A little of this and a little of that

It was a busy fun weekend.

On Saturday a couple of us from our QOV group went to a family reunion to award Quilts of Valor to 2 brothers.  What a charming couple of gentlemen!!  We both got hugs from them.

Earlier in the day (Saturday), a box was delivered to my house.  It was a surprise package from Nann at With Strings Attached.  She knows my passions so well - books and fabric!  A book of stories about South Dakota, a mystery, and a pattern book.  There was also a little collection of red/white/blue fabrics that will work beautifully with our Quilts of Valor projects.  Thank you Nann!!  You know I'll enjoy all of these.  

On Sunday evening I met my younger daughter at a small town dinner theater.  The evening was a Mother's Day gift from her.  The play was terrific - a murder mystery comedy with lots of talent.  The meal was excellent too!  About halfway through the first act, people's phones began alerting to a tornado warning for that county.  At intermission the staff gave us instructions of where to go if the sirens would go off in that town.  I'm happy to say the show went on without any danger.  The thunder was loud, and water was over the curb at the street as we were leaving, but no hail or tornado.  We got wet getting to our cars but nothing worse. 

Design Wall Monday - June 1

With the beginning of June, it's time for a new goal list.  The first item on the list is another UFO project - the Moda Blockheads 6 project from 2025.  

The blocks have all been done, but I wasn't happy with my fabric choices for that center block. The center medallion block is 27" square and needs to make a statement, but as you can see from my original layout it doesn't look like it fits with the other blocks.

This is what it originally looked like.  That beige print was not a good choice as the pinwheel gets lost in there.  The block needed something more bold to fit in with all the rest of the blocks in the series. 

So, I spent maybe a half hour picking out the seams around those beige sections.  A good seam ripper is worth it.

The beige pieces are now replaced with a bold flag print and I like it much better.  Now I can begin assembling the top this week.

I did a LOT of cutting on Saturday afternoon, some with patriotic prints and some with pastels for June's RSC blocks.  These will give me plenty of Leaders/Enders to use in between things this week. 

The rest of the June goals are typical . . . so I'm skipping most of the details.

** Try NOT to acquire a lot of new fabric
** keep up with Saturday Sampler
** make new blocks for Sew Vintage (Pizza Box Challenge)
** RSC blocks in the June colors (pastels)
** bind a UFO (Shadow Stars QOV)
** finish the guild DIY Round Robin wall hanging
** take a couple of small things to long arm quilter
** assemble flimsy for Salt Water Taffy quilt

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #22

A new flimsy has been born from Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  The block pattern is called Give It a Whirl, and definitely has been one of my favorite RSC blocks to make.  The flimsy is 48 x 60, so a nice size for a kid's quilt or a couch cuddler.  

Because I was finishing up one set of RSC blocks, I've been testing some new blocks.  This is Ticker Tape.  Only 6 orange ones have been made so far.  These are 4 x 8" finished, and look great lined up vertically or horizontally. The fun thing about this block is that they can be made using squares and HSTs for that color area- very scrappy - or with strips.  For RSC I'm going to use strips. So far I haven't gone back to any of the previous 2026 colors, but I'm excited to make some in whatever color we're doing for June. 

This week I also made more Ticker Tape blocks in patriotic prints from a bunch of strips in a bag of QOV scraps I was recently given.  These should be a fun QOV.

One of the other "new" blocks I played with this month is Confetti Star.  It's a 6.5" paper pieced scrappy block.  Only 2 orange ones happened so far, along with 1 green one and a red, white and blue version.  My plan is to use scrappy neutral prints for the background. 

Reflecting on the whole month of orange sewing . . . was very satisfying!  This is the point in the year when we have lots of color variety to begin playing with layout ideas.  But as always, I'm ready to dig into a new color for June.

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

It's Friday - Yay!!

Wow - it's already Friday, and there is not much to report.  There hasn't been much sewing time this week, but there was time with friends and family and that is even better.

You know how photos pop up every day on Facebook as memories?  Those memories always bring a smile to my face.  I have the same thing also happen in my email from One Drive, and recently this picture popped up from 2008. I was hand quilting, and there was no room on my lap for a 22 pound cat.  Sammy was tucked into the puddle of fabric on the floor next to me.  I sure miss this guy!  We had him for 19 years, and he was definitely my sewing room companion. Can't believe he's been gone for nearly 3 years already.

Full disclosure about that quilt.  I got about 1/3 of it hand quilted and then set it aside for about 10 years.  Then I took it to the local Senior Center and paid the ladies there to finish quilting it.  It's a twin size quilt from a Saturday Sampler, done in rows.  Mine used 30s reproduction prints so I was determined it would be hand quilted.  

And look - my hair wasn't white!!  To be honest, it really was totally white but I was still coloring it back in 2008 because I wasn't ready to look at myself with white hair.

Next UFO & a WIP

Shadow Stars came back from the quilter this week, so I'm ready to do the binding on it.  This quilt is on my PHD list at the quilt shop, so it will be good to check it off the list of UFOs for 2026.  I may donate this one to our Quilts of Valor group. 

Today I should finally have time in the sewing room to finish getting this top assembled. Two of the vertical rows are sewn so far.  I'm adding a white brick to the top and bottom of those rows to make them off-set.  

Then it's time to empty out a couple of project boxes holding things that are fairly close to being Finished Objects.  I'm continuing on the quest to decrease the number of UFOs and WIPs laying around.

The next UFO up to be moved along is the Moda Blockheads 6 blocks, to become a Quilt of Valor.  Guess I'm still in red, white, blue mode this week.  These blocks were all made in 2025 for the Blockheads 6 sew along. However, I am going to remake that center medallion first because I'm not happy with my color choices at all.   

And the WIP that needs attention after that is Salt Water Taffy.  The blocks are all made and waiting patiently in the project box.  This was a leader/ended kind of project all spring until I had used up a whole charm pack and a good share of a jelly roll.  Now it's time to turn the blocks into a finished top for another donation quilt. 

Quilts of Valor projects

I do enjoy the process of cutting the parts and pieces for a new quilting project, so kitting up blocks and whole projects is something I actually like to do. Sunday afternoon I went through our QOV bins to gather things for a couple of kits for new quilts.

First I went through the various block sets to see what we have to work with.  This year's free block for the block drive on the QOV website is Echo.  We had a good size collection of the 10" Echo blocks, and only needed 22 to frame this panel.  Voila!  Kit #1 is ready to hand over.  There are 7 left over blocks for another future quilt.  

Another stack of blocks contained a variety of 12" (finished) blocks that would work in a sampler layout with simple sashing and cornerstones.  Some of my recent test blocks are in this collection.  The bin containing lots of fabric donated to us, and lots of backing leftovers, yielded the sashing, cornerstones, and an outer border for this kit.  Kit #2 is ready to go as well - but with that light blue block swapped out for a better choice.  

And I've paired up backing for 3 additional Quilts of Valor.  Our group had 2 partial bolts of wide backing, so it was fairly quick get those ready for quilting.  I'm thinking that Churn Dash will be a block pattern that we need to use again soon as this is a really pretty quilt.

The 2 Quilts of Valor that will be awarded next weekend are both washed, and I have the labels ready to attach.   

This and that

One small finish can be checked off so far this week . . . the Hollow Stars runner.  This was the kit I purchased recently.  Yay - a kit that didn't end up languishing in a drawer. 

I'll need to clear all the Quilt of Valor stuff off my dining room table before I can actually make use of this new runner on the table.  LOL

It's possible this will be the ONLY finish this week as the sewing time is quite limited due to all the other things going on.  That's OK of course.

This week has a busy full calendar, which doesn't happen much lately.  Two evenings of baseball, one high school softball game, monthly lunch with the "retired" group of ladies, a manicure appointment, and a pedicure appointment.  Over the weekend there will be 2 Quilt of Valor awards, and plans to attend a dinner theater with one of my daughters.  And then next week there will be 3 family birthdays to celebrate!!  And more baseball. 

A niece got married last Saturday, and we had a really fun time gathering with family.  It was a small wedding, with a big reception, dance, and BBQ after.  The music was good and the food was delicious.