Last day of August and new projects started

 Last day of the month and tennis canceled because the courts are wet.  I wish it was because we have had so much rain but, sadly, we have had about ¼" - not enough to get the ground wet under the shrubs.  We are still experiencing smoky air because many new fires caused by lightening when a thunderstorm rolled through a few nights ago. 

So, I mucked around all morning and did some tidying, organizing and then pulled out two new projects to work  on even though I started two new tops earlier this week. 

This first one is a 3 yard quilt and using yardage was the monthly challenge for my Heartstrings group so, blocks cut, half square triangles being made and this is almost ready to stitch the blocks together. 

I decided to go through my leftovers container of Canadian themed fabrics and choose any strips that were 6" wide plus odd pieces that I could get a rectangle, that was the correct size.  

And, then, I started stitching... and pressing and more cutting.

And, my blocks are made and ready to be joined together.  An easy project and I tried to use up some fabric? 

While I was getting organized for this project, I brought all my gray fabrics out of the closet and put them on the ironing board to sort them.  I was looking for any pieces that were at least 1.5 yards or longer and I folded those a little differently and set them aside.  The rest got sorted from lights to dark and returned to their home in neat piles and easier for me to find what I might be looking for.  Funny how one project leads to another but, I found a good gray for the brick blocks. 

The yellow rainbow scrap challenge blocks got made and are now tucked away with the blocks made in the previous months.  My yellow scrap bin is actually not overflowing!

New projects that I cut and started today.  This is an autumn pumpkin table runner and I bought the kit earlier this year at a quilt show.  I wasn't too impressed with the cutting directions and the amount of fabric so had to go digging for more orange fabric that blended with what was in the kit. 

A package arrived to day from Dragonfly quilts and in it was a cute autumn quilt kit that is going to be super simple and quick to make so I cut up the strips needed to piece the squares that alternate with the panel.  Some mindless sewing. 

My intention is that September will find me quilting some tops to get a few finished including a couple of UFO's... I am lady in waiting in the UFO group that I belong to and so a finish is important to avoid being promoted to Queen!  

I did manage to get the rest of these half square triangles finished and this is now waiting to have the blocks joined together.  

This is the pattern that I used from a 3 yard quilt book. 

Off to resume my stitching and see how much I can done before the first of September.  I always celebrate on the first day of school and enjoy not having to get up early and do a 45 minute commute to and from work and endure staff meetings and all the paperwork that has to be done at the beginning of a school year.  Hard to believe I have been retired 21 years!