Design Wall Monday

Hmmm - a new week beginning, but the ending of a month, brings all kinds of contemplation and reflection on projects for me.  Looking forward to a new month and a new week makes me want to start some new projects.  

This little kit is for a mini quilt - 13" square approximately.  I have 2 of the metal hangers and it's fun to switch them out for seasons and holidays.  I think this will be a quick one to make.  

Finishing the other 4 blocks for this month's Saturday Sampler needs to be a priority for this week.  I don't want to fall behind.  This first one went together better than I expected.  Those narrow strips separating the quarters can be tricky to line up.

The puffy bag is close to being done.  Both of the outside sections are done, the handles and lining are cut.  This shouldn't take too long to finish.

There is another baby quilt to bind this week too.  No chance of getting bored around here because I always have a bunch of projects in the works.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog  

RSC25 - Week #25

Some weeks are productive in the sewing room, and some weeks are not.  This has mostly been a non-productive week.  Between grandsons being here and more genealogy research, I just didn't spend much time sewing.  And that is perfectly OK.

I did get another doll quilt made this week.  It has orange in it.  The layout idea was stolen from Kat at Scrapbox Quilts blog.  Mine used up a stack of 3.5" squares that had been cut from leftover backing, mixed with squares of solids, also left over from previous projects.  

This week might not have been very productive, but the month of June definitely has been quite productive.  Lots of orange blocks happened.  I'm ready for a new color, but must say that orange is very energizing.  Some of these block sets are nearing that stage of "enough" for a quilt top.

The Buckeye Beauty blocks are getting very close to enough for a fairly large quilt.  We'll see how many there are after this month, and maybe this one will become a flimsy by the end of the summer.  

Another quilt top has been born however - using the 9.5" string blocks that were made for RSC over the past year and a half.  These are pieced on a muslin foundation.  I had sewn them into rows and then hung up those rows in the closet.  Why didn't I finish it then?  I have no clue, but it's all assembled finally.

And the Triple Triangle string blocks have gotten more attention too.  I'll need more blocks to continue this layout, so we'll see what colors the next couple of months will bring.  

The BIG finish this week was binding a 98" square quilt.  This was the 2024 Saturday Sampler BOM project from the local quilt shop.  My 6' husband couldn't hold it up any higher, and the grass was wet so there isn't a good photo.  And he was holding it upside down.  LOL  This wasn't an RSC project - but it does have a whole rainbow of colors in it.  This is destined to  become a wedding gift.  

Go check out more fun RSC projects, because there is a LOT of inspiration out there in the RSC blog posts.

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Blockheads, golf camp and swim meets

Thursday morning I cut the parts for this week's Blockheads blocks.  There are 2 versions suggested again this week. 

There are a LOT of pieces in this week's block pattern but the result is worth that extra effort.  It's called Dew Drops by Chelsi Stratton.  Only 1 of the 2 blocks has been sewn so far, but maybe I'll get started on the second one this morning while I have an hour or so. 

The only real difference in my 2 versions will be different red/white/blue scraps that I'm using.  There have been some very interesting variations posted in the Facebook group with unique color placement that changes the whole look of the block.  I'm sticking with the original layout.

Grandpa's golf camp continues.  The boys are 14 and 12, and started golf when they were in First Tee programs at about 6.  It's something they do sometimes as a family.  I think grandpa is enjoying this even more than the boys, but it is really nice just having them hanging out for a few days.  So far I'm just the cook and clean-up staff.  LOL  I am headed to watch their sister swim at a meet this afternoon.  

Many of the blogs I follow have been showing their beautiful gardens.  Since I don't garden anymore - other than a couple of flower pots - I thought I'd share my front porch flowers.  These are silk and have solar lights hiding in among them.  Since it's always in the shade, the silk versions don't get wet or have sun shining directly on them.  I can enjoy the colors when I'm sitting out there reading, without any extra work.  

A few blocks for Quilt of Valor

With only an hour to sew yesterday morning, I pulled out some strip sets that were already sewn together for QOV blocks.

There are 24 of these now, including these 7 made yesterday.

Once a month, on the last Wednesday, a group of retired staff (from the school district I taught) gathers for coffee and lunch.  The group includes teachers, librarians, and office staff.  I look forward to that lunch group every month!!

Following lunch yesterday I went grocery shopping to stock up as we have 2 grandsons staying for a few days of "golf camp" with grandpa.  I even baked a pumpkin pie from scratch, using an old (WW2 era) recipe I found in a book.  Because sugar was rationed during WW2, this recipe used honey instead of sugar.  Not bad!! You can taste the honey. 

A string block flimsy

Tuesday was an "office day" in the morning.  I spent a lot of time cleaning off my cluttered desk, reorganizing a lot of paperwork and shredding more old work docs.  I didn't allow myself any sewing time until I had some of this done.  But the afternoon yielded plenty of sewing time and I can check off a couple of tasks. 

I'm on a roll - another quilt top is done and hanging in the closet waiting to be quilted. The blocks themselves were a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project mostly done last year, with a few final blocks made in 2025.  These string blocks were pieced on muslin and are 9" finished.  It is a good lap quilt size of 45 x 54. Or it would be a good kid size.  

Once I finished that quilt top it was time to work on this month's row for Saturday Sampler.  The pieces are cut, and block #1 (of 5) is started.  

A doll quilt and UFO progress

Baby steps . . . each little bit of progress is good, right?

I had given a long arm friend a quilt top and backing that I thought was all ready to go.  But she texted me yesterday morning with this photo, to let me know the backing was too small.  I had given her the wrong backing for that quilt.  Darn!!  Luckily she only lives about 5 miles from me, so I drove out and traded projects, giving her the "next" one on my list.  

The doll quilt turned out very cute using those leftover squares from a backing.  I have a lot of solids, so it was easy to choose some of the same colors from that paint splatter print.  The red teddy bear will be wrapped in this one for donation.

One more of the UFO block sets hanging in the closet is closer to being a finished top.  There were 31 of these string blocks (9.5" square), with about half of them already sewn into rows.  Now all the rows are assembled, and maybe today I'll get the top all finished.  The leftover string block went into my orphan block box.  

Design Wall Monday - June 23

We survived the  wind and 100 degree temps over the weekend.  My husband didn't even play golf, so you know it was miserable out there.  Friday evening we went to grandson Jack's baseball game where we could set up our lawn chairs under big shade trees along the 3rd baseline.  But we skipped going to his big sister's fastpitch tournament on Saturday and Sunday.  It was just too hot for us old folks.  

Yesterday I pulled out a pile of 3.5" squares of a paint splatter print.  It was a leftover backing that I had cut into a big stack of squares.  Paired up with squares cut from the collection of solids it will make a very cute doll quilt.  I got the layout idea after seeing it on Kat's blog - Scrapbox Quilts on Saturday.   Like always, inspiration from another quilter.  This will use up quite a few scraps even though it's a small project. 

Last week I got 1 side of the puffy bag all sewn, so this week I'll keep working at the second side.  I am using an old polyester batting cut into little pieces to stuff those puffs.  

After a whole week of mostly sewing on small projects like bags and RSC blocks, it's time to focus on some bigger things again.  The 5th row of the Saturday Sampler is getting it's turn this week.  Today I plan to cut the pieces for it.  

I'm already thinking about sewing goals for July, and was thinking it's time to use the Indigo Way blocks to make something.  This was a Bonnie Hunter mystery introduced back in winter of 2023-24 I think.  I made blocks but not enough for a full sized quilt.  However, maybe it's enough to make a Quilt of Valor.  It's time to just do it!!

And while looking at UFOs, I think this string quilt needs some attention too.  It's been hanging in the closet, in rows for far too long.   

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog  

RSC25 - Week #24

I did plenty of rainbow scrappy sewing this week, primarily in between working on some small projects that needed to be completely finished. It was a good way to catch up with some of the RSC blocks in orange.  But it also looks like I a lot of "ping pong sewing" because I did bounce from block to block all week.  That's part of the fun for me with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - to have several different block sets growing all at once. 
 

Early in the week I made 1 orange Brighten block and 1 Buckeye Beauty block. These have the same pretty orange batik in both.  Both of these block sets need to continue to grow until there are enough of them for a quilt.  

A second orange Gameboard block was assembled another day.  There are now 2 of each of the 2025 colors, so a total of only 12.  I still do NOT have a plan for these, but something will emerge in time as the blocks continue to accumulate.

Last week I showed a couple of Paint Chip blocks that I made based on a blog post by Cathy at Crazy By Design blog.  They used 2.5" squares and I have a whole basket of those.  But I also have several cookie tins full of 1.5" squares, and the light bulb came on.  Mid-week I made a mini version of that block.   

It was a quick process to sort out orange and neutral postage stamps from the cookie tins. There are now 2 orange Mini Paint Chip blocks.   

And while I was sorting colors a few other blocks just happened to be born.  Aren't these little 4.5" blocks just the cutest?  There is the start of an idea floating around in my head of how I might be able to use these.   

With the string triangle blocks I've been combining into sets of 3, and then framing them with a black print.  With the 13 Triple Triangle blocks (6 x 15 approx) this is the layout I'm playing with so far.  I'm toying with putting a yellow sashing with these, or maybe some other bright color.  Or maybe use several colors. 

Let's see what else is going on in the RSC world because there is a LOT of inspiration out there in the RSC blog posts.
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Labor of love

The genealogy project tracing my husband's dad during WW2 is done.  The photo books were delivered to me on Wednesday, and I got the packages put together to mail right away to Dave's 3 siblings.  The packages might even arrive in their mailboxes today.  This was definitely a labor of love for me because I really loved my father-in-law.  He actually passed away suddenly 3 months before we got married, and ironically he was the only person who knew we had just gotten engaged.  

The photo book was put together with photos and newspaper clippings, along with info gleaned from his discharge papers and other sources.  The spiral bound book is an eBook written by a man from his unit that follows that unit from training through the end of WW2.  The dates and locations in the book matched up perfectly with the paperwork and what was written on the backs of photos.  His name appears in the book on the Embarkation roster.  

The Wine Tote & more

 The wine tote bag is done, and it did turn out nicely in spite of my struggles with it.  Basting that bottom circle before sewing it was the right move.  It's actually pretty cute.  Using a border print was a good idea, and this kit used one from a previous Minnesota Shop Hop.  

I must point out the size of this tote - which is significantly larger than a standard bottle of wine like the one sitting next to it.  It even comfortably holds a 1.5 liter bottle.  

The Blockheads 6 block for this week is Cat's Cradle by Kiley Ferons.  I whined about poor instructions for that wine tote, but must compliment this designer on her very clear set of instructions for those half rectangles.  She had great pictures - and I still cut them slightly wrong!!  Those blue corners should be meeting the red corners, but mine obviously do not.   However I'm not redoing this block because it really still looks OK.  The first 3 weeks it was suggested to make 2 blocks, but this week only 1.   So there are 7 blocks total so far. 

A bag finish

Tuesday was one of those days with lots of focused sewing time.  No laundry or genealogoy projects to cut into my day, although I did have to go get some groceries late in the day.  The sewing themed Hemmingway bag is checked off the To Do list.
 

The mini version of it is also done.  This is the 3rd set of these I've made.

The pieces are all cut for the Puff bag.  There will be 50 of those little puffy squares, 10 in each of 5 bright colors.  

To Do Tuesday

 Well, there is ONE of the circles sewn into that wine tote project.  Good thing I began with the lining because it didn't go well.  The kit instructions had you do fusible interfacing on the lining to give it structure, and batting quilted to the outer fabric.  Let me just say that the fusible interfacing makes it next to impossible to smoothly "ease" that circle into the bottom of the lining.  I plan to hand baste the bottom circle to the outer fabric because it needs to look nicer than that lining does.  

When I got frustrated with the wine tote, I switched gears to work on the Hemmingway bag because that is a fairly easy project.  The zipper is an interesting process for this bag, and really the only tricky part.  The bag body is all one piece, cut on the diagonal.  The zipper is taken apart so you only use 1 side and attach that to that diagonal seam.

The diagonal is folded around so that the zipper meets again at the edge.  And now the tricky part - getting that zipper pull back onto the teeth of the zipper.  Any little thread sticking out will cause a headache.  But both the large bag, and the mini made with the trimmed triangle are ready to finish with the binding added inside the bag.

And because I was still irritated by that wine tote, I decided to play with scraps for awhile.  Remember the orange Paint Chip block from my Saturday Post?  It was made with 2.5" squares, which I have in abundance.  But I also have a TON of 1.5" squares. 

See the cookie tins and sewing notion tins?  All full of 1.5" postage stamp squares cut from scraps over the years.  I've been using them in the Gameboard blocks to make the center 16-patch unit.  And yesterday morning I had this crazy idea (squirrel) to use some to make miniature Paint Chip blocks too.  Why not?  The tins are really getting full anyway.  

Maybe today I'll finish up that wine tote project.  Or maybe another squirrel will distract me, and I'll go off in another direction.  LOL

Design Wall Monday - June 16

 How is it already halfway through the month of June?  

My focus this week is to finish up some small projects before they turn into UFOs.  

The quilted wine tote bag is seeing progress.  The bottom of both the lining and the outside are ready to stitch.  Then the bag can be turned right side out to add the grommet handles. This particular step makes me think of easing in sleeves when I was doing a lot of garment sewing.  Didn't enjoy it then, and am dreading it now. LOL

Yesterday I layered the pieces with the batting for another Hemmingway bag, and got it quilted.  Once quilted the piece is trimmed to size, and the diagonal is cut.

The smaller piece cut off can be made into a little bag using the same process, so that piece isn't wasted.  This will be the 3rd one of these bags.

Once the wine tote and the Hemmingway bag is done, I plan to cut the pieces for another cute bag from the kit I purchased about a month ago.  The Sweet Potato Puff bag is a free pattern, and The Pin Cushion kitted up some very cute fabrics to make it.  This is a small version of those "puff" quilts that were popular back in the day.  

Of course I have some Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks to make in between these projects, and a binding to finish on last year's Saturday Sampler.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog  

RSC25 - Week #24

Buckeye Beauty blocks have been adding up quickly each month, and it's time to start laying them out to get a feel for how they will be used.  To begin the layout process, I'm sewing these into 4-sies, with the colors on the inside and outside corners.  

Once I had some in 4-sies I just had to start laying them out on the floor.  There are 23 single blocks in the little stack.  The 4-sies are 16" (finished).  Once there are enough for a quilt, then I can rearrange these to balance the color placement.  In the meantime, more Buckeye Beauty blocks will be needed, but it's closer to a quilt.  

One additional pink Give It a Whirl block was added to that set this week, bringing the number to 3 each for all of this year's RSC colors so far.  I'm in love with these blocks!!

Three more of the Triple Triangles happened this week, bringing the total to 9 of these.  These are about 15 x 6".  There are still a lot of those string triangle blocks waiting to be trimmed.  And I'll continue making more through the year.  

And then the 2.5" squares basket came into play . . . with a small squirrel.  I was actually only looking for enough orange squares to make a couple more of the Hollow 9 blocks, but I had saved a photo of the Paint Chip blocks shared by Cathy at Crazy By Design blog a couple of weeks ago.  They also use 2.5" squares, so know just what I had to do.  Two orange Paint Chip blocks were born, and the aqua one just happened because there was a little stack of aqua squares all together right at the top of the basket.  

One other orange project has seen some progress this week.  This is the wine tote that I'm making from a kit given to me by my cousin.  The lining is an orange plaid.  All of the parts and pieces are quilted and trimmed to size so maybe by next week I'll have it all finished

What RSC fun is going on out there this week?
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/