Design Wall Monday - pillowcases

On Saturday - between basketball games - I stopped into Joann Fabrics to look for needle threaders for a friend.  But of course it was way too easy to come out with more than just the needle threaders.  They had some fabrics on sale for $4.99 per yard . . . so I purchased some patriotic prints for Quilt of Valor presentation pillowcases.  

Sunday afternoon while cutting and kitting up a couple of those QOV pillowcases it became obvious that I had more fabrics already collected for pillowcases than would fit in the project box.  I've been setting aside good choices all fall and winter.  

Along with the 2 blue star pillowcases for QOV, there are now 5 others cut and kitted up.  Not all of the fabrics in that top photo ended up in one of these kits, but what is left is organized and actually fits into the project box now.  The kits include dogs, fish, frogs, and birds - a fun collection to add to the pile for donations and gifts.  

 

One of the pieces I purchased for the QOV pillowcases had just enough left to also cut background squares for 2 new Patriotic Star blocks.  An added bonus.  

I already had a couple of yards of army themed print for QOV pillowcases, and enough of another dark blue print as well.  So I think I can kit up at least 4 more pillowcases for Quilts of Valor, which is good because we only had 1 left.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday: 

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

And with Monday Making:

https://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/  

Playing with aqua

 My sewing time was limited this week, but I did get to play in the aqua drawer a little bit.

Falling in Love blocks (The Pattern Basket) are looking good so far.  I kitted up 3 more aqua hearts as there are plenty of other aqua/teal options left in the drawer to play with. 

Three more Framed Friendship Square blocks are done too.  This one has the cutest center - lamas and blooming cacti.  I'm thinking the guild member who shared this one had been to the desert.  

Two of these have teal frames, and the other one has aqua. The next ones I make need to have more variety in that background fabric so that the quilt isn't quite so white.  There are a couple of blocks already made with grey and with beige backgrounds.  The variety will help with the scrappy feel too.  

Small hearts are adding up.  I actually made a few in other colors too because the pieces were already cut, and kitted up with the aqua ones.  

Check out what else is happening this week in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge world.

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Sashing those Summer Soiree blocks

 By cutting and organizing all of the parts and pieces of this sashing, it has made it easy to sew them when I have the time.  This week it was 1 block per day.  It only takes about 15 minutes to assemble the sashing onto the block.  

There is one partial seam when putting this together - and that is with the long grey strip on the far right side of each block.  The center of this quilt will be 56 x 72, before any borders are added.  Once all 12 blocks are sashed, then a narrow white border will get added all around to stop the eye.  I do think a wider outer border would look good.  I have lots of the batiks and florals left, so maybe a piano key would look good on the outside.  But I'm a long way from that stage.    

RBD Challenge block #4

This week's Riley Blake Designs block is Tulip, by Jill Finley.  This challenge has a new block posted each Tuesday, except the last one of the month. So it should be a pretty easy challenge to keep up with.   

The blocks are 10" finished.  And I'm using all blues from my stash.  The background is a small blue dot that was hiding in my stash probably for a long time.  

Signature blocs

 I managed to sew for about an hour yesterday after work, and got the last couple of tiny signature blocks done for the Simple Whatnots group.  The only thing left to do is sign that center beige strip.  

I think the plan is to exchange these at our February group meeting at the end of the month.  They are only 4.5 inches square so whatever we choose to make with them will be small.  But it will be a good memory of each of the ladies in the group this year.  

Work gets in the way of fun

 Even though I am semi-retired (laugh, laugh) it seems like lately I have been working way too many hours, and not spending the time I want to in my sewing room.  So then I frantically sewed as long as possible on Sunday to get things done that I had wanted to work on all week when I was glued to my computer screen instead.  

Just for fun, I'll show you this week's work task, assigned to me by one of the engineers on staff.  Guess it's good to learn something new every day, right?  This is a Dept. of Transportation road cross section - from fence line to fence line as if I'm standing in the middle of the road.  I am working on a 12 mile stretch of rural gravel road and looking for any time the solid line is below the dashed line.  I circle those areas.  There is a cross section rectangle for every 100' along that 12 miles.  And when I finish this one, I'll do the same with the file that shows every culvert in that same stretch of road.  This is to assist in finding areas where the new road/ditch depth would cause problems for the buried fiber optic cables belonging to our client company.  

One of the benefits of working from home is I can sew during my lunch break - unless I'm working through my lunch.  Hmmm - Tuesday's lunch was eaten AT my desk. Sewing had to wait until after work, when my brain was fried.   

Summer Soiree & new goals for a new month

The list for the APQ UFO Challenge this month includes a hand quilting project that I may NEVER finish, and a set of blocks that are all ready to be sewn together.  Obviously I know which project to tackle first - the set of blocks.  And I have a PIG (new project) in mind to play with after I get the top done for Summer Soiree.  

In 2021 I sewed along with the Pat Sloan's Summer Soiree online fun.  I actually did 2 versions of the block she posted each week.  Version #1 was red/white/blue for a Quilt of Valor.  That quilt is done.  But Version #2 used various floral prints and batiks.  Nine of the 12 blocks are in the collage below, and they are all different colors so I've been researching layout ideas that would pull them together. 

I saw a really interesting layout idea on her site, posted by someone else.  Unfortunately I printed a picture of the layout, but didn't make note of whose idea it was.  My apologies to the creative person who came up with this very unique way to sash these blocks.  I would give you credit if I could.  

Grid paper comes in so handy when I'm trying to plan a layout, or trying to do the math to make a block that I can't find a pattern for, like this one.  Based on the picture, I guessed that the sashing pieces would add sections half the width of the original block, but only on 2 sides.  That was my starting point for the sketch, and then for the piece sizes to cut.  

This grey fabric with colored dots was a wide backing that I've used on a couple of quilts lately, and I've been saving the trimmed sections to do this sashing.  It's kind of an "off-set frame" idea.  And my first block worked out perfectly.  The block doesn't look very interesting alone, but I think once I have them all layed out together, those frames will look great.  

So - this is my first February goal - to get all 12 Summer Soiree blocks framed and sewn together.  Then I can determine whether or not to add borders.  

In the meantime my other goals for February include:

** keep up with Saturday Sampler, Farmers Wife, and Riley Blake

** finish binding my previous Saturday Sampler

** make 2 pillowcases for donation
** quilt & bind Midnight (Simple Whatnots)

** continue working on blue hexie flowers