Mug rug explosion

We've had 3 days of 100 degree weather, so it was ideal for hiding out in my cool basement sewing room - although I'm having a little cabin fever.  Saturday morning was our monthly guild meeting, but after I got home the rest of the afternoon was spent sewing.  I've been on a mug rug kick ever since my daughter asked me to make her a 6" mug rug for her work desk.  

Two different hexie designs have been happening. One has 1 or 2 frames around a center hexie, and the other has alternated colors framing the hexie.  Then I had an "a ha" moment and pulled out my Lori Holt books. The square apple and pear mug rugs are her 6" versions.  I'm thinking some little square ones with coffee mugs would be cute too.  

The binding for these has all come from my leftover binding drawer.  I have one of those rolling craft towers with the shallow drawers that used to be in my office at school.  Now the top 2 drawers hold rolls of binding leftovers.  I dig in frequently for scrappy bindings or if I need a narrow strip of a certain color, so it doesn't go to waste.  

Each of these 14 mug rugs has been quilted, and the binding attached.  They might be a good project to keep my hands busy after my hip surgery at the end of the month.  And I'm guessing even more of these will be made before then.  A good use of the scrap bins. 

And . . . it's a good way to avoid deciding on final borders for the Scrappiness quilt.  

Design Wall Monday - Sept 4

 What's on your design wall today?  My design wall has a variety of projects on it - just like always, but some are further along than others.  As always.

A Quilt of Valor sampler is close to being a top.  One more block is in the works, and then I'll be able to finish assembling the rows.  The sashing is a grey with white dots,  There will be horizontal strips of the grey separating the rows as well as vertical sashing.  But I need to get that last block finished.

One more Entwined Star block joined the party yesterday. I used scraps for this one too, but not any aqua.  The darker triangles are a greyish-green and lavender.  

Sunday also involved a LOT of binding.  One Quilt of Valor is ready for the hand stitching stage of the binding.  And 14 little mug rugs have binding attached too.  More on that another day.

Check out more of what's happening at:
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

RSC23 - Week #35

 Some delightful time was spent this week sewing blocks in aqua - some to add to existing RSC projects, and others were test blocks for other projects including future RSC block sets.  Guess I was ready and eager to dig into a new color, although I was using yellow as well in some of them. 

Windmill blocks, a Stashbuster block, string sections, Pyramids, and Wisdom blocks . . . all added to block sets already in the works.  The Entwined Star (top left) was a test for Quilts of Valor done in red/white/blue, but then I just had to make a couple of them with aqua - just for fun. I love how it looks, so it will be in the future RSC rotation.  The Dutchman's Puzzle (center left) was a spur of the moment thing that happened.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night and realize you're dreaming/thinking of some new idea for a quilt project?  That happened to me early on Thursday morning.

The dream involved using THIS rainbow of batiks to make THIS particular block that I had printed just the afternoon before.  The Dutchman's Puzzle pattern was printed with the idea of making some for Quilts of Valor.  But my brain was going a different direction while I was asleep I guess. 

The gorgeous little stack of batiks were a gift from Preeti, who blogs at https://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com/.  She is a pattern designer as well as an Island Batik Ambassador. Earlier this year she gave away this little stack of "leftovers", and I was the very lucky person who won them.  I really love batiks!  The colors are so vibrant and they are always nice to sew on.

So, on Thursday morning I pulled one of the pretty batiks - aqua of course - from Preeti's gift, and another pretty one from my own scrap bin and used them to make a Dutchman's Puzzle block.  I'm sold!  I will continue making batik versions of this block - with scrappy white backgrounds. 

Time to check out more in the RSC world:

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

September goals

 I've been deviating from List Making for the past few weeks, and mostly just worked through some block sets to turn them into quilts.  Lots of progress with that, but now I need to get back to a List.  A list helps me focus, and with the change of seasons about to begin I feel the need to re-focus again.  There are plenty of small projects needing attention along with the bigger ones.

I've already dug into the aqua scraps for September, and have had a fun week with lots of  random block sewing being the name of the game.  

There were some red/white/blue things happening too. 

Since I know there will be recovery time needed once my second hip replacement happens, I'm hoping to have a bunch of hand stitching task (binding, etc.) ready to work on while I'm unable to get down the stairs to my sewing room.  We'll see what how that goes. 

For September I'm setting ambitious goals - many of which may not happen depending on my hip replacement surgery:

• RSC color is Aqua - several blocks already made
• misc block testing for new ideas 
• Borders added to Scrappiness Is Happiness quilt
• Sunflower Sew Together bag - finish assembling
• Make 5-6 additional mug rugs from scraps
• Finish the guild challenge Crumb Quilting project
• Saturday Sampler - new pieced block (month 9)
• Choose a PIG (project in grocery bag) to start in September
• Watermelon table topper #2 - quilt and bind
• Quilts of Valor 
• make 1 additional top
• bind 1 quilt
• wash & label 2 quilts
• Bind Pole Star (cruise quilt) - if it's back from quilter
• Bind red/white wall hanging - if it's back from quilter

UFO Challenge & more

 The UFO Challenge number drawn for September is 10, and my list has 3 items, as always, to choose from.  Except - 2 of those are already done. I finished the Country Bunnies wall hanging in June and the Bricks quilt was finished in February. 

That leaves the Pick a PIG option or working on a UFO from elsewhere on the list.  There are so many PIGs in the stash to choose from.  Lots of kits purchased but not started yet. And there are lots of UFOs waiting in the wings to be finished too.  Decisions, decisions . . . 

A blogging friend reminded me this week that starting something new is good for our motivation. The trick for me is not letting that new project become another UFO.  I think my PIG for September needs to be a small project such as a pillow, table runner, etc.  Today I'll look through the kits in the drawers and see what excites me the most.  The best option might be a project I can make and then gift to someone to be used. 

I'm easily distracted by something new but one quick way to satisfy that need is to test new block patterns.  This one happened yesterday.  It was another free block pattern on this website, which has a huge variety of block patterns, and well organized. 

https://www.patchworksquare.com/

The block is just identified on the site as a Friendship Star (intermediate) but I'm going to call it a 4-Square Star just to keep it separate from a traditional Friendship Star in my own mind. I'm thinking this could be a good option for Quilts of Valor and also for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  And the pattern actually has 3 different sizes.  I made the 12" version here, but may test an RSC version in a different size.  I also have cut out a more traditional Friendship Star block, along with a couple of other blocks I want to test.  

You know - just making blocks and tackling small organizing projects this week may have been just what my motivation needed.  

Drowning in scraps

 Scrappy quilts are the most common kind I make, and I do love them.  Anyone who has read my blog very long knows that I use a lot of white-on-white, neutral prints, or cream backgrounds for the scrappy blocks I make.  Those are so easy to mix into a scrappy quilt.

What happens to those neutral background types of scraps?  Well, they go into the beige canvas cube - which is/was definitely overflowing.  It needed attention desperately.

Time to sort and cut - and ultimately USE some of this.  What a mess when I dumped it all out on the sewing room floor!  But there were some interesting finds in there. 

Several strip sets - all folded neatly together.  These were all leftover sashing strips from old projects, and they may get used for that purpose in some new project. The cute dog bone print was something I had totally forgotten about.  Those 1.5" white strips were also a surprise find, and I'm not even sure what they were originally from.  None of these went back into the bin. 

From a variety of the neutral scraps I've cut about 60 of the 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles to use in future Potato Chip blocks.  These did NOT go back into the bin either, but they did go into the Potato Chip block bin.

I sorted out a LOT of white-on-white pieces big enough to use in the paper pieced Morning Glory blocks. There may be an aqua Morning Glory block on the horizon.  There were also several interesting print pieces that were too big to stay in with these scraps and those were cut into useful sizes - 2.5" and 3.5" squares, and 5" charms for example. Bicycles, fishing lures, dots, and leaves . . .

I used some of those charm squares in 4 new scrappy Windmill blocks.  

Most of the really narrow strips and strings went into a gallon zipper bag to use in future string blocks. And the rest went back into that scrap bin - which is quite full, but no longer overflowing thankfully.  And yes - I even threw away some scraps.  That felt so good!!

Maybe the big blue/aqua/purple bin will be next. 

Entwined Star

Today is my orthopedic appointment.  I'm hoping that we'll come up with a plan for the second new hip before it gets any worse.  I'll admit that I should not have put this off so long.

Since I've used up a lot of block sets for Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts this year, I've been playing with a few new block ideas for 2024.  And what better way to test out a new pattern than using some of the patriotic fabrics in my stash?

This is Entwined Star, and the pattern actually has 3 different sizes (12", 9", 6").  I made it in the 12" finished size because I can use the block in a Quilt of Valor sampler.  The FREE pattern is linked here.  https://www.patchworksquare.com/mf/entwined-star-quilt-block.pdf

I really like to have a mix of blocks to make for RSC each month - some quick and easy, and some more complicated.  This one looks complicated but is actually very easy.  One reminder to myself is to make sure to have enough contrast in the 3 main fabrics.  The second red/white/blue version shows off the design more clearly.

One sample was also made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge collection.  I used yellow (August) and aqua (September) along with a pinkish red.  Entwined Star is definitely a keeper.