July goals

A new month means a reset on some unfinished goals, and of course some new goals.  There is always a new project around here. 

• Personal goals
• Walk at least 1 mile at least 5 days a week - weather permitting!
• Continue decluttering
• Some summer fun activities like Arts in the Park
• Binding (hand stitching)
• Rainbow Connections
• Christmas table topper
• Bailey's graduation quilt
• Block of the Month piecing
• Saturday Sampler - month #4 blocks
• RSC blocks in new color
• Tranquility mystery quilt clue #2
• assemble 1 quilt top from RSC block collections
• finish big stitch quilting and assemble red star pillow
• UFO projects
• quilt Happy Block quilt
• prep & deliver Ohio Star quilt for long arm
• PIG of the Month - watermelon door hanger
• Whatever else I want to play with!!

It feels like I've done a lot of piecing in the past few months but not nearly enough finishes, except for small items like table runners.  There are a LOT of flimsies hanging in the closet right now.  In fact, I used up all the hangers I had in that closet.  Is that going to change my sewing strategies?  Probably not. LOL

RSC24 - Halfway at Week #26

 Yikes!!  We're halfway through the year already, and halfway through summer too.  

The Chaser blocks all came together this week, and are now a completed flimsy.  These were a great RSC block, inspired by a blogger's post for RSC in 2023.  They can be made with any size squares, but I had lots of 2.5" squares already cut from scraps, so that's what I used.  The quilt top is 40 x 56 as is, which would be OK for a kid quilt.  But I might decide to make it bigger with a border, or maybe add another row of blocks down one side to make it slightly wider.  In the meantime it's hanging in the closet, waiting for it's turn.

The Fat Quarter Shop 2024 Liberty Box project is done now except for the 2.5" border I'm adding all around.  The pattern called for a 5" white border, but I decided to do a narrower white border.  My photo outside isn't very good as the sky was so grey and overcast, but the blues are a soft medium blue.  This will make a nice Quilt of Valor I think - but for a female veteran since there are flowers in that panel. 

Bear Creek Quilting is hosting a mystery quilt, and I just couldn't resist jumping in on it.  The instructions gave yardage for 1 print, and a light and dark of 2 different colors.  The first month's clue was 4 blocks (12.5") made with the print and the 2 darker shades of the colors we chose.  There is a lighter blue/teal and a creamy light gold that I'll be using in this too.  My blues lean toward teal a bit.  I don't need any new projects of course, but this is only 1 clue per month so it should quite manageable.

Check out more Rainbow Scrap projects  . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Straying & Strawberries

 I'm a list maker, and get much satisfaction from checking tasks off my list.  But I'm also very easily distracted these days.  I told a couple of people this week that part of my brain is disciplined and organized, and the other part of my brain just giggles and runs off to play with something totally new.

So - I've mentioned this week that the shoebox sized bins of 2.5" squares (cut from scraps) had come out because I decided to finish the Chaser blocks that use those squares.  Well, in the process of sorting out colors for Chaser I ended up with piles of other colors too.  That is where the newest distraction began.  What else can I make with  2.5" squares?  Pinterest is a great source of ideas, but can be a Black Hole I can't escape.  LOL  Then THIS happened - a couple of cats, all made from 2.5" squares and HSTs.  I think this will make a cute pillow, finished off with some embellishments and more big stitch quilting.   

The strawberry blocks came together yesterday morning.  These are also scrappy and made with 2.5" squares and HSTs.  Our Sew Vintage group exchanged fabrics for these, so there is a lot of variety in the backgrounds as well as the red/pinks and greens.  This same block is the exchange block for the guild's bus trip that has now been rescheduled.  

In total (so far) I've made 6 of the large strawberries, and 5 of the little ones.  One of each size is for the bus trip exchange, but I used the rest for this bed runner.  As is, the runner is 18" by 84", but I'm considering a narrow border all around, probably using 2.5" strips of a neutral.  I'm thinking a green binding - something bright but not lime, and not too dark.

Chaser is a completed flimsy as well, but I'll wait and share that tomorrow in my Rainbow Scrap Challenge post.   I'm happy to report the quantity of squares in the 2.5" square bins has actually been decreased significantly. 

Big stitches and a mystery quilt

The class I attended on Tuesday evening was so enjoyable.  It was on Big Stitch quilting and we each got a fat quarter of a "cheater" print to practice on, along with muslin backing and batting.  We used spray basting to sandwich them and 3 strands of floss to do the stitching.  I've done hand quilting but definitely learned a couple of new tips for the big stitch technique.  Once I get it done this should make a really cute pillow. 

 

After my lunch with the retired school staff group yesterday, I came home and did a bit of sewing.  The first month's clue for the Tranquility mystery quilt (Bear Creek) was 4 of these blocks.  They'll finish at 12".  The color is much more accurate in this close up photo.

Since it's a mystery, I have no idea how these 4 blocks will fit into the quilt.  But I sure like the look of them.  

My walking route is along the sidewalk and streets in my neighborhood.  These beautiful flowers are climbing up the mailbox post of one of my neighbors.  

On my back deck the pink geranium has survived the heavy rain and is blooming again.  The other flower pots are showing varying damage.  The big pot with the Canna and sweet potato vine is doing well.  The petunias look like they will come back, but the marigolds must not have liked so much water.  We'll see how they all do.

It's Wednesday already?

It's the last Wednesday of the month, which means a fun coffee/lunch date with a bunch of retired ladies from the school district I taught in for 2 decades.  Once a month it's great to catch up with old friends.

On the decluttering front - I took a break for a couple of weeks but am digging back in this week.  First thing OUT - 3 bins full of adult size Halloween costumes, mostly sewn by me and worn several times.  The community we used to live in had a big annual adult costume party and dance at Halloween that was a fundraiser for summer youth activities.  We had a LOT of fun coming up with costume ideas, and won a few prizes for them.  In 1983 we went as the Fruit of the Loom guys - green grapes covered up my almost 8 months pregnant belly.  My husband wore the purple grapes, his cousin Alan was the apple, and his mom was a "bunch of leaves".  Hmm - somewhere there must be a photo.  In the early 90s my sister-in-law and I made 2 Care Bear costumes - pink and blue.  There were lots of others, but those are what remain. They will be leaving the house tomorrow with my daughter when she's in town for a funeral.  There is a very nice empty space on the shelves in the storeroom without these bins.

And on the quilting front - the pieces for the Tranquility mystery quilt clue #1 are cut.  I'm sewing the strip sets for that as Leader/Enders while assembling the rows of the Chaser blocks.   The parts for a final outside border for the Liberty Box are cut too.  It would be great to have a couple new flimsies all sewn and hanging in the closet before the end of the month.   

To Do Tuesday

 Oops - totally forgot about a post for today. Full disclosure - usually I write my quilt-y posts at night before I go to bed, to automatically post early the next morning.  Well last night I went for a walk late in the evening after it cooled off.  Then I got distracted by a group text chat with my girls.  Never gave another thought to a blog post. And that is totally OK.

I haven't walked a whole mile in about 3 years - from long before my first hip replacement surgery when the pain kept me from walking much.  It's way past time to get back into walking mode so I've recharged my Fitbit, and pulled out the walking shoes.  One more 1 mile walk actually happened early this morning.  Can I have the discipline to make this a habit again?  I'm going to try.

Starting another new project isn't exactly a smart thing to do, but I saw a mystery quilt was starting online at Bear Creek Quilting Company.  It's been awhile since I've done a mystery quilt, so I decided to jump in.  Monday I went to The Pin Cushion to shop for the 4 fabrics I needed to go with the print I already had so that I could do the first month's clue.  BTW - Bear Creek also has some great FREE patterns that I've used in the past.

As we get close to the end of the month and the beginning of a new month, my brain has been sifting through project goals for July.  And for this week, which is what is below . . .  

* Walk a mile EVERY day!!

* add final border to the Liberty Box quilt

* finish binding the RSC quilt (Rainbow Connections)

* bind small Christmas table topper

* sew RSC Chaser blocks into rows

* Tranquility Mystery Quilt - do month #1 clue

That should be enough to keep me busy for a few days.  It's a busy week - and tonight I'm going to a class at The Pin Cushion on big stitch quilting.  Should be fun!!

Design Wall Monday - June 24

This weekend I didn't expect to get any sewing done, what with all the water issues, etc.  But we have been fortunate and were able to stop the water seeping in, clean it up, and our new sump pump is keeping up.  It was kicking in about every 2 minutes on Saturday morning, and by evening was every 6 minutes.  With each day it is slowing down more, which is really good.

It felt like any sewing that happened over the weekend needed to be relatively mindless, but colorful.  There are 2 of these little shoebox sized bins (top of photo) with 2.5" squares cut from scraps.  I pulled them out to hunt for some more variety of neutrals for another large  strawberry block.  That led to making little piles on the ironing board with additional greens, pinks, corals, reds - you get the picture.

By late afternoon on Sunday I had made another 20 Chaser blocks, and paired up with the ones already hanging up . . . this is what happened.

Once I do a little rearranging on these blocks, I'll be ready to sew these into a kid sized quilt top.  That will be my first priority project this week.

Once the Chaser blocks were done, I added a couple more rows of HSTs to this project that was in a bag on the end of the ironing board.  Each of the HSTs is 2.5" square, so it's easy to keep track of what size this is getting to be.  I have no idea what this will eventually end up being, but you know I can't throw away those trimmed off triangles.  This is what happens to the red and blue ones trimmed from QOV blocks.  

 And yes, I did get the big strawberry block all sewn together, along with another small one.  So my second project for this week is figuring out how to lay out these blocks for the bed runner I'm planning with them.  

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday . . .

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

and with Monday Musings . . .

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC24 - Week #25

The main blue project this week was this quilt top that I managed to finish assembling.  

The pattern is called Trailing Squares (Missouri Star), but I'm calling it Shibori Blues as that's the name of the fabric line in the layer cake I used for this quilt.  I'm already planning a Quilt of Valor version of this as I found a patriotic layer cake in the stash.  I can picture this in a scrappy version too - maybe using fun novelty "kid" prints.  

 

Three new Chaser blocks were added to that collection early in the week.  One of them is more on the aqua side of blue.  These are made using 2.5" squares from my bin of squares cut this size from scraps, so the colorful sections are quick to do. 

Dutchman's Puzzle (and bonus Hourglass) blocks turned out even better than I expected.  I kept thinking the blue wouldn't have enough contrast with the aqua.  I'm very pleasantly surprised at just how pretty these are.  

I also finished up a Quilt of Valor top this week, and then tested out a new possible block design.  This is Card Trick Star.  It will look better with 4 different fabrics, but these scraps were handy, so I used them.  I saw a sketch of this on Pinterest and the idea was to paper piece a fairly small version.  I just used my Tri Recs rulers - easy peasy!

And since the shop hop bus trip was cancelled due to extensive flooding - I did have a little time to sew on Friday.  The blue pinwheels for the Liberty Box project needed to be finished, which didn't take long.  The borders are all sewn together now and next week hopefully I'll get this quilt top done.

And speaking of the flooding - this was a photo someone shared on Facebook about 11:30 pm on Thursday.  This is our Main Street, which was water from store front to store front.  No river or creek overflowing caused the flooding here.  It was all about 4-5" of rain falling in 2 hours, after a whole day of steady rain had already saturated the ground.  An awful lot of damage was done by flooding around town, but we were pretty fortunate to only have a little water in the basement on tile floors, and also had to replace our sump pump.  

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Shop hop day - cancelled

UPDATE:  We got a total of 7.25" of rain with this storm, and expect more heavy rain later today.  The geranium in the photo below has been stripped of those pretty blooms by the 2" per hour that fell in late evening.  And my petunias are laying flat.  Sigh!  Probably no sewing today as we'll be cleaning up some water in the basement.  We have all tile floors there - and my sewing room stayed dry overnight - but we did get a bit of water as the sump pump died.  Thank goodness we checked on it frequently!  It was dry in the sump hole at 10 pm but overflowing by midnight.  We switched that out about 2:30 this morning with a small backup pump.  That will need attention today. 

This was supposed to be the day of our guild shop hop.  Unfortunately it was cancelled due to Mother Nature.  It's still raining, but by the time I went to bed at 3 am we had gotten over 7" of rain - most of that falling between 9 and 11 PM.  I have been afraid to look at the rain gauge again since getting up this morning at 5:30.  I'm going to need a nap later! There is no travel recommended in town and the interstate is even closed thanks to flooding over roads.  This part of the country doesn't do well with that kind of rainfall - hence the cancelled bus trip.

I'm glad I went out on Wednesday evening to take a picture of this little geranium, because all of the flowers are looking a bit worse for wear this morning after nearly drowning.  I don't remember the name of this geranium variety but it's a miniature one and the flower petals are variegated with deep fuchsia and bubblegum pink.  So pretty!!

Quilts of Valor sewing

The top is done for the QOV sampler I've been working on.   

This looks so drab in the photo, but is actually nice and bright in real life.  It was another grey overcast morning when I took the photo. 

Playing with new block patterns is one of my favorite things to do.  This is one I saw on Pinterest, but it was paper pieced and smaller.  I decided to try it using the Tri Recs rulers and made it 12.5" so I could use it for a QOV project with other blocks the same size.  It would look even better with 4 different fabrics but these were the scraps most handy.  I think it was called the Card Trick Star.  This could be the beginning of another QOV sampler.  It would be an awesome block to make totally scrappy too.

And I got a good start on the Liberty Box project.  Pinwheels are something I make often and have rarely used the paper pieced method.  But the papers were in the box so I decided to go ahead and use them.  32 pinwheels with 4 pieces each - that's a lot of paper to remove.  You know what I'll be doing in front of the TV tonight.

The red/white strip sets for the Liberty Box project were quick to sew.  And they'll be quick to cut into the remaining 6.5" sections.  

Mid-week already

Tuesday was a no-sewing day.  I got a pedicure in the morning which always makes me feel pampered and spoiled.  The afternoon was spent playing cards with girlfriends.  All-in-all a good day!!
 

On my way out the door in the morning I noticed the stargazer lily has exploded with blooms in the last couple of days.  And so many more buds ready to open.  I wish this bloomed all summer.  There is a dark red one of these on the other side of the house but it's looking a bit sad so far, with only a few buds showing.  I'm starting to wonder if something is nibbling on that red one.

I did sew up a couple of these quick Split Back Star blocks on Monday afternoon while digging around in my Quilt of Valor stash of fabrics.  This was a free pattern on the QOV website a year ago.  Our group has used it in several quilts now.  I've added these 2 blocks to the growing stack for another one.

Monday evening I finished the binding on this table topper.  The flimsy was found in that tote I cleaned out and I decided it was worth keeping.  I absolutely love the stitching design that Carol used on this one.  I plan to have her use this design again for me in the future. 

To Do Tuesday

I had my doubts that I would end up making any Dutchman's Puzzle blocks this month using blue, because I just didn't think there would be a good contrast with the aqua I'm using in all of them.  But one of my readers said I should try out some shades and it might surprise me.
 

Well - she was right.  After some auditioning I chose 2 lighter shades of aqua batik and 2 darker shades of blue batik.  And the results are really good.  This should be a whole quilt because these really work together beautifully.  I have a total of 14 blocks so far - scrappy white backgrounds, with batiks in aqua paired with another color.  

Since I can't bear to throw away those trimmed off corners from the Flying Geese I've been making Hourglass blocks from them.  There is a stack of these on the corner of my ironing board.  They make perfect Leaders/Enders when working on other projects.  Once sewn the Hourglass blocks get trimmed to 3.5" and go into a little bin.  Some day they will become something pretty.

The Quilt of Valor sampler is almost a flimsy.  The rows were all sewn together yesterday morning.  Next step was to check the QOV stash for border fabric.  This flag print was trimmed from a backing recently, and the strips came from a wide back. So the strips were long enough to not need any piecing at all.  It should be a complete flimsy later today. 

While digging into the QOV stash I came across this patriotic layer cake that I forgot I had.  That was an exciting find because a reader suggested on Monday that the Shibori Blues pattern would look good as a Quilt of Valor.  So . . . you know what was just added to my goal list for this summer.

One final thing that happened on Monday was cutting the pieces for the Sparkers quilt that was in the Liberty Box (Fat Quarter Shop) that arrived last week.  The reds and blues were in the box along with the panel.  The white background was in my stash.  I will need to buy enough of the blue - or a similar color - to add the accent pieces above and below the panel.  There is no rush on this project, but it will be fun to work on a little at a time.  The box also contained a pattern for a mini quilt, and even included a small metal hanger.  There should be plenty of scraps left to make that mini. 

Design Wall Monday - Shibori & a QOV

One project is coming OFF my design wall today, and another is going ON to the design wall.  The project coming off the design wall . . . Shibori Blues is now a flimsy. 
 

Shibori Blues is actually the name of the layer cake fabric line I used in this quilt, but it's the name I'm keeping for this one.  The real pattern name is Trailing Squares from the Missouri Star Block magazine this spring.  I'm already picturing this pattern done in big prints, like Kaffe.  Or just plain scrappy. Very quick and easy to make.  It was raining when I wanted to take a picture of the flimsy so I went into our basement family room and layed it out on my husband's putting/chipping green. This may become my new design wall/floor and it's right around the corner from my sewing room. 

Up next on the design wall is a Quilt of Valor sampler.  In 2023, Pat Sloan did a 9-block sew-along called Autumn Wonders.  I made all 9 blocks in 2 different colorways - one was in autumn colors and one was patriotic.  The autumn version is a flimsy hanging in the closet, but the patriotic version needed to be slightly bigger.  So I chose 3 random blocks from the Moda Blockheads free blocks to make a total of 12 blocks - just right for a sampler.  Saturday afternoon I cut the blue sashing and red cornerstones.  I'll add an outer border to it later.  This will be my main project this week I think.

Bindings were prepped for 1 large quilt and 1 table topper, so there will be more binding in my future as well as assembly of this new Quilt of Valor.

Oh yes - and my Liberty Box from Fat Quarter Shop arrived on Saturday. I’m very excited to work on the cute project in that box.  

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

I'm also linking up with Monday Musings . . .
https://songbirddesigns.blog/blog/

Father's Day

 Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there.  We had rain yesterday and more is expected this next week, but maybe today will be nice enough to get outside for some fun.

My Stargazer lily is just beginning to bloom.  There are a ton of buds.  I really wish these bloomed all summer because they are so pretty.  There is a red variety next to the deck steps with buds too.

The hot pink geranium next to my front porch steps is doing well.  The wind has knocked this flower pot over about a dozen times, but the geranium keeps surviving.  I love the color of this one. 

RSC24 - Week #24

 Blue, blue, blue . . . and other colors too!

The border pieces are all ready for assembly on this blue and white quilt.  The Flying Geese in the border were made with the trimmed off corners of the blocks. It has taken me longer than expected to get this quilt to the flimsy stage, mostly because I keep getting distracted with other projects.  That just normal for me.

Night Vision is one of several different block sets I currently have going on with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  But it's definitely one of my favorites.  

This week I made Night Vision with 3 shades of blue - light, medium, and dark but bright.  I've been making 3 blocks each month with the color chosen but also did an extra one this month in peach because I had the peach pieces cut last month with the pink ones.  That means there are 19 blocks so far, and I really like how those colors spin when I lay them out together.

The bonus pinwheels are really cute.  These are 4.5" square, and I really have no idea what I'm going to do with them yet.  But they go into the project box with the blocks each month, and I'll figure out what to do with them eventually.

Usually the Brighten blocks I've made for RSC have used prints that are predominantly the color of the month, but as I poked through the scraps for blue, I came across that floral.  It has blue in it so I went with it.  When I hung these new blocks with the others I realized I never made any pink ones last month, which was easily remedied. 

Because I have pink scraps still out as I work on the strawberry blocks, it was easy to make one pink Brighten block right away.  Actually, I made 2 more pink ones yesterday but forgot to photograph them.   Because these are only about 8" square I'll need a lot of them to make a decent sized quilt.  There are 29 of them right now.  

So, my RSC block sets are steadily growing.  Which set will be the next one to become a flimsy?

I'm linking up with the RSC world today . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/