A Rainbow Scrap Challenge Finish and Clean Up and Prep

In 2017 I made Straits of Mackinac blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I did not put them together because I was waiting for Bonnie's full pattern to come out to decide how I wanted to set them.  Somehow a few years passed and this just hung out waiting for me. A few months ago I laid the blocks out, took a picture (which I apparently deleted) and put the blocks back in the box facing each other to sew them.  I did not pin (next time, I will pin!).  So since laying them on the floor and doing all that is a bit much for me some days with my energy level I just sewed them semi blindly together as they were.  As I went I realized I was not doing it as it planned at I had blocks of the same color lining up..ugh so I did impromptu twisting and turning and in the end, this is what I wound up with.  Not the best, but it is together so there is that.

I only have a few UFO's left.  I took out my landscape quilt from SIX years ago...at this point it is not going to get done.  I need someone who knows what they are doing to help me with that. So back in the box it went. I have Circa 2016 left and think I am going to make a mini of what is done and then be done with that one too.  No motivation to finish it anymore.

I spent a bit of yesterday going though my squares and random scraps.  I got out all my green fabrics and cut strips to add to the bag of the right size.  I now have another ready to sew.  That will be Winter Blues but mine more likely to be named Spring Greens.  

A few weeks ago I got out all the plaids and cut for Moth in the Window, any yardage left got added to my already full shelf! Back in February I ordered some fabric from Facebook Marketplace.  I got a decent deal and had not bought fabric in forever.  I needed some reds.  I found a few and some eye spy fabrics and a few others.  So this got added to my fabric shelf here and there.

So all that led to reorganizing my fabric shelf.  I changed things around a bit so the same colors could be together.  It does not look all that different but it is a bit more organized.  

(before is above and after is below) 

 

Tulip Time and Easy Breezy

Today I quilted and bound Tulip Time.  Such a happy springy quilt!

Hazel got to rock her new sunglasses!

 The last Easy Breezy is quilted and bound.  Somehow I made five of these!

Spring Time Tulips

Finished up my Red Button Quilt Company "Simply Quilts" and hung it on the mantle.  Really happy with it.

I also FINALLY finished the flimsy of Grassy Creek!  Hard to find a big enough space with good lighting to get a picture so the front yard (snow barely melted) with shadows from the tree is the best I could do.  I sure miss my bougainvillea (not sure I spelled that right) in Arizona!  It was such a pretty backdrop to my quilts and most everyday the sun cooperated for photos! 

I really wanted some spring colored mini quilts so I chose some fabric and a pattern and sewed yesterday.  Tulip Time is the free pattern.

                                                          

Made it about this far, took a three hour nap and returned to it later on.

Of course it did not take me long to realize it was WAY BIGGER than I was thinking for a little quilt to hang from the mantle!

So when it was done I decided to do another one with the Lori Holt pattern.  I was not crazy for how the bottom or her flowers had no square part like a tulip.  They went to a point,   So I reduced the size of the white squares and got the look I wanted. Made it this far before bed.

Today I got it done.

You can see how much smaller it is next to the original!  We are ready for Spring around here!

 

Grassy Creek is a Flimsy and Hazel on the Antique Quilts

Decided to get out the antique quilts that my grandmother had made for her son in law's second wedding and last baby.  I have told you the wild story on here before.  So here is Hazel on my Uncle Rick's baby quilt.

Finally finished up the string borders and got them on (they fit perfectly!) Grassy Creek.  I need to get a picture outside...we will see if it is sunny enough today.  Snow is melted but things are still a bit wet.  Sunshine immediately did her happy dance on top of it.  

Here is Hazel on top of the wedding quilt.  I have a picture of me around this age on the same quilt (see bottom).  Hazel loves quilts and I hope she will continue the tradition...her mom does do a bit of sewing but so far does not have the bug like I do!  Here is the story!

 

Three Merry Mayhem Medallion Tops

I showed you my completed Merry Mayhem Medallion top already, but Becky just finished hers so I thought I would show off hers too!

She originally wanted to use a really pretty succulent fabric for her outer border, but decided it did not work well so after auditioning that, this and green she went with this.

Barb's turned out great too!  Her colors really worked!  The three of us sewed together on New Year's Day and as always it was a good time.

I am still working on my outer string border for Grassy Creek.  I got all the parts done and put them into pairs and realized I was short!  I made a few more matches and put them into pairs and I am still two pairs short.  So I will be getting to that so I can complete this quilt.  

 

Simply Quilts and a Health Update

I am really enjoying the facebook group Red Button Quilts now that I have found it!  I decided to get the kit for this month's "Simply Quilts" pattern.  The patterns are free each month (join the facebook group and there is a link to the website where you can find the pattern just for that month) but I wanted to work with the wool instead of just my scraps.

I spent the entire day yesterday (besides almost two hours dealing with the lack of space on my smart tv...lots of googling and Kathy's help to fix it!) working on this little quilt and went to bed before finishing the hand stiching.

I added some extra fun buttons that I bought from JoAnn's awhile back and never did anything with.  I forgot to stitch the flower on the machine, so may do that yet but otherwise I finished the handwork this morning.

 Barb used scraps (and started way before me) and is still working on her handwork.  I love the colors she used and her border fabric!

I am still working on my Grassy Creek border.  On the string blocks for the last direction now.  May sew more of those today.  Slow and steady, it will get done!

Update on my health if you are interested.  I have finally been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. I have been EXTREMELY fatigued now going on close to three years.  At first we just thought it had to do with my low Vitamin D and B12.  Then we thought it had to do with my reactivated Epstein Barr Virus.  Then with MS.  As time has gone by I discovered on my own that the more I do the more tired I am.  For MS the number one recommendation for fatigue is exercise.  This makes me FAR WORSE.  This is true of anything physical (shoveling 15 minutes of snow is a three hour nap, exercising five minutes a day is a two hour or more nap daily, etc.) but it is also true when I work.  While working I would literally come home and collapse everyday.  I would sleep for four or five hours, wake up, eat and go back to sleep.  Many mornings I cried getting ready for work.  I LOVED my job.  It just got more and more exhausting.  I gave up hiking.  I gave up Pilates.  I could not stand and teach, I eventually could not walk the stairs.  Last year around this time we went to online teaching from home.  I was relieved because I did not know how I could make it through the last quarter.  I used to be a HIGH ENERGY person.  Seriously high energy.  This was quite an adjustment and grieving process for me.  

So at the end of the year, I quit my full time job and we moved to Wisconsin.  I tried to focus on Hazel's arrival and I really think if not for that I might have gone screaming off the edge of the world.  I have slowly gained almost all of my weight back.  This has been so hard.  I CANNOT do more than walk and that is limited.  I can only stand/walk for around 25 minutes.  I can barely walk stairs without pulling myself on the railing.  Now that I only work a few hours a week (or none) I am awake more, but anytime I do too much I pay for it.  Last week Saturday I scrubbed my stove top for 20 minutes ( I was feeling really good) and I took a three hour nap that day, a few hours the next day, in bed mostly for several days and just did not feel back to my new normal until SIX days later.  It sounds ridiculous, but this is how it is now.  If I work 3 or 4 hours interpreting I nap all afternoon and do not get out of bed for two days.  

I also take a bunch of vitamins, minerals and supplements which have helped me get to this level of functioning.  Many people have this worse than I do, so I am grateful mine is not worse and that I am not just working and sleeping.  The only way to explain this is to imagine your worst flu and that is my everyday except I am not throwing up.  I have tried to research and figure out what is actually wrong in my body in an attempt to fix it.  It has something to do with oxygen or energy production.  All the tests they do show my heart and lungs are great....the first time I really realized something was wrong was when the kids and I went to Door county three summers ago.  We went to Washington island and climbed to the highest point.  I was still in shape but was breathing really hard and barely made it to the top despite less than a year before that I hiked the Grand Canyon.  I was also sleeping a lot by then and commented to my kids that I could not figure out why I was so tired all the time.  

Highest point on Washington Island

If I had understood what was wrong with me, I would not have pushed myself to work for two more years, further exhausting myself.  I am not sure this can ever be recovered from (most people apparently do not really get better) and so I am happy that I have quilting, reading and solo gaming to look forward to.  

March Progress

March is finally here!  I hope that means that the melting snow will lead to green spring, and not more snow.  We finally bought a snow blower and have not used it yet, so guessing there will be no more snow!  Fine with us.  

Here is the third clue for the Kathleen Tracy Small Quilts Mystery.  We made four patches (last two columns) with lights and darks that contrasted with our other clues.  Really love small quilts!

I decided to buy a bunch of fabric from facebook marketplace at a deep discount.  It was about 100 bucks for all of this fabric.  I was happy to add it to my shelves.

Today Hazel is hanging out with me.  I managed to get the Rainbow Scrap Challenge block in green done at her naptimes (and this blog too!).  The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Pine Tree Point.  If I have not mentioned it, this block is a bit high maintaince as far as I am concerned.  I keep messing up and putting the aqua frame around then have to remove it and put the white on first.  Going by memory does not serve me (since it is wrong in my memory) so hopefully next month I will do better! Linking up with SoScrappy's RSC.

 

I cannot remember if I mentioned it on here, but a few weeks ago I lost my large diamond from my married in my heart wedding ring.  I spent the next few weeks searching everywhere (I had not left home but had walked the trash up to the house) and finally concluded it must have gone down our bathtub drain that day when I showered.  I was sewing when I noticed it missing and went back through several bins that I had been in figuring it had landed in there even.  A few days ago I got out my civil war scraps to do the mini quilt and when I was done I moved the dog bed to put them back and THERE IT WAS!  My diamond!  I am not sure if it just wound up under that bed originally or if when I dumped my bins and went through them if it landed over that way.  In any event, it was like winning the lottery and I am overjoyed I can get it fixed.  Really did not want to spend the money to replace it as I barely working these days and it is an extravagance I could live without.