Bonus day - Old Town sashing; Dawn's E.Light strings, and Friendship Chain started

We were given a "bonus day" up here in NW Wisconsin.  Actually, most of Wisconsin and Minnesota were put on stand-by today due to the extreme cold; numerous schools across the states closed.  What about your area?  I caught the nightly news and the USA weather map showed state after state in extreme cold temps -- did anyone else have a bonus day?

I used mine as best I could, certainly!  The brainstorm session for Old Town's sashing yesterday was successful, and today, all of the units were prepped and placed on the design wall.  

The units have yet to be pieced, so there's a slight disconnect in continuity in the photo.  All of the units appear to be aligned correctly; I think it's a GO for piecing. 

A partial collection of the blue string blocks were trimmed to size on and off all morning between trimming units for Old Town's sashing.

Much of the day, however, was spent in contemplation-mode.

Years ago, the school's Community Ed program inquired with me about offering some quilting classes.  I haven't offered a class since 2009.  My goodness, time has flown! And I've learned sooooo MUCH since then.   Heavy consideration is once again afoot about teaching a beginner's course of quilting fundamentals.  

The jury's still out, but a simple little pattern was brainstormed and fabrics chosen that could duo nicely as a crib quilt for Quilts for Kids.  We'll see where this leads in the next few weeks.

Design Wall Monday - Old Town mystery

I'm thankful for the space to hang a design wall.

Some brainstorming on Bonnie's Old Town mystery needed to happen; and it's NOTHING against Bonnie's pattern, it's merely because of my color choices with hers.  The sashing in Bonnie's reveal calls for pinks in mine....eh.... as stated on an earlier post, I'm not interested in having a quilt that reads so much 💞pink💞.

There are also a bunch of scraps set aside from the making of this quilt.  The green-pink HSTs pictured lower right actually had me confused for awhile.  I had forgotten they were BONUS triangles made from double-sewing units from step 5, remembering only after searching earlier posts, wondering why they weren't present in Bonnie's reveal anywhere.  

A few scrap units were grabbed, trimmed, pieced... and played around with in the layout...

Hm... pink-in-green square in a square with some neutral-green-brown HST/QST star-like scrap blocks surrounding.

Or perhaps green-in-pink square in a square.  This seems to keep the diagonal trend better, but those pieced 'HST/QST star blocks' seemed wrong.

A little twisting later - duh!  Of course, the extension of the neutral sashing into the star block will fit better with this chosen layout.  

Again, THANKFUL for the design wall space to play around with units until they decided to play nicely together.

ALSO thankful for having so many acrylic rulers to aid in design.  
The Companion Angle* (by Darlene Zimmerman) joined my ranks in early 2000s for one mystery quilt or another.  Some excess neutral/green 1.5" strips were cut and pieced.

I don't recall which step of Bonnie's mystery it was when we needed some brown QST units, but I do remember grabbing the Easy Angle ruler* to trim off some brown ends before using the Companion angle ruler.  The spare brown HSTs would find a use someday, I figured, rather than waste them.

The Easy Square* (by Sharon Hultgren) has been in my collection pretty much since the beginning of my quilting hobby.  The already-trimmed down BONUS HSTs were trimmed up again to 1.5" for piecing into a square-in-a-square center block.

Mostly, this complete run-down is as a reminder of my design decisions. 
Seeing it come together brings another level of excitement!  Busy... but still very clearly showing a pattern; I'm a sucker for those diagonals!

I'm stepping away for now to de-paper the remaining blue string units for the Dawn's Early Light border.

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts - Design Wall Monday.

*affiliate links

Dawn's Early Light progress; slow-"unstitch" Sunday

 

The blue string blocks have all been checked off.  EVERY drawer was sifted; the 1.5", 2", 2.5" 3.5", string and bonus triangles... the ONLY scraps of blue that remain are what's pictured here.  
Bonnie certainly is inspirational and I wonder if anyone else wonders how long some of her quilts take for her to create, not including the design time.  This one has been underway for me since last June.  Sure, sure... I haven't been working on it day and night, but the hours are still tallying to an impressive total.

Now, the de-papering begins!  Some of slow-stitch Sunday evening was spent in the chair, with feet up.  This counts, right??  Until I CRASHED!  Hence, why this post is hitting in the morning versus last night.

Excitingly, units are coming together at a quicker pace now.  
The red-star blocks done
Red-star blocks and neutral string units pieced
And then pieced together with the blue/strings HST units...

One more good day of sewing should see them all come together into the top. 

Mind over matter persevered! Not a sob-story looking for sympathy, just fact... this weather is sloooooowly starting to annoy me.  But Bailee's puppy-dog eyes won me over in the afternoon, and we bundled up, setting out for a walk to at least break the seal... which resulted in a 10K training run.  

Design Wall Monday is the number 1 goal for today on this bonus day off from school for President's Day, but probably not with Dawn's Early Light.  The Old Town mystery quilt blocks are currently taking up space on it.  I'll be breaking away from Bonnie's plans a little bit; my color choices would result in all the sashing units being pink, but... I don't want the quilt to be seen as a 'pink quilt.'  

Off to brainstorm...

Linking up with Kathy's Quilt Slow-Sunday stitching

Dawn's Early Light: blue strings for RSC

It's been a long time since I've devoted a full day to relaxing with some piecing up in the quilting loft.  I ventured up right around 8AM, turning on Virgin River, and continued piecing some blue string blocks for the Dawn's Early Light quilt.  A fair amount of time has clearly been spent in the quilting loft lately, because I only tune in to Virgin River while quilting... and I recall beginning the series right around New Year's.

Folks, this photo is quite misleading!  The tidy piles give the impression that much of today was neat, petite, smooth and organized.  Bahaha... but this is the current state after about 8 (EIGHT!) hours of piecing and burning through most of my scrap blue strings!  

The bag be empty, folks!

Half of the necessary blocks are completed, with the remaining half partially started.  The plan for tomorrow will be to check the 1.5", 2" and 2.5" bins for blue strips to trim down into strings;  if not, some yardage will be pulled to finish these up.

The red/white star block subunits for Dawn's Early Light have been machine-side as my leader-ender.

... and this was my sign to call it a day.  

With another 4-5" of fresh snow, the fire's been burning away all day.  

There are zero plans in my mind to head out running, much to the NON delight of Bailee girl.
I've officially allowed the weather to win and beat my mindset.  Ugh.  I've been in a funk...

Perhaps tomorrow though... 

A batch of soap was also prepped this afternoon while lunch was cooking.  This "Lavender Rose" is a new-to-me fragrance. It came home with me from a Florida flea market last summer, and seems to be holding its scent during the initial phases of saponification.  Some ground up oats were also added to the mixture to act as a light exfoliant.  Unfortunately, I'm on-hold for any more soap creation until I reorder some olive oil - going to give this olive oil pomace a try; seems to be a good deal.

Linking up with SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge today.

Productivity on a school night; Old Town quilt ... and TAXES!

Whether it was motivation or discipline... or maybe a little of both, after arriving home from school and after dinner, I parked myself at the kitchen table with the plan to crunch some tax numbers and grind out all the tax paperwork.  Mark it on the calendar!  Mid-February, and taxes are ready to be finalized;  that's a first.  We're typically pushing early April, but ... ugh, I didn't want it to loom over my head this year.
What about you - how late do you all wait before taking care of taxes?

Once the table was reorganized and cleared of piles, it wasn't even 7:00 yet.
Therefore, with some energy left if the system, time was spent up in the quilting loft.  The last of the 25 Old Town mystery quilt blocks were wrapped up and laid out on the design wall.  The color-way was chosen from what was available on my shelves, and the greens, pinks and browns have blended nicely in Bonnie's mystery layout.

With a 3-day weekend looming, I'm certainly looking forward to some quality, relaxing time in the loft. 

On the ledge at the top of our loft stairs, there are a few different holiday cactuses (cacti?) that have been collected in recent years.  One of my favorites is this large Christmas Cactus that was rehomed to me during the summer of 2023 from a former student who no longer had room in her house.

Part of it blossomed during December; the first time since I had claimed it my own.  And now, another large section of it decided to bloom.  Silly thing!  I'm glad she's starting to feel at home and happy in her location; and I can't WAIT until the entire thing decides to blossom at one time.

Keep on keepin' on.

Happy Thursday.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts - Finished (or not) Friday

Feeling rebelious...

Today was today.  Not typical, but not non-typical either.
But after school, while walking out to the vehicle, I allowed myself to be irked by the weather.  
It was cold.  Ugh.  Yuck!  
I didn't feel like bundling up for a run tonight.  So, I didn't.
Instead...

I grabbed some starter, a small handful of Amish Paste heirloom tomato seeds...

... and planted 'em in the soil!

In February.
In northwest Wisconsin.

Carry on...

((although I was SUPER thankful that Paul had a warm HOT fire going in the house once I got home)) #ItsTheLittleThings

More putzing: Rainbow Scraps w/mini 4-patches, Walker's quilt, and we got our run done.

Does anyone else set their alarm on weekends?  I mean, I do, but I don't know why since I'm up most days between 5-6:00 AM regardless of said alarm or not. This morning... Bailee and I rolled out of bed and started the day with some coffee (me obviously, not her) while updating the blog, but then put some plans in mind for the day of putzing.

There is something to be said about a great "putzing" schedule!  With 💙blue still in mind from SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap challenge, the set-aside box of left over 1" strips from the Omigosh quilt was dug through.  Plenty of blues and neutrals remained, and these tiny units are crazy adorable.  

And WHY do we wait so long before changing our blades?  Or, maybe you don't... I shouldn't assume. 

Always on the hunt for a deal, after Christmas, I stopped in at JoAnn's on the search for some replacement blades (and a cutting mat) knowing they would be needed soon.  #STICKERSHOCK at the pricetags!  I passed up all options and not having many more shopping options in our area, I went off to peruse Amazon.  These titanium-coated blades were found after a fair amount of searching, reading reviews, repeat.  The reviews for THESE seemed decent, so the purchase was made.  My goodness!  The ol' adage 'you get what you pay for' went by the wayside.  I've been quite impressed!!  Besides, being a frugal ol' fuddy-duddy, TEN blades for the fraction of a price elsewhere has been quite impressive!  I have another set in the cart for when I place my next purchase of Bailee's treats. 

Walker's quilt definitely needed to be on the agenda today.  I'm going the easy way out by edging it with simple borders.  Two smaller inner borders were added today before closing up shop; next week the final set (or two) will be added.  It's currently 89"x89" and is intended for a king size bed.  I think I'll be shooting for 105"x105"; this post back in July has certainly been helpful on how the different sizes fit a king size bed.

As hoped, Bailee and I hit the snow-covered roads for a run as well.  The day TRULY has been quite nice, all things kept in perspective that we live in NW Wisconsin.  No wind, low teens, and dressed for the weather, we set off to complete a 5K training run.  However, we were both feeling pretty good, so we turned it into a 5-miler.  Can she get a whoop-woop!?!

A few weeks back, some snow-boots were purchased for her and she's taken to them like a fish to water.  

Post-run snack of choice:  Greek yogurt with apple slices.  We still have probably 2-dozen apples left downstairs in the root cellar from our harvest back in October. [the January update of that process]  The apples are showing some dehydration with their skins, but inside they are still crisp -n- juicy!  

I'm off to fry up some taco meat for a Taco Bar potluck the 7-12 staff is hosting tomorrow for school.  
Then tonight... full intentions of putting the feet up, turning on the Super Bowl (most likely background noise), and will turn out a few rows on the Sky, Sand & Sea scrap afghan.

What a glorious day!

Happy Sunday.

Today's link ups:
SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Kathy's Quilts Slow-Stitch Sunday

UPDATES: Rainbow Scrap '25 (DEL); Emme Groomed; Old Town; and SMART goal

Meet Emme, the sweetest cockapoo ever!  Her owner struck up a conversation with me at Friday evening' basketball game, which led to me spending some JOYFUL time bathing, fluffing and grooming her yesterday morning. Seriously, JOYFUL!

There are some dogs who are cute, and then there's EMME! Her demeanor is top-notch; happy puppy. 

And once all dolled up, she and my Bailee played outside in the fresh 4+ inches of snow that fell overnight.  This is the first real snowfall we've had up here in Wisconsin this winter.

My goodness - seriously!  This much cuteness should be illegal!  She's sooooooooo soft, and huggable, and LOVEABLE!

After she departed, and a quick lunch... and the snowfall keeping me from running outside...
... the afternoon was left wide open to simply putz-putz-putz.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge was 100% in mind.  So, two-birds-with-one-stone:

The Dawn's Early Light red-star piles have been growing as my leader-ender.  However, with those units nearing completion, time was spent organizing the next unit.

PERFECT TIMING!  Blue strings!!!💙

Years and years ago, Bonnie's scrap system was implemented in the quilting space, so grabbing the bag of blue strings allowed me to get cookin' on these units straight-away once the papers were cut.

About an hour of late afternoon time was also devoted to assembling a few more Old Town quilt blocks;  half of them from the reveal step have been checked off the list.

What a gloriously 'putzy' afternoon in the loft!

And theeeeeeeeeen, the tiny voice in my head started saying, "just get on the treadmill.  C'mon, you have a streak underway of hitting those 10K steps daily; don't let this weather (and a small groin-muscle annoyance) break the streak!"

7:30 PM reality:

SMART Goal achieved:  8:15 PM

I'm nursing a small strain from a run earlier this week with Bailee.  Old age... what'cha gonna do?!?!  So this was nothing fancy; no running... but a good powerwalk for about 40 minutes on the ol' treadmill helped me check off Day #27 of 10,050 steps (cuz 10K would simply be too boring). 

#SmartGoals - you've got this!

Today's plan:  putzing, and an attempt at a 5K, groin-permitting.

Happy sunshiny Sunday morning.  

Linking up with SoScrappy '25 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.