RSC24 - Week #23

So far I've only made a shallow dive into blue for my various on-going sets of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. But - my time at the sewing machine this week has "mostly" focused on blue in some form or another. 

First on my list this week were these Churn Dash blocks.  The centers were the 16-patch units I made back at the February retreat with 1.5" squares.  So the Churn Dash blocks have come together quickly using the monthly color.  Honestly - these 3 were all finished in about an hour one day.  I think there are only 2 orange and 1 aqua 16-patch squares still in the project bag.  There are currently 23 finished blocks, so I'm kind of aiming for 30 total, which means I'll need a few more of the 16-patch units eventually.  That's OK because I have literally thousands of 1.5" squares in cookie tins.

Blue Shooting Star blocks were next on my agenda, along with 1 Kitty block.   I also made 6 other scrappy Shooting Star blocks in other colors, along with 10 of the alternate blocks that the pattern calls for.  

The alternate blocks will make easy scrap management as the colored parts are all cut from 2.5" strips.  I actually sewed the 10 alternate blocks to 10 of the main blocks on Friday morning just to see how I like them, and scrappy definitely works well for these.

But my primary blue focus this week was the new Shibori Blues layer cake project.  I had hoped to have the top together by today, but obviously I got distracted with other things this week and didn't get quite as far along as I thought I would.  But hey - there has been good progress.  All of the big blocks (42) are done, and pinned into rows ready to sew.  I actually rearranged a few of the blocks after taking this photo but you get the idea.

About half of the HST blocks still need pressing and trimming, but they go into the outer border so I'm not too worried about that until they are needed.  Once trimmed to 5" square they will become 20 big Flying Geese for that border.  

I'm linking up today with RSC . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

More Shooting Stars

Every week I try to "manage" more scraps.  And every week I realize that those scraps must just multiply in the dark when I'm not there.  

From this week's scraps, these 4 new Shooting Star blocks were sewn.  There were also 4 new blue ones, but I'll save that photo for tomorrow's RSC post. There are parts cut for a few more as well. 

The more I looked at the Shooting Star pattern, the more I was convinced that the alternate block was really needed to make the design work best.  

So, I'll continue making some of the alternate blocks too as I go along.  

 

Some of the parts that I've cut for additional blocks came from random jelly roll strips left over from other projects.  Two strips will make 2 new alternate blocks and 2 Shooting Stars.  The remainder of both strips were cut into bricks and squares and put into the "precut" bins instead of dropping them back into the scrap bins.  

Thursday this n that

 One more small finish for this week . . .

The valentine runner is all finished.  The pattern is Smitten, from Villa Rosa.  I made mine shorter and added a narrow outer border the same as the background.  

Carol quilted this one too and it's so cute. There are daisies and hearts swirling around and the thread is a soft grey so it shows up nicely everywhere.

Wednesday I went to the monthly DAR meeting and luncheon, which was hosted this time by a member to celebrate her 85th birthday.  She had the tables set so beautifully and gave gifts to everyone.  We each went home with the little vase of fresh flowers, and in the butterfly box was candy and 2 DAR pins.  What a generous lady!!

Speaking of flowers . . . my deck pots are doing well so far, especially the marigolds.  I'm not a gardener at all anymore except for a few flower pots.  I do have one tomato plant in a big flower pot on the deck and there are 3 tiny little tomatoes on it right now.  

The plan today involves the 100 mile drive to watch a couple of grandkids play ball, and to deliver a birthday gift to this week's birthday boy.  Jack has baseball and Sophia has softball - playing at the same time on fields not too far apart.  

Red, white, blue on the door & pink on the table

My front door is now dressed for the summer with a red, white, and blue quilt.

This is a Riley Blake door hanger kit, and this one I love.  The colors are great, and that light blue mixed in the the dark works so well.  

 

One reason I'm loving this one is the quilting.  My friend Carol did a wonderful job on this one for me, as always. She used a variegated red, white, blue thread and this swirly star design.  The backing was a grey/white backing left over from some other quilt.  

I moved on to binding a table runner that Carol quilted for me too - Pink Lemonade. She used the prettiest pink thread on this one so the quilting shows up so well. 

It looks very summery on my dining room table, for now.  It may move to another room where I need a more summery runner. 

To Do Tuesday

My goal this week is to reach the flimsy stage of one more project.  This one is a PIG, but at least it isn't an old one that has been lying around forever.  

Shibori Blues started with a layer cake purchased this winter - because I love blue and white.  This is a batik collection ranging from dark blue with white, to white with dark blue and lots of in between shades.  The fabrics are so pretty.  Then the Block magazine arrived and VOILA!  The perfect pattern to use this layer cake. 

 

I found a background fabric with a very modern geometric white-on-white design, and my kit was complete.  This weekend I cut all of the 6" squares from the background and marked them for diagonal stitching.  Each one gets sewn once from corner to corner and a second time half an inch away. 

That stitching creates 2 separate blocks.  The 10" one is the main block, and the HST is squared up to 5", and will become big Flying Geese for the border.  Easy peasy!!

The first 12 blocks are sewn and pressed.  The rest are ready to sew this week.  At this point the blocks don't look very interesting but it's the layout that makes this pattern interesting.  I can picture this pattern with any layer cake, or even fat quarters.  Or just scrappy!

Along with working on this new project I plan to work on some of my blue RSC blocks this week, and do more binding as I picked up more than 1 project from long arm quilters on Friday.

Design Wall Monday - a new flimsy

Happy birthday to our youngest grandson Jack today!  He turns 9. How is that possible already?  It feels like just yesterday that I drove out to Rapid City when he was born.  They moved back east to Sioux Falls just in time to celebrate his first birthday.  And now he's a gangly sports-loving kid.

My main goal for last week was to get the flimsy done for my great-niece's graduation quilt.  And I'm pleased to say I succeeded.  The center panel reflects her passion for horses. The pattern is a Pieced Tree pattern card, but with that wide outer border added. 

One other goal from last week was to make Olivia's music pillowcases with the fabric she picked out on our "girls day out" shopping.  Done!  

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday . . .

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

And with Monday Musings . . .

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC24 - Week #22

 Out with the pink, and in with the blue!  

There was time to work on just one more pink project this week - a pink lemonade table runner.  The pattern is Big Easy from Pieced Tree.  In real time this is a 15 minute project to get a flimsy ready to quilt.  It was a kit that was an impulse buy at my local quilt shop a couple weeks ago, and it will be so fun for summer.  It has joined a small stack of runners I'm having someone else quilt for me.

I dug into the blue scraps a little bit.  Entwined Star was the first blue block for the month.  

And a light blue Zipper block was made.  I probably need to lay these all out and see if I have enough for a quilt, because there are a lot already made.  The Dutchman's Puzzle blocks all have aqua/teal in them, which is kind of blue, right?  This one is paired with orange.  I'm not planning to make any this month as most shades of blue probably won't contrast enough with the aqua.  

There were 3 blue/white 16-patch blocks (4.5" square) waiting to become Churn Dash centers.  I've pulled a blue for each of these.  These go together quickly once the churn dash parts get cut.

A month ago I put together a kit for Shibori Blues using a layer cake, a white background, and a pattern in the Block magazine (Missouri Star).  This is the PIG I'm choosing for June since it's all blue and white.  But it will have to wait until I get the flimsy all assembled for a UFO I've been working on.  I love scrappy rainbow quilts, but sometimes it's really fun to do something totally NOT scrappy. 

I'm linking up with Rainbow Scrap Challenge . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/