Hand quilting the 30s Row Quilt

 My last finish of 2021 was actually this UFO - the Row Quilt that was a Saturday Sampler back in 2004.  I had begun to hand quilt it and only had the first 4 row done.  I finally decided that I would hire the ladies at the local senior center to finish that hand quilting.  I just wasn't ever going to get it done, even though it's only twin bed sized.

This photo is terrible in terms of color - but it does show the lovely texture of the hand quilting.  I still need to run an iron over the new stitching to remove the Frixon marking (heat removes it).  

The sashing is all a butter yellow solid, the background is scrappy white, and the prints are all 1930s reproductions.  I was a much less experienced quilter when I started this one, and used a white on the back of this quilt.  White on the back - what was I thinking??

Twinkle Stars

 I've added another red Twinkle Star block.  Isn't this one a hoot?  I love, love, love that big polka dot in the star points.  

I haven't decided yet exactly how I plan to lay out these blocks for a quilt.  Sashing - pieced or plain?  No sashing at all?  Framed blocks?  But there are definitely plenty of options.

I laid out the the 29 blocks I have so far to see what colors I really should focus on.  There are plenty of yellow, purple, and green.  But I really could add more red or aqua or maybe some darker blue.  

And honestly - if I want a nice big quilt then I'll need quite a few more blocks. 

Farmers Wife and RSC blocks

This will be kind of a busy week with not a lot of extended sewing time on any particular day.  Mostly that is due to having to work more hours again after a couple of weeks of very few hours.  I must keep reminding myself that every hour worked is money I can spend on fabric or books or save for a future adventure.  This morning is my annual mammogram, and tomorrow may involve a little afternoon road trip with my husband. Something is on my normally empty calendar every day this week.  

The Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks are so near to being complete.  By the end of February I should have them all made and be able to start laying them out for a complete top.  I had forgotten to make last week's blocks, but managed to sew them yesterday after work.  Pine Tree and Seasons are now added to the stack, and I even got the sashing on them.  

And because I really felt the need to play just a little bit with red these Square in a Square blocks happened.  I have a LOT of black and white prints in the stash.  After seeing some fun scrappy blocks on Sane, Crazy, Crumbly Quilting blog a few days ago I got the idea to make a few of these just for fun.

I did these using just 3.5" squares from the box.  I cut 2 black and white ones diagonally once for each of these.  And once sewn I just trimmed them to 5" square.  We'll see . . . maybe a whole collection of different colors would be fun in a table topper or pillow.  Or maybe I should make next month's color the next round of triangles and just keep building around the block until it's big enough to use for something fun.  I'm betting some fun ideas could come from my readers.   

To Do Tuesday - Farmers Wife Sampler

 Two more blocks are done, and 2 more are cut out. Both of this week's blocks used the same templates but end up so differently.  

This week's blocks included Wedding Ring, which turned out a little bit wonky.  A good pressing with Best Press and a hot iron helped a little.  It also turned out slightly too big and after squaring it up I ended up losing some points.  Weird. 

The other block is Wild Rose with Square, and it turned out exactly the right size.  So the templates were OK - my sewing or cutting was bad for that first block. Hmmmm . . . 

Now I need to go back and make last week's blocks.  I set them aside last week and then totally forgot about them.  This isn't the time to fall way behind as we are so close to the end.

Not much sewing happened so far this week.  Yesterday morning I drove a friend to the airport as she leaves for a month of well earned relaxation with a special person in her life.  I admit to being quite jealous.  I don't mind the cold weather here - I just mind not ever going anywhere.  With working only part time I was really hoping to start doing some fun traveling - until Covid hit.  But I'm ready to go somewhere - anywhere interesting!! 

Design Wall Monday - Saturday Sampler blocks

Block #3 for Saturday Sampler is done.  I'm using Christmas prints in reds and green for this version, and they are coming from my stash.  I did purchase the dark red and the grey snowflake fabrics for the sashings.  

Now that there are 3 of the blocks made, with the pieced sashing attached, I can really see that secondary design beginning to take shape.  Every block will feature different white backgrounds, and different Christmas prints. But they'll all have the sashing done the same.  

However, since these blocks have been quite easy and fast to make, I've gotten a bit carried away by making 2 more versions.  One version has the black "feathery" looking background and bright prints.  This one doesn't have the best contrast, but it fits in fine with the first 2 blocks.  I'm using bright colors that are already in that black print.  

 

The final version has a grey background with batiks.  All of these are from my stash.  The nice thing about doing multiple versions of these blocks is that when we finish up with the Saturday Sampler I'll have enough blocks for 2 more quilts in addition to the main quilt.  I don't plan to do that pieced sashing for these other 2 sets.  I'll probably keep them much simpler.

I'll be checking in with Design Wall Monday -
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Scrappy fun in red

 Red is one of my favorite colors.  I feel good when I wear red, many touches of red show up around my house even when it isn't Christmas, and I can definitely get carried away when playing with my red fabrics.  So it's the perfect color to start the new year!

As you see I decided to make a 4th Falling in Love block. These sweet heart blocks are from The Pattern Basket.  The first 3 were made with scraps of prints, but this one was born when I saw an interesting red batik hiding in my batik stash. So I cut right into it.  A tulip block also happened!  I just couldn't resist playing more with this batik.  

I've been making Hourglass blocks from the triangles trimmed from the heart corners.  These are trimmed to 4" square.  And then I made a few littler ones with the leftovers.  And the small hearts are 4.5" square and also made from scraps.  

The 3 red hearts joined the small collection hanging out waiting to become something.  I think these will eventually make a good child's quilt.  But they are only 4.5" square so it will take a big bunch of these to make a quilt.  And they make good leader/ender blocks to just work on in between other things. 

One red Twinkle Star has also been assembled and joined the bunch hanging in the closet.  I think one more of these in red will happen over the weekend. 

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - RSC22:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

First UFO finish of 2022 - Fish School

 Fish School is the very first item to check off of my 2022 UFO and PHD lists!  Yay!  

The pieced fish blocks was originally a Row By Row kit that I purchased several years ago.  I put it together finally because I thought it was so cute.  But then I saw a kid's quilt online somewhere that had a row of pieced blocks and just jelly roll strips added.  Boom!!  I could see how to use the fish. 

I actually tried to use a Kaffe jelly roll but ended up switching to this dotted one with all the fun colors of the fish.  There were plenty of strips left over to use for binding.  The backing makes me think of Finding Nemo and just seemed perfect.   

This one will go into the stack waiting to be gifted because I think it could make a fun baby quilt.  These photos do not do justice to the bright happy colors.