Design Wall Monday - February 9

Last week I think I spent more time on genealogy research than I did in my sewing room most days.  I'm trying to nail down some details to add a second Revolutionary War "patriot" to our family info for DAR.  It appears I also found at least 1 British sympathizer.  Fascinating info is available online these days.

On Friday I managed to get the 3rd star section made for Jackrabbit Stars.

This quilt is made using 4 long vertical sections with a big star and then the "trail of sparks".  My main goal this week is to get that last section done and have this project pushed to the flimsy stage.  I can tell already that I have enough of the fabrics left to make something else in the future - pillowcases or another quilt - using an easier pattern.  

It was a busy weekend, with almost no sewing time.  Saturday morning was guild, then we left to pick up 2 grandsons to take to a Jackrabbit men's basketball game.  Sunday afternoon there was a Quilt of Valor awarded. 

 We began our DIY Round Robin this month with Round 1 introduced.  The plan is to use SQUARES in some way this month.  Mine has simple 4-patches in the corners. I shared mine as an example of what they can do, but I'm anticipating some of our members will be much more creative than I was. I took 2 past SAHRR projects with me as more examples of how they can just make this their own.  

And today the plan is to enjoy an afternoon of cards with friends.  But some cutting for Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks did happen in between other things.

Going through the 2.5" square box yielded enough green ones for 2 Hollow-9 blocks.  I know that I had used up most of the 2.5" green squares when making some projects last year.  The parts for a couple of the reversed Buckeye blocks came from the green scrap bin.  Not very many larger pieces remain in that green scrap bin anymore. 

For the 12" Snail Trail blocks I needed bigger pieces.  I have a big bin full - OK, overflowing - of fat quarters that have been "hoarded" for too long.  So, I dug in to find some neutrals and some greens.  The parts for the 4 Snail Trail blocks for this month are cut and ready to go when sewing time pops up this week.  And the remains of those fat quarters will go into more RSC blocks coming up.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

 

SAHRR

Adding a new round for SAHRR can be a challenge.  Last week's prompt told us to be inspired by the animal world.  So many options came to mind and were then eliminated.

I dug through my pattern books, but came away with no real inspiration.  But a little web browsing finally gave me a plan.  A site with free paper piecing patterns provided me with a couple of options to try out.  

Half an hour was all it took to make 4 paper pieced Birds in the Air blocks for Round 3.  These will finish at just 4",  and I'll have to keep that size in mind for the next round. 

Instead of making entire rounds or just doing 1 or 2 sides, I decided this week only corners will be added to my SAHRR.  The link to the site I used is here. 

https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/free-paper-piecing-patterns.html

AND - I'm linking up today with The Darling Dogwood's Linky Party for the Round 3 additions to SAHRR.  

RSC26 - Week #6

A new color always ramps up the mojo a little at the beginning of the month.  I accidently merged the January and February colors into 1 small project as the calendar page turned.

This doll quilt is only 22" square, but it used up 9 string blocks out of the basket.  It will be donated - wrapped around this teddy bear - later in the year once it has a few more friends to go along.

The green blocks for Scrappy Stars are done.  I'm going to make all the backgrounds black prints, and this set has 4 different prints from the stash. My first instinct is always to go to the white-on-white or cream fabrics for backgrounds but I'm trying to be more adventurous.  So scrappy black it is. 

Green Honey Bees have joined the blue ones from last month. These are 12" blocks, and so adorable.  I might have to sprinkle in a few 6" ones too just for fun.  It's a Lori Holt pattern and she gives instructions for both sizes.  Her patterns are some of my favorites. 

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

I saved this UFO finish to share today, even though I finished the binding on Monday Feb. 2.

This is a 3-yard pattern from Fabric Cafe called Town Square.  It's one of my favorite 3-yard patterns for a fast quilt.  The pieces are nice and big, and those big squares are perfect for showing off a fun novelty print.  This one will go into the donation pile.  

Some small finishes happened this week too.  A doll quilt and 3 small seasonal 5-Minute table runners can all be checked off my list. The table runners were forgotten kits just lying in a drawer waiting to be found again. The 22" doll quilt was all from scraps.

Check out more Finishes (or Not) today . . .

https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/  

This and that

Wednesday was a busy day, with very little sewing time.  But I did get organized for some upcoming projects.

Our guild is going to do a DIY Round Robin.  I'm leading it, so I got the handouts all ready for the guild meeting this coming Saturday morning.  Along with the instructions, I'm taking a couple of the SAHRR (Stay At Home Round Robin) projects I've done in the past as samples. 

Two quilts were dropped off with a long arm quilter yesterday morning.   Contessa (brown) is on my UFO list.  Lupines & Laughter is a new project.  I have binding cut for the pink/purple quilt.  But I'll need to dig into the stash to see if I have a brown that will work to bind the other one.  Brown isn't a color I use much, so I'm not optimistic. 

There was a DAR meeting yesterday too.  Each month one member shares info on their "patriot" from the Revolutionary War.  February was my turn.  We also take turns bringing some treats.  I baked some cookies and brought juice too.  

And there was Jackrabbit basketball in Brooking yesterday evening.  So we were on the road late afternoon.  So much for sewing, right?

Lupines & Laugter

It's a flimsy!!!  Yay!!

I'm very excited to have the Bonnie Hunter mystery from this winter actually all assembled and ready to be quilted.  Because it is going to be a baby quilt for a nephew and his wife, I made about half the blocks.  It's 48" square. 

The other nice thing about having it to this stage, is it cleaned up a lot of work space in my sewing room.  While I was feeling disciplined, I even folded all the leftover fabrics and put them away in the stash drawers, or small pieces into the scrap bins.  The only things left in the project box is the pattern, a small handful of leftover HSTs and flying geese - and a yard of one option for binding.  

Now I can get back to work on the Jackrabbit Stars because there is room to lay parts out again.  Today I hope to get the next strip set all sewn together. 

Strings and things

One of my big priorities this month is to finish the top of a very large quilt (Jackrabbit Stars), but to do that I really need to free up more work space in my sewing space.  To that end, I'm going to focus on getting some smaller projects done first and moved out of the way.  That is because I have multiple projects laying around, as always.  Small project #1 . . .

String blocks are quite addictive to make, and I've done a few bigger quilts over the years with strings.  But this time I used them in a small project. 

It's a doll quilt and 22" square.  Now it's wrapped around a grey teddy bear, and will become a donation to the local safe house once there are "friends" to join this first one of 2026.  Last year I donated 12 little doll quilts wrapped around stuffed animals, all to the safe house.

 

The 3 little kits for 5-Minute Table Runners are also finished.  These really do only take about 5 minutes to sew, plus maybe another 5 minutes to hand stitch the buttons on.  So maybe a half hour was enough to get these done.  Possible future gifts? 

A few sparkly beads have been added to the Valentine mini.  I felt it needed something more besides my simple straight line quilting.  Red heart shaped beads are in those bottom corners.  Clear sparkly little beads are scattered around in the dark red sections.  It's just enough I think.