RSC18 week 13

EASTER MEMORIES

In my mother's family, originally from Poland, Easter was the most important holiday of the year.  We always got together at my aunt and uncle's house for dinner on their long sunroom porch.  The menu was always the same.  

We started with borscht, an old family version.  It was basically just plain beet soup.  We each chose extra ingredients for our bowls.  There was Polish kielbasa from the Polish deli, hard boiled eggs and freshly made beet horseradish.  My father, fourth-generation Irish, had to grind the beets and horseradish out in the backyard because it was so strong. The rest of the dinner included ham, golombki (stuffed cabbage rolls), way too much good food and was topped off by my Aunt Laura's pies.

As the only teenager, after dinner I would avoid the dishwashing with the women by taking a hike into the surrounding rocky New England fields.  I also wanted to get away from my pesky younger sister and cousins.

I still love to make golombki every year and now celebrate with my daughter and her family.  

My favorite part of the Easter season is the appearance of spring flowers.  This year we have not yet had any here in Wisconson. So here's a blouquet from me to all of you, whatever you are doing this weekend.

Happy springtime, everyone, and may God bless you richly.

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RSC18 week 12

SPRING GREEN?

I'm still waiting for any sign of spring here in Wisconsin.  Please send me some if you have it, to tide me over until April.  Having spent many years in California and Washington State, it's such a long winter here.  

However, I have been keeping busy with my green fabrics, so cheerful.  The first one is a baby top I just finished piecing.  It makes me feel happy just looking at it. Right now I'm just calling it The Zoo.  

  

I'm leaving it about 35 inches square after a border or two is added. 

My other project is an adult-sized quilt to donate to Covered In Love.  What better way to use my stash than to bring some comfort to grieving families.  Kat gets them to the chaplain at the hospital in Texas where she works.  She says that you never know what scrap of fabric in a quilt might touch the heart of the recipient, perhaps a cat or a special flower, so anything is welcome.  

Here is a sample of the charm squares with grey spacers which have a soft homey feel.

I've got almost all of the 100-plus blocks completed,  This one has almost every color except purple, so I can carry it over until the Rainbow Scrap Challenge April color.  

I was sorry to hear that Mari and others on the East Coast had to dig out from that huge snowstorm.  The good thing is that snow does not seem to harm the fresh growth of greenery and flowers.  I hope all of you have a burst of springtime energy this week.  

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RSC 18 week 11

 GREEN JUNGLE  

It's a jungle out there in my studio this week.  Everything is green and filled with wild critters.  I've been having fun playing with them all.

My first find in my stash was pink monkeys scrambling all over a lime green solid.  They were just begging me to add them to my next Sawtooth Star block.  It was tough trying to get a couple of them to be still long enough to fussy cut them, but I finally outlasted them.  You'd better take a quick peek before they scamper away.

These are very clever fellas.  You can just see that the one on the left is starting to pull apart the fencing so they can escape.  I caught him in the nick of time.  

I've also been busy prepping some cute jungle animals which fit perfectly in the lime green jungle.  I plan to make a brick pattern with these 10-inch cuts.

Aren't they the cutest wild animals ever?  They should make some young child very happy.  Of course, I will be making another Project Linus quilt.  

Have to sign off now.  Top O' the Mornin' to all on this St Patrick's Day.

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RSC18 week 10

LIME GREEN

This month the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is lime green, one of my favorite colors.  It's so bright and full of life, the first signs of spring, the little leaves of daffodils popping up in the dead grass.  

The first block I'm sharing is one that I made about a year ago.  It never did fit in any color category.  I decided to try making a Sawtooth Star block and chose these colorful fabrics for practice.

Now I get a chance to show this block, one of my favorites.  I'm continuing Sawtooth Star in RSC18.  

For my second BOM I'm doing the 16-patch again this year.  This was a bit of a challenge in lime, using quite a few fussy-cut pieces. So many cute critters here.

I'm very happy to show you my finished Rainbow Geese Migration quilt.  I broke my older sewing machine while stitching the last of the binding.  Now that my daughter has given me her computerized Brother machine the first thing I did was finish that binding, with no further incidents.  Just in time to show it off at Cynthia's Geese Migration wrap up.

And here is a lovely scene in a local park.  My friend has been feeding domesticated geese there for many years.  They are larger than the migratory Canada geese that congregate here along with wild malard ducks.

These geese do not migrate and do benefit from the extra food provided during the winter months. It was a  beautiful sunny and windless afternoon, a really special time.

There is no new growth here yet, but spring will be here very soon.  We will all be happy for that.

Have a good week, everyone.

I'll be seeing you at

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   soscrappy  and

Oh, Scrap! at 

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RSC18 week 9

AT LAST

We are finally finished with purple.  February seemed to be the longest month this year, just dragging on. I am sick and tired of purple!  Thank you, thank you, Angela for bright light green this month.  I won't see any spring growth here in Wisconsin for about another month, but I can play with my fabrics and fill my heart with spring.  In fact, we can hear birds chirping again and just now I can hear the coo, coo of a mourning dove.

Great news!  After my 13-year-old sewing machine bit the dust, my daughter gave me a lovely fully automated, computerized Brother which she was not using.  

As you can see, it has all the bells and whistles and shortcuts I could want.  However, that does not mean I've been sewing up a storm.  It's been several days of slogging through the manual, figuring out how to make it run.  With my shaky hands it took about an hour for me to get it threaded and a bobbin filled after dropping a bunch of those colorless things everywhere.

The other problem is my custom sewing table, which needs a new inset for this machine.  I spent about another hour just now attempting to order it with an outdated credit card.  Finally got that done this Friday afternoon, so it won't be here until Wednesday.  Does this whole tale sound like I'm losing my mind?  It couldn't be old age...

On the bright side, I got as far as finding a surprise of some nice light green fabrics in my stash.

Aren't they pretty?  I'm going to get busy hunting for lime greens and I hope that by next week I will be able to post photos of some new blocks for you to enjoy with me.

Hsave a good week, everyone.

I'll be seeing you at

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at

   soscrappy  and

Oh, Scrap! at 

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework