Design Wall Monday - Jan. 8

What's on your design wall today? 
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Mine is full of multiple projects, some nearly done and some in various stages of progress. The 4-Square Star is nearly a completed flimsy.  It needs an outer border. 

I had enough of this red print in the stash and have the border strips all cut and ready to sew onto the quilt - this week sometime. 

I've been setting aside some projects to take with me later this week when I go stay at my daughter's house with the kids and dog while the parents take a much needed vacation.  I need some things to work on when the kids are in school, plus I'll be there from Wednesday afternoon until the next week Friday morning.  I'll need to stay busy. 

It's a snow day in most of the southeast part of SD today. This is the beginning of a winter storm.

RSC24 - Week #1 - green

 Play with green this month (week) began with some string sewing.

My Rainbow Connection quilt needs to be larger, so I've been making a few more blocks to add to it.  I started with pulling some of the darker green strings from the green scrap bin to make a string section for one of the additional blocks. 

While those green strings were laying around, I used some of the smaller ones to make the String Bead block section.  The first one I made as an experiment used a muslin foundation, but a paper foundation is going to work better.  

So, one dark green and one medium green String Bead block were quickly assembled, along with one Small Heart block.  

Four more of the green string sections are sewn, but not assembled into blocks yet.  The rogue pink one was my practice piece.  While I was digging into that scrap bin, several green pieces were cut for the little box holding the pieces for Potato Chip blocks, and the little box for Small Heart blocks. 
 

Three more Zipper blocks were born - with some fun green fabrics found deep in the scraps just waiting to be something.  I really like these. 

And 2 more Brighten blocks were added to the ones made in 2023.   

Wow - that is a LOT of green blocks for this week!  Did I make a dent in that green scrap bin?  Not noticeably!  That bin is just fluffed up and looks as full as ever.  

On Thursday morning I took my green and cream quilt (from 2023) into The Pin Cushion to find backing, and to leave it for quilting.  

The 9" blocks from the Sewcialites 2 sew-along are layed out in a star shape.  It's about 74" square.  For some reason this quilt makes me think of leprechauns and St Patrick's Day.

Let's see how others have made a splash into 2024 with green this week . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

This n that

Hmmm . . . some progress has been made on the Saturday Sampler project, and I did get the upside down row fixed on the main part of the quilt. 

The borders have been started.  The narrow black border will go on first, and then some major planning and measuring will need to happen.  The pattern has an outer border that's a combination of pieced and applique.  I've decided to skip the applique, but have the pieced sections begun.  My fingers are crossed that I have enough of that background left for the rest of the border.  It will be close.

The rows are all sewn for the QOV I've been working on.  My QOV stash had a couple of good options for an outer border to finish this top.  

I've finally cleared off the design board that was full of parts and pieces for various Quilts of Valor blocks, including these 2 Floating Star blocks.  

Another Hourglass block happened too.  Note the baggie full of RWB Hourglass blocks laying next to it.  When I make a QOV block with triangles trimmed away those triangles usually end up as Hourglass blocks or Pinwheel blocks.  I just can't throw them away if they are big enough to use. 

I realized this week that my final finishes of 2023 never reached my blog.  I was busy with binding at the end of December - 2 quilts and this little table runner and mug rug set.  The binding finishes on these happened in the car on New Year's Eve on my way to an afternoon Jackrabbit basketball game. I haven't even taken pictures of the other 2 quilts yet.

Getting a good start on the new year

 Bonnie Hunter surprised everyone with a New Year's Day posting of Clue #7.  It included the new center Hourglass unit, and then this block layout using some of the other clues.

On Tuesday morning I made one of the Hourglass units, and then put it into a block.  

By Wednesday noon there were 8 of these blocks.  I like how this is coming together so far.  Enough parts for a couple more Hourglass units are cut, but may not be needed, depending on the final layout.

The 2023 Saturday Sampler received some attention next.  After lots of thinking, I decided to remake the one block that I didn't like.  I replaced everything except the background and the aqua pieces.  These colors are playing better with the rest of the blocks. 

 I was really pleased with myself yesterday because I got the center of this all assembled.  Then I layed it out on the floor and saw my mistake.  That whole bottom row is on upside down. The spools need to be on the left side under the needle and hanger.  Good thing I have a seam ripper handy.

One row has been sewn together for the 4-Square Star Quilt of Valor.  The sashing and cornerstones are cut, and this should come together quickly in between other projects. 

There was a bit of playing with some green strings for RSC, and more of the orphan QOV parts and pieces have become blocks.  More on all that another day.

A couple of non-sewing things have happened too - packing away all the Christmas stockings and hangers, and organizing the 2023 receipts in preparation for getting our taxes done.  The Christmas tree will come down later this week.  Some laundry and some grocery shopping is on the agenda too.

Celebrating our family Christmas

We did finally manage to have our family Christmas, on New Year's Day.  It was a fun and relaxing day for us all.  Our older daughter was on call at the hospital and was called in for the morning. But she was back home by noon.  We hadn't planned on the big meal until supper time so it worked out just fine.  Our other daughter's husband had to work in the morning too, but he joined us by noon as well.  

There was a hot chocolate bar ready for some indulgence. Hot cocoa, whipped cream, sprinkles, marshmallows - yum!!!

Even the boys got into the cookie decorating station.  That frosting was applied pretty thick along with lots of sprinkles.  They each got to take home the ones they decorated.

They got to eat their decorated cookies too. 

While Darin got a fire started in the fireplace, Grandpa joined a couple of the kids playing Exploding Kittens - a silly card game.  I played Poetry For Neanderthals with the other kids.  

Our whole family likes seafood, so we've had a tradition now of a big seafood feast for our Christmas dinner.  All the kids ate breaded shrimp along with homemade mac and cheese.  I think they all at least tasted the crab, but a couple of them ate a lot of crab too.  This year we had King crab, Snow crab, and Dungeness crab - 12 pounds steamed in total.  Plus we had bread, some shrimp cocktail, and shrimp spring rolls.  I made a cheesecake for dessert, and we had apple and pumpkin pie too. Yum!!!!

I took a LOT of static early in the day . . . because I did not make deviled eggs.  I offered to make them there, but they let me off the hook - this time.  Hey I did make the wreath shaped spritz cookies, and that is a yearly requirement for Christmas. 

The fireplace kept everyone cozy all day.  The dogs were exhausted by the time we all left - probably tired from all the petting they got.  

Laura & Jamie, with Sophia & Jack . . .

Darin & Jerilyn, with Olivia, Mason, and Jonah . . . and the 3 dogs - Samson, Newt, Ginger. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2024

 I think Angela at https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ could read my mind, because the color she chose for January to begin RSC24 is GREEN.  Green may be the single most Out Of Control color in my scraps and in my stash.

My scraps are mostly sorted by color into these canvas cubes - 6" high and 12" on each side.  The green cube is definitely overflowing.  It's a color I use frequently.  Only the blue cube has more, but it's a bigger cube, and mixed in with purples too.  

Even the green stash drawer is out of control right now.  I can't close the drawer completely, even with the fabrics refolded more neatly.  Green needs a larger drawer but that isn't happening.

Looking at the green scraps I'm thinking a good start would be to sort that cube into lights and darks, and sew some string blocks.  

But first I need to make some progress on the Saturday Sampler project, and on putting away the Christmas decorations.  And hey - there is some green in those Saturday Sampler blocks.

Design Wall Monday - Happy 2024!!

 Happy New Year!  If all goes according to plan today we'll be spending the day with family, having a late Christmas together.  My fingers are crossed.  

So, what is my plan for this week and for the month of January?  My biggest priority will be to finish the top for the 2023 Saturday Sampler. I may rearrange the pieced blocks a bit for better color placement.  There is still a bit of trimming to size needed for 3 of the 4 applique blocks, and some sashing to cut for the top and bottom rows.  Then I can do some math to see if I have enough of the background for the pieced outer border.  If not, then I'll do some plain borders and it will still be good. That top left block has a darker green in it that I'm not sure I like, so I might remake that one too.  

My second priority for this week is to add the sashing and cornerstones to this Quilt of Valor.  These are the scrappy 4-Square Star blocks I've been making.  I'll add the sashing to one side of each block before doing a final layout of block location.  

The sashing is a medium darker blue, and the cornerstones are this light print with reds and blues.  I think the final outer border will need to have the red be dominant to pull all these together.  These are all from my big stash of patriotic fabrics, and there might be a red in there too if I'm lucky.  Also, I've been working through the QOV block pieces that were on the design board - some 9-patch blocks, a couple of Floating Stars, a scrappy churn dash, and a couple Twinkle Stars.  All of those will end up in future Quilts of Valor.  

The third priority for this week - to keep up with the Indigo Way mystery.  Since I'm only making 1/4 of the number of blocks it hasn't been difficult to keep up so far.  These are the Clue #6 units.  I'm kind of guessing that the final reveal COULD happen this Friday, but it's a mystery so who knows!  I'm excited to see how these will all go together, but have been avoiding the temptation to play with layouts this time around.  

What's on YOUR design wall this New Year's Day?
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/