Orange A Peel

LOL
I think all of us in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela at soscrappy could've said, "Called it!" for this month's colour, perfect for impending Fall. However, we haven't had brown yet, or black, or pink...ha!  Here is my first project, my houses:

Since the first owl appeared in the January purple block, I always put a little surprise in each house. This one has two orange dogs, awww, yeah! ORANGE dogs?! Love! More scraps from my sweet friend Jake, and yup, more Laurel Burch. She knows me so well.  I badly wanted to use some of my precious Kaffe fabric from my Three Quarter Patch tote I made and reviewed for Craftsy a while back, and from whose scraps I made a round mini for another sweet friend, Preeti.  However, it didn't want to 'go' anywhere...until inspiration struck, and it is is the stained glass window in the door! Lacy curtains in the windows are from pillowcases made from Tidal Lace ombré fabric.
Near the end of January I had the inspiration to make a house block and turn it into a cushion for my new sewing room.

It is made from scraps from my Meadow Mystery by Meadow Mist Designs.

I wrote out the instructions and made a PDF and UPDATE: uploaded it into my Etsy shop. It has been my best-selling pattern. Angela announced the February colour: aqua. I kind of figured oh well, guess my RSC house quilt won't have an aqua block because it will be the pillow. However...

I just had to. Besides it's almost as fast to make two house blocks as making one; the longest part is playing in the fabric scraps agonizing deciding what to use where! I revamped the little porch over the door on this one, and here you have a stained glass window using a holy scrap, as in lots of holes, from the kaleidoscope class I took years ago. Plump birds in the other. This house sits on the water, not in it. 😉

I hinted that I was making the neutrals house block, but I guess I never did show it except on Instagram. Here it is:

Yup, same roof fabric, different colour! Last bit of Jennifer Sampou fabric from forever ago that I adore; used it for a cushion cover (should blog that sometime hmm). I do not care; in fact I actually like that the selvage is going to show in the quilt! Vintage Singer sewing machine in one window, in the other, flowers from an old Eaton's lawn fabric with which I made a skirt, a couple tiny leftovers of which are in the colourwash fabric stash. 

Here are the first six before I made the orange and turquoise ones. I am already swooning over this quilt-to-be!

I also made last week's three Canadian Women blocks.

124 - Anna Marion Hilliard: we owe this lady SO MUCH. She went into obstetrics and gynaecology, and she it is who developed the simplified PAP test for early detection of cervical cancer; 125 - Helen Kinnear: another woman of so many firsts: first woman on the Niagara Peninsula to practise law, first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court of Ontario and Canada, first woman, in 1934, in the British Empire to become a King's Counsel, first woman judge and still more! 126 - Violet E (Beth) Candlish: daughter of Saskatchewan's Premier in the 1930s; he became Federal Minister of Agriculture, Beth worked in the grains industry, often the only woman in the field, becoming, in 1981, the first woman Commissioner of the Canada Grain Commission.  Bet you know which is her block!

I am also announcing an OMG for September, finishing quilting (which I did yesterday) Radiance, and binding it, and sending it off to Aidan. I've shown several photos on Instagram over the past little while. Here's a sneak peek:

It's not as easy a finish as you may think, just squaring, binding, photographing, washing, writing a post........because I am in extreme excitement countdown mode for the arrival of my favourite grandson, Brady!!!! mid-week!  Not much quilting will get done unless we have time for him to design another quilt and me to sew it...  Anyhow Radiance has been on Finish Along lists more than once, so here's to finally crossing it off! And ending on an orange note!

You may have noticed (I sure have) your Internet seems a tad slow today? Bet it's because of so many of us quilters watching Craftsy classes (affiliate link) for free!! More than 1200 are on the list to watch today for free, pretty sweet deal.  That's where I'm heading, picking up where I left off on a cool "Playing With Curves" one by Ann Petersen.