It's A Start

Yesterday I started on two projects for the new year. First, I'm participating in Tiny Tuesday Sampler. A new block will be released each Tuesday. I notice that some folks are going with the color of the month for these. Mine are going to be random scraps from my stash, and so my first block looks like this:

And that didn't take very long.

So next, I got to work making two blocks for the quilt selected as my first Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt for 2019. You might recall that I selected this Charm Stars pattern

from this book:

The first block took far longer to make than anticipated. I had to do some math, and as you well know, I'm much too old for math. Anyway...after a lot of fussing around, I finished the first block.

It took a long time because the instructions in the book had me making the half square triangles differently than I'm accustomed to making them. I ended up making them my own way, which means they finish a little smaller than the ones in the book. That means my blocks finish a little smaller too. It doesn't matter since they'll all be made consistently. It'll give me something to think about when I make the pieced border, however. I have some ideas about this, and so I'll write myself some notes this morning before it flies right out of my feeble mind.

The second block went much faster.

So, those are the two January blocks for Charm Stars.

After that I turned my attention to my second Rainbow Scrap project. I'm determined to make a dent in my scraps this year, and so I have several scrap projects in the planning stages. I didn't get much farther than selecting some reds, blacks, and whites for this quilt, but I'll get started on the blocks today. I misspoke when I mentioned this quilt last time around, saying I'd need six in each color. Actually, I'll only need four in each color. Also, I'm adding one vertical row so that my quilt will contain 48 blocks. This is the picture of Pinwheel Pizzazz...

A project that can be found in this book:

In my fabric selection ruminations, I looked for a black and white floral for the top and bottom panels. The only one I had wasn't big enough, but that worked out okay because in my wanderings, I found this one:

Somewhere in our travels, I fell in love with this piece from Benartex called Paint Wells. It might be too busy to put right next to the pieced blocks, but I can put a 2-inch black stop border between the blocks and the panels, and that should work out just fine. Also, I'll call my quilt Paintbox Pizzazz. I'll get started on those blocks today. They shouldn't take too long.

Snow fell in great fat flakes for about an hour yesterday morning. It was 37°F and so not nearly cold enough to stick. Nevertheless, it fell in great enough quantity to produce a slushy accumulation that lasted for a little while.

With that going on, it was a perfect day to turn the turkey carcass into stock. I made mine by adding some celery, parsnips, onions, carrots, peppercorns, thyme, parsley and a bay leaf to the turkey carcass, then covered the whole thing with water. After that, it simmered for 2 1/2 hours.

My stockpot has a colander insert and so when time was up, I simply removed the insert from the pot, and then boiled the stock for another hour to reduce it by one-third. When it was cool, I put it into the refrigerator. It's been sitting overnight, and so this morning, I'll skim off whatever fat has congealed on top and then pour the remainder into freezer containers. Having quarts of homemade stock in the freezer is one of the true joys of my life. Yes, it's terrible to get old, but not getting old is even worse.

I don't want to finish up for the day without mentioning the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project going on over at Carole's From My Carolina Home blog. Latest damage reports on Hurricanes Florence and Michael put the estimate at 4500 homes totally destroyed and more than 700,000 homes damaged mainly by flooding.

The request is for quilt blocks, flimsies, or completed quilts. Bed sized quilts are requested, but with so many in need, finished lap-sized quilts are welcome too. You can find all the particulars at Carole's blog right here. There are separate addresses for finished and unfinished quilts and quilt blocks, so read carefully to find the right spot if you wish to donate something. Also, there are multiple drop-off places in North Carolina if you happen to live in the local area.

As for me, I'll get back to finishing off the turkey stock and then get going on my Paintbox Pizzazz. It's going to be a quiet day at home with the kitties, and I'm looking forward to it.