Scrap Happy - May 15, 2023

 Scrap Happy Report

May is dawning beautifully with warmer temperatures and lots of new growth and chores. Some mornings are still chilly, but you have to love the sun rises. As you can see, there's lots of cleaning up to do but the gardens are going in and this past few weeks has made the gardens the main priorities.

 

I miss being in the sewing room and am conflicted because it's been so nice outside the last few days all I want to do is be out in the sunshine.

 

I don't necessarily enjoy gardening as much as a lot of people do, but I do really enjoy the end results.

 

Unfortunately, there's not as much progress as I would have liked in the sewing room, but some is better than none.

 

First up, a sensory board. I've never made one. When I delivered it to the teacher, she said her students were thrilled and couldn't wait to use it.

Next, a project I've been wanting to do for a long time. The stitchery is one I purchased from Elelfantz quite a few years ago. It worked up very quickly. The wood frame box was made my Honey Do for this project. I am thrilled with how it turned out.

 

This next project was from a Facebook group I belong to. I didn't quite do it the way the original inspiration suggested, but took off on my own tangent.

I love how it turned out and it became a wall hanging. The 2.5 inch squares are leftovers from the baby quilts I've been working on and as as the backing and binding. It used up some older scraps.

 

Spring Bunny baby quilts.

There's a total of four of these quilt tops and all were done similarly, just a few changes here and there. All used scraps from my stash. The center panels were purchased years ago when I worked at JoAnn Fabrics. I made a pillow out of one but the rest just waited for their time to shine. Once I quilt them, two will go to two little girls that moved in next door as welcome gifts, the other two will become donations. I love how they turned out and enjoyed the time making them.

 Thank you Kate for hostessing. Contact Kate if you would like to join the group. It's a great way to use up scraps and have a place to share your progress.

You can find a list of the other participants at the link.

May Goals

 And we are off to a new month !! 

It's May . . . already !!

Here are my goals for May:

1. UFO/OMG - PLQS BOM

sandwich and quilt

2. Daisy Days BOM

Stitch "SunDaisy"

3. Hedge Hugs BOM

Assemble block, baby quilt top

4. Sister Time

Woolie Gnomes BOM

Extras:

Bind three quilts for a friend

List is light this month, but that's not a bad thing. Leaves room for lots of additional projects.

Have a good week.

April 2023 - Goals and Accomplishments

 April Goals

These are the goals I had set up for April. As I said in a previous post, it was a month of disruptions and for me, distractions. So here are the goals and how I did.

 

1. UFO/OMG - PLQS BOM

No progress here, but it will be a priority for May.

2. Daisy Days - Block 6 DONE

3. Hedge Hugs - Block 4

No - Decided not to do this month.

4. SAHRR - Baby Quilt #6 DONE

I believe I made four of these in April. They are all basically the same design and I followed the round robin patterns. I love how these turned out. They will be quilted at a later date.

 

5. Sister Time - Gnome #7 DONE

This  is my favorite Woolie Gnome block in the series. We used beads for the berries on the holly and poinsettia. The reindeer's collar is actually leather and his body is made out of a "textured" fake fur I bought years ago and never used. We are very close to getting the blocks finished.

 Extras

I participated in a stitch along with one of my Facebook Groups. It was quick and a lot of fun. 

 

It appears my month was more productive than I thought.

Have a good week.

Visitor coming . . .

 I have a much anticipated visitor coming !!!

Amongst all the normal daily activity, the weekend activities with Honey Do and Sister, I'm trying to get things ready and welcoming.

 

My visitor, Susan of Desert Sky Quilts.

This is our first visit in several years and we both feel the need and how much we have missed our in person time together. I'm the really lucky one, because I get the first visit of the year. That is a huge blessing for me.

 

 Some of my extra activity is cleaning up the sewing room. This is more because it's been needing it for quite some time and not as much about the visit. You know, things that you just put off doing or plan on doing and just never seem to get to. This has also been a really good time to deal with things that just need to leave and haven't. My tendency is to plan to deal with things by "finishing" projects, but there are always more accumulating. And space is at a premium, so putting things away is always a challenge for me. But I will continue to muddle forward. 

 

 

While I'm "cleaning" I will also be sewing. Here's what I'm working one . . .  

SAHRR - Spring Bunnies #3 and #4.

This panel goes in a different direction from the others. More vertical than horizontal. I also used blue instead of green for the outside border. And did you notice the checkerboard section is also incorporating multiple prints but still staying with the green, pink and blue prints. I love how they all turned out.

I also completed the next step of this slow stitching Facebook group project.

Susan arrived Thursday afternoon. No time had passed since our last visit. We started chatting immediately like it was just yesterday :)

We had several days together and the conversations never stopped. We sewed, stitched, visited. 

Honey Do took Friday off to play chauffeur for us.

Since we live in a new area since Susan's last visit, there were new shops to check out.

We live very close to "Amish Country" so that's where we headed :)

 

 

The weather was chilly all week, but that doesn't stop the Amish from drying their clothes outside.

One of my favorite fabric/quilt stores. We found so many wonderful fabrics for our Shoebox Swap later this year and I found some fabrics I need for a sensory board I volunteered to make.

More scenery as we headed to lunch.

Post Office

We find the best bulk foods around at The Ashery.

Amish Elementary School

 

The Amish Countryside

 

We spent time with my Sister on Saturday, sewing and stitching.

Unfortunately, the next few days just flew by and before I knew it, it was time to pack up Susan's car and she headed home. We can't wait to get together again. It was a visit filled with love and blessings and you can never get too much of either.

 

 

April - The Month of Disruption

 

 

Not the prettiest picture you'll ever see, but this is some of what has been keeping me busy and out of the sewing room - much to my chagrin. This is my vegetable garden. It's not clean and definitely in progress. Consequently I'm getting little to nothing done in the sewing room. This week is going to be colder again and wet. Last week, the temperatures got into the mid to upper 70s and I think we even hit an 80 toward the end of the week. Honey Do can't sit still for even a minute, so lots of garden work has been accomplished. I'm getting to the stage that anything physical takes me much longer than it used to. 

So it starts, a type of retaining wall to help with soil retention and the slope of the hill. I added the bricks because there are gaps under it. There are some huge stones that would have taken a miracle to remove so we just left them. They would only have created more holes to be filled.

My FIL and I pulled the weeds. He went and got landscape fabric and Honey Do laid it and moved the dirt from the blue tarp area to the new garden. We also filled the raised beds at the bottom.

 

 

 The raised beds have been planted. One has a variety of lettuce, one has peas and cauliflower, the last has cabbage. Everything else is too early. We have temperatures cold enough this week to get frost. And there is still more dirt needed to fill the new section and the top of the garden.
 

This one is exciting. When we moved into our home, almost two years ago, we found this glider. I want to call it a sweetheart bench because of the heart cut outs. It was as far back in our yard as you can get, so Honey Do brought it up to his shop. I didn't know where I wanted it or what I was going to do with it. I just knew I wanted it. 

 

Over the weekend, Honey Do brought it up to the house. Together we scrubbed it down and placed it in the yard. It's where we take the dogs to play (they get tied up because they don't want to stay in the yard). We stay outside with them and this will now give up permanent seating instead of the little garden bench you also see in the photo (oops!). I've already ordered seat cushions :) Isn't it sweet?

 

There will always be outside chores. Honey Do and I have an agreement when it comes to firewood. He splits it, I stack it. This pile will be moved to an old shed to keep it from getting any wetter than it already is. This is fresh wood, so it will need at least two years for thorough drying to be used in the fireplace. I've move six loads already. Fortunately, there is no urgency to move it.

 

       Another spring project is wrangling the kindling. With all the storms this spring, there is no shortage of branches falling from the trees. We gather them up and they will be kindling for next winter.

 

There has been a little sewing. This is the second Spring Baby Quilt. The third one is well under way, but not finished yet. I love how they are turning out.

 

I'm hoping to get some sewing time in this week with the cooler, wetter forecast.

 

Have a good week.

 

Scrap Happy - April 2023

 

Scrap Happy is a group I joined to help encourage the use of scraps from our stash and to encourage each other to use what we have. I find that relatively easy to do as I'm trying not to add any unnecessary purchases to my stash. As I sit and write this, I'm looking at my stash and seeing lots of older, tired fabrics that just need to be used up or destashed. Most of the pieces are less than a yard.

 

So what scrappy goodness did I manage in the last month?

 Let's see . . . 

 

 

Hedge Hugs 2 and 3 

 

These are so cute and I love the nine patches for some added interest, yet stay simple for a baby quilt. I only have the tops done and still need to sandwich and quilt, but there's time for that.

 

 A couple of examples of scrap vortex sections. These make great leaders and enders for other sewing. They also are great mindless sewing when I want to spend time at the machine but don't want to think to much or hard on a specific project. It's really good therapy :)

 

 

There are three of these beauties in progress. The center panel was a purchase from years ago. Looking to make some new and fresh Easter projects, I ran across them in the box. I had just participated in the SAHRR and liked the process very much. I used that process to make these. I am thrilled with the end results. Like the Hedge Hugs, these are only tops at the moment and will be quilted and finished at a later date.

 

My post is a couple of days late. Honey Do and spring are responsible, and my lack of better planning :)

 Thank you Kate for hostessing.

You can find a list of the other participants at the link.

Making Progress, Making Changes

 April is beginning to be a very busy month. I like nothing better than having plenty to do. I'm frantically working on projects in the sewing room. Before long, the yard and garden work will take priority and sewing will be relegated to the back burner. It's a double edged sword. We all want warmer weather, but there's a lot of work maintaining yards and gardens for home owners. I'm fortunate I have limited help. And it's much appreciated, but it doesn't minimize how much there is to do. But as every year, it will all get done . . . eventually :)

 

We've had erratic weather. Warm, cold, frosty. This week isn't too bad with temps during the day ranging from 50s to 70s.

Rain, high winds are contributing a lot of debris to the yards that needs cleaned up. Which, of course, I'm putting off as long as possible :)

Sew . . . 

We  sew :)
 

 

 

 I finished stitching Fridaisy and began Saturdaisy.

A new baby quilt top is finished.

I purchased the center panel as a set of four. The first one made a pillow that I bring out every Spring/Easter. As I was looking for small Easter projects, I ran across the remaining three. I had always intended to make more pillows, but wasn't really feeling them any more.

I had just finished participating in the SAHRR (Stay At Home Round Robin) and thought these would make adorable baby quilts. So one down, two and three are in progress. They will be very similar to this one with the exception of some of the fabrics. I'm working through my stash and sticking very close to using what I have. That has been the case for these. No new purchases made.

I am very please with the end result.

 

I had an errand to run to a local store. And this barn is along their entrance drive. It's a beautiful store and location. They are in the process of putting in a park/playground on the property. Check them out here:  P. Graham Dunn

They have a very inspirational background story.

Spring and Easter are in the air.

 

Until next time . . .