This Week Was Fun

And what a week it was! 

First and foremost, my youngest DS told us he got a job. His formation was on Friday (yesterday) and he's starting next Tuesday. It's a contract for 6 weeks and I am SO happy for him. (Six weeks is better than nothing.)

DH finally got back to work (after two weeks at home, nursing a nasty cut on his thumb) with his sore thumb but he managed to tough each and every day out. Yay! 

Some of you asked about MY work at the office. If I start later in the morning, do I work later in the afternoon?  No. My work hours were cut at both ends. (ouch, says my budget.) From 8:30 to 4:30 (lots of weeks until 5pm), I now work from 10am to 2pm. Or at least that's the plan. I still work until 3:30 - 4pm when there are many meetings to help Danika with the clients. Yes, I know, I used to do it all by myself but she doesn't have an ADHD brain (firing on all 8 cylinders) and the load of experience in customer service I have (she's 19, I'm 63, enough said).  I have good hopes for her. 

Also at work this week, I received my own laptop. My email signature now says Administrative Assistant instead of Reception. My new tasks have also been received. Fun! So, this being said: 

let's sew!

 

Some crumb blocks in whatever-comes-out-of-the-bag and more in aqua. (4.5" and 6.5")

Two 18-Bricks blocks. One in Aqua and the other one in Seafoam Green. Is Seafoam part of Aqua, Turquoise, Teal? Well, I thought it was so I made a block. I know! The butterfly print is in both blocks but I had to use what's on hand, right? 

When sewing crumb blocks, I work on a few blocks at a time (like any true ADHD person would do, lol). Some might be sewn together to reach the perfect size, whether it's for 4.5" or 6.5" or a 8.5 X 6.5" block. The pink one, on the right side, might be big enough for a 6.5" square. I'll iron, measure and trim that one today. 

The chair at my sewing desk is now empty. That big pile has been dealt with. (see last post)

Friday night (yesterday), I challenged myself again. 

The Challenge 

I have (at least) three bags and a drawer of rainbow-coloured strings. I have a drawer (like the one in the photo) for neutral (full) and another one of black (half-full). This rainbow one has been overflowing for years, hence the three bags. Obviously, I still can't close the drawer. It is time to stop stuffing bags and to REALLY tackle the problem. So I did.  

The mess 

One bag down, two to go. 

The progress

Once the three bags were done, I went to bed. My legs were so numb from sitting on the floor. So, this morning (Saturday), the sorting continued. 

Empty, at last

Two cups of coffee and one and a half hour later!! 

The result

Plastic bags are hard to photograph. I didn't pay much attention to the size of these strings. I was watching Project Runway on TV. I did remove some bits and bobs that can't be call "strings" by any definitions. I'm sure more can be remove but won't make much of a difference. The black and greys are together. Other groups include whites, beige, dark whites, yellow, light green, dark green, light blue, dark blue, pink, purple, red, orange, brown, multi-coloured and a jelly roll. I haven't bought that jelly roll so it must have come in a gifted bag or was free with a purchase I did at some point. Can't remember. Guess what colour the jelly roll is? Pastel! So, Angela!  I am ready for Pastel month next year. Lol. 

What prompt this challenge: Terry! Have you seen her string quilt? Click on the link. You won't regret it. 

Early in the mornings, now that I start work later, what do I do? Have coffee on the deck with the cats, do stretches and then I'm suppose to be cleaning the sewing room but Friends' Favourite keeps calling me.

It is set in the loft (the game room), not the sewing room

I timed myself and it takes 20 minutes to do one square including stitching the neutral frame around the square. Like this: 

(Little kitty watching you from the upper left corner. )

The quilting in the coloured sashing is another 15-20 minutes. I'm sewing straight (trying to keep it straight) down the middle of the frames and sashing. So, instead of sewing 1/4 inch in the square, I decided to go with 1/2 inch there too. I thought of doing fancy flowers and butterflies, but then thought if I want to finish this soon, better keep it simple. 

I calculated that if I sew one block a day, it would be done by March 18, 2027. That's not counting the sashing part. I wonder if I can finish it before that. Dare to bet?  Lol. 

So, that's what happened this past week. Hopefully, I can sew some more this weekend. How about you? Hope you find time to sew something too. 

Take care. ;^)

And I'll try to catch these talented ladies' link-party. See you there.
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Alycia for Finished or Not Friday
Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching
Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

Not Very Productive

Does un-stitching count as productivity? I did more of that than sewing itself. My back is acting up this week and I did what I could instead of what I wanted. 😑

Helene gave me lots of flannelette (see this post) along with receiving blankets she had made by zigzagging the folded edges of the fabric …

… I decided to undo one. I want to use it for the backing of this top. 

It's not a perfect match but it is much better than what I could come up with from my stash. Bonus, it is big enough so no pieced-backing for this one. So, un-stitching happened. 

While I put my things from the retreat back in the sewing room, I found a mysterious (read forgot I had) box. Old string blocks were hiding in there. 

They were made with my mother's white sheets instead of paper. It makes the seams very thick. Not gonna do that again, so no blocks will be added. It's 24 X 37 inches. 

Oops! Let's try again. 

Ta-dah! It is now a top and one box is in the recycling bin. Whoop Whoop for decluttering. Thanks, Joy, for putting me back on track. 😊

March is called Yellow this year. These are my yellow bags. 

One bag is yellow with lively colours, one I call "gold", and the regular yellow is the biggest one. That's all. No scrap basket for this colour ... yet. Two FQs were found in a gifted bag. I added these to the "big" yellow scraps pile. 

Carole will come by today with 2 more bags of fabric. I'll try to hunt the yellow out of them. Will see how that goes. 

Like I said, not very productive but some forward motion was accomplished. So, YAY for that. 

Hope you are well and sew happily. 

Have a great week. Enjoy! 

;^)

I will visit these talented ladies over the weekend. Hope to catch you there. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Nina Marie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Messy Sewing Sessions

For someone who said she won't start a new project ... I sure am in trouble! On the other hand, they are very beautiful troubles. :^D



The mitred corners blocks for the 365 Challenge were really a challenge for me. I made it my OMG (One Monthly Goal) challenge to kick my butt into action help me along.

To alleviate the tension in the sewing room, these string blocks started to appear. (as per last week.)

Last month, the RSC's colour was orange and some string blocks turned out orange.

And then, this happened!  (For those who followed by blog for a long time, I did do a few string blocks about two years ago as testers. They have joined the newest ones.)

Well, there's no point in stopping now, right?  :^D  This week, the string blocks turned green,

 and that is how a string quilt was started in my sewing room without my consent. (hehehe.)

Somehow, the army of strings on the sewing table managed to construct the 365 Challenge blocks.

Okay, so the last one (bottom right) is not a mitred corner block like on the pattern. It is a HSTs block because I just couldn't rise in the morning knowing I had to face another mitred corner block. (Sorry but I was beyond my limit.) Especially that the block in question had 8 (yes eight! like a spider!) mitred corners.

Those blocks really hindered my opinion of my sewing talent! So I had to pieced some more just to easy my mind. 

Aaaahh! I feel better. Which brings me to the block of March 21st.
(Yes, I am exactly TWO months behind!)

And look which block Kathryn chose for that day.   YIKES!!

I mean just LOOK at it!  

Isn't that eeEEeeEerie?   }^8>

Would you really call that fortuitousness? !

For those of you who don't understand why this is so hair raising for me, let me explain.

Julie from Julie K Quilts called a kind-of-sew-along with log cabin blocks, appropriately called "Log Cabin Lunacy". You pick your colours, layout, and size, and make your blocks when you can,  as long as it's log cabin blocks, it's good. The linky party to show our progress is once a month, on the day of the full moon. (You know, luna=moon. Just love this.)

Well, today is the FULL MOON day! (paste sound of a terrified woman screaming here!)

How did Julie knew? OOoooohhh! CreeEEeepy! (So happy we're not in October!!)

Anywho!! I will make a log cabin today. Or two, because this little wee one will not go into my log cabin quilt.
But the next ones will ! They will also be bigger. HA!

These are the fabrics I pulled out so far for the Log Cabin quilt, all from my stash. I'll have to find more light coloured fabrics  ...  and maybe one other colour?  Haven't done a B/W quilt yet.

And I picked the layout too ... but you'll have to wait until the next full moon to see it.

MHOOAAHH! AAHH! AH!       <8^{

Joining Angela at Soscrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 
Joining Julie at JulieKQuilts for Log Cabin Lunacy.
Joining Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIPs Be Gone. 
Joining Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scraps! 
Lots of fun this weekend. Enjoy!


Until next time ...
;^)



P.S. Just so you know, I am not superstitious.  :^D

Slow is Good

I thought I could barge in for a minute to show I am still alive.  ;^)

My computer was playing tricks on me with the graphics. Sometimes it was oversized and other time it was too small. Every morning when I opened it I didn't know what I would get. Then I lost Windows. Completely!  No Windows, no computer. It's that simple.  It really distressed me as I have so much saved on it.  Not just quilting stuff but budgets, recipes, addresses, lists ...  It did a number on my nerves. My world was not a happy one.  ;^(

I kind of kept in touch with what my bloggy friends, thanks to my tablet, but I found it hard to comment. (I really love my keyboard, thank you! :^D )

That too depressed me. 

After two weeks, my tech-y wizz nephew got me Ubuntu. It's a Windows wannabe but not like it. I'm still not comfortable with it, but let's move on with something quilting, shall we?

Because I had no computer, do you think I quilted more? 

Nope! Too upset!! The seams were not straight, the hand quilting was not nice and the Ultimate Sampler 365 Challenge was asking for inset seams! Bawhahahahahahaha! 

Nope! Not gonna do that!!

Instead I did something that didn't need to be neat or demanded attention and neatness.  (You'd think I could download some pictures right? Oh gosh!! ) Untouched pictures because I have nothing on this computer to resize them. Sorry!  

Did some string blocks! Mindless work, I'd say. Cynthia is also doing some string blocks. They are lovely. I use the same method to sew my block except for the corners. I mostly dig in my box of saved triangles for the corners.  

I did some orange one too ... of course. 

Today is a beautiful sunny day. Still on the cool side which is fine by me. So, I'll work on this project. 

Shakespeare in the Park. 

I have decided how to quilt the big blue squares. Now that I have a plan, it might get done lol. So far, I have quilted 1/4 inch from the seams and some simple straight lines for the middle star. 

I am using quilting threads of different blues for this quilt. The threads will be as scrappy as the quilt itself. I had more pictures taken but will save them for another day when I can do something about the size. Thank you for being patient. ;^)

Joining Kathy (Slow Sunday Stitching) and Cynthia (Oh Scrap!). Hope you'll come by to see all the eye candy. So fun!

Until next time ... keep in stitches. ;^)