Another week

What has this week been all about?  Lots of different things . . . had coffee with friends one morning, was part of 2 Quilt of Valor awards one afternoon, read a really good book, finished a quilt top, layed out the parts for a new holiday wall hanging, pieced a backing for another UFO quilt, worked on some binding, and sewed a few quilt blocks.

The book - Lessons in Chemistry was a fairly quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Interesting characters and clever writing.  I'm not at all good at writing a book review, but must thank the bloggers who recommend awesome books.  

One of the UFOs hanging in the closet was this Happy Block quilt top.  It's a nice child sized quilt and destined to be donated.  I dug deep into the leftover backing pieces and found the multi-color batik.  It needed to be pieced to work, but luckily there was enough to do that.  I really need to try quilting this one myself.  

Star of Wonder is the free mystery going on at Fat Quarter Shop.  Week 4 added an "inner" border, which tells me there is one more clue.  I haven't sewn the blocks into rows yet, but this is probably going to be my layout.  

The Quilts of Valor for this week's award were shipped to me by the family members who made the quilts for the recipients - a married couple who are both veterans.  I especially love how this quilt looks - very scrappy and beautiful.  They even sent special patriotic pillowcases for the school age children of this couple.  As always I'm honored to be a part of this program.

Outside of my home office window is a bird feeder, and most of my mornings start with at least one cup of coffee while I watch the birds on that feeder.  But the wild turkeys have also discovered that feeder - or more accurately, the ground under the feeder.  They scratch and dig into the landscaping rocks to get to the seed scattered by the little birds.  So each week when my husband mows, he has to rake the rocks back into place.  

My "garden" is doing pretty well, except for the pot of petunias drowned out by 9" of rain in about 30 hours last month.  I've even harvested a few little tomatoes from the one tomato plant in a pot on  the deck.  This geranium is on my front porch and I love the color.  The one on the back deck is a similar color, but a different variety. 

Well, it's Friday and the first day of Arts in the Park.  I do believe part of my day today will involve checking out the vendors.  It has been 19 years since we had Arts in the Park here, so I've been looking forward to it all summer.  And both sons-in-law arrive today to play golf for 3 days with my husband.  Should be a good weekend!

QOV plans

You all know I'm an absolute sucker for just trying out new block patterns - with no actual plan for those blocks.  That is why I make test blocks in red, white, and blue a lot of times.  Well . . . actually, most of the time to be honest.  Then the good ones can end up used for Quilts of Valor.

Moda Blockheads are some of my favorites lately.  This is Blockheads set #5, and block #30 in that set.  Lynne Hagmeier (Kansas Troubles) designed Shadow Star, and it was posted just this week.  

I just couldn't resist making some of these.  Another awesome block for a Quilt of Valor!  And the Blockheads patterns always have 2 sizes - 6" and 12" finished.  So they are really versatile.

One finished, and 2 more almost finished.  I love it.  

Riley Blake challenge is a flimsy

I've always loved a sampler type of quilt, maybe because I enjoy sewing just 1 random block at a time.  And a scrappy sampler is just the best of both worlds. That's probably why I jump right in when there is a BOM or Block of the Week going on. 

One example - Riley Blake Designs does a set of challenge blocks each year.  The RBD24 had 16 blocks posted online for 16 weeks.  Then I added 4 blocks from the archive of previous year's block patterns because I prefer a rectangular quilt instead of square. And then one more addition happened.

I was using my stash of 30s prints and Kim Diehl fabrics for this project.  The row with the little heart and the word Blessed was actually a mini quilt kit that I bought.  Each month this year the Pin Cushion has been doing kits with various words, all using the Spelling Bee book from Lori Holt.  The kit used Lori Holt fabrics too, so I couldn't resist adding it to this quilt.

This flimsy is about 60 x 80. 

Strings and small finishes

There are 2 small finishes this week, mainly because I worked on the binding on the shop hop bus ride on Thursday, and while going to our granddaughter's softball game on Friday.  

The summer watermelon door hanger is done, except for adding the hanger at the top.  This will go on my front door for August.  

The paper pieced star block has become a nice table topper.  It's about 24" square, so it will fit on my table nicely but can also work as a wall hanging.  

My scraps are sorted into canvas bins by color - for the most part anyway.   
 

The pink canvas bin actually holds pink, red, and orange scraps.  It's overflowing and messy.  Orange will be the August color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I need to get the orange scraps sorted out and ready to actually use.  And since I hadn't made any red string blocks yet, it was as good a time as any to get strings pulled for a couple of those as well.  I've quickly realized that orange was the color here with the fewest scraps to choose from.  Hmmmm . . . 

Design Wall Monday - July 22

 Hmmm - I have a strange combination of projects going on this week.  There is something Christmas-y, strings and other scrappy play, and finally some 30s vibe things.

The Christmas project in the works is the free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop called Star of Wonder.  I wasn't planning to do this one but I really liked that big star block for the first clue, so it was inevitable that I jumped right in.  One clue per week is manageable when you only have to make 1 or 4 blocks.  This was the block for week #3.  It's kind of an odd block until you lay it out with the others.

I'm assuming that next week we'll see exactly how these will go together, but the look definitely changes depending on the direction you spin these blocks.  This way it really does look like a star.

But with those week #3 blocks turned around you get kind of a diamond effect from those slanted white sections.  And rotating those green blocks changes it even more.  So it will be fun to see what's next. 

Friday was Crazy Days in our little city, with lots of bargains everywhere.  My craziest purchase was a big bag of . . . wait for it.  SCRAPS!!!  Just what I needed right?  At The Pin Cushion they had a what appeared to be a kiddy wading pool filled with bags stuffed with scraps, at a tempting low price.  How could I resist?  I chose the one I did because I saw a couple of good sized pieces of something I knew would work perfectly in a project I've been planning.  Once home and opened up I discovered nearly every piece in here was at least a 10" square or more.  And there were several pieces that were a definite score.  

Four new Kitty blocks were quickly assembled from that scrap bag.  I'm getting near to having enough for a quilt top.  More rainbow string blocks are under construction too. 

And the 30s vibe?  My Riley Blake Design challenge quilt top is getting close to total assembly.  There are 2 more rows of blocks to add, and then the final outer border.  I'm excited to get this top complete this week.  

What else is going on here?  The binding is complete on a couple of small projects that I'll share another day.  And the binding for 2 more projects is being prepped today.  

What's on your design wall this week?

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I'm also linking up with Monday Musings . . .

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Shop Hop report

35 quilters
2 states
5 quilt shops
a couple of detours
lots of summer road road construction
all in . . . 17 hours  

All of my purchases fit into ONE cloth shopping bag!  That's a first for me!

Every shop we visited was friendly and welcoming.  We were given "goodies" at every shop, ranging from bottled water, homemade muffins, locally made chocolates, fat quarters, mug rugs, and sewing notions.  Zoom in to check out the cute wording on that white printed square.

I had a list and fabric swatches so I could look for specific things to finish a variety of projects.  I stayed pretty disciplined - spending less than I have on past shop hop bus trips. Yardage purchases included Christmas fabrics to finish a current holiday project, a dark blue for a border on a nearly finished flimsy, black print needed to finish a WIP,  a pink/white stripe to bind 2 projects, a map themed fabric for a gift I'm making, and some light colored fabrics for a Quilt of Valor project. 

Of course there were impulse buys as well.  What fun would it be if I didn't make any random purchases . . . just because?  Two panels and a charm pack came home with me.  No plan yet for these items, but I'm sure something will come to mind.

I'm always on the lookout for great fat quarters to add to the stash.  They are great for small projects, and for fun additions to Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  In one shop I picked up a pack of 5 fat quarters with sports themes from the sale bin.  With the final discount they were $1 each.  I got the Cornhusker (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) fat eighth and a cowboy boot FQ to make 2 more of the suitcase blocks I've been making for a "travel" quilt.  I got my masters degree at UNL many years ago so that seemed appropriate.  There are 2 Halloween prints with cats.  The other FQs choices were just because they caught my eye.  

Our bus left town at 7 am, right on time.  We hit road construction and detours that put us behind schedule.  Our driver was awesome, and the shops were very accommodating with late arrivals.  Our supper stop was at 8:00 pm.  I pulled into my garage at the stroke of midnight.  Long, but very fun day.  So, what shops did we visit?  

*  Sassy Cat (Yankton, SD)

*  I Bee Quiltin (Norfolk, NE)

*  Creative Notions (West Point, NE)

*  Nebraska Quilt Co. (Fremont, NE)

* The Quilt Shop (Wakefield, NE)

What was my favorite stop?  Each one was unique for different reasons.  The shop in Fremont had the best selection of batiks I've ever seen.  I love batiks but didn't purchase any.  Discipline was difficult.  The Norfolk shop had the best goody bag ever.  The Wakefield shop had a huge selection of panels.  The Yankton shop is closer to home so I stop in there a couple times a year.  They always have wonderful patterns and especially fun Christmas and Halloween projects.  The West Point shop had a couple of beautiful fabric lines that I haven't seen anywhere else.  I would recommend visiting all of these quilt shops if you're in northeast Nebraska or southeast South Dakota.  

RSC24 - Week #29

No, no, no - it can't be nearly August already!!  Wishing we could slow down time.  

 But since we can't slow time down, I'll share a little wisdom with you.  This little fabric square was one of the items in a goody bag each shop hop participant received at I Bee Quiltin (Norfolk, Nebraska).  Guess I've been living this life lesson for decades then, because my sewing room is full of "perfect fabric" that I haven't cut into.  LOL  I'll do a separate shop hop post tomorrow.

This RSC quilt isn't finished yet, but it IS a flimsy and ready to quilt.  The Zipper blocks are just so much fun to make. Mine used 2.5" strips and squares, but they could just as easily be made using 1.5" or 2" pieces - or even make them Super Sized and use 3.5" or bigger.  

I posted this finish just yesterday . . . a graduation quilt for my grand-niece.  Teal counts in the "aqua" family, right? 

I finished this rainbow string quilt last week, and this week I donated it to the local Sleep In Heavenly Peace organization.  It's twin bed size.  This quilt was also an RSC project.  I love how a few blocks every month suddenly add up to enough to become a whole quilt.

There wasn't any actual block sewing this week, in aqua anyway.  I made the 8 blocks for this month's Saturday Sampler quilt.  No aqua there.  I did finish up the various string blocks I had started.  The 2 aqua ones were made last week.  Now there are 2 each of 6 colors.  The only RSC color missing right now is red, and those will get added at some point in the near future.  The blocks are 9.5" squared up and pieced on muslin foundations.  The actual layout won't be determined until I have enough for a whole quilt, and I'm aiming for at least 24.  With the white centers there are several ways to lay these out to show off that white.  

What's happening with the rainbow at your house?

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