Finished Friday - 2011 RSC Squares; and a lil' tree-trimming, wood-stacking, and dog-grooming

After Tuesday's organization of flimsies and UFOs, Wednesday found me dusting off the Q'nique and refreshing my skills with the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge top.

I'll say again, all these skills are truly coming back just like riding a bike!  There is only one quilt I remember where I sewed the binding to the front and actually hand-stitched on the back.  Psht.  I really don't have the patience for the hand-sewing; I hope that doesn't make me a bad person.  Since I've pretty much mastered machine-sewing the binding, that's the ticket I'm sticking with.  

A scrappy binding was attached from digging in the 2.5" strip bin, and v'iola!  My first full-quilt finish in a few years.  Although not 100% certain, but she will most likely be packaged up and sent off to
Quilts for Kids

Speaking of riding a bike...
Last summer, a couple coworkers and myself started meeting up weekly for a 'bike around the lake.'  This year, we've grown to five ladies in our group, and yesterday was our first meetup of the summer.  The ride is just shy of 9.25 miles and mostly flat, and it was a BEAUTIFUL mid-60s low-humidity morning.

Feeling great and energetic following the ride, motivation was kicking for some outdoorsy tasks that have been on my todo list when time (and weather) allowed.
We have a 20-year old apple tree as a sole-survivor from a half-dozen or so that were planted when we first bought the land, AND remarkably has been producing apples in recent years.  The apples haven't been the best, but I'm hoping that a good (first-ever) heavy pruning will kickstart some legitimate production...  eventually... even if it's definitely the WRONG time of the year for pruning.

The saying is, "if it acts like a shade-tree, it needs a prunin'!"

Bailee girl was most definitely enjoying her time in the shade!  LOL.
(Before)

Although I didn't have any ladders, I dare say that a good pruning commenced.
(After)

POV after cleaning up and clearing many of the middle branches... and YES!  The thought(s) did cross my mind: what if I fell? you're no spring chicken anymore. no one is home.  are these branches strong enough? is your knee really okay to handle this?

We can now see SKY from ground-level.

What a happy lil' tree - Love, Love, Love.
Much of the top is still quite full, however we'll see how she behaves moving forward.

Last summer, the sole-surviving cherry tree was also heavily pruned, its first ever also.  And I mean, HEAVY pruning!

And she's LOADED with cherries this year, all beginning to ripen.  Montmorency cherries; they are a bit on the tart side, but make a MEAN cherry pie and some great wine!

THEN, ...this pile.  I mean, who needs to pay for a gym membership when you have outside physical hobbies too?  Hm, maybe we shouldn't actually call this a 'hobby.'  Perhaps 'homesteading life' is a better description, but all the same... this load of logs was processed and dumped into a pile last summer, so it was given my attention for the next couple of hours.

No, no no... the entire pile hasn't been finished!  LOL.  Good golly, THAT'd be impressive!  But an additional 'dent' was made and a pallet added and stacked while being spoiled with absolutely PERFECT afternoon weather;  still upper 60s/maybe lows 70; partly sunny.  The pile is my ongoing 'little bit at a time' past-time this summer when I'm in need of some physical activity.

Some soapin' has been happening these past couple of days as well

THEN, today... oy! Bailee girl was well overdo for a bath and grooming!  Goodness, I was a bit shocked at the passing of time when I checked the calendar.  Today marks a day shy of 10 weeks since her last groom!  

Bailee's our 6 and a half year old Golden Doodle.  She has the absolute BEST demeanor!  Her fur has the natural poodle curl when she's wet...

but once fully dried, it relaxes a bit more like the golden retriever in her.
My goodness!  What a poofball.  LOL. 
I wasn't the least bit tempted at keeping her hair long; she's due for a nice summer cut.

Look at those furry paws... the water was FILTHY from them due to all the rain (and mud) this past week

Peek-a-boo!  (couldn't resist)

No WONDER she's been slip-sliding on the hard wood floors lately...
(before)

(after)

Seriously, 10 weeks?!?!? THAT won't happen again.
So one full garbage bin later...

Our Bailee is back!

... and of course it rained all morning... LOL. 

10 hours in my sewing room - Easy Street and others

6:30 AM, and I was strolling into my quilting room.  I brought NO schoolwork home this weekend seeing that we teachers have 2 days worth of inservice on Monday & Tuesday while the kiddos have the entire week off.  Therefore, I'll plan to get some of my planning done during a couple of hours of worktime on Tuesday afternoon.

Therefore, I could FINALLY devote my undivided attention to my sewing room!  {{almost}}  From time to time, I did need to provide some meals on the table for Candace and Caitlyn.

My main project today:  Lazy Sunday.  Last weekend, I had left off piecing the sashing to the 2nd row before my bobbin thread ran out.  Hence, I wound 6 bobbins worth to start off the day, and then got to work.

I haven't done a "time-lapse" post in quite some time;  it's kind of a neat way to keep track of how fast/slow certain parts of quilting are.

A few hours into the morning, the center of Lazy Sunday was pieced.  I had also been piecing the border units as my leaders-enders, so I was making some good progress.

And then........

I forgot to continue with the time-lapse pictures!!! Whoops....

I simply was in a mode, and it was go-go-go;  and in the background, I was catching up on Bonnie's quiltcams from the past couple of months.

By mid-afternoon:  Lazy Sunday pieced!  77"x97".

Can I get an....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh  ?

LOL

All the while, I was organizing up the leader-ender section;  failed to take a picture of that though.  "Omigosh" continues to be my main leader-ender project.  Perhaps in 4 years, at this pace, it may actually be completed SOLELY as leader-ender :)

THEN, I wanted to truly have an idea of how many quilt-tops I had hanging around, waiting OH WAITING to eventually be loaded into the quilting frame for some fancy-schmancy quilting.

The newest flimsy from last weekend:  Confetti (48"x48)

Bonnie's 2012-13 mystery:  Easy Street (85"x85")

Bonnie's Jamestown Landing (84"x96")

Bonnie's Smith Mountain Morning (72"x82")

RWB Heartstrings, but after seeing it in pictures.....nopers.  It's not ready for quilting!  I foresee 18 more RWB string blocks for placement on the left-and-right sides.  This layout.....eh.  It doesn't work.  It's unfinished!

Rainbow Scrap (from 2011? I think) (42"x56")

2010 BOM - 18 block RWB (58.5"x72")

HMMM......Alycia, if you happen to catch this post, let me know if you (or anyone you know) would be willing to take the top as-is and get it quilted up as a QOV ???  I'd rather get this into the arms of a recipient sooner-than-later; and at this rate..... in my basement.... it would be MUCH "later" than sooner.

Frost 25 (73"x73")

Freeze Frame (69"x86")

And not to mention a flannel snuggler quilt that was packed away in a different bin.  And I'm sure I have another one around the basement ... somewhere!  So, with ALL of these 100% ready for backings to be pieced or loaded directly into the frame....

I figured I simply needed to put some time on Wafer Cookies!  Which I did.  For a little while.

and then.....

The afternoon sloggies took hold.  And I was ready to be done.

I had a slightly restless night, playing "mommy" to Caitlyn.  She wasn't feeling well at school yesterday, and ALMOST lasted the whole day.  But, at 1:50, the elementary secretary walked her down to my classroom.  Even a "mom-hug" wasn't enough.  So, with some amazing coworkers helping out, I was on the way out the door of the school with Caitlyn next to me by 2:15.  And by 2:50... **sigh** ...  she officially proved to me that she was indeed sick.

By 10:00, THANKFULLY, she dozed off to sleep on the couch.  

Her sister, on the other hand; WIDE AWAKE watching Doc McStuffins.

Therefore, I figured I'd try to pass the time with some crochet.  The Hallmark channel has been the background noise of choice most evenings, and last night wasn't any different (until I allowed Candace to watch some Disney) :)

These blocks, along with probably one more, will be sewn together to make a simple lil' Christmas table runner for our piano.

There ya go, folks.  The list of flimsies is a bit..... overwhelming!  BUT, at least my sewing tables are clean and tidied.  My leader-ender section is freshly organized.  My "big" WIPs have reached an acceptable stage for folding or stashing on a shelf.

I'm READY for Friday's Clue #1.

OH WAIT!  

Crud!  

LOL

No I'm not!!!  

I completely forgot to pull fabrics.

:}

Oh well...tomorrow is another day.  I don't think I have enough energy left in me to spend any more time in the sewing room tonight.  Instead, I'll grab my crochet hook for the evening.

Happy Saturday!

Rainbow Scrap 2012 & 2011; Orca Bay and Jamestown Landing

Yesterday was completely jam-packed with Basketball and shopping; thankfully Paul volunteered to drive us so I was able to complete most of my school planning while traveling to the game one hour out-of-town.

Today, however, was devoted mostly to machine time :0)

Since Angela posted a Mr. Linky for the 2012 Scrap Challenge, I chose to start the day with some green scraps. Two more Jack-in-the-Box blocks completed to join the red blocks from January; in addition to the "bonus triangle" squares that are being planned for a scrappy border on the final quilt.

When those were completed and scraps tidies up, I looked over at my design wall and frowned.

My wall hasn't been touched since the end of December; sadly I KNEW this was going to happen, too :( I set out to change that today!

After sitting back and staring at the wall for about 10 minutes, I finally said, "NOPE! A 3x3 doesn't work for me!" Therefore, I looked in my 2.5" scrappy squares bin to see what I had an excess of....
Another blue block, brown block and my first black block were pieced. Yes, Yes......a 3x4 layout is much more pleasing to my eye.

It was a chick-flick day in my quilting room! By the time I broke for lunch, I had completed "The Lake House" and "Maid of Honor." Sadly, I never got back to the Rainbow Scrap 2011 blocks once back downstairs after lunch.

Instead, my Orca Bay kept staring at me everytime I walked back to my sewing room. After seeing Andee's progress, I knew if I just tackled piecing the rows together, I would feel so much better. Therefore, with "The Notebook" playing in the background, FINALLLLLY all the rows are completed, weeks after I first attempted piecing the center together, and the outside border waiting patiently.

In the meantime, I've been making quite a dent in my Jamestown Landing leader-ender units. The first of the broken-dish units were pieced today. As always, another successful Sunday!

Guess who's all caught up??? ;0)

Pictured: Steps 1-7
As the picture shows, it was a full day in front of the machine, cutting table and ironing board. Can you say....'ahhhhhhhhh' ?? :)

Attaching the 'wing' triangle units to the green strings was first on the to-do list. I grabbed, I stacked, I pieced .....and when I took a break.......I counted.
:\
I was eight short.
Hm....
I counted again.
Yup, still eight short.
:\
...**scratching head**.....thought for sure I sewed 64 strings a few weeks back....**shrug**... but who knows.

So, I was side-lined for a bit to complete those eight.

And then it took a bit to complete Bonnie's 'easy' request to make up "only four more" "wing" triangle units.
Only....I didn't have ANY 2" scrap strips/squares left in my purple. Can you believe that?!!!?!? Seriously. When I finished steps 3 & 5, I used the last 2" purple strip from my scraps/strips/bins.
....so I dug and dug and dug in order to finish those up. Remember the other day when Bonnie was asked if she kept 3.5", 4.5"... strips? I haven't done ANYTHING with my 3.5+" bin in AGES, so I decide to blow the dust off the cover and see what it had to show.
JUST enough purple strips to cut down to 2" is what I found :0)

And while I was sorting and cutting 2" HSTs for those four additional 'wing' triangles, I also cut up the QSTs pieces too.
So......by late afternoon,

I WAS DONE!!!!

It wasn't 5:00 yet (my predetermined ending time)....
I did some tidying.... swept up some dust balls (ick)....moved some projects around.... filled a couple of bags with some old, questionable fabric that I simply WON'T ever use ...

and then......

I pulled out the ScrappyHappy (name????) blocks from Angela's 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Eight of them had been completed, so I pulled some yellows to make a ninth. And then...quite honestly, while looking around my room for another color and some more scraps......I came up empty (psht, yeah right!!! Do you really believe that????). But, rather than packing them back up for the shelf, I decided that a small crib-style quilt would be ideal for the nine blocks. I SURE hope they don't remain like this on my design-wall for the next few months!!!... :0)

Happy Friday

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Puttering along some more yesterday on Splendidly Marching Along, I decided to trim the few 2.5" RWB strips I had to 2" in order to be used. However, before doing so, I snipped off a handful of 2.5" squares for another Rainbow Scrap Challenge block that Angela goated me into a couple of months ago with this post. Honestly, she blind-sided me with those ADORABLE blocks....that simply came out of NOWHERE! :0) I don't remember the name of the block she shared with me (Scraphappy, maybe?), but it came from the latest 100-block magazine. She gave me the simple information: "2.5" blocks and 1.5" strips; the rest is a little math." I wish I would have had two more of the white flag squares...but oh well. It's a scrap block. It is what it is.

Anyway, it now joins the other blocks, and I notice there are SEVEN in this picture. Hmmm??? AH! The brown one is "extra" right now! We haven't had brown in the Challenge yet. OH! The orange is extra too! Guess I'm ahead of the ball-game for those months to come, huh? ;0) I knew I was having fun the day I came across Angela's post and I went RIGHT to my 2.5" scrap bin; guess I didn't care that brown or orange hadn't been mentioned yet.

I think it's time to update what I've actually accomplished this year on Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

January - Blue
** Made a Scraphappy block and finished Blue Ridge Beauty








February - Red
** Made a Scraphappy block and Red Blossoms








March - Green
** Made a Scrapyhappy block

April - Purple
** Made a Scraphappy block and start cutting for Purple Pleasure. {{Then school-year-end took over and I haven't gotten back to it yet}}. Hmmm....next project???







May - Pink
** Made a Scraphappy block

June - Yellow
** Cut fabric scraps for the Blue-n-Gold quilt for Cassie. Currently my leader-ender project.








July - Red, White & Blue
** Made a Scraphappy block and working on Splendidly Marching Along.