Denim on my mind

I'm determined to empty out a couple of project boxes holding forgotten projects, and projects that I have been slow to finish.  Yesterday I posted about the box full of squares from guild members.  Today - it's all about denim.  

Have you ever made a denim quilt?  About 30 years ago I made a denim couch quilt using jeans outgrown by my girls.  It was put together like a crazy quilt, with odds and ends of cotton fabrics too.  The backing is flannel, so it weighs a ton.  It was tied rather than quilted.

Fast forward those 30 years, and I've had denim on my mind again.  While looking on Pinterest (a black hole) for ideas I came across lots of people using the Potato Chip blocks.  One variation had only 6 "chips" sewn around a denim square.  BINGO!!

On a shelf in my sewing room closet I knew there was a small bin with 6" squares of denim, all cut and waiting for inspiration. Or so I thought.  What was really in that bin you ask?  That stack of denim squares AND a big stack of denim squares sewn to flannel squares.

Obviously at some point years ago I was making a rag quilt because there are 65 squares with the flannel sewn onto the denim, plus some rectangles.  BTW - I dislike flannel, so what was I thinking? I do know all this flannel was from the years when I was making the self-binding baby quilts for my girls and their friends, when they were all having babies.  But then at some point I just stacked them all neatly and put the whole thing away on a shelf in the dark closet.  Totally forgotten until now . . .

So - the plain denim squares were rescued from this bin and were trimmed down to 4.5" squares.  The leftover Tilda fabrics (from the Windy Days wall hanging) are being cut into 2.5" x 4.5" potato chips.  I'm kind of thinking these blocks would make a big floor pillow, but maybe something else will come to mind. As long as they don't end up back in that little bin with the flannel blocks, right?  LOL

The flannel/denim rag quilt components will be given away to someone who actually wants to finish it.  Anyone out there want them?  I'll gladly box them up and send them your way!!

The prospect of an empty bin is exciting. 

Mid-week reflections

Binding is in progress for another Quilt of Valor.  

Don't you just love a striped binding?  This quilt is all Churn Dash blocks in blue with flag print centers.  We have an award to do next week, so I also need to get a label onto another QOV and print the certificate. 

Garden Stars is the newest paper pieced BOM by Carol Doak.  It's going on via her Facebook group and began a couple of months ago with fabric requirements and the pattern for 12 identical "alternate" blocks that will go in between the 13 monthly blocks.  It will be a large quilt with 25 blocks finishing at 12". 

The first monthly star block was posted on August 1.  I sewed all 8 of the block sections on Monday - removing the foundation paper while watching TV Monday evening.  Yesterday those sections were joined to make the block.  It looks more complicated than it really was.  I've only made 4 of the 12 alternate blocks so far, but have a 5th one started. 

In an effort to continue moving some older UFO/WIP projects along toward a finish, I'm revisiting a couple of things this month. Here is one WIP - Our quilt guild has this tradition of the "travel square" - which is sharing a 6.5" square of fabric with each member after traveling somewhere.  The squares usually represent something from the location.  I've made more than 1 quilt from the squares collected over the years but my project box is getting full again, with fabric squares but also with finished star blocks using the squares. 

We received 4 new squares of fabric from guild members on Saturday, including the Canada print with the bears in the above photo and this house print.  In the project box was a stack of these star blocks with various colors of star points.  There were a few sets of star points already cut, so it was easy to put together 2 blocks right away.  I've selected some squares that will get yellow star points to follow the RSC color of the month.  
 

Besides the ones with yellow points, I've prepped these other 4 as well.  If I keep making a few each month I'll soon have enough for a couple of good sized donation quilts.

DIY Round Robin reveal

My version of our guild challenge - DIY Round Robin.  Mine began with 6 little hand appliqued hexie blocks that had been hanging on my design wall for about 2 years.  And I ended with larger hexies in the border.  This is a wall hanging size flimsy.

It was inspired by the online Stay At Home Round Robin, and not all members chose to participate.  Not all participants were able to make it to the August meeting either, so I'm hoping to see a couple more in September. 

It's hard to see all the fun designs these ladies came up with, but you can zoom into the picture.  A couple of the gals who participated couldn't make the meeting as they were working at the county 4-H event that morning.  But there were 10 there on Saturday, including mine.  Not bad considering we have fewer than 40 members total.  

Design Wall Monday - August 3

The first Monday of August is bringing some new goals for the last of summer.  My design wall is going to be busy this month again.  But I'm also planning to enjoy this last month of summer with more outdoor time.  My Achilles is feeling almost good enough to play some golf, and my back deck now sports a temporary shelter to keep some of the hot sun away.  Coffee and a good book, along with toast with yummy homemade raspberry jam (made by my son-in-law) is a good way to spend a relaxing morning.

Here are my August goals so far . . .

• Ongoing Projects - UFOs & WIPs
• Keep up with Saturday Sampler
• Garden Stars (paper pieced blocks)
• Quilt & bind the Windy Days wall hanging
• Quilt & bind at least 1 WIP project
• placemats
• table runners
• doll quilts
• SD lap quilt
• RSC blocks in Yellow
• QOV blocks
• kit up another QOV for group
• NEW Projects
• online mystery - Meadow Mist - monthly clues
• autumn mini vertical banner
• SOMETHING with denim?

Star #1 for Garden Stars was uploaded on August 1.  My plan today is to cut the pieces for this star and at least 1 more of the alternate blocks.  The paper foundations are printed and ready to go.  That yellow floral will be the background, and is a lighter version of the dark blue background in the alternate blocks.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #31

With my aqua RSC blocks done for July this was a good week to take stock of where some block sets needed other colors.  The Mardi Gras blocks were up to date except for reds and blues, so that is what I added this week - 4 of each. 

Here is what I now have for the Mardi Gras Triangle block set.  I made 6 of each color, with some of the lighter shades done during our pastel month.  I have no clue yet how I'm going to lay these out, other than planning a 6 x 8 layout to make a lap quilt.  That means I'll need 6 blocks each of only 2 more colors.

The black and white fabrics were already out, so the pieces are now cut for August's Mardi Gras blocks, along with the black and white pieces for the August Buckeye blocks.  

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun on this first Saturday of August . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

Well, it's closer to a finish at least . . .

Windy Days is a flimsy.  The original plan was to use 2 blocks (21 x 25) in a vertical wall hanging.  In my head I could even picture it where I wanted to hang it.  But that plan just didn't look how I thought it would, so Plan B came about.  It's now a horizontal wall hanging, and I have sandwiched it with batting and backing to quilt myself, maybe over the weekend.

I've been looking at ideas for using the leftover Tilda fabric.  I had a Fat Eighth bundle but only used a small amount of it for the wall hanging. For now it's going back into the project box I guess, and will wait for inspiration to strike. 

The other main goal this week was to finish the stitching on my DIY Round Robin project for guild.  The final round was to repeat some element from a previous month.  I repeated the hexies that I began with the first month.  Our reveal is tomorrow at our August guild meeting.  I can share my whole project next week, and also hope to get pictures of some of the other participants' projects.   

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

Mid-week progress

Yesterday I posted about only 2 goals for this week, but should have included at least 1 more that has an upcoming deadline to meet.

The missing goal was totally forgotten until I went downstairs to sew yesterday, and that was this month's Saturday Sampler task.  Luckily this month we only had to make 3 blocks so it didn't take long to get caught up.

Cutting the pieces for 3 blocks (14") didn't take long, but deciding what colors to use was time consuming for me as I kept changing my mind.  LOL

These make me think of crocheted Granny Squares.  The blocks were sewn together and will get another different block added to this section as the quilt is assembled. We're getting close to a finish on this Saturday Sampler program.

The Windy Days UFO project has a start finally and there is progress.  The blocks are 21 x 25, and my plan is to make a vertical wall hanging with  just 2 blocks.  Each block is done in 4 sections - the girl's head/hair, the dress, the tree, and the dog.  My dress sections are done, and I'm working on the heads. 

One thought from me about the Tilda's World directions - the pattern has great pictures.  That is a good thing because in the cutting instructions it doesn't tell you HOW MANY of each piece to cut or even if that size piece is cut from more than one fabric.