A case of Spring-y startitis on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello... well last week was a good week... the weather overall was lovely...we had a couple of stellar days and now are having a weekend of seasonal temps - upper 50's, low 60's -  and the forecast for this week is mid-60's and no rain... we still aren't past the cut off for no chance of frost... which keeps me from buying annuals... well that the fact that I haven't seen anything more than a hanging basket of petunias  for sale, as far as annuals go. I expect lots of inventory will come in starting this week as Mother's Day is in  3 weeks ... and I can hardly wait to buy petunias and marigolds and coleus and cleome and sedum and lavender and you get the idea.

However, I don't have a  lot of open space in my garden beds yet. The daffodils need to die back and the alliums  are coming on really strong... they definitely mutliplied and they are taking up a lot of space.  But that won't keep me from filling up my window boxes and other pots and those new raised beds. There will be lots to do... in the meantime my energy has been bouncing around in my basement sewing room and a bad case of startitis developed... I started not ONE, not TWO, but THREE new quilt projects... and here's where it all is right now.

Let's break it down... first we have these 8 spool blocks all done in Tilda's... the block is the Biscuit quilt,  from the It's Sew Emma  book called Simply Jelly Rolls... except I'm not using a jelly roll, I'm fussy cutting  each 2.5" piece and trying to gradate the colors...

I have 10 blocks done and I want to make 20 for a nice size throw... so far I'm not having any trouble  making gradations, but there may be some fabrics that get repeated.. and I'm having all my spools in a vertical orientation so the directional prints are right side up... makes my OCD happy!!

Here's some close ups...

I was putting away the fabrics from the Kim Brackett quilt I'm calling daffodils and I got to thinking how much I like to make yellow scrap quilts. The daffodil one is scrappy ... 32 different yellow fabrics... and my stash of yellows is pretty substantial... and I want to play some more with them and with my low volumes... 

I was laying in bed one night thinking about this and came up with the idea of 10" sawtooth stars in a positive/negative configuration... oooooohhh  I like this.... I like this A LOT!!

So far I've only done 4 blocks... currently I envision this as a quilt for my full size bed... 9 blocks wide and 9 blocks long... 81 different  blocks... I may revise this idea but in the meantime it is FUN and gives me an opportunity to go visit a couple of quilt shops to add in some new yellows and low volumes.

And then I was just minding my own business when I got an email from FQS talking about an upcoming SAL with the new Fig Tree Quilt book, Strawberry Garden. They are going to be doing the bow tie pattern...now I have no idea what size their block is but I'm happy with an 8" finished block...and I'm making it scrappy and green!!

I may post these to IG for the SAL but it depends on how long my enthusiasm lasts... I'm awful at SALs ... I start out all excited and then another shiny block comes along and I'm off on another tangent... there are just so many many many many many many many many things I want to do!!!  Every bow tie will be a different green fabric but the background fabric will be the same as I have 5 yards of that white with the little green flower. Don't remember why I bought 5 yards of this... maybe it was on sale??  Who knows... but my current plan (always subject to revision...LOL) is to do 56 bow ties... 7 across and 8 down and then a nice border of the background fabric. So far with just these 10 blocks I have several wildly different styles of fabrics... there is a bow tie in Tilda fabrics (it was sitting on my cutting table with the stash I'm using for the spools)... and there is a piece from Lori Holt, those little scissors on green... and some really old fabrics... one from KP Kids and another from a collection by I think Cheri Saffiote... I'm going to do at least one bow tie with Kaffe fabrics and one with Debbie Mumm and one with American Jane and one with Momo and one with Cathe Holden and one with Jen Kingwell  and on and on and one... I love rummaging through my fabrics  and remembering all the wonderful fabric collections I've gotten a piece or two of... 

 I'm feeling virtuous as 2 of these projects I only plan to do a throw size quilt...fingers crossed I can stay virtuous... I have my doubts... LOL

As for cross stitching I had plans to get the pear and the little house from Pinker n Punkin FFO'd...but it didn't happen... maybe today... I only stitched on one project (perhaps this was to balance out the startitis down in my sewing room)... I finished the top square of Faith, Hope, Piece and Love from Teresa Kogut...

it is so hard to accurately capture the color of this linen... think DMC 470 ... 

 I like the additions of the peach flosses for the flowers and I filled in the house. I frogged the letters and restitched them in 842... not sure but I may frog them again and go back to the called for 841... just got a bit of stitching in on the second block... I'm feeling a bit antsy so I may start another chart... we shall see.

As for decor, well I'm still tweaking my displays but I did change up the quilts on my bed... 

I moved the tulip quilt to the foot board and put on my American Jane quilt from the pattern Simple Pleasures by Brenda Riddle... now each block is comprised of 49 squares and the pattern is written for strip piecing with a jelly roll but I individually cut all the squares so I could make every square a different fabric... and yes I never do anything the easy way... LOL

Some of my favorite squares are yellow (surprise surprise surprise) and   include a teddy bear...

and an elephant  in the little yellow square...

and letters and chickens and a cat and paper doll clothes and polka dots on yellow... as Julie Andrews sang... these are a few of my favorite things!

 

I hope to have some sewing and stitching time this week but I never know how the days will play out until they do. I'm babysitting Elliott  for our regular Tuesday and on Thursday evening so his parents can to out to dinner and celebrate their wedding anniversary. I have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored on Wednesday. And next Saturday we are doing a dim sum brunch for my younger son's birthday ... he'll be 34... time flys exceedingly fast... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and then spend some time reading blogs as I sit out on sunroom porch... no plans to go anywhere except maybe a trip to our favorite soft serve ice cream place... flavor of the week is a cherry Dole Whip... I have them add those mini chocolate chips... sooooo good!! Hope you have a great week ahead filled with time to do the stuff you want to do!!

happy stitching-

carol fun