I am currently working on lots of different projects. I don’t normally do this but I am enjoying it. It allows me to enjoy bits of the process, depending on what I am in the mood for (piecing, trimming, stitching etc.)
I have been hand stitching the binding on my Square Dance quilt. I found a cute red and yellow print on a sale table that works well with this pallette. Picking this up in the evenings and stitching a bit is perfect. I brought it up to Downieville over the weekend for some hand sewing but only worked on it for a short while. I should have it finished up by the end of the week.
Knowing that we were going to be up at the house in DV, I made a little curtain. In our bedroom, there is a door leading to a tiny room which will someday be a sewing room. For now, it is where Ray keeps his tools and supplies for all of the work he is doing on the house. But someday…. it will be a perfect place to sew. This door has a window that I wanted to cover for privacy. The sewing room has windows that one can look through to the bedroom. I used a great piece of Tula Pink in gray and blue. I took the photo at a weird angle because the sun was coming through and when I took it straight on, the colors were way off.
Now that April is here, there is a new color for RSC16, orange. Not at all my favorite color, I was surprised to see how many scraps I had to work with. Last night I worked on “making” fabric (as discussed in “15 Minutes of Play” by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.) It is coming together well. I had a patchwork block left over from RSC14’s quilt so I unpicked some seams and used bits of patchwork for the new blocks.
These colors will add a huge pop to my scrappy HST quilt. I won’t use them for the Gemstones quilt though. After a little back and forth with Cynthia Brunz, she suggested swapping out orange for a deeper rust (think of Topaz gems). I love this idea but don’t have enough choices in my stash. I will pick up a few FQ’s for this.
Finally, I made huge progress on the Stepping Stones QAL that I am doing with Jennifer over at Inquiring Quilter. Participating in the QAL has been the perfect way to keep me on task. After many years of working to a deadline (which is so common in the HR world) I am finding that having the deadline is really helpful to me. I have pieced the 143 HST’s needed. I also cut some extra charms. After counting what I had, I came up slightly short. Take a look at these black and white FQ’s that I picked up to supplement my charm squares with.
I love all of these! The fabric at the top is a Tula Pink which I found interesting – I don’t think she uses black and white very often. It is gorgeous though.
Finally, I want to let you know that signups are open for the 2016 New Quilt Blogger session with Quilting Jetgirl, Late Night Quilter and Meadow Mist Designs. I participated in this activity last year. If you are relatively new to the quilt blogging world, I highly recommend participating. It was a valuable experience offering tips and techniques that taught me so much. Working with a large (we had about 70) group of bloggers, I became acquainted with many new bloggers. Opportunities were available which helped to push me to learn and grow (such as the block hops sponsored by Paint Brush Fabrics.) Be sure to check out the information at any of the three websites I have linked to and see what if this is right for you. If you have questions, leave them in the comments. Here are the criteria for participating in this event.
- If you have been blogging mainly about modern quilting (modern quilting to you is modern quilting to us.),
- for less than 2 years,
- writing at least 4 posts a month,
- are willing to agree to be actively involved in the blog hop through visiting and commenting on the other blogger’s hop posts,
- and have or are willing to open a Facebook account to participate in the group discussions.
**If you are interested, sign up here!
Hope you are all having a wonderful week. Springtime is certainly long in coming to the east coast but we are in full swing on the west. My lilacs are fully blooming. I tried to cut some for inside the house but the fragrance was powerful and I couldn’t leave them. We were all sneezing after just a short while!
Linking to lots of fun places. Check out the links at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
You do have a lot going on at the moment including the gorgeous lilac blooms! Our weather’s been so up and down with extreme temperature variations that I don’t know if mine will bloom this year or not.
RSC and orange. If there is one fabric that I don’t have a lot of it is orange 🙂
Oh, I hope the weather doesn’t ruin your blossoms! That is so discouraging. Hang in there. I hope spring comes along soon.
Also, if you want some orange scraps for this month, let me know. I would be happy to pop some in the mail to you. 🙂
Hand stitching is one of my favorite parts of a project. Taking breaks on that really helps my hands not to be too cramped and sore.
Thank you for sharing about the new quilt bloggers hop! Would you mind also pointing to the registration form since you have so many of the other details here?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/141Hb_d__bKblDhtHXF-ZnGYSDTVE7-6l0JzVq2O69e8/viewform
I’ve updated the post with the sign up sheet link. Great idea! Good luck with this year’s event. I look forward to getting to know the participants. 🙂
I totally and thoroughly dislike orange….I’d be hard-pressed to come up with enough orange to make a complete anything! But I like your block. BTW…I thought I got a whiff of your lilacs in the photo…lol…so, so pretty. After days of 60’s and 70’s we have a few days of 20’s to 40’s in the forecast with snow expected Thursday through Saturday….I fear for all my darling buds. I can’t cover everything.
Ugh! I hope you don’t lose too much with the freeze. That is just not fair in April!!
Enjoy your projects. I love orange and yours is no exception!
Thanks so much! Hope you’ll come back for another visit soon. 🙂
Hi again! I wasn’t familiar with your blog address so I just hopped over and read the last three months of posting. I love your writing and also your quilting. Just clicked through to follow on Bloglovin and look forward to reading more of your posts! Do you always split your time between Texas and Cape Breton? ,
Best,
B.
Thanks for posting the New Blogger Hop info. I heard about it last year but wasn’t successful at actively posting then. I’m going to give it a try this year, though, and already clicked your link and signed up! Yaaay!
I have a few projects going on right now, too, and am finding that I also like it! It allows me to be more productive because I have something ready when ten or fifteen minutes suddenly become available. And, and younsaid, I can choose what I feel like doing. I usually procrastinate because I don’t have time to “start something big” or because I don’t feel like doing the current step in a particular project. The last few weeks, though, I have always had something at the ready, and I love it! Last night I even allowed myself to put current projects aside and just cut scraps for 15 minutes before bed. Felt great!!
Great! I am so glad you signed up to participate. Truly, I learned a huge amount. One part of this is where a small group of bloggers read through each other’s blogs and critique them – things like the visual look of the blog, content, how easy it is to find things on the blog, etc. This was sort of hard for me – it made me feel a bit vulnerable. However, I am glad I did it. It was good to receive feedback and then to think about it and implement the parts that made sense to me. I am only telling you this because it made me nervous but overall, it was very constructive and all the bloggers I worked with were very kind and respectful. I would love to hear how it goes for you.
Best,
B.
Love the orange block, beautiful colors!
Thanks Tina. You know, you have commented numerous times on orange projects. You need some orange in your life! 😉
Love that little curtain! And the project you are binding looks so sweet; I’m a sucker for a vintage floral.
Your blog grew so much this year! You’re an excellent ambassador for the new blog program. I think I will always feel like a new blogger, forever caught between wanting to connect and wanting to hide. Ha! 🙂
I think growing a blog is just a personal preference. You have such a sweet, genuine tone to your writing and I enjoy reading your posts. If you want it to remain somewhat private, that is ok. It should be how you want it to be. Should you decide you want to connect up with more readers, then the New Blogger event would be fun for you. Either way, I plan to continue to read. 🙂
Your projects all look like so much fun, Bernie! That binding really is perfect for the Square Dance quilt. I’m curious about your future sewing room. That little Downieville house seems delightful. Now that I’ve looked at all your projects, I’m going to pretend to sniff those lilacs. When I was a kid, we sucked on the stem end of the flowers for the nectar. Our weather is so up and down here that it’s probably a good thing things aren’t trying too hard to bloom.
Maybe you will become an orange convert? I used to be nervous about orange fabric. Now, I love it. I still have a way to go with purple, however.
The blog hop is a great thing. I took part two years ago.
Hi Carla, I am enjoying orange more than I used to – that’s for sure. I think it is hard for me to use as I see it as a harsh, or overwhelming, color. Purple is much easier on the eye (to me anyway).
I agree about the blog hop – it is a lot of work for the leaders and I appreciate all of their efforts. I certainly learned a lot over the past year!
I love orange. In fact I’m quilting last years RSC’s month of orange. Your piece is luscious. Those b&w fabrics are wonderful additions, too. Nothing like deadlines to keep us focused. Thanks for linking to WIPs Be Gone – that is my personal deadline – to do something on an old project by every Friday.