To Do Tuesday

The first thing on today's To Do list is to finish some cleaning in my sewing room that I started Monday afternoon.  And hopefully tomorrow I'll have a UFO project finish to show too.

These 2 plastic containers are now in the next box going to Goodwill.  The yellow one held all kinds of notions, with a tray on top for little things.  The green one was a thread caddy.  They were taking up valuable space on a shelf in my sewing room and not being used.  Gone!!

Once I get the rug vacuumed in my sewing room, then I can bring back in my comfy chair.  It had been stacked high with leftover batting pieces.  I'm going through that batting, folding neatly, and pinning a tag to each piece with the size listed.  That way when I need batting for a small project I can easily choose one that is just the right size without unfolding several.

The 12.5" blocks for month 1 of Saturday Sampler are all done.  These are pretty boring - just big half square triangles.  There are 8 of these total.  The blocks for the rest of the months are much more interesting - lots of stars and churn dashes in bright colors.

I've been doing the Riley Blake Design block challenge again this year, with my blocks all coming from the 30s fabrics I love.  There will be 16 blocks posted for this year, but I've decided to make extras in order to have a larger quilt in the end.  I've gone back into the previous years' patterns and chosen a couple of favorites to use along with the 2024 blocks. 

I'm really liking the second one of the extra blocks.  This week we'll get RBD24 block #12.

Design Wall Monday - April 15

What's on YOUR design wall today?
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The first task on my design wall this week is the first month's blocks for the new Saturday Sampler program at The Pin Cushion (local quilt shop).  This month we'll be making the large blocks in that center area of the picture using the black, grey, and teal.  There were 2 colorways to choose from and the other colorway is using dark brown instead of black, a light brown instead of grey, and a darker teal.  Both colorways are full of rich colors.

I need to attach the binding to one more UFO project, and will work on that this week in the evenings while watching TV.  This was last year's Saturday Sampler - Spooling Around.  I plan to hang this on the wall by my sewing room door once it's done.  

Better Together - or Love Birds as I think of this little wall hanging - is so close to being done.  I keep procrastinating in getting the quilting finished.  The binding is all prepped, and just waiting.  By the end of the week I want this project completely quilted and bound.

My reward to myself IF I finish the Love Birds will be to make this little mini banner.  It's a kit put together by the local quilt shop, The Pin Cushion.  The letters in the banner come from the Spelling Bee book by Lori Holt, which I have. 

 

Another project on my design wall is a tiny project from our Sew Vintage group.  We're exchanging 2.5" strips of pinks and reds among the group to make a strawberry quilt.  Next month we'll exchange some greens.  But our group leader loves tiny things and showed us the version she made using 1" squares ironed onto interfacing, folded on the seam lines, then stitched together.  That teeny tiny little strawberry was adorable and of course I just had to go home and play.  I have several cookie tins full of 1.5" postage stamps cut from scraps, so I just dug into those for the backgrounds, pinks, reds, and greens.  This will be so cute once I've sewn it, although it won't be quite as tiny as Cindy's.

A finish & a find

A finish, no matter how small, is a victory.
 

The Easter door hanger is finished.  It's a chocolate bunny, right?  This was a Riley Blake kit, and really adorable.  I was going to quilt this myself but ended up having it done by a pro.  The texture on this is great, so I'm glad I made that decision.  The variegated thread is even soft Easter colors.  So I could hang it on the 2 hooks on my door, I added ribbon loops on the top. And now it will hang in the closet until next spring.  LOL

So, what have I found now?

This wall hanging - Cats of 4 Seasons - was folded up in the bottom of a drawer.  Not the Big Grey Tote, but a drawer.  It's all hand appliqued and most of that was done in the car in approximately the year 2000 on a road trip from South Dakota to Atlanta, up to North Carolina, then over to Kentucky, with stops in Chicago and Green Bay.  It was a LOT of hours in the car.

About 10 years ago I started hand quilting it.  I think it was about 10 years ago.  Anyway, it's about half quilted.  The needle is still threaded and was in the spot where I stopped.  The binding fabric was even in a small bag with it.  I remember this pattern was in a book, but I have no clue which book or if I still have that particular book.  Hmmm . . . 

Hopefully I will work on the hand quilting now that this project has seen the light of day again, and get it finished.  It's crazy what UFO projects I keep unearthing. 

RSC24 - Week #15

Don't you love when a plan comes together?  

Night Vision is a new-to-me block that I just began making this year for RSC.  I saw a picture online of this one and just HAD to add it to my plans for the year.  It's really just Flying Geese rotating around a center square.  This week I added the 3 new yellow blocks to the mix, and couldn't resist a sample layout.  Look what happens when they are layed out together!  I'm so excited about this one!  The more colors are added, the more interesting this will look I think.  The bonus triangles trimmed from goose corners have become Pinwheels. They are only 4.5" square unfinished - and I have no firm plan yet for them.  However, they might end up in an outer border for Night Vision.  Some ideas are percolating.

A UFO was finished - with yellow binding.  This is Twinkle Star, an RSC set of blocks from previous years.  This is one of my favorite star blocks to make, so I know there will be another one of these in my future.  It's so cheerful. 

There was a lot more yellow happening this week. 

String Beads were made. I've been keeping a stack of phone book page paper cut in 5" squares next to my machine. As I've been sewing lately I've worked on the string sections as Leaders/Enders.  There are still a couple more yellow string squares plus some other colors too that are ready for the framing strips.  I'm using scrappy neutrals for the frames, in creams, tans and whites.

I totally enjoyed some extended sewing time this week, and had a lot of fun with yellow.  Kitty blocks, 16-patch churn dash, Dutchman's Puzzle, Zippers, and Spinners were all sewn and added to their respective collections.  

Even the mini quilt I made this week had a lot of yellow.  

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Check out more RSC projects going on around the country. 

Decluttering update

 I jumped on board a Decluttering challenge in the last few weeks, thanks to Joy at Joyful Quilting, and feel a little lighter for participating.  A little lighter - but with a very LONG way to go around this big house yet for it to be very noticeable. 

The challenge is to remove 100 items in 100 days - to donate or giveaway, or to trash.  And this week I've surpassed that 100 number easily thanks to my husband.  Last week I removed almost 20 clothing items from my closet, and donated them. And on Wednesday morning he asked if he should go through his shirts to donate the ones he no longer wore. Yes!!  An hour later there were 20 shirts (golf and dress) and 20 empty hangers laying on the bed.  Plus 9 pair of dress pants, 6 pair golf shorts, 1 suit and 1 sport coat.  He was ruthless.  But trust me, he has plenty of things to wear still in the closet.

See the rocking chair?  This is in my home office.  Earlier this week that chair was about 8" deep with stuff I was too lazy to deal with.  Magazines, junk mail, a ream of paper, and tons of paperwork - some needed to be filed, some needed to be shredded, some needed to be put away, and some just needed to go into the recycling bin.  Those work project binders will gradually disappear too, as I'm working fewer hours now.  I'll keep working gradually on cleaning out that office bookcase.

Our community clean-up day is next week, when you can place large items out on the curb to be picked up on your regular garbage/recycling day.  People drive around town and "shop" the curbs so sometimes your stuff disappears even before it's picked up.  We've identified a couple of larger items in the basement that will be put out on the curb next week.

My daughters will thank me for everything we get rid of. They should thank Joy too.  LOL

Butterfly mini finish

My Wednesday finish was this mini quilt with the paper pieced butterflies.  This was a kit from Shabby Fabrics that I couldn't resist because I love the bright colors.  In the photo the top butterflies look larger and the bottom of the quilt looks much narrower than the top.  Guess I took the photo from a strange angle.  All 4 butterflies are exactly the same 6" size blocks.

Sometimes the back of a project is too pretty to hide on the back.  The kit included this gorgeous Kaffe print for the back.  I used it, but was also happy there was a little of it left.

And that little piece of the backing was just enough to make Kitty block #30.  

Mid-week progress

Happy birthday to TWO of my grandchildren today!!  Olivia and Jonah turn 11 today.  The twins were born during a brutal ice storm that hit eastern South Dakota, but today looks like a delightful spring day of sunshine and temps in mid 60s.  

Yesterday morning I had some good quiet uninterrupted sewing time before it was time to get ready to leave to attend an orchestra concert where the 2 grandkids with birthdays were involved. 

The pink butterfly is all done.  This one has a LOT fewer pieces than the yellow one did, so it was a fairly quick block to sew.

 

The blue and purple butterflies are all ready to sew today - hopefully.  The colors in this mini quilt are what drew me to buy the kit.  These are such bright spring colors. They are happy colors.

The other 3 yellow versions of the 16-patch churn dash blocks came together quickly too.  Those little 16-patch units were made at the February retreat.  I have a green one all ready to sew as well.  There are now 4 completed yellow blocks and 4 completed purple blocks.  One green and 1 red are done too.  I'll work on those previous colors a little at a time.  

I cut the parts for 2 of the Dutchman's Puzzle blocks, and got one of them sewn.  These are using batiks for the colors, and scrappy white-on-white backgrounds.  All of the blocks will have aqua (in various shades) paired with the RSC color of the month.  The plan is to make 2 each month.

My plan today is to sew this morning, handle some chores this afternoon, and watch Survivor while binding a quilt this evening.  Should be a good day.