Rocky Mountain birthday

We are back to our "real" life, after a week in sunny Colorado for Mom's 100th birthday.  We arrived last Monday so that we could help with preparations for a Saturday party at the church around the corner.  We made runs to the dollar and grocery stores, Coors gift shop, and Target for party stuff and even squeezed in a visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.   

The museum had two interesting exhibits.  One featured quite a few quilts on appliqued clamshell backgrounds and the other was entitled "Evolutions."  I'm participating in a cake block swap right now, so this quilt really appealed to me.  My blocks are different from this, but I could add a cake block that's similarly embellished.

Here's one of the "Evolutions" quilts.  I liked it for its slices of color and the beaded embellishments in the center.

My photo doesn't do it justice.  Guess you had to be there.  Here's my favorite "Evolution" quilt:

Five relatives from the Netherlands arrived later in the week, which was just great, and it was fun to see my brother and his family, my sister, and my very vibrant mom again.  It had been almost three years since we visited because of the pandemic.  That's just too long!

Here's a picture of Mom before the party:

There were about 100 people there all together, and it was fun.  I got to meet quite a few of mom's friends and also got reacquainted with some long-time ones, including a couple who now live in Illinois and drove two days to get there.  It was an action-packed trip, but oh, so worth it!

More "Unity"

June is the month for the next-to-last round of the Unity quilt along for the guild.  I think five or six of us are sticking with it, and, as I work on it, I think about how I absolutely hate following a pattern!  So this is a developmental activity for me, with the end result being a lovely, rather large quilt.  There are five or six other projects sitting in boxes, but this is what I'm focusing my energy on when I'm not getting ready for our Colorado trip tomorrow.

June's blocks are rather complex and involve making a seemingly endless bunch of half-square triangles.  Luckily, they finish at 2" and can be cut with the EZ Angle ruler.  This allows me to cut the dark and light sides together and zip them through the machine.  I pile them up in groups of 10 on paper plates so I can keep a relatively accurate count.  I think I need 170-something HSTs.  

Then four patches are made, which go together in pairs, then halfsies, and then the final 8" block.  I have a little over half of the four patches made, and if I have time today, I'll finish those.  I like Bonnie's recommendation about pressing which allows the four patches to nest well together.  

I'll finish this round when we return in a week or so, and then I think I'll work on the July section to finish the whole top.  I'll try to use the bright yellow for the binding if there's enough left, and I'll take the quilt to Marie for long arming.   She's working on one, too, so it will be interesting to see what she recommends.

I really look forward to working on something else, possibly less detailed in the coming months!  I've neglected Austen Jubilee so I'll probably start with that.  I thought I'd made all the blocks for the Quiltmaker mystery, but now I see there are more blocks to be made over the next few months.  My collection of  Jane Austen at Home fabric is really diminishing.  Hope I can find some coordinating scraps in my stash.

A few June projects

Because we will be heading to Mom's birthday festivities in Colorado soon, I haven't spent a lot of time sewing.  I did make a blue pineapple block as part of the RSC (June's color is dark/medium blue).

I also made a house block using Moda's "Brickhouse" pattern.  I don't really like the results and now I'm wondering how I'll set those houses with some of the other house blocks I've been making.  I decided to set them all aside until after I return from Colorado.  I may get inspired - at least I hope so.  This is how UFOs are born.

I also worked on embroidering the crazy block I made a few months ago at guild.  I was hoping Bronwen would be at Saturday's meeting, but she couldn't come.  I wanted some advice on what more to do, but I just forged ahead.  

I'm thinking of making a pillow out of this because I don't really feel like making any more blocks.  Embroidery is really not my thing, and I really want to get back to making a quilt with hankies.

Today I started working on the June assignment for the Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt, which my guild is working on as a quilt along.  Lots of mindless cutting and sewing awaits for this round.  I need 172 half square triangles, and I got about half of them cut before I stopped.  I sure hope I don't run out of yellow fabric before this is finished.  I think I have a yard left.  I do like the paper plate method for organizing these parts.  I also have to cut 68 navy and 68 light blue 2.5"squares.  I already have enough of an assortment of neutral squares cut to make the 8" blocks all these pieces go into.  Phew!

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Finished quilt top and blocks

 

I love Tulip Tango fabrics by Robin Pickens and used a fat eighth bundle and some yardage to finish this 70" x 70" throw.  It's now hanging in the closet, waiting for me to decide whether to quilt it myself or take it to be long armed.  The Sawtooth Star blocks are 12", 8", 6", and 4" which turned out to be a challenge to put together because of a lack of unifying background.  But I made it work.  The center block is a 6" one with multiple borders.   Yesterday I made a few crumb blocks using tiny leftovers and today I'll put the rest of the scraps away for a while.

I also made a couple of 6" Rosebud blocks for the online guild's block of the month.  I asked Karen H. to choose this for the month, and she found it in that old reliable Sylvia's Bridal Sampler by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I used Tulip Tango scraps for this block which I will send to whoever wins this month's lottery, but the one I'll keep is burgundy and gold for another block of the month quilt.  I think I have made plenty of blocks for that quilt, so I'll probably put it together this month if I have time.  

There are still blue RSC blocks to make, and I'd also like to make some headway on the next-to-last round of the Unity quilt.  And, looking ahead, there's our week in Colorado later in the month to celebrate Mom's 100th birthday.  I still have a few things to do to prepare for the trip and party, including getting a haircut and a little shopping.  It's going to be a busy month.

Fun foodie times

 

I saw this on Bonnie Hunter's blog today and just had to laugh.  Ain't it the truth?!?  My friend Pam and I met for breakfast on Tuesday and had some delicious bagels with cream cheese.  No guilt but, afterwards, we did talk about now hard it is to lose weight at "our age."  Today Paul and I are meeting Bob and Pauline for lunch at a great burger place, and tomorrow Mary and Manny are coming for dinner.  Fun times do revolve around food, but it's fine, really.  

I've been reading What Happened to the Bennetts? by Lisa Scottoline, quite a page-turner.  I take breaks periodically to sew, and yesterday I finished a quilt top using a line of fabric by Robin Pickens called "Tulip Tango."  I guess I'll call the quilt that, too, until I can think of another name.  I love the mix of pinks and lime greens in this quilt which features Sawtooth Stars in various sizes - 4", 6", 8", and 12".

Today and this weekend I'll work on miscellaneous blocks of the month - a 12" basket for guild, 6" rosebuds for an online swap, and some RSC blocks.  I need to get busy with the cake blocks for a swap I'm in, too, but I want to put some ricrac between the layers and keep forgetting to run over to Joann's for some.  When I finish all of these miscellaneous things, I'll start working on the Unity quilt round for this month with all its fiddly pieces.  This is next-to-last round with lots of HSTs has been intimidating me for some time.  I'll take it easy and hope to finish by July.