Bits and Pieces

I buckled down and made all of the ties

for 11 more lined drawstring bags.

(ties get done first because they are the most time consuming)

Six of the eleven are in greens from RSC March

and five are in blues for RSC April.

The main bag sections are sewn together

 ready for pressing the next time I turn on the iron.

I spent two evenings stitching up 

forty five more blocks for Hoppipolla.

(blocks will finish at 3")

RSC colors this month are light and bright blues.

So far I've made 113 blocks of the 320 needed.

The whole goal of this project is to use up 

some of the bits and pieces left behind

after the Dumpster Diving quilts . . . 

ten more color groups with twenty blocks each 

should give me plenty to work with for a scrappy layout.

(see links to both series later in this post)

On a whim, I signed up for 

an all-day "live" virtual Zoom class

with Sarah Bond (@slbphilly on Instagram)

during the late April Mancuso Online Quiltfest.

The supply list called for a jelly roll and two different backgrounds.

Shopping my stash, I chose the two backgrounds (left) and I

cut a "Julie roll" from my stash of Kaffe Collective yardage.

I'll use Kaffe's Banana Tree yardage to back this one

whenever this project reaches that stage.

I've named this quilt-to-be SASHAY which means

"a journey taken for pleasure."

(I'm hoping the name is prophetic

since the quilt involved strip pieced diamonds

similar to those in a Lone Star quilt)

After weeks of mental wrangling, 

I've also made another decision.

I had planned to make twelve Dumpster Diving quilts

with the final one using reds with brights on blacks.

But I have not been able to bring myself to chop 

these long strips and smaller pieces of yardage into

into short little segments only to spend weeks 

pairing/sewing/pairing/sewing over and over.

I still love the process but

I'm tired of the huge amount of prep work.

So . . . I'm going to formally end 

the DD series with DD 11 - Mischief Maker.

This means I'll repurpose the boxes 

of reds/brights on on blacks 

into a scrappy quilt that will be 

part of my Et Cetera series.

Finally, with the Easter decor packed away 

this is our mantel's look until late June.

(those are white fairy lights tucked along

the mantel's back edge - so pretty after dark)

Our elder son's/DIL's 15th anniversary,

our eldest nephew's/wife's 15th anniversary,

my sister's/BIL's 40th anniversary,

our 46th wedding anniversary,

Mother's Day and Father's Day, 

plus a 40th and a 69th birthday 

will happen between now and then.

Lots of chances to use my stash of

colorful lined drawstring gift bags

as we celebrate those family milestones.

Quiltdivajulie

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“I was very against pink and purple when I was young, because they were girls’ colors.  But that was only because I didn’t want people to write me off for what I can do.  When I got into my 20s, I decided that was stupid.”

Danica Patrick (NASCAR driver)