Finished (or not) Friday

Well, it's closer to a finish at least . . .

Windy Days is a flimsy.  The original plan was to use 2 blocks (21 x 25) in a vertical wall hanging.  In my head I could even picture it where I wanted to hang it.  But that plan just didn't look how I thought it would, so Plan B came about.  It's now a horizontal wall hanging, and I have sandwiched it with batting and backing to quilt myself, maybe over the weekend.

I've been looking at ideas for using the leftover Tilda fabric.  I had a Fat Eighth bundle but only used a small amount of it for the wall hanging. For now it's going back into the project box I guess, and will wait for inspiration to strike. 

The other main goal this week was to finish the stitching on my DIY Round Robin project for guild.  The final round was to repeat some element from a previous month.  I repeated the hexies that I began with the first month.  Our reveal is tomorrow at our August guild meeting.  I can share my whole project next week, and also hope to get pictures of some of the other participants' projects.   

For more finishes, please visit:  https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

Mid-week progress

Yesterday I posted about only 2 goals for this week, but should have included at least 1 more that has an upcoming deadline to meet.

The missing goal was totally forgotten until I went downstairs to sew yesterday, and that was this month's Saturday Sampler task.  Luckily this month we only had to make 3 blocks so it didn't take long to get caught up.

Cutting the pieces for 3 blocks (14") didn't take long, but deciding what colors to use was time consuming for me as I kept changing my mind.  LOL

These make me think of crocheted Granny Squares.  The blocks were sewn together and will get another different block added to this section as the quilt is assembled. We're getting close to a finish on this Saturday Sampler program.

The Windy Days UFO project has a start finally and there is progress.  The blocks are 21 x 25, and my plan is to make a vertical wall hanging with  just 2 blocks.  Each block is done in 4 sections - the girl's head/hair, the dress, the tree, and the dog.  My dress sections are done, and I'm working on the heads. 

One thought from me about the Tilda's World directions - the pattern has great pictures.  That is a good thing because in the cutting instructions it doesn't tell you HOW MANY of each piece to cut or even if that size piece is cut from more than one fabric.  

One little finish

Because hand stitching on binding was something I could easily do while Sophia was sewing last week, there were actually a couple of finishes.

One finish was another doll quilt.  This one is 30" square, made from the extra blocks left over from a quilt project.  My first intention had been to make a big floor pillow from it, but decided it would just be a doll quilt to donate.  Currently it's wrapped around a Bugs Bunny stuffy, but I think it needs a bigger critter so I'll be looking for something else before it's actually donated this fall. 

Design Wall Monday - July 27

I'm very late getting a post up this morning. We had a houseful of family coming and going all weekend, and I must admit that I never gave a thought to my own sewing plans for the week until early this morning when I was drinking my first cup of coffee.

Granddaughter Sophia was with us for the week, and she actually got 3 projects sewn while she was here. First we shopped for fabric at both quilt shops in town.  She made a pillowcase and drawstring bag with fabric from one shop.  At the other shop she picked up some Halloween fabric for this 3-yard quilt.  The top is done, and she did a great job on it. She did all the sewing, and most of the cutting and pressing.  I did do a lot of pinning to match seams for her while she sewed.
  

On Saturday I spent the day at a class to learn how to do Flying Geese using the Stripology ruler.  It was a fun class and my little wall hanging is done to the flimsy stage.  

There was a storm brewing on Saturday evening, missing us but both daughters' towns took a direct hit by wind that took out the giant tree in one daughter's front yard.  Miraculously it missed their house and all the neighbors' houses, but did get fall on a neighbor's Jeep across the street.  You can see in the photo it uprooted and fell diagonally across the neighbor's yard and out into the street.  It also tore the electrical services off the house.  But no one was hurt - and they were actually at our house so there was nothing they could do until getting home yesterday.  They had power restored last night, but will still have tree debris to deal with.  The other daughter's family is dealing with AC issues right in the midst of our 100 degree plus days, which isn't pleasant either.  The joys of home ownership!!

So - that brings me to this week's design wall - that today only holds 2 project goals.  One goal is to finish a little stitching on the guild DIY Round Robin, and to get the gift bag organized to give away to one lucky participant.  Our reveal is this Saturday at our guild meeting. I'll share some photos next week after the reveal.

My other goal is to get started on the Windy Day project from my UFO list.  This will be a wall hanging, rather than a whole quilt. The pattern was free to download from the Tilda's World web site, I'm using part of the fabric bundle I've had in the stash of Tilda prints. There will be a lot more fabric leftover than used on this small project, so I'll have to dream up some other way to use these pretty florals. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #30

Yikes!!  That is a 30 I just wrote - which means we're well past the halfway point in 2026 already.  For some reason I feel some panic lately about how fast time is flying.

Today I'm at an all-day class on using the Stripology rulers. This one focuses specifically on using it to make flying geese blocks.  Should be fun!  Plus, it's supposed to be over 100 degrees outside so it's a good day to NOT be outside. My husband and both sons-in-law are playing in a golf tournament all weekend - crazy people!  Grandson Jack has a baseball tournament, so his mom is there with him - sweating I'm sure.  Granddaughter Sophia is just hanging at our house with the dog, in the air-conditioning. Smart girl.  

  

There is an RSC finish to report this week. This is the lap quilt I made with the Hollow-9 blocks I've been making for RSC. It's only 36 x 42, so a nice size lap quilt for someone in a wheel chair.  The backing and the batting are both leftovers too. And I actually quilted it myself on my domestic machine, with a simple serpentine stitch. Yay!! The quilt is ready to donate locally.  One of our guild members is gathering lap quilts for a local agency.  I'm hoping to finish quilting and binding that blue South Dakota themed one this next week so I can take them all to her at our guild meeting next Saturday.  
 

I also made a couple of placemats with the leftover aqua blocks paired with string blocks (also RSC) in one of them.  And there is 1 pink block and 1 aqua one left in the basket "for seed", along with a few more string blocks in various colors.  Hollow-9 is a great little block to use those 2.5" squares that seem to remain from every project.

It was fun to do a quick review of the aqua blocks that were made this month.  I only did 2 Scrappy Stars (upper left) with the black backgrounds instead of the usual 4. We'll see what I end up needing in the end for color balance in the quilt.  The rest of the block sets are reaching that stage where I want to start laying them out even though there are some important basic colors still needed.  Yellow?  Purple?  Coral?  So many possibilities!!

Actually I'm really excited to be moving on to a new color in the next few days.

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun on this final Saturday of July . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Sewing with the granddaughter

Sophia and I finally got some sewing time yesterday, and plan to do lots more today.  She had that wrestling camp Tuesday.  And she has been going to the gym with grandpa each morning to get in her workout.  Wednesday afternoon we did go to both quilt shops here in town, where she chose fabric for a couple of projects.

Sophia's first project a year or so ago was adding borders onto a panel to make a throw quilt - which I noticed she has with her right now.  Her second project was making herself 2 pillowcases.  She decided she's ready for an actual pieced project. So we looked at some of the 3-yard quilt patterns from Fabric Cafe.  Tic Tac caught her eye, and at C.O. Textiles she fell in love with this Halloween line.  That black one even glows in the dark.  And ironically those colors are nearly a perfect match to the picture in the book.  This is a great project for learning to follow a pattern to cut the pieces for a quilt. 

At The Pin Cushion the colors from the Hue line really called her name.  She has always loved to draw and paint so it's not a surprise to be drawn to this color study fabric.  Her plan is to make a pillowcase with these.

One completed pillowcase later . . . plus a cute little drawstring bag made with the leftovers from this pillowcase.  We will run to Walmart today to get the cording for the drawstring.  Then she is going to begin working on the pieced quilt project.

Rodeo parade float

The Pin Cushion decided to enter a float in the Corn Palace Rodeo parade this year, which had an overall theme of America's 250th birthday.  The gals featured the Quilts of Valor program with a couple of veterans even riding on the float. Our group was delighted to lend them some quilts to use.  It won 1st place in the "retail" entries.

From the front you can see one of our local veterans.  Two more were on the other side.

One side showed off several quilts.  I love the big banner they created above the quilts down the whole length of the trailer. 

The other side looks just as good.

From the back this gorgeous quilt really looks good.  I think this one was made by a shop employee last year.  It was the perfect end cap for the float.  These ladies did a wonderful job with the float - and with their prize winning painted windows earlier in the week.   

Binding the Blockheads quilt

Today is the first day of the Quilting Across the Dakotas shop hop, with 49 shops across both North and South Dakota.  Sophia and I plan to visit both local shops this morning and see if there is a small project she would like to work on.  All the shops always have some extra fun things featured during this month long shop hop. 

I have PT again today at 12:15, or we could do a little road trip to Chamberlain.

Binding did happen finally, and I'm pleased to be able to check another large UFO project off of my 2026 list.  I need to take this along to the Pin Cushion so they can mark it off my PHD list as well.  

This is the Blockheads 6 quilt, which I will donate to our Quilts of Valor group.  I've mentioned before that I like to do test blocks in red, white, and blue so that they can be used in a QOV.  I also like to do the same thing occasionally with a sew-along. 

In this case I wanted to do the sew-along but didn't have any good ideas of what colors to play with that would be different than my usual.  So - red, white, and blue was my Plan B - which was going back to RWB.  

Ella and I did go to the basement sewing room for awhile yesterday while Sophia was gone to the wrestling camp.  Two more bindings were prepped.  The yellow one will go onto my Hollow-9 lap quilt, and the red striped one will go onto another Quilt of Valor.  The strips were already cut, so I needed to sew them together and then press them.  

Settling in

It's hard to even get a binding stitched . . .

Sophia arrived yesterday, along with this little gal for the week.  Ella is settling in here although she's quite aggravated by all the cats that hang around out on our back deck.  The nerve of those cats!!

On a side note - I'm trying out something new for the Achilles inflammation and for arthritis pain, based on the good results a friend reports.  One of my best friends has terrible arthritis in her hands, and has been using Frankincense balm for a few months.  She says it has made a huge difference in how her hands feel.  I noticed she doesn't drop her cards like she used to when we play Hand and Foot.  So, I'm going to try it myself.  Can't hurt, right?  Plus it smells good and feel good on my skin. 

Design Wall Monday - July 20

There isn't much on my design wall this week, as it will be a really busy week with other things going on.  I have an appointment this morning at the ophthalmologist, followed by some much needed grocery shopping.  And I need to replace my vacuum cleaner that is dying, which means a trip to Walmart.  On Tuesday I have a manicure appointment, Wednesday and Thursday I'll have PT again.  

Granddaughter Sophia is coming later today to spend the week with us.  She has a wrestling camp in town, plus she wants to do a little sewing.  I've been on a cutting tear all week, so I cut a couple of doll quilt kits that she could work on if she wants.  Or we can find something else that she might want to make.  We can shop my stash or visit the 2 quilt shops in town for something fun. 

The Hollow-9 lap quilt is finally quilted, and I have bright yellow binding cut for it.  This was on my goal list months ago, but it kept being set aside.  Time to get this one done, and donated.

We'll see if I accomplish anything else this week, but I'll still have things to share during the week: pictures from the QOV float in Saturday's parade, a QOV flimsy assembled, etc.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #29

Not nearly as much aqua happening in my sewing room this week as I had hoped.  The catnip block is done.  The fabric in that left side cat is questionable, but I'm going to leave it.  I debated with my self before sewing that one onto the others, and considered switching it out with a different fabric.  But I've decided it's OK,

The past couple of months I've neglected the Gameboard block set completely.  The last one I made was red.  But an aqua one has been added.  And a couple of Hollow 9-patch blocks and Vintage Spool blocks happened too.  

Digging into the little basket full of leftover 6" string blocks, I got the idea to make placemats with some of them.  I had only 3 aqua/teal string blocks left, so they were paired with 3 black ones.  Aqua Hollow 9's were added to the leftover orange string blocks for the other placemat. After taking this photo I pulled some binding (also leftovers), and attached the bindings to these so they are ready for a finish.   
 

Most of my week was actually spent dealing with scraps - but of the red, white, and blue kind of scraps.  I cut kits for 2 Quilts of Valor, and yesterday I cut the parts for sashing, cornerstones, and a border for 1 more QOV kit.  The parts for LOTS more blocks for my own QOV projects happened too.  One would think that would have tamed those RWB scraps and stash.  NOT enough taming, but I'm getting there.  At least it's sorted into more easily searched bins now.  The lids actually close now too, so I guess it's a sign of progress.

Can't wait to see what color we'll be playing with for August.  In the meantime let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

I did a lot of binding this week so there are some finishes to report, although I've already shown a couple of those finishes.  

 One more doll quilt has been finished.  This one had been sandwiched for several months, but not quilted.  That owl fabric was left over from a baby quilt - and there is still more of it in the "novelty kid print" drawer, waiting. The block was from a 3-yard quilt book by Fabric Cafe.

 These placemats are also done.  There are a couple more that are quilted but without binding yet.  My donation pile of placemats is getting bigger.  

Earlier in the week I cut and kitted up a Quilt of Valor for our group to make.  Then yesterday another QOV kit joined that one.  That means that just this week I've cut about 10 yards of fabric into kits from the QOV bins stored at my house.  And that fabric is still overflowing the bins, but not by quite as much.  LOL

I've been working on sorting and organizing things in my sewing room for about a month - a little bit at a time.  The sorting piles have been growing, but this week I feel like I've made some meaningful progress, at least with the Quilt of Valor fabric.  One task has been to collect all of the precuts, all of the purchased kits, all of the panels, and all of the orphan blocks - and get them organized TOGETHER.  So, this 12" canvas cube now holds all of the precuts and purchased kits.  The panels and orphan blocks will go into another cube.

And I'm finally getting the yardage organized too - one bin for all of the blue, and a separate bin for the reds and lighter patriotic prints.  It will be so much easier to find what we need once this is done. Then I can put together a couple more kits for our members to make, using the yardage and some panels.  

For more finishes, please visit:  https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

Kits and design boards

The sorting and reorganizing in my sewing room is on-going, and also still in the "making a mess" stage with fabric management in particular.  Right now I'm drowning in red, white, and blue fabric for Quilts of Valor.  That is partially due to very generous donations of fabric we've received.  I'm trying to pare down the patriotic fabric a bit so that it all fits into 2 bins, which isn't going to be easy.  Even with all the cutting I did on Monday I'm not even close to getting it all into those 2 bins.  

This bold flag print was asking to be used in fairly large pieces, not cut into small pieces.  My first thought was the 2026 QOV block for the block drive - Echoes.  There was close to 3 yards of this, in various size chunks so I think it was from a backing. 

In June I handed off (to one of our members) a kit using previously made Echo blocks plus a patriotic panel.  At our August meeting I'll be able to hand off this kit for 48 Echo blocks.  I enjoy cutting, so didn't mind using part of my Monday afternoon to prep the blocks.  All of the block pieces are cut and packaged in a gallon Ziplock bag with the block instructions, ready to go.  Laid out 6 blocks by 8 these will make a nice QOV.

I also went through some of the scraps in the bin and pulled out chunks that would work for current QOV block sets - 4.5", 3.5" and 2.5" widths at least.  The 4.5" strips could be cut with my Easy Angle ruler for Buckeye Beauty.  The 3.5" strips work for Gleam. And the 2.5" strips work for Ticker Tape, Rail Fence and for the squares in the Buckeye blocks.

The Rail Fence block set currently has 80 blocks (6" finished).  Without borders a QOV would need 120.  But in a past QOV we replaced some of the Rail blocks with star blocks, so I am playing with 6" Friendship Stars.  

A blue binding for my Blockheads quilt (also RWB) was cut, and is prepped for the quilt.  I need to trim that quilt and then can add the binding. Maybe today?

More Buckeye blocks are now cut and ready to sew for the RWB Buckeye Beauty quilt that has 6 rows assembled so far.  And a few block sets for Gleam are also on that same design board, up in the left corner.

And more 2.5 x 6.5" sections are cut for the Ticker Tape QOV.  Most of them still need the white squares yet. But that is a different scrap bin.  LOL

So, 3 of my design boards have been reloaded with RWB parts.  The other 2 design boards have some aqua parts for Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing.   

Totally scrappy Pineapples

No sewing happened at all on Tuesday except for a bit of handstitching to finish one little project.  In the morning I volunteered at the golf course to help check in 60 teams for a senior golf tournament.  That is down from 70 teams last year, probably due to guys cancelling due to the extreme heat.  In the afternoon I washed and dried another Quilt of Valor, and then delivered some quilts and unquilted flimsies that will be used on a float this Saturday morning.  It's rodeo week here in Mitchell, and one of the quilt shops is doing a float for the parade with a Quilt of Valor theme.  

The shop windows were painted for the rodeo week store window competition.  The quilt block is done with little dots, and the whole block is exploding like fireworks.  And look at the green grass area - done with block designs.  These are SO cute!!

This little Pineapple table topper is finished - finally.  It's just another example of seeing something online that I wanted to make, and then figuring out HOW to make it because I didn't find a pattern that provided what I wanted.  No paper piecing is involved here, just lots and lots of 1" strips.  Each block began with a hexagon.  Each round has white alternated with colors.  There is a total of 7 blocks here, with 1 in the middle and 6 surrounding it. There are 4 more blocks that I didn't use here, so maybe in the future they will become something too.

There is no binding on this one.  The front was layered right sides together with the backing, over the batting.  I sewed around the outside edge, trimmed, and turned it all right side out.  A little slip stitching closed that opening.  Back and batting are all scraps as well.  

You can't see it in the photos, but I kept the quilting very simple.  There is a diamond quilted into the 3 larger white areas near the center.  And there is stitching in the ditch all the way around the outside edge - 1 row inside.  

Farm Girl Vintage

After several years of languishing in a project box, these blocks have finally become a finished quilt.  Yay!!

This is Farm Girl Vintage - the 12" block version.  It's 75 x 87, so a fairly big quilt.  A few years ago I used the barn block and animal blocks to make a quilt but then the rest went back into the box.  Now that box only holds the "kitchen" blocks.  Some day I'll figure out what I want to do with the pie, fruit, mixing bowl, etc.     

Design Wall Monday - July 13

I've fallen off the wagon thanks to Crazy Days here in town.  The guilt is minimized however by the great price discounts on all of it.  And I have a purpose or plan for most of it.

I have a weakness for fat quarters so of course a few pretty ones had to be included with my other purchases.  Backgrounds for future projects always makes sense, and 2 yards of a red patriotic print will fit right in with my QOV sewing.  There was a kit for a cute Valentine table runner that I couldn't resist.  And - an impulse purchase was a grab bag.  Inside the grab bag was a $10 gift certificate, some fabric samples, thread, a tape measure, 3 Villa Rosa patterns, a book, and a few other small items.  Plus I won a fat quarter with the cutest little gingerbread men at Saturday Sampler.   

What is on my design wall this week?  Still finishing up a couple of Works in Progress, some Rainbow Scrap sewing, some QOV sewing, along with binding some small things.  The binding on Farm Girl Vintage will be finished too.

I am finally going to cut the parts for the next UFO on my list.  There are 2 projects on my 2026 PHD list that hadn't even been started yet.  One of those will move to the "cut out" stage this week hopefully.  Maybe it will even get to the sewing stage.  Windy Days is a free pattern from Tilda's World.  My plan is to make a wall hanging. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #28

This week flew by with less sewing time than usual, but there are still a few aqua things to share in spite of that.  And a few things included scraps of other colors as well.

My design boards were full of pieces cut for several different RSC blocks this week, which meant it was very quick to sew a whole bunch of blocks.  Two Snail Trail, 2 Scrappy Stars, 2 Vintage Spools, a bunch of Ticker Tape and Tulip Swirl blocks, plus 1 more Crackers & Jam block - all happened in short bursts of time during the week.  

And it's time to reload those design boards for next week.  I'm ready to cut the pieces for the catnip block with the 3 cats sitting side by side.    

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/