My Week

Hello Everyone,

 

As usual, my week has been a busy one......and a rainy, snowy one.  I decided to put Country Sunshine out on the wishing well, and wish for some sunshine.  It didn't work.....more snow is predicted today.

 

When I left on Monday for Redding, we had about two feet of snow on the ground.  Then the torrential rains came and washed a lot of it away.  Now the snow was back yesterday.  The wishing well and snow was the perfect backdrop for Toyland Tree.  Even though it is March according to the calendar....it looks like December.

It also feels like December.  It is 28 degrees this morning.  Now we have our own personal ice skating rink around the house.  During our February storm, I wanted to get out back and take a picture of the cabin, but I couldn't get through the hip-deep snow.  This picture will just have to do.

Now let me tell you about the wonderful trip my sister Gail and I had to the quilt guild in Redding.  It was a dark and storming Tuesday night in the northern part of our state, and the quilters arrived anyway for my lecture.  They were delightful women!

They laughed in all of the right places during my talk.

 

Wednesday morning we hit the ground running with my Patchwork Math class.  Just look at some of their creativity.

Lori and Vicki prepared the nicest buffet lunch for the class.

The workshop was held at The Sewing Room quilt shop and Crafters Mall on Park Marina Drive in Redding.  Such a cute and interesting shop.  It is 3/4 quilt shop and the rest provides stalls for crafters.  It is a fun place to shop, and owner Cyndi is a hoot! 

It was a long, 6-hour drive home to my Mr. Joe and my Mazey through torrential rain and double rainbows.  I'm going back to Redding in May on my extended tour from Susanville, to Red Bluff, then back to Redding.  I've found a haven of quilters who love traditional quilting and reproduction fabrics.  I'm greatly looking forward to my return trip to meet up with my new friends.

I'm finishing up my tax preparations today.  If I didn't have to gather so much for the business, I would have been done days ago.  What a chore!  Just when I think I'm so organized.....I'm not.

Soon,
Lynn

Scrapalicious Cute as a Button

Hello Everyone,

 

I've been hunkering down at the cabin while the wind blows and the constant rain melts the snow.  It has been perfect quilting weather to work on my super-sized Cute as a Button quilt.

 

I cut hundreds of one inch strips that I'm going to incorporate into this quilt.  As long as I use the same "type" of fabric, in this case reproductions, it all works beautifully together.  I pulled out every scrap of shirting fabric that I own.  My goal is to use what I have right out of my stash.

This is what 80, 6-1/2" blocks look like.  I still have a long way to go to fill up my 72" design all.  I really do enjoy making the blocks.  I don't get bored by any stretch of the imagination.  I don't over think what colors should go in each block.  It just works.  It's a melting pot of color and warmth. 

I'm sewing the blocks together diagonally.  I haven't sewn the rows together just yet in case I want to make a change here and there.  For me, sewing the rows together is the least pleasurable part of quilting.  If I work on it as I go, then the task doesn't seem as daunting.

I can envision the finished quilt.  That vision keeps me going 9-patch after 9-patch, and block after block.  What a great use of 1" strips. I know we all have them......a ton of them.

Along with quilting, I've been plugging away on my taxes to get everything ready to hand over to the accountant.  What a bore!  The taxes, not the accountant.....well let me think about that one.

I've also been getting ready for my workshop and lecture to the Quilters' Sew-Ciety of Redding this week.  I leave this morning to meet up with my sister and spend the night at her house.  We will drive to Redding tomorrow morning and I'll be back on Thursday. 

When I look at the weather forecast on my phone, all is see is rain and more snow for my area.  I know my daffodils are somewhere under all the snow.  Maybe, just maybe we'll be get to see them one of these days.

Soon,
Lynn

 

A Treasured Quilting Day

Hello Everyone,

 

It's not often that I dedicate an entire day to quilting.....only quilting.  It was stormy outside and so cozy inside.  I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of my time spent on my super-sized Cute as a Button quilt.

 

I loaded up my Strip 'n Sew with hundreds of 1" strips.

I made strip sets for the 9-patches in the blocks.

I cut the sets up into groups.

Then I made a ton of 9-patch blocks.  When sewn into the quilt, they finish at 1-1/2".  They are so stinkin' cute.

Then I start making the blocks.

My design wall is starting to fill in nicely.  BUT, it takes a ton of 6" blocks to make a queen-sized quilt!

Some of my 9-patch blocks are trimmed with dark strips, and some are trimmed in light strips. 

 

Last Saturday we headed to Yosemite to see the Fire Fall.  The angle of the sun on Horsetail Falls creates this natural phenomenon.  Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, and the effect was not as dramatic as we witnessed two years ago.

 



2019

We had to park about a mile away from the viewing area, and trek through the snow.  This was really hard on my back.  Once we got to the best location for viewing, the whole time I was thinking that I had to walk back, through the snow, and in the dark.....and our snowshoes were home in the closet.  The picture below shows that we had a cleared trail for part of the way.....but not for very long.

This is what the Fire Fall looks like on a good viewing day.

2017

Today is a paperwork day.....sigh.  Taxes.....big sigh.  Probably not much time for quilting.....bigger sigh.  I'm heading out next week for a guild lecture and workshop in Redding, CA.  I'm looking forward to my trip to the northern part of the state.

 

Soon,

Lynn