Working away.....and a wonderful break

Hi, hope this finds you have a great week with some quilty time ;)

I have been recovering from that crappy summer cold I mentioned last week and am feeling much better with only a cough hanging on. I even missed a day of work.... my boss asked me if I had Swine flu as it has hit Indiana hard enough that it is on the 6 o'clock news-- no I said I haven't been handling any little piggies (the Indiana State Fair is in full swing right now and has many farm/agricultural exhibits given we are in the Midwest and they always show the piglets and cows :)

So, I did manage to get some sewing in as no one really wanted to come visit for fear of catching what I had, always makes you feel wanted, no?

I finished putting the sashing and borders on my Great Granny Along

I made some patchwork from the left overs for the back

Got the back pieced and now ready to sandwich and be quilted!

I am happy with the way this turned out, it is more traditional as this is a birthday gift for a dear neighbor that I have known most of my life. She is now in her 70's and has had to move to assisted living in the past year as her husband has passed and she was diagnosed last year with a brain tumor. She is a great grandmother and this line is called Summerhouse, which fits her lake cottage. I hope it will remind her of bright and sunny, summer days.

I also worked on my upcoming tutorial for Plum and June's blog hop next week. My day is Aug 23rd.

And while working on that tutorial I found I needed to shrink a drawing that I am using for a bit of handstitching....so off to the nearest library to use the copy machine. A library I had not visited before as there are 2 within approx 12 miles of home.... one north and one south. I went south this time.

What pleasant surprise!

A wonderful, sparkling, tinkling water fountain and garden! The library is a building from the early 1900's done in the Frank Lloyd Wright style. Beautiful.

The top of the fountain is two boys fighting over a duck and the duck is spouting the water

  The fountain is tall, 19 feet and was donated to the community in 1911. Just sitting in the shade and listening to the water was a wonderful, relaxing break in my day.

Original entrance, you can see Frank Lloyd Wright style clearly.

Close up, original windows and lamps.

Side of building, more gorgeous windows.....hmmm, inspiration for a quilt?

Have a great week! See you next week with my first tutorial!

Linking to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced

WIP Wednesday

Hi there, hope you are having a good week! Wow - it is Wednesday and August!

Seems this week has flown by! Dear son and grandson were here for the weekend and then it was back to work. Had to pass on the Indy Jimmy Buffet concert last night :(  Friends said it was great fun as usual. And this weekend I have a wedding and a corn hole tournament/party! This leaves less time for sewing but I know summer is flying by and soon the days will be shorter and time outside with family and friends will be less.....

I did manage some sewing in the past week. I finished the rest of my Great Granny squares-- 4 more. I am going to leave it at 9 squares and hopefully get the sashing completed before Saturday and then the borders on Sunday. 

 ok....not sure what happened to the cropping on these block pics!!  

I am just learning photo editing and sometimes I forget to hit save I guess!

 Here is the layout I am thinking about

 Left over 2.5in squares...Looks like I will have some squares  for a scrappy quilt :)

Now if I can just get the rest of my scraps cut up! 

No progress on any of my other projects, but that is ok. Progress is progress. I have to remind myself t is not a race and pressure takes all the enjoyment out of it for me.

Happy sewing ! 

Linking up to:

Great Granny!

Hello again!

Remember I had this pic of all the block cut and ready to piece?

Here is what I used to cut those 2 1/2 in squares so quickly.  It is the June Taylor Shape Cut, I bought it at JoAnn's at one of their 50% off coupon sales. I took a class one time where we used it to cut our blocks. It has been awhile since I have used it and I forgot how much easier it can make cutting.

It works great!  Much quicker, and results in a much more consistent size square (or rectangle, or strip) then what I can cut with my ruler and rotary cutter alone. The little white pieces on the Right side are just my marks to remember where to cut because it is very easy to put your rotary cutter blade into the wrong slot! Ooops! Not that I have ever done that  ;0

So here are my strips, joined with squares to make a block... I like this one, it reminds me of Cherry LimeAid :)

 I used one Layer cake of Summer House and one Moda white jelly roll  (looking for that layer cake is what started the whole episode of tearing everything out of the closet Yikes!  I was being good , no very good,  ok how about responsible and using from my stash and not buying anything new!!) . The QAL shows only 9 blocks which will make a wall hanging or table topper. I have enough squares to make several more blocks than that. I was thinking maybe 12 or 15 for a lap size quilt. And I think I will still have squares left over. I am just cutting the jelly for the first nine blocks and then as I need for additional blocks. And here are the completed blocks so far.....

I am really happy with the bright saturated colors! I was worried about all the florals and the effect they would have but it is working out well. Amazing how different they can look in small pieces vs. that big 10in square! It is quite fun to piece, much like a simple puzzle, and they can be quite addictive as you get such fast results! 

Hope you are having a great sewing week! What are you working on?


Ginny


Linking to:                

Stash vs. DeStash Follow up

Good Morning or afternoon depending where in the world you are! :)

I want to Thank everyone who left a comment and suggestion on my "Stash or Destash" post. (You can read it below or here). I have updated the comments, as I normally reply by email to all comments I felt this post could add some discussion so included mine also. I am happy to say, my sewing room is back in working order. Fabric is stacked back in the closet - by project order - I have purchased a journal to organize and prioritize those projects and am contemplating a year long journey of only sewing the projects I already have - as Sherry suggested in her comment. Can I do it?
Could you do it?

I do know that I am committing to cutting up those scrappy leftovers as they occur into something that will be usable vs. letting them grow out of the scrap bag. I find it hard to throw any away... so this will be helpful.

So here is the cleaned up version:

Yes, much, much better!

And there is a peak at my Great Granny squares. I have another post for them coming up next!

Have a great day!

Ginny

QAL- New and Old

Hello, hope you are doing well, maybe a bit cooler than a few days ago? We were. Only 91 today, only? Saturday was 105 - oh my! Strange weather these days. So with such sun and heat - you can only be outside so much right? Well, guess what I did with the rest of my time? Well beside catch up on my blog reading... SEW! yeah! And see what I finished.....drum roll please.....

Yes, all of my Retro Flowers blocks are completed!! Now after a few minutes hours of arranging and rearranging the layout, I think I am happy with it and ready to sew the top together :) Happy, very Happy!

(well, not happy with that second block from left at top--reading VERY gold when in reality it is the same limey green that is in the second row from top, last block on right....ok its a small thing).

On to sewing them all together and adding the borders. Progress...it's a good feeling ;)

Oh and in my blogland reading I ran across this QAL--anyone interested?  I couldn't help it, I have been wanting to try the "Granny Block" out after seeing such great blocks of color and scrappiness on many blogs so I signed up! (hmmm.....this wasn't on my (formal) list of projects). This is called the "Great Granny" as there is a 4th round of squares -  in the center is baby, next round mama, next granny and finally Great Granny--cute! So if you are interested stop by Jodi at Pleasant Home for some block inspiration and  then over to Lori Holt at A Bee In My Bonnet for a look at her finished 9 block quilt. The block tutorial is on Lori's blog and will have new posts weekly. PLUS GIVEAWAYS! Jodi has a bunch of great links to a flickr group for everyone to join and post pics.

Have a great week!!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday