Design Wall Monday - Changing months

Some months are much more productive than others.  My plan this summer has been loosely formed around moving projects to the next stage - whatever that might be.  Well, I got several sets of blocks moved to the "flimsy" stage, and did a lot of binding for finished projects.  Some were big, some were small.  Now as the calendar page turns to August, the plan is staying the same.  Move projects forward, and have some fun with them.

The UFO Challenge number for August is #12.  One of the 3 projects on my spreadsheet for that number is already completely done and marked off the list. Check!!  The middle item is a complicated applique project, and it's going to just stay on the UFO list for now because I just don't feel like working on it.  And I'm OK with that.  But the last item on the list is already a flimsy, so it's one that should be easy to move forward - which means quilting, then binding.

This Quick Strippee quilt is child sized.  The binding is already cut and ready to go.  I think I even have some backing for this one already. 

While I'm thinking ahead about choosing some fun projects to play with this month, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color will be YELLOW.  Hmmm - what yellow things are hiding out in my sewing room just waiting for some attention?

And - what is on YOUR design wall this final Monday in July?
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

Now to look back at the month of July. Wow!! I surprised even myself at how much was accomplished in July. I'm patting myself on the back!

Quilt Tops Completed - easy when most of the block sets are done

• Rainbow Twinkle Star quilt top
• Happy Block child quilt top
• Purple 4-Patch child quilt top
• Split Back Star QOV quilt #1
• Split Back Star QOV quilt #2
• Daring Spirit QOV quilt #1
• Red/white Sewcialites wall hanging top
• Spiderman doll quilt top

Finished Projects - the big quilts just needed binding

• Christmas Saturday Sampler (queen size quilt)
• Dark/Bright Saturday Sampler quilt
• Twinkle Star Quilt of Valor
• Humble Homes quilt
• Haunted Halloween wall hanging
• 3-D Pinwheel baby quilt
• 2 Halloween Gnome table runners
• Dog (star block) doll quilt

Past and present

We have a houseful of family here this weekend, as both sons-in-law are playing in a golf tournament with my husband. They played in a practice round on Friday followed by a dinner, then tournament rounds Saturday and again today.  One daughter and 2 grandkids arrived about supper time Friday.  The others came on Saturday morning. 

Conversation with my daughter Friday evening turned to vintage clothes, which reminded her that as a kid she loved trying on my wedding dress.  She thought the last time she could fit into it she was a 7th grader.  Granddaughter Sophia is 11 and will be in 6th grade next year.  Of course we had to get that dress out of the garment bag so she could try it on.  I'm guessing this might be the only time it will fit her, because she's probably destined to be much taller than me.

Here I am wearing the dress - and 3" heels - almost 47 years ago.  I actually made my own dress, Dave's shirt, and the 2 bridesmaid dresses. My best friend's sister managed a Minneapolis fabric shop at the time, and she got me the fabric at cost - about $50 total for all of it. The fabric is a "silky" ivory fabric, but I don't remember what it is called.  The other dresses were the same fabric, but red.  There are a LOT of covered buttons up the bodice front and along the long cuffs.   

RSC23 - Week #30

 Hmmm - not sure it has been good for to keep counting these weeks.  It is just a loud reminder that 2023 is flying by too quickly. Check out more RSC projects here:
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

There was quite a lot of red sewing this month.  I was able to add more blocks to several of the on-going block sets: Brighten, Boxed Squares, Pyramids, Floating Stars, Stashbuster, Windmills, Small Hearts, and more.  Several quilt tops were finished, and a couple quilts even got binding.  

One of the RSC23 block sets has become a finished quilt.  The 3-D Pinwheels baby quilt is all done, and I even quilted it myself.  There isn't any red in this one, but I had 8 more blocks left over when I decided to keep this crib sized.  So maybe I'll include red in some future blocks using this pattern.

There are plenty of red blocks in the Falling In Love quilt. These heart blocks were all from RSC22, and the flimsy was assembled earlier in 2023.  I picked it up from the quilter about a week ago, but haven't quite decided yet on binding color. 

So, overall I'm very happy with all of the RED I was able to play with in July.  August will bring a new color to dig into, and I'm excited to see what the month brings. 

Slow going

This has been a week! Between having people here checking on our lightning damage, and people fixing or replacing things damaged, my sewing routine has gotten kind of ragged.  Additionally I've had various appointments on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday - and our kids and grandkids will be here this weekend beginning with some this evening.  The electrician arrived again this morning at 7:30 am already.  We consider ourselves lucky - no fire, no big holes in the house (just the tree) and the lightning didn't impact the really important things - AC system, my sewing machine, major appliances. Got our Internet back late morning yesterday, and cable TV before supper time yesterday. The lightning strike fried our lawn sprinkler system controller and some other things.  Gradually we're finding problems, and hopefully things will return to normal in a few days.  

Yesterday I posted this 4 block unit from the quilt cruise project. There are 9 of these (20" square) units with the colors in different locations.  I have 2 of them assembled.  There are also 3 more plain units only using the light colors, and those are all done.  In spite of lots of interruptions yesterday Row 1, with 2 of these and 1 of the plain units, is complete.   

The final set of blocks for the 2022 Saturday Sampler is also seeing a little progress.  I definitely need something bright and cheery to work on besides that cruise project.  The pieced sashing from the original pattern creates a big impact with a secondary design.  But it's also a bit time consuming, so this is also a slow project. That's OK.  The coral, white, and black/white pieces are all cut and so far I have 3 of the 12 sampler blocks sashed.

The mail yesterday brought a large heavy box with 3 - yes 3!! - Quilts of Valor quilts for our group to use for some of the excess nominations we've received recently for people outside of our normal area. These came from a regional coordinator. The beautiful quilts are already quilted and trimmed, but need binding and labels, which we can easily do.  Two of the 3 quilts even had binding strips included with them.  One is a gorgeous Carpenter Star and has this quilting design - with words like honor, bravery, courage still with little stars.  Just beautiful quilts!!

Plodding along

 Tuesday night we had a nasty storm move through our area.  And about 11:00 pm we had a close call with lightning.  It struck a tree next to the house then followed the extension cord from the bug zapper hanging in the tree right to the house. Boom!!!!

Luckily there was no fire. Just some fried electronics for the most part. My sewing machine survived unscathed. An electrician checked things out Wednesday morning. And hopefully our Internet and cable connections will be restored today. In the meantime the only sewing on Wednesday was putting together one of the 12 sections of the cruise project. Slowly but surely I will finish this. 

Quilts of Valor - 2 new flimsies

 Having all of the parts and pieces for a quilt all cut and kitted up sure makes the actual assembly of the quilt go quickly.  Two next Quilts of Valor flimsies are ready for quilting.  My cool and shady front porch made a good place for pictures in the early morning.

This is the second Split Back Star quilt top.  We used different layouts with them, and I'm not sure which I like the best.  Diagonal rows works really nicely. 

The was a Villa Rosa pattern called Daring Spirits, and it was really a fast one to sew because those strips are 5" wide.  I really LOVE those double friendship stars in the corners.  And the corners trimmed from those star blocks ended up in another FUN block.

I sewed the corning trimmings into the pinwheels, then realized I could do something fun with them. But what could they become?  Here is the resulting 12" block.  What can I call this - a Pinwheel 9-Patch block maybe? 

There is one more of these (with a different panel) kitted up, but it may have to wait until next month as I have some other projects I want to work on.  

I really need to go back and count how many Quilts of Valor tops I've made myself. I'm sure they are adding up.  A big Thank You again to blogging friend Nancy at Wyoming Breezes blog for helping me get our QOV group started here.  She does count, and her most recent QOV top was #238!!!!

To Do Tuesday

 I had great plans to hide out in my sewing room on Monday because it was going to be hot and humid here.  After about a half hour of peaceful stitching, my husband popped in to see if I wanted to go to Menards with him. Since I had a little shopping list already going I had to say YES.

We now have a nice sturdy step stool for me to use when I can't reach things, like trying to hang some curtains.  I'm "vertically challenged" along with getting older, so this will be very handy and much safer than my other little step stool.

And yes, it was hot and humid - so the afternoon made for some excellent sewing time.  Finishing the paper piecing for the cruise project was my first priority.  All 18 of these arcs are now pieced and ready for the next step, which is carefully removing the paper.

Once the paper is removed they will each be sewn onto that pink arc. Then some will get the grey outer piece, and some will get a pale yellow.  Some of the center "pie" slices are light blue instead of the green in this picture.  All of the remaining seams are curved to finish these blocks.  

This is the last set of blocks to make for the cruise project.  So, I'm hoping that sometime in August I'll have this top done and ready to quilt.  

Design Wall Monday - July 24

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

My design wall is FULL of things I cut and prepped on Saturday afternoon, to work on for the next couple of weeks.  First off are the pieces to make the fancy pieced sashing for the final set of Saturday Sampler 2022 blocks.  I had made 3 sets of the blocks (in 3 very different colorways) because they were such quick blocks to make.  

The first set was done in Christmas fabrics, and I used the sashing design that was part of the pattern which made it a big quilt with a cool secondary design.  The second set was done with a black background and bright colors.  I finished binding both of those quilts this month.  And I decided to use that pieced sashing with the final set of blocks which are done with bright batiks and a pale grey background.  Because batiks were on sale at The Pin Cushion for Crazy Days this weekend, I bought a coral batik to use in that sashing and a black and white print for the background of the sashing.

Lots more cutting happened for 2 more Quilts of Valor tops.  I had bought a kit with a panel a couple of years ago that included a Villa Rosa pattern called Daring Spirit.  And I also pulled fabrics for a second version of that same quilt with a different panel.  It's time to get these sewn up instead of resting in a box.  SIDE NOTE - I still have 4 patriotic panels in the box that I've picked up when they are on sale.  The final cutting was for a patriotic pillowcase.  

One version of the Daring Spirit QOV has been started . . . because I just HAD to try out the Double Friendship Star block that is in the corner of these.   It's about 14.25" square unfinished.  This is an awesome star block and I'm positive I'll make more of these in the future.

And just to keep myself honest and moving forward I have 2 other projects that are "in progress" on my design wall this week that will also see some action - hopefully.  

#1 - finish assembling the Split Back Star quilt top for Quilts of Valor

#2 - finish the paper piecing on the gold and navy blue arcs (cruise project)

My reward for finishing the Split Back Star flimsy will be working on one of the new projects.  And my reward for finishing that paper piecing - well that remains to be seen.  There are only 2 sections left to add to these so it shouldn't be such a chore.

RSC23 - Week #29

I had an explosion of red this week!  But by far the most satisfying red project this week was finishing this wall hanging flimsy.

At 30" square it isn't big, but it was definitely fun!  This began as my Stay At Home Round Robin a couple of years ago, but I wasn't happy with the way it was turning out, so it was folded up and stuck in a drawer just waiting for some inspiration.

That inspiration came with the Sewcialites 2 sew-along this past winter and spring.  The 3" (finished) red and white blocks were actually the 4th set of blocks I made for Sewcialites 2 this year.  The other 3 sets are all in completed quilt tops already.  I only used 14 of the 24 blocks in this, but I do have plans for the remaining 10 blocks in a different project, so none will be wasted.  

 

The Boxed Squares collection gained 11 blocks with red centers, and 3 more with yellow centers.  The frames around the colored 2.5" center squares are 2.5" strips of black and white and grey.  These have been an on-going RSC project this year, and there are nearly enough for a generous kid sized quilt. 

How cute are little red mushrooms?  This was new fabric at the local quilt shop, and I just HAD to have a little of it for the Pyramid blocks.  The fabric line is Enchanted Forest by Free Spirit.  This print is actually called Toadstool.  LOL  

Because I was having fun with the Toadstool fabric, I kept playing - in a Windmill block, a Small Heart, and in the center of a Twinkle Star.  Parts already cut for the hearts and the windmills are kept in 2 small plastic boxes, so while those boxes were out . . . well you know what happened.  More blocks.

In the Windmill box there were 5" squares ready to pair up, some already cut, and 4 with the sewing begun already.  I did square up a couple of the sets, and sewed them into blocks.  When I'm cleaning up scraps I often cut a variety of sizes for scrappy projects - 5" squares, 2.5" squares, 3.5" squares, and bricks (3.5" x 6.5").  Strips of various sizes happen too.  The Windmill blocks require 2 each of 2 different 5" squares. 

I did pull out of that box 2 red/white star fabric 5" squares, and decided to use them in pinwheel blocks for future Quilts of Valor, rather than put them into another Windmill.

The Small Heart parts and pieces are also collected into a plastic box as I cut them from scraps from other projects.  The box itself had become a real mess, with finished 4.5" hearts mixed in with the pieces for more.  I spent some time and organized the box so that I could more easily find blocks for the next row of the quilt these go into.

Lots of colors to choose from, and all cut to the 2.5" x 4.5" pieces needed.

Lots of finished hearts were in that box too. The next row of this quilt will be my Leader/Enders this next week.    

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

Happy Blocks & wildlife

On Wednesday morning I was outside taking some quilt photos for the blog near my front porch, and was admiring how nice my Hosta plants look(ed).  They are on the north side where the deep winter snow had been slow to melt, so they came up very late this spring.  On Thursday morning, 1 of the 3 plants looked like this . . .

The deer had mowed this one off like they used a weed whacker!!  We've had this happen other years too, and they always just eat this one on the end, leaving the other 2 alone. This time they also ate the flowers on the center one which was already blooming.

About 4:20 this morning I woke up to a lot of noise on the deck just outside our bedroom and kitchen windows. There were 4 raccoons on the deck.  They had unlatched one side of a suet bird feeder and were fighting over the suet cake they had stolen. One was on the railing and the other 3 were on the floor of the deck near the table.  None of them were at all bothered by me turning on the outdoor lights or even stepping out to try to shoo them away.  Now I'm wide awake!!

So, this new flimsy was the subject of my Thursday morning photo - and why I discovered the chewed up plant.  This is a Happy Block quilt top.  

It began with this charm pack and jelly roll from my stash.  The blocks 8.5" finished so the quilt is about 42" by 60" as I set the blocks 5 x 7.  It's bright and cheerful, and my plan (for now anyway) is to try to quilt it myself.  It will most likely be a donation quilt. 

Haunted Halloween is done

Another binding is complete - on Haunted Halloween. 

This was a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop, and done as a short sew-along with Pat Sloan.  I actually ordered the kit for this because I fell in love with the fabrics.  And yes - I do have a whole drawer full of fun Halloween fabrics in the stash.  But this was just too cute.  That border wasn't part of the original pattern, but it was too cute to hide on the back, right?  It's about 40" square.

Online there were so many amazing and creative ways that people finished their quilts.  I only added a couple of small things to the castle section - a ghost in the window, and a little sign in the doorway saying "Do Not Enter".  I cut these from some scraps and fused them on before my friend Carol quilted it for me.  

I showed the quilting earlier in the week, but just have to show it again.  She used a grey thread so that the spiderwebs actually show up.  And there are spiders hanging in those webs!!   So cute!!  I can't wait to hang this up for Halloween this fall.  

Progress on 2 projects

 The Happy Block project is nearly a flimsy.

This was my PIG (projects in grocery sacks) project for this month.  I used one jelly roll and one charm pack to make these blocks, with a few pieces left over from both.  This will be a donation quilt once it's completely done, or possibly even donated as a flimsy.  We'll see.

This is just a hint about the pieced border I'm doing on the red and white Sewcialites 2 wall hanging project.  It's turning out just how I pictured it in my head.  What are the odds of that?! 

To Do Tuesday

There are a couple of things I really want to accomplish this week.  Some will be relatively quick, and other tasks will take some time.  I had to work on Monday, so no sewing time happened.  But I'm optimistic about the rest of the week, with a focus on forward progress on WIPs. 

This set of Happy Blocks is done, and 5 of the 7 rows are assembled.  Once those last 2 rows are sewn, then it really shouldn't take long to sew the rows to each other for a finished child size quilt top.  This was my PIG project for July. 

The blocks are all made for the second Split Back Star quilt and the blocks are even pinned into rows.  This will be a Quilt of Valor, with 30 blocks made by me and one other person.  My goal is to have 3 of the 6 rows assembled this week. 

The binding on Haunted Halloween is attached and ready for the hand stitching.  I also have the binding attached to the 3-D Pinwheels baby quilt.  And I need to decide on the binding for a big scrappy quilt that I just picked up from the quilter.  I'm leaning toward a scrappy binding.  Decisions, decisions!

I've decided on a pieced border to finish off this red and white project.  The border will use 2.5" blocks, so the finished size of this wall hanging should be about 28-30" square.  I just hope to cut the pieces for that outer border this week, and plan the sewing for the weekend or next week.  The remaining 3" blocks from the Sewcialites sew-along will become something else eventually.  But for this project it will stop at wall hanging size.

Design Wall Monday - Humble Homes finish

 My design wall has other projects on it, but I had to post about my most recent finish - Humble Homes - long on the UFO list, but finally finished. 

There was WAY TOO MUCH applique on this quilt, but now that it's done I really love it.  The houses and the trees are all applique.  It's a long story, but this quilt was from a kit containing laser cut houses and trees, purchased several years ago, and then neglected for a few years.  I hated the fabrics used for the houses in the kit.  They were ugly colors and ugly prints.  So I replaced them with blue batiks.

The backing is a green botanical batik.  The binding is a blue batik.  I'm thinking this quilt will hang on my dining room wall this coming winter where I can enjoy it every day.

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

Binding, binding, binding

 There are 3 binding projects going on right now, with another couple on the horizon.  It's exciting to have several things so close to a finish.

Black and white dotted binding is ready to go for this one.  Haunted Halloween was one of those squirrels that distracted me this summer. But it's small (wall hanging), so it was not a distraction for long.  Plus it's already back from a local quilter.  Carol did such a cute job with this one.  She used a grey thread because there is a lot of grey in the border print, plus I wanted the spider webs to show.  And the bonus - there are little spiders here and there in the web. This wall hanging was a free pattern and sew-along from Fat Quarter Shop.  

The binding on Humble Homes is nearly finished.  This was an OLD project that showed up on my UFO list for several years with no progress.  Finally in 2022 I made the commitment to get it done, so I could enjoy it.  Dark blue batik binding is going on this fairly large quilt.

The 3-D Pinwheel is the 3rd binding project.  Leftover green batik backing from Humble Homes  was enough for the backing on this baby quilt too.  And I actually quilted it myself.  Orange binding is going on, which should pull that color from the border and also go nicely with that backing.

RSC23 - Week #28

 Most - but not all - of the red sewing this week focused on Quilts of Valor.  

My block-making focus this week has been on these Split Back Star blocks for 2 quilts with slightly different layouts.  This was a free pattern from the Quilts of Valor website this past year, and it's perfect for block drives with lots of different people making blocks. The star floats so the blocks can be sliver trimmed if necessary to make them all the same size.  

The first quilt top this week needed no blocks trimmed however, because they were all the same size even though 3 different people sewed the blocks. The second version will not have the outer borders, so it needs 30 blocks instead of 20.  The blocks are done, so maybe next week the second quilt top will be assembled.  We have more block sets using different patterns that are ready to sew into tops.

The next red project is to finish the top for this wall hanging using the Sewcialites 2 blocks in the 3" finished size.  Right now this is approximately 24" square, which is a nice size.

But there are still 7 of the 3" blocks.  

And 2 more blocks set into the centers of these 9" Friendship Stars.  I'm trying to decide if I want to incorporate all of these into the wall hanging or make them into separate projects.  Any thoughts on this are welcome because I'm really stuck.  Thanks in advance!!

I also used up a leftover piece of this Spiderman fabric from a pillowcase to make another doll quilt.  The squares are all cut 3.5".  Again, everything was pulled from the scraps. The top is done, but I haven't decided on a backing yet.  There is one extra 4-patch left over, but it might end up on the back.

Two new Stashbuster blocks using red have brought the total of these to . . . a pathetic 9.  I had forgotten all about these RSC blocks the past few months. These are 10" finished blocks and are easily made using scraps - hence the name I'm sure.  Now that I've made some progress in using up RSC block sets for new quilt tops, I should be able to get back to working on some of the neglected block sets again.  

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