Gorgeous weather and a little Steam Punking Going On!

Spring or maybe even summer is here in NoCal.  Rain is predicted this evening.  Unusual time of year to rain but I'm sure every drop will be welcomed!  I'm just enjoying the sunshine, birds singing and roses in bloom.  I would normally have my garden in by this time, but with the sale of my condo and my impending move by June 30th, I will leave gardening to the new owners.

I will miss tasty homegrown tomatoes.  Not sure if I can successfully grow them in Reno.  I will be there this coming weekend and will go to the nursery and see what they recommend.  There are so many rabbits visiting my yard (even with the rabbit fence I put up - go figure!) I question whether there will be any tomatoes for me.  That is, if rabbits like tomatoes...maybe they only eat grass or other similar vegetation?  Hmmmm, so many things I don't know!

Speaking of Steam Punking (I have deemed the act of making Steam Punk blocks as "punking"), I got a few blocks made over the weekend.  My hands are a little tied, as I packed all but a small selection of fabric and it's in a storage unit.

Here's what I have so far:

 
I'm finding these blocks take quite awhile to come together.  Even with an assembly line approach, first cutting enough for 8 or 10 blocks (5 templates involved in this step), then piecing the 2 curved sections on each blade, then putting the 8 wedges together and squaring up the block.  

Biggest problem of all - I was trying for a more muted palette and my stash is just not cooperating!  I don't buy much in the way of neutral prints it seems.  I buy bright!  Very bright!  Neon bright!  Now I need soft neutral prints, stripes, and plaids. 

I guess I need to do a little fabric shopping...

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.  Hope you had a great Easter weekend!


 

Here and There and Everywhere

I'm truly not sure how I drifted away from blogging for such a long time.  It was no one thing.  It was a little of this:

 



That's Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk with my youngest grandson and my DIL.  It was a gorgeous spring day.  Have no idea why we are crouched over...

And a lot of this:

 











 

These are a couple of photos from my birding trip to Cuba.  The 1950s American cars are amazing!  Actually, Cuba is an amazing place to visit.  I was only there for 2 weeks, but I think that had something to do with my blogging absence.

 

 

The next excuse erh.. uh.. reason I have for not blogging, is that I came back from Cuba and then put my house on the market.  It sold right away and I have until June 30th to move.  To get the house ready for sale, I had to de-clutter and pack up and empty out.  Yea, my stash had to be packed up...I thought I kept out everything I needed to finish a few projects, but I seem to be missing some critical fabric for my Gees Bend quilt.  And I packed the Robert Kaufman Kona solids card, so I'm not sure what the name of the missing fabric is for purposes of ordering more.  I could head to the storage unit to try and find the box that has that fabric in it, but it might be a needle in the haystack process.  Ordering sounds easier!

 

I did get a couple of finishes.  I was participating in the Q1 2014 FAL and had hoped to get 4 projects finished.  I am quite pleased, under the circumstances, that I got 2 projects finished.  Here they are:

 

The first project I finished was the second in a "study" if you will.  I'm thinking a third one is needed to round out the study.  No, I don't know what I am going to do with these babies - wall hanging?  gift?  Yes, I did quilt it myself which is not at all like me!



 

 

 









My second finish is a very long standing project.  I am quite sure I made the top in 2012...  Here she is - my improvisational quilt.  It's a fun little quilt made with scraps.  I like including the central fabric from a prior quilt in little bits and pieces that show up in a later quilt.  I did quilt this piece also.  I really need to learn to be a better machine quilter if I'm going to keep this up!

Whew - I think I have caught you up on everything that has happened in the last 3 months.  Let's see if I can actually get some sewing done before I move.

Aaaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.