Design Wall Monday

Happy Monday everyone! After watching it snow all day yesterday again, I'm glad to see a hint of blue sky outside.  But the grey light yesterday kept my photos looking so washed out.  

I made a yellow string block to add to that set of blocks.  And I looked at some other block possibilities to use to make more donation quilts using the RSC colors.  

Then I worked on laying out the RSC18 blocks on my "design floor".  My sewing room doesn't really have enough floor space for this but I made it work well enough.  These blocks are actually very bright and happy colors - except in the grey snowy light.  Each block has sashing on 2 sides with a cornerstone, so now they are going into groups of 4 or 6 sewn together. 

And there is a binding happening on another big UFO. More to come on that another day. 

What will you find on other Design Walls this Monday? http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

A little mindless sewing

With an hour or so available today, I managed to get a bit of mindless sewing done. It’s a great way to relax.

Four more Ritzy Cracker blocks came together quickly - 2 for our guild baby quilt project and 2 for me to add to my own stack.  I have a lot of scraps of various children’s prints left over from making baby quilts over the years. So I dug into that drawer and found the green farm print.  And there is a wide enough strip left to use as the top of a pillowcase.

Since I had a narrow green strip laying on the cutting board, it seemed logical to use it up in a string block.  Digging into the green scrap bin produced plenty of green bits and pieces to make this 9.5" block.  

On a roll, right?  Because the February color for RSC19 is pink I decided to also make a pink block while I had the time and the mojo.  These 2 new blocks bring the total of Rainbow String blocks to 13.  I think 20 will make a good sized kid’s quilt if I add a sashing. We’ll see what the March color is and maybe that will be the next one I make.

OOPS - the RSC color for February was yellow, not pink.  I think a yellow string blocks needs to happen next.  

Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday I said there was nothing new around here for Valentine's Day, but I was wrong.  This Thimbleberries Basket wall hanging (circa 2004) has hearts on it.  And I finished binding it last night while watching college basketball on TV.  

This project was another one from that Thimbleberries Club time frame. I had the top done at the time, but it's been folded up in a drawer waiting to be quilted ever since.  The hearts in the basket have hand blanket stitching around them with black.  

One more old UFO to check off my list.  Next up is binding my 2017 Saturday Sampler quilt.  I prepped that binding on Tuesday, and it's ready to sew onto that big quilt.  

Seasonal decor

There is nothing new to show around here this year for Valentine's Day quilting, but I have pulled out a couple of table runners to brighten up the house.  This one was a 2018 project and is very long, which is OK for my dining room table when both leaves are in the table. 

And this one is probably about 8 or 10 years old, hand quilted and one of my old favorites.  I hand quilted around the hearts in the center fabric, and then added some simple hand quilting in the borders.  I've used this pattern (Waffle ??) several times to make square and rectangular table runners. It was a terrific pattern for showcasing a pretty fabric in the center without cutting small pieces.

Having a few pops of pink is pretty deceptive since we are still deep in the clutches of winter around here.  But it does brighten up the house and hints that spring will comes around eventually. 

Saturday Sampler

We had a very simple step to add to our Saturday Sampler mystery quilt this month - adding a 2.5" x 6.5" rectangle to this pieced unit. It took less than an hour to sew both sets (this one & the pink/aqua/black set) and now I have to wait a whole month for the next clue.  I'm feeling quite impatient with this project because I have no idea what it will look like.  We were told that there would be more involved sewing for next month.  

So, it's still a mystery to me.  I can't seem to figure out a way that all of the pieces leftover could possibly fit together.  But whatever is the solution I'm guessing I will love it. 

Design Wall Monday

Yesterday I worked on a bunch of Ritzy Cracker blocks (Moda Bake Shop pattern).  The yellow ones were done with leftovers after making the yellow cat for RSC19 and the pink ones were leftovers from an apron I made my niece's daughter a couple of years ago. These will go toward the baby quilts our guild is working on. 

Then I made some red and blue ones for our Quilts of Valor group.  We named ourselves Prairie Winds Quilters, and will be an "official" QOV group once I get the last form filled in and mailed.  We have a sewing day planned for the morning of our March guild meeting and hopefully can get some progress made on another quilt.

And since there were still a couple of charm sized pieces left of this yellow, I made 2 more Ritzy Cracker blocks for myself.  These can be "seed" for another scrappy quilt.  

Check out more Design Wall Monday posts at: http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Yellow cat, yellow cat

Oh my goodness - I LOVE this yellow cat block!  I'm so glad I decided to do these  12" Lori Holt cat blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC19) because they are turning out so cute.  I can't wait to add more to the group. 

This bright yellow dot was in my fat quarter box and called my name as I started to look for some fun yellow fabric to use.  I'm going to use the remaining chunk to make some blocks for a baby quilt that our guild is working on.  So it's going, going, gone - out of the stash.  I know it's only a fat quarter but it's nice to use it up and not add it to the scrap bins.

The rest of the colors in this block came from the scrap bins. I was going to make the ears and tail from another yellow but I like the orange.