Color Challenge #16 - Kelly Green

Kelly green fabrics from my stash - quite a few, more than I thought I had!

This is the final Color Challenge week - given by Victoria at 15 Minutes Play.

Besides kelly greens, I added some bright pink and orange, bugs, sky blue, and a cute little dog!

After assembling the block, I square it up with my 12-1/2" ruler. One block a week, for 16 weeks - slow and steady, a great way to make enough for a quilt! Especially if the blocks are 12" finished size.

The Sweet Sixteen Blocks!

Color Challenge #15 - Lime Green!

My favorite color! (just ask my family...) As a result, I had plenty of lime scraps - didn't have to cut any strips from my stash, nor did I have to purchase any fabric for this challenge.

Perfect evening: 15 Minutes lime green scrap play + Big Bang ( + white wine - out of picture!) = happy me!

Lime green "made" fabric - who could pick a favorite from these lovelies? Certainly not I! I love them all!

Lime block - love the aqua/lime print for the "X", don't you? I've shown the block on one of my favorite sewing tools - my rolly chair! I sew some seams, roll over to press, then roll back for more sewing. Better watch out when I'm "on a roll"!

Lime green block - last color challenge coming up this week!

Halls of Ivy

Today is the beginning of a BIG ADVENTURE! My daughter, Emily, and her boyfriend, Matt, took off for Boston! Cambridge, to be precise. They have both quit their jobs, left Chicago, and will be starting business school -

- Emily at Boston University -

- and Matt at Harvard.

Good luck, kids - you'll do great!

Casey speaks out!

This lovely young woman is Casey - she used to be my piano student, and before that, she grew up in my home day care for a few years. So even though she's not my daughter, she is very special to me - like one of my own.

Casey is working for the Peace Corps in Paraguay. She has always been a smart girl, but her intellect and understanding have grown and developed so much during her current experience. Go here to read her current blog post - all I can say is, it's brilliant! (I'm so proud of her, can you tell?)

Garden Walk July 4th - Part Two - a little late!

I have matching flower pots on either side of the front sidewalk, just before you step up onto my front porch. This year's combination of colors, heights, and textures is a success, I think!

Front window box - love these happy colors!

Sort of a patriotic color scheme - red, blue - and green! So ok, the red is actually orange - but it works, no?

Color Challenge #13 Aqua & #14 Maroon

Two more color challenges finished -here is #13 Aqua! I love this block! Aqua is an old favorite color of mine - I had several cute aqua fabrics, including that fun daisy print (don't know the maker, but I found it at JoAnn). Add a pinch of lime green, some deeper green and blue - ta da!

Color Challenge #14, Maroon - and also a closeup of our new garden gate! This block was the most difficult yet. Maroon is NOT a favorite of mine, I am not drawn to it in the quilt store at all. I found exactly one piece in my stash, the batik print with red, pink, and lavender on a maroon ground. I mixed in a red print, some pink, lavender, aqua, and yellowy gold. And now I really like this block!

Color Challenge #10 Grape, #11 Bubble Gum Pink, #12 Mint Green

Three more color challenge blocks - inspired by Victoria's challenge over at 15 Minutes Play.

#10 - Grape! This one was easy and fun for me. I love all purples, and have a good assortment. Good mixers with grape were lime green and aqua.

Challenge #11 - Bubble Gum Pink! This one was also fairly easy, as I did a large (bed size) pink quilt fairly recently, so I had tons of pink scraps. I added some orange, and that was about it.

#12 - Mint Green. This one was a toughie! I did own some mint fabric (quite a bit, actually) that was OLD. The reason it was old? Because it is not my favorite, I guess. I added some orange, pink, and lime green. Three more finished!

NEW'BEE Fun 9-Patches for Cathy

This month is the last in my online bee block exchange over at 15 Minutes Play. Cathy has requested a wonky 9-patch. Here's how to make it:

Create "made" fabric in any color of your choice, approx. 10" square. I used lime greens. Cut a 9-1/2" square; set aside.

Create "made" fabric of neutrals - whites, off-whites, beiges - same as above, approx. 10" square. Cut a 9-1/2" square. Layer the two squares, one on top of the other, both right sides up. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Cut through both layers, twice up and down, and twice across, creating 9 sections. Separate the pieces, so you end up with two blocks, a positive and a negative.

The seams won't match, but that is not important. Assemble the blocks; press.

Ta-da! Two finished blocks! I hope Cathy likes them!

New Fence Day!

Big day in the Hudson house - actually, this is the day before. We decided to fence in our backyard.

We have had a tall hedge of Siberian elms all along the alley, which you see below (that is our neighbor's garage, and our yard in the foreground). We hired a tree guy to remove the hedge - hence, the row of nice mulch, and tree stumps. This is in preparation for our NEW FENCE!

Before -

After!

The doggies loved it!

Garden Walk July 4th - Hydrangea Tour

I LOVE this hydrangea! I had read about this hybrid, called Incrediball - so-called, because of the HUGE blossoms, plus the stems are extra strong, to support the flowers. I found this at the local Home Depot, on clearance, last fall. I had to create a spot for it, on the spot - and loves it there. How about that?

Don't know the name of this one - I call it Cone-Shaped Hydrangea. We bought it at an awesome garden store in Chicago last fall. Remember the praying mantis that piggy-backed its way into our car? It was on this plant!

Hot pink hydrangea!

Last - but NOT least - our "crown jewel" - Oak Leaf Hydrangea. It is gorgeous! When it first bloomed, now, and into the fall. Hope you enjoyed my little tour!

Color Challenge #8 Rust & #9 Tomato Red

Rust - never has been a favorite color of mine - it harkens back to the dreaded "earth tones" that were all the rage when we registered for our wedding gifts. I ended up using some hand-dyeds, a splashy Alexander Henry print, some batiks, and a Liberty paisley - which made a great "X" for this block.

Rust block.

I don't collect reds, as a rule - I'm just not as drawn to reds as I am to pinks or magentas, for example. I would have never mixed tomato red with hot pink or maroon - but -

I like how this one turned out!

Color Challenge #6 Orange, & #7, Dusty Blue

This is another delicious block - I call this one Orange Jell-O - my aunt Phyllis's recipe, orange jello with orange sherbet and mandarin oranges.

I love sewing with orange lately - it seems to mix well with many other colors/patterns. Here I've added yellow, and lime green to a mostly orange composition.

Dusty Blue - definitely not my favorite color, although I had lots to chose from in the deep stash (i.e., fabric from the 80s!). I am not a huge fan of blue, and dusty blue, I like even less. But add a little navy, aqua, lime green, and red - and this is one of my favorite blocks so far. Go figure!

Thank a Vet Today!

Although this cartoon was created for Veteran's Day - the message holds true today. My dad was a veteran - served in the Navy during WWII, and was even present at Pearl Harbor. My father-in-law served in the Army in Panama; both of my brothers served in the Navy during the Vietnam War; my brother-in-law was in the Reserves, and my husband served in the Army during Vietnam. Scott was a singer with the U.S.Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus. He traveled the U.S., performing mostly in schools. You can hear them, here. I am so proud of my family's military service - and of my country. Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Color Challenge #4 & 5 - Peach and Bright Yellow

I have always loved the color peach, and I had a nice selection in my stash. One of my favorite fabrics right now is the dotty print, which ranges from peach through yellows, into green - with splashes of hot pink. The fabric provided a starting point for my scheme. Here is one piece of my made fabric. From the made fabric, I cut triangle sections using a paper template and rotary cutter and ruler.

Finished peach block - I love how it turned out! The pink/gold print, used for the "X", is also a favorite. This block reminds me of the actual colors of a peach - not just peach, but the goldy-yellow tones, and the hot pink/magenta inside. Yum!

Bright yellow proved to be a very fun - and also delicious - challenge! For this block, I assembled all of my various yellows, plus a couple pops of pink and lime green. I used a pale lime for the "X".

Finished block - I call it Lemon Meringue Pie - sweet and tart!

Color Challenge #3 - Avocado

Time to catch up on my color challenge posting - and on posting in general!

Our home laptop is a little old, and a little slow, and - well - that's about my only excuses. So here we go:

To review - Victoria, over at 15 Minutes Play, has been issuing a weekly color challenge. We assemble scraps of the assigned color, plus other colors to match and/or contrast . It has been interesting to see how different colors work together (play together?), which I would not have usually chosen to "match". I had lots of green prints - from my deep stash - including this spashy Alexander Henry print, which is gorgeous! I ended up adding hot pinks, oranges, and golds with the avocado.

I used a red batik for the "X" of the block.

First three finished color challenge blocks: mauve, ochre, and avocado.

Stay tuned for more colors!

Not a typical week - but a great week!

Paris Opera Ballet at Millenium Park.

We love going to concerts and plays! We don't do it very often, but in the past week or so - we've seen three great performances! We saw the musical play, "The Light in the Piazza", at Theo Ubique in Chicago. A dear friend recommended it - and we are so glad we went! It was outstanding!

Featured in a supporting role is Justin Adair, who was a high school classmate of our daughter, Emily. Justin sang like an angel back then, and now - oh my goodness, he is amazing! A lovely, strong, rich lyric baritone voice, with the sweetest high notes, too - and a great actor, too - Justin just received the Jeff Award (the Chicago version of the Tony Awards) for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical. If you go here, you can hear him singing a selection from the show.

We also were able to attend not one but two performances at Chicago's wonderful Millenium Park. Don't you love the Pritzker Pavillion, designed by Frank Gehry?

We attended opening night of the Grant Park Symphony, and also a very special performance by the...Paris Ballet! They were performing live, in the Harris Theater (located behind the pavillion), and it was projected onto a HUGE, state-of-the-art screen, on the stage. We sat on the grass, had a picnic, and enjoyed the Paris Ballet. What a night!

Meeting the Boyfriend

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a special dinner at home - to get to know "the boyfriend" - and as we expected, all went well, and we think he is great!

We had a casual dinner at home, out on the breezeway, then drove over to Naperville to have drinks and dessert at Potter's Place - where we know an EXCELLENT waitress! (Hannah)

Our honorary daughter, Genevieve (darling girl, we love her!), and her special bf, Nick.

Nick obviously has good taste, to be dating Gen - we think Gen is tops! It has been 7 years this month, since Gen became a very special part of the Hudson family. And we couldn't be happier about it!

Waitress extraordinaire, Hannah Hudson - in action! She went from new waitress to seasoned/excellent waitress, almost overnight. Her first day was Cinco de Mayo (it's a Mexican restaurant), very busy - and about her second day was Mother's Day, also very busy - and oh yeah, their internet connection wasn't working, so they couldn't run credit card orders through, cash only. She weathered it well! (I'm proud, can you tell?)

It was a great evening! You've got nothing to worry about, Nick - we think you're great!