Blue and white quilts

 My new blue and white/cream Snowflake table runner is decorating my dining room table, and seeing it reminded me that my hanging quilt was still a very Christmas-y one.  

So I took down the Christmas one, and pulled out an old favorite from several years ago that has a very snowy feel.  This one began with a fat quarter bundle of sparkly blue prints that made me think snow. I did end up buying a similar sparkly white for the background, and a little extra yardage to make enough blocks, and for that inner border.  It has often been on my guest room bed in the winter.  I saw the half snowflake applique idea in a magazine and it worked so well.  I'll really enjoy this one on the wall probably well into March. 

I also set out my little snowman mini quilt that hangs in this metal stand on my fireplace hearth.  This one makes me smile every time I walk by.  It's just cute. 

If I remember correctly this was a challenge issued by Cindy to our Sew Vintage group.  We might have been doing Washtub Club at the time.  I think she gave us the white square and a scrap of orange and challenged us to make a snowman.  I used scraps from the blue quilt above, and some buttons (pearl snowflakes and plain black) to embellish it.  This mini sits on my fireplace most winters ever since.

Do you decorate with your quilts?  

Design Wall Monday - January 11

 Mid-January already?  How did that happen?

My second Blue Snowflake table runner is nearing completion.  I have one long side left to stitch down the binding which should be accomplished today.  The first one was sent to a Secret Santa swap partner in Ohio for Christmas.  And this one I am keeping for myself.  

These were made from a "half" jelly roll plus some cream yardage found in the stash.  The blues are all kind of a dusty color of blue, and the prints were kind of vintage looking florals and blends.  The snowflakes were laser cuts that I purchased somewhere, for who knows what.  And I quilted both runners myself with simple straight lines angling back and forth down the length, and about 1.5" apart.  Then I added quilting lines on each of the snowflake parts.  The quilting thread is a soft grey that really works nicely.  

What is one your design wall this morning?
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

Saturday was productive

 Not only did I finish the flimsy for Unity on Saturday, but I also accomplished a lot more.  More time than usual was spent in my sewing room and it was fun.

Sections 5 and 6 for Saturday Sampler are now done.  So far every section we've made is a different size and shape.  This is like a mystery quilt, and it's fun to imagine what we'll be doing with these parts and pieces as we go forward.  Tiny flying geese - with no background fabric - and "chubby chevrons" were our blocks this month.

Those last two Gingham blocks without frames have now joined the rest of the blocks with their frames added.  I may have to play with some layout ideas soon for these so that I know how many I'll need to make a whole quilt.

And I made one more wisdom block - out of a deep blue batik that was trimmed from the backing of the table runner that is nearly all quilted.  I should be able to finish quilting that today, and get the binding on as well.  Photos of that once it's finished.  

All in all, it was a very productive day!

Border or no border?

I can't decide - does this need a border or not?  I'm looking for advice.

If I were to add a border my thought is a narrow black one on the sides to match the top and bottom.  Then I could add a narrow pink one, and finally a little wider black border. 

What do you think?  

Back to work on Unity

 My plan for the final step on the Unity quilt is pretty simple - narrow borders and flying geese on the top and the bottom.  That matches the original pattern, except I’m making the geese a little bigger.  I’ve decided not to add the additional pieced “rounds” to the quilt that were originally planned.  It will end up 54 x 66.  I may add a simple outer border or I may leave it that size.  

The flying geese are 2 x 4 (finished) and will all point the same direction in the strip.  The parts are all cut and about a dozen are stitched so far.  I love how these look with the variety of fabrics. 

And while the pink and lime green fabrics were still out, I made one more pink Gingham block and framed the 2 lighter green Gingham blocks.  That makes 22 done, with only 2 darker green blocks left to frame.  I think 30 blocks will make a nice sized quilt, and I'm getting kind of excited over how these blocks are looking together.  

A squirrel - but at least it's pink

 Yesterday while waiting for the engineers to quit messing with the humungous spreadsheet they wanted me to work on, I went downstairs to sew.  That is certainly a benefit to working from home.  I can walk away from my desk instead of wasting time staring at my computer screen.  And the first thing I played with . . . a squirrel that crossed my path earlier in the morning.

Pat Sloan had posted her free Wednesday block and it was so cute.  "Home is . . ." was the name of the block and she had it done in the prettiest blues.  Click that block name to go to her tutorial and the pattern.  I had this light bulb moment that this 14.5" block would be a wonderful addition to the 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and so I made it in pink.  I still need to applique a little heart above the chimney to match her pattern.  

And then, since I was still waiting on that spreadsheet, I sewed the Gingham block that I had cut on Tuesday night.  These are quick to cut and quick to sew out of simple 2.5" squares.  

Organizing projects

One small step is done towards better organization and simplifying my sewing space.  My project carts were delivered yesterday and I spent a couple of hours moving projects and labeling these boxes.  

I left the wheels off of the carts so that I could stack them more easily.  Each of the 12 "drawers" in this cart is actually a removable project box.   In spite of how my photo looks, the boxes are all the same size - and the same size as many that I already had.  So I've labeled a lot of other project boxes, but my plan is to keep some of the current UFO, WIP, and PIG projects in this cart where they are easy to see and access.  There is still a TON of work to do to clean up and organize that room (and my stash), but I'm one step closer.

A little bit of sewing happened as well.  Online at https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2020/12/string-block-tutorial.html  a beautiful quilt made with string blocks that had a neutral half and a color half.  Her blocks were small and used narrow strings but I have a lot of wider strings in the bins, so my blocks are 9.5" square.  But putting 4 together with the color meeting in the middle, an 18" block is created.  Several of these would make a nice size donation quilt.  

Now today I need to catch up at work so I can take another afternoon off to sew later in the week.