Last of the RSC Green Saturdays

This is it! Last Saturday of May which means it is last Saturday post for dark greens. We're all wondering what color Angela will select for June. Many are hoping for a warm color and here and there I hear someone looking for purple. Hmmmmm ...... Well, anyway, here's what I've been working on. If you'd like to see what others have done, you can find it all HERE. Angela hosts a wonderful Linky party!

Earlier this week someone from my neighborhood posted she had a free baker's rack if you want to pick it up at her address. There was a post underneath saying the baker's rack had moved but it didn't fit so it was now located at her house with a new address. A couple of hours had passed but there were no further posts. I decided to see if it was still by the curb. Hot diggity! There it was! So I loaded it up and drove home.

It was obvious this baker's rack used to live in a kitchen because there was a bit of an issue of grease build-up but nothing 409 & elbow grease couldn't handle. I cleaned it up and it now resides in my upstairs sewing space. It even holds my small TV just fine!

Sooooo, in the process of moving the bins to the baker's rack, I found an unexpected UFO I  had started last year with the intention of having it completed for this summer. I was making it patriotic and had gotten as far as the red & white 9-patch cornerstones & border. All the fabric choices were there as well as the pattern. As I looked at what I had already sewn, I remembered I wasn't thrilled with my sewing. The flying geese units had points cut off because I didn't have my Deb Tucker geese trimmer at the time. Oh well, I decided to jump back in because, in the famous words of someone, "Better done than perfect!" So that's what I did  although it's not quite done yet! There are six 9-patches in the bin above it that will get attached to the ends with some spacers and then a final border.

Sheesh! From here you can't even see that the star points aren't that great! So glad I'm getting this one done. The pattern is called Looks Like a Gameboard from Country Threads.

While sewing Gameboard, I of course used Awesome Land blocks for leaders & enders. Got four more done which makes 6 for the month. There are two more cut out and ready for sewing and the month is not quite over yet! *wink*

I made fabulous progress on Kyoto. Last week I was working on border #2, the dark blue. I finished that and am close to done with the final border. All that's left are the two long sides of border #3, another stripe fabric. I've started one of the sides with the rest of it pinned.

I did manage to finish the last applique block of April for Afternoon Delight. Pretty sure I won't get the four May blocks done before June 1st! Ha! I love the purples in this block. I won a package of scraps from Jan Patek and these were in there!

That just leaves Bloomtopia, the cross-stitch project from Fat Quarter Shop. I got the little bird on a branch finished up last night while waiting for the Tater Tots to cook. Wonder what the next section will be!?!

To keep you up-to-date on hubby's health, we went to the doctor's this week. The output numbers have improved significantly lately so we're giving that kidney 2 more weeks to shape up or it'll be forcibly shipped out! Lol! Anyway, we're keeping our fingers crossed that this is a positive trend and he gets to keep the remaining portion of his right kidney. Time will tell and prayers are appreciated!

Have a great weekend! Now go wash your hands AGAIN!

Just a Few More

I've got just a couple more Dark Green Awesome Land blocks to show you today. I am certainly loving using them as leaders & enders for whatever else it is that I'm sewing! Dark greens was the color Angela selected for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge's color for May.

At my side, ever ready lay these parts. The large white squares have been sewn corner-to-corner both ways and will make 8 HSTs at one time. Love this method!

So you may be wondering what have they been leaders & enders for? I finished the Hope quilt top with a small border. Then I pieced the back. I found this really fun fabric stashed away by Deb Strain from Moda. It says "Hive Rules Bee Kind", "Beelieve in Yourself", "Bee Respectful" ..... you get the idea and can probably read for yourself. Lol!

The problem was, I didn't have quite enough so I pieced in some remnants of the Hope fabrics that I used and sewed it down the middle for the back. That ought to do it! Hopefully my measurements were correct since I screwed up the border that was going to be borders. I even graphed it out and still managed to mess up. But that's OK, it's plenty big as is.

The main priority lately has been Kyoto. This needs to be finished, which includes quilted, by June 23rd, I believe. I thought all I had to do was sew on a border and then get it quilted but nope! It has three borders to sew on. I finished the first border and have the top & bottom sewn on of border #2. It probably doesn't sound like much but it is 100% hand-pieced and that will include the borders. I love doing it though but it takes a little more time.

The dark blue at the top is border #2 and the striped below it is border #1. I have to fold it up carefully and tightly due to a certain little pussycat that likes to chew on any loose strings! Bad kitty! Lol!

That's been my sewing week. I'll leave with a picture of one of my gardens that I finished up this week. I'm hoping it will be a cool place to visit when the heat of summer finally arrives.

Have a good week! Now go wash your refrigerator & freezer door handles!



Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy HERE to see what the other scrappers are doing!

RSC Dark Green

Here we go again, another Saturday and it's time for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge report. Angela chose Dark Green for May and you can join the linky party to see everyone's progress if you CLICK HERE! As for me, I did pretty good this week. Here are all the Heartfires for this month -- and it's only the 15th!

As you can see, Polly approves while sitting on a dark green rug herself!

The Awesome Land blocks played catch up this week. I used these for leaders & enders while sewing the Heartfire blocks since I hadn't quite finished the light blue ones from April.

I'll catch up on the dark green ones for this month. Again, I'll probably use them for leaders & enders as I hopefully get Hope to the finish line. Currently it is sitting on my ironing board webbed. I've managed to sew a couple of rows together and the next row is pinned and waiting for a little thread!

The other project that gets my attention as often as possible is Afternoon Delight, the Block-of-the-Month from The Quilt Show. My latest:

I've made a good start on the next one too, which is good since it is the last one for April. There are four more new ones posted for May. Arrgh! Will I ever manage to catch up????

Bloomtopia, the Stitch-a-Long from Fat Quarter Shop is coming right along. Thursday night I caught it up which was good because the latest step was released Friday morning. No additional progress to date but here's what it looked like Thursday night.

From this .....

To this!

I'm really excited about the next step because it has a little birdie! And speaking of little birdies, I thought I'd get a shot of the baby robins that are growing up under the deck. The last picture I took was only a week ago. 

Today's picture:

Oh no! I missed their 1st flight!!! Fred & I are truly empty nesters now! Lol!

I don't know if you noticed but I changed out the blog's header again. I took this picture this morning. I love the squiggles of green in the fields where I walk Gracie. The farmers have been busy around here and all the greenness makes me happy!

Have a great week! Now go wash your faucet handles! *smile*

Mid-May PHD Report

I just updated my PHD spreadsheet. I have completed two of my 2020 projects so far with only 11 to go! Oh brother! But I do understand "baby steps" so I will just have to be happy with that. I should be working on Kyoto for another PHD finish. It would also be a finish  for the UFO Challenge at my LQS. It is due to be shown at the end of next month. I really need to get on that one. First step would be to locate it from somewhere in the many basement piles!

My updated PHD spreadsheet now includes the four quilts I've started at the beginning of the year. Two are Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts (Awesome Land & Heartfire), The Quilt Show Block-of-the-Month (Afternoon Delight), and on May 3rd I started GE Design's Quarantine Quilt-A-Long (Hope) with my sister. The first three projects have kept me very busy this year as they have monthly goals that I feel compelled to keep up with as best as possible.

All the Hope blocks have been sewn and the quilt is webbed. Right now I'm joining the rows into a top. Here's a picture of how it looks this morning.

I don't have any pictures of finished quilts today but I can share with you a picture of another finished applique block for Afternoon Delight.

My To-Do List for the end of May:

1. Find Kyoto and make it lie flat. I remember putting it away and not being 100% happy with the finished top.

2. Start thinking about how I want to quilt it.

3. Select a backing fabric and baste Kyoto.

4. Make the binding and the quilt label.

5. Finish Hope Quilt.

These may not seem to be lofty goals but it will be enough for me. I'll be linking up with Quilting Gail HERE.

See you June 1st!

FNwF #2 AND RSC

Last night was Friday Night with Friends #2 and, unlike last week's FNwF #1, I remembered and wasn't too tired to get a few things accomplished. In all actuality, I sewed during the afternoon which means I was sewing with my friends in Australia and Europe!

I worked some more on my Hope quilt. All 24 A blocks and 24 B blocks are sewn and squared up. I'll need to lay them all out and decide what setting I want to end up with. GE Designs gives you five choices but Gudrun also tells you that's just a start. If you play with them, you'll come up with more.

As my leaders and enders, I was busy making more Awesome Land blocks. May's color is dark green. As you can see I also was still finishing up last month's color of light/bright blue.

I also finished up block 14 of Afternoon Delight but apparently didn't take a picture .... yet. So I'll leave you with a couple of "bonus" pics:

My neighbor has bluebird eggs hatching

I have baby robins in a nest under my deck

Fred is getting stronger little by little

Brody has smiles for everyone!

I'm linking up with two gracious hosts this week: Cheryll from Gone Stitchin' for FNwF #2 and Angela from So Scrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Have a great week. Now go wash your doorknobs!

Gudrun Erla's #QQAL2

I wanted to devote a post to the Quarantine Quilt-a-Long #2, hosted by Gudrun Erla of GEDesigns. The QAL was held this past Sunday, May 3rd. The kick-off was at 9am Central Time. There were four more get-togethers every two hours after that. During the "meetings", which could be seen on Facebook Live or YouTube, Gudrun gave tips, prizes, interviews with guests, showed examples of the quilt we were making, and answered questions. Her talks lasted about 30 minutes. Behind the scenes, filming this adventure, was her husband who is affectionately known as Mr. Honey Producer. One more thing -- The pattern cost as much as you wanted to donate, whether it was $2, $5, or $10. Every single dime was split between 3 of Gudrun's favorite charities and she didn't keep a dime. Wondering how much she brought in? OVER $34,000!!!!

Let me just stop right here and let you know that this event was so perfectly run. Two hours is plenty of time to get a feel for the next few steps after listening with & to Gudrun. There was one session that I barely got any sewing done due to requirements here at home. After all, just because I was "attending class" did not mean that I could neglect my husband nor did it mean the dog would not get taken out or another load of laundry thrown in the dryer. The beauty of this QAL was that you could work at your own pace and still get things done that needed getting done!

I would like to thank my sister for sharing the information about this QAL with me. While I sewed here in Illinois, she was busy sewing in Texas. We were sewing the same project together .... virtually. Fabulous!

I didn't take the time to take too many pictures but I'll share with you what I got.

This was my palette. It is from the Urban Jungle fabric line. The strip across the top is my "accent" fabric which I found in my stash.

Here are my first two blocks. The edges look a little raggedy because they have not been trimmed up yet.

Here are my first two blocks trimmed up perfectly. It's also the view out my basement window where I usually quilt. Normally my piecing gets done upstairs but I wanted the illusion of sewing at retreat so I retreated to the basement. Aren't my irises blooming prettily?

At about this time, my sister had finished up eight blocks and put them up on her design wall to get an idea of what her blocks were going to look like together. Her fabrics mostly come from the Desert Bloom fabric line.

At the end of the day I had managed to sew twelve blocks. Here they are up on my design wall. The pattern, called Hope from GEDesigns, shows five different settings. I'll figure out which way I like best when I get the rest finished.

Again I want to give a BIG SHOUT-OUT  to Gudrun Erla and Mr. Honey Producer for giving me such a wonderful day. My husband requires my care every four hours or less and this was such a breath of joy for me. I know this was a lot of work for Gudrun to get this organized and running and the day of the event was a very long day for her, but I'm hoping there will be a Quarantine Quilt-a-Long #3 next month. After all, Gudrun was supposed to be teaching at my guild's June meeting. This is truly the next best thing!

To see some of the quilts in progress AND some of the finished quilts, visit the Facebook Group - Gudrun's Quilt Crew or visit GE Designs on YouTube after purchasing the pattern and make your very own Hope quilt!

Over the Blues and On to the Dark Greens PLUS a Finish and a Start!

Angela at Super Scrappy has picked DARK GREEN as the color for May. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge provides so much inspiration to dig into that stash and see what you can come up with. I'm sure I have plenty of dark greens to keep me busy this month!

As for last month's blocks, I finished Heartfire blocks in light, bright blues. Here are the last two. I didn't get a picture of all seven but they are done.

If you recall from last post, I had an Awesome Land block under my needle. Finished it and now have another under the needle.

I still have two more "kits" cut out and they with the one on the sewing machine will make seven of the nine blocks for this month. This picture includes the parts available of the block in progress plus the two kits ready to go.

I may just call it quits on the light, bright blues and move on to the dark greens this month. Whichever way I decide to go, I'll be using the scrappy Awesome Land blocks as leaders & enders for my next project which I'm very excited about ...

The other day my sister told me that Gudrun Erla from GEDesigns was having a 2nd Quarantine Quilt-a-Long. The pattern we will be using is called Hope and will be held as an all-day sew-day on May 3rd. Linda wanted to know if I'd be interested and she, who lives in Texas, and I, who live in Illinois, would sew-a-long with Gudrun, who lives in Minnesota. Of course I said YES!!!

There are so many fun things about this sew-a-long, besides sewing with my sister obviously.

• Gudrun will have a Hope Playlist ready to go at 9am CDT, available on Spotify.
• Gudrun will give tips for quilt construction every two hours live on Facebook & YouTube. They will be at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, and finally 5pm -- the Ta!Da! moment!
• Gudrun will be having four guests also sewing the Hope pattern and sharing their thoughts and upcoming ideas and whatever. The guest list includes Pat Sloan, Nancy Jewell, Doug Leko, AND LISSA ALEXANDER!! Lissa is the author of the book "Oh Scrap" that I got the Awesome Land blocks from!!!! Super exciting for me!!!

The pattern is available for a small donation of $2, $5, or $10. All proceeds are being divided among three of Gudrun's local charities. She's about to hit $30,000 raised! She truly is a superstar!!!

If you'd like to join in, just go HERE to download the pattern. Hope only requires 10" squares and 2-1/2" strips. If you have a layer cake just laying around, that would be a fabulous start. You can use yardage too, of course. Dig into that scrap bin and join us on Sunday, May 3rd!

In other news, I have a finish to share. It has been added to my PHD spreadsheet and it also satisfied the April UFO Challenge project at my Local Quilt Shop. We will be working on #3 for the next couple of months. That's to finish up Kyoto .... finally! The LQS did our show 'n' share on Zoom this past week. I must say I almost failed because, in my haste and misunderstanding as an old lady, I turned off the video because I thought it meant Zoom would video the session and I told Zoom to "not ask me again". Well, turns out you have to have the video turned on to be seen! Who knew??!!?? So I missed about the first 20 minutes of the meeting trying to figure out how to actually turn that video back on. On my! What a dope!

Anyway, this is called Hospital Sketches and Barbara Brackman offered it last year on her blog called Civil War Quilts and you can still find the block patterns there.

If you went to the block posts, you will see that this is my own rendition. I knew I could not keep up with the very intricate larger blocks but, since I'd already completed the first one, I wasn't going to toss it out! I moved on from there and made the smaller versions that she called Sprouts. The border was inspired by Irene Blanck. She frequently uses an entwining design which I love.

We've had a lot of rain this past week. Overnight we got 1-1/2" as seen on my awesome rain gauge. This was a Christmas present from my awesome daughter!

 A cold and rainy day inspired me to turn some leftover chicken & gravy into a home-made pot pie. I used puff pastry and it was delicious! DH loved it and ate a very good portion.

April showers brought May flowers! This clematis is a very early-bloomer and I just LOVE the color!

For those of you wondering about my hubby's health, he still has all three tubes in place. We empty the two drain bags 3-4 times a day, measure the output, and he records the numbers for the doctor. I flush his kidney drain twice daily. It's quite the process and we've got it down pretty good. We've only had a couple of mishaps and but there was obviously a learning curve. I'm fixing him three meals a day which he eats pretty good. Slowly he's gaining some strength back but it is definitely still a work in progress. Maybe I should add him to my UFO list! Ha! Thank you from both of us for all your thoughts & prayers!!!

Have a great weekend! Now go wash your hands!