Noses on snowmen

I finally got some extended sewing time yesterday, and it felt so good to work on multiple things.  And not feel rushed, which was a bonus.  

First things first, I made 2 different Double Sawtooth Star blocks for the Pizza Box Challenge.  These were fun.  I do think I like the lighter background better, but both are pretty.

I also worked on some purple blocks for Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I'll keep those to myself until Saturday. The main blocks I finished were the 12" Snail Trail - in purple. 

Then I was able to get back to working on Kisses From Heaven again finally.  The large scarves were ironed on, and blanket stitched.  The small noses were next.  And maybe this morning I'll get the bigger noses done. That will leave smiles on the snowman heads and lots of laser cut snowflakes. 

Double Sawtooth Star

Sigh, it has been slow going in the sewing room.  LOL  A few minutes here, an hour there - that is how my sewing is going so far this week.

My 30s version of this month's Pizza Box challenge block is done.  This is the 7th block in our series.  I do have some fabrics chosen for a couple of the RWB ones our group is doing for Quilts of Valor, but no cutting has actually happened yet.  I'm hoping today will provide lots of sewing time finally.

Catch up time

Yesterday was a chilly rainy day, which is fine because we need that rain desperately.  It was a good day therefore to catch up on a bunch of things.  I had PT, stopped for a few groceries, and spent most of the afternoon working through a mountain of laundry and an overflowing email inbox.

Remember about a month ago I dug out a bin full of squares of flannel in baby prints, already sewn to denim backing.  I had planned to make a rag quilt many moons ago, but knew that just wasn't going to happen now days.  So I offered the whole stack, and happily was able to mail the box to gal who was interested.

Well, over the weekend, she sent me a photo of quilt #1 she has made. She said she was adding some of her own and working on a second one.  This just warms my heart to see that fabric used, rather than laying in my closet.

I did do a little bit of sewing on Monday afternoon, but have nothing to show for it quite yet.  Maybe today I'll get more accomplished.

Design Wall Monday -

There was no sewing at all this weekend, but I did cut one RSC block out, and did a little sorting of the blocks from the Sew Vintage group.  

The parts are all cut for the purple Catnip block, and this might be the first thing I do today because I'm very excited by these adorable blocks each month.  Right now I'm leaning toward using the Circle of Nine layout to assemble these into a quilt once I have 9 blocks made.  If I've counted correctly this is #8 as I skipped making one during the "pastel" month.

The Pizza Box challenge at Sew Vintage is really coming along.  The very first block of the challenge was this Floating Star, and we have 12 of them collected so far. So pretty! I think we can do a simple light colored sashing with RWB cornerstone plus a nice outer border.  Ella approves.  She spent the weekend with us along with the grandkids.  

Block #7 was introduced by Holly for this month.  This one is a Double Sawtooth Star, and I can't wait to make them.  Holly gave me this block already, and it's really pretty.  I'm making my personal block in 30s fabrics, along with the RWB version for our group Quilts of Valor.

The Kisses From Heaven project will probably be the only other priority project for this week.  The scarves are stitched down on the smaller snowman heads.  The scarves are ready to iron on and stitch down for the bigger heads.  The noses and smiles are fused and trimmed so they can be added next.  And there are a bunch of laser cut snowflakes to add.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #37

This was a crazy week around here, and the weekend will be the same. Two of the grandkids and a dog are staying the weekend while their parents are away.  Dave went to play in a golf tournament all weekend.  During the week I had 2 PT appointments, 2 doctor appointments, 2 grandson football games, and this morning will be attending a funeral rather than going to Saturday Sampler.  Hopefully this afternoon I'll get back in time to drop into our monthly Sew Vintage group.

It was definitely a purple week around here.  Lots of purple came out to play in between other on-going projects.  I can't say often enough that a little time spent cutting parts for these ahead of sewing makes a huge difference in how much I manage to accomplish each week.

There are now 16 Honey Bee blocks, 2 for each month - except for the "pastel" month we did.  Some of my bees already fell into the pastel category.  Now I need to begin thinking about whether or not to divide these blocks into 2 smaller quilts instead of just 1 big one.  That's the direction I'm leaning right now. 

The Scrappy Stars are 9" finished blocks, and I've been making 4 each month.  I must admit that I'm getting excited about putting these together into a quilt - this coming winter.  

So . . . there are lots of colorful Ticker Tape blocks to play with.  I do not plan to sew them together in rows of just one color like this, but it sure helped me see which colors need more blocks made.  I was aiming for 9 of each.  Looks like I really skimped on the red ones.

Only 2 of the Vintage Spools were sewn, and not many RSC blocks have been cut yet for next week.  Cutting is my plan for tomorrow after I've taken the kids and dog back home IF I have the time of course.

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

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday - Sept 11

I know it's very cliche to talk about remembering exactly where we were and what we were doing when certain events happened in history.  I'm old enough to remember the Kennedy assassination, the ending of the Viet Nam war, and of course 9-11. And yes, I certainly do remember where I was that morning, as do most Americans. How has it possibly been 25 years ago already?

I have a NEAR finish to share this week.  Our QOV group had a few RWB Rail Fence blocks left over from a previous quilt, so this spring/summer I pulled out a lot of RWB scraps and made a bunch more Rail Fence blocks (6" finished).  I also made the RWB Friendship Star blocks to go with them, and put everything into a kit for our group.  Deb B took this kit and finished up this gorgeous flimsy.  This may have to be a design we use again.

A small finish of my own can be reported.  I actually finished the binding last weekend on this cute Halloween runner.  This was a kit - although I moved some fabrics around.  The checkerboard was supposed to be the binding.  I used a solid black from my stash for the binding instead. The black print was supposed to be the outer border with a narrow white inner border.  I put that white back into the stash, and then pulled it back out and used it for background in some QOV blocks.  Nothing wasted. 

A medium size finish also happened, with the binding of Snowdrift. It's a 48 x 60 quilt that was a kit from a Sew Sampler box.  The pattern and fat quarters for the blocks were in the kit, and the background, border, backing, and binding came from my stash.  This is another UFO that can be checked off my PHD list for 2026. 

My orthopedic appointment yesterday went well enough.  No surprise that I have a lot of arthritis in my knees, especially that right one that has been painful and swollen.  I got an injection and some recommendations - icing more often, take anti-inflammatory more often, get a "sleeve" to wear on the knee when it's bothering me, and use the cane for extra stability when needed.  Hopefully the injection will help with the inflammation, which should reduce the Baker's Cyst on the back of my knee and reduce the pain. 

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

Working on a round project

Today may be a non-sewing day as I have an orthopedic appointment, and 2 football games going on. Good thing I got some things done yesterday.

You all know the old saying of measure twice and cut once, but this project caused me to measure about 5 times before cutting into the fabric.

It's critical to have well organized and well written instructions for new projects and especially when the project is more complicated than usual. That is very true for cutting the ROUND background for Kisses From Heaven.  Even though I'm a very experienced quilter (almost 50 years) I'm outside my comfort zone here.

Thankfully the designer, Joann Hoffman, has awesome instructions, with pictures. The first step was folding the background into quarters, pressing to make sure it's square, and pinning into place.  She suggested a string tied to a pencil and pinned securely into the corner that would represent the center.  I used my white marking pencil because this background is dark blue - although it looks grey in this photo.

Hmmmm . . . Notice there is more than 1 line here?  I'm not sure I was holding that pencil straight and vertical.  So I got out the yardstick to double check that I had 21" before cutting along the mark for my circle.  Finally I was brave enough to cut my circle, but must admit I was nervous about taking out those pins and opening it up.  Will it actually be round?

The circle came out fine, so the applique placement process could begin.  More measuring  happened as the big snowmen were centered along those fold lines.  Then the small ones went in between them.  There are laser cut snowflakes too but those will be the last appliques added.  Yesterday afternoon I got all 8 snowman heads ironed on and blanket stitched.  The scarves on the small heads are also done. 

I will say that the background is beautiful, but I wish it wasn't gradient.  I think all dark blue would be prettier, but I'm using what was in the kit.  I definitely feel like I'm taking baby steps on this project.  But it has been on my UFO list for years, so I need to do it justice.