but I definitely plan to mix them up in the final layout. I'm using a photo from Pinterest for inspiration, and it leads to this post at Mary Quilts. I just noticed she has 32 blocks in her quilt, so maybe I need two more.
I also made the two orange blocks for Masala Box this week. One is in bright, popsicle, orange, and the other is in darker, pumpkin oranges.
And here they all are on the design wall - sixteen so far. Although Preeti's pattern calls for 25 blocks, twenty blocks will make a 48 x 60 throw quilt, so that may be where I'll end up stopping. I love these blocks and the look of the quilt already!
Little bits of progress are really starting to add up!
Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at
Are you familiar with the folk group, The Seekers, from the 1960s? We love their music, and have been listening to them again, since the news of Judith Dunham's passing this week. She was their female lead singer. I especially love this song "The Water is Wide."
This is my first time trying to add a video to a post,
and I *think* I did it successfully, lol!
We spent Friday going up to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, for Mike's brother's service. As all those times are, it was a bittersweet day, full of stories and memories. My BIL, Ron, was a truck driver all his life, and his grandson arranged to drive his casket to the cemetery on a semi truck. Some might think this strange, but for the family it was very touching.
Grandpa's last ride.
You can learn a lot about a state's geography by the local produce it's known for. In Colorado we have Palisade peaches and Olathe sweet corn, both from the Western Slope. (the western side of the Rockies.)
I have eaten both this week, but no recent pictures. From the southeastern corner of the state comes Rocky Ford melons. We have some cantaloupe and, yum, is it good!
Closer to home, I'm always attempting to grow some favorite vegetables, and have harvested a few green beans and tomatoes. Cucumbers are also growing, but for some reason this year, they look somewhat like alien life forms!
In the flower garden, little mini sunflowers are blooming! I planted the seeds in the spring, but wasn't sure what to expect. These are really small!
Since this photo was taken, they've opened even farther.
And in the sewing room... I've been making plus blocks with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, with black prints on white for the background fabric. Unfortunately, my supply of those backgrounds has really shrunk with all the blocks I've made. Earlier this week. I found a few new ones to add to the pile.
Hot air balloons, bicycles, paper airplanes - these are fun!
Hope you're having a great week!
I'm joining in with I Like Thursday, hosted by LeeAnna atNot Afraid of Color.
I have a finish to share this week! Since I've included Crumb Hearts in my to-do posts quite a bit in the last few months, it seems like the perfect place to share the finish.
All done!
I so appreciate all of the encouragement from blogging friends at this link-up that kept me going as I struggled through how to show off these heart blocks in a layout I really liked. What would work as a background fabric or alternate square? What should I do for borders? In the end, a smaller quilt made me happier - this measures 45 x 45.
For the quilting I used gentle curves to make different sizes of orange peels going diagonally across the quilt, and I'm really happy with how that turned out!
I'm not sure yet what I will do with this quilt - I have a couple ideas for donation, but I might just live with it for awhile before sending it off. It also still needs to take a trip through the washer and dryer.
I even ended up with one more small finish, and that is the tabletopper for my son. He wanted earthy colors, so I figured water, leaves, and stone should work, right?
It feels good to get these both off the to-do list and
be able to move on to the next items!
This week is kind of busy, so I'm keeping the list short and simple. I've prepped pieces for some of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in orange, and they're sitting by the sewing machine ready to go when I get a few minutes to sew. For example, these are for the Masala Box blocks.
Once the squares are cut, these go together quickly!
My seasonal projects - the Frosties and Halloween Jubilee - are on hold for this week,
but I'm sure I'll get back to them in the near future!
Sharing at To-Do Tuesday at Texas Quilt Gal - thanks, Linda for hosting this fun link-up each week!
But close! I'm stitching the binding on Crumb Hearts. Orange hearts for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month!
And just barely started... some orange hand-pieced plus blocks. Pumpkins and starfish on orange! One more prepped to stitch up when I finish the binding on the hearts quilt.
I love this picture of my husband's family from about 1953 or so. Mike is the cutie on the left sitting in Dad's lap. He has two older brothers and (now) three younger sisters. This was taken before the two youngest were born. His next older brother, Ron, is in the middle - so cute with his glasses! Sadly, Ron passed away this week. He had been in poor health for some time, so this was not unexpected, but of course, he will be missed.
So all the more reason to cherish friends and family and celebrate the simple, lovely things in life.
I love that some color is beginning to emerge in my flower garden again! We've been doing battle with the grasshoppers this summer. I think they like this hot, dry stuff we've been having, plus they like to eat flowers! Fortunately, the flowers are coming back.
I got out my favorite August tabletopper for the dining room table. And Colorado peaches are in season - so yummy!
Not colorful (yet), but maybe soon - I have a pumpkin! It's about the size of a golf ball, maybe a little bigger. We have it surrounded by a little wire covering, hoping to keep the backyard critters from trying a taste!
I finished a really good book this week! The Island of Missing Trees is part historical fiction, about the island of Cyprus, which I, honestly, knew nothing about, part fantasy (a fig tree is a main character), and part science story (lots of fascinating information about plants, animals, and trees). Really an interesting story!
LeeAnna suggested we include some info in today's post about the summery topic of sunscreen. With Mike's history of melanoma, sunscreen is important to us, and he's a good researcher when it comes to products like that. Interestingly, the Walmart store brand, Equate, came out really high in the ratings so that's what we've been buying.
Sunscreen and my yellow hat, which I've shown in many photos,
are definitely in constant use around here!
And one last thing to share. I finished up the quilting on Crumb Hearts and got the binding sewn on by machine this afternoon. I'm really pleased with how the orange peel quilting design turned out! Because of the different sizes of borders, there are also different sizes of orange peels.
There's some binding stitching to do!
I'm joining in with I Like Thursday, hosted by LeeAnna atNot Afraid of Color.
Good morning and happy Tuesday! It's To-Do Tuesday at Texas Quilt Gal - thanks, Linda for hosting this fun link-up each week!
I think I said something in last week's post about staying on task (doesn't that sound like a retired teacher, lol!?) and not letting any squirrels in to the sewing room. Famous last words, right? Turns out, I caught a bit of the "start-itis" bug, and that resulted in a bunch of PFOs. That's "Partially Finished Objects!" I won't share the squirrels yet, until I get some other things done.
But... in the long run, I did make some progress on the things that were on my list!
Crumb Hearts is about 75% quilted. Here a peek at the back - I decided to try a gentle curve going diagonally across in each direction, which turns into orange peels. And then it makes this great design!
Another Covered in Love block is in progress - so Partially Finished!
Son's tabletopper is sandwiched for quilting - also Partially Finished! 😎 This one needs a different thread color for quilting than Crumb Hearts, so I'll quilt it when the Hearts are done.
I did actually make some progress on those two "Coming Up" projects.
The backing for Halloween Jubilee is sewn, and it will be next in the quilting queue after Crumb Hearts and son's tabletopper. See a photo of it in my Saturday post.
Six of the Frostie embroideries are trimmed to size, with six more to go. I haven't found any sashing fabric yet - still looking around for that.
So, this week's list continues along the same theme:
Finish quilting Crumb Hearts and get the binding on.
Quilt son's tabletopper.
Get started on orange blocks for August in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
And if time, more work on Halloween Jubilee and the Frosties.
