A little bit of everything - ideas, a bag, a sign ...

The days seem to just fly by. On Monday, Ray and I worked at the Teacher's Luncheon that our church hosts every year. It's so hard to believe that summer is coming to an end. 

I've been busy kitting a few quilts to take to a retreat in November. 

My idea for using some 2 1/2" squares in a large block

An idea using 2 1/2" squares inspired by Nancy Zieman's column quilts

I know it's early to get the quilts kitted but we are planning a couple of trips in October and November. I want to be sure I'm ready. After all, I have my priorities! We'll be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see the fall colors with a few days in Door County on our way home. About a week later we'll head to North Carolina to visit our oldest son and his family and also some friends. Hopefully we'll see more fall colors. On our way home, we'll spent some time in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina and then in Tennessee visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

I had a request to make a bag for Grandson G to carry his piano books to/from practice. I didn't have any music or piano/keyboard fabric so I decided to create some. 

As I was designing the bag, it occurred to me that almost all of my projects are prototypes. Maybe someday I'll start using a pattern. 

I decided to label the G key 

This bag is about 12" by 15". It has a pocket on the back. The bag is quilted with a large loop pattern.

The note pocket

The inside is the neat black fabric with the colorful circles.

Inside of bag

Ray and I are binge watching a TV series on Fire TV. We usually watch 2-3 episodes or more of Heartland a day. This is the most TV I've watched in years! 

We were in Madison, Wisconsin last Friday night because Ray had an evening photography shoot. I spent the evening at the motel catching up on my Cricut learning. I finally made my first sign yesterday.

I'm learning...

It is hard to watch the news this week - the area we stayed in Friday had over 15 inches of rain on Monday and lots of flash flooding. It hit many businesses including the camera store, that hosted that Friday outing. People were stranded in motels where we stayed. There is so much damage and most don't have flood insurance.

Today we met Ray's brother and his lady friend for lunch. We had a great time and enjoyed some really good pie. It's been a good day!

A finish: Up, Up and Away

Up, Up, and Away is finished. I'm afraid that it is quite obvious that I haven't been practicing my free-motion quilting on a regular basis. Hopefully I'll get more practice in the coming weeks.

Up, Up, and Away used some of the leftover Dreamweaver blocks. Dreamweaver is in the pile to be pinned and quilted.  I added balloons to this donation quilt because I though that would be child-friendly.  I wrote about my design for this quilt here.

Of course, I used Dream Cotton Batting and 50-weight Aurifil thread - this time #2735 blue that match the borders. This donation quilt is 54 inches square.

I used orange on the back.

I quilted this with a double loop mostly. There are a few single loops and spirals too. I did not quilt the balloons so they stand out a bit.

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I've had ideas for my blue scraps but none have really worked like I wanted. So, I have a new idea! I'm making strip squares with the lights and the darks.

light blue strip squares

Then I'll make half square triangles with the light and dark strip squares. The darks will have a splash of color once in a while. Here are a few blocks.

I saw a picture of a quilt done in lights and darks from a fabric line. I think it will work with my blues. I have enough strips cut for all of the squares and I still have this left:

Basket without the handle is 15" long, 12" wide and 8" high.

Now, I think it's time to get to work in the kitchen - the produce just keeps coming!