ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC16 - Week 5

Welcome to Week 5 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  I would like to begin this week by saying a BIG thank you to all of you quilters who took the time to comment on last week's post.  I also want to apologize for not getting back to you via email, as I usually do.  My email system was not allowing any outgoing emails for several days and I was unable to catch up (so I had to just jump in where I was - when the system was repaired.)  I appreciate your understanding in this matter!!

SUNDAY, I made ONE Slab Block in BLUE, pictured out in the snow:

On MONDAY, schools were closed due to the icy road conditions.  You can imagine how upset DS2 was to hear about that... NOT!!!  I had a doctor appointment in the midday.


TUESDAY afternoon, I wanted to share the ONE Maverick Star block that I made in BLUE (from off-cuts of Dr. Pete's Wedding Quilt):

On WEDNESDAY, I went to Knit Group.  (Yes!  I'm aware that it's NOT Friday, but it's another one of those weeks involving doctor appointments.)  When I got home, I cleaned like a white tornado because the quilters are coming!!

I also did a bit of work on this.  And, LOOK!!  There's BLUE in the block:

What IS it, Joyful?!?!


Well, you will get a better look at it in tomorrow's entry.  (The day it's due!!!) However, I will give you a clue.  It started out as my Bluff Challenge block.

THURSDAY morning, the Quilt Group met at my house.  (Of course, you knew that from yesterday's entry, didn't you?)  After lunch, I thought I'd show you this String Block in BLUE (with PURPLE accents.)  Thanks again, Diane, for that bag of scraps!!  Everything except for the corners came out of it - those were from Dr. Pete's Wedding Quilt from scraps of blocks made at our UFO Sew-in:

On FRIDAY, I posted a new edition of Design Floor Friday.  Here's a preview:

 I also worked on O's T-shirt Quilt.  These are the "squared up" shirts awaiting the next Design Day...

... And THIS is the overflowing trash can (complete with BLUE scraps, of the T-shirt variety) shown so that you know just how much work got done:

After all of that cutting, I went downstairs to ice my shoulder.  Dratted rotator cuff injury!!!

SATURDAY morning, I was up bright and early to take DS2 and 2 of his friends to All-District Band rehearsals.  When I returned home, I joined Angela's LINK PARTY over at the So Scrappy blog. You may want to go see what all of the other RSC Quilters have been up to. I'm headed that way, myself. Enjoy!

Later...  I'll be heading back for the concert...  Wow!!!  What a WONDERFUL performance that promises to be!  Some of the BEST high school musicians in the Triangle area of North Carolina will be on stage at Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium.

Even later... It. Was. FABULOUS!!!

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Design Floor Friday - Bluff Challenge Revealed - {The Personal Edition}

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  It's been quite some time since I've published one of these posts.  If you're new to my blog, you probably didn't even know that Design Floor Friday was "a thing!"  So, after MANY weeks, I finally have something down there worth agonizing over.  :o))

DISCLAIMER:  Only the completed piece remains, but the design process was captured here.

This particular post is about the making of an art piece.  Granted, I didn't KNOW that's what this would be about (even as late as Monday of this week!!)  However, on Tuesday, my Bluff Challenge block decided that it wanted to be MORE than just a T-shirt.

THIS is a close-up of my block.  It's filled with wonderful texture:

 I use the term "my" loosely, as my friend, Jean, is the one who created the base of this block.  You can read more about that in THIS POST.

In the photo below, you can see my block pinned onto a T-shirt:

The pins indicated where THIS panel would go:

HERE is a close-up of how the block was attached to the shirt with a line of black stitching.  You can also see some apple green triangular machine quilting and if you look REALLY closely, you might notice the double-stitching in the (partial) circle over on the top right:

I took a full shot once all that was done:

What is this piece trying to say???

Listen up, Joyful!!!  I'm NOT done, yet!

OK, OK...  I'm listening!!

First, I decided that some of the empty space in the center was begging for SOMETHING:

I tried some hand stitching (with cotton yarn) and added the triangle floating just left of the center.  It seemed to balance the red from other areas of the piece.  While the hand stitching was a GREAT idea, thanks to Margaret and Britt!! Somehow, it just. didn't. work:

So, I took it out and reevaluated my options, then added some double-stitching to the small "C" over in the top left corner:

LOOK at the photo above.  Did you notice a couple more changes???

I added an "L" and then moved closer to the "Q" in the second photo.  The squares seemed to fit where they were placed.  However, the big "C" that I tried to create needed a bit of help:

That's better!  The photo below shows how I beefed it up with a bit of free motion quilting, but noticed a spot (inside the big "C") that needed more quilting:

OK!!  I believe that it's satisfied with its appearance... and I am, too:

What a FUN piece this was to put together!!  (Nothing like 2 days before a deadline to get you motivated!!!)  Jeans and a T-shirt, Part Two... otherwise know as The Bluff Block Challenge.

Speaking of the Bluff Block Challenge...

HERE is a photo of ALL of the completed Challenge projects...

You can see MORE photos (including individual shots and close-ups) on our Quilt Bee Blog.

Until next time...
Let yourself PLAY!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC16 - Week 4

Welcome to Week 4 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!

SUNDAY was the start of a new era.  Needleb and I teamed up with our friend, Diane, to form a "real life" UFO Bee.  This will supplement (or support) our Ravelry UFO Club.  We met and got right to work, which was quite a change from when we work at my house!  There was no dithering about what project I should work on and no messy room to distract me into thinking that I should use our time to tidy up the studio.


What did you work on, Joyful???


I took my Allietare Mystery, but worked on Dr. Pete's Wedding Quilt.  Here's what I got done:

Bonus points for working in the RSC Color of the Month... BLUE!!!


On MONDAY, the family went to visit my MIL.  I suppose that I could have taken hand sewing, but that's NOT where I am in any of my projects.  I took knitting instead and made progress on TWO projects, but I really want to show you what I got at last week's DOQ Silent Auction Fundraiser:

What's in there, Joyful?!?!

From left to right:  A tailor's ham, a bag containing a wavy rotary blade, cutter, scissors, and ergonomic Fiscar shears with spring back handles, along with a bundle of good neutral fabrics.  Then we have a few things that I probably should have left behind, but it was ALL for a donation to the guild, beginning with a Halloween wall hanging kit, a pack of patterns, and several sets of blocks that I plan to use to make a donation quilt.  The bit of red that you see all the way on the right is a packet of Christmas blocks, which I will add to my collection for my own Holiday Quilt.  Between these items and the Sizzix die cut machine (with cutting plates and one die), I made out like a bandit!!

(Remember, Austerity Quilters, it was all for a good cause!!!)


TUESDAY morning was my scheduled PT appointment.  It was another tough session, so I iced my shoulder and took it easy until time to go to work.


On WEDNESDAY, I met my knitting friends for coffee and several hours of knitting.  Yes!  I realize that it's NOT Friday, but one friend has a BIG doctor's appointment on Friday, so we changed the schedule for this week.


THURSDAY morning, as you might know, I was off to Quilt Group.  This week, that was AFTER working for 2 hours!  (Not a BAD thing, since the rest of the day is my own!)  I did some laundry when I got home and completed some half-done quilt blocks for Dr. Pete's Wedding Quilt:

Granted, these weren't scraps, but I still believe that I should get bonus points for working in the Color of the Month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Surely, you will agree with me on this.  :o))

On FRIDAY morning, we were greeted with WINTER weather...

... Which continued throughout the day.  Forecasters had been predicting Winter Storm Jonas, but you never know what will REALLY happen when the flakes fly!  This time, we got snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, repeat.

SEW... I went blog hopping.  Typically, a fun activity, but today I found a mix of feelings.

I was both heartbroken and overjoyed because I found that a dear sweet quilter had lost her little one earlier this week.  Heartbroken because that's the emotion that we associate with loss, yet overjoyed that an infant in a great deal of pain no longer has to struggle daily.

I've been reading about her journey for months now and there have been setbacks and advances as the months passed.  Rachel at Stitched in Color has "been through the wringer" with her daughter, Eleni, these past 10 months.  She put it all out there.  The hospital stays, therapy appointments, alternative techniques, questioning her judgement, and questioning her feelings.  She shared openly on her blog for the benefit of other parents of infants with brain injuries.  You can read the end of her story HERE and contribute to THIS fund, if you feel so led.

If you are the praying sort, please say a prayer for this family.  If you are one to send healing vibes out into the universe, this family can use a boatload of them.  If you are the type who wants to DO SOMETHING in a crisis, see the links above for 3 ways to help.  Rest in peace, Eleni.

SATURDAY is the day that I join in Angela's LINK PARTY.  Grab a cuppa and take a tour around BlogLand to visit participating blogs and see how much BLUE sewing everyone else did.

Until next time...
Get scrappy!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC16 - Week 3

Welcome to Week 3 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  Each week (for the past 55 weeks), I join a number of other RSC Quilters in a LINK PARTY over on the So Scrappy blog.  Angela has developed a FUN way to work your way through those scrap bins. Won't YOU join us???

SUNDAY was a complete wash!  I stayed in bed a large portion of the day reading a book and catching up on last week's RSC posts.  Thoroughly entertaining, but not very productive!

On MONDAY, I got a leisurely start to my day, then decided that I better get back to work!!  I dug into THIS bag...

... And completed the fusing on the rest of Owen's t-shirts.  On to the design phase!!  :o))

TUESDAY morning was my scheduled PT appointment.  OUCH!!  Afterwards, I took a little trip through BlogLand and then when upstairs to figure out which would be the Project of the Day.  My Bluff Quilt won out (as the reveal is coming up shortly) and I had it sewn into 3 sections before dinner.  Hooray!
(Sorry! I can't really show you what I was working on.)  I can tell you that it was my Bluff Quilt and while I realize that it's highly unsatisfying, I can show you this much:

The good news is that the reveal is just over a week away!  After that, you can have all the details.

That seemed like a good place to switch gears and go diving in the bag'o'scraps that my friend brought to Guild for me last night.  Thanks, Diane!!  (She knows that I'm a sucker for scraps.)

I also took some time to do a  little bit of RSC work.  First, I sorted and cut:

Then I did some sewing  and made ONE Tiny Nine in BLUE:

On WEDNESDAY, I found myself... back in the sewing room.  :o))

I wanted to make sure that I used some more of Diane's scraps so I made ONE Rainbow Crumb block.  It was very linear, but I decided to skew it before cutting:

THURSDAY morning, as you might know, I was off to Quilt Group.  Afterwards, I sat down at the computer and never moved until dinner!  Terrible, I know, but I was doing research on college scholarships for DS2.  Since DS1 didn't really bother to apply for any, DH requested that I find some that DS2 is eligible for.  It's QUITE the job!!!

On FRIDAY, I met my knitting friends for coffee and several hours of knitting.  Afterwards, I met DS1 for lunch.  Remember that college scholarship thing that I did yesterday???  I did that again today.  Yippee!!  (Finding alternate funding for DS2's college tuition, etc., is highly preferable to paying for it all ourselves.  Wish us luck!!)

SATURDAY is the day that I join in Angela's LINK PARTY.  Won't you follow me over there to see what all of the RSC Quilters have been up to this week?  I'm sure that many of them made more than my ONE block for the week!!  :P

Until next time...
Get scrappy!!!

Wonderful Wednesday - NQR

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  NQR???  What's that, Joyful?  That stands for Not Quilt Related.  Sorry, but this is REALLY good news!

On Saturday, I took DS2 to All-District Band/All-Region Jazz auditions. He seemed pleased with his concert band audition, but felt that he bombed the jazz audition (probably because he didn’t practice as he should have!)

Here are the results:

He made the 11/12 Wind Ensemble and is the ONLY student from his school to quality for All-State auditions.

Amazingly enough, he ended up making the B band! That means there are only 4 to 7 trombonists in the region who played better than him (and about 50 who played worse.) I don’t want to KNOW how badly those other musicians played (because I heard him practicing the other night!!)

Now, to keep him well for the clinics and performances!!!

DS2 was pleased with getting All-District Wind Ensemble, but he kept lamenting that something was wrong that he got All-Region Jazz ANYTHING. I just kept repeating that it meant that either he didn’t do as poorly as he thought or others did EVEN WORSE than he did.  (AND... he gets to audition for All-State Jazz, too!)

I as SO happy that he did well. To me, it means that he worked his way back to where he was musically before “the great divide.” (When he wasn't allowed to play his horn for 8 - 10 months, because of risk of infection.)

Even BETTER news???

DS2 texted me on Monday morning after he got to school. He had found out that he got THIRD chair in the Wind Ensemble!!! (He thought I would like to know, is what he said. Well, DUH!!)

The BEST part???

That is BETTER than he did in Middle School. His highest chair in All-District then was FOURTH chair. The boy is back on his game!

Happy Dance!!! 

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC16 - Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  Since last week was SEW short, I was a bit confused.  Angela assured me that this was indeed week two.  I was busy this week, but with OTHER projects and various appointments.  :o((

On Sunday, I took DS1 back to college and spent the evening at work.  Happy New Year! - I mean hooray, it's back to work!!  LOL

Monday included one of those appointments that I mentioned in the beginning of this post.  I had my FIRST EVER physical therapy appointment (and I have to say that I don't like it any better than I like chiropractic care!!)

On Tuesday, I worked on making more components for Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Winter Mystery (Allietare!):

And... Washed the fabric for Dr.Pete's Wedding Quilt.  I need to get going on this and it fit with the Color of the Month (which is BLUE.)

Wednesday was supposed to be pressing and cutting day for those Indigo BLUE fabrics (mentioned above.) BEFORE that, I met my knitting friends for coffee because we can't meet this Friday. AFTER that, I went to to grocery store and also got my nails done...

INDIGO BLUE!!!  (So, really, that didn't leave much time for pressing and cutting.  Oops!)

On Thursday I posted my UFO List for this quarter's Ravelry UFO Club when I got back from Quilt Group.  Unfortunately, I couldn't post a picture of my final entry on the list (without searching through a couple THOUSAND pictures on my computer!)  Apparently, my computer is tired of processing SEW many photos and has refused to acknowledge my phone.  :o((

AFTER Quilt Group, I worked on Owen's T-quilt.  All of the shirts now have an accompanying piece of fusible stabilizer:

Photo Unavailable!!

I measured and cut for 45 minutes (and then I needed to go ice my shoulder!!)

Friday I played around BlogLand and found THIS:



It sounds like a WIN for my studio (which is currently a complete WRECK!!!)  Sign-ups are open through January 16th.  Maybe you should go check it out!

On Saturday, I took DS2 to All-District Band/All-Region Jazz auditions and went to a friend's house to work on a couple of UFOs.  I got a lot accomplished and we enjoyed a lovely visit.  (Thanks, Tif!!!)

When DS2 called to say that he was done with his auditions, I packed up and headed out to pick him up.  We then went over to campus to get DS1 and go to dinner at Red, Hot, and Blue.  YUM!!

After dropping DS1 back at his dorm, I drove home (while DS2 napped.) Uponn arrival, I submitted this post and joined Angela's LINK PARTY and I hope you will follow me there to see what all of the RSC Quilters have been up to this week!

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Winter 2016 (Ravelry) UFO Club - The List

Sign-ups for the WINTER 2016 UFO Club are now OPEN. Any interested quilters with 5 (or more) UFOs were required to sign up by Midnight (EST) on January 7, 2016. All qualifying UFOs must be completed and posted to this discussion thread by Midnight (EST) on March 31, 2016.

My reasoning for having multiple other projects listed is this:

Sometimes I just don't feel like working on one of my "short list" projects, so I give myself options... options that are still on my UFO List for the session!!  That way, no matter WHAT gets finished, I get credit toward my quarterly Club goals.  :o))

Here is my TOP TEN (Plus TWO) list for this quarter:

2 "C" Quilts:

1. Calico Ric Rac

This top has proven a challenge.  Needs borders... but WHAT???

2. Circle of Friends

I've got a plan for the borders... just have to execute the plan.

3 Mystery Quilts:

3. The Margaret Mystery

I've got to make the pieced borders.

4. The Tiffany Mystery

This project has been sitting in a basket on the bookcase shelf for MORE THAN 10 YEARS!!

5. The Bonnie (Hunter) Mystery - GIMQ 2014

~ 48" x 63"

3 Swap Quilts:

6. Snow Star Swap

This projects has been sitting on a shelf in the closet for 9 YEARS!

7. Ravelry Red Swap

Swapped AT LEAST 5 years ago... and STILL not a quilt top!  :o((

8. Art Bee Slice Swap

Blocks were swapped at the December 2014 meeting, but these stragglers were traded in January 2015. The deadline passed and I have commissions this quarter. I still have hopes of finishing it... SOON!!!

2 Other Quilts:

9. Where's Jackson?

How many years CAN a dog sit on a sewing table?  Only time will tell...

10. QE2 Goodbye Quilt

2015 WAS the year to complete this quilt... I've been in NC 16 years & is STILL didn't happen!

I plan to focus on the following quilts:

Sophie's T-Quilt - A commission quilt due by May 2016.  Shirts have been disassembled, rough cut, and stabilized.  (Shown on top of photo below.)

Owen's T-Quilt - A commission quilt due by May 2016.  Shirts have been deconstructed, but await rough cutting and stabilizing.  (Shown at bottom of photo above.)

Twelve projects round out the list for the quarter.  Realistically, I don't know how many (if ANY) of these I will be able to finish.  The TWO commission quilts will be my focus.  The problem???  I can only cut (or press) for VERY short periods of time due to a rotator cuff injury.  :o((

Oh, wait!  I forgot about my...

Bluff Quilt:

Christmas Quilt (which has been waiting for YEARS to be added to the list!)

Blue/Green quilt that I promised my friend's son:

AND...

Dr. Pete's Wedding Quilt:

Along with my Bonnie Hunter 2015 Winter Mystery, Allietare:

That makes a total of 17 from which to choose during the Winter 2016 (Ravelry) UFO Club. Wish me luck (because I'm gonna need it!!)

Until next time...
Happy Finishing!!!

Just for kicks and grins, I'm joining in Q1 for the 2016 Finish-A-Long at  A Quilter's Table.  Sign-ups are open through January 16th.  Motivation AND prizes!  What could be better??