another week of sewing...

despite the fact that the weather has truly broken, and spring is here, I was able to sew in the sewing room for 2 evenings this week. sometimes (usually?) it's not always a matter of time (in the evenings) it's just that I'm too tired to go upstairs and sew!

 

we worked outside all day yesterday, and were able to plant onions, kale and the collard greens. the high tunnel is ready for tomatoes on Tuesday, and we also planted 5lb. of sugar snap peas.

 

today we're going adventuring: down to Harrisburg to the MCC relief sale. can't wiat! there are always hundreds of quilts- lots to inspire! and the best part? Quilter's Attic. think yard sale- but only quilting stuff- fabric, books, thread, orphan blocks and projects, magazines, you name it! and (another) best part? fabric is only $2/yd. wowzers....

 

I made- and caught up- with all my D4P. (3" blocks started) I pieced 24 blocks this week, but only 12 are shown. phew- I'm glad this is done for this month.

my sawtooth stars with crumb centers are finished for this years rainbow sampler. I made the aqua blocks a few months ago- I thought I saw a sneak peek on someone's blog that aqua would be the COM for March.

 

13 (6½") crumb blocks (plus the 2 in the center of the sawtooth stars)

 

 

and now the "keeping it real" part of my blog post for this week: ^ see above^ . this is the basket/organizing part of my sewing room. the shorter baskets and shelf are about chest high, the higher baskets on the right are about 5½ feet tall. it would have been lovely if I had cleared off the shelves, and made it look neater and less visually overwhelming. (and less like a bomb went off!) but- I was too tired/lazy.

 

each basket holds a specific kind/style of fabric- red, orange/yellow, green, blue, purple/aqua, neutrals, black/brown/grey. then there is Christmas, vintage, FQs, flannel and (some of my) pre-cuts. there are also drawers for WIPs, orphan blocks, the girls' craft and school stuff, notions and a drawer for Scraps to Wraps (S2W), our church sewing ministry.

 

the second drawer from the left, on the top, is my RSC15 drawer. it's getting a bit stuffed. someone asked about my drawer last week. one of these days i'll do a post with (neat) pictures of my sewing room. I really do have a nice, big and light room to sew in, and I'm really blessed!

 

go here Saturday morning to see more purple pretties!



enjoying these last sewing moments...

the weather if finally starting to break- for good, this time! even though we had an inch of snow Easter Sunday, spring is here to stay! we've had 2" of rain these last few days, and as soon as the soil dries out, we'll be plowing, tilling and planting. that, of course, means less sewing time for me.

 

but that's ok- I'm looking forward to working outside in the fresh air again. (and if I'm not too tired, I can sew for a bit in the evenings to wind down...)

 

I pieced 30+ 16 patch blocks this week. just slow, easy and mindless stitching as I'm watching Netflix. I like that I have several colors to work with- it would get a bit boring sewing the same colors over and over and over.

 

I had about 8 WOF purples- and got them made into the 4½" squares for the zig zag quilt. I put several of the colors out- someone had asked about that last week: so there you go! there are blue zig zags, too, but I didn't dig too deeply dwon in the RSC15 drawer. (and it's really starting to fill up, too! I might have to start ANOTHER RSC15 drawer!)

 

 

here, also, are the RSC15 scrappy 9 patches. (last year I did the 9 patches a bit differently) but I still had lots and lots (and lots!) of 3" squares left, so I'm having another go at it this year, but only a little bit different.

 

keep on sewing- and click on over to angela's to see more RSC15 projects!

 

PS: don't forget to add some of your RSC15 projects to instagram, with the hash tag #rainbowscrapchallenge15



purple progress!

it seems every month when the RSC color changes, I pull out all my scraps, crumbs, squares, chunks and strips and say to myself "oh good- I don't have very much of color XXX."

usually I'm wrong! purple is no exception.... while it's certainly true that I don't have much purple in my stash,  I have a bit more than I thought!

I spent one night this week going through my purple drawer, pulling out anything less than ½ yard. I made 2½" strips, 3" blocks, and the rest went into my crumb jar.

I made 25 scrappy (and mostly  monochromatic) 9 patch blocks- using Kona white, and a scrappy black center.

I was also able to make 30 4 patches. there are of course many repeats of fabrics in all these blocks, but I do make an effort to make sure there are no 2 blocks alike.

Blogger was/is being more cooperative this week than it was last week, so if you'd like to see my yellow blocks from last month, go here. and you can go here to see everyone else's pretty purples.