Rainbow Scrap Challenge - pink

The RSC color for July is pink, and I chose a very vibrant deep fushia for my blocks.  All 3 of the blocks I've been making are done for the month. I do want to add a couple of the rainbow string blocks before the month is out too.

I made a second dark blue flower and the pink one.  These little 6.5" blocks are a Lori Holt pattern from the Spelling Bee book. I have 10 of them made so far.

The cat block is also a Lori Holt pattern, but from Farm Girl Vintage.  These are 12" blocks and there are now 7 kitties.  I had some fun with the tail and ears by using this fairly large polka dot.  He has a purple heart. 

And finally, the Ohio Star blocks are 10.5".  There are 7 of these too.  

Bus trip group

This is the happy group of ladies from our bus trip a couple of weeks ago. We were missing one lady who wasn’t feeling well the second day and missed being in the group photo. Everyone wore their purple t-shirts that said “I heart quilting” - and several of the ladies were wearing their t-shirts again today at our guild meeting.  Another great shop hop bus trip is now history.

Wind Spinner borders

This morning I managed to get the borders onto Wind Spinner and I was having major doubts about them fitting properly. The pieced border is made up of squares, tiny flying geese and tiny 4-patches.  Once I had the border sections sewn together they certainly appeared to be too long and not very straight, so I was pretty worried that my borders would ripple.

But I did a lot of pinning and surprise!!  The borders lay quite flat with no ripples.  Now I need to decide how this one will get quilted.  A simple meander might be the best option but I'm not very good at doing that myself. 

Design Wall Monday - Wind Spinner

There is a pieced border that I'm still working on for this Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots project. Wind spinners is the name and it's a small one. The biggest of the flying geese in here are 8.5" long, so this center section is only 16.5" square so far. The border will add 2.5" all around.  I love, love, love the look of this one!

Check out what other DesignWalls hold this Monday: https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Curved seams & drawstrings

It's always good to step outside our comfort zone.  And that is exactly what I did on the "quilting" cruise I took in January.  We had 2 projects while on board the ship - one was paper pieced and one was curved seams.  I hadn't really done curved seams before, other than just a couple of blocks, so this table topper (about 30" across) was a learning experience.  It was done in triangle shaped sections with only short curved seams.  

The purple bars in this quilt are actually done with a striped fabric, so it has a look of being more complicated than it actually is. My only issue with this one is the binding/backing fabric we were given.  It's the same basic leaf design as the background fabric, but the greens are slightly different. But I went ahead and used it anyway and it doesn't look too drastically different.

One quick Saturday morning sewing project was this little drawstring bag.  Our bus trip committee made up 44 kits (pattern, 2 fat quarters, ribbon) for participants' goody bags on the bus.  We always include coupons, snacks, and other goodies in the bag. This year we added this project kit.  It took me about a half hour to make, and ends up about 8" tall.  Ironically it's kind of an "inside out" version of a previous drawstring bag that I've made in the past.  The other version has the criss-cross sections on the inside like pockets.  

Binding a UFO

I am really excited to be finally putting the binding onto my Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018 quilt.  It is a bright, happy quilt that contains traditional blocks done in a rainbow of colors.  I'm loving this one and plan to put it on the bed in our guest room.

Lots of other sewing happened this weekend too because it was too hot and humid to be outside. I made progress on the most recent Simple Whatnots project, made a couple of the Iowa Shop Hop blocks, and sewed the little drawstring bag that was a kit in our bus trip bags.  I'll have plenty of fun stuff to share this coming week. 

Summer flowers

I really wish these lilies would continue to bloom all summer. This orange one is in the front of the house next to the porch. And I have a dark red one next to the back deck.  They are so pretty but don’t last long - especially when it is 100 degrees like today.