RSC24 - Week #16

 There hasn't been a lot of focus on yellow this week, but there was still a lot of scrap usage going on around here.  

I finished a couple of yellow mug rugs.  There are 2 more like these but with the colors reversed.  The other 2 still need to be quilted and bound.

Yellow was a deliberate choice for the Riley Blake challenge this week.  Block #12 is Flip Flopped by Sandy Gervais.  Everything here came from the 30s scrap bin. 

More of the Kitty blocks happened this week again, but only 1 is actually yellow - kind of.  The background of that "house" print is bright yellow.  But all of these blocks used up more small chunks of fabric from the various bins.  

And there is yellow in this small quilt.  It's a Villa Rosa pattern, and is 48" by 60" as is.  I'm still not sure if I want to add an outer border or not.  It might be a more useful size if I add a 6" outer border, but that decision can wait.

Let's see what others are doing with yellow this week . . .
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Spoolin' Around & more finishes

I have some finishes to show off this week, starting with the 2023 Saturday Sampler, called Spoolin' Around.  This is going to hang on the wall near my sewing room doorway.

I really wanted to photograph this quilt outside, but 30 mph winds made that impossible.  Gotta love living on the prairie.  And of course it was overcast as well.  The fun thing about this Saturday Sampler was that we alternated each month with pieced blocks and applique blocks. Because everyone chose their own fabrics for this one, every quilt was unique at the end. 

The other finishes were a couple of mini quilts.  The Grow Banner is about 28" long by 8" high. I'm not sure yet where this will go, but I sure enjoyed making it. I even quilted some leaves above the lower case letters.  The strawberry is the mini version of the bigger blocks we're making in our Sew Vintage group.  This one is 7 x 9, and made entirely from 1.5" squares in my cookie tins full of that size square.  The bigger blocks will use 2.5" squares and we've been exchanging strips of the pinks and reds among our Sew Vintage group members.

The binding has been attached to 5 mug rugs, and that will provide some hand stitching to do in front of the TV in the evening for a couple of days. 

Next in line - Laurel Burch

I'm so in love with Laurel Burch designs - such rich saturated colors and whimsical designs.  I've purchased quite a bit of her fabrics over the years, and now one of those pieces is soon to be a flimsy.

This is the next project in line - a jungle design panel.  I'm using a Villa Rosa pattern called October Sky because it is perfect for a horizontal panel.  All of the pieces for the HSTs were cut from fabrics I pulled from the stash last month for this.  In my head I'm picturing an outer border with leaves, but haven't purchased anything yet as I want to have the center portion all sewn before making a final decision on those borders.

 

And I got a good start by sewing and squaring up the HSTs.  I bought some solid black yardage for the sashing for this one too.  The goal is to have this one a flimsy - except for outer borders - by the end of the week.  That should be manageable.

One other task yesterday was to finish organizing the smaller pieces of leftover batting.  These pieces will be used primarily for mug rugs and hot pads.  I have quite a stack here, but there is also quite a substantial stack of mug rug blocks ready to finish.  

Better Together/Love Birds is finished

This took me WAY too long to finish!  

It's only about 22 x 34 and was from the Missouri Star Cupid Box for 2024.  I got the flimsy done fairly quickly, but was determined to quilt it myself.  That was the problem because I just kept pushing it aside to work on other things.  Until this week when I finally just focused on getting it done.

Next February this wall hanging will be hung in the living room on the rail below a shelf. 

Yesterday we had rain, which is greatly appreciated.  I looked out and noticed the rain drops on the bird feeder looked just like little diamonds.  And look how green the grass has turned this week!  In this part of the country we never know if spring is here to stay in mid-April.  Late April snow storms are not unheard of around here.  

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?
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

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.