Construction Zone

I've been busy this morning, putting sections together for my elephant/bowtie quilt. This has been a really fun project so far. The white snowball shapes that are emerging give this the look of giant polk dots. Love it!!

I made my red elephant, but still have to finish the aqua elephant. And I have some of the bowties left to finish of course.

But since summer seems to have arrived in South Dakotat in March - and the grass is green - and the wind is not blowing . . . I'm going golfing this afternoon with my husband. Who knows - winter could be back by next weekend.

Planning ahead

Shouldn't count my chickens - right? But I am planning ahead to an evening that includes some sewing time, finally.

I've been playing with paper and pencil, trying to figure out a good plan for the charm square bowties and elephant blocks.

Now I have a plan to work with.

I need 2 more elephant blocks - a red one and an aqua one. That way I have 8 elephants in the same 8 color schemes as the bowties. I have the aqua fabric laid out for that one, but need to find a red print with a medium sized pattern for the last elephant.

But tonight I plan to sew more bowtie blocks and maybe even start putting some of the sections together.

Changing seasons

As quilters we get to enjoy the fruits of our labors even when we haven't had time to do any new sewing. And I definitely have not had time to sew in over a week now.

This little bunny quilt is a square table topper that I made a couple of years ago. The bunny is a soft fuzzy applique. It brings a smile to my face each time I bring it out to use for Easter. I feel this way about many of my season quilts, but this one is a favorite.

More ditty bags

Two more ditty bags made this weekend. I plan to keep the golf themed one for myself, and may give the other away as a gift. And I still have the fabric set out to make two more.

The only other sewing type of activity I accomplished today was to finish cutting all of the pieces for the remaining bowtie blocks that will go together with the elephant blocks. Now I just need to find some time to get them sewn.

Ditty bags

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a little peak at the fabrics I used for these 2 little ditty bags. Now I can show you the finished products because the one I gave as a birthday gift has been delivered.

What is a ditty bag? Good question - I'm sure this one could have many uses. These are about 6 inches square, with 2 pockets inside, and a drawstring to close them up. I have more in the works, and mine is going to be used to carry some of my big "chunky" necklaces when I travel. It is also just the right size to carry some hand sewing tools such as a needle case and spools of thread. It will even hold my 6.5" square up ruler and small rotary cutter. It will hold my cell phone and the little wallet that holds my credit cards, driver's license, and a little cash. It will hold a small diaper and travel pack of baby wipes. See - the list is endless.

Travel sized tool kit

I bought myself a small travel sized cutting mat that would fit in my little project bag. While I'm spending a little time with my daughter and new granddaughter I can't do any sewing. But I can finish cutting all of those bowtie blocks and get them ready to sew.

And I'm also doing a little hand work on some hexies, and a binding. Those will be nice quiet things to work on while the new mom is napping.

Elephant update

Here are the 6 elephant blocks that are going into the quilt along with the rainbow colored bowties. Pink, yellow, purple, blue, orange, and green. I just love these guys and can't wait to start putting the quilt top together!

But I still have about 60 bowties to make.

Stash busting

OK - I may be exaggerating just a little. I didn't put a big dent in my stash. But I did use up 4 fat quarters today on this little project. And these were "orphan" fat quarters that had no plan when I bought them. I just liked them because they were pretty. One of my weaknesses. So now there are 4 fewer in my closet.

This is just a quick peak at them until I put the finishing touches on the projects. Then I will show you what I made.

Welcome to the world

Welcome to our new granddaughter, Sophia. She was born late yesterday and I got to see her a couple of hours later. Can't wait to go back to visit again today!

Another layout idea

HMMM - how about mixing up 2 sets of WIP blocks and make an even bigger quilt?

I had this crazy idea that maybe I could put those elephant blocks in with the bowties to make a more colorful (and bigger) quilt.

So I ran down to my sewing room to get a couple of the elephant blocks. I did a little figuring, and tried a couple of options. This could work. Now I am really excited to make a couple more elephants and finish the bowties so I can finish this layout.

Sammy seemed to think some blocks are not in the right spot and just had to do a little rearranging.

Rainbow layout

Late Sunday afternoon I got impatient and began to play with the bowtie blocks that I've been working on. I still have half of them to do yet, but I just had to play with some layouts.

The first one is my favorite so far - with the colors grouped together in fluid shapes. This keeps the whole rainbow idea.

Then I tried out a scrappy look. If I went with this option I could start putting them together without waiting to finish the rest. Oh-oh, that could lead to this becoming another UFO.

But it gives me some food for thought.

Half way - give or take a few

Since I had limited time to sew today I forced myself to work on some existing project instead of following the temptation to cut into something new.

I have been plugging away on these little bowtie blocks for months now without making much progress. I would get bored and just set them aside.

They are all being cut from the charm squares I received when I participated in a "rainbow" charm pack swap. There were 112 unique charm squares in 8 different color families. I've added a few additional ones since then to try to even it out to 120.

Anyway - today I got 25 bowties put together. The total is 51 completed bowties. I have the parts all cut and ready for 8 more and maybe I'll find a little time this evening to finish those. And that leaves the much smaller pile to still work on. It does feel good to make a dent in that seemingly endless stack of charms.

Substitution

I have decided to make a substitution in my Fat Quarter Stars blocks. One of the early blocks was done using templates and my block just didn't turn out the right size.

After one more unsuccessful attempt (which didn't lay flat), I decided to make a substitution.

This block was called Ribbon Star and was from another star block series I've been watching online. I had printed out the instructions and it seemed to fit in nicely with my other blocks. I am much happier now.

Next step will be to play with layout ideas. Moose on the Porch has posted her layout and it includes framing each block with a narrow border of background and then a second narrow border of color. Then she added sashing and wide borders. I'm thinking some variation of that will be my final decision.

Stay tuned

I am away from my sewing room for a couple of days. A little work related road trip started yesterday with airline delays. I would rather be sewing. But I will return before the end of the week, I promise.

Fat Quarter Stars Block #12

This week brought the 12th and final Fat Quarter Stars block. This one is called Faceted Friendship Star.

I have the block done in the Terrain fabrics (plus the purple dot), but still need to make it in my Ellie II fabrics.

The fun thing about doing 2 sets of blocks is that once I'm done with the blocks, then I'm all ready to put together 2 quilts. And it usually doesn't take much more time to do 2 blocks at a time rather than just 1.

Now I can look forward to seeing what Moose on the Porch Quilts is going to show us for setting ideas.

Black & White & Bright Sampler

My 2nd version of our Saturday Sampler is now a completed top. This sampler was called Color Me Happy, and I did an extra block each month using my stash of black and white fabrics, along with a bright accent. Everything in this block except the sashing and borders was stash.

All of the blocks were made using 5" squares and the techniques were really simple to do. I know I will make some of these blocks again in other projects.