Slicing the Oranges

It was a short week but what a week it was. Let's have a look.

First, Orange, of course. 

This is what came out of the Orange scrap basket. Not much to play with as most of it is tiny little pieces. Lots of triangles. Ironing and measuring for a few hours at a time. 

Transitioning. 

I finished this beautiful Grey/Blue/Aqua crumb block. It is better looking in person. (not trimmed)

An Orange crumb block too. Of course! 

The 9-patch blocks were also transitioning. 

A little bud of a crumb photobomb the picture. You can see how small the scraps I have to play with in here. 

More crumb blocks were made. (4.5 square and 8.5 X 6.5) 

I have lots of funny-shaped scraps like this ... 

and this ... 

and this! I have a stack of almost an inch high of these triangles in three different orange prints. I cut them into usable size pieces. It took me a while but ... 

The end result is (6) 2.5" squares; (59) 2" squares; (20) 1.5 X 2.5" rectangles and (45) 1.5" squares. A pretty good harvest if you ask me. 

Sometimes, I get a tiny little piece of a print that I just can NOT throw out. Like this little kitten face. Sorry, forgot to take a picture before I started to sew but here's what I do. 

The adjacent fabric is not squared with the kitten print. I leave a good quarter inch beyond the kitten print on purpose. I sew as close to the edge of the kitten print as I dare. See the stitches at the bottom of the photo. 

Then, I iron the adjacent fabric towards the kitten print one and I sew it again but in a top-stitch way, on the inside of the kitten fabric. This way, the very slim kitten print seam is covered and will not fray. 

The end result is a little kitten looking at me through a hole in my crumb block, lol. 

If you look closely, you can see the top stitches on both sides. Sewn any other way, I believe the cute print would show only a kitty nose. 

The Stained Glass blocks aren't Stained Glass Blocks yet ... but getting close to the finish line. 

Raven's News. 

Mr. Raven is sleeping ... a lot. Is it the pain, is it the med? His Doctor said not to exert himself and he is doing just that. I will try to upload a video here (my first time), so I hope it works. 

I have never in my life, living with many different breeds of cats, seen a cat slobber! Dogs, yes! Cats? NO! But they can and they can do it ON PURPOSE, mind you! I'm flabbergasted. The first time Raven did it I called the vet. I thought my cat was dying. 

His Doctor said that cats will work their jaws to add air into their saliva to remove more of the bad taste in their mouths! Well now, you know it too. 

Early this morning, Raven had an appt with his Doctor who was pleased with his progress. He made me see how Raven could get up from a lying position much faster than before and his walk is more graceful, not as halting and painful as before. I was relieved. I didn't notice these little differences and I thought Raven hadn't improved at all. I thought the worst like him being in pain for the rest of his life. But there is hope still. It's slow progress but if the Vet is happy, I'm happy too. :^D

And I think this is all I have for this post. 

Take care everyone and enjoy the music of a sewing machine. 

;^) 

I will join these talented ladies this week. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Not Your Typical Week

Not MY typical week either, but what a week it was. My week went to the cats. Even though my son celebrated his 28th birthday, Raven got all my attention.

But first, FABRIC. 

Double Halo in Seafoam Green - done

Trimmed Blue and NOT trimmed Aqua crumb blocks 

and the usual 9 Patch trio. OOOOhhhh! Dots! 

And now the cat story. 

Bright and early Tuesday morning, we had the visit of Rascal. 

He came to the patio door, begging for food and love. Of course, I handed out both and plenty of it too. So he decided this place was cool and walked nonchalantly into the house. 😲

Raven was not amused that I gave HIS food to this stranger. "Hey, what's wrong with you? That's my food and you are busy petting me, REMEMBER!!" 

But somehow, they got along. Wow! Two males and I'm pretty sure this vagabond isn't neutered. He had no collar so we decided to name him Rascal. 

Unfortunately, I had to go to work so I sent him back outside where he chilled with Raven on the deck. Look how he keeps his paws together. So cute. I kept thinking about him all day long, and how skinny he was, and where to find the time to take him to the vet, etc. I rushed home that afternoon to care for him some more but he was no longer here. 

That little Rascal stole my heart. I'm still thinking of him and I hope someone has adopted him as he has a sweet disposition. (Deep inside, I still hope he will show up again.) Bye, Rascal. 

Raven started to have a peculiar behaviour, mainly not jumping on the bed anymore but literally climbing on the bed. Claws in the quilt, trying with all his might, to climb Mount (Super High Bed) Everest. I thought that was weird. Then I noticed that he didn't walk much. He walked a few steps and sat, walked 3 steps and sat. When he did walk, he would do so like a raccoon with his back all arched up. This caused me to be concerned, very concerned. 

A little visit to the vet turned into over an hour visit with a blood test and x-rays being taken to finally reveal that Raven has a spine injury. 😢 I don't know when or where this happened as my cat is an adventurous Indiana Jones in the jungle behind our house. Not only do I have to take care of my sons, but I am now a cat nurse! 🙀 I move him around the house to his desires so he doesn't have to exert himself. 😟

Here he is at the vet clinic. 

The picture is pretty blurry because we were both very nervous to hear the final verdict. Now, he's on meds and he's sleeping peacefully by my side. He has another appointment with the vet next week. Meanwhile, I will go to work because I am broke. 😭 But he is worth every penny. 

Hopefully, I can tackle my own Mount (Aqua) Everest during the weekend. 

Enjoy your week everyone. 

;^) 

P.S. If you see Rascal, please tell him to come back home. 😉

Joining these talented ladies this week. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

  

Blue's Last Dash to the Sewing Machine

I barely have enough energy to sew. 

Isn't that an awful thing to say? Unfortunately, it is how I feel. 

Fortunately, it is a long weekend here in Canada as we are celebrating Canada Day on July 1st. This morning, I got to my sewing machine as soon as my first coffee was poured, to push more blues under the needle. 

Last week's buds have turned into a crumb block and a Stained Glass. 

A little crumb block along with my regular 9-Patches.

I'm trying to get the bag of "blue with other colours" used also. Since last week's tulip had orange fabric ... an orange 9-patch ... of course! You know me so well. 😄

Two more crumb blocks were finished this morning. (not trimmed) 

I want to do 1 or 2 crumb blocks (2 would be best) with the medium or bright blue before calling the blue done.  

Double Halo Star, my RSC2024 project, is still in pieces ... 

... because I keep sewing the HSTs the wrong way. Sigh! It is my uppermost priority today ... after checking all the bags that Carole brought this morning. Whoohoo!!

Oh! the fun of "new" fabric!! 

Hope you too are having lots of fun with fabrics. 

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians and happy Independence Day to my friends down south. 🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇 

Enjoy! 

;^)

Joining these links to get more inspiration

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Bringing Out the Blues

Well, here we are in June or the blue month and I am still working with Pink. That is my life lately. In my defence, better be late than being a quitter, right? Lol.

So, Pink 9 patch ...

...and a 6.5 X 8.5 crumb block with 4X4 ones. I finished the crumb blocks Saturday morning. 

The pink scraps from the beginning of May 

to the end of May. I think the bags are smaller only because the scraps are nicely folded. 

The bigger pieces are in the left bag. The other one holds bags with lighter pink, pink with other colours, orangy-pink, etc. 

On to blue: 

Oooooooooh! My Skittles are burnt!!! 

Five bags of dark, light, bright, and aqua for this month. Not counting ...  

two scrap baskets too. They are supposed to be one light blue basket and one dark blue but some swapping, trading and exchange has occurred during the years. I will concentrate my efforts on the bags. 

Talking bags of scrap, I was gifted a scrap bag (again) during the Artisanat meeting. It has lots of pieces that got my brain working. 

Do you know what pattern these are for? In the first picture, there are two sizes of triangles. The second picture shows very small pieces. I might just cut them up to 1.5" and be done with it instead of trying to figure out what they are for. Life is short after all. 

There was also a lot of sewn pieces. 

I will unstitch them during lunch at work so I can use them up. Lovely prints in there.  

I will return to pink to finish the Double Tulips block which still looks like this. Sigh! 

I am catching up on comments' replies too. I was so far behind it was shameful. Anywho!! That's all for now. See you next weekend. Meanwhile, enjoy some scrap sewing. 

;^) 

Joining these talented ladies during the week: 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

But I'm Not Done Playing With Yellow!

I feel cheated. I had so many more yellow scraps to sew. 😞

Early Saturday (this) morning, I did the second tulip. This is the first time the sewing machine has been turned on since I started working two weeks ago. What a pleasure it was to sew that tulip!

The top part of the tulips has the same print. What are the odds that I have the same print in the colour Angela called for this month! I ONLY have this print in those two colours, btw!! Angela? Are you spying on getting inspired by my stash? LOL. 

This block is a donation to the Quilts for Survivors. Michele's quilts are heading there too. Look how beautiful her two quilts are.   

I'm in love with this collection. 

This morning, I finished a 6.5 X 8.5" crumb block made with darker yellow scraps. 

Once all the yellow pieces are back in the bags, I'll take a picture to compare with the beginning of the month. I'm not expecting much of a difference between the pictures as not much sewing got done. 

But these were made before the job started. 

I have more cut pieces that I want to sew before putting yellow away. 

Decluttering with Joy ( 100 Days 100 Things Decluttered )

Does deleting emails count as decluttering? I've done a lot of that. The job-searching sites were deleted and the presentation letters, lots of those. Lots of paper from my "ex" job moved to the recycling bin (the union convention booklet and stuff like that).

In the past weeks, I did many loads of laundry. Working with young children and then for the welfare office aren't places where you dress to a tee. But working with lawyers, it's goodbye jeans; hello dresses! 

A T-shirt with the company's logo was sent to the secondhand store along with others that don't fit me any more and shoes too. A pair of pants size 4! Nah! I'll never fit in that again. Goodbye! 

The closet has now room for new stuff. Yay! 

We had rain and weak sun most of the time. Some of the same for the weekend. My backyard is looking glorious though. 

Have a great week. 

;^)

Joining these talented ladies during the week: 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Little Bits of Yellow = Short Post

Isn't that something? Me doing a short post! Haha.

One son got sick, the other son got sick, the third son came home twice this week (not complaining, only stating) and I replied to many interesting job postings. That left little time and energy to play with yellow fabric but ...

 

... the second Stained Glass block was assembled (on the left).

Double Halo Star was a little brat. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to, and, the cherry on top, I chose a directional fabric which I sewed every which way but right. SIGH! Seventy-five per cent of the stitches had to be removed. No joke. I couldn't concentrate. Only this much was assembled this week along with a big crumb block.

Decluttering with Joy ( 100 Days 100 Things Decluttered )

You probably remember in the 80s and 90s, these wall borders were the big thing.  

The border was purchased in 1997 when we bought the house. I never put it up in the bathroom. (Yes, my bathroom is still charcoal and sand. I still love that combo.)  I was about to throw it out, but decided to have a look on Amazon and they still sell these.  So, off to the second-hand store it will go. 

That's it for this week. 

Have a great one. 

;^)

Joining these talented ladies during the week: 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever