January review

The new year has begun with quite a bit of productivity.  Not all are finishes, but I did move forward with several projects.

My January goal list was a very long one, but knew I wouldn't finish everything. I'm actually surprised at just how much I did accomplish.  

• Frog Quick Strippee child size quilt (get to flimsy stage) - Flimsy is DONE
• Michelle's blue runner - ** PRIORITY - DONE & mailed to her
• Blue/white snowflake pillow - DONE
• Saturday Sampler - Month #1 - DONE
• Scrappiness Is Happiness sew-along (blocks) - Through block #11 done
• Sewcialites sew-along (blocks) - Through block #12 done
• Humble Homes - finish at least ONE row (big UFO project) - not touched
• find backing for blue/white Riley Blake quilt - backing purchased, in hands of quilter
• Quilt of Valor blocks and/or tops - not touched
• Bag progress
• finish Cocktails bag - DONE
• forward progress on Cats bag - sides made, front quilted
• RSC blocks (bright and dark blue)
• Pyramid blocks - 6 new blocks made
• Framed Friendship blocks - boy version blocks finished, flimsy assembled
• Rainbow Connection (string) blocks - 2 new blocks made
• Plaid blocks - 6 new blocks made
• Irish Chain blocks - 8 new blocks made
• small heart blocks - 4 new blocks made

Design Wall Monday - next UFO in line

 Since I'm working on binding one UFO, I pulled out another on Friday for some planning. 

It all started when I went to the Winter Crazy Days sale at my local quilt shop, where I saw a couple of fabrics that just seemed perfect for simple borders for the Country Bunnies UFO.  And yes - I also found some other "hard to resist" things, including a couple panels and a table runner kit.

This botanical print is going to be the outer border with the aqua used for a narrow inner border and binding.  It has the aqua, green, yellow, orange, red, and brown that I also used in the bunny blocks.  The color in the photo below is very weird, as all of the colors are much less "bright" than they look in the picture.  That yellow just screams in the picture, but is actually much more muted. 

This UFO has been in the planning stage for too long.  The blocks themselves were part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge collection.  I had a variety of ideas for layouts but kept dismissing each one.  The blocks are rectangles, so some plans just didn't work.  I ended up just sewing them together without any sashing, and I think it lets the bunnies be the star without any other distractions.

Adding these borders will be part of my February goals.  

What's on your Design Wall this morning?

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

RSC23 - week #4

A bit of blue happened this week in my sewing room.   

The bigger version of last week's runner has been quilted.  I did some very simple quilting on this one before adding binding in that darker blue.  Hand stitching will happen next week hopefully.

And 3 more Scrappy Irish Chain blocks were made, with one of them being blue.  See that bright yellow?  That was from a scrap of the backing of the quilt I posted about yesterday. I just couldn't resist using it for one of these blocks.

I'm linking up to RSC23 today for more scrappy fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

New binding to do

Two UFO projects have been quilted, and one has the binding attached, ready for hand stitching in the car in the next few days. 

Bricks is a child size I-Spy quilt.  It's just FULL of fun scraps cut from the huge number of baby quilts, big kid quilts, burp cloths, and pillowcases that I've made in recent years. The white frames on each side of the bricks are scrappy. 

 

Simple swirls was all this one needed.  The backing is bright yellow and lots of fun with the "rainbow eyes" print.  I pulled a green/yellow tiny checkered print for binding. 

More on this one in coming days - hopefully a finish.

More Sewcialites blocks

In a previous post a couple weeks ago, I showed 2 possible layout ideas for adding the 3" red/white Sewcialites blocks to last years beginning of the Stay At Home Round Robin.  Most readers liked the layout option with those diamonds on opposite corners turned into stars.  

I agree and have begun to work with the red/white blocks currently made.  The bottom and right side has been attached, and I've started the top and left sides. 

Blocks #11 and #12 were finished yesterday, and I've begun to put the top and left strips together.  These all are getting some spacers as the little blocks finish at 3", and the diamonds finish at 4".  

The other 3" set of blocks still needs Blocks #11 and #12, and that might not actually happen this week.  I hate falling behind, but I knew it would happen with a week away this month, and 2 more weeks away in February.  I'll get caught up eventually.  

Design Wall Monday - catching up

After a week away, it felt so good to spend several productive hours in my sewing room on Sunday.  I managed to get both the 9” and 6” versions of the Sewcialites block #11 and #12.

We’ve reached the halfway point, and it’s really fun to see these blocks come together.

I haven't decided yet whether to use the layout provided with the Sewcialites 2 patterns, or come up with something different.  But I am pretty pleased with most of these batik blocks in the 6" size.

The 9" blocks are the ones I'm making in greens and cream.  Totally scrappy.  And so far, these might be my favorites. 

I also made the first block for the new Saturday Sampler program, and cut out the 3” blocks for Sewcialites.  I’m still behind in the Scrappiness Is Happiness blocks, and didn’t play with any blue on Sunday for RSC. But it’s a good start on catching up this week. This 12" block is called Going In Circles, and is simply made with Flying Geese.

I couldn't just throw away the triangles trimmed from those Flying Geese, so I sewed them into hourglass blocks.  These may end up on the back of the quilt.

I’m linking up with Design Wall Monday:
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Itchin' to be Stitchin"

 Itchin' to be stitchin'.  A blog friend said this to me this morning and she is right on target.  After being gone all week with ZERO sewing time, I'm just itching to get back into my sewing room.  Maybe this evening or tomorrow.

In the meantime . . . this is my PHD list for the local quilt shop.  The owner challenges us to pick 12 projects we really really want to finish for the year, and rewards us based on how many we bring in to show.  Before leaving town on Monday I took my first PHD finish in - Michelle's runner.  It went in the mail, and is headed to Virginia.  Bonus - it even has a dark blue element for January RSC. Yay!

This list, for me, has the highest priority projects from my much longer UFO Challenge list.  Last year I managed to finish 10 of my 12 items, and then carried over those 2 onto the 2023 list.  

I'm linking up with the RSC23 page today!

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Planning for Saturday Sampler

 The new Saturday Sampler program is a mix of pieced and appliqué blocks. I’ve been playing with various color schemes and might have a plan in mind finally.  I picked up the first month’s pattern on Monday before leaving town for work.  Now I’ll have to wait for Saturday before starting.

I really didn’t want to buy new fabric for this one, so I’ve been going through some options in my stash to use.  The pattern suggests 13 fat quarters, but I think I’m going to start with this set of 5 fat quarters, plus the layer cake with similar colors.  Then I can see what else in the stash might work along with these.  Some of the appliqué sections will need some black, and maybe other options.  The print background was purchased for a different project, and then replaced with something else. It looks OK with these colors. 

Design Wall Monday - Wintery runners

 What is on your design wall today?
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

My design wall is mostly empty in anticipation of a long week of meetings and training for work, and almost no sewing time, except for maybe a little handwork in the evenings.  I did finish the long skinny Wintery runner on Sunday evening, and it will go into the mail this week.  It's 11" by 48", made especially to fit a buffet. 

The quilting is simple straight lines, and the backing is left over from a previous project.  

The color is very close to the actual icy blue in this photo.  It's such a pretty batik, with that touch of yellow.  The 5 blocks in the first runner are 6.5" versions of the full size blocks in this runner I'm still working on.  This one has only 3 blocks, and has squared off ends rather than points.  I'm planning to quilt this one pretty much like the smaller one, with simple straight lines.  

RSC23 - Week #2

 Hmmm . . . not a lot of blue sewing happened this week other than this wintery runner, in 2 sizes.  This one has 3 blocks (each 12"), with sashing and borders.  The other version has the blocks done in half that size, but more of them.  I'm still working on those smaller blocks.  The second runner needs to fit on a buffet that is only 1 foot wide, but 5 feet long.  I made the bigger sized one for myself, and as a "test" to make sure I like the colors before making the one that was requested by someone else. The colors are much prettier, and very "icy" looking in real life rather than the grey light coming in the windows.

Plenty of sewing time did happen the first half of the week, and much of it was scrappy.  Just not necessarily blue scrappy.  

I did assemble a couple more rows on the Scrappy Irish Chain quilt.  This is an RSC project started in 2022 that is continuing in 2023.  I wanted to get a better idea of how these would all look together, and I'm pleased with it so far.  By the end of 2023 with a better range of colors added, I think this will be a really good scrappy quilt. 

How is RSC going for you in 2023?
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Work gets in the way of fun

 Once a year there is an "all hands" meeting and training schedule for my very part time job.  Next week is that week for 2023.  I'll most likely be MIA from my blog a good share of next week, as there will probably be nothing interesting to talk about or share.  Looking at the schedule of topics, I'm hoping that I'll be excused for part of Thursday and I can escape to do a little shopping.

And my monthly hours to update project budgets came yesterday and today.  That severely cuts into my sewing time - but I keep reminding myself that I'm earning my "fun money" every hour I work.

I need to point out the ADORABLE new mug rug on my desk!!  A big thank you shout out to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for this cutie!!  My thanks to her are way overdue, as it came in a Christmas card a couple of weeks ago.  Do you see the little snowman peeking out?  He has 3 tiny red sparkly buttons, and there is gold trim, and sparkly thread too.  LeeAnna is a very creative artist with fiber, paint, embellishments - most any media she uses.  Thank you my friend!

Sewcialites - some planning

 Block #10 is finished in all 4 of my colors, just in time for today's release of Block #11.  Does that mean I'm actually behind and not really caught up?  LOL

The batik 6" version went together really well, in spite of the crazy number of pieces.  I've decided that it's very helpful to press those small units and square them up before sewing sections together.  The 3" version with the black background also went together better than the 3" red and white one did.  I ended up leaving the center as a simple square instead of putting those snowball corners on.  It was kind of accidental, as I forgot those corners and decided there was no way I was taking it apart to change it.  It looks just fine without them.

The red and white 3" blocks are going to be added to this red and white project started last year as part of the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR).  I started with the schoolhouse block, then added the diamonds and squares in opposite corners.  That was all the further I got before setting it aside.  So now I'm playing with ideas for how to incorporate these little Sewcialites blocks.  Should I keep going with the asymmetrical look and add the diamonds with the small blocks like this one above?  This layout leaves a lot of white areas in this quilt, which I don't mind at all.  

Or should I replace the white corners with the diamonds and squares to make all 4 corners look alike?  Then I can put the little squares around.  This version reduces the large areas of white. 

I can't decide which layout I like better, so I welcome your thoughts.  Or maybe someone out there will have a NEW idea to try.  Thanks in advance!

Sewcialites block 10

 The Sewcialites 2, block #10 has been a challenge!  It's called Flourish by Lori Holt.  

I have the green 9" version done, and that one went together smoothly. If I've counted correctly this block has 53 pieces in it.  In the 9" version those pieces were pretty manageable.  But in that red and white 3" version, those 53 pieces gave me fits!

Maybe I'll get my other 2 versions done before the next block comes out.  The 6" version is the one I'm doing in bright batiks from a layer cake.  The second 3" block has a black background, which will be much more difficult for me in the teeny tiny pieces.  My personal challenge of doing these 3" blocks is aimed at improving my accuracy and skills, so I'm determined to get them done. 

Tuesday To Do

The Framed Friendship Squares blocks are now assembled into a flimsy, and it's hanging up waiting for it's turn to be quilted.  There is no rush on it, but it will be a donation quilt.  Plus it's nice to have 20 of those blocks out of the project box.  There are nearly enough for a second quilt, but that can wait.  

Now back to my January project list . . . 

Last week's Scrappiness Is Happiness block was Scrap-apple.  It's 24" square, so I used some of the larger scale prints from my 30s collection in it.  I've pulled the fabrics for block #11 for this week, but haven't cut it out yet.  Block #11 uses a lot of 2.5" squares, so I was able to pull them from the 30s scrap basket.  I might get that block made later today.  

These 2 orphan blocks were in my stash.  Now they are mug rugs.  They are about 7" by 10", so they're big enough to hold a mug and a treat.  There are a bunch more orphan blocks that could/should become something instead of lying in a drawer.  

I've had a request for a winter table runner, using blues with just a touch of yellow.  The pattern I'm using has 6 of these simple units mixed with other simple units.  The icy blue and yellow batik in the stack should look good with the brighter blue, and it has just that touch of yellow.  Hope to have this runner ready to quilt by the weekend.  

I'm also trying to get last week's Sewcialites blocks made.  The green 9" version is partially sewn, but I haven't even cut out the others yet.  That particular block has a LOT of pieces, so it is a bit intimidating to think about making the tiny 3" version.  

Design Wall Monday - friendship squares

 First of all - a little bragging is in order.  The South Dakota State University Jackrabbits won their first ever national championship on Sunday, beating their arch football rivals NDSU in Frisco Texas in the FCS championship game.  I stole the photo below from Facebook.  It sure was fun to watch (on TV) the game and cheer on my alma mater. 

The quilt guild I belong to has a long standing tradition, of sharing "friendship squares" when they travel and get to visit quilt shops.  We cut a 6" square for each member.  And since we are a fairly small guild, it is not a huge investment.  And of course it's voluntary, but definitely a fun tradition.

After the guild meeting on Saturday, I realized I had quite a stack of new blocks from several months' meetings in my "guild bag" to add to the project box at home where I keep them.  Back in 2016 I used a bunch of the squares as star centers, and called the quilt Traveling Stars. It's queen sized, and lives on the bed in our basement guest room.

Over the years a few of these squares have been used in other projects too, when I needed just one square of something.  One of my guild friends mentioned as we were leaving the meeting that the Beads block we're doing for Quilts of Valor would be another good use of the friendship squares.  Yes!!  So of course when I got home I just HAD to try that idea out immediately, right?

Here is that Beads block on the right, using one of the new squares.  And the block on the left is one of the framed squares that I've been making the past year for RSC.  And since that project box was out, I had to count the finished blocks in the box.

I had decided this fall to separate this block collection into "boy" versions and "girl" versions for donation quilts.  I needed just one more boy block to make a quilt top, so that became the new plan.  

There was a great little bicycle friendship square in the box but it was just slightly too small, so I simply added a narrow border, then added the rest of the block pieces.  In the end, that little narrow white frame won't stand out in the quilt.  BTW - this is a Pat Sloan block from her Winter Fun sew-along, and was free on her website.

So here are all of the boy version blocks laid out on my Design Floor.  The block centers have lots of sports, animals, camping, and cowboys.  This wasn't on my January list of projects, but since it was so close to being done it just made sense to at least get it to flimsy stage.  Hopefully this week!

What's on your design wall this morning?

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Frosty morn

 This was the view down our street yesterday morning . . .

The sun was shining brightly after quite a foggy start to the day. The trees were covered with frost, and sparkled in the sunlight.  The piles of snow are high, but our city has done a pretty good job of removing snow on major streets.  

RSC23 - week #1 of blue

Isn't it fun to start a new color at the beginning of a month?  Thank you to Angela for hosting the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each year!  The main blue project I worked on this week was finishing the Snowflake pillow that I posted about yesterday.  

I did play with other blue projects this week too.  There are several on-going block sets happening around here that will eventually become quilts.  And I've "fluffed up" the blue scraps so the bin looks more full than it did before.  

A few of these 4.5" blocks have been added to the box for the Small Hearts quilt.  When there is a good assortment of colors again, then I'll get the next couple of vertical rows sewn.  

I had mostly depleted the heart blocks I made in 2022 in the first 4 rows.  But there is no rush with finishing this quilt, so the heart collection will keep accumulating each month.

A few pyramid blocks were made too.  These have scrappy backgrounds - some white, some beige/tan/cream, some neutral prints.  I didn't count, but I think there are about 30 of these blocks hanging in the closet. They are 12" tall, but I want to make a big quilt with them, so will need more.

A couple of the scrappy Irish Chain blocks were added.  I have 2 rows of these blocks sewn together already and have enough blocks for 2 more rows.  The blocks finish at 8".

And 1 new Stashbuster block (from Border Creek Stations) joined the first 2 test blocks I made last fall.  This was their 2022 stashbuster challenge block, and finishes at 10".  There is a new block for their 2023 challenge, and patterns from previous years' challenges.  The patterns are free, and the new block for 2023 has instructions for 3 different sizes.  
https://www.bordercreekstation.com/the-stash-buster-challenge.htm

What are you playing with in 2023 for RSC?
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Snowflakes, frogs, and puzzles

 The first flimsy of 2023 has been sewn, and is ready to quilt.  It still needed a good final pressing when I took this photo.  But it's a bright happy quilt.

The Quick Strippee is a free pattern from Mary Quilts, and I've made several of these over the years.  It's done with 1 yard each of 3 fabrics,  plus binding.  The wider strip is a terrific way to showcase a fun novelty print or special print of any theme.  The cute frog print and the wavy matching print were purchased in Nebraska last fall while traveling to a family reunion in Kansas.  The orange solid was a local purchase, and I have binding strips cut from it too.

Another small finish happened while being snowed in this week - this seasonal Snowflake pillow.  Navy blue solid is paired with a white dotted Swiss white-on-white print. This was a kit purchased last year as part of a Pillow of the Month program.  It's 20" square, and has a simple envelope back.  The edges are done with binding. I kept the quilting simple, but did it myself.

Besides sewing and shoveling snow, what else is there to do?  Well, I started a puzzle and this one is going to be tricky.  It's a Christmas gift from this year.  This is called an "escape puzzle", and evidently there is a mystery to solve AFTER you get the puzzle put together by following clues on the pieces. The other tricky thing - the picture on the box isn't EXACTLY what the finished puzzle will look like.  This puzzle may be on my coffee table for a long time if I'm not smart enough.