Monday Meandering 5 - 3 - 2021

Our azalea's are beginning to bloom.  But one bush is showing a lot of damage to the buds due to a freeze a couple of weeks ago.  We think our Japanese maple has lost a bunch of leaves from the same cause.  Sigh. But some of the azaleas are looking great. Hopefully sometime this week I can get a great picture of one or two in full bloom. In the last two weeks we've gone from near record lows to near record highs.  I hope that doesn't mean we're going to have a hotter than usual summer. 

First up let's look at the goals.  Oh yea!  It was a good week. 

4/26/2021 

Sew RWB rows together✅. Do I border? — top done but without border yet.

Quilt and bind one of my quilts ✅  Yea, another finish. (Still need label.) 

Lay out and sew Happy Blocks quilt #1 ✅ Finished top! 

Continue working on green basket ✅ Ready to prep for quilting- backing and batting.

Here's a few pictures of the Happy Blocks quilt I was working on. I received most of these blocks from the FCQ Equilter's group.  As you can tell it's an easy block and doesn't take much time or fabric to make.  And my gals went crazy.  I think I had over 70 blocks when all was said and done.  I've got a lot of quilts to make out of these. 

Hum.  There's a nice mix of dark and light surrounding fabric but too many darks together.  I decided I would see what it would look like in black and white. (Different layout than the one above.) 

Nah, I needed to separate some so the really darks weren't in rows.  The top two rows are the same as above but I moved a few blocks around on the bottom two.  I did this several times -- move blocks, take a picture change the pic to greyscale or black and white. Finally I said, "enough!"

 

One of the things I realized as I moved these blocks around was I wasn't going to get a fabulous setting. This was partly because I like to alternate blocks that have the short sides on the top with ones having the long side on the top.  And, then you have to factor in the direction the center block design goes.  Thus I came to the decision to stop and just sew the blocks together. And, I realized I ended up with 3 different blues in a row. Oh well! 

I was happy it was done.  I also got 4 blocks made that I need to send to the Maryland guild for officers who are retiring from office and one gal who has moved.

I learned about making Magic 9 Patches (with blocks having opposite outside colors) more than 20 years ago.  I can't find the original directions online anymore but here is one site with Magic 9 Patch directions that is made the same way.  Super easy and super fast once you pick your fabric.  If you haven't ever seen this give it a try.  I suggest starting by making a 6" finished block first just because the math will be easiest.  Once you know what you're doing you can pick whatever size you want. Have fun with this quick tip.

Next up here's my goals list for this first week in May. 

5/3/2021

Border doggy tumbler 

Quilt and bind one of my quilts 

Start cutting-table clean up 

Put together green scrap basket 

Pull a UFO to work on 

Attend Studio 180 LeMoyne Star workshop at guild

I may not get all of these done as I'm going to my guild in the Richmond area either for a full day or to spend the night before the guild meeting and attend it.  It's an early morning drive on Saturday if I don't spend the night at a friend's house. I won't be home until late in the afternoon Saturday. 

My Stash Busting statistics does not show any busting going on, just enhancement! Oh-oh. 

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
April	8.25	21.625	6.625	41.750	20.125

 

This could have been a disaster buying 8 yards of fabric but I am trying to quilt at least 2 of my own quilts every month, more if I don't have customer quilts. So in the end, I only brought in 1.625 yards that didn't get used. I am pretty happy about the whole thing actually.  

Nothing like a good week finishing goals added to a decent month of fabric usage.  

Now let's partee! You know the routine -- check out these linky parties and see what folks are doing across the internet.  Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday and To Do Tuesday. (OOPS I've been neglecting to come back and link up to the Tuesday party.  I'll try to be better this week.)  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie