Welcome to Melva Loves Scraps! Welcome to July! Where, typically, one would see Red/White/Blue... But this month in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, the color is purple! A color for royalty... and royalty wear crowns... SO... naturally, I have pulled out my collection of purple Crown Royal bags (with a few other "flavors" sprinkled in). LOL.
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| Purple Scrab Bin |
I'm getting a little ahead of myself. First, I gathered my purple scraps and made my Korner Kabin blocks. The foundation Korner of these blocks are a tropical print... that came from Hawaii 21 years ago. These purple blocks are 100% cotton and were used more often than the other 21-yo blocks that are rayon. Only 8 whole blocks remain, with a few partial pieces. I will be returning to these last remaining blocks before the end of the month.
I also pulled fabric for my RSC hexagon project... I'll share that later.
When the Korner Kabins were done, it was then that I pulled out the Crown Royal bag collection... as well as some yellow/gold scraps to accompany them.
The process of preparing them for use in a quilt was tedious. The overlock stitching needed to be removed because of its synthetic nature and because the thread would easily melt with the heat of an iron... even a low heat.
The bags were of varying sizes, so I first needed to determine what size square I could get from most of the bags... turns out, it was 4-1/2 inches. A few of the smallest bags needed some coping strips added to them, but all in all, I ended up with 39 uniform blocks. That was when I finally decided on the choice of block to make - a sort of Irish Chain- I only needed 35 CR squares.
I used pieces from the backs and sides of the bags for the 4-patch units (as well as for the feature blocks if they were too small) and had no need to supplement or need to match that purple fabric.
By the end of the day on Thursday, I had 4/7 rows together... and had thought that I would get the remaining 3 rows complete on the 4th.
Dave decided to take the day off from the shop. We simply can't stay around the house and relax because we both end up doing something for "work". We enjoyed the water parade in town in the morning. After lunch we took a drive to the mountains to investigate a few camping spots in the National Forest.
Two lakes that we visited have been shut down for 3 years. Straightline winds took down thousands of trees and crews have been working on logging the downed pine trees and cleaning up the aspen trees so that the camping areas can be used again. It looks pretty sad, and we decided that we will wait a few years before going camping in those two campgrounds, giving nature time to recover and cover over the scars and stumps left behind.
It happened to be 20 degrees cooler at 10,000 feet and we both enjoyed the ride. It was 90 degrees when we returned home at 4:30 pm.
As we drove, we listened to Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights. While there is some foul language that I don't care for, we found his stories interesting and entertaining. We are only 2-hours in... with 4-1/2 hours remaining. We'll continue listening when we get away for camping in a week.
The Crown Royal top was completed on Saturday as thunderstorms were building... offering hope that the temperatures would drop drastically... like 15 degrees! (Yes, we are still being crazily stubborn in refusing to put in the AC units.) As I snapped a few quick photos I told Dave I was ready to begin happy hour. Dave refused to join me as he headed for his shop, so I settled for a homemade popsicle instead of a glass of wine.
In other "news"... I still have a few openings for the Christmas in July blog hop that will begin July 24th.
Join now! Time is short, but that doesn't need to scare you! Think small project... an ornament, table runner or small wall hanging is all you need. It doesn't even need to be quilted... Ok, I'll stop. I don't want to start sounding like I'm begging you to be a participant. ;)
I gave you a few ideas of what to make... here are a few ideas of what to share...
Tell a story about a Christmas memory or family tradition...
Did your family do Christmas stockings? Who did the food preparation? Did you always gather at one family member's house? Did you have a Christmas Eve tradition? What's your favorite Christmas movie?
Share a special holiday recipe... Is it a pie? Maybe a cake? Or cookies? What's your favorite side dish?
Offer a tutorial for your project...
Hopefully, one of these sparked a memory and have your creative juices flowing. Here's another Christmas in July story from me in 2018 that may entertain and inspire you... enjoy! Send me an email or leave me a comment if you want to join the hop! "Let's go to the hop... Let's go to the hop" =D
Who's ready to start the party? 🎉 This week's feature is Cheree at Lively Latte and showed us what she's been doing for the past six weeks - gardening, golfing, and this SQUIRREL that she named Winter Stars. I think it is just the sweetest quilt that finished at 76 inches square. Cheree used up some Half-Square Triangles that she had hanging around. She said she's not a super fan of it, but I am!
Be sure to head over to Cheree's to see the other finish that she shared.
That's a wrap for the week!
Before you go...
Tell me what the weather's been like around you?
Hot? Humid? Dry? Thunderstorms?
What is your favorite season?
Keep Piecing,
Melva
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