Design Wall Monday - June 8

The new paper pieced project - Garden Stars - from Carol Doak will have a star block posted each month, and there are also alternate blocks that will separate the stars.  She gave us the pattern for the 12 alternate blocks on June 1 so we can work on those through out the year.  I have my first one sewn, and am loving how it turned out.  I have 2 more of these ready to sew this week.  

The contractors that are rebuilding the deck on the back of our house arrived on Thursday morning, and by the end of Day 1 they had all of the flooring removed except that one little section.  Our very confused cats sat around on that section in the evening, probably wondering what the heck was going on. One guy was back in the morning on Friday at 7:30 and had that little platform gone.  By noon he had half of the rotten stringers removed too. By Friday afternoon it was completely gone and cleaned up.  Today they will begin to rebuild our new deck.   

I don't usually have trouble sleeping, but last Thursday night I woke up about 1 am when a thunderstorm rolled through here.  Then I spent the next 2 hours lying awake, listening to it rain and thinking.  My brain just didn't want to shut down - and it was mostly spinning about how much my sewing room needs some major organizing - again.  Friday morning I tackled one area to attempt to tame the beast.

Part of my problem is an over-abundance of yardage (and scraps) for Quilts of Valor. There is a 2-drawer (deep drawers) unit full of red/white/blue fabric, some of it yardage and lots of good size leftover pieces.  I pulled out one drawer and dumped the contents out on the floor.  In there were these 2 patriotic border prints.  I'm going to use them for a couple of quick 60 degree table runners.  It's time to use these pretty fabrics instead of storing them.

The larger pieces of yardage went into the big tote with other QOV yardage.  I did keep out some yardage that would make better backing than blocks.  Then I began with the chunks of yardage, cutting pieces for various QOV block sets currently in progress.  Depending on the size of the chunks I focused on Gleam, Buckeye Beauty, and Ticker Tape block parts.  Two new Gleam blocks were born from those scraps so far, and there are now 17 of the 30 needed for the quilt top.  And the parts above the block are for Buckeye Beauty blocks.  We already have nearly enough of the Buckeye blocks for a quilt collected from several members last fall, so now the parts are ready for 8 more.  Another step closer to a flimsy.  

And from narrower chunks of those scraps I cut more parts for Ticker Tape blocks. These use 2.5" strips.  There are parts for 24 new ones all clipped into sets, ready to be Leaders/Enders this week while I work on other projects.

The newly empty drawer is now holding backing for various projects I have waiting to be quilted.  There was even room for some leftover backing that will be perfect for smaller projects.  Instead of in a couple of piles on the floor it's now in 1 place.  It even has a label attached to remind me what's in it. Maybe in the next few days I can empty that other drawer, or at least get it better organized. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

RSC26 - Week #23

My sewing preferences tend to lean toward bright saturated colors, but the stash (and scraps) do contain plenty of pastels too.  So far this year I've kind of neglected those lighter shades, until Angela chose them for our June color.  And because I had finished some major goals this week I was able to dive right into the pastels.

The first thing I did last Saturday after seeing we would be playing with pastels - was make 2 Confetti Stars, paper pieced from scraps in the light blue scrap bin.

Each month I've been making 4 Snail Trail blocks from that month's color.  A few of those have already been in the pastel range.  This week I added 4 more in pastel shades of blue, green, and lavender.  An idea crossed my mind that I could divide these blocks into 2 quilts at the end of the year - divided by warm and cool colors, or maybe pastels vs brights.  We'll see how many I end up with in the fall.

A few pastel Ticker Tape blocks happened too.  Because this is a block I just started making in May, the only "bright" color so far is orange.  During this month I'll also go back to some of the previous colors in the bolder shades to add to the collection gradually.  There is a pile of these in patriotic prints going on too.  

A donation quilt project that is mostly pastel is Salt Water Taffy (Villa Rosa).  It's also teetering on the edge between WIP and UFO -  so I added it to my goal list for June to move it to the flimsy stage at the very least.  The blocks had been a Leader/Ender this spring.  Now they are ready for the next steps.

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

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

It's not a complete finish, but it is a flimsy finally.  These were the Moda Blockheads 6 sew-along blocks from 2025.  I wanted to do the sew-along last year, so the QOV scrap bin came in very handy to make these blocks.  There are 3 sizes of blocks in this series - 9", 18", and 27".  That 18" block in the lower right is one I'm planning to use again - somewhere - because I just love it.

This red patriotic print wide back will be just perfect with it.  This is another UFO that is also on my PHD list at the quilt shop.  It will be great to get this quilted and bound so I can check off another project from the list.

Beach Bums is in the hands of a long arm quilter as of this week.  I asked for dense quilting so I'm excited to see what she does with it.  I know it will be awesome.  

For more finishes, please visit:  https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

 

A new project

Since New Year's I've been quite careful and deliberate about fabric purchases.  For the most part I've bought backing for UFO projects, or things that were needed to finish a project already in the works such as backgrounds or binding.  No big purchases have been made for new projects, until this week. 

But I've fallen off the wagon!!  Almost 20 yards of fabric was purchased this week for a new sew-along by Carol Doak.  And YES - it's another paper pieced project!!  Plus it's FREE.

Garden Stars is just beginning this month via the Facebook group.  To join in you need to join Carol Doak Bonus Block of the Month group on Facebook.  A friend in Rapid City and I are both doing this one, although Tina already has her first block done and I kept changing my mind about colors. We'll have fun sharing progress and cheering each other on.  I'm ready to start working on that first block.  

My inspiration is that big floral print from Moda.  And the rest of the colors will be navy and white, teal and mint, orange and yellow.  Because she's introducing only 1 block per month it's very manageable.  Plus she gave us the alternating block design early so we could work on those gradually during the next year.  

I didn't do the most recent BOM with Carol Doak, but I did finish the one before that called Circle of Friends.  My friend Tina and I both made this one too. 

Shadow Stars finish

Look what is all finished!!  This is Shadow Stars.

This was a UFO, and can now be checked off the list.  I think this one will be donated to our QOV group.  I may just display it in my own house through July, but then it can go to a deserving veteran. 

 Because this month's RSC color is "pastel", I did some digging in the 3.5" square bin.  There are 2 different Vintage Spool blocks, but the straight one uses a 3.5" square for the center of the spools.  I've pulled several pastel squares, and then dug into the string bin for spool tops and bottoms.  And the white/cream bin for background scraps.  I have the parts cut for 7 of these spools with pastels. Leaders and Enders as I work on the next project.

I'm working steadily to assemble the Moda Blockheads 6 blocks into big sections, and then those sections will be ready to be a flimsy.  I did a lot of rearranging of the blocks after taking this picture.  This is another UFO, and another that most likely will be donated to the Quilts of Valor group once it's finished.

Our Attack Cat fell asleep on the job!  We call her Tortie, because she's a tortoise shell color, with a mostly white tummy.  The feral kitties that have adopted us feel pretty safe on our deck, but still won't let us touch any of them. That safe feeling will come to a screeching halt this morning because the contractors are scheduled to start our deck replacement - unless it's raining.  We need the rain, but I really want this project to have no more delays.  We've been putting out food and water on our front porch for the past week so they get used to looking there too when the deck work is happening.  

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