A Few Days at the Lake

I got a chance to stay up to camp for three days last week. It was cloudy and/or showers the entire time I was up there. I thought I would make it up there again this week for a few days to help hubby put some dirt in what we hope will be a garden area, but it is supposed to rain all week. The entire month has been cool, cloudy and rainy. Other than June 1 and 2, we have seen only two days in the 80s. I hate the heat so I am not complaining, but a little more sun would be nice. 

I had a specific summer project to work on at camp for three summers running, and that was The 21-Year Pineapple Project that I finished early last year. Last summer I worked on a couple different sets of blocks but not a dedicated project. 

This year, my summer camp project is Conestoga Star, another oldie but goodie. The pattern originally appeared in an issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting. I bought the pattern and fabric as a kit from Sew Batik, which no longer assembles their lovely kits like they used to. I am adding bunches of my own batik scraps for variety. Got plenty of those!

All of the blocks in the center of the quilt are paper pieced; and although the picture doesn't show it, I now have three complete rows. Three more rows to go, and I'll be ready to start on the borders. This quilt is a big one, finishing at 88 x 100. 

Reassessing the Scrap Situation

I started making some blocks in January when the color blue was announced for the Scrappy Rainbow Challenge. In February when the color pink was announced, I started work on a different set of blocks. By March, I was so darn frustrated digging though boxes of scraps to find the colors I wanted that I threw up my hands and set to heck with all of it. I finally realized that my time would be far better spent sorting the scraps that I've collected over the years by color.

For years I subscribed to the Bonnie Hunter Scrap User's System, dutifully cutting up scraps left over from quilts I'd made and cutting up more out of the scrap bins and feeding them into containers for squares and strips. It was and still is a daunting task. The sad part is that they seem to get used very little because it never seems to be what I need at the moment. I usually find myself digging around in the bins instead.

I have a lot of scraps. Like a mountain of scraps. Like multiple boxes, bags,  and big Rubbermaid tubs of scraps. The obvious solution is to simply get rid of them, but that's just not ever going to happen because I love my scraps too much. And people keep giving me more to get them out of their sewing rooms. I never turn down scraps. Sometimes I even buy them. It might be a sickness. 

So I settled on a different plan. The owners of quite a few of the blogs I've been frequenting lately sort their scraps by color, and I thought that was worth trying. So I bought 14 clear plastic bins from Walmart and started sorting. These bins are 15 x 10 x 9 inches tall; and I will tell you, it is astonishing how many more scraps you can store if they're laid out flat instead of throwing them willy nilly into a container. 

I started with two of these tall tubs full of scraps and worked my way through  three of the smaller tubs. I also sorted through multiple plastic bags of scraps, and a few more stacks laying around the sewing room.

One of those stacks were the ones I had gotten from Barbara. It got too hard to keep track of what quilts I was working on that used up some of her scraps, so I abandoned that idea and sorted them into the rest of the bins. I also took down the Page I had at the top of the blog called Barbara's Scrap Bag.  

I used these smaller open top bins to sort by color; and I had separate piles of neutrals, batiks, strings, multicolored prints, and crumbs that either went into plastic bins or other established containers in the sewing room. As the open top bins filled up, I moved the scraps to their larger bins.

I also had smaller piles of plaids, solids, Christmas fabrics and block parts that were dispersed to other parts of the sewing room. The block parts will either be seam ripped or chopped up to go into a Whackadoodle quilt. More on that another day.

I had an excess of blues, greens, and surprisingly browns, and purchased a couple more bins for those. 

I had the least amount of yellows, pinks, and oranges, which didn't surprise me; but the reds were also in short supply, which tells me I did use lots of those.

After the dust settled, I now have a lovely wall of colorful scraps, all neatly stacked inside and ready for use. I still have two more large cardboard boxes full of bags of scraps to sort, but I'll have to work down the  scraps in the bins first because they're full. Which of course is the whole point -- to use them!

June Finish

We seem to be in a pattern of mostly clouds and rain this spring and summer. At the beginning of June we had a few days in the upper 80s and even low 90s, and we might have had only one mostly sunny day since then. I'm sure the tourists are not happy.

I can't say I mind because work at home has kept me from spending much time at camp anyway; and if it's cloudy and rainy outside, then the neighborhood is quiet, and I can get my work done. I do love my peace and quiet. 

I haven't had a lot of time to sew either, but sewing still gets done behind the scenes. I finished the binding and label on this quilt yesterday. It is the Tis the Season block of the month from Missouri Star Quilt Co. I worked on last year. 

 

I took this one to Whippersnappers in Manchester for quilting because it was too big to fit on my machine. I don't know what design she used, but it has small snowflakes in it and some quilting that reminds me of strings of pearls, and I just really liked it. 

The quilt finishes at 82" x 91", so a good double bed size. 

Whippersnappers also did the quilting for my Letters to Santa quilt, which is getting the binding treatment today. Yay! I anticipate this one will be another finish for the month.

A Couple Other March Finishes

It was 40 degrees when I got up this morning, which was a nice change from below freezing temps. April has arrived in Maine, and that means less snow, longer days, warmer temperatures, and... flowers! My daffodils have been up for quite a while, but they are refusing to bloom until it warms up.

I finished this little strippy last month for my granddaughter. I was going to donate it to a good cause, but she saw the top and wanted to know if she could have it. Of course! It's a perfect little nap quilt for spring.

I quilted this in a variegated pink thread, and the daisy swirl pantograph looks so nice on it.
 

The pink flannel back will make it soft and cuddly.

Wiggle Time in 30s repros is finished too, which used up more fabric scraps from the quilt chapter bin. It takes most of a fat quarter to make one row, and I only had enough fabric for three rows. So I added a row from my own stash and duplicated one fabric for the fifth row.

For the backing, I pieced together larger chunks of that green and yellow fabric and used up most of that. Then from the 30s scraps that were left, I cut and pieced a scrappy row on the back. I really like this, maybe more than the front, lol.

Tis the Season came back from the longarmer about a week and a half ago. When I see the lovely stitching that a computerized longarm will do, I'm tempted to trade in my Tin Lizzie. It's a whole lot of money though, so I guess I'll think about it for another year. 

I have the binding sewn to the front and have yet to start hand stitching it to the back. 

My focus for the rest of this month is to finish the top of my Christmas Words quilt. This was a Moda QAL called Letters to Santa that started last July and finished at the end of November. I've been wanting to make a words quilt, so I issued a Christmas Words challenge to my quilt chapter for this year's Maine Quilts show, because the show theme this year is Christmas in July. It simply won't do for me not to get my own quilt finished, so I have to get this done!!

There are 6 or 8 filler blocks scattered throughout the quilt to even out the rows--trees, wreaths, stars, gift boxes, etc. For only one of those fillers, I wanted to make a palm tree, just to remind myself of this year's theme. I'll have to locate a paper pieced pattern somewhere. 

Some Finishes

Yikes, it's been several weeks since I blogged! I don't always realize how much time has gone by since the last post.

The weather has been crazy over the last couple of weeks. Seems like for a while there we were getting snow every other day. And it seems like we've gotten more snow this year than the last couple. 

I'm busy all the time with lots of different things. I've done two more loads in the freeze dryer this week--fresh asparagus and chili; and a load of sweet bell peppers going in tomorrow. We still can't get over how different freeze dried food looks, and the fact that it's so close to fresh or freshly made when it's rehydrated.

I fit in as much sewing as I can; but you know, some days it just doesn't happen. I did finally get some finishes last month. The Coastal Cool sampler quilt came back from the longarmer, and she did a beautiful job.  

Above is a picture of the whole quilt from my pattern cover-- and mine looks just like that, haha. It's a big quilt, so it's hard to get a view of the whole thing at home. The dimensions are odd for a bed quilt, but it still fits better on a double than a queen, so that's where it will go. 

I finished this scrappy quilt on the last day of February. My quilt chapter had an in-house silent auction, and I bought this top plus some extra fabric that went with it. The top was already assembled, but I added one more vertical and horizontal row to extend the size. It was a fast finish, and I thought it would make a fine donation quilt. 

This is an interesting pattern. I hunted high and low for the name of it and finally found it under a couple of different names, like Whirligig. My friend referred to it as Fun Patch, so I named it One Patch Fun Patch. 

It really is a one patch quilt, and Kathy Doughty used an improv version of it in a couple of different ways in her book 'Making Quilts'. One of those was "Fractured" which was a favorite of Wanda's at Exuberant Color. I'd like to use this one patch again, only in a different layout.

I used a variegated gold thread for the quilting because I thought it went well with all of the different fabrics; and I quilted it with a daisy swirl pantograph. I used this same panto on one of Shar's quilts, and it's getting to be a favorite of mine.

At the beginning of March, I got the binding on the Ribbon Candy quilt, that had been hanging around the sewing room for too long. 

Coincidentally I used a pantograph called Ribbon Candy too. Not sure I like it, but it's done!

I am working on getting the binding on a small quilt for my granddaughter right now; and this one, another Wiggle Time quilt from Cynthia Brunz Designs, is on the frame. I used that same daisy swirl pantograph for both quilts.

Dutchman's Puzzle

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! The northeast corridor got snow on Friday-- about 6" for us--and we're in the midst of another big storm today. I think we got at least 6" last night and today, and it's still snowing. 

The last few weeks have been quite busy with the usual day to day stuff, soap making, puzzle building, and a weekend visit from my granddaughter, who will be seven this year. She likes to work on her little puzzles while Grammie works on the big ones. 

More than anything else, I've been preoccupied with learning all about freeze drying food. The image of empty store shelves during the pandemic has stayed in my head, so hubby and I talked it up and bought a freeze dryer from Harvest Right several weeks ago. Haha, had I known that eggs were going to hit $6+ a dozen, I'd have bought a freeze dryer six months ago.

Since then I've been reading everything I could find and watching YouTube videos on the subject. So far, we've only done one load of bananas and apples; but when the storm is over, we're throwing in a load of mac and cheese and maybe a tray of mushrooms if there's room. My plan is to focus mostly on meals this winter, then fresh produce in the spring and summer. 

I have done some sewing for the Scrappy Rainbow Challenge. The color this month is dark and bright blues. Rather than a rainbow project, my focus was to use up as many of the blues in Barbara's Scrap Bag as I could.

I realized early on that the mix of her prints is so varied that I wasn't going to fit them all into one or two projects, so I worked on a few different blocks. There was quite a lot of that dark navy with the little vine, and I pieced most of that together and am using it as the backing on a small top that used the same fabric as the border.

There are these rectangle bar blocks (I got bored with these pretty quickly); the Eastern Sunrise string blocks; a Scrappy Rectangles block (I got bored with those too); Bonnie Hunter's 2022 Leaders and Enders Triple Treat Challenge; and if I could get a 1-1/2" strip out of a smaller piece of fabric before it went into the string pile, some Bitcoin strips, also a Bonnie Hunter pattern. 

And because I can't make up my mind about much of anything these days, I don't know where any of these projects are going. Except the Triple Treat--that one I'm actively working on. I did come across a pattern called Scrap Happy Rainbow Connection from Amy Smart, which seems to be popular, so I might actually do a rainbow project after all.

Either way, I've whittled Barbara's blues down to this small pile, and I'm working on using up the rest of them, hopefully in one of the above projects.

 

Over the weekend I dug out these Dutchman's Puzzle blocks and assembled them into a small top because I needed some focus. The edges still need to be trimmed up and borders applied. 

This project is another pretty old UFO, and it's one of my 2023 UFO challenges. With just a few exceptions, I used reds, golds, blues, and greens in the blocks and sashings. I like it so much that I may use some of the left over blocks and make a double sized quilt for my guest room. Still signing it off on the challenge list when I get this one finished though!

Some of that dark blue with the little vine from Barbara's scraps went into the sashing on this quilt too.   

Linking to Oh Scrap!

Ringing in the New Year

New Year's is not a big holiday for us, so it came and went without event. Sister-in-law and I spent a few days building two 1000-piece puzzles gifted to me by my daughter-in-law's mother. 

Because there was not a lot of variety in the color, I anticipated they would be more difficult than they actually were. With two of us working at them, we finished each puzzle in just a couple days. 

This past Wednesday at our chapter quilt meeting, someone gifted me a bag of six more puzzles, lol. So I have plenty to keep me busy. 

In the meantime I've been working on this 1000-piece Norman Rockwell puzzle. I failed to notice that the back of the box said "random cut", so there are a lot of very strangely shaped pieces. More challenging for me, but it's going along.

It's fashionable these days for bloggers to review the year prior. In particular, many quilters are assessing what they accomplished the previous year and what they'd like to accomplish in the new year. I can get onboard with that. I listed 9 big quilts and a grouping of 3 minis on my UFO Challenge 2022 tab and managed to complete 4 big quilts and 1 mini. Even though I didn't get them all finished, three of them were years old UFOs, and I felt good about that. 

I do plan to make myself a UFO Challenge list for 2023, and I suppose what didn't get finished in 2022 should be added to this year's list. The problem is there are so many projects I'd like to finish this year that it's hard to choose just 10 or 12. 

One of the things I'd like to do this year is to participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023 hosted on the ScrapHappy blog. I did this a few years ago, and it took me another year or more to finish the quilt. In her write up about this year's challenge, Angela (I think that's her name) mentioned that, instead of a rainbow quilt, you can make some other scrappy or stash busting project, so long as you're trying to focus on the color of the month. That is an approach that appeals to me. The color for this month is bright or dark blue, and I have several blue or blue and white projects I started a while back. I would like to make some headway on those.