Yellow/Orange Scraps

From 2.5 inch scraps...yellow Sprouts, Depression Blocks 

The red/yellow 4 inch Happy blocks are left over from last month's red/yellow scraps that I just got sewn together.  

More four inch Happy blocks and some orange and orange/blue rail fence blocks from postage stamps (1.5  inch scraps) and muslin strips.  I used the yellow postage stamps I had cut last month with the red postage stamps in my Vintage Rail blocks. 

ScrapHappy Saturday

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and Appliqueing, Appliqueing, Appliqueing

My husband had a 14 hour surgery on September 29  - mandibulectomy and fibula free flap reconstruction which means they took his fibula and made him a new mandibule.  He had a broken jaw due to the radiation (osteoradionecrosis) he received several years ago when he had cancer.  While I was waiting through the surgery and for days afterwards  I read a book, caught up on adding blanket stitch around my Quilting 365 circles for August 9-31 and September 1-19, and read an entire book (Home by Harlen Coben) and part of another one (The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan). 

My husband was discharged yesterday and I'm taking a week off to get him situated at home. He has an NG tube for formula feedings and medicine, neck stitches that need to be cleaned several times a day and with drains that need to be packed, trachea hole where the trachea tube was that needs to be cleaned and bandaged a couple of times a day, stitches on his leg from knee on down that need to be wrapped daily and boot for minimal walking.   Some of these things I never dreamed I would be able to do because I get rather squeamish at the appearance of blood and body fluids but I'm hanging in there and doing what needs to be done. 

By the way, thank you to all who offered prayers and healing thoughts. The doctors are amazed by my husband's recovery.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

August circles.

We had a family reunion campout, my son-in-law was discharged after 3 weeks in the hospital for chemo for leukemia, I made and canned salsa, finished a baby quilt and attended a shower for my nephew and wife, made a couple of quilts for a medical benefit for my son-in-law, took the grandkids school shopping and won a $25 gift certificate from FQ Shop for Scraptastic Tuesday. 

September 1-19 circles. I have the rest of the month cut out but just not completed yet. 

I started them on November 4 last year and I'm still making them and having fun with them.  

I also took along some Peacock fans to applique. 

I think I now have 20  14 inch blocks.  Can't remember my target number. These will have sashing between them. 

And now I need to prep more handwork. But I guess there's always hand quilting. 

Thanks again for those healing thoughts and prayers. They seem to be working for my son-in-law also. He will still need a bone marrow transplant; however, his second bout of chemo which was last week went much smoother than the first round. His medical benefit was also a huge success. 

Amen. 

In Search of a Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

No...no, butterflies here in the...

...Tithonia. 

No, no butterflies in the Datura (darned weed). 

I rarely see butterflies in the pansies. 

No, no butterflies here unless that white thing in the spider's web is a butterfly part.  I've seen monarchs in the Gomphrena from time to time but not this time, of course.  Note to self...cut and hang the Gomphrena to dry.  

No, no butterflies in the brussel sprouts and none of those darned cabbage worm moths in there either, thank goodness. 

No, no butterflies in the impatiens. 

Aha! What do I spy on the butterfly weed? 

Are two butterflies considered a kaleidoscope of butterflies? 

Inside I spy a kaleidoscope of butterflies on the wall. Sad, but true...this is the only butterfly or kaleidoscope sewing I did in September.  

I'm out of town right now. 

Hopefully I'll be back soon sewing up some butterflies and kaleidoscopes in October. Will you? 

An InLinkz Link-up

Gwennie Inspired Medallion: Something's Fishy

I know I'm a little early posting my final round of the Gwennie Inspired Medallion Quilt-along but I'm going out of town tomorrow after work and won't be back until possibly Oct 3 for a couple of days before I have to leave again so decided to get this post out of the way.  (I'm one of those goal oriented, plan ahead type As, don't you know).

So, without further ado...here's my flimsy. It will finish at 60 x 69. 

The theme for the center medallion was BASKETS. 

 I used some of the Block Lotto basket block winnings for my center. 

Next round the theme was CHILDHOOD. Remember those woven potholders you probably made when you were a kid with those red looms? I loved making those when I was a little girl even though they weren't very practical as potholders. I graduated to other looms, none of them big, but I have made a lot of woven things including weaving a couple of baskets.  So, I made some woven blocks for my CHILDHOOD themed border.  

The next round's theme was LOG CABIN. So I made some neutral quarter log cabins (or are they half log cabins?)  I thought to use neutrals because the baskets were on neutral background and I used the traditional red center representing the hearth which happened to have some little baskets on it.   

The next round after that was STARS.  I made friendship stars because friends from Block Lotto made me the baskets I used in the center. And then I used red/white rails between the stars  because I used red in the other borders and I like red.  The rails seemed to me to also continue a weaving kind of theme.  So far all the border blocks have been three inch finished size. 

And then came the final round with a theme of FISH. FISH?! Seriously? Well, I thought long and hard and came up with WAVES for my border.  That's why the final border is blue. Fish live in the water and sometimes there are waves in the water where the fish live.  

As you can see...there's some fish in those waves swimming up current and some fish bubbles and some other flotsam and jetsam. 

I also spy a whale, more fish, anchors and more flotsam and jetsam in those waves which consist of HSTs that will finish at 3 inches. 

So that's my Gwennie Inspired Medallion Top.  Gosh that was fun! 

I also had started a second one but that is stalled for now. 

And now I have to say that I think that the making of this medallion could be considered improv quilting -  I had no idea what it would look like in the end when I started, bought nothing, used no pattern, used a variety of scraps and bits and pieces, had to use a little creativity to interpret a given theme for each round and even though each of us that quilted along used the same theme for each round not a single one of our quilts will look the same.  Gosh that's fun!

Ad Hoc Improv Quilting with Ann and Kaja.

In the Hoop: Feather Bed

Feather Bed is an Anna Maria Horner pattern..

 I've made my feathers from string scraps. 

I'm big stitching on Feather Bed in different colors of perle #8.

I'm not sure what or how I will quilt between feathers. (These look a little wonky and wavy propped up on the back of the couch or maybe it's the dizzying effect of so many feathers). 

I'm preparing a lot of handwork for my husband's upcoming mandibulectomy and fibula free flap surgery on Thursday an hour away in Iowa City to repair a jaw fracture caused by osteoradionecrosis - lots of radiation when he had oropharyngeal cancer.  It's a 12 hour surgery and then a 7-10 day hospital stay - one day at least in ICU.  I'll stay at the hospital during the day and go back to a hotel at night for the first few days, be back at work on Monday and then go back to pick him up on the day he is discharged. So I'll need a lot of hand work to keep me busy!

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Hand Quilted: Jack's Chain

Jack's Chain

66 x 80

Hobbs Heirloom Cotton Batting

Hand quilted

Instructions and templates from Quilter's Cache

Finished in March 2016

A Wedding Quilt for the hope chest for my grandson. He's only 7 so it will be in the hope chest for awhile.  I like to plan ahead!

This was two years in the making.  A lot of the little 3 inch 9 patches were swapped. 

The background (hexagon shapes) is Kona Navy. 

For the hand quilting I used a lot of different colored threads and LOTs of size 10 quilting betweens.  In the nine patches I quilted an X and I quilted 1/4 inch inside the connecting triangles in navy thread. 

In the hexagons I used a stencil of four connecting hearts and stitched in different colors of thread. 

I'm no expert at hand quilting...in fact this is one of the few quilts that I have hand quilted and not done big stitch quilting in perle #8...but I'm pleased with how it turned out.  If I had to make one change it would have been to stitch in the ditch around the connecting triangles instead of 1/4 inch inside.   I actually have another Jack's Chain ufo in neutrals and browns so will remember that for next time. 

Another thing I didn't think I could do was the scalloped binding. But it did happen much to my surprise! 

And now we have come to the backing and the end of my blog post. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2016 at Amy's Creative Side

I've entered this into the Hand Quilted Category at Blogger's Quilt Festival. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Large Quilt: String Stars

String Stars

86 x 98

Hobbs Heirloom Cotton Batting

Hand Quilted with navy perle #8

Made from scraps -  leftover trimmings from quilt backings. 

I wanted to avoid the Y seams of piecing an 8 pointed star so made six pointed stars following the instructions and templates found in 

The Best of Fons & Porter: Scrap Quilts Book

I finished this earlier this month. 

You have to make a lot of quilts in order to have a lot of scraps! 

I didn't draw any lines for the hand quilting. I just did some big stitching lines across each diamond of the star. In the background stars I just stitched 5 lines across in the middle of the diamonds. 

In  Victorian times spiders were symbols of good luck! (Don't believe me?  Google it!)

And here's the back. You can see the new trimmings now in my scrap bag waiting for the next string quilt! 

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2016 at Amy's Creative Side

I've entered this in the Large Quilt Category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival .