Design Wall Monday - a new Block Challenge

 Another distraction has crossed my path, but since I'm committed to just using what's in the stash, I have no guilt about it.  There was a big piece of background fabric with tiny blue dots that helped me decide to make a blue and white quilt.  And my blue drawer and blue scrap bins are both overflowing, so it seems like a good choice.  Besides, one block per week is certainly manageable.

It's the Riley Blake Designs 2022 Block Challenge.  The link to the info and to the first 3 FREE block patterns is here.  https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/2022-rbd-block-challenge  You can follow along with various social media platforms.  I joined the Facebook group and it's fun to see the wonderful variety of colors and fabrics being used.  

The block patterns will be released each Tuesday of the month, except the last one.  That last Tuesday gives you a chance to catch up if needed.  I made my 3 blocks in one morning easily.  And each block is designed by a different quilt designer.

Block #1 is a Lori Holt block called Daisy Chain.  It has a lot of pieces, but went together very nicely.  Block #2 is Sweetheart, by Beverly McCullough.  The corners were the only challenging parts of this one.  And Block #3 is Autumn Leaf by Kristy Lea.  The hardest part of this block was deciding how many different shades of blue I wanted to use in the leaf and how to place them.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday: 
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

And with Monday Making:
https://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/  

A generous lady

 Last week a very nice lady here in town left a message on our guild's Facebook page about donating fabric to our guild.  I contacted her on Thursday, and ended up chatting on the phone for awhile about what she wanted to donate, and made arrangements to pick it up on Friday morning.

This is what came home with me - 2 large tubs and 3 smaller ones - all fun of fabric.  Lots of fat quarters, a couple of kits, plenty of yardage, and even some batting.  It's clean, very neatly folded, and organized.  I think our guild members will have some fun with this generous gift. 

I have pulled a couple of pieces to use in pillowcases that will be donated.  And I pulled out a plain blue that should work perfectly for bindings for at least 2 Quilts of Valor.  Everything else will go to our guild meeting.  

Wrapping up the red

Looking back at January I can see that I really, really dug into the red fabrics around here.  I even surprised myself when I saw how much red I used this month.  

My Stay At Home Round Robin project this year is going to remain just a red and white project, so there will be more added to this in the next few weeks.  

There are 4 of these Framed Friendship Star blocks - 2 have light centers, and 2 have dark.  

Two new red patriotic Star blocks were made along with some little hourglass blocks made from trimming those star point corners.  These will go into a Quilt of Valor. 

Red was a major feature of the casserole potholder and the 3 matching smaller hotpads.  These are destined to be gifted.  

Three new batik Nanci's Star blocks were added to the collection.  

I made 4 more of these Twinkle Stars.  There are nearly enough to make a good sized quilt. 

Seems like I made a LOT of hearts this month - including 4 of the large Falling in Love blocks.  And I made 5 of the small hearts using red.  

Even this year's Saturday Sampler features red, but I won't be switching to any other color for these blocks.  I'm using a Christmas theme so I'll be playing with red all year for these.

And there were a few other odds and ends that came about - in red.  Time to move on to the February colors of aqua and teal.  

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - RSC22:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Farmer's Wife Sampler update

 Out of the 111 blocks in the book, my friend Linda and I have finished 96 as of this week.  I'm so excited to be close to finishing what looked like an impossible task when we started. 

Puss in the Window was the first block I made this week.  

Then we made W.C.T.U. - which is a really strange name for this block.  I'm not sure what the Women's Christian Temperance Union had to do with the block design.  LOL  But it's a fun block which was easier than it looks. 

I've been adding sashing to 2 sides of these blocks gradually, and have 90 blocks sashed so far.  The others I may wait until all of the rest are done since we're so close. 

And I just couldn't resist getting a little start on putting them together.  This is the upper right corner area.  I've been using exclusively my leftovers from various Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots projects over several years.  The sashing is actually a dark brown Grunge however, and the cornerstones are just a cream solid.  

But I'm deviating just a little bit for the setting triangles.  This is a Robert Kaufman print called Scarlet's Garden.  I wanted a neutral type of print in those setting triangles, and this one is working out nicely even though it isn't sticking with the Kim Diehl fabrics.  There is enough of the dark brown to add a narrow sashing border around the outside, and then I'll find a more colorful print for an outer border - mostly likely returning to the Kim Diehl prints.  

A gift of time

My daughters are both busy/overwhelmed working moms of elementary school age kids and even though both families live only a little over an hour away, we don't get to spend a lot of time together - without husbands and kids.  So having a Girls Night Out is a huge treat.  I love gifts of time together!!!

My Christmas gift from them this year was a "mystery Girls Night Out" experience.  They asked me to choose between 3 dates for availability, then told me to lock it in on my calendar.  But they wouldn't tell me or even their dad what we were going to be doing.  

 

Early last week I texted them and asked what time and where I needed to be on Friday.  And how should I be dressed?  And did I need to bring anything?  I was told jeans and nice casual would be fine.  We were going to dinner and then . . . a surprise event.  Hmmm . . .  still a mystery!  Dinner was fabulous!!  They took me to a downtown Sioux Falls restaurant called Chef Lance's and we had a really yummy meal.  I had parmesan crusted salmon over garlic/parmesan mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Yum, yum, yum!!

The surprise event turned out to be That Golden Girls Show - at a theater just a couple of blocks from the restaurant.  It was a "puppet parody" and I have to admit it was a hoot.  Picture 4 actors dressed all in black, holding puppets on a full sized stage.  The puppets were "halves" - with life size heads, arms, and torsos. Unusual for sure - but actually very well done and very funny.  The voices of the actors were spot on for the original gals in the show, especially the man - yes - who played the Dorothy character.  

It was a fun and relaxing evening - together!!  Thanks girls!!

Stay At Home Round Robin

I wasn't going to do the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) this year. I was just going to watch the fun online.  But my resolve apparently was very weak, because this week I dove in - using red of course.  Even though red will be pushed aside for February in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I'm going to keep this little project a 2-color plan with just scrappy reds and whites.

This project started with that little red/white house block that I paper-pieced early this week.  It was only 9" square with the white frame.  Week 1 challenged us to use curves.  I auditioned several ideas . . . and wasn't very happy with any of them.  I ended up just adding a curvy dark red heart above the chimney.  Kind of a cop-out, but I like it. 

This week's challenge was to add diamonds.  Now it's 15" square with that white border plus the dark red diamonds at the corners.  Next week's challenge is still unknown of course, but I think I'll need to make sure I end up with a "redder" border, to tame down the white.  

 

Stay At Home Round Robin

Ironically - stay at home is taking on a new meaning this week.  We were close contacts to a positive Covid case over the weekend so we'll be mostly staying home now since we learned this on Tuesday.  I'm sure we've been exposed many, many times over the past couple of years without knowing it.  We are vaccinated and boosted, so not very concerned, but we'll be cautious.

I just couldn't decide whether I wanted to take part in the online Stay At Home Round Robin this year or just watch the interesting and creative ways other quilters design each week's challenge.  But, then that little red house block gave me the idea that it could be my center block this year.  So on Monday I began to play with some ideas.  

The first challenge (last week) was adding something with curves.  My first (less than creative) idea was to add these curved pieces on each corner.  These are NOT actually attached yet because I am not very excited about it.  Now I'm actually thinking about cutting a tiny "curvy" heart and have it coming out of one of the chimneys.  Or adding a curvy "vine" of ribbon on that red border area.  I do have a pretty clear idea of how I want to add the diamonds for Round #2.  

While I had the red scraps still out on Monday I made a couple more small 4.5" hearts to add to the growing collection.  There are now 7 red hearts, including the 2 new ones in the middle row.

However, when I layed them all together like this I noticed something.  The first 2 hearts I made (top row) had larger top triangles.  The pattern I'm using calls for 1" squares added to make those corners, and I obviously used 1.5" squares in those first 2 blocks.  And the difference really shows up  when they are next to each other.  There are a few other earlier ones in other colors that have the bigger squares too.  Darn!!!

But I think once they are framed the size difference in those tiny corner triangles won't be so obvious.  At least that is what I'm hoping.  

To Do Tuesday

My To Do list this week will be kind of short because there is just so much going on. 

** finish Farmers Wife Sampler blocks of the week
** make at least 1 Tulip block (RSC)
** make at least 2 more blue hexie flowers
** catch up with the Stay At Home Round Robin
** finish the Simple Whatnots signature blocks for exchange
** sandwich the Midnight flimsy for quilting (Kim Diehl)
** finish binding the Saturday Sampler from last year

Today will be a busy one with no sewing time this afternoon.  I'm giving blood this afternoon, and I'm treating myself to a pedicure.  Plus I have to work part of the morning, so I might not get into the sewing room at all.  

One of the 2 blocks for the Farmer Wife Challenge is done.  This one is Puss in the Corner, and makes 95 finished blocks so far.  Sixteen more to go.  I need to get more of these sashed, and I'm ready to start sewing them into groups of 4 blocks on point.   

The Simple Whatnots signature blocks are nearly done - only 4 more to go.  I'm not sure why I'm dragging my feet with these.  We plan to exchange them in late February so there's time but hopefully I'll have them done this week.   

I'm linking up with To Do Tuesday . . .

Design Wall Monday - January 24

 Hmmm - it was a busy weekend, and here it is Monday again already.  What did I accomplish over the weekend?  Not much.

We spent a lot of time in the car on Saturday, and I took those blue hexies with me.  There are now 7 of them done.  So I guess I was right that they would make a good travel project.  We drove up to Brookings for an early afternoon Jackrabbit women's basketball game, where we saw our Jacks win 114-50 over Western Illinois.  Kind of crazy!  The we drove south an hour to see granddaughter Sophia's 4th/5th grade basketball game.  The opposing team didn't show up unfortunately so we got to watch them practice for half an hour.  Then went to supper with them. 

After sleeping in a bit on Sunday I went downstair to sew and clean.  I got more cleaning done than sewing, which is probably a good thing.  It was definitely time to put away some things and clear up some of the clutter in my sewing space.  There is a lot more cleaning to be done, but it was a good start.  And then I sewed this paper-pieced house block.  I had printed the pattern earlier in the week so it was laying front and center on my cutting board - just tempting me.  It's 9" square and will finish at 8.5" in whatever it will become.  

We watched 2 football games and I worked a little bit on some binding off and on while watching the games.  

I'll be checking in with Design Wall Monday -
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Another week of playing with red

Everywhere I looked this week I saw red.  And I had a few finishes along with lots of block sewing this week - most featuring red. 

This photo is awfully dark . . . but you get a fair idea of real colors at least.  A couple of years ago I bought a kit for a casserole dish hotpad.  It had the fun salsa/tortilla chip print, a striped backing, the red, and the Insulbrite batting.  I finished that and still had leftover pieces of both the stripe and salsa print.  And voila - the leftovers worked great for 3 potholders made with other scraps. For the potholders I used the potholder pattern that came with the coffee print kit I bought last week in Sioux City.  The coffee potholder is done too. 

There was enough of this red with tiny stars in our Quilts of Valor bag to cut 2 sets of binding strips for the 2 quilts we have ready for binding.  A couple of group members have volunteered to bind these, so I wanted to get the strips cut for them.  That left just enough to cut squares for another Patriotic Star block for QOV.  When I went to put those squares in the box, I discovered 3 other block kits.

So, instead of just dropping the squares in there, I decided to sew all 4 blocks right away.  Two new red Patriotic Stars, and 2 new blue ones.  And the bonus is 8 new hourglass blocks (3.5") added to the block box too.  We probably have enough of the 12" star blocks for another quilt top. 

While looking through my Valentine fabrics, I found 3 charm squares that were perfect for more little heart blocks.  These are red and hot pink prints, and turned out pretty cute.  

I just may be getting tired of red now, and ready to play in some other colors.  Or maybe not. 

I'm linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge today:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

 

Blue Hexies

 OK - while straightening out "stuff" collecting in a drawer, I came across this little container full of hexies, all made with blue batiks.  I know I did these on a guild bus trip several years ago but had no actual plan for how to use them.  I just needed some hand work to do on the long bus ride and used a charm pack of batiks from the stash.  

Flash forward a few years . . . and I think these are going to be some fun handwork again while cooped up at home in bad weather and increasing Covid numbers.  Or while riding in the car. 

My plan is to hand stitch them into these little flower shapes and then applique them onto some neutral background squares.  There were enough to make 20 of the flowers with matching petals.  These hexies are 1" along each side, so not too tiny, but not very big.  There are still a few left in the container to play with for something else.    

What to do with neckties?

 Yes, I know - another distraction has crossed my path.  One of the guild members brought a huge tub full of neckties to a meeting this winter, and begged asked members to take a bundle and do something with them.  I took this bundle of mostly blue and brown colors with no idea what they might become.  

I've looked online at lots of ideas for using these, but haven't really decided on anything yet. I don't think I want to do a Dresden Plate but who knows what might happen.  However I did decide it's time to at least get these washed and see which ones survive to be used in a "someday" project.  

So picking out the seam on each and putting them into a lingerie bag for washing is a good task while watching TV in the evenings.  I know I won't likely make anything with them right away, but if I can get them washed then they will be ready to use once I decide on some plan.  

Any ideas for these would be most welcome.  

More red blocks

These are the Nanci's Star blocks - called that because I got the pattern and the blue batiks for the first 3 blocks from a friend's stash after she passed.  I pulled out 3 dark red batiks, almost burgundy, to make this month's blocks.  A pink batik worked for the contrasting fabric in all 3 blocks.  

In the photo below the colors are extremely distorted.  But the 3 blue blocks have 3 different light colors, and the dark one is the same in all 3 blocks.  I think once I add a couple more colors, these will look kind of like jewels.  The blocks are 9" finished. 

 

Here is one more of the framed Friendship Square blocks to add to the collection.  I used a grey background in this one, and when I begin to do more colors I need to remind myself to use a variety of light background neutrals.  My plan is to pull a few each month based on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color that will work for the frame.  

Farmers Wife & Simple Whatnots

Farmers Wife Sampler blocks for this week are complete.  Practical Orchard is a really strange name for a quilt block.  I don't see anything about this block that would suggest such a name. I did a little research and found on a heritage quilt site that it was a variation of Fiddlers Jig, which has HST in those outer corners.  But I can't guarantee that info is accurate.  
 

Postage Stamp was the other block for this week - made from 36 little 1.5" squares.  Hence the Postage Stamp name.  

It was also time to work on the little signature blocks that our Simple Whatnots group plans to exchange in February.  I have had them all cut out for a couple of months, but had only sewn 4 of them up to now.  These are only 4.5" square so shouldn't take long to finish up.  

To Do Tuesday

 I keep starting to work on things around here (sewing and other stuff) and then getting sidetracked.  But it's only Tuesday, right?  And it's still January? 

Yesterday I did make 2 additional red Twinkle Star blocks, so now there are a total of 4 red ones.  And there are now 31 total Twinkle Star blocks for a future quilt.  

Once these were hanging up with the others, I began to cut out some red Nanci's Star blocks - and then that coffee themed potholder kit caught my attention.  So I got that cut out. And realized I could use the same pattern to make others with scraps because I had a whole lot of Insulbrite in the closet to use inside them.  The first squirrel that crossed my path . . . 

I made 3 potholders - one using that coffee fabric kit I bought, and 2 using scraps from the stash put together in the same pattern.  There was enough of the hot peppers print left from another project for one more potholder that is cut out and laying next to my sewing machine. Plus I know I have a whole lot of odds and ends of other coffee prints that could be used for more potholders.  . . . but then I got distracted before putting the binding on all 3 of these. 

Prepping the binding for last year's Saturday Sampler quilt was the next squirrel that distracted me.  It's finally ready to sew onto the quilt once I get it trimmed.  I picked this quilt up from the quilter almost 2 weeks ago so it's time to get it bound and finished.  

My TO DO list for the rest of this week is focused on progress and taking care of the partially done things piled up on the end of my ironing board:

**  binding the 3 potholders

** sew 3 red Nanci's Stars blocks

** cut out Farmers Wife Sampler blocks for this week

** trim & sew binding on Saturday Sampler quilt

** finish sewing tiny Signature blocks for Simple Whatnots

** sandwich Midnight (Simple Whatnots) for quilting

Design Wall Monday - January 17

Two more Friendship Square blocks are done, using red framing.  The blue center with the Life Preservers and the black with the flowers both worked well with the red.   

Laying out the 3 red blocks with the 3 I had made months ago does give me an idea of how these blocks will work together.  Two of the previous blocks have non-white backgrounds - one is grey and the other is a light beige.  That really tells me I need to use a variety of backgrounds on all of the rest of the blocks I make using this pattern.  The variety will look good and give this a more scrappy appearance.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday: 
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

And with Monday Making:
https://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/  

Road trip shopping

 I've been whining lately about never "going anywhere" interesting.  Or actually about never going anywhere period, unless it's to some sport event.  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy college basketball and do enjoy going to watch my young grandchildren participate in concerts or sports.  And I do appreciate the fact that there are many people out there who are even more cooped up since Covid.  But it would be fun to do something totally different once in awhile, right?

Thursday was finally my opportunity!  We were heading to Omaha for a college basketball doubleheader and visiting a niece and husband. The arena there requires masks so we felt pretty safe, particularly since there is never a big crowd there.  My husband promised we would leave early enough for me to stop in a couple of quilt shops on the way - one in Sioux City and one in Omaha.  Normally it takes us just under 4 hours to get to Omaha.

In reality, he got busy with a work project that he wanted to send out to his "guys" to review, and we left a lot later than planned.  I did get to spend about 20 minutes at the Heart & Hand Quilt Shop in Sioux City.  I picked up a cute little potholder kit with coffee fabrics.  

The sewing print is for cutting 6" friendship squares for my guild friends.  And I had to pick up a couple of seasonal fat quarters.  

Replenishing some of my reds was one of the things I planned for my shop hopping, and I did pick up some red fat quarters.  I guess not having much time was probably good for my budget.

We got to Omaha and met my niece and her husband at the arena - where we watched 2 Jackrabbit wins on Thursday evening.  Our visits to Omaha are always enjoyable, but we seem to always bring bad weather. Last year we went down for the same games and ended up staying 3 nights due to the blizzard that followed us.

This year the winter storms were supposed to move in early Friday morning all up and down that - I-29 corridor.  So we decided to leave for home earlier than planned - before Omaha quilt shops would have opened up.  And we headed west instead of straight north to try to avoid the worst of the storm.  

I was hoping to stop at the shop in Norfolk, Nebraska as we passed through.  But knowing we were about to run into icy roads and poor visibility, I didn't even mention it.  The last 90 miles or so looked like this, with a mix of freezing rain and snow.  Taking that western route home is slower but was a good decision as the interstate had lots of icy areas all day.  And shortly after we got home things got much worse here with more snow and wind, on top of ice. Good to be home safe and sound.  

Using the friendship squares

 Our guild has this fun tradition of exchanging friendship squares.  When a member does any traveling and get to a quilt shop, they try to find a fabric that represents the location or experience in some way.  The member will cut 6" squares to share with the guild.  Obviously there hasn't been a lot of travel done in recent months/years but I do have a lot of these squares accumulated again. 

And a few adventurous members have shared some new squares with us recently.  These were in my "guild bag" and it was time for them to join the others.  When I pulled out my project box holding the collection of squares, I realized that I really do have a lot of them to play with.  Months ago I tried out a block pattern from Pat Sloan.  This one was from her Winter Fun series, and seems like a great way to use the squares without cutting them up and losing the fun prints.

In 2016 - I finished a queen-sized quilt using the friendship squares.  It's on the basement guest room bed, and I really enjoy seeing all of the different fabrics.  I called it Traveling Stars.  Each star block used a square as the star center, and the star points were all fabrics that read solid.

After digging around in the project box holding the friendship squares, it is obvious that there are probably more than enough to make a great I Spy quilt for some child.  So I think there will be more of these blocks made in 2022 as part of my focus on using up scraps in lots of colors.  

And here is a good start - finding the squares that will look great with red frames, like this Texas version.  I cut and sewed this block in less than 10 minutes on Thursday while waiting - impatiently - for my husband to finish whatever work project he said he was almost done with so we could get on the road.  I would have had time to make a couple more before he actually finished up.  He was seriously cutting into the small window of time I had planned to stop in a quilt shop before meeting our niece at the UNO arena for the Jackrabbit game.  How thoughtless of him to mess with my schedule!  LOL

I'm linking up with RSC today:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/