Design Wall Monday

 To see what other quilters are up to go to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

I spent a couple of days last week with Son again. He is doing well but sometimes needs help with things. I think we both enjoy the time together but are both ready for me to go home after a while. And, I am ok with that! He does get lonely and bored, though. He is not able to drive because of his vision impairment so he is pretty much stuck at home unless one of his buddies comes by. That hasn't been happening much because of Covid and cold weather, but one has had Covid and the other has been vaccinated. Both buddies have motorcycles with sidecars and with the warmer weather coming they will be including him on some rides which he loves. He needs to find a hobby that is easy and inexpensive. So far he hasn't liked any of my suggestions. He says knitting and sewing just aren't his thing. Can you imagine?

I finished sewing the binding down on a little quilt while at his house.

This quilt is probably at least as old as he is.  It is sunny today but windy and cold. There was frost on the windshield of Husband's farm truck this morning. Brr! I am ready for Spring!

Apparently, my daffodils are not, though. My friends have been posting photos on Facebook showing their daffodils in bloom. This photo of mine was taken on the 25th and they still look like this.

This isn't unusual though. Here is a photo from March 30, 2020.

This little beauty visited my yard this morning.

It started with its back to me, but then turned and started singing away!

In the sewing room, I have made another set of blocks for the Stash Busters Challenge 2021.

You can see a bit of the project I am working on below the star blocks in that photo. Son needs a bigger quilt for his new bed. He likes the wildlife/deer/camo look. I am using a nice deer-by-the-cabin panel for the center. I am combining a couple of ideas that were posted on Facebook or Pinterest. So far I have bordered the panel in black and made the half star blocks. These only go on the top and bottom of the panel. 

The next border will consist of a dark brown mottled print and a bark print with hoof prints appliqued on the white camo in between and will go all the way around with some rock prints in the corners.

And, I got one camo/hoof print border appliqued. But, I soon realized I would not have enough of some of the fabrics. I ordered more from the online site I bought from previously. It arrived last week. All the fabrics looked exactly like the previous order except the snow camo print. It is grayer than the previous order.

I took a pic and shared it with Son. He assures me that this is just the nature of that print. He has a couple of sweatshirts with this print and they change from brownish to grayish. While I am not happy about it he is not bothered by it at all. I will make all four white camo/hoof print borders with this new white camo fabric. Since Son says he isn't bothered about the color differences I will not remake the half star blocks. Those have their own story that I will share another time. 

I am patiently waiting, but getting frustrated, for delivery of batting. As you can see I ordered this batting on Friday, March 19.

It moved from Florida to Tennessee, then Illinois. On the following Friday, tracking showed it was on the truck for delivery that day. I waited. No delivery. Tracking said it would be delivered Saturday. I waited and watched because it was raining and I didn't want it to sit outside in the rain. No delivery. Tracking then showed delivery would be on Tuesday. Wait, what? Why not Monday? I kept updating tracking. I would show delivery for Tuesday, then Monday, then Tuesday, etc. Finally, on Sunday afternoon there was a notation that the barcode label was unreadable. This made me nervous. Was the entire package damaged? Were the contents damaged?

This morning tracking showed that it was on the truck for delivery today. We'll see. I don't have my hopes up.

MY BATTING WAS JUST DELIVERED! It is wrapped in plastic, not in a box. The label is torn, but the plastic is intact and the batting is not damaged. Yippee!

On another note, I have been reading a few blogs that show people with their 'Covid hair'. Hair that is longer than they like, color is growing out, etc. but haven't been able to get in for hair appointments. I decided shortly before I retired to let my short, short hair grow a little. I had decided years ago to just go with the natural hair color but I was tired of having to get a haircut every 4 weeks and wanted a change. I usually don't see many people over the summer so that was a good time to let it grow a little. I knew it would probably drive me crazy until it got to a stage where I could clip it away from my face and not look attractive at all. But, it was a decision I made knowing the frustrations that lay ahead. I'm glad I made that decision voluntarily before Covid. Being forced to take that route would have been really frustrating. Anyway, it has been two years since I got a haircut. I went from very short to long.

I usually wear it braided or up on top of my head. What's funny about this is that for the first few months husband didn't think it was growing! 

Husband and I will be trying to make appointments to get our Covid vaccines soon. Our county will be expanding appointments for the Moderna vaccine to people 18 and older starting tomorrow. I expect those will fill quickly though.

Stay safe and well.

Design Wall Monday

 Better late than never, right?!

To see what other quilters are up to go to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Yesterday morning we had a beautiful sunrise. This photo does not do it justice at all.

Today we had freezing rain most of the day.

A good day to stay inside and sew! I have six bags finished and am working on one for purple scraps. 

And, they are slowly filling up as I sort through the big bag of scraps looking for the right colors for each bag.

I also finished another set of blocks for the Stash Buster Challenge 2021.

And, I had a couple of long phone chats with Son so I was able to get all the hourglass blocks trimmed up for the Quilt Exchange Mystery my group is doing.

Stay safe and well.

I have

 made a decision and I have a plan!

I'm talking about my scraps.

I have a 10-drawer unit and 2 large shopping bags of scraps. There is more, but we won't discuss that right now.

Anyway, I decided that sorting by color and not cutting into sizes would work better for me. And, save me some time and work. So I pulled out the drawers and sorted them by color. Then I pulled out the bags and started sorting them. 

Triangles are in their own pile to be used for ... something. Any piece big enough to cut a two-inch square from goes into a pile to be put into a fabric basket. Anything smaller than two inches goes into a separate pile.

I am making a fabric basket, one for each color, using this pattern Pink Penguin. I am making mine the larger size.

So far I have made a green basket. 

Each basket will live on top of my stacks of fabric which are sorted by color on a shelf.

This has been a good stash-busting project. Each basket uses 24 three-inch squares of print fabric. For the bottom and inside handles I am using something that I have had for a while. It looks like muslin, but heavier, but not quite a canvas. The lining is a white-on-white stripe that I just couldn't seem to like for a quilt but works great for this project. 

The pieces smaller than two inches will all live together in one of those large shopping bags for now. I am saving the small pieces for small paper piecing projects.

I have already made one of these, Diamond Log Cabin by Cindi Edgerton. I have a few more of her patterns, too. This finished at 22 inches. I plan to make at least three more to be set together into a bigger quilt.

You can see that the pieces needed are very small!

I will keep working to make more fabric baskets. Once the drawer unit is empty of fabric, I will probably store my card-making supplies in some of the drawers. The triangles/HST units will probably go in at least one drawer, too. This is a work in progress right now, so things could change, but at least I have a plan and am working towards being organized in a way that helps me be more productive.

Stay safe and well.

Design Wall

To see what other quilters are working on go to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

I have been busy. 

I spent three days last week visiting my son. A new bed was scheduled for delivery and he wanted me to be there to make sure everything went well.

 

It did and he is sleeping well. He also had a to-do list of things that he needed help with and there was some shopping that needed to be done. We got most of the things on his list taken care of and he is all set until the next time I visit. The deer quilt I made for him several years covers the top, but he would like a bigger one. This one is showing wear so a new one is on MY to-do list. On the list for this summer is painting. He is having a hard time deciding on colors. We picked up some paint sample cards while I was there. I taped them to the wall so we could see what they looked like during different times of the day and night. Colors that he insisted he wanted may not be his favorite now! It's funny how colors change with different lighting.

Before I left for his house I had loaded a quilt that I unearthed when moving things around in my sewing room.

It was a QuiltMaker mystery from long ago. I no longer have that issue so I can't look it up. Sorry. The design board is called Hearts Aflutter from Urban Elementz. I really like this design!

I took it with me and got the binding sewn down while visiting with my son. By evening we both were usually ready to just sit and visit. 

Since I have been home I got a couple more sets of blocks made for Stash Buster Challenge 2021.

I got a pile of things prepped to work on for phone time with Son. He still calls me at least once every day. These conversations can last a while so I like to put him on speaker and work on something while we talk.

On the top starting at the left are bonus triangles and more cut pieces for SBC2021 blocks, Hourglass units that need to be trimmed for the Quilter's Exchange Mystery my group is working on, scraps that need to be cut and put away. On the bottom are the parts for the next RSC block, a bag of kitchen towels for Son.

I got the Rainbow Scrap Challenge block pieced. This month is darker green.

These are kitchen towels for Son. There is another black one that matches the one in this photo.

I took one to him to see if he liked it. He said he wouldn't turn down more if I made them. He also requested an insulated pad to put on the counter for hot baking sheets right out of the oven. That is also on my to-do list.

I have been working on Coral Reef. I had good momentum going until I got to the applique part. Then I went to visit Son and am having a hard time getting back to this project.

I had the center units pieced.

I got the teardrops prepped for applique.

I tried machine applique and wasn't happy with how it looked. So...

I am appliqueing by hand. I usually like handwork, but this is tedious and frustrating. I really had planned to do this by machine so I followed the pattern instructions. I used the sticky-backed stabilizer provided with the pattern. I also glued the edges of the fabric to the back of the stabilizer and then used a spot of glue to glue the appliques in place as the pattern instructed. None of this is wrong and is actually quite helpful if doing machine applique. But, I wish I had not glued the edges down. The applique pieces are very stiff and the glued edges are hard to stitch through. But, I am determined! I am stitching all the teardrops of one color, then moving on to the next color. I did get one unit completely stitched.

I got all the hourglass blocks sewn for QE mystery Clue 2 and will trim them during phone time.

And, speaking of scraps, when I was looking for scraps for the RSC butterfly I decided to pull some pieces out of one of the bags to trim down and sort for easier use later. I cannot decide how to sort and store them. Nothing I have tried has worked well for me. I have two large shopping bags full.

I also have a 10 drawer unit mostly full. I have labeled the drawers according to size. I find myself not using all these sizes. I also find myself searching by color. I just can't seem to settle on a method that works well. I just know that all these scraps are causing me some frustration, but I don't want to just toss them. Any suggestions? What has worked well for you?

On another note, I noticed this time when visiting Son that more people seemed to be wearing masks than last time. That was encouraging.

Stay safe and well.