So many projects . . .

 So many Potential projects, and not enough time!!  I couldn't possibly live long enough to make all of the projects I have ideas for percolating in my brain.   LOL

Is it just me, or do you always have a couple of projects waiting in the wings?  I'm struggling right now NOT to jump in a play with a couple of small projects and neglect some BIG projects going on that need to take priority - the Lone Star quilt top and the row for Saturday Sampler.

For Saturday Sampler, I have all of the half rectangle units sewn but still have a lot of trimming to do before I can sew them into the arrow units. But it's progress on at least one priority project.  

Ok - I did jump in and made one small project that hadn't been on my radar very long.  But it only took an hour to make. It was a good "reward".  This is a microwavable rice bag to use on sore muscles.  It's made from 8 rectangles (3.5" by 6.5"), and a 24.5" by 6.5" backing.  The only thing purchased for this was the bag of rice. 

The pieces for another one are cut, but I'll need another bag of rice.  These can also be kept in the freezer, so it's both a hot and cold bag.  I'm thinking these could be good gifts.

Since the RSC color for May is green I really poked through my kits again over the weekend to see what had a lot of green.  There is a door hanger kit and a Christmas mini quilt kit.  These should make some good small projects for May.  

And I've had the wall hanging pattern and background fabrics for Beach Bums since last August.  It's finally time to bring it out to play.  I bought the pattern in Rapid City while shopping with a friend, and then ordered the 3 background fabrics when I got home.  The pattern designer is actually from the Rapid City/Black Hills area.  Once the background is sewn, then I can take my time to find pieces in the scrap bins to do the appliques. 

I promise NOT to neglect the Lone Star or Saturday Sampler.  But it's fun to have some new things waiting in the wings.  

Stars and arrows

Monday morning turned into a good productive stretch of sewing time, so there is plenty of progress to report on both of my priority projects. 

Two more star points have been assembled for the Lone Star quilt.  Seeing these layed out together is exciting because the spinning colors are getting easier to see now. The last 2 star points are not likely to happen today because I won't have much time to work on them today. 

There are 15 of these "arrow" blocks in the Saturday Sampler row for this month.  I had all the parts cut, so I made just ONE of the arrows to make sure I was doing it right.  Success - so now I feel comfortable making the rest of them.  I've sewn on both sides of the diagonal for the top arrow sections but haven't cut them apart yet.  Once they are cut and pressed, then the tricky trimming step will happen.  

Design Wall Monday - April 28

There will be 2 priority projects happening this week.  Hopefully I'll make some good progress on both of them by the end of the week.  

First of all, I have the strips cut for the 3rd row for Saturday Sampler.  The next step will be to sub-cut the wider strips into the 60 rectangles needed and then mark the unusual stitching line on 30 lighter colored ones.  Getting the angles right on this one involves some very specific instructions and I need to NOT rush as I work on them.

The other priority project is to continue working on the Lone Star quilt.  I'm ready to sew the strip set for the 5th star point.  This has been a slow careful project too because I don't want to mess up the color placement.  On Saturday I took this section to the quilt shop and auditioned several grey backgrounds, finally choosing a medium grey.

When I need a break from careful precise sewing, then I'll work on some small projects too, such as mug rugs or placemats.  Over the weekend I took that oversized table runner parts (deconstructed the week before) and made 2 placemats and 2 mug rugs.  There are 12 more 6.5" blocks made from the scraps, ready to become more mug rugs.  

And with the new month looming I'm guessing there will be a new Circle of Friends block posted by Carol Doak for that sew-along.  I haven't counted by the May block might be the final block for this one.  She has already announced a new paper pieced sew-along will be following.  I have been enjoying this one so will probably continue.
 

I'll have another quilt to bind as well because the batik Hunters Star quilt will be ready to pick up today from the quilter.  It will be good to be able to check off another UFO from the list.

And since the color GREEN was chosen for May for RSC, it's time to look and see what PIGs or UFOs are hiding in my sewing room with a lot of green that I can focus on next month.  I'm confident there will be plenty of things to choose from.  LOL

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC25 - Week #17

I have a finish!  I started making these blocks for a Quilt of Valor during the blue month, and continued until I had enough.  A member of our QOV group picked up the flimsy and backing to quilt it.  A couple of days later she brought it back with gorgeous star quilting.

I added RED binding and finished it off this week.  It turned out very pretty.

Hollow 9-patch blocks are a good scrap buster.  I had made only 2 each month so far this year, but knew that I had some made last year and tucked them away somewhere.  I found them and was a bit disappointed that there were only 10 blocks in the bag.  However, in with the missing blocks was a picture of a possible layout along with my notes.  

My plan is to make sets of 4 and then add a narrow light sashing and colorful cornerstones. I've begun sewing what I have into sets of 4 blocks.  Then I'll have a better idea of what colors I should focus on when digging into the basket of 2.5" squares during the rest of 2025.  

A flimsy with plenty of red has been finished.  This Quick Strippie was quick to assemble this week because I already had the strip sets made the week before.

   

One red Night Vision block - with bonus pinwheels - joined the party.  This makes 29 of the Night Vision blocks, and there is just 1 more set remaining of the black and white squares I had cut last year for this project.  I'm still thinking of how I want to layout these 9" (finished) blocks for a quilt.  And whether or not to use the pinwheels with them or in something separate. 

I have a good start on my son-in-law's Lone Star quilt.  It's a rainbow - just not scrappy.  Although that would work too!  This was my primary project this week.  So far half of the star points are assembled.  The edges of those some of those diamonds are on the bias, cut from strip sets of 5 colors, then rows cut diagonally from those strip sets.  And I've had to do a lot of measuring and pinning to get them to match up.  I still haven't decided on a background color but am leaning toward a medium to dark grey.  I'm wishing that I hadn't used black in the actual star because black would have been a good background to make the colors pop.  

 And finally - there is this . . .  a braid strip made completely from scraps.  I was looking at a book I have on braid quilts, and remembered that I had bought the tiny little ruler too.  So I just had to pull out some strings and the ruler and play.  I have no clue yet what I'm going to do with this but it made a good leader/ender while I worked on other projects this week. 

I'll be linking up today with Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

Lone Star progress

 

So far I have 3 of the star points sewn for the Lone Star project.  The 8 colors are going to spin outward in this one, so the strip sets are a bit tricky.  I sure don't want any of those colors in the wrong spots after a lot of stitching.

Thankfully I printed out some coloring sheets for this project and colored them with those spinning colors.  As I've worked my way around sewing, I've noted which strip set goes where on that coloring sheet.  And I'm carefully only laying out one star point at a time so I can keep track of where I'm at.  So far, so good.  Next up is star point #4.  

RBD block #13

Happy anniversary to daughter #1 and her husband. 

Fifteen years ago today we were all on a beach in Jamaica for their wedding.  Three kids and 3 dogs, a couple of lizards, and an aquarium full of fish keep them really busy now.  

Amanda Niederhauser designed the 13th block for the 2025 Riley Blake challenge.  Her version has a more scrappy look in that center, but at the last minute I decided to make mine with just the one print.  I am excited that there are only 3 more blocks for this year, and then we play with the layouts.  

Midweek check-in

 Even with all the cleaning and decluttering going on around here I've found time to sew.

The Mickey Mouse flimsy is done.  This is a Quick Strippie from Mary Quilts.  It's a free pattern and perfect for showcasing a fun novelty print in those wide strips.  And it uses just 3 yards of fabric - one yard of each.  I even pieced a backing for this one, so the top and back are hanging together on a hanger waiting for it's turn to be quilted.

And - look!  The first star point for the Lone Star quilt is done.  Making 10 different strip sets is the time consuming part of this, and matching all those seams ON THE BIAS is the tricky part of this project.  But it will be worth it.  

Two more placemats got binding.  These have a bowling fabric.  

The one thing I've been avoiding so far this week - cutting the pieces for the Saturday Sampler row for April.  But I will get to it.   

And it's time to make this week's block for the Riley Blake challenge.  Don't want to fall behind on anything.  LOL

Tuesday clean-up and progress

We spent Easter weekend at home, working on some junk purging around the house - just the two of us.  Our basement storage area is organized and uncluttered for a change.  And I've added all of the items purged - either trashed or sorted for the rummage sale - onto my declutter spreadsheet.  I'm up to 179 items purged.

Each year our community does a city wide clean-up day when people can put large items out on the curb for disposal.  For $10 added to our garbage bill, the city will pick up those large items on our designated garbage day.  The funny thing is all of the "scavengers" - folks who drive around and pick up things they think they can use.  We began putting things out on Saturday afternoon along with one of our neighbors. We had a lot of broken office stuff - old printers, office chairs, shelving units, etc.  By Sunday evening nearly everything was already gone that both houses put out. Our designated garbage pick-up day is actually today, and there is almost nothing for the city to collect from us. 

A little clean up happened in my sewing room over the weekend too.  I really need to do some purging of quilting and craft books again.  

One item that kept getting moved from drawer to drawer in my sewing room, and never finished - this snowman themed "thing".  This was a UFO from at least 20 years ago that was sandwiched with batting and backing and pin basted.  The bag even contained the binding all prepped.  It's such cute fabric, but was too wide and too narrow to be useful as either a wall hanging or a table runner - about 30 x 45.  What was I thinking?  That probably explains why I never finished it.  So on Sunday evening I took the seam ripper to this thing, and it's destined to become something useful.  Maybe a couple of placemats or something.  But it is NOT going to be taking up any more space as is.

I did finish a couple of small quilting projects too.    

One of the placemats got its binding.  This was another orphan block, and I even had some scraps of the red print so it's big enough for a placemat.  There are 10 finished placemats in the donation stack now.  And there are more of them in my sewing room ready for binding. 

And another doll quilt is finished and ready to wrap around a stuffie. This cowboy boot fabric was the leftover from the pillowcases I made for my great-niece for graduation.  

Design Wall Monday - April 21

A new week has arrived, with both new and continuing goals. 

The new project I've started involves a rainbow of solid colors.  I spent time this weekend cutting strips to make a total of 10 different strip sets for this project.  It's a Lone Star design, and will be a gift for one son-in-law to honor his Native American roots.  My daughter requested it, and helped choose a design for it.  I'm excited to get it going. 

There is a lot of binding that could happen during the evenings this week.  The red/white/blue Buckeye Beauty was quilted last week by one of our members and I'm going to add the binding to it.  I also have a couple of placemats and a doll quilt that need binding.

And this month's row for Saturday Sampler is on my To Do list for this week.  I haven't begun to even cut the pieces for this one yet.  And this month's row has a LOT of pieces in it.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

RSC25 - Week #16

Some weeks are really productive in the sewing room, and some are not.  This was a "or not" kind of week in terms of sewing productivity.  I did make some progress on the decluttering front, so it's a win.  But sewing is therapeutic for me, and by yesterday morning I was definitely craving some extended sewing time. 

First up was adding the borders to finish a flimsy.  Enchanted is a pattern from Fabric Cafe in a 3-yard quilt book.  It's perfect for showcasing a bigger print that you don't want to cut into small pieces.  That beautiful poppy print was a perfect choice for those big blocks, and I must thank blogger friend Connie for sending it to me.  I actually made this bigger, using more like 1.5 yards of each fabric.  I really love how this one turned out.  It's just a flimsy right now but I'll be looking for a backing. 

 The strip sets are now all sewn to make a kid sized quilt using the Mickey Mouse fabric.  I love the red and grey together.  Assembling the quilt top is on my To Do list for today.

Block sewing wasn't a big priority this week, but a few were added to collections.

Neutral string blocks make a pretty interesting choice for these Drunkard's Path blocks.  Two red blocks have been added to the little pile.  These are only 6" (finished) blocks, and I have no plan yet for them.  But they are fun to play with.  

A few Hollow 9-patch blocks happened this week.  Two of each - red, blue, and yellow are now in the little bin with the pink ones.  These use 2.5" squares to make 6" finished blocks, so I'll need a lot of them.  I keep thinking there are more of these somewhere, hiding in a drawer, but haven't found them yet.  Surprise, surprise!

Two red Gameboard blocks were yesterday's addition.  There is still no real plan for these blocks, but they are kind of cute.

There is a new rainbow themed project waiting in the wings, and this one doesn't involve scraps.  I promised myself that I wouldn't start working on this one until I had the Poppy quilt top sewn, and the Mickey Mouse quilt top sewn.  But I'm getting ready . . .

I'll be linking up today with Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

More decluttering

 There was absolutely no sewing happening yesterday, but I did a LOT of spring cleaning of a closet.  And I spent 2 hours in the afternoon shredding more old paperwork.

There is a large box of extra bedding from the top shelf of the master bedroom closet.  There is a big shopping bag of shoes and belts, another smaller bag of clothing.  And a small bag full of ugly costume jewelry and craft supplies, such as sea glass, ribbon, and marbles.  This whole stack will be going to donation.

There are a few more items headed to my daughter's summer rummage sale.  And - in the trash went some really ratty old shoes, some lingerie no longer wanted, and a bunch of craft supplies of no use.  That whole shelf section of the closet is now neat and clean, and even has some empty spots.  

Decluttering in my house is helping to declutter my mind as well.     

Midweek check-in

 

Block #12 is Crossroads by Amber Johnson was posted Tuesday morning, and I went right to work cutting it out.  Sewing it took less time than choosing which fabrics to use.

I actually spent more time focusing on the decluttering yesterday than I spent in my sewing room.  A car load of things went for donation. And 2 garbage bags of old paperwork went to the trash.  Dave found a couple boxes on the top shelf in our basement storage area containing old materials from workshops and grad classes I was teaching several years ago.  I went through them all, but trashed almost everything in there - old handouts, course notes, and even 6 packages of dried out markers.  I couldn't have put those boxes up on that shelf myself, so I'm guessing he put them up there when I cleared out my office in a local elementary school and moved it all to my home office.  

I'm up to 114 items removed from my house - more if I had counted some things separately, like those packages of markers.  

Next week is the city wide clean-up week when we can put large items out on the curb for pick-up on our designated garbage day.  We've pulled a few items from storage that will be going out that day.  I can't wait to have some empty spaces.  

To Do Tuesday

The RWB Hexie table runner is a flimsy.

It's sandwiched using leftover batting, and a leftover backing.  The plan is to do some simple hand quilting on this, probably just outlining those hexies.  It's only about 20 x 26 so it shouldn't take long to hand quilt - even as slow as I am at it. 

I finished sewing the blocks for the Poppy quilt, and have all 5 rows sewn together.  There will be 2 borders added to it for finishing.  Maybe that will happen today, or possibly tomorrow.  

Design Wall Monday - April 14

The weekend got away from me, and so did the idea of any post for this morning. A good night's sleep also got away from me, as the wind howled all night.  And I laid awake listening to that wind howling.  I'm thinking a nap will be in the plan for today. 

I did get 2 more blocks made yesterday for the Poppy quilt.  That makes 14 done and 6 more blocks to sew.  

  The center section of a new red/white/blue table runner is done.  The next step is to add the outer border.  I've been picturing this runner being hand quilted, eventually.  

On Saturday we received the pattern for the 3rd row of this year's Saturday Sampler.  It's another row similar to month #1 - with 15 smaller blocks making up the row.  Those attending SS on Saturday morning were asked to hold up their March row to show everyone.  Wow - there were so many gorgeous color combos.  Mine is looking pretty drab so far, with cream, tan, brown and 2 shades of burgundy.  The only spark of color so far is the tiny bit of lime green in the February row of chevrons.  It's good to step outside of my comfort zone however.

I keep thinking about some new projects I want to begin, so it's a struggle some days to keep working on projects that are on-going.  Hmmm . . . so many potential projects and not nearly enough time. 

.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

RSC25 - Week #15

Happy birthday to my husband today!  

He has caught up with me again.  For 3 weeks every year I'm the "older woman".  This picture is a favorite of mine, even though it was taken a few years ago when there was still a hint of red in that hair.  I liked that red truck too, but he has a silver one now - which matches his current hair color.  

It has been a busy week, with plenty of red around here.  

Red Dresden blocks are done, including the black blanket stitching on the edges.  I did go back and blanket stitch a couple of the other color blocks while I had the machine threaded with black.  There are still enough red blades to make another block, but I will hold off on that until I know how many total blocks I actually need.

There will be 20 blocks total in the red Poppies quilt, and I have 12 of them sewn.  But only one row of 4 has actually been assembled so far.  

Red was quite dominant in the vinyl fronted project bags finished this week.  I've made a bunch in the past to gift, and even sold a couple of them.  These 5 will hopefully be sold soon.  Some of the ladies in the DAR chapter have requested some patriotic versions to purchase.

There has also been some progress made with another small UFO found in the bottom of the UFO fabric bin.  I've had a pattern for a hexie table runner, and even had most of the red and blue hexies cut for it.  This week I added some light colored ones from the QOV scraps, and actually have 3 rows all sewn together.  These do have Y seams, so it's stretching my skills in a good way. Once the hexies are all sewn together, there will be a border around all sides. 

When I need a break from sitting at the sewing machine, then cutting and kitting up a new project is a change of pace.  Plus I really enjoy kitting up projects, so they are ready to sew whenever.  The pieces are all cut for another Quick Strippee child quilt - in Mickey Mouse fabric.  The red and grey look good together.  This will be a project for later in the month.

I'll be linking up today with RSC . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

RBD block #11

 

Sandy Gervais designed this week's block for the Riley Blake Design challenge. Crown Jewel is a really cute block.  Only 5 blocks remain to be released, and then we'll get layout information.