RSC26 - Week #7

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Today is Saturday Sampler in the morning, and Sew Vintage in the afternoon.  Our Sew Vintage group is having a little party, and a Valentine mug rug exchange.  And my "Valentine" guy is taking a buddy to the Jackrabbit game today because I don't want to miss Sew Vintage.  LOL

Lots of green was under my needle this week.  I had cut the parts for various blocks over the weekend, so this week it was quick to sew those up.  That particular design board is empty now, and waiting to hold parts for next week's projects.

The Hollow-9 blocks are made with 2.5" squares, and they make the perfect Leader/Ender in between other sewing.

The Snail Trail blocks were added to the brown and blue ones on the hanger.  The current plan is to make 4 of each color.

And finally - there was this one.  Yes, I admit it was a squirrel.  It's so adorable, so how could I resist this one?  There is a blue one for January still in the "pulled fabric" stage.    

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

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

A finish, SAHRR, and a flimsy

It's Finish (or not) Friday!!

The baby quilt is ready to ship to Colorado next week. Light icy blues, purples and pinks in every shade, and lots of neutrals make up this color palette.

It's actually half of a Bonnie Hunter mystery from this winter, Lupines and Laughter.  As soon as I saw the colors I decided to use it as a baby quilt for my nephew and his wife.  That way I only needed half as many blocks.  Their baby girl is due in March.

This week's prompt for Stay At Home Round Robin was to play with curves.  She gave hints about using curved piecing, yo-yos, or even a print with curves in it.  I woke up at 5:30 am yesterday morning and had been dreaming about this project.  So before I forgot what I had pictured in my head - this happened.  I appliqued circles onto 2 white borders. The other 2 white borders are cut but I'm going to wait until I see what next week's prompt is before ironing on any more circles.  The other 3 corner blocks are ready to add then too.  I had to fight a breeze to get this photo on the front porch. It really does lay flat.  

It always feels good to put the last stitches into a quilt top, or the binding.  And this one is BIG, so it feels extra good to have the top finished.
 

The pattern name is Showering Stars, but I used the licensed mascot print for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the centers of the stars.  So it seems appropriate to call it Jackrabbit Stars.  The pattern has a 16-patch scrappy center in those stars.  But one of the ladies at The Pin Cushion used college t-shirts as the star center for a friend.  That gave me the idea to use the Jackrabbit print. 

My husband and I, plus one daughter and a few other relatives are all alumni.  My plan is to give him the quilt in April for his birthday.  Might have to give him just the top if I don't get it all quilted and bound.  I tend to do the binding in the evenings while watching TV, but I don't want him to see it, so another plan may have to be made. 

Check out more Finishes (or Not) . . .
https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

More progress

Yesterday gave me more uninterrupted sewing time and I made good use of it.  First of all . . . the big blue and yellow quilt top I've been working on is now 2 complete halves.  Today it will become a finished flimsy, and I think I found a good backing option for it.

Binding has been added to the Lupines and Laughter baby quilt.  And I put a triangular label into one corner that I will write on.  Hopefully I can ship it to Colorado next week so it arrives before the baby girl does.  

And I cut the pieces to make 4 more Echo blocks for Quilts of Valor.  This is the free 2026 block drive pattern on the QOV website.  

More progress

Yesterday morning I had 3 hours of uninterrupted time in my sewing room.  I spent it working on the Jackrabbit Stars project.  

That gave me the focus time I needed to get the final strip set and other pieces done - in the correct order - to make the last star section.  That 4th star section is done, and the 3 long (90") sections that go on either side are pinned and ready to sew.  Now that the hard work is done, it's time to get this one done.

I'm really hoping to get this to the flimsy stage by Friday. The first half has been done for over a week, but I've gotten distracted by other things while working on the other half.  

A squirrel?

Sooner or later a squirrel was bound to cross my path. You knew that, right?  

I've often said that I get most of my quilting inspiration from the online quilting world that I follow.  This new block is a perfect example.  And yes, it's a squirrel I just HAD to play with.  Do you follow Pat Sloan?  I follow her on Facebook and also get her weekly emails.  I've done some of her sew-alongs over the years.  Sometimes they are totally free, and sometimes there is a book or pattern purchase required.    

Currently she has been doing a sew-along using a book called Scrap Quilting With Wendy Sheppard.  The book has several different interesting patterns perfect for scrappy sewing.  For Pat's sew-along several blocks are being combined into a sampler.  And ONE of those blocks has really caught my eye.

It's called Who's Found the Catnip?  I just couldn't resist it.  It's only 12" x 10", not a huge block to make.  It took just 2 hours to cut and sew.  I'll go back at some point and make a blue one for January. I'm in love!!!!

Design Wall Monday - February 9

Last week I think I spent more time on genealogy research than I did in my sewing room most days.  I'm trying to nail down some details to add a second Revolutionary War "patriot" to our family info for DAR.  It appears I also found at least 1 British sympathizer.  Fascinating info is available online these days.

On Friday I managed to get the 3rd star section made for Jackrabbit Stars.

This quilt is made using 4 long vertical sections with a big star and then the "trail of sparks".  My main goal this week is to get that last section done and have this project pushed to the flimsy stage.  I can tell already that I have enough of the fabrics left to make something else in the future - pillowcases or another quilt - using an easier pattern.  

It was a busy weekend, with almost no sewing time.  Saturday morning was guild, then we left to pick up 2 grandsons to take to a Jackrabbit men's basketball game.  Sunday afternoon there was a Quilt of Valor awarded. 

 The guild began our DIY Round Robin this month with Round 1 introduced.  The plan is to use SQUARES in some way this month.  Mine has simple 4-patches in the corners. I shared mine as an example of what they can do, but I'm anticipating some of our members will be much more creative than I was. I took 2 past SAHRR projects with me as more examples of how they can just make this their own.  

And today the plan is to enjoy an afternoon of cards with friends.  But some cutting for Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks did happen in between other things.

Going through the 2.5" square box yielded enough green ones for 2 Hollow-9 blocks.  I know that I had used up most of the 2.5" green squares when making some projects last year.  The parts for a couple of the reversed Buckeye blocks came from the green scrap bin.  Not very many larger pieces remain in that green scrap bin anymore. 

For the 12" Snail Trail blocks I needed bigger pieces.  I have a big bin full - OK, overflowing - of fat quarters that have been "hoarded" for too long.  So, I dug in to find some neutrals and some greens.  The parts for the 4 Snail Trail blocks for this month are cut and ready to go when sewing time pops up this week.  And the remains of those fat quarters will go into more RSC blocks coming up.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

 

SAHRR

Adding a new round for SAHRR can be a challenge.  Last week's prompt told us to be inspired by the animal world.  So many options came to mind and were then eliminated.

I dug through my pattern books, but came away with no real inspiration.  But a little web browsing finally gave me a plan.  A site with free paper piecing patterns provided me with a couple of options to try out.  

Half an hour was all it took to make 4 paper pieced Birds in the Air blocks for Round 3.  These will finish at just 4",  and I'll have to keep that size in mind for the next round. 

Instead of making entire rounds or just doing 1 or 2 sides, I decided this week only corners will be added to my SAHRR.  The link to the site I used is here. 

https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/free-paper-piecing-patterns.html

AND - I'm linking up today with The Darling Dogwood's Linky Party for the Round 3 additions to SAHRR.  

RSC26 - Week #6

A new color always ramps up the mojo a little at the beginning of the month.  I accidently merged the January and February colors into 1 small project as the calendar page turned.

This doll quilt is only 22" square, but it used up 9 string blocks out of the basket.  It will be donated - wrapped around this teddy bear - later in the year once it has a few more friends to go along.

The green blocks for Scrappy Stars are done.  I'm going to make all the backgrounds black prints, and this set has 4 different prints from the stash. My first instinct is always to go to the white-on-white or cream fabrics for backgrounds but I'm trying to be more adventurous.  So scrappy black it is. 

Green Honey Bees have joined the blue ones from last month. These are 12" blocks, and so adorable.  I might have to sprinkle in a few 6" ones too just for fun.  It's a Lori Holt pattern and she gives instructions for both sizes.  Her patterns are some of my favorites. 

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

I saved this UFO finish to share today, even though I finished the binding on Monday Feb. 2.

This is a 3-yard pattern from Fabric Cafe called Town Square.  It's one of my favorite 3-yard patterns for a fast quilt.  The pieces are nice and big, and those big squares are perfect for showing off a fun novelty print.  This one will go into the donation pile.  

Some small finishes happened this week too.  A doll quilt and 3 small seasonal 5-Minute table runners can all be checked off my list. The table runners were forgotten kits just lying in a drawer waiting to be found again. The 22" doll quilt was all from scraps.

Check out more Finishes (or Not) today . . .

https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/  

This and that

Wednesday was a busy day, with very little sewing time.  But I did get organized for some upcoming projects.

Our guild is going to do a DIY Round Robin.  I'm leading it, so I got the handouts all ready for the guild meeting this coming Saturday morning.  Along with the instructions, I'm taking a couple of the SAHRR (Stay At Home Round Robin) projects I've done in the past as samples. 

Two quilts were dropped off with a long arm quilter yesterday morning.   Contessa (brown) is on my UFO list.  Lupines & Laughter is a new project.  I have binding cut for the pink/purple quilt.  But I'll need to dig into the stash to see if I have a brown that will work to bind the other one.  Brown isn't a color I use much, so I'm not optimistic. 

There was a DAR meeting yesterday too.  Each month one member shares info on their "patriot" from the Revolutionary War.  February was my turn.  We also take turns bringing some treats.  I baked some cookies and brought juice too.  

And there was Jackrabbit basketball in Brooking yesterday evening.  So we were on the road late afternoon.  So much for sewing, right?

Lupines & Laugter

It's a flimsy!!!  Yay!!

I'm very excited to have the Bonnie Hunter mystery from this winter actually all assembled and ready to be quilted.  Because it is going to be a baby quilt for a nephew and his wife, I made about half the blocks.  It's 48" square. 

The other nice thing about having it to this stage, is it cleaned up a lot of work space in my sewing room.  While I was feeling disciplined, I even folded all the leftover fabrics and put them away in the stash drawers, or small pieces into the scrap bins.  The only things left in the project box is the pattern, a small handful of leftover HSTs and flying geese - and a yard of one option for binding.  

Now I can get back to work on the Jackrabbit Stars because there is room to lay parts out again.  Today I hope to get the next strip set all sewn together. 

Strings and things

One of my big priorities this month is to finish the top of a very large quilt (Jackrabbit Stars), but to do that I really need to free up more work space in my sewing space.  To that end, I'm going to focus on getting some smaller projects done first and moved out of the way.  That is because I have multiple projects laying around, as always.  Small project #1 . . .

String blocks are quite addictive to make, and I've done a few bigger quilts over the years with strings.  But this time I used them in a small project. 

It's a doll quilt and 22" square.  Now it's wrapped around a grey teddy bear, and will become a donation to the local safe house once there are "friends" to join this first one of 2026.  Last year I donated 12 little doll quilts wrapped around stuffed animals, all to the safe house.

 

The 3 little kits for 5-Minute Table Runners are also finished.  These really do only take about 5 minutes to sew, plus maybe another 5 minutes to hand stitch the buttons on.  So maybe a half hour was enough to get these done.  Possible future gifts? 

A few sparkly beads have been added to the Valentine mini.  I felt it needed something more besides my simple straight line quilting.  Red heart shaped beads are in those bottom corners.  Clear sparkly little beads are scattered around in the dark red sections.  It's just enough I think.

Design Wall Monday - February goals

I'm setting a few goals - some are on-going WIPs, some are UFOs that need more progress, and there WILL be some new things to work on of course. 

WIPs = Works in Progress

• Jackrabbit Stars - get to flimsy stage (halfway now)
• BH Mystery Lupines & Laughter - get to flimsy stage (add pieced outer border)
• Saturday Sampler - new monthly blocks
• make blocks for Rainbow Scrap Challenge in new color - GREEN
• finish hand stitching on Sashiko piece
• quilt and bind at least 1 doll quilt (5 tops in the pile)

UFOs = Unfinished Objects

• bind Zipper quilt IF back from quilter
• find backing for Triple Triangle & take to quilter
• take Contessa (brown) to quilter
• finish blocks for QOV Shadow Star (seriously neglected)

NEW Projects & PIGs (Projects in Grocery Sacks)

• March mini quilt (Year of Spools)
• make 5-minute table runners from kits found in drawer (photo above)
• Spring mini vertical banner (kit in drawer)
• March door hanger kit - maybe!!!

Going through a drawer, looking at kits I've purchased in the past and neglected to make - that's a dangerous activity.  There were several projects that really caught my attention, but I think it would be good to start small this month and just see how much I accomplish. 

I'm tracking fabric IN and OUT again this year and really want to be more conscious of what I purchase.  I'm not getting any younger and the stash is huge.  LOL  My spreadsheet says I've purchased more than I've used (+9.25 yards), but part of those purchases were backing for quilts.  And I have a couple of things close to finishing so that will help my numbers.

IN = 19.75 yds

OUT = 10.5 yds

Teal blocks

For several years I've played along with one particular online monthly scrap color challenge, and this year I'm adding another one.  

https://conniekresin.com/2026-january-color-of-the-month/

Connie, at Freemotion By The River, has chosen teal as the January 2026 color.  She has already announced red will be the color for February.

I used up a few teal scraps to add these blocks that will fit right in with the other color challenge, where I'm working on various on-going blocks sets.  There is the Scrappy Star in teal and black, a 6" Friendship Star, and the 6" Hollow-9 block.  There are a few blue Scrappy Stars also hanging on that hanger for the other color challenge, so the teal one will join right into that set of blocks.  There are lots of Hollow-9 blocks in various colors in a basket from last year.  The Friendship Star joins a forgotten set of colorful blocks in both 6" and 9".

RSC26 - Week #5

It's hard to believe we're 5 weeks into the new year already.  And it's time to retire the blue scrap bin even though it sure doesn't seem any emptier than it was 5 weeks ago.  But like most everyone else, I'm excited to play with a new color. 

The main blue project this week has been this one - Jackrabbit Stars. It is a little more than halfway to the flimsy stage. Showering Stars is the pattern and it's assembled in vertical rows that are 90" long.  

Lots of blue blocks happened this month - Honey Bees, Give It a Whirl, Hollow 9, Reversed Buckeye, Scrappy Stars, Snail Trail, and Vintage Spools.  Some light blue string blocks, a couple of random blocks, and a couple of blue UFOs kept me busy too. 

Lots of Quilt of Valor sewing happened in January too.  These blocks will all be on-going. Most months involve QOV sewing for me. 
 

One final dig into the blue scraps, and I ended up with 4 more blue string blocks.  Paired up with some lime green blocks already made, this will become a future doll quilt.  It's 18" square as is, so I will see what I have in either green or blue for a little border.  I have blue binding for it that is in the leftover binding drawer. 

Let's go see what everyone else is playing with this week . . . and find out what color comes to play in February. 

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

Friday finishes (or Not)

Small finishes are so satisfying. The St Patrick's Day table runner is finished, along with 2 matching mug rugs.  With small finishes in mind, the next step was seeing what else was lurking in my stash that could be quick finishes in the next couple of weeks.

One drawer that just contains kits yielded a couple of PIGs for the month of February.  There were 3 little kits for 5-Minute table runners - 2 for Easter and 1 Halloween version.  I think these were purchased either on a shop hop or maybe during Crazy Days a couple of years ago.  Time to get them out of the drawer and finished soon. 

As for any big finishes - not yet.  But, I'm on the last side of the binding for a UFO quilt, and making progress on another large project.  So it's all good!

Check out more Finishes (or Not) today . . .
https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

SAHRR Round #2

The Stay At Home Round Robin prompt for Round 2 was "seeing double". Kathleen McMusing was the designer this week. 

After a lot of thinking, I decided to keep things simple this week, and to give the eye a chance to stop after a very busy round.   So I added a simple double border.  The border around the center block is dark purple.  The new  double border is a dark aqua/blue, and then a dark fuschia. Now I feel like the third round can be more dramatic again. It's about 26" square at this point.

Check out the Linky Party to see what other Round 2 ideas have been shared.

https://kathleenmcmusing.com/

Progress

Progress is continuing on the Jackrabbit Stars project.  It's about halfway to the flimsy stage. Two more strip sets need to be made for the other 2 stars.  Each of the 4 stars will have those "trails" to make them Showering Stars, which is the pattern name. 

No additional progress on this project will happen today.  I'm attending the monthly get-together of the retired group from the HS I taught at for 2 decades.  And then we'll be headed to a Jackrabbit basketball game.  But maybe I'll have a little bit of time to work on some Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks that are cut out and ready to sew.

Getting a start

I have a small start to the Jackrabbit Stars project.

This isn't a UFO, exactly - more of a PIG.  I've had the pattern and fabrics for months, but just couldn't make myself start cutting.  Finally, I began by making the big flying geese (finish 5 x 10) for the star points.  The block centers will be the Jackrabbit logo print. 

This quilt is done in vertical sections, and will be about 76 x 90, so those are long sections. The outer strip is 5.5" wide, then the next - with the star points - is the same, finishing at 5".  The star center and the "trail" adds another 10" so this left side is 20" wide so far.  The next section with the right side star points is ready to add. 

There will be 3 more vertical sections with stars and trails. It might take me awhile to do those next sections, as there is a lot more cutting to do.  But at least I've begun. 

Design Wall Monday - January 26

Hmmm - the last week of January is already here.  It has been an interesting month in terms of creativity.  What will February bring?

On Friday afternoon I participated in a fun hand stitching class at The Pin Cushion, where we learned a little about Patchwork Sashiko techniques. There were about a dozen of us.  I have my little piece about 1/3 stitched and still need to decide what it will become. I'm the white hair in the far back between the lady in white and the lady in aqua.

 There has been some binding progress this weekend, including the St Patrick's Day projects. I'll show those later this week.  And I'm halfway around this 3-yard quilt with binding.  So the first larger UFO of 2026 is getting close to the finish line.

Today I hope to get the Jackrabbit Stars project cut out, and hopefully begin sewing on it. 

Saturday, in between attending grandson Jack's 4th grade basketball game, and going to watch Olivia in the finals of the 100 Fly (butterfly) - we made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby.  I found some bead options to add some sparkle to the Valentine mini.  I might pull out the Christmas Tree mini from December and add a little something to that too.  Jack's team won their game and Olivia placed 6th in the finals.  She also qualified Sunday morning for finals in another event.  She had a terrific swim meet this weekend cutting time from every event.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

SAHRR - Week #1

The first week of the Stay At Home Round Robin, we were challenged to use Hourglass blocks with our center block. Check out the Linky Party on Songbird Designs to see how others interpreted this first prompt in their own way.

I had a whole small bin full of orphan Hourglass blocks made with trimmings from Flying Geese blocks a couple of years ago. All it required was squaring them up.  Spoiler alert - I barely made a dent in those Hourglass units, so there are still plenty more for some future project where they will be perfect.

So . . . Round #1 is done!!  I added a narrow purple border onto the center before adding the Hourglass units. That brought the center to 18" (finished size).  I trimmed the Hourglass units to 2.5", and added 9 on each side.  It's very bright and cheery!

RSC26 - Week #4

In 2025 I finished a fairly big Buckeye Beauty quilt, and there were a few block units left over that have been in the orphan block box.  I saw - in this RSC group - an awesome quilt - with the same units (4-patch and HST) in a different layout. Instead of pointing those colorful triangles out, these will have them meeting in the middle. 

So much inspiration in this creative and generous group of people!!  Making a Lather posted a quilt yesterday that she made called Flying Home. Her blocks used the same fabrics/color in the 4-patch and the HST.  It's a really great looking layout too.  It made me realize I could use my orphans as seed for a new set of blocks, similar to hers.  My leftovers have black and white 4-patches. and colorful HSTs.  Now 3 new blue versions have been added to those orphans. They will finish at 8".  I don't know exactly what these blocks will become yet, but I am quite sure I'm going to like it.  Plus it removed 4 blocks from the orphan box.

 Three new 6" Hollow 9 blocks have been added to the stack from last year.  The little white plastic basket behind them holds the collection of Hollow 9 blocks, plus the 6" string blocks I've been making. 

Above my cutting board there are lots of hooks holding the rulers I use most often, plus a few odds and ends.  This fall I hung a couple of patterns there that I was considering for new RSC blocks for 2026. See the pink note?  That was a list I was making of possible new blocks.  I've decided to be a bit more realistic and rein in my hog wild expectations.  So - there is just one more NEW block to play with for now.

I'm just calling this one Scrappy Stars.  The pointy sections are made with the Tri Recs rulers, and the blocks will be set on point.  My plan is to use scrappy black for backgrounds, and colorful scraps for the star points. These will finish at 9".  And that pink note - still has ideas for blocks that maybe will show up some other year.  LOL

Let's go see what everyone else is playing with this week . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/