Half-pieced

Wow! I really haven't been doing much quilting this year. Yes I have been out in the woods and marsh alot. It was so pretty I would have had a hard time staying away. Since I am not writing anymore books and I really don't need anymore quilts and I feel no need to use all my fabric before I die I am content to sew when I have the chance. Yes I am still quilting with the ladies at church and Studio 3 but mostly helping or teaching and not doin my own stuff.
Actually I cancelled Thursdays for a while with several gals out on medical leave and all the work I was doing cause Mark was injured and had surgery. He's fine now though will never be 100 % but now it is my turn. I have a painful shoulder. Whether it is a torn rotator cuff and/or  bursitis/tendonitis irritating a 50 year old broken bone is unknown at this point. An MRI scheduled in 2 weeks will tell me if I am a candidate for surgery. Meanwhile I can do little and hope even this doesn't irritate it.
Earlier this summer I told myself to put together more kits for just such an occasion but didn't so am forced to play with my collection of 2" squares and triangles or walk in the woods. But it has been so pretty out there I am not complaining. Not. O Well, it could be worse.
Sew, this is all I have accomplished in the studio this summer:

 This lap sized blue and orange and pink thing. Status of border is unknown; not quilted yet.

and these are the sampler blocks begun w Thursday group. Will add a few now with the Friday group working on sampler blocks again. Most of the blocks are from Barbara Brackman's book Civil War Sampler. I wonder if she would recognize them. I love the Civil War fabrics but had grown tired of them earlier this year. Of course, I got over that and now with my shoulder I started to assemble my 1800's charm quilt, 1000 Pyramids, since it was partially cut out. I still need a few hundred more prints. I have the 5" charm squares collected but not cut into triangles yet. With any luck I should be able to cut more of those and sew. Otherwise I will just keep collecting till I can cut again.

I did a little work on comfort quilts. And I had some prep work for a few classes and lectures I gave but nothun worth showing here.

But this is what is drawing me outside now:
This is the woods from across the creek at edge of the road in front of my house.  The trees blooming are mostly hickory and some ash which we are loosing to green ash borer.

 that was last week. And now the oaks have turned colors. This is a young red oak.We have a bunch of old red and white oak trees. The red are now dying due to old age and oak wilt disease. That makes me very sad. Not sure what we will do about it. But we do have a big bunch of young red oak to replace those we loose. It would be better to get a white oak variety to replace the dying red cause they aren't as affected by the disease. I'm making it my mission to get some white oaks started in the woods. For that to happen we need to get more sunlight into the forest floor. But since we are loosing red oaks and ash trees and some elm to dutch elm disease and removing the invasive buckthorn,  I dont see a problem.  The bigger problem I see is getting Mark to recognize we should get some help cleaning up the mess. He's always been a do-it-yourselfer.

 So you know where you can find me, and its not the kitchen.

Just a little behind

It would seem that I lost interest in blogging or even quilting. It's just that I've been a bit busy. Mark isn't much better since he herniated his disk 10 weeks ago. Tomorrow he's going in for surgery. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.

I still need to locate my camera but till then I found this picture I haven't shared yet. I finished the top a few weeks back. When I last posted about it I hadn't decided how I would arrange the blocks, either on point or square. I went with on point and this time I remembered to sew them together into the sections shown here instead of diagonal rows. I really don't like doing it in diagonal rows. This method made it much easier to handle. I love it. In fact I have another one at studio 3 that I'm assembling the same way. With luck I can show them both to you soon. I just might be hanging around the house a little more than usual to make sure Mark doesn't get into trouble post-op.

 During the heat wave of the last few days I've actually done some sewing at home. (As opposed to at Studio 3.) The ladies of the Quilting Hands of St. Peters have set aside their quilting for a while in favor of Little Pillowcase Dresses. The pattern also gives directions using yardage and that's what we are doing to use up some of our fabric. Our stash has grown considerably and it's getting older by the hour. The intent of the whoever came up with the pattern was to send the dresses to little girls in Africa. But our church has a mission in Haiti the poorest country in our hemisphere so we intend to send them there. I think we have about 50 started. Again we kinda work assembly line style.  I put together about a dozen in the last two days.

 I'm linking up with Judy again. It's been a long time. I'm glad I didn't miss seeing the quilt top that she's been working on all year.

Challenges Along the Way

Sometimes life can be a struggle. Today I'm struggling with the computer and my cellphone. Minor challenges really. If I tried a little more often it probably wouldn't be such a challenge.  Of course, I realize I haven't posted much lately. Did you notice it's been since I started quilting across the street at Studio 3?  It didn't help that now I have a cell phone with which to take pictures. I prefer an old camera that no longer works. And I don't have a big flannel wall there and I really don't like the photos of quilts on the floor!  I know. Excuses, excuses.

I have been quilting a bit though I admit if I can be outside I'd rather be there. usually as it heats up outside I turn to quilting but I've been busy with a few other odd things. Like taking care of my husband for one. A month ago he ruptured a disk and has been in terrific pain since.  Since sitting down to write a new post and having trouble trying to upload photos from my phone I've decided I will just have to take a camera across the street with me more often.

When I am outside I am either in my sedge meadow or the woods. The meadow is pretty happy that we burned it this spring and is surprising me with patches of flowers I've not seen blooming there before like these Blue Flag Iris.

2 months plus

1. Wow! It's been over 2 months since I've written. I have the great excuse that I have been busy, however it hasn't been just with quilting. I've been working on 5 different projects off and on depending on who I am sewing with. No, I don't get confused. I pretty much sew on auto-pilot. I like that it gives me time between working on one project cause it gives me time to think about how I want to proceed. Decisions on fabrics and settings aren't always taken lightly.
2.  About 2 years ago I made a few of these stars with my scraps but couldn't decide what to do with them. I get tired of sashing easily. Then 2 months ago I came across them and suddenly decided to alternate them with the Square-in-a-square blocks. Once I had a plan I had to make more.  Pretty happy with it. Not going with a border. That might mean to quilt it quickly before I change my mind.
3. Then I made these X-blocks. Just one for a demonstration but before you know it I had another 15 made. I like when that happens. This one too is going to alternate with Square- in-a-square blocks. They are the same size as the stars above and when I was playing with them on the flannel wall I decided to stop wasting time thinking about it and just do it. Still have to decide if I want to set them straight or on point.
4. The courthouse steps and stars are waiting for me to attach the border. Otherwise that top is done. 
5. And I'm doing a spring bunny  wallhanging with applique or cut and paste depending on how you see it. 
6. Now that I think about it, I've also been working on another sampler with the Thursday girls at Studio 3. That one is a mystery to me. The setting anyway.
7. And soon I hope to start a blue and orange quilt. 
8. And get back to some longarm quilting. But I've been busy burning. 10 brush piles this year, both stacking and burning and we burned the marsh. That was like 10 acres. Exhausting. And now the wildflowers are blooming. Do I live in a park?
9. Seriously, I don't know how these numbers showed up and I couldn't get rid of them so I went with them. They mean nothing.

Happy in a Heap

I sure enjoyed making these blocks. I just might try making this design again some day with brighter colors. But I'm on this Civil War fabric kick right now and striving to use this heap of scraps, so this is what I used.  I went to Studio 3 for an hour the other day and made 5 more blocks. Went there again last night and I made the rest.They still need a little work then I will put them together and even consider adding a border. I'm ready to move on to the next two projects but I'm going to make myself finish this top first. I like it when inspiration hits and I'm anxious to get going on a new project. I hate it when something gets in the way. I guess we all do. But what a nice distraction to be in my way.

It looks like besides the mild winter we've had, we'll be having an early spring. We missed all the snow that blew east of here, yesterday I guess. 20 robins in the yard this afternoon. They're only about 2 weeks early. Buds on the bushes are starting to get fat already.

Catching Up

Wow! It's been over 5 weeks since I last posted. I wonder what's changed here in blogland. I've kept busy this winter and yes, I've done some quilting. I think I haven't posted because I haven't been working much on my own things. I quilted another 6 comfort quilts and took them in to church for the other ladies to bind. And I've continued to meet with the others at Studio 3. Thursdays crowd will be starting Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler blocks. We're not all using Civil War prints either. I will be using purple batiks. It should be fun.

A number of my projects have been put on hold. I think I need to install a big flannel wall at Studio 3. Progress seems to cease when it gets to a point that I want to lay it out on my big wall. I have a hard time working without it.  I bring it home to finish but then I don't work on it. This is the latest that I've begun. I've seen pictures of this around for some time so I can't say who the designer is or I'd gladly give them credit. I think I will just make this one a generous lap size.

Weather permitting Mark and I have been working in the woods. And we've had a mild winter so we are out there often. We've been cutting and stacking some of the brush that we killed last year. We've burned 5 brush piles so far. Some of it we stacked for permanent brush piles for the wildlife and will leave in the woods. Still more we will chip.  Pretty much all were cutting and burning is prickly ash or invasive buckthorn. The woods is looking great and even though there is an end in sight I wonder why we bother. Will we ever "finish" and who will maintain it after we're gone?   I love working out there much more than working out at a gym. Now we're eyeing the elm that is moving in.

I have a few orders to pack up then I think I will visit a few blogs starting with Judy's Linky Party. Gee, is she still doing hosting them?. I know she doesn't get to quilting as often as she might like either.

Digging Deeper

The orphan blocks have waited long enough.  Poor things. They weren't exciting me very much till after working with them a little longer. Then I wished I had more blocks to make it bigger cause I was liking how it was going. So I dug a little deeper.  I knew I had more orphan blocks but had set them aside to use in a different quilt. I wanted primarily scrappy blocks in this one. Hmmmm. Maybe that would be tooooo many scraps.  Gotta think on that. 

Then after we sorted through all the fabric at church that was recently donated I thought I needed to sort through the fabric in storage here that belongs to the group. I knew I'd find some more pieces and units mixed in with the scraps.    Hmmm. Maybe. This is partially sewn together already. I found that plain strips (like the frame around the bears paw) offers a little relief from all the busy blocks. I'll let it sit for a while. The sun is down now and I want to get downstairs and quilt.

Tuesday I took 10 comfort quilts in for the girls to bind. The pile of quilt tops waiting  here continues to grow. They are not all mine. I brought a few more home to add to my pile. I haven't counted mine in a while. It's not easy cause they aren't all in one pile but scattered around 2 rooms and a closet and suitcases. Many bloggers keep lists  but I'd rather quilt. Usually anyway. So I'm hoping I can get another dozen quilted in the next month or two.

Here's another comfort quilt top that uses my Thirtysomething Onlies units I made when I demonstrated the technique. Does that count as multi-tasking?  As good as I am at that I never did a good job of planning to put my demonstration pieces into  something really useful.

I'm linking with Judy at Patchwork Times and her Linky Party she calls Design Wall Monday and I will see if there is more time to link with any other parties.  They CAN be very inspiring.