Design Wall Monday - May 4

I have very little to share today in terms of progress or plans.  HMMM . . .

I'm about halfway around a Quilt of Valor with the binding.  A striped binding always makes me smile.  So does that quilting design on this one, done by our state QOV coordinator for us.  

I'm still working on that mystery quilt pattern test, but plan to be all done with the quilt top by the end of this week.  This morning I hope to have the pieces for week 6 all cut out, and begin sewing.  Week 6 appears to be a mirror image of the week 5 blocks - which by the way, required some assistance from my seam ripper. I had some problems with diagonals.  Wish I could show how this is coming together, but it's a mystery.  

Once the pattern test is done, then I'll work on a small project - the May mini in The Year of Spools series.  Once that is done, we'll have just one more.  This is one of the cuter kits, but has a LOT of little corners that will need trimming.

My afternoon plans involve playing cards with some girl friends.   

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

RSC26 - Week #18

These orange flying geese blocks happened because of the pattern I'm testing for a local designer.  I wanted to try out the technique with my own fabric before cutting and sewing them in the designer's fabric.  So, orange is what I chose to experiment with for the geese.  I'm sure these will get used in something before long. 

The only orange RSC blocks I got around to so far are 5 of the reversed Buckeye blocks.  But I know next week I'll be diving into that orange scrap bin and having some fun. 

I looked through the closet to see if there were any flimsies hanging in there that had a lot of orange.  Turns out - yes!!  That was not a surprise.  This is a small quilt from 2024 called Summer Getaway.  It was a Sew Sampler box project, mostly navy blue and orange.  So, I'll see if I can find a good backing, and get this UFO across the finish line this month. 

There is a doll quilt with lots of a coral/orange too, so maybe that can be another May finish.

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Road trip and more

I'm working on week 4 of the mystery pattern test. Steady progress, with just a few questions for the designer to clarify a step or two.  Nothing I can show however.  

Tuesday evening we made a short road trip to Sioux Falls for granddaughter Olivia's spring orchestra concert.  She plays the viola in the 6th grade orchestra at her middle school. I'm glad we're only an hour away.   

The difference from the fall concert to the spring concert is quite amazing as their skills grow dramatically.  In her case, this is her 3rd year playing the viola.  The music was really good, and I'm so glad we were able to be there. 

Over the weekend, I finished up a third set of the Sew Vintage star blocks to add to the collection (top 3) for the pizza box challenge.  I had the pieces already cut from the RWB scraps I had been trying to organize.  So it made sense to get those blocks sewn.  The bottom 3 blocks are "test" blocks I've been playing with as possible QOV group blocks. Actually that bottom left block is the paper pieced one I did, and I know most of our ladies have no interest in doing any paper piecing, but it's still going into the box.  It will be fine in a sampler.  The other 2 blocks on the bottom definitely show me how important good contrast is.   

Wednesday progress

Today's post is more for my own accountability and not terribly interesting otherwise.  I had set 4 goals for this week.  Yesterday I gave you a peek at the progress on Goal #1 (guild round robin), but there is no additional progress to report.  

Goal #2 was to finish tracing the parts for Beach Bums, a UFO wall hanging project.  The tracing is done.  Yay!!  I took me almost 3 yards of Heat and Bond (light) to get all of the parts traced for this applique project.  So many tiny little pieces!! 

Goal #3 was continued progress on the mystery quilt pattern test.  I've finished all the blocks for the first 3 clues, with 4 more to go before I can assemble blocks into a flimsy.  Today's task will be to cut clue 4 and sew those blocks.  Can't show you anything yet however.

Goal #4 was to work on various blocks as Leaders/Enders while I sew on that pattern test. I had one design board covered with parts cut for various Quilt of Valor blocks.  From those parts, while sewing test blocks, I also made 2 blocks for the Gleam QOV.  

A second design board held parts for new RSC blocks and 1 new Sewcialites block.  The little 6" strawberry block that was last week's Sewcialites pattern is just too cute.  Pat Sloan designed the strawberry, and even though I'm not keeping up with the Sewcialites this year I am saving the patterns.  And I've played with a couple of them just because.  I think this will become a strawberry mug rug.  Lots of parts for the reversed Buckeye blocks are ready, in both orange (May color) and blue (past color). 

Tuesday catch up

Monday felt like a catch up day around here. I was co-hosting the monthly pinochle group in the evening, so I spent a little extra tidy-up time and not as much sewing time.  The other co-host brought ALL the food and drink, so I had the easy part.  LOL

I to share the 2 pillowcases that I finished on Saturday.  This print with the animals and flowers was too cute to keep hiding away.  Pillowcases are a quick way to add yardage USED to my spreadsheet, so I should kit up a few more from the project box marked "pillowcase" kits.  LOL

All of the pieces for Week 3 of the pattern testing are cut, so I'm hoping this morning to get these 4 blocks made.  These will be mirror images of the blocks for Week 2.

One of my tasks for this week has been to work on the next clue for our guild DIY Round Robin.  It needs to be ready to share on Saturday morning at our May meeting. Clue 4 involves using some leftover double-ended Dresden blades, but I can't show you exactly how I'm using them until next week - after the clue is shared with participants.

I've been cleaning up some of my smaller collections of scraps.  April for RSC was pink, and my pink bin also contained orange.  So I sorted those orange scraps into a shoebox size bin with a lid.  I did the same by sorting brown and grey OUT of the black bin.  And pulled the purple and aqua scraps out of the blue bin.  Each of these little shoebox containers has a label, and they'll stack nicely in the closet or on a shelf.  The funny things is orange was announced for the May color, and here are those scraps all ready to play with.
 

There is also a little shoebox bin for Red, White, Blue - but not to hold scraps.  There are too many for that size bin.  Instead, I'm using it to put in various random "units" I've made or parts I've cut such as HSTs, or 4-patches.  I often do those units as Leaders/Enders when I'm making QOV blocks because they tend to be the leftovers of those blocks.  While sorting out some of those over the weekend, I organized the parts for some additional QOV blocks.  These will also be Leaders/Enders this week as I'm sewing on the pattern test.  There are parts on this design board for a couple of Gleam blocks, more Echo blocks, and along the top are parts for more small 4-Patch Fun blocks.

Design Wall Monday - April 27

Wow - it's Monday again already!!  Yesterday we got up early and went to a swim meet to watch one of the granddaughters swim.  Spending time with family is better than sewing, right?  I wasn't at my computer much over the weekend either, so I have lots of blog reading to catch up on.  And comments too!! 

My list of projects for the week is shorter than usual, but includes 2 HIGH PRIORITY projects.

1.  HIGHEST PRIORITY - finish my DIY Round Robin clue for Saturday's guild meeting

2.  finish tracing the parts for Beach Bum

3.  High Priority - work on the pattern test project for an upcoming shop hop

4.  make a few random blocks in red/white/blue or the new RSC color orange

The pattern test is for a mystery quilt for a summer shop hop across both North and South Dakota.  A local designer here in town is having me do a pattern test, and I'm very excited.  I've worked through the Weeks #1 and 2 instructions but can't show you the blocks since it's a mystery.  She even let me choose the fabrics I wanted to use.  I can show you the colors I chose - 3 shades of purple and 2 accent colors are all batiks, and the background is a Grunge that is a pale cream.  Each shop will put together their own kits for participants, and it has been interesting in the past to see how different the fabric pulls are across so many shops. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC26 - Week #17

I played with pink again this week, but also mixed in some other colors - but all were done using scraps.  That is a win in my book.  

So far only 5 new Vintage Spools blocks were added. More might be made next week, depending on my scrap "clean out" progress. 

A couple more pink Buckeye Reversed blocks happened this week.  That makes 6 pink blocks in this set so far.  Four more blocks in other colors happened too.

I couldn't resist laying out what I have so far, to play with possible layout ideas.  However, I'll need lots more blocks in lots more colors since they are only 8" finished.  Luckily there is a shoebox size bin full of leftover charm squares to play with.  

A few more string blocks were made as I sorted scraps this week, but not in pink.  I still need a couple more light blue/neutral ones to finish the light blue star in the String Stars project I've been working on.  And I also did a couple string blocks with yellow because I want to see how a yellow star will look in the next location in that project.

On a side note - I did some decluttering from my sewing room the past 2 weeks.  This is all of the STUFF that I took to the rummage sale location on Friday morning.  Over 150 separate items: books, patterns, kits, notions, yardage, 5 quilt tops, and 5 bags of leftovers/scraps/selvages.  I feel so much lighter!

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/