We just finished up a week or so of bitterly cold weather. We don’t often drop into the teens here but yikes it was cold. No snow (which disappointed me). Lots of rain but then this is Washington, so it is to be expected.
With the super cold weather, our heater was just keeping the house warm. My sewing room has never gotten much heat and it was pretty chilly up there. But I braved the cold and sewed anyway. Nothing an extra sweatshirt couldn’t take care of!
I finished up the quilt top for the twin bed in the grand kid guest room. It is going to be so cute! Yesterday I pre-washed the backing fabric because it is a deep pink color and I was concerned it might bleed into the white background. Now I can sew one seam to make it large enough and do some spray basting. For quilting, I am thinking an edge to edge over the white background and some sort of meandering motif in the patchwork heart. I am excited for this one – it will look so cute in the girls’ room. (Hmmm, if I ever have more grand children, are the girls going to think it is unfair to have to share ‘their room’ with cousins???)
A few weeks ago Ray and I (mostly Ray and only a little me) painted the kid room. That pepto bismol pink was so awful. In the summertime when the sun came through that window, it cast a deep pink glow over the hallway. The room had so much pink and ugly dark gray curtains! I bought some off white paint and found these sweet polka dot curtains on Facebook Marketplace. What a difference this made. When the heart quilt is done, it will replace the patchwork that you see above. I love the twin bed frame. Ray made it for Julia when she was about four or five years old. It weighs 500 billion pounds and should we have an earthquake we will all run in there and hide out under the bed. We will be perfectly safe there.
Always thinking of my girls, I saw this (undressed) doll at a thrift shop for a dollar. I went to get my stack of doll clothes patterns to make something for her and remembered I donated all of them. Why did I do that??? Anyway, I had a pattern for pants and drew a little pattern for the shirt. It closes with velcro in the back and looks pretty cute (if I do say so myself). She needs a bit of hair styling but I am thinking H and A can take care of that when they come over.
Quite a while ago, I participated in the annual Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. These projects are hosted by Angela at So Scrappy. Below are some projects I made with RSC blocks. In case you are unfamiliar, and I cannot imagine anyone is, Angela picks a color each month. The quilter makes blocks with that color and at the end of the year assembles a rainbow themed, scrappy quilt.
This year my goal is to use up my bin of strips. It is stuffed to the brim. The only thing I won’t use are binding strip leftovers. These are rolled up and measured. Maybe I can use them as a scrappy binding at the end of the year? As for what blocks I plan to make with these, that remains to be determined. Right now, I am just joining strips and ‘making fabric’.
This week I joined all of the green strips. Most of these pieces of made fabric are seven inches tall. The length is determined by the size of the strips I used. Hard to tell from this picture but the bulk of this measures about 30″ wide and 21″ tall. So it is a good chunk. The green has been dealt with for now. If one of the monthly colors doesn’t exist in the strips bin, I will just skip it. I have a few books for inspiration when I think about how to use the strips. Sunday Morning Quilts, No Scrap Left Behind, and 15 Minutes of Play are my favorites for this sort of thing. I am sure I will find inspiration within one of these books and decide how to use the strips. Thank you to Sandra of MMMQuilts for this idea. I saw her working on something similar on Instagram and decided to follow suit.
That sums up my work in the sewing room this week. Good start to the year, for sure.
My son texted this picture to me last week. He was picking A up from preschool. She was covered in mud! She goes to a farm based preschool and they play outdoors no matter the weather (which makes sense around here or the kids would never be outside.) When the school year began, parents were warned not to send the kids to school wearing anything special. These kids play hard and are allowed to make mud, dig holes, whatever. There is a really cool area called The Mud Kitchen which has all sorts of utensils, bowls and pans to ‘cook’ with. She clearly had a great day. I love the expression on her face. “Mud? What mud?”
Linking up with Angela at So Scrappy.
I rummaged through my green scrap bin to make a block called ‘Missing U’ from ‘Sunday Morning Quilts’. I’ve participated in two charity quilt projects using that block. It’s a pattern which sews up quickly.
Thanks Ann. I will take a look. Between all three of those books, I can always find something fun!
What a fun post! From the pepto removal and bedroom redo to the scrappy quilt finishes and finally to some playing in the mud! I always say that the bigger the mess, the more creative fun!!
Hi Elana – Totally agree – the dirtier the kiddo gets, the more fun was had. This preschool is so fun. Goats, horses, rabbits, turkeys, ducks and chickens are on the property. A loves this place!
Fun pictures of quilts and grandchildren!
Thank you Lynn!
You’ve been busy with that room update, and it looks great! I’m still chuckling about the weight of the bed frame, because it makes me think of my father-in-law. He believed in building sturdy! I have been considering joining in with the RSC this year, and Sandra’s post intrigued me as well. If I do join in, I’ll probably follow after you two! Love the photo of A – hahahaha! Sounds like a fun school!
Oh yes – Ray is definitely a member of the ‘sturdy builders club’.
The preschool is a great one. I was there with A when we watched the girls in November. It was freezing cold and raining and when it was time to play outside I was so wishing it was time to go home and make a cup of coffee!! But the kids just don’t care – This old grammy wasn’t thrilled with it though.
I love that bed and the quilt on it (all of the quilts actually) that is so neat a farm pre-school. I have never heard of that. For the first time in years we have young children across the highway for neighbors – they are home schooled and ages 7-5 & 2. It is nice to hear them outside across the road playing – jumping on the enclosed trampoline at 9 in the morning yelling and laughing and riding bikes late in the afternoon. The mother is right out there playing with them. I didn’t think I would ever hear kids playing outside since our girls were at that age back in the 80’s – then we had neighborhood kids and they were all around the same age and haven’t seen any since.
I know exactly what you mean. Our neighbors have this zip line in their backyard and in the summer the kids go tearing down it, squealing really loud. I love that!! It is such a happy noise. 🙂
The updates to the bedroom are wonderful and the new quilt will look great! The muddy photo is awesome. I loved making mud cakes with my sisters when we were preschoolers.
Thank you Tracie. I remember a lot of fun times playing outside with my sisters too. Mom would say ‘go outside and play’. She didn’t go play with us – I think so many parents would benefit by doing this. We whined and said we were bored but she held firm. It is good for kids to figure out how to ‘not be bored’.
Your heart quilt is so cute! It’s going to look so good in that freshly painted room. When we moved into this house the first thing we did was get every wall painted – it was a mess but so worth it.
I have been toying with rejoining RSC but struggling with my green scraps. I finally decided on a block to make but your post reminded of Amanda Jean’s books, which I have in my closet. I’m going to go get inspired!
That farm based school sounds wonderful! A is so, so cute. I love the confidence. 🙂
Last night I looked through Sunday Morning Quilts for ideas. What I decided for the most part is I don’t want a totally rainbow inspired quilt. I think I want to use 3, maybe 4, colors total. So… this won’t totally be a RSC project. But it should use up the bulk of the bin of strips. I think that is why I haven’t been doing the RSC thing for the past several years – not wanting a rainbow quilt. But who says I have to do all the colors??? I am such a rule follower! Sigh.
Lol I relate! 😀
Love. your heart quilt and the girls room looks great. The doll was a fun find and now has a lovely outfit, and I bet more to come. She will certainly have some fine hairstylists paying attention to her!
Oh goodness, the photograph of A at the end of the post is priceless! I had an all pink room once: BRIGHT pink carpet and pink walls. I wanted desperately to paint and get new carpet, but thankfully we just didn’t live there very long. The transformation with the off-white paint and new curtains is lovely and it looks like your heart quilt will fit right in when it is ready!
Yikes Yvonne! Your comment on the pink room with pink carpet! I am grateful the previous owners of this house didn’t take it that far!! It would be awful to deal with pink carpet. I am very pleased with the way the room looks now. Yesterday I spray basted the heart quilt. Today will be a rainy day so I will start the quilting – I am excited to see the quilt take shape.
I can relate about the cold sewing space! I hope temperatures in your neck of the woods are more temperate! Your update painting project looks terrific. I admire you for sewing doll clothes. . .sans patterns! You are one special grandma! I liked your display of RSC quilts. What an inspiring display! Best of all was the picture with the caption. . .Mud? Mud? Mud??? Playing outside is great in so many ways!
Fortunately, I am one who would rather be on the cool side. It is when the room heats up in the summer months that I feel annoyed. Much rather just put on a sweatshirt and sew in the cool room. I am glad you enjoyed that mud picture. It is one of my favorites. She is such a funny little girl.
What a great start to the year! Let me know if you see a reduction in scraps. I feel like every time I make a scrap quilt they regroup and reproduce while I’m not looking. A constant battle! Love the story about the bed – a bed fit for a bunker!
My hope is at least to reduce the strips bin. As for the other scraps (I have a large bin with plastic bags of scrap sorted by color) those will have to wait for another time. These strips are old – when I went through the green strips, I was surprised to see some really old bits in there! I’ll keep you posted!