A finish & April goals

A new month means a fresh set of goals and plans for me.  Some are brand new goals, some are carried over from previous month. 

The most important UFO finish for March was this blue and white sampler quilt.  This was a Riley Blake Design challenge (block of the week) from 2022.  Except for the border print and the backing, it all came from my stash. I love blue.

Here are some of my April goals . . .

• Keep up with weekly/monthly sew-along blocks
• Saturday Sampler block #4
• Sewcialites - blocks #22-24
• Scrappiness Is Happiness blocks #23-26
• Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in NEW COLOR
• Pyramids
• small hearts
• Irish Chain
• other misc RSC blocks
• UFO Challenge projects
• APQ Challenge #4 - Humble Homes quilt - needs 2 more rows made
• fish pillowcase
• cowboy hat pillowcase
• chili pepper pillowcase
• bind the Christmas Saturday Sampler quilt (if it's back from quilter)
• PIGS / New projects
• Dinosaur Quick Strippee (sew top)
• Dogs Quick Strippee (sew top)

Pillow covers

 I'm very late posting today, as I forgot to do it before going to the dentist this morning.

Yesterday's finish was this pillow cover for my family room.  The blocks are Invigorate, one of the recent Sewcialites 2 blocks.  I really liked the block, and decided to play with it beyond just making the ones for the sew-along.  

There are 6 additional 20" covers that I've been making and change out with the seasons.  The first 6 are part of a Riley Blake Pillow of the Month set of kits.  I still have a few more to make.  And the nice thing is these could be used as table toppers too as they lay very flat without the pillow form.

Today I'm hoping to finish binding the blue and white sampler quilt.

Sew-along catch ups

 Scrappiness Is Happiness was one of the projects that had fallen to the wayside lately, but I'm caught up with the blocks now.  

Grandma's Donut is an interesting block.  The pattern had those background triangles added to the corners after the rest of the block was assembled.  However, I already had some leftover triangles that were the right size, so I just used those.  The end result is the same.

Granny's Star is a blend of a "granny square" and a star.  The Granny Square is basically the shape of the crocheted granny squares used in afghans.  Both of these first blocks are 6.5". 

This week's (week #22) Scrappiness block is this butterfly, and the instructions required 2 of them.  It's a 5.5" block called In Flight.  Now I'm caught up with Scrappiness Is Happiness.

Last week's Sewcialites blocks are all finished as well - just in time for this week's block to be released.  This one is called Dapper by Jane Davidson.  The batik block in the upper right actually has a dark purple in it, but in the photo it sure looks black.  It has been nice to have a couple of easy blocks in a row, but I'm sure there will be some more complicated ones in the final group. 

An Easter bunny finish & more kits

The binding was finished in the car on Saturday afternoon.  Binding a small project is a good road trip project, as long as the road isn't too rough. 

I kept the quilting simple.  A paper template helped with those curves quilted into each bunny ear, and the rest of the quilting used the serpentine stitch along straight lines.  

 

I had a specific size in mind, which is why the sides are wider than those bottom strips.  

The bunny head is actually from the Fancy Forest pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.  It has a variety of forest critters, and someday I might make more of them.

While I had binding on my mind, another small project got some binding sewn on as well.  This will be a pillow cover, but I'll wait to share more once it's actually done.  The hand stitching remains. 

Three more kits are front and center.  Like the Strippee quilts, I always have a stack of pillowcase kits lined up and ready to sew.  The chili pepper kit was actually purchased on our trip this winter, but the other 2 were kitted up by me.  Making these pillowcases in April is being added to my goals for the month.  Do these count as a UFO or maybe just a WIP?  I donate lots of pillowcases during the year, but also gift a lot of them.  

Design Wall Monday - kitting up quilts

Saturday was a fun day, with no sewing but plenty of other fun.  Our 5 grandkids had a busy winter with 3 playing basketball, one wrestling, and one on a swim team.  On Saturday the last 2 basketball games were played, and we were actually able to be there.  Between games we did a little shopping and grabbed a burger at Red Robin with them. And we could finally give Sophia her birthday present since we had Covid when she actually celebrated her 11th birthday a couple of weeks ago.  

No sewing happened on Saturday but I did get back into the sewing room on Sunday for a little while at least.

Creating a kit for future projects is something that I do fairly often, especially with pillowcases and with planned (non-scrappy) quilts.  The kits help me NOT use the fabric for something else by mistake.  And the patterns get tucked in with them - also so as not to separate the pattern from the fabric.  This lime green and orange frog quilt is one that had been kitted up last fall, and I sewed the top easily in 1 day this winter. 

This particular pattern is called Quick Strippee, and is a free pattern from Mary Quilts.  It's fast and easy, and uses 3 yards of fabric - 1 yard each of 3 fabrics.  It's terrific for showcasing some of those fun novelty prints available.  I've made 8 or 9 of these over the years, or maybe more.  I've given quite a few as baby gifts.

I had decided my PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks) of choice for the month of April would be 2 or more Quick Strippee tops.  The fabrics I had set aside for these no longer fit into the project box; therefore it's time to sew these.  So on Sunday afternoon I cut and kitted up 2 new ones.  This one has dogs in the bigger novelty print along with dog paw prints, and a nearly solid for the narrow strips.

The second one kitted up on Sunday has a dinosaur theme.  I love the colors in this one.  It might just be the first one of the kits that gets sewn up in April.

That makes 3 complete kits, ready to sew.  The minty green with blue one was kitted up a month or so ago.  The fabric with the horses was called Giddy-Up I think.  I bought it in Kansas over Labor Day weekend while there for a family reunion.  Usually I cut the bindings from the same fabric as the narrow strips, but this time I cut the stripe for binding.

While cutting the strips for the quilt tops, I also cut the binding strips so I know they are all together in the project box.  The binding for the frog quilt is there too.

The project box has a few other fabric purchases waiting to become Quick Strippee quilts sometime in the future.  I think that whale fabric is going to be really fun.  

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

RSC23 Week #12 - small hearts

 Small heart blocks (4.5") have been one of my on-going RSC projects for a couple of years now. It will take a LOT of 4.5" blocks to make a whole quilt.  But I have plenty of patience with these, and they are so easy to just make a few at a time.

I make a few at a time each month, and they go into this little plastic box.  I also cut the 2.5" by 4.5" strips of scraps as I'm sewing and drop those in too.  The box contains lots of different colors of strips, and a whole rainbow of completed hearts.   

Earlier in the month I made a couple of green hearts, but this week I remembered there were lots more green parts in the box.  So, 2 more green ones were finished along with 5 additional blocks in other colors.  These were all clipped together with the white pieces so it was a quick task.  I also realized I had more than enough hearts now to make a 5th vertical column to add to the quilt top in progress.

And when I laid the existing quilt top section out to decide what colors to add next - I saw the error in that Column #4.  The hearts are supposed to zig-zag down the column, but that purple block should have lined up with the blue-ish one below the yellow heart. Oops!!  I've had this quilt top section hanging next to my design wall - which I face when at my sewing machine - for about 2 months and never noticed that mistake. In that first photo - there was another oops - again without the zig-zag. 

It was a quick fix with my seam ripper in both cases.  I took out the purple heart along with the horizontal strip below it.  Then I just inserted a different block that was correctly aligned.  The purple heart went right into Column #5 as I assembled that one.  The block in that first picture was also moved.

At this point this quilt top is only 30" wide, so there will be more columns added.  Obviously there is no rush so these will continue as RSC blocks. 

Check out more in the RAINBOW world this week.
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

This n That

Today is my 69th birthday and tomorrow is our 46th wedding anniversary. Thursday morning I got this lovely flower arrangement from my husband.  Red roses mixed with pale lavender/pink ones.  And notice the bunny face peeking out from the lower right side?

It's been a busy and productive week for me. On Monday I set some goals for the week - including binding a quilt, getting caught up with Saturday Sampler, cutting out an Easter table runner, and a few other tasks.  I haven't gotten all of it done, but have made some progress on most. 

This month's block for Saturday Sampler is complete.  I'm using mostly bright fabrics that "read" solid from a distance, and a background with a tiny colorful floral print.  This SS will be a combination of applique blocks and pieced blocks.

So far, this is what we've done - the appliqued dress form block, and 2 pieced blocks.  I'm going to use some black in those applique pieces, with the dress form being a large floral print with all the colors of the bright fabrics.  I'm concerned the large floral will be too big in some of the smaller appliques, so we'll see how that works out.  

The Easter table runner is already in the binding stage, along with the blue and white sampler quilt.  You know how it goes - once I had the pieces cut it was hard to resist doing a little sewing on it.  And next thing I knew the top was done.  So yesterday I did some simple quilting on it, and added the binding.  Once that binding is done I'll show the whole thing.  This is a very poor showing of the real colors.  It's much more springy looking in real life.  

Today I plan to kit up 2 Quick Strippee kid quilts for next month's projects.  The fabrics I bought some months ago don't actually fit into the project box as is, so I decided that it would be good to just cut the strips for the kits, including the binding.  I always worry that the fabrics will get separated, and then used for something else by mistake.  Kitting them up solves that problem.

Strippee #1 - dogs in reds, tan, black, and white

Strippee #2 - dinosaurs with royal blue, lime green

A major task for this weekend is to get this week's blocks done for Sewcialites and for Scrappiness I Happiness.  Those weekly sew-alongs have been in danger of not happening in the correct week lately.  Can I blame the Easter Bunny for distracting me this week?

Easter table runner

 One of my goals for the week was to cut out the pieces for a new Easter table runner for myself.  I'm happy to say the goal has been met and exceeded.  It's not a finish yet, but I do have a good start.

I bought that pink floral at least a month ago with the intention of using it for an Easter themed table runner.  It's a fairly new Tilda fabric and I loved that shade of pink.  The white with the dots is left over from the recent Framed 9-Patch, the purple and fuchsia were in the stash.  The black dot was in the scrap basket. And that adorable purple Easter Bunny print was a purchase just this week - especially to use in this project. 

I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this.

Update on Nanci's Stars

On Monday afternoon I got to play cards with a group of friends.  It felt so good to be out and about after being cooped up with Covid.  LOL  One of those good friends in the card group is one of Nanci's sisters.
 

She told me that they made a decision on where to donate the Nanci's Stars quilt I gave them.  I've posted about this quilt - which began with the sudden death of Nanci, and a gift of some of her patterns and fabric stash that I received.  The blue blocks were a kit for a table runner from the basket of goodies I got.  Then I made more blocks from my own batik stash, and eventually it became this quilt, which I gave back to her sisters to donate somewhere.

Well, this quilt has been given to one of Nanci's sons and will be used as a fund raiser for her grandson's football team.  Nanci's husband was a huge sports fan, and spent his life as a HS teacher, a HS coach, and decades as a referee.  They both enjoyed watching their grandchildren play sports.  So I feel really good that the quilt will raise some money for youth sports.

Working on the red and white layout

 So far I'm having some fun imagining how this red and white quilt will end up looking.  

The schoolhouse and the diamond-stars were the beginning of my Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) from 2022.  We started with a block and then got challenge clues to add things each week.  I did the diamonds the second week, and then hit a wall with it.  Each week I tried to add something - like the heart above the chimney - but it just wasn't looking good.  So it became a UFO, folded up in a project box along with some red scraps. 

And then along came the Sewcialites 2 sew-along in 2023, and I decided to do 3" blocks in red and white.  Somewhere along the way I remembered the schoolhouse project, and now it's getting some new life.  I'm not at all sure how this will play out but at least it's back on the design wall. 

Design Wall Monday - March 20

 It's always fun to pick up a quilt from the long arm quilter.  On Saturday - finally having Covid behind me - I got out of the house and ran lots of errands.  Picking up this quilt was the first errand, and definitely the best one.

This blue and white quilt is a scrappy sampler using the Riley Blake Design challenge blocks from 2022, and lots of blue scraps.  It makes me think of Delft dishes. I just love 2-color quilts, and this is my 3rd blue and white one.  It's not huge, so it shouldn't take too long to bind.

My plan for this week involves a variety of project tasks, including these:

• Bind this quilt
• cut out parts for Easter table runner  
• make the Saturday Sampler block for this month
• make next block for Scrappiness Is Happiness
• finish borders on a QOV (2 are in my UFO pile)

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

Sewcialites fun

This week's Sewcialites 2 block was another easy one, much to my relief.  This is Fascinate by Sherri McConnell and it went together so well.  The pattern showed the 4-patch sections done with 4 different colors, but I didn't do that.  In the 6" batik version I did use 2 colors.  

I keep playing with ideas for how to set these blocks together as we get close to the finish line.  The only one I have a plan for so far is the 3" red/white blocks.  And that is still a work in progress too.

 

I have decided that 4 of these blocks will become the centers of Friendship Star blocks. I had a fat quarter of a white with little red dots, so that is the background. 

How those star blocks will be incorporated with the rest of this??  Still be be determined.  But I have the pieces ready to add to the top and left sides to mirror the bottom and right side.  That is one of my goals for this weekend.

RSC Saturday #10 - more green

Playing with green this month has given me some insight into just how much green I actually have in my stash.  Green and blue must be my Go To colors, because those are the ones that I have the most of right now.  Do you have certain colors that you tend to buy most often? 

A few little bits of green were used up from the scrap bins this week, in between working on getting that Framed 9-patch quilt to the flimsy stage.  There was plenty of green in that quilt top, so it counts for RSC as well, right?  

Then from a scrap of that floral border print, I made an Irish Chain block.  

I also just couldn't resist playing with a bright floral fat quarter that I picked up on our road trip last month.  More touches of spring were needed in my isolated little Covid world this week - plus there's green here too!  

This is the Invigorate block (Joanna Figueroa) from last week's Sewcialites 2 block release.  I knew I would want to make this block again and again.  I found some green from the scrap bin and pulled a couple of blue and yellow 3.5" squares from the box of leftover 3.5" squares, and added them to the floral fat quarter to make 4 blocks.  These are 9" blocks (finished size), so I'm thinking that 4 together with a simple border would make a great pillow cover or possibly a table runner.

Red, white, and blue may be the next version of that Invigorate block.  

Bonus - the 9" version of this week's Sewcialites block is green too. More about these tomorrow.

What else is happening in the RAINBOW world this week?
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Framed 9-patch is a flimsy

 Too much overthinking is what happens sometimes with my projects.  That is when a WIP has a danger of becoming a UFO.  In this case, I decided to just make a decision on width of border and get this quilt top finished.  My husband was reluctantly holding it up for me here.

So, the dark floral border is working well.  My long ruler is 6.5" so cutting that size strip from width of fabric is very easy, and it's a good size for most quilts too.  That border makes this quilt 66 x 78.  

The Framed 9-patch was definitely a "design as you sew" kind of project.  I had a half jelly roll, which had only 1 strip each of 20 different fabrics in the Country Rose (Moda) line. Originally my plan had been to make those 9-patch blocks with the colors reversed, and put the blocks directly together without sashing.  

However, it wasn't possible to cut the frame pieces (6.5" and 10.5") and the 4 squares needed from each strip.  I came up about 1" short each time I measured.  So I dug into the stash and found the white-on-cream background.  The 5 squares needed for each 9 patch were cut from the jelly roll strips.  Then the leftover parts of the strips were used to cut sashing to put in between blocks.

I think this works out just fine, even if it wasn't the first plan. 

Dogs & Cats Sew Together bag

Sew Together bag #19 is complete.  This is really the only bag pattern that I've made multiple times over several years.  Considering it has 4 zippers, I sometimes question my sanity. But they are very cute so that must be why I keep making them. 

On my PHD list I see that I listed this one as "cats", when the fabric is really dogs.  Or maybe it's cats AND dogs.  I just know I liked the colors and the whimsical look when I bought this fat quarter several years ago.  It's a Laurel Burch print. 

Inside are 3 zippered pockets to hold goodies.  And the long zipper across the top extends down into the handles.  Those end sections have a black dotted batik on the outside, and a bubblegum pink print on the inside that is picked up in the print I used for the lining. 

There is a basket in my sewing room with more parts for more of these bags - just in case.

Ready for a final border

I can't seem to get a photo that does justice to the soft springy colors in this quilt.  It's much prettier colors in real life.   

The rows are all assembled, and the first "stop the eye" border is on too.  I used the same fabric in that first border that is used for all of the cornerstones in between sashing. 

The plan is to add a 6" outer border using that darker print, but haven't cut any of those border strips yet.  I think I want to give it some thought about width.  The quilt is 54 x 66 without that outer border, so my main question is whether to use that 6" width or make is slightly larger.