A few more pages done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) scratching an itch
(2) fridge magnets
(3) singing in the shower

Yesterday I did more of this!

It's so hot in my sewing room, but I managed to get another good pile done; I didn't count the pages but I know that progress is being made!

In fact, I didn't count the number of blocks I need to make sashings for ... or how many blocks I actually have made and waiting!

I had to laugh at LizA's comment yesterday; she wrote - "Wow! I love what you're doing with those sashings! Now you're making me feel guilty about my scrap crystals ufo....hhhmmm, I wonder where that box got put?"

Liz, to be honest I was convicted when I saw Bonnie teaching the class at guild groups, when she taught it to us on the cruise before the book was even published!  Shame shame shame on the two of us, LOL.

When I was piecing the strips I tried to cover the entire page but it didn't matter if a small sliver didn't get covered, since I'm going to sew them end to end.

Also, if a piece did extend over the edge, I just cut it straight across the top!  

Trimming straight lines at the top and bottom, and along one side.

I'm cutting 3-1/2" strips, so the leftover isn't large enough for anything - to the trash with it!

Adding the green in with the blues makes an important difference since the blocks are mainly made of blue and green broken dish units.  

They seem to sparkle, don't they?  Looking good!

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Yesterday I took two tops to the LA, I should have them back next week, so today I'll go ahead and make the bindings.

Have a great Thursday, sew forth and sew on til later!

Work that UFO!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) corny movies that make you laugh
(2) bare feet on a tile floor
(3) fresh spinach

Today is my mom's birthday, she passed away 20 years ago - 20 years!!  If she were still alive, today she would be 102 years old.  Wow!

Remember this quilt?  I blogged about it after my Alaska quilters cruise, on this post.

Since I finished piecing the ID square dance quilt - I'm calling it "Idaho Star Dance" - I thought I'd pick up the Scrap Crystals project that I gently pushed aside over a year ago.  I wanted to do a slightly different treatment for the sashings but I didn't have any bright ideas.

After watching Bonnie Hunter piece together neutral strings on last week's Quilt Cam the light bulb came on!

I carried an old Verizon phone book and a bag of blue strips and strings to the bee meeting last Saturday.  I had a grand ole time piecing string after string, watching the pile grow...

Didn't take long to fill up more than a half dozen pages!

Cut into 3-1/2" strips and de-papered - looking good!

I pieced some long strips, enough to do a couple test blocks...

I like what I'm seeing so far!

After sewing these together I see that I can add some green into the mix.

I think I'm gonna like this version of Scrap Crystals!

Have a great Wednesday, sew forth and sew on til later!

New Orleans

Three things to be happy about
(1) trolley tours
(2) a new pair of tweezers
(3) people watching

More pictures to share from my trip to New Orleans last month.

For the most part we made our own way around the city, the only tour we took was a horse and buggy tour of the French Quarter.

Our guide gave us a 30 minute tour and she shared a lot of the city's history, legends and naughty secrets.

It was very interesting!

I can't tell you half of what she said, but one thing that stood out for me was this beautiful fence at the Cornstalk Fence Hotel.

According to legend, in the late 1850's Colonel Robert Henry Short of Kentucky had a problem - his wife was homesick for Iowa. In order to mitigate the problem, Colonel Short had a fence shaped like a row of cornstalks made for his villa in the Garden District.  

Isn't that a beautiful fence?  Evidently parts of it were moved from the villa to different locations around the city.

Interesting sights along our tour route...

at one point we stopped at a pub and someone came out to take our drink orders.

so many balconies - you gotta love the architecture!

And afterwards of course, we had to have beignets and cafe au lait at the Cafe du Monde!  

These were fresh out the cooker, still steaming hot and piled high with powdered sugar - delicious!

There's also a Cafe du Monde at the Willard Hotel here in DC, but well ... you know.

Trip to the French Market - you haven't done it all til you've had fresh alligator jerky!  

(I haven't done it all)

We had a great time in Nawlins, but next time it should be during cooler weather - did I mention the humidity almost had me walking on all fours??

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I finished the ID quilt top, I'll post a picture and show it off after it gets quilted.  It turned out really pretty, I think.

That's it for now, sew forth and sew on til later!

Meanwhile, back at the dance...

Three things to be happy about:
(1) spacious refrigerators
(2) fresh fruit
(3) remote controls

Hmm... remote controls.  They're okay when used to control your TV or radio or garage door... but when someone ELSE uses something remotely to control your car while you're driving?  Not so good!

A few weeks ago I posted pictures of the alternate block I'm making to go with the ID square dance block.  You ever have a "well, duh!" moment??  I had one after I made a couple more alternate blocks with light backgrounds, and placed them with the main blocks; see what I mean?

That light background gives the blocks an entirely new look!  Look at the secondary design... you have the four patches making an "X" design - and look, there's a 16-patch!

After looking at these, I realized there really was no other choice - well duh!  With any other color I'd have stopped the flow and missed this great design opportunity - thanks for the input, June!  

Webbing the blocks, then laying them out on my "design floor" makes it easier to see the overall design.  My design wall just isn't big enough nor easy to use with this many blocks.

I'm making this one a throw size, setting the blocks in a 7x8 arrangement.  The blocks finish at 7 inches.

I started trying to rearrange blocks for even color distribution but you know what?  I don't think it matters that much.  There IS no perfect (nor WRONG) layout when dealing with scrappily colorful, scrappy delicious blocks!

Webbing the top, but not without seeing a few of these goofs:  I didn't orient some of the four-patches correctly, how did I not see that?

They should all be light against dark, light against dark... I hate unsewing.

I had enough of the 2-1/2" four patches left over that it inspired me to go ahead and make those as leader-enders for now, eat up some of those 1-1/2" strips!

For some reason using the lozenge blocks for LE's isn't working for me as well as I thought they would; I think it's because of the angled seam.

Who knows.

So that's partly what I've been up to lately, sew forth and sew on til later!

Sewing and sharing at the bee

Three things to be happy about:
(1) The smell of bacon cooking
(2) new uses for old stuff
(3) inspiration

Hello again everybody!  We had our monthly bee meeting yesterday - our numbers were cut by half because of vacations and other things, but we were at full strength!

First I wanted to show you this bowl-o-fabric that CC had, because it gave more than one person a chuckle.  At first glance we thought she had a bowl of something delicious to eat, and Felicia was like "Hey CC, you gonna share some of that with the rest of us??"

CC had wet her fabric strips to make them easier to press, so funny!

As usual it was great getting together with fellow bee members - lots of sewing and pressing...

cutting and measuring...

and of course, show and tell!  The first three shots are 2015 challenge quilts...

I would have liked to get shots of all the challenge quilts, as I was out of town at the unveiling last month.

And even more great quilts...

Charlene is teaching the one immediately above to her class at the senior center.  They were concerned about the lack of fabric, so she told them to bring in what they could get their hands on - clothing, sheets, anything that had good cotton content.  Beautiful results!

That's it for now; have a great Sunday, enjoy your day - sew forth and sew on!

out and about and back and forth

Three things to be happy about:
(1) cool breezes
(2) ceiling fans
(3) frozen yogurt bars

It's been awhile since I posted, oh my how time flies when you're having fun!

One thing that held my attention was a trip to New Orleans (Nawlins) with my sister Michelle!

This is a picture of the Natchez, the steamboat we almost took a luncheon cruise on - the day we were supposed to go, we overslept and couldn't get ourselves together!

There it goes... pretty steamboat though...

Someone recommended Mother's as a good place to eat with decent prices and great food...

One of the first things we did, even before getting settled in the hotel, was head to Mother's for breakfast - look at all that food!

I think I ate maybe a third of it, and my opinion?  Do not, I repeat do not  go all the way to Nawlins for breakfast at Mother's!  Nuff said.

Michelle was talking about Bourbon Street at night, what a hoot!

Lots and lots of people walking in the street, they rerouted traffic to accommodate all the pedestrians.

We got there around 8 pm and it was already crowded, who knows how it looked at midnight!  Here are a few street scenes...

People (mostly tourists) wandering in one bar and out the other...  I think New Orleans may be the only city in the US where you can walk down the street with an alcoholic drink.  People dressed in their Bourbon Street finery - cross dressers, "live statues", tap dancers... More on my trip later!

Meanwhile I've been trying out alternate blocks with the Idaho Square Dance blocks, can't get a good hook on it somehow.

I chose to make a star with a 4-patch center; notice the 4-patch corner stones on this one.

The light block seemed to disappear...

Dark was way too ... dark!

I had sorta settled on the medium block using white and black...

But now that I look at it on the screen, I might go with the light block although I need to make a few more to see it better.  But I don't want to make that many test blocks!

Decisions, decisions...

Have a great Monday, sew forth and sew on til later!