Sunday Sundry 7-4-2021

This episode of Sunday Sundry runs the gamut, from half-square triangles to hand surgery on the horizon.  Let's have at it!

Little Farmer Baby Quilt

I'm calling this small quilt "Little Farmer."  It's made from bonus half-square triangles left over from the County Fair quilt—and there were a LOT of them—starting with the largest, which went into the center pinwheels, to the smallest, which made the mini plaid pinwheels in the outer border.

It'll be around 36 inches square when it's finished.  It could be a wall hanging or a large table topper, I suppose, but I think I'll donate it as a baby quilt.  

Garage Sale Haul

We stopped at a rummage sale a week or so ago as we were out walking.  I saw a box full of patterns that looked interesting, but because it was too hot to poke through them all, I offered five bucks for the whole lot.  The woman running the sale accepted and helped me pack them all into an oversized shopping bag.  My hubby raised an eyebrow and muttered under his breath (imagining he'd be the one to lug the bag home), but it was totally worth it (and I carried it myself!).

I still haven't looked at them all in detail to see what's all there, but I'll have some down time to do that soon, because...

A Handy Solution

I will be having surgery this week to remove some kind of cysts or growths on my left pinky.  I've had them for a year and a half or so, but in the past few months they've started to distort my finger to the point that I can't fully extend it anymore.  They don't hurt; they're just hard lumps that have grown to the point they're putting stress on the tendons.

I may be approaching crone status, but I feel like I'm still too young for witchy-looking fingers if it can be helped.  Hopefully, the growths can be removed without further injury to the finger and I'll be able to regain full range of motion in it with some therapy.

The doctor didn't say what the lumps might be, except that it could be "many things," but they'll be sent to pathology and we'll be enlightened from there.

Cutting While the Cutting's Good

In the meantime, anticipating that I may be out of commission for a bit after surgery, I started cutting into 3.5-inch bricks the fabric I had left from making masks during 2020.  It's a wild and crazy bunch, which may not play well together...or maybe they will?  

The plan is to just sew a light and a dark brick together and arrange them in a scrappy zigzag or rail fence way.  I hope to be able to sew something simple as that while the finger heals.

Gardening and Grandma

My flower garden is nothing to write home about at the moment, but the coral bells plant next to the foundation is going gonzo this year!  

That thing never did much when I had it in the flower garden, so a few years ago I dug it out and plopped it in the gravel next to the house.  I had seen someone's coral bells doing well in what seemed like a hot and dry area like that, so I gave it a shot and then pretty much ignored it except to squirt it with the hose now and then.  It took awhile, but this year it's never looked better!  

Grandma Gatewood's Walk is a book I started reading today and so far I really like it.  I can't remember if I saw it on somebody's blog or if it was mentioned in a podcast, but it sounded like something I'd enjoy.  Our local library happened to have a copy, so now I've got a good read for this week.

I've also started Nothing Daunted by Dorothy Wickenden, which was another book mentioned by a fellow blogger recently that sounded interesting, and I like that too. 

I've been into pioneer stories this summer.  I listened to the audiobook version of The Pioneers by David McCullough, about the settling of the wilderness north of the Ohio River, as well as Wau-Bun: The Early Day in the Northwest by Juliette Kinzie, first published in 1856, about the early days of my home state.  Nonfiction and historical books are my jam.  Both of these were excellent.

I'm also making my way through the environmentalist classic, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.  What's on your summer reading list?

Positivity Blocks

Have you heard The Joyful Quilter is having a Positivity Quilt Along Block Drive?  I was going to send her one or two, but just like that I had six...then seven.  I'll be mailing these off to her soon.

They go together fast.  Check out the link for the details and see if you'd like to make a couple.  Block mailing deadline is July 30.

Well, that's it for now, friends.  Hopefully, all goes well this week and I'll see you on the flip side of finger surgery after "taking my lumps."  ;) 

Sunday Sundry 7-9-17

I'm back home with my feet up after spending a couple hours on a beautiful bike trail earlier today.  Should really have some ice on my knees, but I guess that can wait a bit longer.

It was as close to perfect a summer day as there can be, and I'm glad we were able to get out and enjoy it.

We've had a good amount of rain so far this summer, and everything is looking lush and green.  The tiger lilies were in bloom along the trail.

Marsh asters and Queen Anne's lace.  Afterwards, we had a picnic by the river.  A very picturesque little spot.

I have a thing for water lilies.

Which is why I picked up a water lily art print at the thrift store last weekend.  It joins, on the wall, my other thrifted water lily print found a few years ago.

 These are signed and numbered prints and professionally framed.  I don't think either one cost me more than five bucks.  Wish I knew more about the artists. 

Last week's bike trail ride was cut short due to Norm getting a flat tire.  Since it was a holiday weekend, the bike shop was closed.

The thrift store, however, was not!  It had been a while since we went junkin', as I'm more of a mind to get rid of excess than accumulate it these days.  But I have a place or purpose for all of the things I brought home.

I've been needing a lasagna pan since my old stoneware one cracked last year and I had to toss it.  I found a large 13x10-inch (or thereabouts) Corning Ware baking dish that will do just fine.

Zippers are always handy to have in the stash.  I used up a lot of my supply when I was making gift zipper pouches last year.

The Love Letters book might not have been a necessity, but at 69 cents, it was worth it for the beautiful illustrations and words.  And that's my very first "barn quilt" for the porch, from a local store that had them on clearance for half off, can you believe it?  It's a 12-inch metal Thistle Bloom block.

I did get a quilt basted yesterday.  This one's from bonus half-square triangles from a Christmas quilt I made last fall from an Aspen Frost layer cake.

The flimsy has been done for a while but I wasn't in a mood to work on it until now.  My HSTs only went so far, so I added a wide border all the way around to get it to lap quilt size. The blue thing at the bottom of the picture is a foam gardening mat from the dollar store.  It's a knee saver!

I've got to wear shades...

I was working/procrastinating on the Hands2Help quilt a couple weeks ago when I got sidetracked by a baggie full of something good.  Not that kind of baggie full, something totally legal in all 50 states.  Quite possibly as capable of inducing a chill state of mind, but without the paranoia.  Not even of the quilt police.

My friend and fellow quilter Marei and I swapped boxes of scrap fabric a while ago, but to call what she sent me a box of scrap fabric is an understatement.  It was a treasure chest!

Among the rolls of strips all neatly cut to usable sizes were a couple of baggies with notes inside, to the effect of "Have fun!" and "Maybe you can create something with these."

Happily, I did!  I made THIS wall hanging from one bag of bitty-bits.

Recently I rediscovered the other bagful—two-inch "bonus" half-square triangles: the corners you cut off some other project and, if you're like Marei and me, and maybe you, you set aside to use some other time. 

I started pulling the pieces out and arranging them in groups of 16.  They were so cute and colorful!  So I sewed those groups of 16 together into 6.5-inch blocks, as many as I could make.

Now what? 

Well, I could sash them or border them, I thought.  What might I have in the stash for that?  Here's a pretty bundle of fat quarters I won in last year's Hands2Help giveaway.  Let's just open these up a bit and see if any of them might do, color-wise.  

Yes, all of them!  Okay, maybe not the ivory one, but all the rest.

Hm, what if I stagger or offset them?  Then I would only need to border three sides instead of four, and isn't that interesting?

Let's make the two side borders a bit narrower and the longer border wider.  If I cut the side borders 6.5 x 3 and the longer border 11.5 x 3.5, that will make the block finish at 9 x 11 inches.  Seems like a workable size rectangle to make a baby quilt or wall hanging.

And that is the story of how friendship, farting around, and flimsies come together.

It is bright, and I like that.  In real life, it's not quite as eye-searingly bright.  I tried to correct somewhat for the dim light of the basement with so-so results.

Now I'm in the process of making a scrappy back.

How have you used your small bonus half-square triangles?  Do you have some lying around, waiting for inspiration?  Do you toss them or give them away?