ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC20 - Week 15

Welcome to Week 15 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!! Hello. It's Light/Bright BLUE month at the RSC.  Look at the beautiful photo I found on the internet to support the theme:

Details about that will be revealed shortly.

First, some RSC housekeeping...

Last Saturday, I mentioned my GOALS from the beginning of the year and shared that I wasn't getting the feeling that I had been doing them justice.  At the time I originally made the list, I didn't feel that they were all that challenging.  The goal of creating a quilt top in the Color of the Month wasn't TOO much of a stretch (until I found out about Project QUILTING and forgot ALL about that monthly quilt top!!)

Although...

When I reviewed the ongoing draft of my Year in Review post, I found that I actually HAVE completed a project in each Color of the Month, thus far.  Who knew?!?!  They may not have been a quilt top, but I have done more than I realized (or could recall.)

However...

It seems that I have (once again) replaced those UFO (that I really DO want to complete) with a shiny new (simplified) project.

Those goals from the beginning of the year have shrunk down to ONE BLOCK per month.  Seriously?!  Well, I guess if I look at it that way, I'm doing a pretty good job at working my revised plan!  :o))

SEW...

There you have it.  My lofty goals.  Distilled down to ONE TINY 6" block per month.  (That will definitely take the pressure off!)

For the month of April, I've already chosen the scraps that I want to include in my Scrap Buster Challenge block:

For now, I'll look forward to stitching them up next week.  I've got a few other things to do and share over the next seven days.

Let's see how things progressed...

SUNDAY - Bright and early this morning, I released a new Sew Some Love post.  Throughout the series of quilts shared, I continued to try to spot the blocks that I donated.  What I found was and amazing array of settings for the humble Split 9-Patch block:

In the midday, I released a new (off-season) post of Project QUILTING.  I often say that desperate times call for desperate measures.  This Special Edition challenge series proves the point that Kim @ Persimon Dreams agrees with me.

MONDAY - I'm still reeling from Frederique's weekend post @ Quilting Patchwork Appique about the art of Ian Berry.  (Photo of one of his pieces was shown at the top of this post.)  He works in denim.  You know?  Jeans.  (Blue.  For the RSC.)

Mind. BLOWN!!!

At first, I thought his work was an art quilt.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed there was no stitching.  I simply HAD to find out how he works.  Further investigation revealed that he creates with scissors and glue.

You KNOW how much I love jeans, right?  (Well, maybe you don't, but I really do.)  I even have a piece of quilt art that I made for a challenge that I issued fellow retreat attendees (back in September of 2015.)  You can read about the process of making my entry in THIS POST.  The finished piece is named Jeans and a T-shirt:

It's a favorite of any of the art pieces I've created.  EVER!!

It was made for The Bluff Challenge issued 5 years ago.

In other news...

Check out today's Mail Call Monday post to see what I got in the mail from Sandy @ Sew High Quilts.  Here's a preview:

TUESDAY - I'm excited to share that just two weeks ago I posted a tutorial for Magic Stars and today's Tidy Up Tuesday post reveals the completed quilt.  It's been a LONG time since I've made a (more involved) baby quilt that fast!  Here's a preview of the finished quilt:

WEDNESDAY - I caved.  Some Light/Bright BLUE scraps...

... Were put to work...

... Making my first homemade face mask for DH:

I also made one for myself:

THURSDAY - I had ZoomBEE this morning and worked on a variety of projects during the afternoon.

After dinner, there was a scrapsplosion:

I sorted through a scrap bag given to me by my friend Cheryl K. and within its depths, these Light/ Bright BLUE bits were revealed:

FRIDAY - Today's "activity" was my now-weekly ZoomKNIT meeting.  It was great to see everyone.  After the meeting, I gave this snippet of Light/Bright BLUE some attention:

During breaks, I focused on squaring up more bits of BLUE... 

... Or shaving, depending on your point of view...

... Either way, I am pleased to have made some progress on my niece's wedding quilt:

SATURDAY - It's LINK PARTY day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Angela's So Scrappy blog.  Go check out all the wonderful progress the other RSC Quilters have made in Light/Bright BLUE this week.  Race you there!  :o))

In celebration of April's Color of the month, the Gallery Wire is sporting this small woven quilt from my "Quilter's Play Group" days a number of years ago:

Blue and Yellow Woven, circa 2010

Until next time...
SCRAP safely!!!

Quarantine Chronicles - Corona Style - Week 3

Welcome to another edition of Quarantine Chronicles!!  This is my response to our current global health crisis.  Life is scarier than (science) fiction!  I keep hoping that this is a bad dream and I'll wake up soon.  Alas, it's the blog series that I really, really wish didn't exist.  Knowing that I couldn't cope with a daily post...

Corona-cation.  Week Three.

This series began on as Thursday, March 19th.  It's hard to believe that an yet another week has gone by.  And yet another is hot on its heels!  Thanks for staying with me to see how this week unfolded.

On Day FIFTEEN, Thursday, April 2nd...

I was actually on time for the ZoomBEE  meeting of my Weekly Quilt Group today!!!  :o))

It was SEW great to see these smiling faces for the second week in a row.  Unfortunately, a few people were missing this time:

This  evening, I spent some time out in BlogLand catching up on what my bloggy friends have been doing this week.

Day SIXTEEN, Friday, April 3rd...

This morning, I was able to join our ZoomKnit meet-up.  It was good to see my knitting friends (for the first time in WAY too long!) and be able to chat with them for a little.  Video chats are MUCH better than not seeing your friends for weeks on end.  Thanks for arranging it, Cindy!

OK, readers.  Let's say hello to the knitters, shall we?

Stacy:

Linda:

Beth:

Cindy:

Tracy:

Nicole:

The only person missing (from our core group) was Hilary!  :o((

But...

... In the midday, she and I "met up" at the coffee shop (meaning we parked our cars 6 feet apart and talked for a little bit through the open windows.  Until my allergies got the better of me!)

Anyway...

The purpose of our meeting was so that I could pick up THIS:

It's my copy of The Dyed of March by Hilary Latimer.  I read parts of it (for clarity) while it was being written.   However, it was recently released and Hilary finally got her "author copies."  YOU can order a copy now, too.  I can't WAIT to find out the latest in The Knitting Game Mystery Series!!

Aaawwww...  Silly me!  I forgot about the fact that it might be autographed until I was posting the photo of the cover:

The majority of my afternoon was spent working on the blog post for yesterday's ZoomBEE meeting.  I got a head start this week, but it still needs MORE words.

Before dinner, I gathered backing and batting for my latest quilt top.  The backing is a different shade from the colors on the front, but I think it will work.  I found an off-cut of batting from a large quilt that I will be able to slice in half and realign.  Once it's put back together, it will be almost exactly the size I need.

Update from my friend Lisa:  Good news!  Her daughter's boyfriend's mother, who was hospitalized for almost 2 weeks, has been released and  has now returned to the comforts of her own home.  There is a happy story to go along with so much sad.

Day SEVENTEEN, Saturday, April 4th...

As of yesterday, the CDC is recommending everyone wear cloth masks in public to fight coronavirus infection.  Having resisted any mask-making effort thus far, I promptly ordered some from a friend.  Please don't judge me.  I'm a quilter, not a crafter.

After checking in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this morning, I went up to sew Frankenbatting for my Magic Stars donation quilt.  Here's what I'm talking about:

  I absolutely LOVE it when I can use up scraps!!

According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, the U.S. now leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases with more than 266,000 confirmed.  Those cases contributed to the world's more than one million cases globally.  There have been more than 6,900 deaths from the virus in the U.S. and the numbers continue to grow daily.

In other news, according to Market Watch, a small bank in West Virginia became the first institution to fail during the corona virus crisis, being closed by the FDIC on Friday.  The First State Bank of Barbourville's four branches were reopened as branches of MVB Bank, Inc today.

Back in the studio, I loaded my Magic Stars quilt this afternoon:

Day EIGHTEEN, Sunday, April 5th...

The latest news update is that there are 1,202,236 confirmed cases worldwide and 311,357 in the U.S (more than double the number of cases in Italy.)  New Jersey has had more deaths resulting from the novel coronavirus than the number of residents killed in the 911 attacks.  Closer to home, North Carolina now has 2,402 confirmed cases and 24 deaths.  Right next door in Durham County they have had their first COVID-19 death.

Kim's notice that there would be a Project QUILTING Quarantine 2020 Limited Edition was released last week.  The first prompt Q1 was BIG.  The projects are due today.  Here is a teaser of the entry I made:

I also released a new Sew Some Love post and cut fabric for my very first homemade face mask, but quickly abandoned the entire process before really making a start on the project.  I don't have half of the necessary supplies in my stash because I'm not a seamstress.  Nor am I a sewist.  I'm a quilter and don't have much in the way of elastic or other such items in my stash.

Day NINETEEN, Monday, April 6th...

In addition to PQQ20 Q.1, I completed a UFO (WIP?) yesterday.  (You can read more about that in THIS post.)  Whatever you call it, I call this quilt project DONE:

The first one of the Spring 2020 (Ravelry) UFO Club.  Yay, me!  Check back tomorrow for the post about that.

This afternoon, I released a new Mail Call Monday post.  I sent Sandy @ Sew High Quilts some scraps to help her finish her Awesome Land quilt.  She sent me this box of goodies:

Today also brought the 2nd step of UNITY: The Quiltville Sew-in-Place QAL and I am toying with the idea of participating by working through last week's instructions...

... And continuing with a portion of this week's instructions, to come up with my own abbreviated version of the Sew-in-Place UNITY QAL.  The resulting quilt will be something that (vaguely) resembles this segment of Bonnie's quilt:

More to come on this in a later post.  I've got other projects that require some attention before embarking on this one.

And in today's  corona news, England's Prime Minister, who was diagnosed 10 days ago, was admitted to the hospital and later moved to ICU.  England has become Europe's COVID-19 hotspot.

Day TWENTY, Tuesday, April 7th...

Yesterday, the Washington Post finally had an article about Sweden in the wake of the coronavirus.  I've been wondering about them for weeks!  My two pen friends were both from there.  (I also wondered about our neighboring Mexico, but that question was answered last week - even if I didn't post about it - will have to check.)

Back to Sweden... it seems the country is taking a bit of laissez-faire approach to the pandemic.  As of Sunday, there have been more than 400 deaths.  Here's hoping my old friends are safe!  Unfortunately, we lost touch with one another shortly after high school (all those many years ago.)  I do still think of them fondly.

Grocery run.  This morning.  It was the first one in 7 days!!  That's the longest time between trips to the store.  Probably EVER!  We checked the receipts (since neither one of us could remember) and that's extended from every 5 days over the past several weeks.  Not bad, since we were in need fresh produce.

Today's (pitiful) score:

I can't tell you how happy I am to have a few extra rolls!!  :o))

For today's sewing adventure, I armed myself with more information, one brilliant idea, two pattern sources, and three people to thank, and I have FINALLY embarked on the way to making my very first face mask!!  Will there be more?  Only time will tell.  Here are the makings of the first one:

Day TWENTY-ONE, Wednesday, April 8th...

OK!  I've been avoiding this task for more than two weeks.  I bit the bullet and made my first homemade face mask today.  There are SEW many patterns and tutorials out there that I found it rather overwhelming to decide which one to try.  (This was added to the fact that I really didn't want to make any, at all, since I would then need to admit that we are in a very REAL and super SCARY situation.)

The mask I chose to try first was the Men's size of THIS PATTERN @ Craft Passion.  It was recommended by Beforesunrise on Ravelry's Sew Obsessed group, who found it very easy to sew:

I agree with her.  I didn't even use any pins!  My chosen materials were shirtings from Cherie @ Quilted Jonquil and scraps from my T-shirt Quilt leftovers drawer:

The straps are Tarn (t-shirt "yarn") cut to .5 x 6.5" to fit DH:

Unfortunately, the mask gapped on his face, but fit me perfectly...

... Without fogging up my glasses:

Not that I plan on going anywhere

that would warrant needing a mask!!

For the second mask, I chose a t-shirt without interfacing and another of Cherie's thrifty finds:

This one, without the interfacing, didn't work any better for DH:

Tomorrow is another day (with the potential for making another style.)

SEW...

You can all stop wondering how I'm doing.  As you can see, I'm doing just fine.  (Although, I did manage to see a few of my friends this past week and that felt a little like cheating!)  I survived another week without appointments, shopping, or very much galivanting and I have to tell you, I'm starting to forget what the alarm clock even sounds like!  And that feels REALLY good!

I'm pretty sure brain thinks we're on vacation.  This must be what retirement is like.  I think I like it!  Well... Except for the whole coronaviris thing making this break from the norm necessary!!!

I am focusing on being thankful for the productivity these extra hours in the studio have allowed.  I am totally ROCKING time with a statewide Stay-at-Home order!

Until next time...
That's it for Week THREE!!

Tidy Up Tuesday - In the Aftermath of a Quilt Tutorial

Welcome to a new edition of Tidy Up Tuesday!!!  I have to tell you how excited I am with the tutorial I shared a couple of weeks.  The post gathered many positive comments.  Thank you, to those who left favorable comments!

My own quilt top was completed last week:

The quilt was made in dribs and drabs over the last week.  It started out as a test of the tutorial that a friend posted on our Messenger group.  After my first set of blocks, I asked Tiffany if I could make it easier for members to follow by putting it up on my blog.

Fortunately for them (and my readers), she agreed!  Thanks again, Tiffany.  Your tutorial led to the creation of that beautiful quilt top shown in the photo above.

Readers react...

I received a comment from Kathy R. who stated the following:

I tried the block with Batik fabric & it was easy to sew. I just need to look thru my stash for more color combinations to sew more of them. 

I'm SEW hoping she will send me a photo!  (I did ask nicely in my reply.)

QuiltDivaJulie said:

Excellent tutorial - have a problematic layer cake (love the fabrics, the squares bug me). Perfect solution. Thanks!

Louise @ Quilt Odyssey included her attempt in THIS blog post.  It details her thoughts on the process and includes more about the stack of blocks she made using the Magic Star tutorial that I posted just last (?!) week HERE on the blog:

In a follow-up email, I asked about her choice of pressing.  Louise replied by sharing these two thoughts about her block production:

1. I pressed the first two strips away from the square, and then I pressed the diagonal seam open. I figured that gave me more layout options.

2. I also modified Tif's cutting instructions a bit. After I cut the layer cake square into 6.5x6.5, 3.5x6.5 and 3.5x10, I trimmed that last piece to 3.5x9.5  That seemed easier to me than having the extra half inch hanging out during the sewing.

Since then, I located some backing fabric (set aside for another project) and pieced a long off-cut of batting into a piece that would fit this quilt nicely:

My next client quilt needed to spend some time in quarantine (due to flowery laundry detergent smell), so I used that time to load AND quilt this little donation:

After getting a good start one afternoon, I finished it up the next:

To follow-up the straight line quilting that I did on my last quilt (last week!), thanks to Kate @ Katie Mae Quilts who just linked up with Alycia @ Alycia Quilts for Finished (or Not) Friday, I decided that I would play with wavy lines on this one:

After pulling the quilt off the rails, I came down to drag out my cutting mat and giant square ruler...

... To prepare for the next step.  Squaring up the quilt:

Once the binding was prepared, applied, and stitched down, I laid out the quilt for a photo of the completed project, only two weeks after posting the tutorial here on the blog:

This is a snippet of the lovely texture, as seen from the edge of the quilt, and a look at the (well-matched) two-fabric binding.  You ca barely tell where one fabric starts and the other one ends:

I hope YOU will give the Magic Star block a try SEW soon.  This one earned me the title of Speed Queen for my UFO Club (and I almost forgot to add it to the list!)

Sharing with Kelly

@ My Quilt Infatuation

for 

Needle and Thread Thursday

and

Cynthia

for

Oh Scrap!

Until next time...
QUILT thru Quarantine!!!

Mail Call Monday - {Awesome} Scrap Swap Edition

Welcome to another edition of Mail Call Monday!!!  I offered scraps to help a blogging friend complete her current project, but didn't really need any scraps in return.  I asked if she might be willing to make a mug rug, instead.  As luck would have it, Sandy bit.  Yay!

DH mailed her package off on Saturday.  (I forgot to take pictures.)  It arrived on Monday.  She wrote the following:

Your package arrived today! You were so generous! Thank you!! Your strips will allow me to finish up my Awesome Land quilt in style!

Sandy sent my package out on Tuesday.  It arrived on Wednesday...
and went directly into quarantine.  :o((

Sorry, Sandy!  Just following protocol.

Anyway...

This morning, I freed my loot from its cardboard containment area:

Holding that bright bundle together were these two quilt patterns:

On top of the stack, Sandy included some pink strips...

... Along with a selection of black and white scraps:

She twisted my arm to find out what colors I wanted to augment my scrap stash!  I had to think long and hard before deciding that (if she had any to share) I could always use more pink and I really needed to supplement my collection of black and white scraps.

The piece de resistance was the scaled down Awesome Land mug rug (half placemat) made from some of the fabrics used in Sandy's current quilt project!  Just LOOK at the amazing quilting, too:

She also added in some 1/8" elastic for making face masks for my family, as a quilter - not a sewist, I didn't have any in my stash:

Thank you SEW much, Sandy, for sending such an AWESOME swap package!!  I must say, I feel just a bit guilty getting SEW much in return for a stack of fabric strips.  I appreciate your generosity.  I enjoy nothing more than adding to my collection of mini quilts.  They look beautiful scattered around the house:

...  Or gracing my Gallery Wire at various times throughout the year:

 The other goodies are appreciated, as well.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to search for an easy face mask pattern (to make use of the elastic that Sandy kindly included.)

Until next time...
Hooray for happy mail!!