Scrap Happy Saturday

It is the last Saturday of the month and that means it is time to share some scrappy orange with everyone at RSC.  It was a busy month for me and I was able to get a few things completed.

An orange butterfly.

A corrected green/orange butterfly from last month.

Two orange houses.

I am not wild about the second one though.

I attended a quilt retreat earlier this month and someone shared this quilt with everyone.  I loved it!  I asked her the name of the pattern and she couldn't remember but told me it was apparently a block of the month class at a quilt shop.  I couldn't find anything on it.

Does anyone recognize the pattern?  Let me know if you do. 

I decided to attempt to make the quilt and add my own interpretation of the flowers.  Here is what I have so far.

I thought I would applique some flowers for the border and played with a French Flower.  The pattern is raw edge applique and I am doing traditional applique with it and perhaps a little embellishment.

I know I got some orange microspools done at the retreat as well but they don't look any different from the orange spools I shared last year.  My microspools are from my scrap basket so there will be lots that are the same.

Teal we meet again--which I am looking forward to!

Cheers!

Debi

OMG February

It is time to get back to working on at least one monthly goal.  I am linking up with everyone at Elm Street Quilts and I hope I can continue to participate and get some projects done.

Last year at our quilt show we had a second time around shop and naturally I couldn't resist someone else's unfinished project--like I don't have more than enough of my own.  The project was pink hearts and half of the blocks were finished and the rest were ready to be finished.  Sadly, there wasn't enough background fabric to finish the blocks so I dug in my stash and found something that is very close and would work.  I am sure in the right light it will be very noticeable but to my scrappy eye it is just fine.  I did get the top assembled but never quiet got around to getting a border on and that is my goal for this month.  Hearts and February, what could be better for a February goal.

Cheers,

Debi

Last Green Saturday on Sunday

Whew, just made it in time for the first month of RSC on the last Sunday.  I am almost finished with my cake quilt and then I am going to have to do some applique before I can put it all together and get ready for the border.

I have also decided to work on some existing projects.  I think I started these projects about 10 years ago based on the date on my printed instructions.  The RSC might be perfect to move these along.  Up first is Happy Scrappy Houses by Bonnie Hunter.

Spools that I started about the same time as Happy Scrappy Houses and it looks like they were a Debbie Mum pattern.

Finally, butterflies!  Not an unfinished project but one that I am starting, lol!  I am attending a retreat next month and needed something somewhat mindless to work on and I think this might be it.  Butterfly Town is the pattern for this big butterfly.

I also tried a Pattern Basket Butterfly and I had a few issues with it but may try again.  As you can see I should have oriented the bottom wing differently.  Naturally I didn't see it until I took my photo so it looks like I need to get out the seem ripper.

Finally, I hope to be back blogging every now and then as my health issues worked out for the better.  I had a surgical procedure the same week this little guy came into my life and has pretty much consumed a huge amount of time and I wondered if I would every be able to sew again.  Meet Barley, a Golden/Great Pyr mix.

I haven't had a puppy in about 12 years and now I think what was I thinking!!!  We have taken training classes at Petsmart which were fabulous but you have to practice and I am not the best at doing it consistently.  My beloved cats think I am nuts and wonder what I did as well.  I am hopeful he will settle down eventually and be a big, lazy, mellow dog. One can only hope.

Cheers,

Debi

Chocolate Cake

The colors this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are brown, black or gray.  My first thoughts were hmmmm not sure what I am going to do and then it hit me--Chocolate!  Brown is not a color I often use but when I think of it as chocolate it is so much more appreciated and used.  With that said, here is my chocolate cake--it looks a bit wonky but that is how my cakes turn out anyway so it is perfect.

I also think pink and chocolate are wonderful colors when used together so it seemed a natural to me.

I missed posting in August and September for a variety of reasons but I tried to keep up a bit.  Here are a few purple microspools that I did get done but didn't get posted.

I know I made some bright blue microspools but it appears I didn't take a photo of them so instead I will show you a cake I made that has a bright blue stand.

Hmmm, hard to tell from the photo it is bright blue, and once again wonky, but it really is bright blue, and the ribbon is the French flag.  Also, you may have noticed that I had a lot of posts about French related things this past year and you guessed it, I went to France in September and getting ready certainly impacted my sewing, however, it didn't impact my baking!  In preparation I had to make some baguettes.

 Yum!  My friends love them and my travel friend thinks they are as good as what we get in France which is quite a compliment.

Yesterday I took yet another baking class.  These classes are such fun and they are addicting!  Buttercream and Olive Oil had a class on biscuits and I had to take it.  We made biscuits which was fun and something I have done over the years but we also made butter and buttermilk!  What fun and oh so yummy.  I didn't take a photo of the butter because, well, it is butter, but oh so good.  Here are my biscuits-yum!

In November I am signed up to take a yeast bread class so stay tuned.

Finally, I want to thank The Joyful Quilter, Jeanne, Susie H and Jenny for their wonderful and encouraging comments from July.  I apologize for not getting back to them as I always try to thank those who comment.  I am not sure how much I am going to be able to sew, bake or post as some medical issues have come my way.  In the meantime, I will do what I can to keep up as I plan on trying a new baked good tomorrow and who knows maybe I will take a photo of those bright blue microspools so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Debi

OMG July Finish

July? What happened to June, lol!  Even though I didn't link up for the July setting goal my July goal was the same as my June goal and that was to quilt my French Tea Towel.

Here is a close up of those delicious pastries.  I have tried almost all of them!

I needed to get my tea towel quilted for our guild's mid-July quilt show and I made it.  In the end I was quite happy with my quilting because that is always a challenge on my machine.  I must confess the issues are usually not with my machine but with me--imagine that! 

Here are the pastries I made over the weekend in the Buttercream & Olive Oil pastry class that I took.  Not the prettiest photos but most were absolutely delicious.

I will be making Eclairs/Pate a Choux and Cannele again but Madeleine's and Navette's were not to my liking. 

Let's hope I can get back in the sewing room in August and have a goal and actually link up at the end of August as well.

Why not hop on over to Elm Street Quilts and see what everyone else got done in July!.

Cheers,

Debi

PINK! RSC July

I love pink, especially hot pink, and I certainly enjoyed working on a few pink blocks this month.  Unfortunately June and July have been incredibly busy, and hot, which doesn't bid well for sewing.

I would have loved to make many more pink microspools but it just didn't happen.  Here are the few I did get done.

I also managed to get two pink cakes baked.

I love those lime roses but sewing them on the cake and then adding side strips was a bit challenging.  Speaking of cakes, I have been taking baking classes from Buttercream & Olive Oil and made a Brown Butter cake that is iced to match my lime trim.

Amazing and scrummy, as Mary Berry of The Great British Baking Show would say.  I loved this class.  Yesterday I took two more French pastry classes and the results were once again quite yummy.

A day late, but I am linking up with everyone at RSC Last Pink Weekend.  I am really sad to say goodbye to pink but look forward to a new color.

Cheers!

Debi

OMG June

Once again I am going to try to set a goal and accomplish it by the end of the month so I can link up with everyone at OMG Elm Street Quilts.  I kinda got off track the past two months and I am hopeful that things will be better this month. 

My goal is to get this tea towel quilted.  I purchased the towel in Paris two years ago and was going to frame it but after pondering it forever I decided quilting it made much more sense. 

As you can see I have it ready to baste and then on to machine quilting which is always an adventure.  Wish me good quilting karma.

Cheers,

Debi