Closing Up Purple

Here it is the last weekend of July and August is lurking around the corner. The weather has reminded us that it is still, in fact, summer. Wouldn't you know our A/C went on the fritz! We noticed that it was getting warmer in the house and our upstairs at night was getting really awful for sleeping. It just so happened that Fred went downstairs to check and lo! and behold! there was an Error Code 69! What did the code mean? I sure as heck didn't know but I did know what Error meant! I called first thing on Monday morning (7 am) and had it checked out around noon. Ugh! Computer board was the likely culprit as the compressor looked to be running OK. Hallelujah! We were still under warranty because our HVAC was barely three years old. Part was ordered and installed on Wednesday! Cool air has been blowing through the vents again and happiness has been restored in this house once again. You know, you don't realize how much you love your air-conditioning until it's gone and Mother Nature has thrown near 100 degrees at you with extremely high humidity (due to what is called corn sweat here in the Midwest) with Feels Like temps approaching 115. So all is right again here in Troy IL.

On Vickie's last couple of days with me, we decided to do a project together. I had seen on the Bernina blog We All Sew a tutorial on making a coiled rope cat basket. We both have kitties and Vickie had wanted to make a rope basket and these directions looked easy enough so let's do it! We followed the directions explicitly --except we didn't have the exact size needles required and I don't have a fancy machine with dual feed but I do have a walking foot and Vickie couldn't use her knee-lift for some odd reason with her computerized sewing machine right then. Yup! Directions followed perfectly! Haha!

Inner Coil Started

Let's Start Adding Color!

And Done!

Vickie's Completed Basket

We had so much fun making these baskets. When I struggled a little, Vickie helped me out. When she had trouble, I was there for her. Besties for sure and we had a great time making the baskets. Best part of all, our cats seem to like them, especially Vickie's Jasper who curled right up in it when she got home and put it out for him.

Jasper is a 17# cat

Vickie used fabric she had purchased at a thrift shop while on vacation in Nebraska before stopping through here. Isn't it beautiful??? Knowing her Jasper is on the larger size, she didn't stop at the 14" mark for the bottom but continued on to 16". She also added handles on hers because she's smart! Lol!

Polly is barely a 9# kitty

I used purple scraps for Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Polly's basket. She's a smaller-sized kitty so I stopped at 12" for the bottom measurement of my basket. If you're interested in this project, you can find the tutorial HERE. If you have a kitty, you really need to make one.

We were sad to see Vickie leave Tuesday morning
She was headed to start the All KY/TN Shop Hop

Now, what did I do after Vickie left and the A/C got fixed? I sewed RSC, of course! First up was to do the second purple block of Gem Tones.

16" Finished

As I was sewing the rows together, I glanced at the picture in the American Patchwork & Quilting mag and discovered my flying geese were pointed in and were supposed to be pointing out. Oops! At that stage I wasn't about to rip it out. Here's a picture of both purple blocks (see the difference? Well, poop!) up on the design wall along with a couple of other Gem Tones friends.

I also tackled the first July step of the Mystery QAL at Itch'n to be Stitch'n, my local quilt shop. Looks to be possibly the center block?

It's a huge 16" Finished Block!

In between these big blocks, I started Bonnie Hunter's 2025 Leaders & Enders project. I'm basing my colors on lovely hydrangea bushes. I finished two blocks and a third has been started. Bonnie is calling this challenge Four Patch Fun.

I think that's enough from around here so I will close with a couple more basket pictures since we had so much fun making them.

Silly Goose!

Silly Crane on Top of Neighbor's House!

I hope you had a great week and are planning a good weekend. I, for one, am looking forward to the end of this week when we are supposed to finally cool off a bit. Until then, you'll find me enjoying my sweet air-conditioner!

Thank you, Angela, for keeping us all together on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Purple Sewing Began This Week

Last night was the 3rd Friday of the month and that meant it was Friday Night Sew-In. I thought it was high time I started on another cross-stitch project. This pattern has been hanging around the house for years, sometimes lost and sometimes right under my nose. Time to get a move-on!

Old Pattern, New Project

My Grand Start!

Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color this month is PURPLE! I'd bet there's not a lot of people out there that do not like purple. It's a wonderful color and sure brightens up the hot, humid weather we've been dealing with lately. If it's not scorching here in Southern Illinois, then it's raining. It is what it is because it's mid-July.

Because I'd already cut out the pieces for Gem Tones, I thought that might be a great place to start this week. Over a couple of days I managed to complete one of two blocks!

Purple Gem Tones #1

Polly Approved!

In between sewing the 16" finished block, I used The Quilting Life BOM for my leader & ender. This month was a churn dash block in RSC Purple.

There was a PT appointment and hairdresser appointment this week and so I put a little time on my TAS (The Applique Society) UFO project. Here's a peek.

My best friend arrived last Tuesday and will be departing Tuesday this week. It's been nice having a fellow-quilter in the house. She has just started a Dear Jane project and her fabrics are beautiful as is her applique. I believe she said she has 14 of the 169 center blocks done. She's got a ways to go! I'll try to take a couple pictures for next week's update.

Keep stitching wherever you are! Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs and Angela at SoScrappy.

Not Much Purple But I Have a Finish!

Hip! Hip! Hooray! I have a finish! Miss Jane's Best is done.

I took it outside for some beauty shots.

So pretty!

A glimpse of the back.
I love the fabric from my stash!
OOPS! Not signed!

Quickly corrected!

The little embroidery blocks measure 2-1/2" finished. They're tiny! I worked on these during Mom's PT, podiatrist, and hair appointments. I could have had this finished if Mom wasn't in such good physical shape! Lol! She doesn't have many doctor appointments. She's a wonder Woman! 92 years young and still going strong! Hahaha!

I took some close-ups of the embroidery. It really was fun to stitch.

Purple flowers!

More purple flowers

And more purple flowers!

A couple more snuck in here too!

The kit was all inclusive to make the top & binding. The cornerstones were supposed to be white like the embroidery blocks but, not realizing that, I accidentally chucked the scraps after cutting out my flower blocks. I'm so glad I did because I found that sweet 30's print in my stash and I thnk it worked better than perfectly! (Can that even be? Lol!)

As for true RSC purple month, I collected these fabrics for the GemTones this month. 

Lights, Mediums, & Darks for Two Blocks

I am a bit behind on these. I never did the Green RSC or the Orange RSC blocks!!! Thursday morning I cut out two sets of green before anyone else was up. Have to do things when the opportunity presents!

So that's it from around here. Hope you're having a great weekend. We're still unbelievably hot & humid in these neck of the woods. Ugh!

I think I'll try to catch up at Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge post HERE. You should join me!