Tuesday Archives - Borders and Birthdays

I've been having a problem with the "blahs" coupled with a bad case of "too much" (work, cold weather, teen drama, etc).  In an attempt to break that viscous cycle, I was looking for some new avenues to challenge my current status quo.  I've been seeing a few posts for the "Tuesday Archives" hosted by Val's Quilting Studio.  

So this week I'm going to play along and take a look at past posts for birthday's and borders.  

In looking the blog archives, the only birthday post I could find was one for My Guy from last year.  I had meant to blog about Drama Teen's birthday this year and didn't.  Now that she's a "mature" young woman, she doesn't want sleep overs or birthday parties.  Instead she's opted for a day of ice skating with a few friends.

I have action shots of the event, but they all ended up blurry. DT is in the blue jacket on the left.  This was birthday number 15.  How do they grow up so fast?  

Now for the border part.  When I discovered blogging, I didn't jump right into it my hosting my own blog.  I started out writing posts over at Connecting Thread's "Quilt With Us" community.  It seemed to be an easy way to dip my toe into the whole posting thing.  I wasn't sure that I had that much to say.  While I was part of that community, I participated in a BOM.  I don't normally do pieced borders, but it made such a dramatic setting, I really wanted to make this one.  

  

I've never blogged here about this quilt.  It's one of my favorites.  I love the blue and yellow color scheme and the border frames the blocks nicely.  The pattern is by Amy Heaton and is available at  Electric Quilt's My EQ Boutique.  If you look up the pattern, you'll see my version as one of the examples at the bottom of the page.

For more recycled posts, check out Val's Quilting Studio.  

Monday Design Wall - Rainbow Stars

We have snow in the forecast for this morning!  I checked out the radar just a few minutes ago and sure enough it's snowing off to the west. It's probably a couple hours away at the moment, so it's possible things will warm up enough so that we only get rain.  The weather is pretty variable in Oklahoma most of the time, but this seems pretty extreme even for here.  

Not a lot of sewing happened this weekend.  Between an out of state volleyball tournament and playing catch up with a few household chores, there just wasn't a lot of time.  But the teal Inverted Star block did get all sewn together and is up on the design wall with the first two blocks. 

Inverted Star
by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download

Hopefully there will be time to sort through the purple scraps and start cutting out the squares for April's block.  These blocks do use up lots of little scraps, so they were a good choice as this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  

Not much progress on the Rainbow Scrap Sampler or Jigsaw, the other two projects up on the design wall.  Hopefully that will change this week.  For more design wall pretties, check out Patchwork Times.  

Stash Report - Week 15 of 2014

It was gorgeous yesterday, with highs in the 80s.  But as this is Oklahoma it's not going to stay that way.  There are freeze warnings for tonight, plus a forecast of snow.  Even for Oklahoma, that's extreme weather for April.  Needless to say it should be an interesting evening as we'll see strong thunderstorms in front of the cold.  Guess it's time to gather a few supplies for the storm shelter, we may need it tonight.  

Unlike the weather, there's not much going on in the sewing room.  I did get a little bit of stitching in last weekend, but this weekend there wasn't much because of the out of town volleyball tournament yesterday.  I'm hoping for some quality sewing time this afternoon.

Used last week:  0.25 yards
Added last week:  24 yards

Used in 2014:  6.84 yards
Added in 2014:  75.05 yards

Net stashed for 2014:  68.24 yards

The incoming fabric was three 8 yard cuts to be used as backings. 

These three were on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop, it's hard to pass up sale fabric like these, especially since two of these pieces will be used as backings for projects I hope to finish this year.  I don't have a project in mind for the dark blue polka dot, but I'm sure it will get used at some point.  

That's it for my fabric fetish confessions this week.  For more stashy stuff, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Teal it's Purple

I've been enjoying the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, though I always seem to be a week or so behind on making the switch to the new month's color.  All the teal blocks are cut, but a few are still lying in pieces by the sewing machine.  The teal scraps have been gathered up and put away, but there hasn't been time to dig out the purple scraps yet.  

The Rainbow sampler blocks have been such fun to make.  I completely forgot to take a shot of all the teal blocks that have been finished, but I did remember to take a photo of all the blocks completed so far. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the purple blocks worked in with the pink, blue and teal. 

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the pretty purples posted over at Soscrappy.  

Monday Design Wall - Puzzle Pieces

It was nice to have a breather this weekend.  Laundry is caught up and a few other household chores got done as well.  The nicest part was spending the whole of Sunday afternoon in the sewing room.  The only disappointment was that the NASCAR race was rained out.  

So what's up on the design wall?  The Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler blocks take up most of one design wall. 

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler
By Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

I'm still working on finishing up all the teal blocks from last month.  

Jigsaw is still up on the big design wall. 

Jigsaw
pattern by Alyssa Clancy for Lehmann Quilting

Only three blocks have been added since my last design wall post.  Just two more rows to finish up.  But I'm starting to wonder if some of the blocks are going to have to move.  I'm going to finish up all the blocks and then consult with Drama Teen.  It's her quilt, so it will be up to her if changes are made.  She's accused me several times of over thinking the color placement.  

That's if for me this week.  For more design wall posts, check out Patchwork Times.