Simple Purple

A busy week with lots of cleaning tried to keep me away from my sewing machine. I persisted in sewing something anyway. Ha!


On Tuesday, at the Artisanat meeting, I received a big bag of scraps. (Sorry, no picture) Of course, I didn't say "No, thanks!" (See this post for the beginning of that story.) There was a lot of black fabric ... so much black! I cut some up already to make more Stained Glass blocks, trying to salvage as much as possible. 

Purple Stained Glass and crumb block. A lighter purple Stained Glass will be assembled this weekend. 

On the "Free" table at the meeting, there were not one but two embroidery/cross-stitch frames. I took both! This one needs a screw and a butterfly nut to hold the stand. 

The second frame is ready to go. So many of you make wonderful things with floss that I've been thinking for a while now, that I want to pick up floss again. ( I think I hear someone calling me Dory. Hahahahaha!) 

Sylvie gave me 17 magazines. (I guess she is decluttering too.) I already had only one of these magazines. Many hours will be spent looking into these projects. Thanks, Sylvie. 

I completed more Shoreline blocks this week as I wanted to finish the black thread bobbin. So, the total of blocks is now 84. Still have 172 to do. 

Well, that makes a scary emoji! 

A grey Stained Glass block was also assembled because ... you know, black thread bobbin. 

I am in love with this one.

Now that the black bobbin is empty, let's get into lighter colours and get the Moda block assembled. Gotta find a better name for it. 

Decluttering with Joy ( 100 Days 100 Things Decluttered ): 

I cleaned more than decluttered this week. I remain committed to reducing the scrap though. So, when I find a piece like this lovely purple that never gets used because of its bold white flowers, 

instead of putting it back in the scrap bag, I cut it down to 2 inches or whatever size. It will look great in a scrap quilt. 

 

Right now, the scrap bag corner is my pet peeve. They have to slim down and get used. 

So many scraps, so little time

Happy sewing everyone! 

;^)

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

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

New Month. New Colour! New Project?

It's the end of the red month.

I didn't accomplish as much as I was hoping for but I'm happy with my progress. Can I say it was a squirrel week? 

Another Stained Glass block in red was made and the black borders were added to all the blocks done so far. Accompanied by a crumb red block. 

Shoreline grew somewhat from 38 to 74 blocks (36 more blocks). Only 182 blocks missing. Haha. Can I say "long-term project" if I work on it only once a year? 

While searching for something, I came upon a gifted box that hadn't been processed yet. It came from Anne back in December. Oh! The squirrels in that box! 

There are some flannel and some beautiful cotton. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. 

I want to play with flannel now, or those little tiny triangles in the box on the right. Ooooohhhh!

There are some gorgeous batik blocks too. Carolina Chain, I think. I hope I will find some of those batik fabrics to make more blocks. If not, what can I do with 14 blocks? I want to search for batiks now. 

Decluttering with Joy ( 100 Days 100 Things Decluttered ):  A.K.A.  Squirrels!! 

I started to go through my drawers of cut pieces. The one holding the 2.5" scraps was the first to be processed. It had lots of different lengths by 2.5". Now, they are all squares. Yay! 

Some pieces were not 2.5" anymore due to fraying and had to be cut down to 2". Some were simply rejected due to the poor fabric quality; some were part of Jelly Rolls and were added to some projects. (Now, I want to play with Jelly Roll projects.) 

Jelly Roll strips in the background and some of the 2" square with the 1.5 X 2.5" rectangles. (Now, I want to play with the little bits of 1.5 X 2.5". They are for the quilt Friends' Favourite.)

On to the next drawer. 😀

In the kitchen: 

This basket got a cleaning up too. It contains envelopes of mixtures to make vinaigrette, gravy, spicy potatoes, tacos, etc. There are bags of spices too. The oldest or the "not gonna do that again" got trashed. 

I did the same with the hand creme and lotion in the bathroom. Next was my make-up drawer. I don't wear make-up at home, so it has been sitting there for the last 8 months fermenting. I don't think that's a good thing for make-up. Out it went. I'll get some more when I start working again. (No. No job yet.) Two little black baskets were emptied in the process! Yay! 

On to better things? Yes! A new colour! 

Angela? What do you say? 

PURPLE

The project tagged with Purple is Broken Dish Swap, hosted by Barb Vedder a few (4, 5) years ago. I have the blocks but not the motivation. So, I might change that to something else. 

Update on Slow Stitching: 

Only 27 more blocks to quilt on Ohio Star Shadow. I'm not working diligently on it as I used to. Let's see if I do better during March. 

I found a ball of cotton yarn to make some dishcloth. (Squirrel!!) 

You probably can tell that I'm not a very "experienced" knitter. I had to read the pattern at every row, yet, I managed to change the direction of the waves. They're supposed to go all in one direction.  Please, don't ask me to do that again because I have no idea how I did it. 😂

That's it for me. Hope you have a lovely week. 

;^)

Joining these talented ladies during the week: 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Weekend at the Retreat

NOT! Due to my financial situation, I didn't go to the retreat with the girls. We still sew together via FB. The saddest part is that I'm not the only one missing out on the fun. 😟

So, what am I working on during my In-Home Retreat? 

Shoreline, of course. I said that I would attempt to double the number of blocks already done. I changed my mind when I counted the blocks: 38 blocks done so far. I'll just do my best to do as many as possible all the while keeping in mind that I need 128 of each block. 😵 It's a good thing that February has one more day this year. 😄

Shoreline Assembly Line 

Sixteen blocks were added to the pile this week. It takes about half an hour to sew two block-A. And lots of cutting time. But this weekend is sewing time! 

After reading Joy's post regarding the 100 Days 100 Things Decluttered, I looked around my sewing room with a different eye. So much fabric, so little time. 

DH said: Stop accepting bags of scraps.  

WHHHAAT?? 

Nope!Me: "Fine, but no more Pepsi for you! Fabric is MY addiction!" 

Him: "I understand but I don't keep the empty cans." 

Me: 😒 Okay, point taken. 

So, decluttering started. A few piles got smaller as I purged some fabric I didn't like. Why keep the skimpy one when I have some real, nice quilting cotton? Changing things around made me realise all that I have. Wow! 

This little drawer holding all my 2.5" was overflowing like most of the drawers around here. (Please, don't mind the cat food and the quilt waiting for some attention.)

One-third of the drawer is done. It will need more than one tub to empty it.

The squares will reside in these tubs. The drawers will hold my books, magazines, etc. The tubs will go on the shelf. It will be easier (I hope) to get to the pieces I need than from the drawer. At least, I can bring the tub to the sewing machine. 💡 This cleaning will take a while. 

Today, I am joining Joy in another challenge: The Table Scrap Challenge. The theme was heart, the same as my group, the Artisanat. Talk about nailing two challenges with one project! Yay! 

I used the backing fabric for the binding, just turn it to the front and sew. I had some problems with the corner because it is the first time I've used this technic and I didn't YouTube it beforehand. Some learning occurred. 

Leaving you with some 9 Patch blocks. Not many, but some got done with whatever little 1.5" pieces were found during the decluttering. 

Enjoy! ;^)

Will be joining these talented ladies. See you there.  

Cynthia for Oh Scrap 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Working with Red

I finished the Moda block in red and guess what?

I didn't run out of white but ran out of the red. Life is funny sometimes. So, one of these quarts doesn't have the same red as the others. Can you spot which one? 

I'll have to study how to properly press all those seams. At the moment, it is a hot mess. 

My personal Rainbow-UFO Challenge for February is Shoreline (see this post for a picture of the blocks together). I counted the blocks made so far and the total is way more than I thought; 38 blocks. I don't think I will be able to double that (my initial intention), but I sure will give it a try. 

Have you ever thought you had more fabric of one colour than what's in your stash and when you pull out a UFO project you realize where all that colour went? I have! When I pulled out Shoreline, I found a lot of my reds hiding in there. 

This quilt demands a lot of cutting. A. LOT. Of. Cutting! I keep running out of varieties. (Thank you to all who sent me black scraps.)

You have to keep the different sizes separated. I use Mr. Christie's plastic cookie trays. Some use baking muffin trays. Whatever works for you. 

I started by making one black (left) and one red block (right). I didn't like it. I remembered that it is easier to do two of the same blocks at once. The black has 16 pieces and the red has 22 pieces so they aren't compatible with the leader-ender technique that I love so much.  

Two by two, they are slowly getting done. 

The next one is prepped and waiting patiently. 

I managed to squeeze in a Stained Glass red block. 

And now, a picture of my big fluffy cat, since he hasn't been on a post in a while.

He was sleeping on my bed but heard me walk into the room. He doesn't like the camera's lens so it is hard to have him looking up at it. He turned 3 years old last month. 

Miracle! As I was taking pictures of the blocks on the kitchen floor, Raven came by to check things out, flopped himself down and ... fantastique! ... he looked up at me. 

It looks like he has another cat's sleeveless fur coat on, but all that is his. He's winter-proof, lol. 

That's all for now. Have fun stitching! 

;^) 

Will be joining these talented ladies. See you there.  

Cynthia for Oh Scrap 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Up To No Good ... Again

What have I done this week? 

I'm almost ashamed to say not much once again. I did play with fabric but it didn't amount to much. Let's see. 

I got more bags of scrap. 

I opened the box first and was having fun when I thought: "Oh! Photos!" so I just threw everything back into the box. 

Then I sorted the scraps by colour. 

This is my living room floor every single day this week, and I am still not done. That's a lot of scraps. 

On Wednesday, I went to see the girls quilting. I used to belong to this group but I was working and had to use a vacation day every time I participated. So I quit. Now that I am not working, I could join but I don't have money to pay for it. Vicious cycle! 

Would you like to see what the girls are working on? I didn't take a picture of everyone's work because some were still just blocks. 

This is Carole's top. She sewed the last seam while I was there. 

Anne-Marie did some koala bears in grey and brown. Aren't they cute? 

He's cuter in person. 

Back home, I got some of my smallest scraps out to make the last border on the Hole in the Barn Door quilt. 

I probably have enough for another Hole in the Barn Door quilt with two borders. (Thanks, Joy for your generous offer but I think I'm good for now, lol.) Yellow and black are underneath the bags. Green is still on my cutting table. Not done playing with green ... 

... but I did work with red ... a little bit. 

Yes, I started another block. 😔 Sigh! I am hopeless! 

I saw this on the Moda free pattern page and I just had to try it out. 

Don't worry about the points, it isn't sewn yet. I'm just having fun on the computer. 

And then, I added more, of course. 

Ugh! Nope! Sashing? 

I love this! In every colour! 

It's not exactly a good contender for RSC though. It demands some very big scrap pieces. I know I will run out of the white fabric before the block is done.

How about yellow? Pouf! Like magic, it is now yellow! 

Do not adjust your monitors. I used a different white for the yellow HSTs. 

Here's a "behind the scenes" photo.  This is how I can make a 12" block in 3 minutes. 

Not so magical, right? With pieces finishing at 1.5", the entire block will measure 12". I will tweak my way of cutting to shorten the cutting time. You might see this block (whatever its name is) again. 

I forgot to mention in my last post that my personal Rainbow-UFO Challenge is Shoreline. These blocks are made with really small pieces. Oh, the fun I will have!  

Picture from 2021

My intention is not to finish this big quilt but to move it forward. I'll count how many blocks are made and I'll try to double it. 

That's all for now. 

Have a great weekend. ;^)

Joining these talented ladies. See you there.  

Cynthia for Oh Scrap 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever