It's A Flimsy! Purple Poindexter

It's a flimsy!

40 x 48

It's a top made of orphan blocks with mostly purples.  Since last year I've been naming orphan block quilts like they name hurricanes - with alternating male and femail names in alphabetical order. I am up to the letter P...so...Poindexter is the name and since it's mostly purple..meet Purple Poindexter. 

I don't think any of these orphan blocks were made by me.  There were several different sizes so I framed some so they finished at 12 inches.  

The theme in my sewing space in August will be KIDS. I hope to get more orphan block quilts made and quilt up most of the kiddo tops I have on hand. We shall see what happens. August is going to be a busy month so not sure how much time I'll have for sewing. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 29 - I won $4 on a lottery ticket. I don't buy lottery tickets but I signed up a long time ago with the Iowa Lottery to get a free ticket each month. I'll cash it in at the grocery store next time I go and put it toward groceries. 

July 30- I received another jackpot - 4 boxes of scraps and fabric from RyLynn! Oh joy! I just loved sorting through it all. Now to put it all to use!

In Response To A Challenge...

It's a top!

Wiggle Time

in Olympic colors (red, blue, yellow, green black)

48 x 54

Wiggle Time is a Cynthia Brunz Design.

Someone from the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild (an online charity sewing group) issued a challenge to make a quilt this month in Olympic colors. 

I used some plaids I had on hand but didn't really have a good fabric for yellow plaid so it is multicolor with yellow in it. 

It's just a top for now. I'm not sure when it will get finished but I'll consider that I met the challenge.  And actually I might have another quilt in the works that will meet the challenge.  Stay tuned. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 27 - I got a lot of weeding done and I also got quite a bit of scrub brush trimmed away.  While I was weeding I was thinking about how we have been getting rain at just the right times this year. I haven't had to drag hoses around and water very much. 

July 28 - Big thunderstorm in the middle of the night. That's not what I celebrated...I was excited that the tarp my son helped me put on the flat roof over the leak in my sewing room kept the rain out! 

 

Piecing Potpourri

I do a lot of piecing but sometimes don't get around to ironing things for quite awhile. I keep a box at the end of my ironing board and throw things into it that need to be ironed or trimmed. Usually it is  leaders/enders or Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks or other block pieces I've kitted up to sew when I just want to do a whole lot of chain piecing at one time on a whole lot of different things. I don't really like to iron. Well, the box was getting full so I was forced into it. So...here's what I ironed...

9 inch Snowball blocks made with 9 Snowballs. Blocks with light and dark corners will alternate in the quilt.  These are a RSC project.  I made a quilt like it a long time ago and after my daughter saw it she asked if she could have it. Oh, yes, indeed!

3 inch Bow Tie blocks

I've been making these from scraps for a long, long time. My goal is 900 blocks and I think now I ony need about 40 more so will probably make my goal in July. 

10 inch Cheerio blocks

This is another RSC project. I started it a couple of months ago. I've made blocks from scraps in the color of the month plus I went through my 4.5 inch squares and pulled out any sets of 4 identical squares to make blocks. I cut block parts and sew pieces together when I'm on a piecing binge.

4 Patch HSTs

made from 3 inch width scraps left over from making last month's Sawtooth Star top. I use an Easy Angle Companion ruler to cut the Flying Geese bodies and I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut HSTs from the two ends so they don't go to waste.   I have a bunch of other 3 inch scraps that I will use to make more blocks for a child's quilt. The blocks finish at 5 inches. Maybe I will alternate them wth squares. Who knows?

Four Patches

made with 2 inch scraps.

My theme is "black, white, and one other color" in each four patch.

Four Inch Broken Dishes

Made with HST parts that resulted from making Flying Geese. See explanation above of rulers I use when making Flying Geese. I think the Geese that went with these fabrics were made into Twilight Flight blocks a few months ago. 

HST parts were the result of making QSTs last month for my Bramble Blooms II medallion center piece. Not sure what these will be used for. Just sewing up scraps.

More HSTs that came to me in a bag of scraps.  I haven't sewn them all yet. Not sure what they will be used for. 

And finally...some strip sets for a Coins quilt made with 2 inch scraps. I think I should see how many strips I have now in my little box of Coins. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 25 -- Finished a book!  - Levi's Eyes by Aphrodite Jones.  It is a true crime story. Karl Karlsen murdered his wife and 17 years later murdered his son for insurance money. It took more than 20 years to bring him to justice for both crimes.  I don't understand how a person could be so evil. It gives me nightmares. 

July 26 - I love grapefruit juice and drink a glass almost every day. 

 

It's A Top! Back Stories II

It's a top!

Back Stories II

60 x 80

I made the top for Back Stories I in 2020 using a pattern I bought called Interweave.  Unfortunately when I started making the top I realized that the top was not going to finish at the dimensions the author listed and was going to turn out almost square. I had to improvise to make a longer quilt and wrote about the problem to the pattern author as you can see in my 2020 post. (Note: She still has the same finished dimensions listed as she did in 2020 when I bought the pattern. I thought I would mention this in case you are inclined to purchase the pattern.)

So, anyway, I finished the Back Stories I quilt two years later in 2022.  As you can see in that post I mentioned that I had made revisions to the pattern and in 2022 started collecting strips for Back Stories II in a little shoe box.   Here it is 2024 and I noticed the other day when I added a couple of strips to the shoe box that I had enough strips for the top. So here we are.

I call the quilt Back Stories because most of the strips are cut from quilt back trimmings. 

Not all of the strips in this one, though, are from trimmings. Some strips came from friends in boxes of scraps. 

Back Stories II is a scrap community of plaids, florals, geometrics, novelties in a rainbow of colors. I tried to make them all get along together. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 25 -- Garden Veggies. The rascally critters actually let me harvest some! 

 None of my big tomatoes are ripe yet but I have been eating some of the cherry type tomatoes -- yellow pear, black strawberry. I also tried a new one this year called spoon tomatoes (those tiny red ones in the glass bowl). I grow all my tomatoes from seed and those were free seeds so gave them a try and put a plant in a pot on the deck.  I also grow my peppers from seeds. I don't eat hot peppers but used to grow a few types for hubby but now that he doesn't eat I only grow sweeter types of peppers. I harvested Lesya which is supposed to be the sweetest pepper (not sure about that) and I eat strips of peppers almost every day for lunch. I harvested a few Jimmy Nordello (an old Italian heirloom - the long ones) that I use for cooking (had them in my omelet for dinner last night). There's also a couple of Paprika peppers in the bowl. They seem a little small this year but I will probably dry and grind them for paprika.  I also have Baby Bell, Chocolate and Anaheim peppers growing but have not harvested any of those yet.   There's a few "volunteer" new potatoes in the bowl. Volunteers are potatoes that sprout up from a few potatoes that did not get harvested last year.  I harvested a red, yellow and white onion that was in my green onion row but grew larger than a green onion. I buy plants from Dixondale Farms for my onions. I love onions. I grew two different types of pickling cucumbers but can't remember which they were. If I get a lot of them and can't keep up with eating them I'll make bread and butter pickles. And I harvested some Dragon Tongue bush beans. Some critter and insects ate most of my bean plants early on so I wasn't sure if I was going to get any beans. Some of the Dragon Tongue plants survived but only one of the Red Swan - both heirloom beans. 

Wonky Quarter Log Cabin Finish

Wonky Quarter Log Cabin

It's a finish!

50 x 60

I used some colorful and wider selvages to make the blocks. Most of the selvages came from quilt back trimmings to that is why they are wider. I normally don't like to leave that much fabric with a selvage. Most of my selvages are cut thin and I save them to use as garden ties.  

I used some spider web fabric squares for the start of the blocks. 

Blocks finished at 10.5 inches.  

I finished the top in April 2023.

I quilted it on my DSM with swirls in gray thread.

The binding is scrappy -- darker pieces from the leftover bindings box. 

The back. 

And ready for donation!

The theme in my sewing space this month has been STRINGS. I've finished up 8 string quilts and have been working on three new quilts - Feather Bed, Spider Web and Eight Point Stars.  I think that is about all of the finishes I will have this month but will continue to work on the new starts for the rest of the month. Maybe I will run out of strings. 

I differentiate between string quilts and strip quilts. 

For me...strings just happen. I don't cut into any fabrics to make string quilts. Most of the time strings are a result of quilt back trimmings or wonky end cuts of yardage. If someone sends me longer strips of fabric I first measure the width and if it is an even 1.5, 2, or 2.5 inches in width then I usually have one or two projects in process that can use that strip. If it is wonky or not exactly one of those widths then it goes into my string box.   

On the other hand...for me... strip quilts usually involve some cutting of yardage or even width strips I receive from other folks who send fabric and scraps my way. 

Next month the theme in my sewing space will be KIDS.   I hope to work on finishing kiddo sized quilt tops I have in the TBQ (to be quilted) stack and dig into the orphan blocks and make a few tops. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 24 - I wasn't really up to celebrating much of anything. My sewing space used to be a back porch and has a flat roof with a very slight slant .  I noticed a small leak in my ceiling the last time it rained. After that son helped me get up there and put a tarp over where we thought the leak was. Well, it rained yesterday and rain still leaked in. I took a good look out the window at the roof when it was raining and I think it might be collecting nearer to where the water flows into the gutter so we need to move the tarp. We have known we need a new roof and gutters for awhile because roof is about 30 years old (we replaced it a few years after we moved here) but with hubby in and out of the hospital, too weak to do much and  still with many doc appointments pending for osteoradionecrosis in the jaw and dysphagia I have not gotten around to getting any quotes. And I don't want to have someone working on the roof when we aren't around.    So, anyway, I went to bed without celebrating a thing.  And then...hubby yelled for me. and woke me up. His feeding tube was about ready to fall out.   I do have a spare one here but first tried pushing that one back in and then measured the volume in the balloon that kind of holds it in place in the stoma and it was low so I added some distilled water to it with syringe and he was able to hook back up to the feed pump ok.  Today I will have to measure volume of that balloon again to make sure it doesn't have a slow leak.   So, I was proud of myself for staying calm in the midst of crisis and taking care of business - definitely cause to celebrate. I'm surprised I can do some of the things I do.  Last time his feeding tube fell out it was Christmas Day and we ended up in the ER. They did not have the right Gtube to insert so they put in temp foley cath. We ended up at the surgeon's office the next day and he put in a new one. I asked him what to do next time it fell out and he said "watch me put this in" and get a spare one for home. I didn't want to but I watched....just in case...

 

Wednesday Wandering - Roses and Lilies

Just showing you some of the roses and lilies in the cottage garden this week. 

Well, you might see a few weeds too. 

The Roses, Orienpet and Oriental lilies are all very fragrant. The Daylilies are not.

I've been using Bobbex to repel the deer. 

I've seen a few Japanese Beetles starting to invade the roses but I've been picking them off and throwing them in soapy water on my tour through the gardens (if I remember to take my little bucket of soapy water with me).  

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CELEBRATE (my word of the year)

July 23 - Quilt stories!  I read about the power of a quilt and prayer on Linda's blog. 

 

Another Wonky Log Cabin Finish

It's a finish!

Wonky Log Cabin

Fields and Furrows Setting

45 x 54

I made this top earlier this year. I used brown and blue strings around an orange 2 inch square. 

Blocks were trimmed to 9.5 inches. 

I used a fields and furrows layout.

I quilted it on my DSM with swirls in gray thread.

The backing. 

The binding is the same orange batik as the extra strip I had to add to the backing. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 19 - My Gladiolas.  I think I have the color scheme for my next quilt - purple, yellow, red with touches of pink and light orange. 

July 20 - House Dresses. I ordered a couple earlier this year to wear when working outside in the garden. I thought I would feel a little cooler on hot days. I do. But I can't help but think that from the back when bending over now I look like those bent over old lady lawn ornaments. Good thing we don't have close neighbors! 

July 21 - I finished a book! This one was light reading and not my usual historical fiction. Sometimes a few historical fiction books based on true stories kind of get depressing. Closer Than You Think by Jean Grainger is the fourth book in the Mags Munroe series. Mags Munroe is an Irish Garda.  I'm looking forward to further exploits of Mags Munroe. 

July 22 - Oh joy! I received packages of lovely fabrics from both Julierose and Nann. I am so thankful for their generosity. I hope to turn a lot of it into comfort quilts asap!