Waiting on Zeta

 Of course it was bound to happen.  Six times this hurricane season, storms have threatened the New Orleans area, only to change course and go elsewhere.  The seventh time is our lucky time! 😝

Hurricane Zeta, now a Category 2 storm, is approaching the coast of Louisiana and will be affecting the New Orleans area by dinner time.  The main threat expected here is 70 - 90 mph winds.  Good news:  the storm is moving quickly, so it should be gone before midnight.

We have made all our preparations and are now in waiting mode.  We've been through hurricanes many times before, so we know what to do and what to expect.  We'll probably lose power, so I may be offline for awhile.

In the meantime, I'm trying to stay focused on some stitching projects.  

I started a practice block from Poppy's Polka Dot Garden.  I'm still an appliqué novice, and I've never attempted a block this small (9 inches finished).  I wanted to see how difficult the appliqué stitching would be with pieces this size.

I decided to try using the back-basting appliqué technique for the practice block.  It turned out to be pretty easy, although I need to be careful not to distort the background fabric too much.  I did try a freezer paper and starch prep for one of the green flower buds, and that worked pretty well, too.  Since this was just for practice, I probably won't finish it, but will start again once I figure out what fabric(s) I want to use for the background.

The background fabric in the practice block goes perfectly with the quilt name!  It's a Thimbleberries fabric from many years ago called "A Gardener's Touch".  I have at least a yard of the fabric, so I may use it for a couple of blocks - if I can find another background fabric that compliments it.

In cleaning out and organizing drawers and bins last week, I came across these sunflower blocks and sunflower fabric.  

The appliqué blocks were practice blocks (I like to practice!) from when I made my New Orleans Sunflowers quilt.

The sunflower fabric was purchased years ago just because I love sunflowers.

This morning it occurred to me I could combine the two of them into a project.  Maybe a table runner? 

As luck would have it (better than lucky hurricane number seven), I had enough of the appliqué sunflower fabrics left to make a third block.  I prepped another sunflower and it's just waiting for some hand stitching.

So that's what I'll be doing while waiting for Zeta!

Scraps and Hurricanes

 

OK, I've weathered a lifetime of hurricanes, but I've never seen TWO storms in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time!  

As my friend Karen (@kareylou on IG) said: "Who had double hurricanes on their 2020 bingo card?!"

We are making the usual preparations, but the storm situation is very fluid.  I don't think we will have an accurate forecast for the storm tracks until Sunday evening or Monday morning.  The waiting is the hardest part!

In the meantime, fabric therapy helps.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August is purple, so I found some purple prints and stitched up some 25 Patch Stars.

From a distance, this print looks more like pea soup, but it's definitely got some purple!

Since I didn't start the 25 Patch Stars until the middle of the year, I decided to work backwards and pick up some of the previous RSC colors.  

I also pulled out an RSC project from 2019 - Ring of Stars.  When I finished all the rainbow scrappy blocks, I wasn't sure if I should add the border as given in the pattern, so I put the flimsy away to marinate.  

I brought out the quilt top this week and after laying it out on my bed, decided the border was definitely needed.

The border is made of partial block sections.  I finished up the sections yesterday morning; now I just need cornerstones for the four corners of the quilt.  Solid fabric squares would work, but maybe mini stars would look good, too.  More fabric therapy!