Heading Home Flimsy Finished

The flimsy for "Heading Home" by Kate Henderson from her book "Striking Strip Quilts" is finished! I used 2.5 inch strips from Connecting Threads fabric line Cascade Meadows, along with a pack of plain white 2.5 inch strips and a few scraps from my stash for variety.

This pattern was well written and super easy, in spite of all those flying geese. It was the flying geese that got my attention. I needed to work on my accuracy and thought this pattern was perfect for it.  I had just enough dotted black/white left in my stash to finish this quilt.  The backing will be a light peach trellis pattern from the same Cascade Meadows line.

Some of the Cascade Meadows fabrics snuck into my Awesome Land quilt. The leftover strips will become a scrappy binding for Heading Home.

Surprisingly, this quilt is rather small, just 52x52 inches. The five main blocks are 16 inches, with several partial blocks for the on point layout.  Some points were lost in the making of this quilt. Just a few....

Staying Busy

Before the pandemic, my excuse for not exercising as much as I should was time. Well, now that I am home more, I learned that time was not a factor. Motivation is the big issue. Have you discovered the same issue?

In between sewing face masks, my quilting projects are progressing.

The center of Awesome Land is assembled and ready for the three borders. Linking to SoScrappy, because this quilt was started when the RSC color was orange.

A Formal Affair flimsy/top has been assembled and is hanging with its backing in the closet lineup of tops ready for quilting.

Heading Home is in the assembly stage. I took inventory of all those flying geese and found I only needed 24 more which was quickly remedied.

And I finally cut a few more blues and whites to make more blocks for the ongoing Lady of the Lake.

What have you been sewing lately?

Face Mask Profusion

With the constant pandemic news updates and extended quarantine announcement, there are a lot of us dealing with anxiety. I am normally a pretty stoic person, but yesterday I was feeling worried and helpless. My parents are not in great health and due to preexisting health issues, they will be at a hospital for a necessary surgical procedure. It's a really scary world right now.

One way to deal with anxiety is to do something creative or take steps to mitigate risk of a bad outcome. I decided it was time to sew some face masks, which is both creative and a positive step. Like most of you, I have seen lots of different face mask patterns and conflicting claims on which style is best, who should be wearing them, and what fabric and nosepieces are best.  I decided to use the pattern from craftpassion.com, specifically the pocket version.  I printed the Mens and Women/Teenager sizes to try. The instructions were okay and my first two turned out pretty good.

I have a big spool of 1/8 inch elastic, ordered from Amazon in February when I saw what was happening in China. The thin elastic worked great with these face masks. There are a couple options - a double strap which hooks behind your head, or loops which fit behind your ears. My husband liked the full head strap; I liked the ear loops.

So after testing the pattern, I made four more face masks.  Yes, I washed all the fabrics first in hot water.  I did not insert a metal nosepiece ... yet. (I need to find my craft wire spool)  If a metal nosepiece is needed later, I can sew a little channel and insert the metal piece through the main pocket. The mask fits nicely without the metal.

THANK YOU, dear readers, for reading and commenting on this blog. Your comments have been encouraging and downright fun to receive. It means the world to me that you took the time to reach out.  

Special thanks goes to Joy of "The Joyful Quilter". She sent a pile of orange strips so I can finish up Awesome Land. I sent back a mug rug, some scraps in colors she wanted, and a long piece of the thin elastic so she can make face masks, too. I will share a pic of the mug rug after she receives her package.    

Pandemic Update

Hello from sunny South Carolina where we are huddled in our houses and staying well within our yards to avoid the nasty COVID-19 virus. This is MY pandemic update.

My employer has divided us into two teams who alternate work days. I am on the "A Team". Yup. I hung posters of the old television show A Team in my team mates' offices.

Today was one of my off days. I am SO enjoying this new schedule, in spite of the serious reason underlying the situation.  I am able to make my weekly trip to the grocery store, catch up on housework, bake fresh bread, cook healthy meals, clean up my neglected yard and YES sew!

I dug deep into my stash and found more orange prints for my quilt Awesome Land. With this extra time sequestered at home, I finished sewing six rows of the quilt and cut enough orange scraps to add another row without repeating any of the orange fabrics. Now I just need to find more orange prints for two more rows.  My neighbor is a quilter, too. This afternoon I visited her doorway, carefully remaining six feet apart. We admired each other's quilts -- she was working on the most gorgeous batik quilt with floral applique.

Spring has sprung in my area. The azaleas are beginning to bloom. Unfortunately, so are the dandelions.  We tested the sprinkler system and repaired where our pest control guy punctured a line when burying a bug trap. A few days ago I planted seeds in my two raised beds. Today the lettuce seeds have popped up.  Maybe this year the seedlings will thrive now that I limed the heck out of the soil. It's amazing how helpful it can be to have your soil tested. The local extension office is just around the corner from my office (right now the extension office is closed).

So is anyone taking bets we will really ease up the restrictions by Easter?  Both South Carolina and nearby Georgia governors have closed schools through April 24. Most likely the federal government will ease up, but states whose peak has not yet been reached will continue with restrictions.  I guess it all depends on if New York's experiments with plasma, malaria drugs and potential vaccines prove beneficial enough. As far as I know, no one in my family has been sick. And I pray that continues to be the case.

Stay healthy, my friends! And take time to smell the roses!

Awesome Orange

February's RSC color was orange, and I finished up the month with another two rows added to Awesome Land, a quilt I am making from a Lissa Alexander pattern. I had more oranges than I ever imagined in my collection! I pulled enough to complete another two rows without any repeats, so I must have had at least 36. This pattern requires three more rows of 6 orange blocks, so maybe I could ask friends in my quilting group for a 12 x 2.5 inch strip from their stash. I would happily reciprocate!

The RSC color for March is TEAL. I can't wait to dig through my teal scrap bin and add to the little Greek Cross blocks.

On the PHD front.....no real progress to report. These darn squirrel projects have taken up my quilting time!

‘Tis Awesome

Check out the progress on Awesome Land. I am obsessed with this pattern! But I think Sue Hoover, mentioned in my last post, has the right idea of using a constant black polka dot for the monkey wrench pieces. I chose to use up my black scraps and am finding it’s a big pain to lay out the blocks so that the black sets for each monkey wrench are together. The whole quilt is completely scrappy. It feels good to use up my scraps!

Here’s a tip I read somewhere: use a cheap flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth for a design wall. It works very well. Mine is hung over a bookshelf. When assembled rows or columns get too heavy for the flannel to cling, just pin it to the tablecloth. You don't have to worry about holes in the wall or fiberboard. When the tablecloth vinyl gets too holey, just toss it in the trash and spend $3 for a new one.

Up in the Air

It was a rare Saturday - light winds, clear blue skies, no particular plans to highjack my time. So I went flying! Just did a bit of landing practice. I'm happy to say my skills have not atrophied. My airplane was very happy with the cool air. A change in the wind direction on that last pattern made things a bit bumpy so I called it a day.

On the quilting front, I finally began quilting Arcadian Chain. The chain squares will have a big chain link - that looked great sewing it freehand.  I tried a couple designs I had sketched (and practiced on a dry erase board) for the colorful spaces, but my freehand was too wobbly and the blocks are a bit too big to play with rulers on my midarm. So now I will simply do a couple passes of echo stitching and let the colored blocks stand out without excess stitching.

Do you participate in the Rainbow Scrap Color projects by Angela at SoScrappy?  For 2020 I have been cutting fabrics in January's green and February's orange colors. I was inspired by Cathy's False Positive quilt. I like the easy Greek Cross design (see my Red Cross quilt on my 2018 Quilts tab) and figured this would be a good way to use up my scraps. Eventually I will post pics of the resulting blocks. Here's is Cathy's quilt:

February's RSC color is orange, and besides the Greek Cross cutting, I have begun cutting orange scraps into pieces for Awesome Land designed by Lissa Alexander from her "Oh, Scrap" book. Both the Greek Cross and Awesome Land blocks use 2.5 inch strips. Lissa's pattern uses black prints for the secondary monkey wrench formed by the sashing, but my black scraps are pretty sparse so solid black is my choice. Sue Hoover is using this block design for her RSC quilt HERE.