Blues, Greens and Soul Restoration

Hello. It's been awhile. My sewing and blogging this year have been scattered--a little at a time, just enough to keep going as family matters have been a priority. My dad began hospice care in March, and left this life at the very end of August at the age of 98 years, 8 months. We are so thankful to have had him in our lives for so many years--all of them with incredible mental sharpness, curiosity, and good humor, even in his last days when he was heavily medicated for pain. Dad lived independently until his last three months when he decided to move from his condo to assisted living, so you can kind of imagine the practical things that needed to be taken care of during the summer to sort and dispose of belongings, save mementos and sell the condo. But everything went well, and we were able to spend lots of time just enjoying each other. Our memories of those last months with Dad are sweet.

It has been strange in a way to live without concerns for Dad's health and to find a new rhythm of life this autumn. Shortly after Dad's funeral (an outdoor service at his request on a spectacular day), we found a last-minute cottage booking for a week-long vacation on the shore of Lake Michigan. And in the last few weeks, we've taken some hikes and have spent more time with our kids and grands during little breaks from school. So I'm taking my time getting back to sewing projects, and that's okay. We've had a glorious autumn, with long-lasting brighter-than-usual color. (I hope that isn't really a harbinger of more serious climate concerns.) There will be time enough for more sewing when winter sets in. 

Meanwhile, I do have some bits of sewing to share, as quilting has remained a relaxing and therapeutic activity during this season of my life. I have caught up on my RSC color sewing for September and October--light blues and yellow-greens. I made one quilt-as-you-go placemat each in blue and green, and then after making my adding machine strips, I still had enough green to make one more placemat. The strips were a bit wider (probably some were binding bits), so it went fast. I also used large scraps for the backs as well as frankenbatting, which greatly reduced my scrap collections. These photos show fronts and backs. All of the placemats are 14 by 18 inches and will go into my Meals on Wheels pillowcase for donation next spring.

In all, I made about 10 1/2 feet of light blue adding machine tape strips and a little over 23 feet of yellow green. I have only a handful of green scraps left, and a little more blue than that, but not enough to bother me. I've always had way too much blue fabric, so I knew that would be the case. Here are the strips with all the other ones I made this year--around 172 feet altogether.

I think this will be it for RSC adding machine tape for now. I still have most of one of the rolls of tape, so eventually another project will pop up. I've been thinking of maybe making these strips into grocery tote bags. During the pandemic, we were not allowed to use our own bags at the grocery store. Lately, we've been using kraft paper bags and recycling them--I really don't want to add to the plastics problem. But now that it's okay to use our own bags again, I'd really like to have washable totes. Our old totes weren't washable, and I sort of shudder to think of how gross they might be. 

I did not make more Bear Paw blocks in the blue and green families for RSC as I decided I had plenty of blocks for a quilt. I want to play up the black and white a bit, so I ordered some black and white 1/4 inch striped fabric which will become part of the some sashing as well as binding. 

I think I might discontinue my RSC projects in the new year after I complete the current ones. I'm a bit tired of stretching a project out for a whole year--and besides, my scrap bins are pretty depleted by now. I do have some bins that still need attention. There are lots of multi-color scraps yet as well as a bin of neutrals (white, black, brown, gray) and a bin of solid color scraps. I'll still be working with them, but on my own time frame. Maybe it's my age? Maybe it's dealing with my Dad's stuff? But I feel the need to move things along more quickly. 

So let's see, what else? I did finish a quilt top over the last couple of months, and while we were on vacation, I discovered that a quilt store I used to order from online had a brick-and-mortar store near where we were staying. I decided that I would visit that store to buy the backing fabric I needed for that quilt. We happened to have a couple hours of rain one afternoon, so it was the perfect time to make that little visit. I found just the right fabric, and there was just enough on the bolt. Yay!! I also found a couple of fat quarter sale pieces. Hmmmm. They would have worked in that quilt, too. Here's everything stacked up. You'll have to wait to see the whole quilt a little longer. It's basted, but with guests here off and on, I've put off quilting it.

 

One other thing I've been working on off and on is my handsewn car quilt top. I've been sewing the four-patches I made into 16-patches. I took this project on vacation to sew in the evenings.

So, that's it for the past two months. I'll leave you with (more than) a few photos from our vacation and our autumn hikes during October. Being by the lake and walking among colorful trees has been real soul restoration. 

Along Lake Michigan...

Muskegon lighthouse

On the beach by our cottage

Bike ride along Muskegon Lake

Cottage beach

Duck Lake State Park

Hoffmaster State Park (When we took childbirth classes years ago, and I had to visualize a calming scene, this was always the one.)

Cottage bluff

Postcard view from our living room

And closer to home...

Esker Landing (near our neighborhood--I've never seen this much color there before,)

Lake Lansing Park North

Lake Lansing Park North

Lake Lansing Park North

The Ledges in Grand Ledge

View from the Ledges

I'm linking this with Angela at So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. 

I hope you've had beautiful Autumn/Spring weather wherever you are, and that quilting is an enjoyment for you through all the seasons of life.

 

Blues and Purples

Bit by bit, I've been catching up on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blues and making my purple projects. This whole summer has been bit by bit, but it is adding up. 

I have lots of blue scraps--enough to be overwhelming. So I'm glad that we could focus on just the brights and darks for June. I'm sure some lighter blues sneaked in there, but that's okay because when I get to the light blues there will probably be some decidedly darker ones. It's all relative, right?

I started, as usual, with the string-pieced placemats. I made two blue ones and then decided that I had enough strings to make a third one. Because some of my scraps were fairly big, I pieced all the backs, too. My purple scrap collection is smaller, so I eked out one placemat with those strings. Here they are all together, and then we'll take a quick look at each front and back.

As usual, all of the placemats are 14 by 18 inches, made quilt-as-you-go with pieced batting scraps. They will all be headed to Meals on Wheels in next spring's collection. I am always surprised by how well these motley scraps turn out. I mostly prefer bluish purples, but the grayish and even the reddist ones worked out fine. And I am really enjoying making the backs of these placemats. 

The rest of the scraps filled up more adding machine tape. I think the blues filled about 17 1/2 feet and the purples about 13 feet.

I added 17 Bear Paws with my solid fabrics this month, 8 with blue and 9 with purple. 

The other thing I did was finish the last 10 blocks of my 90 blocks for the 52 weeks of scrappy triangles. 

As you are reading this, I have sewn the blocks into a top, basted it, picked my quilting thread, and (I hope) started the quilting. Woohoo!! (When it's all done, it will get its own post.)

During the summer, we spend an evening a week picnicking on the lawn at MSU for carillon concerts. Lately, I've been taking my hand sewing along. It's so relaxing taking slow stitches while listening to a wide variety of music from guest carillonneurs. This past week the program included Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Ralph Vaughn Williams' King's Weston. Something for everyone! Here's how things looked from my chair.

Summer bliss. 

And just three more photos for your viewing pleasure. We've been frequently traveling to my dad's home this summer, taking the back roads to avoid highway congestion and construction and just enjoying watching the landscape change as the crops grow. We drive through a little intersection each time that has this little old schoolhouse with a two-sided quilt. I missed taking photos when the daylilies were all in bloom, but this view is pretty, too, I think.

And because July has been a purple month for RSC (not my garden, but a simple pleasure on a walk)...

I'm linking up this week with Angela at So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. 

I hope you are enjoying bits of summer sewing (if you are in my hemisphere; if you are farther south, have fun with cozier winter sewing) and the simple joys of music, nature and country byways.

Sage and Forest

With all that's going on in our world and my country lately, it's been hard for me to concentrate on quilting projects. But I forced myself because maybe it's therapy to have bits of things to work on (especially for others), and I did manage to get some small things done in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors of sage and forest this month. I was glad that the focus was on just part of the spectrum because I really didn't want to look in that bin and see how much was in there with ALL the greens. My first project was a quilt-as-you-go placemat using strings leftover from a previous RSC project. Funny how several times this year I have had just enough strings.

Sorting them out gave me pause at times. Is that a grayish green or a yellowish green? Sage or avocado? It really didn't matter. They will all get used up eventually. For the back of this placemat, I chose a leftover piece of green that I used in a quilt for our bedroom so many years ago that it is no longer in use except as an extra blanket when the grandkiddies come. 

And that binding? Leftovers of a baby quilt for a grand-nephew who is now in his mid-20s!

After finishing the placemat, I turned to my adding machine tape project. I have had several people ask me how I am making these strips, so I took a few photos when making my first strip. I started by sorting out the smallest of my green scraps.

I use the adding machine tape as my foundation for paper piecing.

My tape is 2 1/4 inches wide, so I aim to cover it with fabric with an additional 1/4 inch seam allowance. I don't sew on every piece separately but chunk some together before adding them. I use a big needle and small stitch. Because my tape is a bit brittle, this sometimes results in enough perforation that the tape comes apart, but no problem. I just tape it back together. The whole purpose of using the tape is to sort of stabilize the sewn fabric so that it will stay fairly straight if I piece long strips together later.

So for this strip I started sewing together some bits that were too small to cover the tape by themselves. 

Here's that chunk positioned against the adding machine tape.

Then I added a strip of fabric to the chunk as in foundation paper piecing.

I know this looks like I'm sewing in reverse. I think I took the photo after sewing the seam. Also, you'll see that I placed the tape so that I was sewing to the left of the first chunk. That is because it's kind of awkward early on sewing with all the tape to the right of the needle. When I get to the middle of the strip, I turn things around and sew to the right of what's already been sewn on. 

Here's how the strip looks with the one strip of fabric sewn to the chunk.

I tend to look for angled scraps to sew together to make rectangles.

Here's that chunk sewn on.

One more chunk.

And sewn on. (I don't know why this photo is turned. One of the mysteries of blogging.)

And here is how everything looks so far from the back. (Turned again. Sigh)

You can see that there are only 3 seams so far even though I've sewn more pieces of fabric. This will make it easy eventually to tear off the tape.

Here's that whole strip from the back. (Notice there are a couple of breaks there. It doesn't usually happen that often, but maybe I was handling the strip more than usual for photography.)

And trimmed to the seam allowance. ( And taped.)

And the front. 

So basically, the piecing is a mix of chunks and strips with fairly even distribution of value. I'm not sure what the appeal is to me of sewing this way as I generally don't enjoy piecing slabs or crumb blocks. But, hmmm. Now I'm going to share something that totally contradicts that. Go figure. 

 

When I was finished with three strips (about 3 feet each), my smallest scraps were about used up. I still had quite a few larger scraps. So it was time to try something else. I started sewing more chunks of similar sized pieces. Here are the light to medium scraps. There are more darker ones off camera.

Those chunks became a second placemat.

Not quilt-as-you-go. Instead, I quilted straight lines following main seam lines. There was a bit of organization. All lines are vertical in the mottled green fabric and horizontal in the crosshatched fabric. 

More chunks made up the back and binding. 

Both placemats are about 18 by 14 inches. The battings are made from pieced leftovers. They'll go to Meals on Wheels when I have a big batch.

 
I actually enjoyed making the improv placemat with fabric chunks. A lot. And it yielded enough small pieces to complete two (plus a little more) strips, for nearly 16 feet of adding machine tape. 

By the time I ran out of scrap variety, I had this much fabric left. 

Notice there are still strips of leftovers from my great-nephew's quilt. Oh well, they'll get used eventually. Maybe more binding?

My other RSC project was the Bear Paw using green solids this month. I got carried away and made nine. That's okay, because I know that if yellower greens come up at some point, I won't have many of those.

I think I have 30 Bear Paws now. 

I was hoping to finish the blocks for my scrappy triangles quilt this month, but low sewing energy as well as time did not allow. Maybe I can pick away at them in the next few days. 

I'm linking up on Saturday with Angela at So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and on Sunday with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

So that's it for this month. I have no words of encouragement right now, in quilting or otherwise. I'm sorry. In the past I've worked through raw feelings of grief and anger by making quilts for victims of violence or their loved ones. I know many of you have, too. But that is not enough. My country, which I have loved though it has never been perfect, has lost its way. I only hope and pray that we can somehow come together to find a way to a better path forward. We need to sustain the righteous anger over what we are doing to ourselves and our society long enough to make positive changes. But I fear it is too late.