Slow, Slow, Slow

Things have slowed way down over here. Not a bad thing in the summer. Usually, I would be gearing up for  fall and the reinvigorating feeling it brings to me and my sewing. This year, not so much. In part, it's because I am having a bit of a creativity slow down. In part, my back is still not 100% and I have several quilts that need pin basting to move them forward and so I can't do any quilting. The third reason is that I am moving in a couple of months and I am loath to start anything new at this point. In October packing will begin in earnest, and I just can't make myself start something new with that looming.

I did sort of see this coming. I have two long term projects going on that I can fiddle with as time and the will to do so occurs. I have started the Scrap Stash Plus Quilt by Quilty Love. I need a total of 120 plus blocks for this quilt. I am about half way through this. I still have some to sew and about 34 more to figure out the fabrics and cut. I have been cutting and clipping together blocks to have ready to sew as I feel the urge to do so.

The other long term project is my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, which is EPP and so very portable.

 I am using mostly scraps. Can you believe I still have pink scraps after the other pink scrap quilts I have made this year? Each flower will be yellow center (also scraps) and pink petals. Once the 128 flowers are done, I will make more yellow hexies to be the in between hexies for the quilt. So a pink and yellow quilt.

I have these little wooden boxes that are perfect for holding hexies. I first made my 768 pink hexies over the course of a few weeks. Perfect therapy while waiting for back pain to subside.

Then, I made the 128 yellow centers and added them to the boxes. So now, whenever I want to, I can just grab the boxes and my thread and stitch them together.

Here are the first four I did. My only "rule" is to try and have all six petals be different in each flower.

The perfect stack of hexies, next to a stack of fabric squares waiting to be stitched together.

The funny thing is, I was never an EPP girl in my younger sewing days. Now, I seem to have infinite patience to sit and sew these little shapes by hand. Some days I prefer it to sitting at the machine. I shall do my best to keep a good photographic record of my progress on these two projects. Next time I shall share pictures of the plus blocks. Oh, and by the way this is my 700th blog post! Wow!!

Before

 Before I hurt my back, I was sewing quilts like a maniac. The ideas just kept coming. Apparently I love sewing from my scrap bins, because that is what I have been doing for this last year a lot. I haven't really run out of ideas yet...or scraps.

Remember the little bit of green quilt? I used scraps from my grey bin and mywhite/cream bin with one square of green. I quilted it.

I began with straight lines on the diagonal, but I knew that wasn't going to be all that I would do. So I cut myself a template for a curved line which I drew on with disappearing marker. I quilted using a medium grey thread. You can see it a little better in the pictures below. The yellow is part of the pieced back.

And the grey binding is from the Spring Chicken fabric line by Sweetwater. It was the perfect grey and I had enough to do the whole quilt. I really love the result of the grey and off white in this Irish Chain quilt. I am only sorry I could not get the green square to show up better in the pictures. It looks neat in person.

The other quilt top I pieced from scrap bins was this American flag. I drew it up on graph paper and stitched it up in 16 patch blocks. I find that for me, that is the best way to make a patchwork quilt. It is hanging on my design wall now. I know how I want to quilt it, but I am not feeling better enough to pin baste a quilt just yet, and I have a couple to do. So it will wait.

Have a great weekend and I will see you soon.

And Now It's August

 I know you are not surprised that the summer is speeding by. We see this every year and for some reason it always seems to surprise us. Summer has been pretty gentle so far, here in southern California. We do not really see the impact of heat until later into August and September. Some years October is hot too. The first year we lived here it was so hot on Thanksgiving, we fixed our plates and went and sat outside to eat since the cooking had really made the house uncomfortable.

I tweaked my back a few weeks ago, and that really put the brakes on my sewing. Nothing like a sore back to remind you you are getting old. I had to go to the doctor after a few days of home remedies didn't make much headway. I am much improved now, but I was surprised it took this long.

So, what I was able to work on was this:

This is 400 one inch hexies for a grandmother's flower garden quilt I want to make. I was able to sit in a chair with a lumbar pillow for support, and hand stitch hexies. A good skill set to have for times such as these.

I need just over 700 pink hexies. I am using mostly scraps and some stash for this. Next is 120 yellow hexies for the centers, also from scrap bins. Then, I will assemble all the flowers. The hexies in between will also be yellow and scrappy. This is definitely a long term project, but very portable.

This is the look I am going for with the flowers. I want no two petals the same in every flower.

My other long term no stress project is the Scrap Stash Plus quilt from Emily Dennis at Quilty Love. It is a free pattern on her blog and she has posted several versions on her Instagram. Her first one was rainbow. I am thinking of a modified rainbow for mine, but I won't know the layout until I get all the blocks made. I am making the throw size quilt. If you have a scrap stash, this is a good one, and very easy to sew. You can make it as small or as large as you like.

Well, off to start my day. I will chat with you soon.