Tulip Time - ready for borders

 I'm thrilled to have all of the tulip blocks and sashing sewn together, and to have reached that stage where decisions are made on borders.  The blocks were RSC blocks for almost 2 years, so it's extra exciting to be at this stage now. 

It definitely needs a border and my original idea had been green piano keys, similar to how Bonnie Hunter did her original pattern.  I have a green layer cake that would work and I did a bit of auditioning to see how I liked it.  Nope!!  It was busy, and didn't allow the eye to rest.  This quilt is really busy and I decided that I want a single fabric for an outer border. 

OK - this one was close to what I have in mind.  The colors are good and the scale of the print works.  I even have enough of it.  But if you look closely - it's vegetables!  I can't mix veggies with tulips now, can I?  A few other options were auditioned as well.  But I did eventually find a really pretty green batik for that border on Wednesday when I stopped at The Pin Cushion. Once I get those borders on, then I'll share a new picture.

In the meantime, I'm excited to move on to orange for August even though my sewing time will be limited.  Check out the RSC site to see how others are finishing up July.

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Red elephants joined the herd

Two red elephants were born this week.  The first one is really my favorite, made with a very graphic batik.  He looks terrific.  

Elephant #2 is a bit more sedate in a subtle geometric print.  He's actually cuter in person. 

The August color is orange and I have lots of options in the stash for those elephants.  With the red ones there are now 14 in the herd.  I notice the colors are all a bit "off" in this photo, as the yellow ones look orange, and it's hard to distinguish between pink and red.  They are definitely cuter in person. 

I'm thinking that I should do a bit of orange sewing this weekend and early next week, while I can still get to my sewing room and stash.  The elephants and heart blocks will probably come first.  

One new RSC block - in purple & yellow

I know that the last thing I need is another project, but I've been seeing these scrappy blocks online for ages and finally just HAD to try it out.  The pattern is Scrap Happy Rainbow Connection by Amy Smart.  It's a digital PDF download from her website.  I really needed some mindless sewing on Monday evening so this is what I did.  

The pattern is really an easy one and should be a pretty good way to use up scraps.  There are 2 main parts:  a strip made from colored scraps, and 2 half square triangles.  Then it's squared up.  

The scrap bin (12" canvas cube) containing purple also has blue scraps in it.  As I was digging around for purple scraps I realized that the bin contains MOSTLY blue scraps, and not much purple.  There were plenty of little pieces, but not many strings that worked for this block.  Luckily there were enough to do this one block.  And if I dig deeper in that canvas cube I may find more purple strings.  

The yellow scrap bin also yielded enough strings to make a yellow friend for the purple block.  

My other mindless sewing after work this week so far:

** cut out 2 red elephant blocks since I didn't make any red ones in January. 
** sewed the final row and final sashing together on Tulip Time. 
** cut and prepped binding for 3 projects

Weekend review

 It was a really fun weekend, with a focus on family.  We actually swapped houses with our oldest daughter for the night on Saturday.  They headed to a wedding closer to our town and spent the night at our house, and we stayed with their kids and dogs at their house. 

Saturday afternoon we took their 3 kids and went to my husband's cousin Alan's house for a big loud FUN family gathering.  Only 2 of the kiddos in this group shot belong to us, and the rest are mostly 2nd cousins.  Alan and wife had a huge bouncy house set up on their acreage, plus they have a zip line.  Those kids had such fun, and there were no fights, no whining, and no injuries.  Just fun! The only times they came into the house was to eat or use the bathrooms.  

The adults enjoyed the chance to visit and catch up.  My husband and Alan were in the same class in school, and grew up as best friends.  Alan's sister was besties with Dave's older sister.  Their mothers were sisters, and their dad's even did some farming together. The cousins were always really close.  

Alan's daughter and family are visiting from their home in Australia, and it was wonderful to see them again.  Steph and my daughter grew up as best friends, just like their dads.  And they've stayed very close in spite of living on opposite sides of the world.  More cousins - 3 generations were gathered - Anita's daughter, and Alan's other daughter.  A fabulous day of eating, laughing, and talking!!

By the time we got back to our daughter's house that evening it was time for showers and bed.  Then in the morning we headed to the zoo with the kids.  

It was a beautiful morning for the zoo - cool enough that the animals were out.  The outdoor exotic bird exhibits were all closed, due to protecting them from Avian Flu.  And I skipped the reptile house entirely, although everyone else checked it out.  I really figured the kids were getting too old to want to ride the carrousel or the train but we did it all.  There were a couple of times when I waited on a bench while grandpa and the kids walked the extra distances to some exhibits further away.  The walking was not easy with the bad hips, but I was determined to enjoy the zoo.  And I did enjoy it - fun to be together.  And their parents were home again by the time we got back.

I will also admit that when we got home mid-afternoon my husband headed to the golf course.  And I took a 2 hour nap.  Guess I was more tired from the walking (hobbling) than I thought.  LOL  

Shop Hopping

 Shop hops are more fun with friends!  How about a bus load of friends?  I really didn't take many pictures last week on the shop hop, but I did have a really good time.  Full disclosure - some of these photos are "borrowed" from the websites of the shops. 

We left town (Mitchell SD)about 7:00 am, and our first quilt shop stop was The Old Alley in Sherburn Minnesota, right along I-90.  The building is an old bowling alley and the wooden alley floors are still visible inside. They have a wonderful selection of fabrics and patterns.  Since the Minnesota Shop Hop begins at the end of this week, the shop had this year's special fabrics displayed. We could purchase them but have them shipped after the shop hop starts.  I know a few ladies took advantage of having the Minnesota fabrics shipped to them.  

I found a couple of good blender fabrics to use for a new Quick Strippee baby quilt.  I had the elephant print already.  The teal herringbone and the peachy-orange blender will be perfect accents.  And there were some other purchases - one of which will arrive in the mail.  I didn't get too carried away with buying, but it was hard to completely resist some of the new Minnesota fabrics.

Our main destination for the day was New Ulm Minnesota. If you've never been there it's definitely worth a visit, and it's not far from where I grew up so I always feel like I'm in familiar territory.  Plus I've been there quite a few times.  It's a beautiful old town with lots of historical sites and reflects the German immigrants who settled this river valley area in the late 1800s.  Great places to eat, and 3 - that's right - quilt shops.  

Our bus parked downtown, and we had 3 hours to explore both downtown quilt shops, eat lunch at the location of choice, and check out any other shops we might have wanted.  I ate at Lola's Bistro downtown with a few of the ladies. They are known for their chicken pot pie.  Yum!!!

The Thimble Box is right on a corner downtown. It specializes in panels.  That shop had an amazing array of panels displayed along with lots and lots of coordinating fabrics and panels.  

I bought the perfect ombre piece of fabric for a sunset sky in a Halloween wall hanging I am planning. I also picked up some patriotic fat quarters, and half yard cuts.  I could have spent a lot more time and money in that shop.  

The other downtown shop, Spinning Spools is a short 1 block walk down the street and is so unique.  This is a very small shop with the entrance on the side of the building through a grape arbor, with a patio that just invites shoppers to sit and relax in the shade under the grapes.  They had fresh ice water with lemons or cucumber waiting for our group for refreshment on that patio.  I enjoyed sitting and chatting - and drinking icy cucumber water - under the grape arbor after my retail therapy purchases inside.  A small shop but so interesting!!!  They had really lovely samples displayed, and a surprising selection of fabrics in a small space.  

Our final quilt shop stop was Sewing Seeds Quilt Shop.  (Logo borrowed from their website!) This shop has been featured in the Quilt Sampler magazine a couple of times as a "top shop" to visit.  That is well deserved!  Fabulous selections - lots of Civil War, seasonal, batiks, Aboriginals, French General, Tula Pink, children's novelty prints, patriotic . . . and so much more.  There is a whole room devoted to wool applique!  I linked their website above, and it's worth checking out.  We were greeted by 2 of the "loose threads" who own the shop.  They made us feel so welcome with treats and a "bed turning" of some of their featured quilts!  I have some fun purchases from here that I may share some other day.  One purchase was a small wool applique kit to work on while I'm recuperating from my hip replacement.  

Design Wall Monday - winner, winner!

Our guild bus trips usually include the option to make a block (or several) to bring when we get on the bus, and at some point on the trip names are drawn to win some of the blocks.  This trip's block pattern was Old Windmill (8" finished), and we were to use bright colors.  And we signed them. 

I was one of the lucky winners on the bus trip last Thursday. Yay!  The "bus moms" divided the blocks into 3 sets.  The set I won has 15 blocks in it.  The funny thing is that I ended up with 3 of my own blocks in the random mix, but that is OK.  It will be fun to decide how I'm going to use these blocks.

Several years ago we made pine tree blocks for our bus trip to The Black Hills, and I was a lucky winner then too.  I made a house block to add to the trees, and the finished quilt is called Cabin in the Woods.  I think I also had to make one more tree block just to make the number of blocks work out correctly.  I might make a few more windmills too before setting them together. 

What's on your design wall this morning?

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/  

Sashing the Saturday Sampler

 The Saturday Sampler block for this month has been "sashed".  

This set of blocks is scrappy Christmas, and I've been trying to use a good variety of reds and greens from the stash.  All of the blocks will have the same red and grey in that pieced sashing.  The secondary design is really what makes this quilt pattern special.  

Now that we have 9 of the 12 blocks done, I've been thinking about how to finish this quilt.  The pattern does call for outer borders and I have plenty of the grey snowflake and the red herringbone to do that.  But adding a Christmasy large print for a final border might be good too.  

I've been making 3.5" hourglass blocks with the trimmings from the flying geese in that pieced sashing.  Each little stack in this picture has 4 blocks, so there are currently 36 of them.  I have no idea what they will become, but I just had to use up those triangle trimmings instead of throwing them away. 

Purple & other stuff

 The shop hop bus trip on Thursday was a lot of fun.  We visited 4 Minnesota shops and just generally had a good time.  I was pretty disciplined about my purchases, but that doesn't mean I don't have some fun things.  I'll try to post more about the bus trip next week.

This weekend is going to be crazy busy with no sewing at all.  We are "kid and dog" sitting at one daughter's house while they go to a wedding.  So we'll be having some fun with the grandkids.

I did use some purple this week in the 2 extra colorways I'm doing for Saturday Sampler.  The grey background version is using batiks and this purple is a deep rich shade. There is even purple in that lime green batik.

And the dark background version got a brighter purple.  These are #9 out of 12 blocks for Saturday Sampler, and it's probably time to think about how I want to lay these out.  I think the dark version may just get a simple black sashing.  

On the scrappy Tulip Time quilt I do have 5 of the 6 rows assembled.  Rows 1-3 are all sewn to each other as well.  Rows 4 and 5 have sashing/cornerstones attached but I haven't sewn them onto those first 3 rows yet.  Once I get row 6 assembled with it's sashing, then I'll sew 4-6 into one section before joining the 2 halves together.  Then I'll decide whether or not it will get an outer border. 

Check out lots of other RSC fun from this week:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Back to random blocks

Last week I sewed almost frantically all week, whenever I had a chance.  And then this week I've spent more time running around doing errands than getting any sewing done.  But there has been a little progress on a few random projects. 

One more of the little Hello Birdie blocks in the 30s prints!  Our Sew Vintage group was challenged with yellow this month, so here he is.  

The elephant block is 12" (finished) with the narrow frame.  This blue daisy print was calling to me.  It made a somewhat "louder" elephant than the others in the group.  But it's cute.

Our Sew Vintage group was also challenged to make a paper-pieced flag.  Don't look too closely because I made a couple of mistakes.  The blue corner should have ended above that white stripe.  Oops!  And I had to add an extra piece along the left side because I skimped on one of those pieces.  But overall it's OK, and should make a good 4th of July mug rug once I get the paper pulled off. 

As you read this I am on a bus headed to a few southern Minnesota quilt shops.  It’s a 1-day shop hop arranged by our local quilt guild.  Hopefully I’ll have some fun to report.

Saturday Sampler - block 9

 Here it is past the middle of the month and I'm just getting a start on my Saturday Sampler blocks.  

This is Block 9, and it's a great block.  Kind of a variation of the old traditional T block.  The parts are all cut for the pieced sashing, and for the 2 other colorways I'm doing.  Hopefully I'll get back into the sewing room this week to finish these.  

Cousins & Kaleidoscope

 We had a wonderful day on Sunday - with a few of the people we love.  My sister-in-law, 2 of her daughters, and 1 great-granddaughter visited us on Sunday.  We definitely missed some who couldn't be there, but enjoyed with the ones who were. 

My 2 girls were very fortunate to be part of a group of 18 first cousins who all grew up in the same school district.  That means they were lucky to grow up hanging out with and are still close to lots of cousins.  Of course as those cousins all grew up they've scattered across the state and the country. Even across the globe at times - in military uniforms. 

The oldest of the cousins (back right) is visiting from Texas with her granddaughter (bottom right).  Her youngest sister (back left) only lives about 25 miles from here, but with her busy life we don't see her often enough.  Our youngest daughter (back center) and her family were able to come for the afternoon to visit with the cousins she hasn't seen in over a year.  Wish my other daughter could have spent the day with us too, but she was under the weather and her kids were off camping with the other grandparents.  I set up stuff for tacos, and salad, and dessert - and we spent an awesome day eating and just catching up.  

On the "quilt-y" front I did finish up the binding on BOTH of the Kaleidoscope small quilts.  

The colors in these just amaze me, and make me happy - those brilliant blues, with the orange, and yellow and others!  Just my favorites!  One of them is going to hang in my sewing room along with some other small quilts.  

This whole week is supposed to be HOT, HOT, HOT so I'm sure plenty of sewing will happen.

Design Wall Monday - forward progress

 It rained most of the day on Saturday, and I spent about half of that time in my sewing room.  Lots of progress happened on Tulip Time.

Half of the top is assembled - that's 3 of the 6 rows of 6 blocks, plus sashing.  The 4th row and 1 row of sashing is also sewn together.  My goal today is to at least get the 5th and 6th rows sewn together.  It's harder to manhandle a big quilt, so this is much slower than working on small projects.

But speaking of small projects, there was progress on some of those as well on Saturday. 

This little project was born in our Sew Vintage group that meets once a month at The Pin Cushion.  We have a wonderful group of ladies who all love vintage things, including quilting.  Ages range from 30s to 80s, and once in a while we even have a kid or two join us. 

The hearts are signature blocks we exchanged within the group this past winter, and the umbrella was cut by one of the members who had just gotten these dies for her Accuquilt.  She cut a whole lot of the umbrella parts and shared with the group. I decided to put them all together in just 1 project.  This will need some borders, but for now it will hang on my design wall while I decide what to add next. 

I also made 5 more of the Beads/Chandelier blocks for our Quilt of Valor group.  In the picture they are added to 9 more that I picked up from another member.  And I collected a bunch at our last guild meeting.  We'll gradually get enough for at least 1 Quilt of Valor, and hopefully 2 quilts.  I have more of these ready to sew.  

Sunday was a day to just enjoy some family time.  A niece was visiting from Texas, and I made a casual supper of tacos, salad, dessert and we just enjoyed some time together.  

Check out a few more Design Walls today:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Scrappy progress - Tulip Time & more

 It's always exciting to reach the stage with my RSC blocks when I have enough for a quilt.  That is where Tulip Time is at this month finally.  Actually I have 40 of these 13" blocks, so there will be 4 of them left over, as I've decided that 6 x 6 will work the best.  

This photo doesn't do justice to the bright cheery colors in these blocks, and the sashing is almost lime green in reality.  Plus - I took the photo before getting the last few blocks sashed, so there will be another vertical row.  These Tulip Time blocks were a Bonnie Hunter pattern from several years ago in Quiltmaker magazine, originally called Blossom Time I think.  They are awesome blocks for scraps because the largest piece needed for an individual tulip is a 2.5" square.

Pillow shams maybe will happen with the extras.  Or possibly they will be "seed" for another quilt.  Who knows what will happen with those extra blocks.  

Sashing the Tulip Time quilt blocks, and putting borders on 2 other quilts were my main focus this week, but I did play with purple a little bit.  This purple elephant joined the herd.  And two more - with polka dots -in other colors happened too.

Check out more Rainbow Scrap Challenge fun . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Shooting Stars is a flimsy

Sewing this week has been in short quantities - a couple of hours at a time.  But, it has been very productive sewing for the most part.  Borders were added to the Checkered Stars UFO, and also added to Shooting Stars.  That first one is a baby quilt (48" square), but this one is bigger.  It finishes about 68" square with the borders added. 

Shooting Stars was a kit from a Sew Sampler box from Fat Quarter Shop.  All of the pretty fabrics for the blocks was included with the pattern, and the background was in my stash.  The pattern didn't call for any borders at all, and it looked really nice without the borders.  But I wanted it to be bigger - so borders were definitely needed.  I ordered enough yardage from the same fabric line for those borders.  And there is enough of the aqua for binding.    

Quilts of Valor presentations

 I've never served in the military, but I am the daughter and granddaughter of veterans.  And I'm the cousin of veterans, and the aunt of several veterans too.  So my small way of saying THANK YOU is being involved in the Quilt of Valor program.  Making the quilt is fun, and so is being part of a presentation.  This week I've been happy to be involved in 2 QOV presentations. But please note that I did NOT make either of the quilts, although I probably some of the star blocks in the first one.

On Saturday, a couple of us presented a quilt to Holly, a US Navy veteran.  She is a member of our Sew Vintage group, and we managed to surprise her with the quilt presentation at our group meeting.  Thank you Holly for your service to our country!

And on Tuesday afternoon I drove about 90 miles to present a quilt to Greg.  He served with the US Army.  This quilt was actually sent to our group by an Omaha QOV group, as we were closer and able to do the presentation for them.  The location . . . the Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River.  

It was a gorgeous day to visit the Missouri River.  

I don't fish, but I found myself wishing I was in one of those fishing boars on the river.  

Checkered Stars is a flimsy

My July goals included adding the final borders to 2 different projects.  One of those projects is now a flimsy and the other one has borders cut.

The yellow outer border was all that Checkered Stars needed to be a finished flimsy.  So this one is now ready to quilt.  It's 48" square, so will make a good baby quilt.

The other project that needed borders was Shooting Stars.  This one was a new project that I pulled from the PIG drawer - (Projects in Grocery sacks) and was a reward for a previous UFO finish.  Such a cute kit, but I felt it needed to be larger.  

A 2.5" inner border has already been added, and the floral outer border pieces have been cut.  One of those borders is actually attached, so it is very close to being a completed top.  

Checkered Stars will probably go immediately be quilted, but the Shooting Stars flimsy will probably hang in the closet until I need a quilt of that style as a gift. 

Scotty Dog finish

 One more UFO to check off the list and add to the stack of quilts ready to donate or gift.

Scotty Dog is the Quick Strippie pattern from Maryquilts.  It’s fun and it’s free.  It is made with 1 yard each of 3 different fabrics.  A cute focus fabric works best for the wide strips, and then 2 accent fabrics are great to pick up on the colors in the focus print.

The grey backing might be a bit dark for a traditional baby or kid quilt, but I feel like it works well with the black polka dot and the dotted and checkered dogs.  

I have another focus fabric in the project box, and one of these days I should pick out some accent colors and kit up the next Quick Strippee. 

Design Wall Monday - next UFO in line

 Last week I set a goal of getting the binding finished on 2 UFOs - Wisdom and Scotty Dogs.  Well, I've shown you the finished Wisdom quilt.  And later this week I'll show you the finished Scotty Dogs quilt.  Having those bindings done means I'm moving on to the next UFO on my long long list.

And that project is Tulip Time, a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  The tulip blocks have been a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for a couple of years.  As the blocks accumulated, I sewed them together into 13" blocks with 4 tulips in each.  This past winter I finally sewed the 40th set together, and it was time to figure out how I wanted them layed out.

I chose to sash them quite simply with green 1.5" sashing and scrappy neutral cornerstones.  About half of the blocks are sashed and my goal is to get the other half done this week, with 1 sashing strip on each block.  Then I can lay them out and figure out the rows and play with color arrangement.  

I will admit that I'm not 100% sure that 40 blocks will really be enough, or maybe it will be too many.  The final plan will emerge once they are layed out on the floor.  

What's on your design wall today?

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