Friday, July 18, 2014

Whoop Whoop - RSC blocks, Primary Bee blocks and Giveaway reminder

I'm giving myself a Whoop, Whoop today! I've got 4 things to be happy about.

1. Because on Sunday someone is going to learn that she is the winner of my Classic Metal Company giveaway. There are still 2 days to enter. The giveaway closes at Midnight on Saturday.
Not only will she will her choice of a 24" x 24" barn quilt in the color of her choice...
...but she will also win her choice of a ruler holder, again in her choice of pattern and color.
That seems pretty fabulous to me. 

2. Because we are all caught up on The Primary Bee blocks.
This week we've had a few snippets of time to sew so we got to work on getting the June blocks done. Jammer started this time and got a few of the blocks sewn together before he headed off to the firehouse with Daddy.
So then Sunshine was up. She can't wait until we are done sewing each section so that she can raise the presser foot and needle and then cut them apart.
She still needs quite a bit of guidance, keeping the pieces lined up against my 1/4" foot but slowly she is getting better.
Here is her "I'm being silly" shot. She always gets into giggle fits when it comes time to take the "official" picture.
And here is the "official" picture with her holding the block straight. As you can see Lisa's daughter requested the Churn and Dash block in Blue and Purple.
The next evening, after Jammer saw Sunshine's block all finished, he wanted to get his done too. Now that I'm letting him do the fabric guiding and foot pedal work all by himself he is concentrating so hard.
We did need to use the seam ripper a little bit as a couple of his seams weren't great but once redone, the blocks came together nicely. Here is his weird smile face picture. He's at the age where all of his smiles are "deer in the headlights" types.
This smile is much better. If you look closely, he's missing his two top teeth and so far there is no sign of the new grown up ones.
Both kidlets are anxious to make their blocks for their own quilts so we will be working on those in the coming weeks. The July Bee Princess hasn't let us know yet what block and colors she wants so we can keep stitching away at the future months blocks.

3. Because a little more of those snippets of time appeared and I was able to get two more months of blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
Here are my 25 patch blocks in Purple that was the color for April. My original plan was to not use the same fabric scrap more than once in each block but for the Purple that just wasn't possible. I thought I'd have more than enough different scraps, especially after making the Guiding Young Discoveries teacher quilt in 2012, but in fact I didn't. I don't think it is really noticeable to anyone but me.
And here are the Green ones for May. I'm glad that the scrap with the slithering thing isn't really recognizable as a slithering thing. I HATE those! I can tolerate all other creatures but those. Just thinking about them gives me nightmares.
When I took the Purple ones off the design wall to put the Green ones up for the photo shoot, I noticed an Oops. Did you? Go ahead, scroll back up and see if you can see it? 

I had accidentally sewn the top two rows of the Dark Purple block on in the wrong order. Smack self on the forehead. The seam ripper got utilized again and the mistake was quickly fixed. See....now all better.
These are all my pretty rainbow blocks so far.
Next up is Yellow for June and Red for July. I've already pulled out my Yellow scraps and there isn't much variety so those blocks are going to be a stretch to complete.

4. Because today is my 1st day home by myself in weeks so there will definitely be some sewing/quilting accomplished. Snoopy dancing here. As soon as I get my shower done and some breakfast in me for fortification, I'm heading upstairs to my happy place.

Tomorrow is the annual softball tournament for the scholarship fund in honor of my nephew Danny. It will be an emotionally difficult day for sure, it always is, but it will also be a great one because we'll be raising a lot of money for the fund. 

Next year will be the 10th and final year of the softball tournament. My sister wanted to stop on the 8th year of his death (his jersey number was 8) but the school convinced her to hold the tournament until we had done 10 since that is what is typically done for scholarship funds. Two years ago my fabulous readers helped me create the two Danny quilts...Tribute to Danny (I'm finally going to be able to get better pictures of this quilt tomorrow.)
and Remembering Danny
I want to make something again for next year to again raffle off but haven't figured out what yet. These 2 quilts hold so much meaning for me and my family and I don't want to overshadow that. I'm sure I'll come up with just the right idea eventually.

Today I'm linking up with

Fort Worth Fabric Studio
Have a fabulous day and a truly glorious weekend!

6 of you added your own colorful comments:

Chiska said...

Fantastic job on the quilt blocks! Such great smiles on both kiddos. How fun to have some sewing time. We've had company this week which is fun too, but I've caught myself looking longingly at the sewing machine as I walk past my studio. All the best tommorrow.

Sarah Craig said...

I love Sunshine's "I'm being silly" smile! It's always great to see happy kids - and yours have wonderful smiles!! Great blocks, too! Keeping my fingers crossed on the barn quilt giveaway!

Lesley said...

Love seeing the kids making the blocks...they are doing so well! Your Rainbow blocks are so fresh and bright!

Snowcatcher said...

Too, too many reasons to smile, but that's especially good after reading your last item. What a wonderful way to honor someone you've loved and lost.

dcargill said...

I love your reasons to smile! What a great start to the weekend!
Thanks for your help.

Sparky said...

your wee ones are just full of smiles from those who enjoy the view and those who are inspired by you to teach them this lovely passion