Friday, July 14, 2017

Forever in Blue, Jean!

Even though my birthstone is an aquamarine, blue has never been one of my favorite colors..... until a year or two ago. Nowadays, almost half my clothes are blue, I find it easier finding (and collecting) cute blue fabrics, and I sure as heck am enjoying sewing with blue this month!

This week, I started with two Geese Migration blocks, a pattern by Cynthia Brunz. I’m a big fan of hers. The Geese Migration quilt takes 25 blocks, and with these 2 I only have 12 completed. Looks like this will be an ongoing project - just workin’ it until I have enough...


Next, I threw together 16 bowtie blocks. Each one is only 4.5” (unfinished). At this small size, it is definitely a multi-year project; I am about halfway on these, too.


And then I did 16 Plus blocks, each one will finish at 6”.  Now, depending on how I want to finish these - and I have some ideas finally - this project WILL finish this year. Yay!  I already have 85 of the approximate 104 blocks I need, with orange and pink and darks (black, brown, gray) still to go.


So I thought I’d play with them on the design board. Seeing them like this, I can tell there are several that will not make the cut. I don’t like some of those purple ones for sure, and a red or two are iffy. So, I will just sew along on my merry way through the remaining colors and pick my favorites for the quilt. The rest can go on the back or into kennel quilts.


This week was our wedding anniversary - #14 for Bruce and me. We always forget it (how’s THAT for an old married couple?). This time, I did remember about noonish, when a friend of mine texted a Happy Anniversary message. LOL, thanks Terri! And then I reminded Bruce when he got home from work, and we laughed and laughed. On our first anniversary, we were lying in bed talking before falling asleep and realized our anniversary was getting close. Neither one of us could remember the exact day, so I had to run downstairs and check out a copy of our marriage license! I jumped back into bed and yelled “Happy Anniversary!”. You can see what romantics we are. Truly, every day is such happiness for us both after previous marriage experiences. And that’s all we need to say about that.

I did work on one of my Finish-Along projects. These three blocks are remnants of an old quilt from my ex-hub’s side of the family. They’re probably about 70-80 years old. I squared them up and bound them, adding little hanging corners on the backsides. They are about 14” square. I am not considering them done until I write up and print off (on a fabric label that I can sew to the back) the information and story about the original quilt. When that part is done, I will call them finished and will then do a full blog post.


I’ve been working on sewing yellow pineapple blocks and also my Friendship Star Variation blocks. I have more than a dozen of those done, but plenty to go. I`ll save them for next week.

Today (Friday) I went to the zoo with Cousin Kim and her two granddaughters, so I didn’t get any sewing in. We had a lot of fun, even though it was hot. And certainly all the walking is a good thing. Next Friday they are coming to hang out here, and my granddaughter London will also be here. The girls will have fun playing together. We plan to take them to Wheeler Farm (where I used to work) in the morning. We’ll also set up the large kiddie pool and let them “swim” and play outdoors or wherever. Kim and I will read, sew, (napping is probably out of the question), and Kim’s giving me a haircut. Hot fun in the summertime.....

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s Blog.

Cathy maroon

13 comments:

  1. I love your blue blocks! The shade of blue you are using is gorgeous! I especially love the bow tie blocks together.

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  2. Editing your blocks is a good idea. There are some we make that just don't play with others. Love,your anniversary story. The old quilt memory blocks are a fantastic idea for a worn quilt, to spread the memories around.

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  3. You certainly got a LOT of BLUE sewing done this week for the RSC!! Having some fun with Cousin Kim and her grands is better than an extra day of sewing. Hooray for family get togethers!!

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  4. Happy Anniversary! No matter the number, it is a wonderful milestone to celebrate! Your blocks look good in all the blues. I've had that happen, too, where some of them just don't work with what you had planned. I suppose that's how we end up with boxes of orphan blocks! Hopefully, they will find a spot somewhere, someday!

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  5. Molly has just completed an inventory of your RSC projects and thinks you should add 3 more to make it an even 100.

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  6. You have been a busy little bee again. I could not believe how many blue scraps I have. I will probably make a couple of more blue blocks once I get all of my other monthly projects done.
    Happy Anniversary!! I always buy him a card and forget where I stashed it!!!

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  7. Lots of great blocks, Cathy! I particularly like the Geese Migration and the way they are shaded. And Happy Anniversary too!

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  8. Happy anniversary! July is a good month for getting married; DH & I did it too! It was great to see all the Plus blocks together - they are going to make a happy quilt.

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  9. I think it is wonderful that you and Bruce are so happy that you never remember your anniversary! It just says something about how well connected you two love birds are! So with that said...Happy (late) Anniversary!!!

    Love all of your blocks in blue! My dad's favorite color was blue...he loved it so much that when he was considering what cars to buy, when he needed replacements, the first consideration was that it had to be blue! (Later on in his life, he gave that up and bought a big RED truck, but that's a different story!)

    I would love to take in a zoo. It's been a while since I've done that. The walking part would get to me, although I know it would be the best thing for me. We have a Wild Animal reserve here. There are Elk, Bears, Buffalo, Yaks, etc., etc. We drove through it once, they let you feed the animal wheat bread, so the animals come right up to the cars. I have never laughed ...or screamed so much in my life! It was a blast!

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  10. You've been a busy (blue) bee!
    Your 'reject' plus signs might fit in just fine at the end of the year. And like you said, a good quilt block is never wasted!

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  11. That anniversary forgetfulness is something I can relate to. On August 7 we will celebrate 46 years. I bet for the first 20, in order to remember the date I had to think my birthday is 14 and half of 14 is 7 so our anniversary is the 7th. I have a wall hanging that I decopauged hanging on the wall. Sometimes I checked that. lol.

    I like blue. But I like blue with a bit of green in it, or green with a bit if blue in it. What is it they call those colors...complementary? Anyway, I don't much like the primes, I love the mixes. And I'm not too big on pastels. Give me jewels.

    Anyway, happy anniversary, whenever it is!
    xx, Carol

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  12. Happy, albeit now very much belated, anniversary wishes to you and your sweetheart! We're closing in on our 38th and in so many ways it seems like just yesterday.
    Blue is my favourite colour so I'm happy to see what you're doing this month.

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  13. Look at all those pretty blue blocks. You know which one I love the best!

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