Life's a Bi-each...

So a few days ago I needed to just sew something. Anything.  Feel the whir of my newly tuned-up Bernina...  Yes, I could have/should have worked on piecing some more of the trellis for "Fleurs" (thought I'd left her, forgotten, forlorn, didn't you?), but I wanted something pretty much as mindless, well, maybe not as mindless, that would yield a more interesting result.  Tula!  Yep, I brought the scraps and fat quarters and newly purchased book (I'd previously borrowed it from our library) down here with me to keep plugging away at the 100 blocks.  Here's what happened:

Let's see....it has been a while.... oh yeah, guess I was on Block #8.  Pick colours. Cut.  Ahh, feels good to have a rotary cutter back in my hand.  Sew. Press. Yes!!

So pretty!

Uh....NOOOOOO...

When I went to add them my pile of blocks, I discovered, that I'd already made this one!  And four more after it...
Waaaah!
Dilemma:
To keep or to rip?  I am making all 100 blocks, so 101 is not going to cut it...I could put the extra on the quilt back.  Or I could rip it and see if I can use the pieces in another block, since she repeats many same size squares and rectangles.

Life is a bit*h...Spent a day ripping.  Very carefully.  These squares finish at 1", so not a lot of room for frayed edges.  NEEDED TO SEW! MINDLESS!  Spent last night sewing UFO project #1 for this winter.

Love this Roll It Up! pillowcase pattern from All People Quilt.  Made it many times. Had the blue fabric for years to make pillowcases. Notice the 2.5" squares in a pile? A tip from Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza series is growing my stock of organized 2.5" squares!

Life's a beach...  Today, I got my sewing room window fixed. (I know you're thinking wth? She was writing about Tula Pink blocks.  No, pillowcases... Welcome to my menopausal regular mind...Just wait...) Yay!  I can open my window now, and the screen is fixed so no bugs will come in!  After my window was fixed, we headed out to Manasota Key for our first beach sesh.  Needed to soothe my ripped up soul, lol.  Not really, as I am so happy in this new house, but a beach day is always a good day. And today was stellar.

Look at the colours!  And this was just my iPhone 4.

Came home and sewed the Tula Pink pieces back together.  Had to cut the centre square and the bars of the plus but managed to make the other pieces pretty much all work:

Ta-da!  Block #13...

Don't you just LOOOVE the tray I used for background interest?!  It's a "happy new home" gift from my darling friend and other-side-of-our-wall neighbour in Kingsville, Jude.  Say what?  Are you confused?  Well don't be; they came for a visit!  Our first guests here.  They have a winter home in Winterhaven, Florida, so not too far away.  She has an affinity for all things France, as do I, (especially Paris for her).  I love to have my morning coffee outside, as well as my afternoon tea, with my book, and chocolate, so this will be perfect to load up and carry to my spot! So thoughtful of her; she knows me well.

Speaking of happy new home gifts, on Saturday a Priority Post parcel was placed at my front door.  Remember I won Lara's (Buzzin Bumble) wreath fabric she created on Spoonflower?

Bella likes it too!

Well, that darling girl (I truly am so very blessed with such wonderful, thoughtful, caring friends) sent me a gift for my new sewing room.  And WHAT a gift!!!!

Holy generosity, Batman!  There are three 1-yard cuts of Riley Blake Designs (a fabric line I've admired, but never have bought), a 1/2 yard cut of Kona cotton "Breakers" (Lara is so smart in how she labelled it with its colour name, and I'm going to copy her idea: a skinny Post-It note pinned to the fabric).  And there's a yard of a laminated cotton in aqua (the top fabric in the picture above)!  I have never seen this before.  I immediately thought of make-up bags, lunch bags...think there are a few members of my family who might benefit from experimenting with this.  I was blown away, and so touched.

I love florals, pastels, earth tones.  But this past year I have been drawn to the modern bright colours, especially aqua with red (see my Over and Under quilt, though it's more of a mint than an aqua).  I love the Christmas quilts and décor that I've seen done in aqua and red.  Well, Lara has given me a push to actually create something (and I have a few ideas) with these two colours.

I've been writing this blog just over a year now, and I started it, as most do, mainly to keep track of what I sew, and, a close second, to keep family and friends in the loop as to what I'm up to.  I never dreamed I'd meet some wonderful, talented, warm people, who I now consider good friends.

Funny about life: that at 50+ I find kindred spirits, people like Jude, like Lara, both of whom I've recently met,  and yet to whom I feel such a deep connection.  :-)

Today, I'm linking up for the first time with Freemotion By the River.

Cool tools on a Tuesday

I thought I'd show you a little tool I bought years ago, made by Clover, that I'm using again, and really liking.  No, I'm not getting any money or being sponsored for this!

I decided to work outside yesterday as it was just too darn lovely to be in the basement.  I also wanted to be beside my fur kids.

I am working on the a-a-a-appliqué of my as yet unnamed (although there are some names for it I've uttered which I won't print here) Self-directed Round Robin.  I need to create a fair amount of stem out of two different greens, so that is what I tackled yesterday afternoon on the patio.

The stems finish at 1/4".  Which makes me twitch a little just thinking about that.  I start with a bias strip that is about 1/16 more than 1/2" wide.  The Clover bias tape maker takes a lot of my twitches away with its ingenuity.  The Amazon source is just one I found; I bought mine years ago at either Fabricland or my LQS.

It has a section where you feed the roll of Steam-a-Seam paper-backed fusible pre-cut to slightly less than 1/4" in width.  The rolls are sold separately.  You feed the bias strip in underneath the fusible strip and much like the rolled-hem foot for your machine, it rolls the edges in, and as you gently pull on both the fusible and the fabric, you iron (with another of my favourite tools) the two together as they come out of the little gizmo.  Slick!  You do get a slight bump where there is a seam from joining strips together, but I have found that folding the edge under with a stiletto as you sew it down usually works just fine to finish that edge.

The iron is another Clover product, basically a curling iron, or soldering iron with a mini iron foot on the end.  It gets VERY hot, and I might have some blisters or burn scars to show just how it barbecues your skin in seconds.  If you click here, you will see the irons and (woo hoo!) I just found out there is a Clover Iron II as well as a larger footed tip available!  Dangerous...

I still have to make more of the darker green stem, but I think I have enough of the vibrant green.  And I still have thousands, well maybe hundreds, of flower pieces to go...  This HAS to be done for the September show, as does the paint chip challenge I wrote about.  At the rate I'm moving (rather, being distracted by other fun projects) this summer, it's going to be touch and go.

Distraction Numbers 8 to 12:

Only block #5 lower right corner, and the hot pink solid are not scraps from that quilt!

Some more of the Tula Pink City Sampler blocks that I made using mainly scraps from my Over and Under quilt, which might just go on the frame next, now that Floral Dreams is off.  These are a lot of fun.  Finishing at just 6", there are some TEENSY pieces!

And one of the biggest ongoing distractions:

This incredible view from our patio

Blue skies, blue shimmering waters, greenery above and below and beside me...good for the soul.