What a Weekend!

 and More to Come

I should have known with this sunset last Tuesday that a front was moving in.

 

And move in, it did!  The yellow sky on Saturday morning was an omen of things to come.

The early morning severe storms passed us on the west, but this shelf cloud dumped a lot of rain.

We managed to make our Saturday errands in town before the serious rain moved in.  Rain, hail, lightning, wind -- you name it, we had it!  It was so bad that I was up at 3 a.m. on Sunday, unable to sleep.  In the end, we had about 5 inches of rain over two days.  The tip of our dock was under water for most of Sunday.

I know it's hard to see, but the debris shows it was up to the third post.  Thankfully, the house is much higher and we were in no danger of flooding, but I do appreciate those of you who expressed concern. 

On the other hand, our previous community was not so lucky.  You may have seen a couple of people interviewed on The Weather Channel whose homes were flooded again by the Little Harpeth River in Brentwood, TN.  While we lived up the hill from the river, I was blocked from getting home in the 2010 flood because the river was over the only street into the subdivision. 

More rain coming tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Table Scraps - Month 3

 While I have been participating in the Table Scraps challenge issued by The Joyful Quilter (read about it here), I have been negligent in reporting my monthly progress -- either I forget that it's the last weekend of the month (January) or I can't get the link to work (February).  Maybe the third month will be the charm.

So forgive me if I repeat but I thought it would help me keep track if I show all that I have finished to date.  The first runner I started at the Rock Island retreat, Liberty Stars, is made from a pattern and doesn't really qualify as scraps as it is cut from yardage.

But all of that is irrelevant because I stalled at the set-in seams and I have yet to get back to it.  In fact, I'm not exactly sure where it is ...

This next one is made from nine orphan Diamonds left over from a wheelchair quilt I made a couple of years ago.  

It stalled when I tried to bind the pointy ends but, eventually, I got bold and cut off the points.  MUCH easier to bind.  While I was unsewing and resewing the binding on the diamonds, I was distracted by another set of orphan blocks.

I think I mentioned before that I designed that block based on the ceiling in a cruise ship lounge.  

I used the same print to back those last two.

This month I assembled partially completed blocks from Moroccan Tile (Jewel Box pattern by Cheryl Phillips), added batting, back, and binding.

The camera angle makes it look more complex than it is.  Each segment is actually identical, all 10 of them!  And look, it has the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month -- green!

I am linking up with Joy at The Joyful Quilter.

Progress

 It's a week of little bits of this and that.  I have made some progress on Summer Baskets.

As you can see, all nine basket blocks are done, but I'm thinking I should do the fused flowers before I assemble the center.  What do you think?  I have made all four first inner pieced borders.

The second narrow border of the print has been cut, but I hesitate cutting it to length until I have an exact measurement.  The third pieced border is in process.  It has large triangles that will touch that narrow border.  Those are supposed to be cream but I'm thinking about using the print so those have not been cut.  I started cutting some of the fused flowers yesterday and hope to get one finished today.

I also finished the last four Tumbling Triangles blocks ...

... and I have selected the setting fabric.

This project has gone back into the box to be assembled at the next retreat in mid-April.

I really need to get back to the church project, though, and since rain is preventing any outside work today, I have no more excuses ...

Nature Notes

It's been a while since I've done Nature Notes, but with Spring popping up all over the place I thought I'd bring you up to date.  

Needless to say, the daffodils have gone wild.

Most of them are in the back yard where we can only appreciate them from our studios.  We also have a batch we don't see, but I hope the boaters appreciate.

We had hillsides of Lenten roses at our last house, so I planted some in our shade garden last year and they have survived the winter and bloomed!

An early variety of rhododendron has started blooming (photo not available) and the peonies are emerging ... 

The geese are active in the lake, but none have chosen our bluff for nesting this year 😢.  We did have a hawk visit yesterday.

Have I told you lately how much we love life on the Plateau?

But I Digress...

I am incorrigible, I know!   Forget the six or seven balls I currently have in the air.  My attention was diverted by a package that was supposed to arrive today, but came yesterday, instead -- 10-1/2 yards of a gorgeous floral toile from Jan, The Colorful Fabriholic!

Jan thought it would be perfect to back one of my current projects, Peak Season, and suggested a swap.  I didn't think the creamy background would go well with the Kona Snow I am using in the top.  But when I found out it was French General, I HAD to have it.  I was hoping it would blend well with a few other FG pieces I have been hoarding.

As soon as I opened the package, I rushed to the sewing room to see what would coordinate. (I'm sure my quilting friends can relate).  Sadly my other FG pieces are more on the tan side, but I did find a few things in my stash that would work.

Then I went on a search for a project.  I was hoping to find something that used the floral in large enough chunks to do it justice.  This book yielded two potential projects.

I have long wanted to do Red n Butter ...

... and that is still an option, considering the amount of fabric Jan sent.  But my heart went to Summer Baskets.

This morning I cut a bunch of HSTs for the baskets.  My plan was to make ONE basket to make sure I was happy with my choice.  Well, now I have finished five of the nine baskets and two corners of the center portion.

What do you think? (Now that it's too late to ask... )  

I will use my French General charm squares for some of the fusible applique flowers.

Pause ...

 Lately it seems like I binge sew and then pause. This apparently is one of those pause weeks.

Monday everything I stitched needed to be reversed.  I also spent some time pulling fabric to swap with The Colorful Fabriholic (Jan).  Tuesday I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and spent about an hour trimming hydrangeas and fountain grass.  Today was a Lowes and Kroger day.  Maybe by Thursday I will be back to finishing all the projects I was working on last week.

For what it's worth, here's what's currently on my design wall:

In my alphabetic UFOs there were two Moroccan Tiles projects.  The upper one will become table scraps, as is.  In fact I started quilting it, but need to take out some of the stitching (there's a theme here) to straighten the back.  I have all the pieces for the lower one so it is just  matter of finishing the construction and calling it done.

I also pulled out another UFO that has this month's RSC color of green -- Tumbling Triangles. (Those dark triangles are actually dark green.)

This is one of those projects that requires a construction process.  It has taken me a couple of days to get back in the groove but I think I have finally locked in to the methodology -- if I could just stop sewing the wrong side of the fabric up ...

Weekly Update

I have been busy this second week of March.  As I noted in my previous post, I started a new project last week and all I have left is to add the top and bottom borders.

Peak of the Season is a Debbie Caffrey pattern in her book, Delectably Simple Mountains.

I made another table runner from orphan blocks ...

... and lopped off the pointy ends from another table runner ...

I made five blocks for my #5 Smores challenge quilt, Barn Dance -- so named because churn dash is sometimes called "hole in the barn door."  I am going to replace those black corners with churn dash blocks with light background.

And I finished the tops of some paraments for the church.  I will measure the pulpit and lectern today to figure out how they will be hung before I add the back and batting.

PSA:  Don't forget to set your clocks ahead Saturday night!!

Influencers

 I may have started a new project this week.

And, before The Joyful Quilter can chastise me again for abandoning the alphabet, I'd like to point out that I covered this project about this time last year.  As I speculated then, I have now decided to use the selected fabrics in Peak of the Season rather than Continental Divide.  So, even though the fabric had never been cut, it was still in my alphabetized stack of UFOs!

This delectable mountains pattern by Debbie Caffrey got me thinking about how inspiring she was to me early (2005) in my quilting progress, especially in the proper and creative use of standard rulers. Which led me to thinking about others who have inspired me.

Jinny Beyer - In the late 1990s my interest was only hand piecing; it was what Mother had done and it enhanced my living history obsession at the time.  While my mother was a Georgia Bonesteel follower (who still had some shows on public television), I turned to Jinny for inspiration and never missed her TV programs.  I had the pleasure of attending a couple of Jinny's Hilton Head retreats where I met another TV idol ...

Alex Anderson - Alex taught me the basics of "quilter's math" which I rely on daily.  She also taught me that a little black and white will make a quilt sparkle. From Alex I also learned about quilt cruises where I met another inspiration ...

Joen Wolfram - Whereas I could never grasp Jinny Beyer's color theory, Joen's color concepts are easy to understand and her tools are my "go-to" when I'm grappling with a color decision.

Eleanor Burns - Also "must-see-TV" for me, Eleanor's strip piecing gave me the courage to tackle my first machine-made quilt when we were expecting our first grandchild in 2001.  I still strip piece whenever I see the time-saving benefit.

Gwen Marston - I don't remember how I learned about Gwen, but I love the way she had one foot firmly placed in the traditions of the past and the other liberated in the world of modern quilting.

Cindy Williams - My current influencer, Cindy has given me the confidence (more accurately, the PUSH) to tackle complicated designs.

So, who has influenced your quilting life?

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Green

Green is a tough color for me -- so many hues/shades/tints/combos.  I have a pile of greens on the shelf.  Need a yellow-green?  Got it.  Need a blue-green? Got it! But what I can never find there is a nice spring green. 

I used my search for this month's challenge color to clear out and organize my overflowing green scrap bin. Then I attacked my RSC'21 project blocks.  First up -- Sister's Choice.

These lean toward the blue-green side.  This is one of those blocks where fabric placement makes a lot of difference so I am trying to mix it up every month.

Then I whipped up a few Square Dance blocks in yellow-green combos.

It is so satisfying to take care of my RSC projects early in the month.

Reporting in with Angela at soscrappy.

Backed into a Corner

 ... or more accurately, a point

I've been working on several table toppers using up orphan blocks.  These were left over from a coffee-themed wheelchair quilt I made for a friend.

Thinking that this shape would be easier quilted first than to layer right-sides-together and turn inside-out, I proceeded to quilt in the ditch.  But when it came to adding the binding, I couldn't manage that sharp point on the end.

I think I'll just flatten the points to  half diamond.  We'll see if that helps.