Did you know this? Do you care?

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with the HST fetish! They are easy to make and reduce the amount of waste quilts produce. Did you know that textiles are among the largest items in landfills? I'm sure lots of that comes from fast fashion, but I bet quilting and cotton fabrics are right up there! 

PLUS --- these units are small and will not take up much room, so as we downsize, we can still sew lots without requiring a ton of fabric. You will always have enough fabric, and you'll never run out! I love the darn little things, and I'm excited to cut and trim them, especially now that I have a plan and am up to date on trimming. The sewing? I'm working on it, but there is absolutely no rush. 

The same goes for the hourglass blocks. Some of the half-square triangles are large. Much larger than I want to mess around with in my teeny half-square triangle quilts, so I make them into hourglass blocks, and as you saw yesterday, I can make some neat scrappy quilts from them. 

A couple more hourglass blocks

After the UFO Club in the morning, I managed to get some sewing done, and it looks amazing. I love how everything starts to come together as you near the end of a project, and it's lovely having plenty of time to make that happen. I have three projects I need to finish by this weekend, and I've got plenty of time to work on all three. 

By the way, here is something that we are all learning in the UFO Club. First, many of us are finishing projects that are decades old, and it feels good. But what is even more important is that people are learning to evaluate the worthiness of some of those projects. Why was it shelved as a UFO, and is it worth finishing? Lots of people are discovering this as we continue our journey, and I think it's a very valuable lesson. 

Today, I'm going to share something weird!! I had no clue until I started looking more closely, and Brenda actually brought it to my attention. Otherwise, I'd still be clueless! Thanks, Brenda!

Let's take a look at the green puzzle by Cobble Hill that I completed last week. 

My Cobble Hill Rainbow Collection - Green collage puzzle

Nice puzzle and loads of fun to put it together. As I've mentioned, there are SEVEN puzzles in the series, and you can check them out at this link. Puzzles Canada, by the way, is an amazing place to purchase puzzles. It is a warehouse-type store that is open to the public, and you could go mad trying to decide which puzzles to bring home. And they have them all (OK, not all), but from small to big—they have a huge variety. 

Anyway, in this Rainbow Collection series of puzzles, there are seven colors - pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I see they have a 2000-piece puzzle in the same style with all seven colors mixed in. Hmmmmmm

I had fun doing the puzzle, and since it's a series, you know me - I want to do all the colors. I assumed they were separate puzzles, and I'd do one at a time and pass them along. 

BUT Brenda included this photo in her email. Obviously, she also liked and has done all the puzzles, and look what she sent me. She had carefully kept the puzzles intact and put them together when she was done. 

Brenda's THREE collage puzzles together

It's a little hard to see, but that is the purple puzzle on the left, the pink in the middle, and the red on the right!!!! And can you believe it, but the images run into each other!!!!!

The collage puzzles blend into each other!

The word DOMINOES at the bottom is partially on the pink and mostly on the red! I didn't know that!!

I emailed Brenda back, and she sent me this picture from the back of her puzzle box—not mine, as mine is an older version (square, not rectangular). 

A REAL long rainbow collage

See how they have all seven of the puzzles lined up!! Who knew?

To make things more interesting, Northcott launched a fabric line called Northcott Color Collage several years ago. It's gone from their website, so I have no idea, but I'm guessing it was 2018 or 2019? Yes - I had seen it and wanted it, but I had nothing to make with it, so I didn't bother buying any. Maybe I bought a piece of the orange, but I'd have to check my stash. 

Anyway, I decided to investigate further and OH MY GOSH --- they simply licensed these puzzle prints and put them on fabric!!!! 

The red puzzle box

This is a picture of the red fabric!!!!

The red fabric!

Let's go back to the green puzzle. 

Green puzzle

And here is the fabric with repeats. 

The green fabric with repeats

There is no mistaking that the print and the puzzles are the same design. I'm not always a fan of how fabric repeats are designed; they try to blend them seamlessly, but sometimes it looks really fake. Not just Northcott, but all design houses. I should explore that a bit more one other day to show you. Now I have to dig out my orange, if I have it, and check the repeats. Stay tuned!!!!

Did you know that? I did not!!!!

As for progress on the current puzzle? I pulled all the red/orange pieces from the design boards and sat there until I had found a home for them all. And they are roughly placed where they belong in the puzzle. I'm going to work on the yellow pieces next. There are going to be a whole lot of brown/wood-grain pieces at the end, but I'll work my way through this. I have ten evenings in which to finish it, which I should be able to. 

Progress on the tool puzzle

And just like that, it's the start of a new week, and I'm off to spin class. It's very warm this morning, and the bit of snow we got yesterday is gone. I sure hope that is the last of the snow, as I'm tired of walking on eggshells so I don't slip. I was walking Murphy yesterday on the grass, as I knew this particular patch of sidewalk (shaded by trees) had a layer of ice under the snow. At one point, I decided to gingerly step on the sidewalk, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground! DANG!!!!! Luckily, I fell back onto the grass and suffered no damage, but a slip can be very dangerous, and I do NOT need a broken limb. That makes two falls this winter and a couple of near misses. That's too many for me! My knee was a bit sore when I first fell, but thankfully, I could get up gracefully and walk the pain out. It was fine by the time I got home. 

But sometimes, when you fall, you just want to lie there, thinking, what an idiot! I knew there was ice, but I thought I was being careful. Perhaps Murphy pulled at that same moment. Things happen so fast, you don't really have time to react. However, my second thought was to get up—I don't need anyone stopping to ask if I'm OK. 

Have a super day, and I might have to go puzzle shopping! I won't, but it's tempting! 2000 pieces of rainbow collage!!!!! 

Ciao!!!!


PS — The Canada Post tracking system says my package is "in transit" with a delivery window of 3-7 business days! I'm beyond excited!!!! It's been a long time! Let's hope it actually comes through this time.