Hello, September!

I'm afraid that this post is yet, another, catch-up post which will be strangely reminiscent of that old beginning-of-school assignment we all remember: "How I Spent My Summer Vacation"! I do have lots of show and tell, bear with me. 

As the weather allowed, and it wasn't too hot, I spent many an afternoon stitching out on the porch where the light is perfect!

These are a sampling of the seasonal pin-keeps that I managed to get finished over the past months. I've been trying out a variety of edge finishes on these. I ordered a few different trims from Lady Dot. 

I did get Amarillo Skies quilted and bound; it has joined the growing stack of "to be finished up by hand". 

An outer border was added to last year's Lemoyne BOM, it was loaded onto Snowbird...

... and quilting commenced using the "Easy Peasy Baptist Fan panto and Glide thread.

Voila! I still need to name this one. I'm attaching the binding today. 

With space opening up on the design wall it was high time for the Be Attitudes blocks to reappear. 

Working from this book by Nancy Halvorsen, this one must've been pushed off the back burner years ago. In fact, I found this post, dated May of 2008, when I bought the book and the fabrics. 

Instant vintage!! 

No time like the present, right? 

Stay tuned... I'm on a roll. 

Life is Good!

Wonderful World of Color*

It's a beautiful time of year right now, there's color everywhere. . .

and the quilt blocks under the needle in the sewing room are no exception! I'm still plugging away on the Barn Star Sampler, playing catch up for time missed.

I'm back at it again today, stitching blocks. It's hard, though, when I'm distracted by the wonderful world of color that surrounds me just outside the door. What distracts you?

As for Augie, he's enjoying the warmer days and time spent out on the porch.

We won't get into what distracts him: a leaf blowing by, a reflection in the window, 

a dog barking on television, a fly buzzing by, a stick on the ground... the list goes on! 😄

Life is Good!

*Being of a certain age, this phrase conjures up images of Tinkerbell 

flying over Cinderella's Castle and turning the black and white images

to technicolor on the Sunday evening broadcasts of Walt Disney's TV show.

I recall being ten years old or so and allowed to watch it at a friend's

 home down the street; she had a color TV! Such a sweet memory.

Summer Kick-Off

Well, now that Memorial Day has officially been observed; it's full speed ahead into summer. I'm ready! Having successfully navigated twice-a-week, post fracture, out patient physical therapy sessions I feel ready to tackle the world again! The therapist that I was assigned has been fabulous, he's young, motivated and extremely supportive of my desire to be fully healed, flexible and strong. He pushes me, and that's good. I have three levels of therapy bands attached to my longarm frame for mid-day strength training at home. This sign greeted me the other day when I checked in at the PT facility: 

              "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever". 

I placed flags in the pots outside our home this weekend, take a look at the bare-root, wintered-over geraniums on the steps. They've absolutely rebounded to full strength. Think of me as a geranium... bouncing back for all that I'm worth.

I'm slowly catching up on the blocks for Shelly Cavanna's Barn Star Sampler that's being taught, block-of-the-month style, at my LQS. This one, above, is the Carpenter Star.

And, the Tulip Star. These are BIG blocks. I'm using my own color choices and Wilmington Essentials "dry brush" line of fabrics to give mine an authentic "weathered" barn star appearance. The colors, too, put me in a happy, summertime state of mind.

Augie has a friend spending time with us this week. These two are so cute together, they play, chase, and wrestle with each other all day long; until they literally crash, in their respective beds. After napping, as soon as one raises a head, it's on... all over again!

Because summertime means vacation time, when better to quilt up this National Parks (one of my favorite vacation destinations) panel that's been hanging out in my stash closet for a few years? I already had the backing on the shelf, a super-soft, chocolate brown flannel for a cozy snuggle quilt. This pantograph is Classic Weave by Kathie James for Urban Elementz. 

Uncle Sam is once again serving as the summertime sentry to the studio. 

I'll conclude this kick-off to summer post with a laugh, who doesn't love a good flow chart?

Are you guilty? 

😉

Life is Good!

New Starts

My second new quilt start happened this week with yet another block-of-the-month class. This one is based on a pattern called "Cream and Sugar" by It's Sew Emma. I've decided to adopt the lower-contrast neutral palette as illustrated; I think it will be pretty and a nice way for me to experiment with value, it will be fun. One of the class participants expressed that she thought beige quilts were so "blah". I laughed to myself because I was thinking the exact opposite; I'm looking at this one more as a "palate cleanser", sometimes it's nice to create a little breathing space, color-wise. I find it to be calming and very soothing. 

Here's another new start, or maybe this could be termed a fresh start! When my MIL passed away, almost six years ago, I brought a few of her houseplants back to our home, one of them was this scraggly Christmas Cactus. It survived, over the years (albeit barely). This spring I decided to release it from it's too-small pot prison and replant it, with fresh soil, into a larger pot with room for its roots to spread and grow. The transformation in the plant's vigor and vitality has been amazing after a summer on the porch. I'm super-excited about the prospects for this one come blooming season, fingers crossed.

More new plants, new starts: out with the overgrown geraniums and in with fall Pansies. I've taken those overgrown geraniums inside, trimmed them and boxed them up, bare-root style, for wintering-over. I've done this before but it's always a concern: more crossed fingers and high hopes. We'll see!

Last week Mr. Goodneedle and I hit the road and headed for the mountains, another mental health day. The weather was great and the foliage color on our route didn't disappoint. 

We discovered this winery along the way, a great find and a completely relaxing afternoon; one that's good simply for recharging!

Here's a recent shot of our patio. The leaves aren't the only things falling! You'd need a helmet or a hardhat to sit out here lately. I thought this might be an ominous predictor of what kind of winter we're in for, but, apparently all that this profusion of acorns signifies is a substantial mast crop. Okay, we'll see. 

And sew, here we go again; new starts, new beginnings. I'm excited to see where this goes.

What new starts are your brewing up at your house?

Life is Good!

Stitching Up A Storm

Scrappy Shining Stars 65" X 83"

Remember all those piles of scraps that I have cut? Well, they're being used. I am holding fast to my guiding word for the year: VISION. I have a goal of making up stacks of scrap quilts in 2020 using what is right under my nose. Here's my first idea. This one will utilize 3.5" squares  in  9" 9-patches combining with 4-patches (2" UF squares for a 3" finished 4-patch) inside of wonky stars. My constant fabric will be a charcoal Essex linen which I've had on the shelf for years. I designed this setting for the over all quilt in EQ. If the border blocks make the whole look too busy I may ditch the border, we'll see.

This one will use us 2.5" squares stitched into 16-patches with X-blocks alternately. Again, all from the stash. I was inspired by this one when I did an  Internet search and found this layout.

Next up on my cutting table were these two blocks to get me caught up with the latest BOM at my LQS. You might remember that I made four of these blocks into placemats for my son and DIL a few months ago; these will receive the same treatment, giving them a set of eight for their kitchen table. 

Today our youngest granddaughter turns seven years old! 😲 Santa brought her a camper trailer for her American Girl dolls for Christmas. When she showed me how the table turned into a bed for the camper we decided that her doll needed a sleeping bag. I found just what I needed to create one, and a pillow, by shopping my stash. Score! Yep, VISION-- I can see more scraps being used up! I believe she'll like really like this. I found a few online sleeping bag patterns and combined three of them.

All that scrap sewing uses up load and loads of tumblers when they're used as Leader-Enders. 

More scraps being used, more quilt tops appearing; it's all good!

Life is Good!

Up next: A Finish and Another Sew-Along

Facets

Facets ~ 55" X 55"

Currently this is a nine block quilt top, the results (so far) of this year's BOM at my LQS. I am still deciding, but this may be as far as I go with this one, I like the symmetry of the setting as a square quilt. This has been a stretch for me as I chose to stay in a monochrome state of mind, but varying the low volume backgrounds has added enough interest for me to keep things interesting. These blocks are all based on traditional patterns constructed using Deb Tucker's Studio 180 tools and technique sheets, I designed the setting based on her Split Rects tool. 

Life is Good!

Warm Days, Cool Hues

Ever since we returned from our recent adventures, both up north and our more local grandchildren-focused ones, I have been playing catch-up; there's been little (if any) actual time in the sewing room! I did need to spend some time constructing the latest block-of-the-month before the next session rolls around already--next week! So go the days of summer! This year my LQS is focusing on Deb Tucker's "Tucker Trimmer" tool for each month's block. As you know, I am a huge fan of these tools! I made a variation of the assigned block, adding corner triangles to the center square to really show off and accentuate that center fabric on point. I am using a variety of low-volume prints for my backgrounds each month. I have committed myself to setting each block with half-rectangles after designing the setting in EQ8 the month before (see post here).  So, with the addition of block #2 the blocks will look something like this, next to one another. My tool of choice for the half-rectangles is another Deb Tucker tool: the "Split-Rects"; it is precise and accurate.

Setting the second block made me realize that I would need to piece the corner squares when the stripe is to the outside, mitering the stripes so that they would turn the corners. I decided yesterday that it would be the smartest thing to go ahead and cut all of the Split-Rects units and piece them together, bundle them into groups for setting each of the next ten blocks, and have them all ready. Now I feel much more prepared when each month comes along, I am good to go!

I am happy with the progress on this one so far. The icy-cool colors are perfect for a hot summer's day! Oh, and one more plug for EQ8. When designing a layout your fabric requirements are calculated at the same time; 1 yard of each fabric was suggested as the correct amount for the alternating light/dark setting pieces. I bought exactly that amount. When I realized that I was going to need to piece those striped corners I was sweating it as the fabric was dwindling with each slice...  and fast!

I had enough; phew! Just barely, but I had enough!

Not much to add to the scrap bin at all. 😉

Life is Good!

Cart Before The Horse?

This is the first of twelve blocks-of-the-month that we will be doing at my LQS. Having just set all of those hexies together from the last BOM session it's all about moving forward. This time we're exploring blocks using Deb Tucker's Tucker Trimmer. If you've been a long-time reader you know that yours truly is a huge fan of everything Deb Tucker does and all of the Studio 180 tools. (The Tucker Trimmer is the original tool.)  I chose the turquoise print, on the outside of this block, as my control fabric. Each block will contain that print with low-volume backgrounds that will change, block to block. I am staying with a monochromatic color scheme and already went ahead and designed my setting in EQ8.  The Split-Rects borders on each block will alternate light/dark to add some interest and some movement. Is this a case of putting the cart before the horse? Maybe; after all, I have no idea what the blocks will be. But, I grabbed the reins anyway. We'll see where this goes, right now I am happy with the idea. (The pieced blocks inside the setting borders measure 12" square.)

Life is Good!