Scrap-Handling and Such

Since finishing my temperature quilt, I've only been sewing scraps.

SnapScrap Quilt

I've completed 80 6-1/2" square blocks in eight colors. I'm not sure how many blocks I'll make, but definitely want a large quilt. I'll make some neutral-colored blocks, and will repeat colors for which I have lots more scraps - orange and yellow for sure.

Improv Challenge Blocks 

On my design wall are blocks made from weekly prompts given by the Boulder MQG.

This is week 8: Triangle. It's the last prompt. 

All the blocks on the design wall make quite a mish-mash! Given that every single block came from a bin containing solid scraps from other projects, I'm pretty pleased that I could use-up like this. You'll probably notice that pieces within the blocks are pretty small. By the time I got to those triangles (above), I was really scrounging to come up with scraps that were of a useable size!  

Certainly, in order to make this mash look like something, I'm gonna have to cut into yardage to give some visual distance between blocks. I need to add "resting places." Hopefully this approach will also make for a larger quilt. It''s about 50" X 50" now.

In the evenings I've been adding to my strip-braided rug. The larger it gets, the more slowly it comes along. It's 18" X 22" so far, and this is as far as I can go for now. I've used up all my saved strips from which I could extract 2"-widths! No! Please don't offer me any of yours! 😂

Last Friday I made my first venture into a retail store since mid-March. Sew Together is nearby. While the shop was closed for quarantine, they added online shopping to their website. I'd been admiring these modern fabrics: Moongate by Christina Cameli for Maywood Studio. I first saw these fabric designs last September when Christina A Few Scraps came for a Central Florida MQG program and workshop, and stayed with me. She showed me Moongate designs on her computer, and then swore me to secrecy until their release!

Ombré fabrics in the Moongate collection are prints!

Anticipating the arrival of our federal incentive check (it hasn't yet), last Friday I "gave back to my community" by supporting Sew Together. I might have indulge myself a little bit too, adding to my stash 15 pieces, for a total of 15 yards. Ooo.

During lots of scrappy-piecing time, I listened to three books.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen is about a young married couple, Ellis and Maddy from Philadelphia who are indulgent and self-centered. They travel to the UK with a friend where they encounter wartime anxiety and drama. The story evolves after their arrival in Scotland where Ellis and his friend set to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster. Maddy faces discovery and sadness - pretty-much a hodgepodge of emotions. The author seemed to try too hard to touch on every type of intriguing storyline. 

Linda's score: 2.8/5.0

Somehow I was on the "edge" with this title too: The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris. A young orphan boy in Ireland, Shan Keagan, is struggling to survive with his drunken uncle. Upon learning about his real father, he's determined to go to the US find him. The ocean crossing proves tragic, and Shan is forced to find a new life for himself in New York City. His talent and natural ability to sing and mimic others gets him on the stage. When he inadvertently engages with a crime mob, he ends up in San Francisco, and again creates another life for himself. This is an admirable story about resiliency in the face of loss.

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

I've always liked books by Kate Wilhelm. Fullness of Time was a surprise because it's a novella. I listened to it one day while power-walking and piecing scraps.

It's about two women, Cat and Mercy, who have been friends since college. Cat produces video documentaries and enlists Mercy to help her research and collect information about a recently-deceased recluse, Hiram Granville, credited with thousands of patents. With the help of a technology geek, the women slowly begin to uncover Granville secrets: suicides, madness, and genetic narcolepsy. Or is it? The Granvilles are hiding something.

Linda's score: 3.8/4.0

As much as I continue to enjoy sewing, quilting, book-listening, and occasional chats with friends, I'm just about ready to break out. Aren't you? We haven't been engaging with the grandsons as much as we had been. The novelty of that has worn off. They're as tired of routine - Groundhog Day - as we are.

After reading rules for playing Gin Rummy, Dan and I have been playing many evenings. We learned the terminology: gin, knock, dead wood. I'm not much of a card-player, but I like it... probably because it's one of the few card games where I have half a chance of beating Dan!

On Monday I'm getting my haircut. So excited!

I usually get it cut every five weeks.

My last haircut was February 14 (before QuiltCon!), so it will have been 13-1/2 weeks!

My hair is still curly.

It looks like a bush! Linda