Stash Report, RSC: Done with Blue!

My nephew graduates from high school in June, so I bought fabric this  week to make his graduation quilt. It is going to be a bargello pattern, and I'm making it up as I go along.  So much fun!

 I also bought fabric to make  crazy quilt blocks.  I'm taking another online crazy quilting class from Kathy Shaw and have decided to make neutral colored hexagons to stitch on.  The class I'm taking is focused on embroidery.  I can't wait to get started on it!

Used this week:  0
Used Year to Date: 0 yards
Added this week:  9.5
Added Year to Date:  15.5 yards
Net ADDED:  15.5 yards

My numbers would look a lot better if I'd just get the borders on Allietare.  I've totally lost my motivation to finish that quilt.  I spent a lot of time last week making blue string blocks.  Then I made neutral string blocks instead of working on the borders.  

Today is the last day of Blue in the Rainbow Scrap Quilt Along.  I'm tired of blue!  Final count:  1 inverted square block, twenty-nine  61/2 inch string  blocks and  eight 71/2 inch impov blocks.  January isn't over, but I'm done with blue for a while!

Linking up: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/01/31/stash-report-january-31-2016/

Indoor Flowers

The tulips I tried to force this year were terrible.  They came up normally, but the leaves were very pale green.  I thought this was because we had so many gray days here, and they weren't getting enough light.  They formed buds, but eventually the leaves got black spots on them.  Mold?  Fungus?  I'm sure it wasn't over watering.  The pot I gave to my neighbor did the exact same thing even though hers were in a much brighter location.  Only a couple of the bulbs bloomed, and they were misshapen.

The daffodils went much better.  These are tete a tete daffodils.  They stay very short when I plant them outside.  Inside they  bloom and then keep growing taller.

The amaryllis bulb I planted right before Christmas finally bloomed this week.  I didn't think it would every stop growing!  I was afraid this one would break it got so tall.  With flowers this dramatic, no one notices the unattractive support I made out of wire hangers.

 My Christmas cactus always flowers around Thanksgiving.  This year I only had about half the blooms of years past.  Maybe it needs some fertilizer.  This isn't my favorite indoor plant.  The flowers are gaudy, and went it is done blooming, it drops them all over the floor.  I like it best when the buds are closed, right before it blooms.  

Stash Report, Snow Report

I added 3 more yards to my stash this week (backing for Wild and Goosey), and I took a quilt to the longarmer, so my numbers should improve soon.

Used this week:  0
Used Year to Date: 0 yards
Added this week:  3.0
Added Year to Date:  6.0 yards
Net ADDED:  6.0 yards

As far as the snow goes, we got about 14 inches.The last of our boys went off to college in August, so  I got my husband a snowblower for Christmas.  I thought he might use it a few times a season, but he has used it 5 times over the past 3 days!  Pretty funny considering it was 70 degrees Christmas day.  He is the envy of the cul de sac now, and I think my siblings in Fredericksburg, VA (about 2 feet) and Loudon County, VA (30+inches) might be purchasing one very soon.  

Linking up: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/01/24/stash-report-january-24-2016/

Scrap Happy Saturday, Blue

I've been working on blue string blocks today.

I've also decided it is high time I got my scraps organized, so I've been ironing my blue scraps and cutting them into squares. I've been pulling out the strings and bagging them up, so they will be ready when I need them,  I have approximately 4 gallons of blue strings and believe I could make a king sized quilt made entirely of blue string  blocks!

Here are the other blue blocks I've made this month:

I'm getting a little tired of blue, but I'm not quite done cutting up my blues scraps yet.  We have approximately 12 inches of snow now, and it is still falling, so I'm sure I'll have a chance to work on them tomorrow too.

I was feeling a little unmotivated to sew because my sewing room is a bit of a mess.  Getting these scraps organized is  helping me feel like I want to sew again.  I also tidied up my pink and yellow scraps today.  During the pink and yellow months, I'll be able to spend more time sewing and less time organizing.

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/01/scraphappy-saturday-still-singing-blues.html

Mystery Quilts

In addition to working on Allietare this month, I've started Gyleen's Bricks, Cobblestones and Pebbles, which you can find on Facebook.  Here's my progress so far:

This quilt is meant to use up scraps.  So far the pattern is super easy.  A lot of quilters are doing a controlled scrappy version.  I considered doing that but decided that would be too taxing right now.  I have a lot on my design wall this month!

Charlotte released her first clue in Stars Around the Corner last week.  This was a labor intensive step for me as I had not finished all the cutting last fall, and I had nothing suitable for a background, so I had to go out and buy something.  This goes against everything I believe about scrap quilts, but I truly had nothing that would work.  I ended up buying 3 yards from the sale bolts at my LQS.  The rest of this quilt will be random scraps from my stash.

I've also committed to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This month's color is blue.

I'm hoping to get a few more scrappy  blue squares done this month.

Linking up:  http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2016/01/lets-bee-social-108.html

First Stash Report of the New Year

Yesterday I bought 3 yards of background fabric to use in Charlotte's Scrappy Stars Around the Corner quilt.  This is the third year I've done Charlotte's mystery quilt.  They started out being much simpler than Bonnie Hunter's mysteries, but this one has a lot of cutting and a lot of triangles so far.  I am enjoying using up some of my odd balls and  uglies and should have a progress picture later on this week.  Here are Charlotte's mysteries from 2014 and 2015.

This is Scrap In A Box:

And this is Scrapitude:

Used this week:  0
Used Year to Date: 0 yards
Added this week:  3.0
Added Year to Date:  3.0 yards
Net ADDED:  3.0 yards

It is supposed to snow this morning, but I'll be surprised if anything accumulates.  The temperatures were in the 50s yesterday, so I think the ground is too warm and wet.  

Linking up:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/01/17/stash-report-january-17-2016/

Scream House Continues

Sometime before Christmas, I noticed that I had a mistake in Scream House that required frogging and restitching several little sections.  I've gotten that done and have been working on the inner panels of the house.  I am enjoying working on this except that the purple linen isn't easy on my old eyes.  Time to get stronger readers!

If I worked on this exclusively, I could have it stitched and constructed this spring.  That is unlikely, though, because I'm hoping to get into another crazy quilting class.  I received a lot of new silk ribbon for Christmas and my birthday, and I can't wait to use them!

Linking up:  http://www.supermomnocape.com/tag/stitchery-link-party/

I Tried To Support an LQS Last Friday

Friday was the day I was going to go to my closest LQS, buy backing for my Wild and Goosey quilt and head to the longarmer to drop it off.  But when I got to my closest LQS, it was closed for a special quilting event, and it wouldn't be open until Monday.  UGH!  It would have been so much easier for me to just order the backing I needed online, but I try to support local shops. I'd already wasted 20 minutes driving to the LQS.  The next closest LQS is twenty minutes farther from the first LQS, and it doesn't carry many wide backing fabics.  The third closest LQS is 30 minutes from my house, but about 40 minutes from the first LQS, and the weather was yucky.  So I came home and placed my first order from Missouri Star Quilter.

Today I got the blocks for the interior of Allietare sewn together and chose my border colors.

I'm going to use yellow for the inner border and blue for the outer.  I auditioned brown instead of blue, but it was just too drab.

Linking up:  http://www.shecanquilt.ca/2016/01/scraptastic-tuesday-january-link-is-open.html

Allietare Star Blocks Done

I completed all the Allietare Star Blocks and all the setting triangles Wednesday.

I had hoped to get some of the rows stitched together yesterday, but I didn't get any sewing done because I met my brother and his kids at Jamestown. The kids loved grinding corn, petting the animal pelts, climbing on the boats, and crowing at the chickens.  The colonial armor and weapons were also big hits.  When we took our kids to Jamestown, they were in late elementary school, and they spent the whole day whining that it was boring and they were hot.  My nephews, ages 4 and 3 couldn't have had more fun.  It was a great day!  And their admission was free because they are under 6.

Allietare, Echoes of Pisa

We've been in and out of town since Christmas, and I've managed to see all 7 of my brothers and sisters and their families.  My sewing time has been limited, but I got all 20 Echoes of Pisa blocks done today.  My quilt is going to look quite different from those who used gray as their constant fabric.  My constant is yellow.

Linking up:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2016/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal.html