Sew busy!

 I wish I was 'Sew' Busy rather than 'So' Busy. The beginning of the school year is always busy but this year it has been extremely busy! The District I work for is short on subs, so I'm working everyday that I'm available with few exceptions. I also babysit my grandson 2 days a week so it leaves me with little time to sew, write blog posts, or even read them. 

I did manage to sew my monthly blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The color for September is ORANGE!

Wonky Shoo Fly blocks in orange!

All the blocks so far!

Joy Luck blocks in orange!

All the Joy Luck blocks so far!

I'm linking up to ScrapHappySaturday@So Scrappy.

I also managed to do the September step for the Macaron Mystery QAL 

with Cheryl Burkley @MeadowMistDesigns.

Living in Chicagoland, I was able to take advantage of seeing the Bisa Butler exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute. If you are not aware of the work of Bisa Butler, I encourage you to look it up as she is an amazing quilt artist! The quilts on display are her portrait quilts! They tell stories of her life and of the lives of others African Americans.

Her use of colors and fabrics from Africa add to the beauty of these quilts! The details in her quilts are truly amazing!

She layers fabrics like a painter layers paint.

I also love the way she places her figures on her choice of background fabrics. 

Here are just a few of the many pictures I took as I couldn't get enough of seeing these wonderful pieces of art and the emotion they evoke. 

If you get a chance to see her work, don't hesitate! It is sew worth it!

Reopened for business

 Yay! My sewing room remake is finished at least enough to move back in and use. I still need to organize some things in the new space and buy some bins. It feels so good and I really love my new cutting table!

Most of the room is the same; just rearranged except for the new cutting table and new flooring. For years I was using a cabinet from my mom which was raised up to the correct height by resting on cinder blocks for my cutting table. It worked fine but it was a bit wobbly. The floor was carpet and most difficult to keep clean of threads, fabric trimmings, and pins. 

We started with removing the carpet and laying vinyl floor planks. To replace the cutting table I found an IKEA hack using 3 Kallax 4x4 units. We bought a butcher block plank from Home Depot. My DH and I worked to put it together. My cutting mat fits perfectly on one end of the cutting table. 

(A little proof that I used power tools to help however, my DH did most of the work)

Throughout August, I participated in the #30daysofimprovqal on IG. For my final composition, I decided to add large borders of negative space to increase the size. 

Here is the final composition.

And today, I found a bit of time to pin baste it.

The start of September means August calendar journal is complete! I have been journaling a thing or two about each of my days since the beginning of the year! 

My calendar journaling actually goes back quite a few years ~in 2013 and 2014 I made monthly calendar pages out of fabric. When my mom got sick I could no longer keep up. During the following years I would see Annie's journals and how cool and creative they were. She inspired me to pick up calendar journaling once again ~ this time using a calendar download, printed on cardstock. 

I also finished the new charity blocks for the September/October block drive for Covered in Love. 

September brings a new color ~ ORANGE 

Stay tuned for projects in orange and the next step in the Macaron Mystery QAL.