June Cornucopia

 No doubt this June was full of lovely days where I got lots and lots of sewing done. And who knows what else besides PT appointments, and gardening, etc. The rest of the time I probably spent online reading or enjoying various things that I've collected here in this cornucopia post.

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

Just in time for the Summer Olympics this year, a quilt block sew-a-long. I was playing around with the blocks on QuiltInk and they look very fun.

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

Quiltfolk has some interesting virtual journeys this summer called Adventure Journeys, one of which is Beatrix Potter focused, including learning from her wedding quilt (which is gorgeous!). The other two are Hawaii and the Scottish Highlands. 

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

We somehow missed out on the sourdough baking craze during the pandemic, so now we're going through it, and there's been A Lot of bread lately. Some of it has been truly great, some not, so now I'm considering splurging on this gizmo.

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

Quilt National 25 call for artists is here, the application deadline is 8/30.

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

I love that the MQG Make-a-Difference challenge theme is Pollinators this year. 

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

I'm having fun looking at the 20 blocks that have been coming out steadily for the Made & Found quilt a long. I haven't actually sewed any, but I've got them all saved up. It doesn't end until October, so I've got a catch up period.

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

From the UC Berkeley alumni magazine, is the really interesting and well-produced podcast: The Edge, this recent episode with Jeff Goodell, the author of The Heat Will Kill You First was very good. Really recommend listening to it. I got the book out of the library and have started it, it's also very good.

🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹🏵🌹

Revenge of the Teeny-Tiny HSTs

As I mentioned a week ago, there are a lot of Teeny-Tiny HSTs leftover from working on making the Bohemian Wife quilt blocks.

Creating something out of these waste teeny-tiny HSTs is probably not the best use of my time, but I just want to see if I can do something interesting with them.

I had some very long strings of these as I sewed the pairs together. If I had stopped sewing then and there it would have made a very festive banner.

But I persevered and here they all are, ironed but very untidy and uneven.

All trimmed up! I think instead of sewing these all together in a big mish-mosh I'll include some more solid alternating squares to set them off. Or to keep the maximalist thing going from the front, piece them together and use these as the sashing for the bigger blocks.

Okay, the Teeny-Tiny HSTs are handled, so I'm moving on for now.

Back to October.

The month of October for the Temperature Quilt is up on the design wall now. But there are a few spots missing.

Time for more cutting. I counted too for November and December and cut out enough for the last two months. In theory I should be done with cutting.

The box of color! There are going to be a lot leftover of some of the colors. I suppose that'll end up on the back somehow.

Here's the October column with the missing pieces filled in. October turned out to be a really colorful month, I think it might have the most colors on it, but I'm not sure. Just a lot of highs and lows.
 

This Week In ICAD

 Here are this past week's ICAD pieces. The first one is my favorite. 

SUPPORT

KNOWN 

This second one is my second favorite of the week.

Living for Change

DRIFTING

a world free from   war.

transmit

it's a second chance.

Wandering Wednesday - West Cliff Drive

 

Last weekend was DS's 29th birthday so we took him out to an awesome sushi dinner in Santa Cruz. He suggested a walk along West Cliff Drive. Even though it was close to sunset, we snagged a parking spot near one of the lovely curbside plantings. This is a Hooker's Evening Primrose, which I keep meaning to plant in our garden.

The late sunset was so soft and lovely, I really love the pastels in this picture.

A seagull had her nest way out on the point with the best view.

There were still a bunch of surfers out there catching the last waves of the day.

A little more sunset with one of the shoreline coves.

We made it as far as the lighthouse, which doubles as a surfing museum.

The birthday boy! 

8 Pantone Blocks

 

Some more really lovely Pantone Project blocks came in the mail today from friend Jaye. What a nice surprise!

I really love these fabric choices, especially the fussy cutting for the square in a square.

Now to go play around with these new blocks as well.

Rain & Hide

 

All of a sudden it rained today! It got so dark I had to turn the lights on. Then it was over 5 minutes later. We're keeping our fingers crossed for no dry lightning started fires 🤞🤞🤞

Korben has found a new place to hide out in the studio. Part of his duties as Studio Assistant is keeping me on my toes like Cato does for Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther movies:

He was napping in one of my of the fabric cubby boxes that isn't completely full. He's been "helping" me today as I'm rearranging stuff in my workroom. That's all I worked on today, phew.

Strips Used And Not

 

The only progress I've made on the teeny tiny HSTs is to sort them into matching sets of four. Takes up a whole lot less room. I may or may not include this in the back of the Bohemian Wife quilt, giving myself permission to move along if necessary.

I was thinking of making a block of strips something like this to echo all the strips on the front of the quilt.

But I used a lot of them to border the last couple of blocks that I had made. There are still some strips left to help fit all of this together.

Boho Back

 
Well, I got sucked back into Bohemian Wife because I was tidying up. And there are a lot of strips and bits and pieces left over. Which of course are going to need to be assembled into a backing. Instead of packing them away, I started working with them.

There were some left over blocks, which I put some sort of borders around, either strips or HSTs or both.

There were a couple blocks in the Bohemian Wife box that weren't made with the same fabrics, but made with somewhat similar ones. I left myself a note saying just that. So instead of stashing them somewhere, I decided to include them. What the heck, my quilt, my rules and all, right?

I'm liking what I've got done so far. And there are a whole lot less strips left to use.

There was, however, an envelope in the Bohemian Wife box that was labeled "Tiny HSTs". And there they all are...yikes! These are obviously leftovers from making the blocks. I had sewed them and pressed them open as I went. Do I sew them all into one (or several) giant blocks? Should I sew them together with solids and spread them out in other blocks to make up more of the quilt back that's needed? Decisions must be made, because now my work table is occupied.

Playing With Pantone Project

 

Now that I finally have a design wall to work with, I can finally play around with the blocks from the Pantone Project. I've been wanting to do it ever since I'd made the last block back in May, but hadn't had the space. I got out the two stacks of blocks and 4.5" fabric squares, mine are on the left, sorted by fabric color. I wanted to try my best and not duplicate any fabrics as I was making blocks. Friend Jaye's are on the right, unsorted. It's a whole lot of blocks.

Even though I have all the information in a spreadsheet (of course), I wanted to get my hands on the quantities of each type of block that I have to work with. First I laid out all of the ones I've received from Jaye. Of course I did this in the afternoon thus all the dramatic shadows.

Then I laid out my own blocks on top to make 28 little stacks.

The first blocks my eye landed on were the Ribbon blocks, there are 11 of them.

I doubt I'll keep this central slash of the Ribbon blocks, but it's definitely an interesting arrangement.

I think I really like making stars or larger shapes out of the matching blocks. 

All the rest of the blocks that are not up there quite yet. I think I need to get the Doreen Speckmann book out again and look at some of her block arrangements. This is starting to get fun!

Another Week of ICAD

 

flexi

True Instinct

Ultimate Commuter

COURAGEOUS

WOMEN

AllStrength

FASCINATION