RSC25 - Week #6

It's Saturday Sampler and Sew Vintage day today, so basically my favorite Saturday of every month.  I told my husband he would need to find another date for the Jackrabbit basketball game today.  He's taking a friend from high school days, and I'm hanging out with quilters all day.  I think it was a good choice on my part.  

My main blue focus this week was getting 2 UFO projects to the flimsy stage, which I'll share below.  But I did work on some other blocks for RSC.  These are Churn Dash blocks to add to the baby quilt stack I've been working on.  I actually have enough of the pale blue and the grey rockets/solar system print for a whole baby quilt - added to my Some Day list.

Two blue Gameboard blocks joined the pink ones. However, I noticed that the 16-patch center of the light blue one is turned differently than the others.  I'll fix it but not today.

But there were a LOT of blue Buckeye Beauty blocks sewn this week.  There is a total of 40 of them in these stacks, pinned into groups of 10 based on color placement.  There are 6 of them on the design board, cut out but not sewn yet.  Since these blocks finish at 8", it will take quite a few more to make a Quilt of Valor. 

UFO #1 that reached the flimsy stage this week is Twinkler.  The blue and white blocks were made in 2024.  It feels good to have this one ready to quilt.

And UFO #2 to reach the flimsy stage is this Quick Strippee baby quilt.  It's about 40 x 56, and has been kitted up in a project box for over a year.  Now it's ready to quilt too.  

There are 2 different blue fabrics in the BOM Circle of Friends block for February.  This is block #8 of 12 from Carol Doak. 

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

BOM progress

Two of the BOM projects I'm working on saw progress yesterday.

Actually the Riley Blake Design (RBD) challenge is a Block of the Week, with the last week of each month designated as a catch up week. This week's block is #4, called Twist by Fran Gulick.  This was a quick sew. 

Can't say the same thing about the other Block of the Month - as it's paper pieced.  Circle of Friends by Carol Doak isn't exactly quick to sew.  But the blocks have each been fairly easy because of the way she has them broken down.  Each 12" finished block has 8 "units" - 4 of each half of a square.  Then the 4 squares are sewn into the whole block.  My block needs the paper removed this morning and then I'll sew the units together.  There will be 12 blocks total, and this one is number 8. 

No stitching

After returning from a DAR meeting the ambition to go down to my sewing room was nonexistent. But I did finish the puzzle that has been on the coffee table for nearly a week. And I read a couple of chapters in the book I've been reading.  So the day wasn’t a total loss. 

Twinkler flimsy

After checking the stash yesterday, I went shopping to find a good blue batik to use as the border for the Twinkler quilt, and I believe I found the perfect blue.

This batik is beautiful, and the photo doesn't do justice to the range of color in it.  There is a touch of light blue and aqua shades mixed in with the navy and royal blues.  I bought all 2 yards left on the bolt, so there is enough to use as a border on a table runner that might happen with the 2 extra blocks I have.

Those borders are 6" (finished), bringing this flimsy up to 72 x 84.  I'm really tickled with how it turned out.  I'm thinking a light grey for the backing and navy binding.

I mentioned to someone the other day that I'm always "one squirrel away" from total distraction in my sewing room.  But so far this week I've gotten 2 UFOs to the flimsy stage which means I've remained quite focused.  You know that isn't likely to continue for too long, but so far so good, right?

There was also quite a lot of cutting that took place yesterday.  Eight more of the red/white/blue Buckeye Beauty blocks are cut.  And 4 more of those little zippered coin purses are ready to be stitched up.  

This morning I have a DAR meeting to attend, but maybe there will be some sewing this afternoon once I get home.  

Dinosaurs

This post is later than usual because I forgot to set it to publish automatically like I usually do.  It snowed here yesterday - maybe half an inch, so I spent lots of extra time in my sewing room avoiding the errands I'll have to run today.   
 

The Quick Strippee is one of my favorite Go To patterns for a baby or child size quilt.  It's a free pattern from https://blog.maryquilts.com/category/quilt-designs/ .  They take a yard each of 3 fabrics, and are cut in strips from selvage to selvage. 

I like to kit up a couple of these at a time, and then sew them when I need another baby quilt or just want a quick project.  It really takes much less than a day to cut and sew these.  This was the last one I had kitted up from 2024, but there are some cute "kid" prints in the project box for the next go around. 

I even leave the selvages on the strips, lining up the left side evenly.  But I leave the right side however it ends up until after it's quilted.  Then I square up both sides before putting the binding on.  

The other thing I did yesterday was sew all of the Twinkler blocks into rows, and then sewed those rows together.  But it needs an outer border yet.  And the extra 2 blocks - well they may be the "seeds" to grow a winter table runner using the leftover jelly roll strips.  

Design Wall Monday - February 3

Saturday turned out to be a non-sewing day.  I attended the monthly quilt guild meeting in the morning where the Show n Tell was amazing.  As always!  Guild was followed by grocery shopping and my list was long.  In the afternoon I ended up working on a puzzle while the laundry was running instead of going downstairs to sew.  

But . . . I did lay out the Twinkler blocks.  And I also discovered that the extra 2 blocks I sewed last week to bring the total to 30 - not needed because I already had 30.  There were 2 of them in the bottom of the project box, hiding out.  So, now there are 2 orphan blocks.  Sigh!  The final block arrangement needs a bit of tweaking but I plan to start sewing blocks together into rows today.  This will be the first of several blue UFO projects I plan to work on to meet some Rainbow Scrap Challenge goals I've set.

The third block in the Riley Blake challenge is Roses Among the Thorns, by Jennifer Long.  I ended up leaving out the stem and thorn, and adding those corner triangles.  It just seemed like too much white.  The next block will come out on Tuesday. 

The February block for Circle of Friends was released as well, so I'll be doing a little paper piecing this week.  I don't plan to follow the pattern color choices, but haven't decided yet what colors I do want to use in each spot.

A new prompt will come out today for the Stay At Home Round Robin.  My SAHRR project saw some changes last week, and now I like it much better. The HST prompt became grass below the pineapples.  I originally had 2 big yellow Snowball blocks above the little pineapple, and removed one. The remaining yellow Snowball became the sun with some little appliqued triangles.  Can't wait to see what this week brings. 

Blue is the RSC color for February, so that means I'll add some blocks for a new Quilt of Valor that I've been planning.  So far, I've made 10 Buckeye Beauty blocks from the QOV "leftover bin" currently taking up way too much space.  More are cut out, and I've made a little stack of fabric options for more of them.  At guild on Saturday I was handed a big bag of lovely donation fabrics for QOV.  I need to sew faster!!

There will be other things showing up this week in the sewing room I'm sure, but these need to be my main focus.  It's more than enough to keep me busy.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC25 - Week #5

It's exciting to wrap up one color and begin the new month with a new color.  And this morning is a guild meeting, so that is always fun too.

This pink wall hanging was completed at the beginning of the week.  It's not quilted yet, but is hanging up in my living room.  For now it's pinned to another finished wall hanging the same size so I can enjoy this through Valentine's Day.  After that I'll deal with the quilting and binding so it's ready for next year.  The pattern and kit - It Takes Two - was the 2022 Cupid Box from Fat Quarter Shop.  I'm thinking the pattern may have been exclusive to the box, and not sold separately.  It's really cute. 

There has been one final pink finish this week - a Valentine mug rug.  I used up some of the scraps from the wall hanging.  It's made with 2.5" squares, scrap batting, and a chunk of leftover backing.  There is no binding on it, as it was made to just turn inside out through an opening in the side.  

The next month's color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been announced.  It's BLUE - which is a color that is overly abundant in my stash, in the scrap bins, and in the UFOs living in my sewing room.  I'm going to begin with seeing what blue UFOs can be moved to the next stage, and/or finished completely. 

Twinkler was a project I worked on gradually in 2024, making 2-3 blocks each month.  By late November I had 28 blocks made, but then couldn't find where I had put the remaining jelly roll strips to make the last 2 blocks.  Luckily those strips were found and have been hanging in the closet with the blocks.  So my February goals began this week with making those last 2 blocks. Now I'll work to get this one to the flimsy stage.  It has a scrappy white-on-white background and batik jelly roll strips in many shades of blue.  

Another UFO with a lot of blue is this dinosaur themed Quick Strippee child's quilt.  I have a project box with a couple of kits all cut and ready to go using this pattern.  Getting this to the flimsy stage should be a 1 day project, so this will also go onto my February list.

Each month I've been trying to choose at least one NEW project to tackle as well.  Lately these have been small things, like bags or door hangers.  Some years ago on a guild bus trip I purchased a few fat quarters of Aboriginal prints and this blue one has been demanding to be made into something.  I'm thinking another Hemingway bag would be ideal.  

There is also a quilt using a panel that has a lot of blue in it, so hopefully that might see progress too.  With a focus on blue I'm sure some Quilts of Valor things will occur.  

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