Taking inventory

Yesterday I was up early, and sometimes that is a dangerous thing because I do a lot of planning (scheming and generating of ideas) over coffee while the house is quiet and it's still dark outside. I've been thinking ahead to goals for 2027.  Yikes!!! 

So . . . I had this idea to take inventory in my sewing room closet.  That's where the block sets and flimsies live, hanging on hangers.  Sounds well organized, right?

Well, it's kind of organized but also out of control - because of sheer numbers. Including a couple more on the far right side beyond the white drawer unit, there are currently 21 flimsies hanging up.  A few are small, like wall hanging size.  Most are either lap size, crib size, couch size, or even bed size.  

Last spring I donated 5 flimsies to our guild rummage sale for someone else to finish.  And by my spreadsheet of finishes I've also finished 15 quilts already this year, not including wall hangings. Obviously I like sewing the blocks and tops a lot more than finishing them. 

I've made a list of the 21 flimsies in the closet, and will decide which of these will be the first ones on my 2027 list.  

 After working on the inventory, I did manage to get the remaining Buckeye Butterfly blocks sewn into the last 4 rows.  Hopefully today these will all become flimsy #22. 

A little progress on 2 projects

The Honey Bee blocks have been sewn into 3 vertical rows with the spacers.  And the inner (honeycomb) borders and outer beehive borders are all cut.  The pattern called for 2.5" strips for the inner border and 8.5" outer border.  Mine are cut at 2" and 6.5", so I have enough of both border fabrics to use in the second Honey Bee quilt too.  

 

The top half of Buckeye Butterflies has been assembled.  That leaves the bottom 4 rows left to sew together, and add to the top.  I haven't decided yet if this project will get any outer border but it's a possibility that I'll explore later.  

Design Wall Monday - October 19

There is a new binding project happening this week.  Salt Water Taffy came back from the quilter last week, and I already had a scrappy binding prepped for it.  The backing on it is so much fun - and works with all the colors on the front.

So far I've stayed caught up with the weekly Blockheads 7 blocks.  Of course there are only 2 released at this point.  But I'm doing at least some of them in 2 different colorways.  For the first block released I made them both in the 12" size.  But for the second block, I did the bright colored one in 9" and the Christmas one is again 12".  I think I'll continue that 12" size for all of the Christmas blocks I make.  For the bright ones, right now I'm planning to use one of the layouts shared that has all 4 sizes used.

Two of the 8 rows of the Buckeye Butterfly blocks are sewn and pressed.  For now they are hanging over a hanger waiting for the rest of them.

The first set of Honey Bee blocks are about to become a flimsy.   I'm going to use the Circle of Nine book to choose the layout for these. Sunday I cut that gold honeycomb into the spacers.  Over the past couple of weeks I searched online and finally found the perfect border fabric.  It's navy blue with bee hives scattered around. 

And yes - I'm getting distracted as I go through the closet looking at things that could be moved along toward the finish line.  As I was trimming excess backing from Salt Water Taffy, I ended up with some scraps that I cut into my precut bins - 5" squares and 2.5" squares.  Those 5" squares reminded me of the Windmill blocks hanging in the closet, as 2 squares of each color are used.  Hmmm . . . instead of putting them INTO the bin, I picked out 2 fun purple squares to pair with them.  Voila - one new Windmill block.  And another is ready to sew.  I think this block will go back into my rotation for Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #42

I thought I finally had a week with fewer things going on, so I anticipated a lot of time spent in my sewing room having fun.  Then on Wednesday instead of sewing I spent the day wrapped in a quilt in my recliner - napping.  Was it the flu shot or the Covid shot that knocked me down?  Maybe I'll stop getting them both the same day.  And I spent most of Thursday on a little road trip with my sister-in-law.  I drove her to a doctor appointment, but we also relaxed over a leisurely lunch, and had lots of conversation both going and coming home.  

But in spite of all the napping and the road trip, some black 2.5" squares became Hollow-9 blocks.  Earlier in the year I had used most of the Hollow-9 blocks made this year in a lap quilt for donation. A few more became placemats.  But it's a great block for using up scraps, so I'll continue making them and will eventually have enough for future projects. 

The Ticker Tape blocks in all the RSC colors have been accumulating all year.  Most of the colors have 8 blocks made.  So far I have only 4 black ones.

One lonely Gameboard block was made. I've discovered that I don't have as many of these blocks made as I initially thought.  So these will no doubt continue into 2027. 

The Tulip Swirl blocks came together quickly too.  Again - these use 2.5" squares and I have 2 shoebox size bins filled with the squares, so it's just a matter of choosing some.

Last but not least, the Buckeye Butterfly blocks will be the next RSC flimsy. These all have black squares in the corners.  After laying the blocks out on the floor and rearranging them a few times to balance the colors - I've pinned these into rows.  So maybe this will be a flimsy by next Saturday.  Or at least by the end of the month.  

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

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday - Red, white, and blue

Thursday did not work out as planned either, but that's OK.  I ended up doing a road trip to Sioux Falls with my sister-in-law.  

The only NEAR finish is a QOV that I've been binding this week. I have 1.5 sides left to hand stitch that binding.  But I did pick up a couple of quilts from the long armer yesterday, so more binding will be in my future.  

RWB Ticker Tape blocks were mostly my focus on Thursday.  I only got 4 of them sewn, but I did get a bunch more sets ready to sew. 

And more are on the design board, along with a nice stack of blocks ready to be put into the Quilt of Valor they will become.

Ticker Tape is being assembled in vertical rows of blocks, which finish at 4" x 8". I have the first 5 rows done, and they are 72" long.  I'll need at least 10 more rows like these to make this quilt large enough.  

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

The Pizza Box Challenge

Tuesday morning I stopped at the pharmacy and got my flu shot and my Covid booster. Other than a sore arm I've not had any bad symptoms from those shots - until this time.  By supper time I was running a low grade fever.  All night I tossed and turned, and my whole body ached.  About 8:00 Wednesday morning the fever broke but I still felt like I had been run over by a big truck.  There were multiple naps yesterday, and today I'm mostly back to normal. 

Good thing I had gotten a little sewing in that morning - and that I had scheduled yesterday's post before I hit that wall.  LOL

The Pizza Box block (#8) for this month was shared by Amy, and it's really a FUN block called Woven Star from Patchwork Square.  I've used that web site before, and they have a lot of great block patterns - free PDFs and in multiple sizes.  My RWB versions were done first.  The block on the right actually has an identical twin because I accidently cut too many pieces.  Oops!  So I have 3 of them for sharing with QOV.

The 30s version that I'll keep for my personal project . . . so bright and cheerful.  I think that's the reason I love 30s reproduction fabrics so much.

Blockheads 7 - Block #1

Spring Walk by Vanessa Goertzen is the first block in the new Blockheads 7 series.  The name of the series is Friends and Neighbors. I chose to make this one in the 12" finished size, but knew right away that I would be tweaking this design a little bit. I believe the vertical striped blocks were supposed to represent a fence or maybe a walkway.  

My initial plan was to do this series in Christmas.  The first fabric I chose included a fat quarter of the cute Christmas-y elves/gnomes.  Fussy cutting 2 pieces for those corners instead of cutting narrow strips seemed to fit my own taste better.  

Following the Facebook group has yielded so many fun ideas, whether it was just color combos or ways to make the blocks unique.  After finishing my Christmas block, I saw a couple of people posted pictures of how they changed those striped areas into an actual picket fence.  So, using my Free Spirit fat quarter bundle that is what I did.  And it's pretty cute.

Today the second block will be released, and then we'll see where my plans go from here - do I make ALL the blocks? do I make the next block bigger or smaller?