It's A Finish!

Happy Bugs

42.5 x 51

It's a finish!

It started with a baggie of some bright 5 inch squares butterflies, lady bugs, caterpillars that someone gave me last year. I added in a few squares of my own little creatures. 

It always seems like I have a lot of green bits and pieces so I used green 2.5 inch pieces for frames and made Happy Blocks in January of this year. 

I quilted it on my DSM with a dark green thread. I quilted along the green seams horizontally and vertically.  And now that I'm looking at the picture it looks like I missed doing a vertical line of quilting in the middle column. Oh, the stories a picture can tell!

Sometimes where there's a lot of insects there are a lot of frogs so frogs hopped on to the back. I had to add a little strip and just happened to have a little scrap wide enough that someone gave me with frogs on it.   The binding is a green checkered homespun. 

And sew on...

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 11 - I harvested a few apples from my apple tree. Seems kind of early for apples to be ripe but they are. It is an old apple tree that I haven't kept trimmed so I can't reach most of the apples. Well, I made a big batch of fried apples with lots of cinnamon/sugar.  Yumm. They are kind of like a cross between apple pie and chunky applesauce. Back in the day I used to have 4 apple trees. All but one has died off over the years. I used to make apple juice, dried apples, applesauce, apple butter and such when the kids were little. Seems like only yesterday....

  The weather was beautiful so I also was able to clear a big patch of wild raspberry brambles. 

August 12 - I hate to drive. Actually I don't really like to leave my house. Well, I had to drive an hour away to take hubby for an appt. at the University of Iowa hospital and clinics. I saw that rain was predicted for the day and was really dreading the drive. I was also a little anxious about finding the place and getting hubby from the parking ramp into the clinic for an 8 o'clock appt.   Well, I managed to get through the rain and fog and get hubby into the clinic on time. Whew! You know I still have dreams (nightmares really) of forgetting my high school and college schedules and missing classes! I have to say I'm a real worry wart. Wish I was just a wart. 

August 13 - Box of scraps arrived from Sue! Lucky me! I got out my little ruler and sorted all the strips by width size. What fun!  Also we are still having beautiful weather although we could use a bit of rain. I harvested onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and beans. This is the first year I have tried the heirloom bean called Dragon Tongue. Gosh they are delicious! I will have to try to remember to leave some beans on the plants for seeds for next year.   I also grew Red Swan beans; however, insects and deer devoured those before they even had time to blossom. I probably won't have any beans to freeze this year, darn it. 

August 14 - I had appt. with periodontist. At age 74 I still have all my own teeth that are in pretty good shape but I do have a bit of bone loss in the jaw they have been monitoring as well as a few deep pockets. Thankfully I have been able to maintain status quo for several years and still have not lost any teeth and none are loose. I have been taking calcium and vitamin D for a long time and I also had read a long time ago that Vitamin C is good for healthy teeth and bones so try to eat a lot of foods high in Vit C like tomatoes, strawberries and broccoli. And see a previous celebration where I mentioned I drink a glass of grapefruit juice almost every day. Maybe that helps...maybe it doesn't. Maybe I'm just lucky. Who knows?        I also found my grass clippers! Somewhere along the line they fell out of my garden stool.  They had been missing for a long time. 

****Edited later in the day...I am 72 years old...my hubby is 74. Gosh, what was I thinking??????

 

It's A Finish!

Suzy Ducken

On The Courthouse Steps

34 x 36

It's a finish!

The center is a cross stitched piece featuring a character named Suzy Ducken. Someone sent me the kit last year and I stitched it.   I had never heard of Suzy Ducken previously.  She is a character from Suzy's Zoo. 

While I was working on cross stitching Suzy Ducken I remembered that I had a whole bunch of cross stitched pieces somewhere around here and wondered if anyone had ever used cross stitched pieces to make a quilt. I asked the question on the Stashbuster list. A Stashbuster member, Dawn, mentioned that she happened to have a Youtube video about it!  Now, I don't normally watch videos because they take too long to load on my old computer and then they cut out or the audio doesn't work; however, I really wanted to know about using cross stitch in quilts so I managed to watch on hubby's computer.  Dawn made a Courthouse Steps with one of her embroidered pieces so I thought that was the way I would go.  And so here we are. I used orange and lime green scraps to match Suzy's dress and legs and a flower. 

I quilted it with three petaled flowers in a variegated thread in orange, red, yellow - sunset colors. 

I think my pictures look a little blurry (sorry about that) but there are ducks in hats on the back and the binding is a purplish color to match Suzy's shoes and it has lime green and orange dots on it. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

I do have more very old cross stitch and embroidered pieces I want to use in quilts but not sure where they are right now. I've looked in a couple of places but I'm thinking they might be packed away up in the attic. I haven't been up there in years so if that is where they are I hope mice have not found them and taken a nibble.   

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 10 - Finished a book! -   The Lost Bookshop by Evie Wood.  Magical realism. "Books help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of."  A book about finding life's purpose. 

 

Orange Itty Bits

Boo Boo Patches

(18 Patches)

3 x 6 inch

I didn't get much done on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks this week.  I just worked with some of the longer orange 1.5 inch width scraps in the orange scrap bag. 

Switch Plates

3 x 5 inch

I've been making both of these blocks from scraps for more than a year so maybe one of these days I should take count and figure out what size quilt I am making! 

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE ! (My word of the year)

August 7 - I love wind chimes!  Over the years I've been given several wind chimes so I have them in all the gardens. My fav is the one my niece gave me in memory of my granddaughter Kayla who passed away a couple of years ago. On the clapper it says - "Listen to the wind and think of me. I am always with you."  It's been windy so I've been seranaded by thoughts of Kayla. 

August 8 - Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day!  Oh gosh, has the weather been beautiful - cooler temps, less humid and breezy. I've been working outside a lot lately - weeding, cutting scrub brush, harvesting, deadheading, planting.  I even stopped to smell the roses a few times! 

August 9 - Lots to celebrate...

 For the last 3.5 years I have had an appt. with an opthamologist every six months because I am glaucoma suspect. I still don't have glaucoma and actually she said my eye pressure was better than normal and visual field test was good.  Oh, thank goodness! 

On my way home I saw sweet corn at a stand - a dozen for $4. A deal!  (The grocery store has been selling it for 3 ears for $4) And it was delicious! I plan to blanche and freeze half of it.   I haven't grown sweet corn for years. When it would be ready for harvest the raccoons would go through the patch and tear off the ears and take a bite out of each.  A couple of years of that and I said "never again"! 

I dropped two boxes of quilts (12 total) off at the UPS. I mailed them to a lady who is a coordinator for both Wrap-A-Smile and Quilts Beyond Borders. She will get them to the places where there is most need at this time.   That makes 54 quilts I have donated so far this year! 30 of the 54 went to a local foster care group - Fostering Crossroads.

 

A Wonky Windmill Top

 

It's a top!

Wonky Windmills

40 x 56

I started making these 8 inch (finished) blocks last year as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project.  I made blocks each month in the color of the month plus a gray background since I had quite a few gray bits and pieces to use up.  The blocks are made with 4.5 x 5 inch rectangles so I used either 4.5 inch width or 5 inch width scraps that were long enough to make blocks each month. 

I noticed the other day that I had quite a pile of blocks so decided to divide the blocks up into separate quilt piles.  For this one I picked out novelties plus a few stripes and polka dots.   

I have three other piles for quilts now but each pile needs a few more blocks - florals, geometrics and misc and a pink and black one.  The florals will probably end up adult sized but the others child sized. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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Celebrate! (my word of the year)

August 5 - I was working outside and a teeny tiny orange butterfly stayed with me on my red shorts for about 1/2 hour. I tried to take a photo so I could figure out what kind of butterfly it is but it's not a very good one so not sure what my friend happens to be. 

August 6 - I received a box of scraps from Kathy and one from Dawn! Two in one day. Wow! And I sure had fun sorting through the boxes. Sorting scraps has been what I've been doing in the evening after dinner. I put them in project piles or sort by strip width or color. And then I use them! I sew a little each day. 

Orphan Block Top Quincy

Orphan Block Top 

Quincy

40 x 52

I made Sawtooth Stars with green backgrounds using 6.5 inch centers that were crumb blocks or...

...or other 6.5 inch orphan blocks. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 3 - Hubby's birthday! He is now 74 years old.  Funny thing...I've been taking care of some of his medical needs and in the process I have to give his birthdate. I have given out his birthdate so many times over the last year that recently when asked for MY birthdate I automatically gave his!

August 4 - Speaking of hubby's medical needs...I was starting to get rather depressed writing so many checks for hubby's medical bills. Several months ago I decided to set aside the same amount of money I spend on his bills toward a "roses fund" for me. You know how much I LOVE roses! Well, Heirloom Roses was having a BOGO 50% off sale this week so I took money out of my "roses fund" and bought 4 new roses to be delivered in September - Arboroses Jasmine and Honeymoon, All Dressed Up and Carefree Wonder.  I really should put the money toward a "new roof fund" but where is the fun in that? 

 

Itty Bits

Bow Ties

3 inch

I have been making these for a few years as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC). My goal was 900 Bow Ties for a 30 x 30 layout. I have now (finally!) reached that goal.

Note that last Saturday Angela called dark neutrals as the RSC color for the month for August. So I started right away making blocks with my dark neutral scraps. Then she evidently changed her mind on Sunday to orange for August and dark neutrals for September  but I did not see that change until this morning so I'm going to maybe have a mix of dark neutrals and orange scraps throughout August and September. In addition I did not have many aqua scraps for July so was saving the few I did have to mix with August's color.   So anyway...for me the next two months of working on RSC blocks will have a mix of orange, aqua and dark neutrals. 

18 Patch

6 inch

I have been making these blocks only in browns and creams.  I'm aiming for 120 blocks for a 10 x 12 layout.

Most of my blocks this week were made with 1.5 inch width scraps. I have been fortunate lately to have a lot of folks send me scraps. I usually sort anything less than a 6 inch square into sizes by strip width and then I usually have a block in process that covers each width of strip. Anything more than a 6 inch square gets sorted by color.  

Boo Boo Patch

3 x 6

So called because I made a mistake when cutting my pieces. I meant for the strip sets to be cut into 2.5 inch pieces so I could make the 18 patch blocks in the previous photo.  That happened last year and I've been making Boo Boo Patches in all colors. Maybe I should count blocks now and see if I have enough for a quilt of any size. 

More Boo Boo Patches

3 x 6

Aqua scraps plus in recent scraps I received there were a few strip sets already made with a color and neutral so I cut them up to make blocks plus I had a 1.5 inch purple scrap sitting there after I made the recent Purple Poindexter orphan block top so it got made into a Boo Boo Patch right away. 

Switch Plates

3 x 5

I think I've been making these for a few years too. Maybe I should count them and decide upon quilt size. 

Windmills

4 inch

Maybe I should count these too! 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 2 - I'm starting to see a lot of butterflies flitting from flower to flower in my gardens. They especially love the Zinnias.

 

Feathers and Webs

The theme in my sewing space in July was strings.  I started making Feathers with the longer and wider strings. I have all of the two sides of the feathers made so now I'm just putting them all together into blocks. 

Maybe in August I will get this to flimsy stage. 

I don't really have many longer pieces of yardage for quilts that need lots of background. I did have enough of this green. I figured green goes with everything- most flowers have green leaves. 

I also started making Spider Web blocks in July. I don't have enough for a larger top yet. I don't want to make a kiddo sized quiltt because that black/rainbow fabric I'm using for the centers has marijuana leaves on it. 

It's August and now my theme is KIDS but I will still fit in some string sewing now and then. I don't want the string quilts to turn into UFOs until they are flimsies. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 31 - Finished a book! The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer - a WWII historical fiction. "Life has a way of reminding you that you are at the mercy of chance, and that even well-thought-out plans can turn to chaos in an instant."

August 1 - A BLT with a big juicy homegrown tomato. Homegrown tomatoes sprinkled with homegrown basil.  Unfortunately my tomatoes are not producing very well this year but I am really enjoying the ones I have harvested.