Squirrel Revisited

Well, I didn't have enough greens to go with the red flannels for a Christmas quilt, but I did come up with this assortment that would look nice in our bedroom year-round.

I purchased a kit from Primitive Gatherings several years ago that included most of these flannels along with the three quilting cotton pieces on top of the pile.  I have never combined the two types of fabric in one quilt, have you?  Suggestions?

I have too many other irons in the fire to start a new quilt right now so the pile will go in a box with the pattern for a future time -- maybe at next month's retreat ...  In the meantime, I've been cleaning and reorganizing the room where I cut and store fabric.  I can't live with the mess any longer, plus some changes are acomin'.

I have managed to fit a little sewing in, trying to catch up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm making Labor Day Madness blocks, the process of which produces a second block which I'm calling Pinwheel Madness.  My goal is to make one set of blocks each day.

So far I have 10 blocks made for Labor Day Madness.

If I set them straight, like they are above, I'd need 42 blocks for a decent size throw.  I kinda like the "whirlygig" effect where four blocks join.  But I might add sashing to cut down the number of blocks. 

Right now I need to cut more background.  And hopefully I'll get around to making a pair of blocks before we head to the mountains for the weekend.

Squirrel

Saw a simple Christmas quilt in Quilts & More (Winter 2022) that uses flannels.  It looks so cozy and easy ...

Then I remembered I had accumulated some flannels and homespuns several years ago so I went in search of them.  SOME???

More like a drawer-full!  The question is, do I have enough in Christmas colors?  Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow ...

Love This Time of Year

Temps in the 70s and skies of blue (and orange).  Who could ask for more?

A Week of Recovery

 Most of the gear and supplies I took to quilt camp have been returned to their proper place.  However, in the process I realized that my fabric/cutting room is totally out of control.

I have piles of fabric curated for future projects on the ironing board as well as the cutting table that need to be moved before I can make progress on anything.  So what did I do?  I took a bin of pieces/parts and orphans up to the family room to sort.  I should have taken a picture of the sofa covered with piles of blocks.  Many of those piles went into baggies which I took to Devo as an Orphan Challenge. 

It will be interesting to see what someone else does with my bits and bobs.  

Two large collections I couldn't part with, so they went up on my design wall.  

I'm thinking/hoping I can combine many of these pieces into a cohesive whole.  Any suggestions?  Worst case scenario, I'll make placemats for Christmas food baskets.

Quilt Camp in Review

It was a rebuilding year for Quilt Camp at Cedar Lakes.   Covid and its effect on the economy kept folks away for a couple of years.  I am proud to have been part of the rebuilding process.  The camp is held at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, WV.  Originally part of the WV Dept. of Agriculture, I think it is now under the Dept. of Education.  Multiple buildings are spread out over a large campus (which is why I probably didn't gain a pound, even after the large meals).

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I haven't been to Quilt Camp since 2018 as a camper; the last time I taught there was 2016.  This year I taught Log Cabin Star on Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday and Friday I supervised activity in the Super Studio which was set up in the newly-expanded Assembly Hall.

Log Cabin Star is not an easy pattern, especially for the three relatively new quilters in my class, but everyone was determined to master the precise cutting and piecing required and almost everyone of the nine campers came away with a completed top after two days.

Those last two were using the same fabric.  And there's always a swifty in the class.  This is what an extra two days in the studio yields.  She is explaining that she plans to add a braid border!

All in all, it was a fabulous week.  We had beautiful weather most of the time, good food, and congenial company.  Our little tribe of three made it safely home on Friday, elated but exhausted.  

Quilt Camp

It was a long day's drive to quilt camp in Ripley, WV Sunday, but my two friends (new campers) and I made it without incident.  Getting settled in was a different matter as the conference center staff is short-handed and not all the classrooms were ready.  

But the skies were clear and bright so we had little to complain about, unlike this crow/raven ...

We finally got ourselves installed, had dinner, went to assembly, and crashed.  The moon was still high Monday morning when I got to the Craft House where my class is being held.

I am teaching Log Cabin Star, a 60-degree log cabin table topper by Marci Baker and Sara Nephews.  I have a small class of nine, which is good since three of them are very new quilters.  We are in a bright room with a table per person, unlike some of the other classes.

The class continues today and I have high hopes for many to get all their blocks done and wedges together by day's end.

Building a Quilt

I get frequent comments on my fabric combos, and since I'm pulling fabrics for a sampler quilt the Devo group will be working on, I thought I'd do a brief post on my approach.

I often start with a multicolored print.  I figure the fabric designer is a professional and knows color so I look for fabrics in those colors that are in the print.  Many times the inspiration fabric doesn't even appear in the quilt!

In the current project, though, I started with this background because I need about 3 yards.

From there I chose a coordinating yellow print and another piece that shared the yellow.

I felt the orange flower centers needed some companions ...

Then I looked across the color wheel to find a complimentary color -- turquoise!

And finally I threw in some browns to complete the combo.

Miracles Happen

Well, maybe just blessings ... 

You know that old saying -- You don't miss the water till your well runs dry.  Well if you are like me, you don't think about how often you look in the sideview mirrors on your car ... until you have none!  Just add this to that last depressing post. 

My husband's car has been in the body shop for over a week to repair a bumper damaged by road debris and last Friday I ripped the driver-side rear-view mirror off my car pulling out of the garage. (DH had parked the car the day before so I'm going to blame his poor parking skills!)  We taped it back together well enough that I could get to my local tire service place.  I was trying to avoid a one-hour drive on the interstate to the nearest Toyota dealer.  But, more importantly, I needed a quick fix because I'll be driving to Quilt Camp in West Virginia on Sunday.

Bless their hearts, a couple guys tried for over an hour to get the innards back into the mirror while another guy was on the phone looking for parts.  To no avail.  So I was sent home to search for another source for a replacement mirror.  In the meantime, all I could see was my door handle and the road surface!  

Well, the stars aligned!  The Ford body shop that was repairing hubby's car was able to order the mirror.  They called yesterday to say that, not only was his car ready to go, but the mirror had arrived.  So we dropped my car off this morning, took the newly repaired car to Lowes and the grocery, and the mirror had been installed by the time we returned.

Gotta love personal service in a small town!

The Doldrums

I've been absent, I know, but I didn't realize it's been almost a month since I last posted.  Life has been piling on to the point I didn't feel like saying much.  

I mentioned in an earlier post about the cloud no longer accepting my photos.  No sooner had I gotten that situation resolved than I learned my computer memory is nearly full.  So my sweet husband purchased this external drive to store my photos and other stuff I don't need daily access to.

(Don't you love my cool mousepad?)

Then I got a message on my phone that the memory is nearly full!  Thinking the daily dose of great-grandbaby photos might have something to do with that, I asked my techy son and he advised that I should check my phone storage in settings because that message could have been spam.  Indeed, I have only used 1/3 of my available space!

But, really, things have been going downhill since late April when I developed a severe pain in my left side.  I was so convinced that it was a gastro-intestinal issue that I was actually looking forward to the dreaded colonoscopy at the end of July!  Not only was there no GI issue, but I had complications from the procedure and spent nearly two days in the hospital.  The upside of this is I lost 10 pounds! And I'm doing my level best not to put the pounds back on.  

The consensus of the medical community is my problem is in my back.  Medicare won't pay for an MRI until I go through PT.  And while I was considering whether I wanted anyone messing with my back when we don't know exactly where the problem lies, I came down with Covid (along with almost our entire small church congregation).  Yes, we've all been vaccinated and boosted so fortunately most of us only had a mild case of whatever variant is going around here.  

And while down with Covid I developed tooth pain, probably not related.  The upside is I now have a new local dentist -- no more 2-hour drives back to Nashville.

I was able to get a few things accomplished in the sewing room with what little energy I could muster.  

All of the Christmas Cross blocks are finished and the strippy columns are ready to be joined together this week at Devo and Sew.

I also stitched the Zinnia blocks into columns.

After a good pressing, the columns will go together soon.  As is, it's about square so I'm debating if I want to add borders and, if so, how big?  

The big push right now is preparation and packing for Quilt Camp class in a little more than a week.  I have all the students' kits ready to go.  Now I need to make sure I have all my supplies, plus a project of my own to work on while I'm proctoring the Studio on the last two days.  There will be three of us going in my van, so we need to pack efficiently.