Four New Tops

Four New Tops

A rainy day kept me from doing work in the gardens so I did a little housework and then headed to the sewing room yesterday and when I came out I had four new tops for kids. 

1. Happy Critters

8.5 inch finished Happy Blocks

I had a few fabrics with small prints of critters so cut enough 5 inch squares for the centers. Each month this year I have been making the frames in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. I look through the scrap bag for any TOT (tone on tone) or solid scraps.   We have not had orange as a color of the month yet but I wanted to get the blocks finished up for this so I could cross this off my long list of RSC blocks I make each month so I went ahead and looked through my orange scraps and finished up my blocks. 

2. Heartstring Blocks

10 inch finished

I mentioned a few posts ago that I sorted my strings and started three new projects. One of my new starts did not involve the novelty strings. I was thinking of making a Wonky Log Cabin with them at a later date. Well, I started making more Spider Web blocks and I noticed I had quite a few long bright colored strings in that project bag so I pulled those out and added them to the novelty strings.  Someone gave me a yellow polka dot seersucker fabric so I cut that into 2 inch strips to use as the center string.   Most of the strings are quilt back trimmings. 

3. Orphan Olivia

Orphan blocks in mostly greens

Last year I made a bunch of orphan block quilts. I sorted through block and put them into piles but did not get all the piles made into tops last year. And since last year I have received orphan blocks from several different folks and I have added a few more of my own so I need to sort blocks again. KIDS will be the theme in my sewing space in July so we shall see what happens next month. 

4. Happy Blocks

8.5 inch finished

Last year someone gave me some strip sets cut at 5 and 9 inch for Happy Block frames.  

I was given the polka dots on yellow and the watercolor-y looking rainbows. 

I added in some other multicolor fabrics so I had enough frames for a child sized quilt. 

Then each month of the RSC I looked through the 5 inch squares bin or scraps for some TOT or solid squares for the centers in the color of the month.   Again, I wanted to finish up this set of blocks so I found a few orange centers and made blocks to add to the mix so I could have another project checked off the RSC list. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

June 22 - Worked outside very very early in the morning and was serenaded by the Dawn Chorus of bird songs, twitters and tweets.   I have to say, though, that the Brown-headed Nuthatch does get rather annoying after awhile. It sounds like a rubber ducky being squeaked over and over again.   I felt good about all the weeding I got done. 

June 23 - Finished a book! - By The Light Of The Moon by Dean Koontz.  ..."Jilly dared to think about the future, about destiny and free will, about mythology and truth, about dependency and responsibility, about the certainty of death and the desperate need to live with purpose, about love and duty, and hope."   Got me thinking too as I was reading through the book. 

June 24 - Fireflies or Lightning Bugs.  In the middle of the night their blinking lights made quite a spectacular display. There were so many of them! I remember catching them and putting them in a jar to watch for a few days when we were kids. 

June 25 - Wild black raspberries are ripe.  I let patches of them grow wild all over the property; however, they easily spread and get out of control in no time so I've cut back several of the patches. I actually prefer red raspberries because I think they don't have as many seeds but these are free and plentiful.   Raspberries remind me of tent camping when I was younger. We would walk the trails when raspberries were ripe and gather them up to put in our pancakes we cooked on a griddle over the campfire.   Raspberries also remind me of summer visits to my paternal grandparents' farm.  They had a hand crank ice cream freezer. We all took turns cranking and when we weren't doing that we went to gather fresh raspberries to put over the ice cream when it was finished. Oh what a summer time treat!