Color Palette - July

ok - it's a centerpiece table topper placemat (just in case you're wondering - and if you aren't - it's still a placemat!)  The idea is an improvisational item.  However without borders it was a MESS!  With borders it's still a mess - BUT a contained mess!  With exception of the final quilting - it's done - a centerpiece table topper.  It will still have applique of a white bowl of fruit on it - and a summer straw hat - just haven't gotten that far!  BUT this is done - at least until I quilt it!

And that is NOT blue - but 2 shades of purple - one a deep plummy purple - and the other a lot lighter!  (Yes - that is a salmon pink top center!

And yes, there are several others - side borders are all different and the two sides don't match (on purpose).  BUT the green top border is the same for all.

And there is NO bottom border (on purpose!)

July UFO

I already showed a picture of this on the design wall - however.....  I'm pleased - got a LOT done on this - which had an unbelievable amount of HSTs - and which had been sitting on my shelves for almost 7 years - because of the unbelievable amount of HSTs.

Between doing Leaders-Enders (to use Bonnie Hunter's term) and a new ruler that DOESN'T SLIDE (Thank you thank you thank you!!!!) - I am ALMOST (not quite) done with the HST's (the small ones - still have most of large ones to do)  AND I have foursies done already!

Plans are to continue working on this throughout August (but of course - I DO have my August project to work on :P ) and, who knows, I may actually finish it!  Wahoo!

Design Wall Monday 07-30-12 - only it's Tuesday!

This is a design wall of "gee, I'm not finished yet!!!!"

First - the couch quilt .....

block one is done, hopefully.  Block 2 - I REALLY like the variegated batik on the triangle part - and like the center block BUT don't really feel the center block quite "goes" with the rest.  The center block on the FIRST block - the color DOES exist on the variegated swirly batik - but you sure couldn't prove it from anthing farther away than a foot!  Besides I think son and dil wanted ALL blue - including the background!  And that pale blue would work (maybe - probably not) in the background!

Block 2 needs to be sewn together, then all block 2's need to alternate with the 1's and I need to finish up the whole thing.  Hopefully.  And hopefully it will be done this time next year.
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The color palette thingy - EGADS!!!!  What a mess!!!!  I think from here out I probably need to either paper piece the rest - or wait for my dd to arrive and SHE can put it together!!!!  See what I mean?

There is NO WAY I would consider eating a melon thingy with this as my table topper!  At least not until I get it re-done (probably from scratch!)
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The next is my July UFO - which is NOT done - but I AM pleased here - there were a gazillion HST's - both large and small.  The small ones went to form small pinwheels.  This started with NO small pinwheels put together, and NO twosies either!  Also - no pressed open HSTs nor trimmed.  And while I didn't finish this - I did get a LOT of work done on it!  I'm happy!  Oh yeah - this is staying my LE until I finish all the steps up to where I connect block A with block B.  Seems to work fairly well that way!

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Re the Grandmother Scrap Quilt - not a lot of us traded.  and I haven't had a chance to work on it.  Will post a pic next week.

Stash report for 07-29-12

Nothing truly finished this week - sorta.....
Would have waited until later today to post this - BUT have wedding shower to attend so won't be doing sewing anyway....

Regardless - am hopeful of (1) completing the July thingy for the CP tonight - one way or the other (NOT as pleased as I should be with this one), (2) hopeful of completing gift for son and future dil this week - and - PROBLEMS....... I am NOT fond of this color combo - but am reserving final judgement until I have finished - then may decide to do a different quilt instead for them - and/or give them a choice of the two (and donate the other one!)

Pattern is NOT the problem - the color combo IS - and worse yet - it SHOULD go well - not sure - will post this probably tomorrow on my design wall.  (TG neither son nor Lynn look at my design wall anyway!)

Re stash report - nothing added nothing subtracted.... exactly.....

Used This Week:  0
Used This Month: 4.87 yards for July
Used Year to Date: 75. 745 yards
Added This Week: .75 yards
Added This Month: 9.51 yards for July
Added Year to Date: 44.18 yards
Net Used for 2012: 31.565 yards

Design Wall for 07-23-12

A Flimsy FINISH!!!  These are 4 placemats and one center that I did for the June Color Palette!  After they are quilted I intend to bind them with the dark green for binding.  Quilting will probably be meandering - although the Stitch in the Ditch for the flowers sure appeals to me - and meander along the inside sashing!

Next is a Follow Along - Nicole's Couch Quilt (Nathan and Lynn - DON'T look!)  This is still WAYY behind!  Should finish this week however!

Third on my July list of "MUST DO" - July Color Palette - this color palette just screamed at me - and SOOOOOOOOOOOoo strongly suggested a white painted table with Improvisational placemats on them, white plates with melons of various descriptions cubed on the plates and small pieces of cheese on fancy toothpicks with a flower covered straw hat tossed nearby and in eyesight!  However that's a bit long for a title - so Improvisational July CP will have to do!  LOL  Oh - and this is DEFINITELY NOT done yet!  And, no - that is NOT blue - but 2 different shades of purple!

My July UFO is a Sweet and Sassy quilt begun several years ago (4????)  My daughter saw it and promptly re-named it HER Apple Cider Quilt.  OK  Sounds good to me!  this one will probably NOT be completed this month since it has a gazillion HSTs but I'm doing LE style on sewing twosies and foursies, etc.  and this will be an ongoing project I think.  DEFINITELY have been making progress on it!

The last 2 are for classes I'm taking.  The first class is called "Fresh Air" - and I think I'm going to like this quilt a bunch!  Am using a LOT of my 2.5 inch strips.  Although certainly not as many as I had hoped to!  However this should winnow down my strip stash in that size a bit!  This pattern is from a Magazine Quilt Sampler.  Lots of awesome quilts in there!  This is a class quilt - although IF I have time I may get all my 9 patches done and out of the way!  Not sure what I will do for the Snowball size though!!!!

The next quilt is for the other class I'm taking - but this class meets only once a month.  We will work on this quilt for 3 months before beginning ANOTHER quilt.  So - there is a bit of time (although the quilt IS super easy!)  This quilt is Grandmas' Scrap Bag quilt.  We did a fabric swap - and I got some lovely fabrics, but when it came to cutting things out - I kept picking up golds, browns, etc. and have added quite a few from my own stash here at home.  So - I think this will be a scrap quilt - but have a DEFINITE fall twist to it!

I have other things to work on - but these are the focus for now and for the rest of this month!

Stash Report for 07-22-12

Several things.....

A FINISH! (flimsy anyway!) - placemats and centerpiece (Kitty is Sasha - and LOVES my cutting table!!!)

Used This Week: 4.87 yards
Used This Month: 4.87  yards for July
Used Year to Date: 75. 745 yards
Added This Week: .75 yards
Added This Month: 9.51 yards for July
Added Year to Date: 44.18 yards
Net Used for 2012: 31.565 yards

Design Wall Monday - 07-16-12

Geez everything is going by so fast it's like being on roller skates!!!!

Same pix as last week - EXCEPT I'm a lot farther along on the couch quilt - BUT - am thinking of re-doing the quilt with a different color background.  Frankly - I'm very nervous - son and dil want BLUE - and it IS blue - all kinds of blue - EXCEPT for the background.  And that's what I'm thinking of changing!  Maybe.  Just not sure!

Am trying to focus here - (look at my JULY project list - EGADS!!!!!!)

So - at this point - I'm only posting on the top two (despite having a BUNCH - but unfortunately not all - 4 patches for the Apple Cider - aka Sweet and Sassy quilt - there are a gazillion of them - I swear! These will be the LE AFTER I complete the rest of my June CP and July CP - which hI haven't even figured out yet -  projects )

My MAIN goal is Nicole's Couch Quilt - which will be a wedding present (and hopefully neither Nathan NOR Lynn will look at it).  However - as I said - I MIGHT decide to do this same one again - with the paler blue green as the background.  The colors don't show up here really well - but all of these colors ARE present in the batik.

First one - hard to imagine a complete quilt out of such pieces as this....  (please ignore the bug pattern!)

The next 2 are close ups of one block.  and - no - that pale blue everything is on - is the flannel - and NOT part of the block!

Stash Report for 07-15-12

Had hoped to have several smaller projects done by yesterday - however, best laid plans and all that.....  Open Sew was cancelled :(  I know the next one will be overfull - and I'm soooo glad I pre-paid!!!!

Something I did - I caught my cheat sheet of projects up - this is the one that details WHAT project for WHAT group (ie, the UFO group, the quilt-a-longs, et al) - and I will probably post that on my quilt page a little later today (when I clean up my other pages - and when I figure out what happened to my Preserving Kettle post and the page for State of the Garden.  I do think though I will be doing that a bit differently from what I currently do however. 

At any rate - I then wrote down in a list of order exactly what HAD to be completed this month - hopefully that will keep me a bit focused better.  Hopefully!!!

Anyway - nothing completed, nothing added this week.

Used This Week: 0 yards
Used This Month: 0.0 yards for July
Used Year to Date: 70 + 7/8 yards or 70.875 yards
Added This Week: 0 yards
Added This Month: 8.76 yards for July
Added Year to Date: 43.43 yards
Net Used for 2012: 27.445 yards

Oh yeah - hope to figure out what to do about my Siggie pix and other pix as well.  I miss them!

Design Wall Monday - 07-09-12

NOW - I'm working on my Nicole's Couch quilt and am - as usual - way behind.  Working on that this week.  Hope to catch up by tomorrow evening.  The bottom Batik is for the border while the top one fills two roles.

I decided (1) that the Fancy Flowers needed to be placemats - with a centerpiece.  Still working on this (would have been done - but had sudden attack of indolence last week - and read like a demon!).  The bottom row needs to be sewn to the center strip - and the 2 green side pieces need to be determined as to width, sliced accordingly and attached.  Not a lot to do - and I may decide to do this LE style this week.  There are 4 placemats and 1 centerpiece.

My LE (Leader-ender) project WAS the little HSTs - connecting into twosies and foursie pinwheels - for my July UFO - the Apple Cider Quilt (aka Sweet and Sassy in the book).  A lot has been done in the past when I had this for a class - but there is still a lot to be done on it!  The design board doesn't reflect what all has been done - just a sample of what I am currently doing.  Key word here is SAMPLE.  Not sure whether it will be completed or just worked on and finished next year. Still trying..... 

My LE project before that was the HSTs for my churn dash - except I suddenly remembered - I had the July UFO to do.  So stopped that!  Have to mark a bunch and get ready to sew HSTs anyway.  Progress on this has been VERY bumpy to say the least because I keep stopping and starting as other projects become more pressing!!!!

Stash Report for 07-09-12

HAD hoped to finish the Fancy Flowers - but had temporarily run out of oomph!!!  At any rate - have temporarily set that aside (June project) so that I can work on Couch quilt for son and his new bride!  I asked what color.  They both said blue.  They also said NO flowers.  All I have is either flowers, or snowflakes!  NO solids, NO batiks!   So - I had to make a trip to the quilt shop (and you KNOW how this breaks my heart!  LOLOL)

Used This Week: 0 yards
Used This Month: 0.0  yards for July
Used Year to Date: 70 + 7/8 yards or 70.875 yards
Added This Week: 8.76 yards
Added This Month: 8.76 yards for July
Added Year to Date: 43.43 yards
Net Used for 2012: 27.445 yards

Have an open sew this Friday - sure hope I get some of my stash used up by then!

State of the Garden - Tuesday

Wish I had pix for this - will soon - I hope!  My asthma is still doing a number on me - so I don't dare be out too long - which I know the mosquitos and gnats will be sorry for (I'm also allergic to them!) 

Perrenial patch - strawberries are done.  Asparagus is HUGE - and falling over.  And I REALLY need more asparagus!  Really!  However currently I have some tomatoes that can use the gazillion bare spaces here.  Pretty weed free.  Essentially.  I do have SOME rhubarb harvested - need to get more!  LOVE that plant - want to move it this fall - and divide it if possible - as well as plant more - a LOT more!

Beans and Peas - perking along pretty well - still throwing parties for the birds - and I'm still able to get maybe 4 - 6 pea pods off the snow peas!  watered them Monday - need to check - I think probably Thurs - for blooms, etc.  Butterpeas are blooming.  Beans are blooming and HURRAH - a baby green bean!!!!  I need to start checking for this as well.  Trying to get stuff in refridge used and set for quick meals so I can can this harvest and not have to worry about stopping to fix a meal!

Salad section - am picking salad - although not on Wed - still wheezing a bit - not bad.  Did plant more mustard and wanted to plant kale - but seed already went to the birds!  :(  Greenhouse onions looking pretty good on one side - and spotty on the other - but then the other side is where the birds are throwing dusty spa parties!  Especially right in the middle of the leeks!!!  Grrrr!!!!!  Next year - bird netting!  Cole plants are almost ok - I have to transplant a bunch - waiting a couple weeks for hopefully cooler weather.  hahahaha!

Oh yeah!  I have a BROCCOLI!!!!  And not too babyish either!  I have to keep an eye on this - or it will go to seed!

Sweet corn and squash - corn is getting tall - at least taller than the squash - and doing great!!!!  Squash - I have BLOSSOMS!!!!! on summer squash!  Pumpkins and melons too!!!!  Yeehaw!!!

Watermelon plant is definitely looking watermelonish - but small - don't know if it will make or not - think I'll start investigating season extender thingies. 

Eggplant - looking good - as are the peppers - small - but good!  Tomatillo - um - I KNOW it is there - I just need to look harder for it - and weed! 

tomatoes - oh my - yes!  The plants look great - small - but great.  No blooms yet - but great! 

Sweet potatoes are doing their viney thing =- and we are discussing the boundaries of their territory. 

Beets, other root crops - hmmmm - I am re-planting a bunch here.  It is very spotty.  clump of parsnips - then nada.  same for all roots.  Think maybe of putting (1) worm castings in area, (2) re-planting a bunch - but not the long season thingies (3) putting a switcher on water hose - and leaving hose set up permanently there - running this maybe first every watering session.

Potatoes are still doing their potato thing - and I'm looking forward to harvest time.  However I STILL haven't gotten the soil there hilled up - and think it may be a bit late for that.  We'll see.

Raspberries - oh yeah!  I ate my first RASPBERRY on Tues AM - straight off the bush (best way to eat them in my book!)  Looking forward to harvest time! 

Blackberries - still greener than gourds!

Blueberries and my tree fruit - other than the 2 baby pears (which are still there - YAY) are probably on next year's list. 

Flowers - some a bit scorched - I need to sit down with them and deliver some serious TLC! as well as remove all deadhead blossoms!

Design Wall Monday - 07-02-12

Essentially it is the same as last week’s – because I was sick with both asthma and a tummy problem
 
HOWEVER – I did get son to tell me what colors he likes – same with Lynn. Both like blue. Period. Sigh! There are reasons I really hoped that for a couch cover (he knows this – so does Lynn) he would prefer something in shades of brown or black or gray at least (although I would REALLY love to see BRIGHTS and CHEERY instead) but it is blue they like.

So – an reviewing what I have in shades of blue – and will be choosing the colors for the quilt. And – no – secondary, tertiary, etc. colors won’t do it. Just blue!

It IS strange though – he REALLY does like all the other quilts I am doing – and they are in a LOT of bright and cheerful colors!

On my design wall – the placemats – which I will finish tonight (was going to be last night – but I went to bed instead!), Nicole’s couch quilt – for son and Lynn, UGRR – the two blocks, Arizona Skies. No new pix.

Stash Report for 07-01-12

This week I was hoping for several finishes - however Ol' Man Asthma caught up with me on Wed evening - and brought along his buddy - Ms. Viral upset tummy - which totally shot that possibility!

So - for this week - I didn't use any (or rather - finish using) yardage - but the good part is that I didn't add anything either!  I DID however miss Open Sew which really ticked me off!


Used This Week: 0 yards
Used This Month: 24 + 7/8 yards or 24.875 yards by end of June.  0.0 yards for July
Used Year to Date: 70 + 7/8 yards or 70.875 yards
Added This Week: 0 yards
Added This Month: 19.50 yards for June.  0.0 yards for July
Added Year to Date: 34.67 yards
Net Used for 2012: 36.205 yards