Mid-week progress

The first row of Red Poppies is done.

 The blocks themselves are 12" finished, and there will be 5 rows of 4 blocks for this quilt.  That poppy fabric just makes me smile because it's so pretty.  

The vinyl front project bags requested by some DAR members are seeing progress.  I had prepped 3 of them with this star fabric.  One is done, and the other 2 just need the binding stitched down.  The light caused a glare when I took this picture. 

I also prepped 2 more using different patriotic prints.  That top one is kind of western theme plus patriotic, and I think I have enough for a second one like it.  It was a half yard cut that I found at Walmart.  The bottom one is a more modern take on patriotic - with a red/blue ombre.  I know there is enough of both those fabrics for another one like it.  That navy binding on the right is what was left from the first 3 bags. 

Today I'm taking a break from sewing and from household tasks.  I attended my granddaughter's orchestra concert last night, and stayed overnight in Sioux Falls because I have a follow-up cardiology appointment early this afternoon.  I didn't want to drive home last night and turn around to come back hours later.  That gives me this morning to do some shopping at my leisure, without feeling rushed. 

Declutter continues

In my sewing room I have 2 of these bins - fairly large - and they tend to collect random stuff that I'm too lazy to put away.  Do you have one of those too?  It was time to empty it out and use the bin for something more organized.

 

There is a gallon zip lock bag with a whole collection of notions and tools that I plan to give away.  And then there was all of this . . .  In the very bottom were parts and pieces for a Christmas project.  I put all of those pieces back into the project box with the blocks already sewn.  It's less likely to get lost now.  A couple of small kits, and several bundles of precuts (charm packs, fat quarter bundles, and more) were all dumped in there.  Everything has now been put away properly so I could repurpose that bin.

It now holds most of the various bag patterns, bag kits, zippers, and other bag supplies that have been strewn around in several different spots.  Now they're all gathered together where I can find them when needed.  No more hunting for which drawer I put the bag of zippers, or a specific bag pattern.  

On the household decluttering front, I made a little progress in the past week.  Eight more binders of old work paperwork have been emptied, and most of the paper shredded.  A box holding 3 kid sized baseball gloves and 2 baseballs was discovered on a shelf in the basement, and the contents have gone into the rummage sale box.  And I've identified a couple of large items that can go out on the curb to be picked up during the community-wide clean up day in a couple of weeks.  

Design Wall Monday - April 7

So far I'm all caught up with the monthly and weekly sew-alongs, and we won't get a new Saturday Sampler clue until this coming weekend.  So I'm pulling out a brand new project to work on.  And there is a LOT of red involved, meaning it's perfect for the April color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

A year or so ago, blogger friend Connie at https://farsideoffifty.blogspot.com/ sent me 2 yards of this gorgeous red poppy fabric.  I've been saving it for a project that would really showcase this large print because it's too pretty to cut into little pieces.  Last fall I decided on this pattern (Enchanting) from one of the 3-Yard quilt books.  And I found 2 fabrics to go with the red and bought 2 yards of each.  That means I can make this quilt larger.  

I have all the strips cut, and have begun working on it.  Each block will go together like this.  That poppy print is making a big statement in those 8.5" center squares.  Thank you Connie for sending me such beautiful fabric!! 

There is another new project that I'll be working on.  At a recent DAR meeting a couple of the ladies asked me to make some of the vinyl front project bags.  And they specifically asked if I would do them in patriotic fabrics.  So I have a couple of them prepped except for the zippers.  And look - lots of red!

There will be other odds and ends happening in the sewing room this week, such as sewing those red Dresden blades together.  Another new Riley Blake challenge block will be posted on Tuesday, and I've begun cleaning out one of the bigger bins in my sewing room that had collected random stuff.  

One granddaughter has an orchestra concert this week, the twin grands have birthdays, and I have a follow-up appointment at the cardiologist.  All of this should keep me busy and out of trouble the entire week. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC25 - Week #14

My "big" project this week was to get the Pyramid blocks all assembled, at least to the flimsy stage.  The blocks were an RSC project in 2024.   
 

Because there were so many bias edges on those triangular blocks, I did a lot more pinning than I usually do.  As is, the flimsy is 58 x 74, which is fine.  I'm still thinking about whether or not to add a border, and if so . . . what should it be.  For now it's pressed and hanging in the closet waiting for a decision.  I'm very open to suggestions for a border.  

For the record, yes there are a LOT of flimsies hanging in that closet right now because I've moved several projects along to this stage in the past couple of months.  Most of those flimsies hanging there are smaller than this one however.    

Angela has RED for the April color listed on her blog, but for some crazy reason I was thinking TEAL.  So early this week I focused on teal, then switched to red.  It's OK.

Early in the week enough teal scraps were found for 3 of the Dresden Plate blocks.  And since these were cut, I went ahead and sewed them together.  None of the Dresdens in any color have been appliqued onto the grey backgrounds yet. 

I did cut a bunch of red Dresden blades after I pulled out the red scrap bin.  

These little String Triangle blocks are only 5" high, and the plan is to set them into vertical rows separated by vertical strips of something colorful. Five in teal were added this week to the small stack.  And then . . . 

Red strings are very abundant in the scrap bin, so here is my little stack of red String Triangle blocks.  These are so quick to make with the Tri Recs rulers.   

Buckeye Beauty blocks using the bright colors and black/white are beginning to add up quickly this year.  I made 3 red blocks, and 1 teal block.  My hope is to have enough of them for a finished quilt this year.  

I've also been working to reduce some odds and ends this week, and one project has been using some orphan blocks and scraps to make placemats. 

I made 9 placemats in the past week, and 3 are red, white, and blue using some orphan blocks from the Quilt of Valor box, and there are still a few more similar blocks remaining.  There are also 18 mug rugs (6" square), and 4 of them are red, white, and blue.  A lot of the mug rugs were already sandwiched and quilted, so it was just a matter of putting binding on them.  There are 6 more mug rugs in the works with an Easter theme.  And I swear those scrap bins are no emptier than before.  

It's time to check out more RSC fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/  

Reducing the clutter

I'm trying to reduce the "stuff" everywhere in my house, not only in my sewing room but in closets and drawers everywhere.  Some weeks I make better progress than others. This wasn't the most productive week for decluttering, but every little bit helps. 

Starting with my sewing room this week . . .

I started with this bag with 5 leftover blocks from a previous project.  These tiny blocks are only 3.5" unfinished, and were part of a free sew-along a couple of years ago when I was crazy enough to make the blocks in all 3 sizes - 3", 6", and 9".  

Adding setting triangles to those 3.5" blocks and turning them into mug rugs was a quick way to use these.  One empty Ziplock bag. Check!!

There was a gallon sized bag with some solid red yardage.  One piece was really good, and I cut it into binding strips for an upcoming project.  The other piece was so thin you could see through it.  I just can't use something like that in a quilt.  I threw it away.  That was kind of brave of me, right?   That makes 2 empty bags.  Check, check!!

Another bag buried in a drawer held the flimsy version of a table runner, with points on each end.  It's a bit too floral for my taste, which is probably why I never finished it.  So, I cut those pointy ends off, and voila!  Another placemat is ready for sandwiching and quilting.  It's in the stack with some others, and hopefully will be finished next week.  That makes 3 empty bags. Check, check, check!!!

Two doll quilt flimsies were born from the leftovers in another bag.  The top one was leftover pieces from a recent baby quilt, and the light blue was a stack of 4.5" squares leftover from something.  I can't even remember what that light blue came from.  But I remembered that fun pastel stripe in the fabric that Nann sent me this winter, and it worked great with the blue.  I've been trying to make at least 1 doll quilt each month to be donated to some local agency along with a stuffed animal or doll.  One more empty bag - #4.  Check, check, check, check!!!!

The last bag I'm going to deal with right now holds the front of a small bag that I remember starting several years ago.  The lining fabric is in the bag.  The front is already quilted onto some batting, and there is a little applique pinned on.  It's time to finish this one up.  The bag isn't empty yet - but I have hopes.

Every little bit helps lighten the burden. 

Circle of Friends block

The April block for Circle of Friends is complete.

This one is really beautiful isn't it?  I followed the colors Carol Doak used in her design, and am so glad I did.  Those yellow points absolutely glow.  This one has a lot more small pieces, especially in that black background area around the "flowers".  But it was sure worth the extra time it took.  

There is progress on Pyramids as well - with 5 of the 6 rows done.  Maybe today I'll get that last row sewn.  And I've quilted a few more placemats and mug rugs.  Lots of productive time has been spent in the sewing room.  

Binding Twinkle & more

Binding is a perfect task to work on while watching college basketball on TV, and there has been lots of both going on at our house in the past week.
 

Twinkle is all done, and I love it.  Blue and white quilts are so clean and crisp looking.  A little more than half of this quilt is hanging on the backside of the railing.  This one is going to look great on the guest room bed for now.

The 2 red/white/blue placemats are done too.  There are more random extra blocks in the Quilt of Valor bin, so more of these will probably be made in the future.

Four more mug rugs are finished.  These were some 6.5" orphan blocks left over from some project in the past.  Now they have a purpose.

I have assembled 3 of the 6 rows of Pyramids.  A reveal will have to wait until all 6 rows are done, which hopefully will be by the end of this week.  There are a lot of bias edges involved with those blocks, so there has been a LOT more pinning than I usually do in order to make those points match up nicely.  

Setting some new project goals

It's the beginning of a new month already.  That means I typically look back at my goal list and think about what goes onto the next goal list.  I'm a list maker!!

Voila!  Here are the finished placemats and mug rugs that used up most of the leftover Kaffe jelly roll.  It is satisfying to see something useful made of leftovers so they don't end up increasing the quantity of scraps living in my sewing room.  The binding of 2 red/white/blue placemats and some fun mug rugs should be done today.  And there are a few others in the works as well.  

I was on the hunt Sunday for a WIP, UFO or PIG that had a focus on teal as that is the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for April.  And here we go - a fat quarter bundle with teal in the prints that was tucked in with that teal yardage.  So, once I get the Pyramid blocks brought to the completed flimsy stage, this will be a good one to work on next.

The scrap bin holding every imaginable shade of blue and purple needed to be sorted, especially after I was digging into it for blue scraps for February.  Teal was a bit on the stingy side, but I did manage to cut enough of the Dresden blades for 2 blocks.  I think I'll use aqua ones to make at least 1 or 2 more.  

As I was sorting that bin - still not completely done BTW - I found these purple Dresden blades near the bottom.  They are even the same size as the ones I'm making now.  Hmmm - wonder what I was planning with these.  For now they are tucked into the project box with the others. 

Looking back at March I realized it was a very productive month in spite of being gone nearly a whole week early in the month.  I managed to get several block sets to the flimsy stage, and got 2 fairly large UFOs bound.  I've share one of those earlier, and will share the other this week as soon as I manage to get a photo of it.  

**  Saturday Sampler row #2 - DONE
**  Circle of Friends block for March - DONE
**  Riley Blake challenge blocks - DONE
**  Easter bench pillow kit - DONE
**  progress on SAHRR - NOTHING!
**  add borders onto batik Hunter's Star quilt - DONE & delivered to a long armer
**  March door hanger kit - holding for a green RSC month
**  Tiger Lily wall hanging kit - holding for a green or orange RSC month
**  RSC blocks with yellow - YES
**  bind 1 UFO - DONE (Tranquility & Twinkle)
**  quilt and bind 1 doll quilt - DONE
**  assemble QOV Buckeye Beauties into flimsy - DONE

**  assemble Churn Dash blocks into flimsy - DONE 

Design Wall Monday - March 31

Is it Monday again already?  It was a chilly wet weekend so you know there was plenty of time spent in the sewing room.  About a half inch of rain fell on Saturday followed by an inch of snow that evening. A repeat might happen tomorrow or the next day.  And we're thankful for any little bit of moisture we get.  

The Pyramid blocks are ready to sew into rows.  There is a cream background that will be used for some "half" pyramids to straighten out those sides.  There are 5 extra blocks remaining in the project box as "seed" for something else. 

The 10th block (of 12) for Circle of Friends has been posted by Carol Doak.  This is a beauty, and I hope to choose well when deciding on color placement.  This is a paper pieced block, but we're only doing 1 block per month.   

My desire to reduce the quilting clutter (UFOs and WIPs and PIGs) is continuing this week with the clearing out of a little more "stuff".  

Placemats and mug rugs are resulting from some of the things rescued from that stuff.  After finishing the quilt top using the Jelly Roll Race last week, there was still a big chunk of the jelly roll sections remaining.  Rather than putting it into a bag in a drawer or dropping it into scrap bins, I decided to use it to make some placemats and mug rugs.  This little stack is ready for hand stitching the binding.

While placemats were on my mind and because teal is the RSC color for April, this block came out of the orphan block box, and is now ready to quilt for a placemat.  The Drunkard's Path was something I made during a guild workshop several years ago.  I just never knew what I wanted to do with it, and didn't have any more of either fabric.  So it has languished with the orphan blocks.  But the leftovers from Tranquility (a 2025 finish) were just the right colors.  The 2 lighter teal pieces were added to the sides to make this 18" wide, and the darker teals yielded enough strips to make binding.  Now I need to do some simple quilting on this one.

I also chose 2 blocks I'd tested out for Quilts of Valor that were in with the orphans, and made a couple of patriotic placemats.  Those are also quilted and ready for hand stitching the binding.  The backing is was a gift of fabric from Nann, and the scraps of that striped backing have been mostly used up in 4 RWB mug rugs.  These will be good ones with that bold stars and stripes. 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC25 - Week #13

It's nearly time to wave goodbye to yellow, and say hello to . . . whatever fresh new color is announced next.  Will it be purple, green, red?  March was one of the most productive months I've had recently.  I'm hoping to keep a steady pace into April.  

There is plenty of yellow going on in the latest doll quilt to be finished.  I had a bit of the yellow ombre, and it worked great with the leftover 6" churn dash blocks.  Some leftover binding strips, leftover backing, and a longer piece of leftover binding for actual binding - and another little doll quilt was born this week.

I strayed from my current RSC blocks this week, and tried out a couple of ideas for new block sets.  The finished RSC block sets are becoming quilts lately, so it's time for some new ones.

It began with these yellow Dresden Plate blades, made from scraps from the yellow bin.  

Now I have 4 yellow, 4 pink, and 4 blue Dresden blocks with black corners.  I'm going to use black thread to anchor these onto the grey background with blanket stitching.  The only purchased part of this new project is that grey background.  Everything else is scraps and I'm excited to work with the next color.

And because I was searching for ways to use more strips and strings, these Drunkard's Path blocks have been happening.  They finish at 6", and the neutrals are pieced onto phone book paper.  I have made 6 of these so far - yellow, orange, and purple.  And no - there is no plan for what to do with these yet.  But they are 100% scrappy!!

It was fun to go back through my blog posts to see what I've done with yellow this month.

It began at the beginning of the month with a flimsy that blended the blue from February with the yellow for March.  I love how this one turned out.  I hope to choose a backing for it soon, and get it quilted.  It has been on my UFO list for 2 years.

Lots of yellow in this quilt top - Make Your Point.  Every bit of this came from leftovers - HSTs, pinwheels, 16-patch units, and lots of strips, strings, and bits. 

A couple of abandoned projects became finished flimsies.  This is Anita's Arrowhead, and it had been hiding in a bag in a drawer. Doesn't it feel good when we empty a bag or project box and can actually make use of what was in them? 

 Two child-size quilt tops were assembled from finished blocks, including plenty of yellow in those churn dash blocks. There also was an Easter bench pillow with yellow chicks.  

Plenty of blocks have been added to the on-going RSC block sets in March, both new and old.

I've chosen this set of RSC blocks for my next flimsy.  These are the Pyramid blocks that I made in 2024.  One partial row was sewn together already, but it's all been just hanging out in the project box waiting its turn.  This morning they will be layed out on my "design floor" and the process of becoming a flimsy will begin in earnest. 

It's time to check out more RSC fun . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Reducing the piles

Quilt designer Bonnie Hunter posted the following meme on Facebook and on her blog a few days ago, and it really resonated with me.  There are definitely "piles" in my sewing room, and some are getting very tired of waiting for their turn.

Graphic "borrowed" from Bonnie Hunter on Facebook

I'm making a little headway on the WIPs and the UFOs around here, and managed to assemble 3 small quilt tops from those this week.  

So, here is the 3rd one of the tops, ready for a backing and quilting.  It's 42 x 62, and used most of a Kaffe jelly roll plus that fish print that was a freebie from our guild giveaway table.  The colors of the jelly roll are repeated in those fish.  It's a pretty good mash-up in my opinion, and just as colorful as I had imagined it would be.

There is an 18 by 42 strip of the jelly roll section leftover, all sewn together.  I'm thinking I can get 3 placemats from that piece.  That isn't likely to happen until the weekend however. 

All 3 of these quilts were WIPs a week ago.  The churn dash blocks were all made, but hadn't been assembled into a top yet.  The Anita's Arrowhead blocks were not all sewn, but at least the pattern and fabric were still in the bag with the few blocks that I had made.  And the jelly roll race quilt at the top was just a mess in a bag, although the jelly roll had been sewn into the long single strip.  

It feels so good to have these tops hanging in the closet, one step closer to being finished quilts instead of just projects Waiting In Piles.

Making use of distractions

I've worked diligently the past week or so to meet some short term goals that I've set, and I'm pleased at the progress on those goals.  But I've also strayed a bit to play with some things totally unrelated to those goals.  Those darn squirrels are fun to follow!

One of the things I've played with is a scrappy Dresden project I'm adding to this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge repertoire of blocks.  I saw this online where I think they called it something like Badminton Birdies because of the layout chosen.  On point, they do look kind of like birdies.  

There are 4 blocks in each colorway, with 5 blades each.  Every colorful blade came from the scrap bins.  Yay!  Each Dresden unit will get a black corner piece and be appliqued onto a 10" square of grey background.  I had enough of the grey background to use for several months' worth of RSC blocks.  This could become a pretty good sized quilt, depending on how many blocks I make. I'm kind of excited about this one.

And the other distraction?  These are 6.5" Drunkard's Path blocks using neutral strings for that pie slice section.  And using scraps for the outer section.  There is even a narrow bit of flange or piping tucked into that curved seam.  This was an idea from an old magazine.  I have a bin full of neutral scraps and this is a way to make use of at least some of them.  The neutral strings are pieced on old phone book pages.  I have no actual plan for these beyond the fact they are fun to make.  And maybe I'll use the RSC colors each month when looking for colors to use on that outer section. 

In the meantime, I've pulled out the next UFO I plan to work on next week, and one new project that I want to begin next week.  The UFO is Pyramids, which was a set of RSC blocks from previous years of playing with a rainbow of scraps.  One row of triangle shaped blocks is actually sewn together, but all the rest of the blocks were still in that project box - waiting.  

The new project involves applique, and I'll have to share more on that another day.