This n that . . .

First thing today is a BIG thank you to Anne!!  She lives about 80 miles away but contacted me about donating a Quilt of Valor to our Mitchell group.

And on Saturday she let me know she would be here in Mitchell, and suggested we meet at The Pin Cushion quilt shop.  Her husband wanted a photo of us holding the quilt.  Isn't it pretty?  And it was already washed and ready to be wrapped around a veteran in the next few weeks.  Thank you so much Anne!!

Clue #5 for the Tranquility mystery quilt was emailed out at the end of last week.  This month we only used 2 of the fabrics and made 4 blocks.  LeMoyne Star is the name.  Easy peasy!!  They are done and hanging up with the previous blocks.  I have no ideas yet how these are going to go together.  So, it's still a mystery!  

Over the weekend I did pull out a small hand quilting project to work on while watching TV.  This is an "adopt a UFO" project from guild a few years ago.  I hand stitched those little stars, then put 9 of them together into a small quilt.  Last summer I took it along on the Alaskan cruise to give me some hand work while traveling.  And then - it began a long hibernation.  Time to finish it, or at least make some actual progress!!!!

Of course you knew this was likely to happen using 1.5" squares, right?  LOL

Design Wall Monday - October 7

Updating my focus for the week, gives me some WIPs and something new.  The "new" project is my reward for finishing another quilt top plus a table runner flimsy last week.

The Tranquility mystery quilt clue #5 came out at the end of last week.  It's a LeMoyne Star block - 4 of them.  My pieces were cut while watching the Vikings play the Jets on Sunday morning.  I should get the blocks made today.

I'll be continuing to make the batik Hunter's Star blocks.  This began with the idea of making a small quilt, but I have enough batiks in the stash to make a big quilt.  I did buy a half yard of red and of orange batiks on Saturday because I realized those were colors I was short of for this project.  

And I'll be making more Shooting Star blocks all month.  The stack of blocks is getting closer to being large enough for a quilt top.  

My reward?  I will use a jelly roll that has spent way too much time sitting on the shelf.  The fabric line is Bubble Blues (Robert Kaufman fabrics), and the pattern is Twinkler, by Podunk Pretties.  She did a great tutorial for this block on her blog.  I'm excited to make another blue and white quilt.  And you know how I love star blocks - so how could I resist. 

Check in on more Design Wall Monday fun . . .
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

And Monday Musings at . . .

https://songbirddesigns.blog/

RSC24 - Week #40

Another week in the books.  This is my favorite time of year because the days still tend to get warm but are not hot. And the evenings are crisp and cool.  It's also allergy season, so I am spending lots of time in the sewing room.

Dutchman's Puzzle is one more Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for this year that has reached the flimsy stage.  It's about 68 x 80, and much brighter in person.

That outer border batik was actually hidden away in my stash, so I didn't even have to go shopping for border fabric.  The plan is to bind it in aqua.  For now it's hanging in the closet waiting for its turn to be quilted.

A little fun was had using 2.5" squares from the bin.  I saw a picture of a rainbow pineapple on Pinterest, and just HAD to play with the idea.  It's 12.5" wide and 20.5" tall, so I'm not completely sure yet what it will become.  But it's cute and was fun. 

A few 5" string blocks - pieced on phone book paper - have been my leader/enders the last week or so.  These still need the frames to become Bead blocks.  And no noticeable decrease happened in the scrap bins either.    

More Shooting Star blocks will be one focus for continuing RSC projects this month. They won't be the only ones of course.  There is a whole rainbow of colors yet to put into the batik Hunter's Star blocks too.

I'm not quite sure how to approach the light neutrals in terms of scrap usage this month. Light neutrals are already something I use often, especially as background in scrappy projects.  So maybe projects with white/cream/neutral backgrounds will be my October RSC goal.

Let's check out more RSC fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Christmas table runner flimsy

 Well - here it is, a new table runner flimsy.

I made this from a kit called Under the Pines, designed by Heather Peterson of Anka's Treasures.  Because the full design would have been 62" long, I left out the snowflake block that would have been in the center of the runner.  I just didn't want it to be that long.  I will still make the snowflake block and turn it into a mug rug or hot pad.  The flimsy still needs a good pressing before quilting.  And I'll trim the outside edges before binding it.  

We both got our Covid and flu shots yesterday afternoon.  It remains to be seen if I feel like accomplishing anything today. 

Progress on the table runner

One of my other goals for this week is to finish the Christmas table runner I started last weekend.
 

I mentioned in a previous post that the pattern isn't written in a format that works for my brain.  Ugh!!  I hate adding 7/8" slivers to things to make them the same width as other sections.  And the pattern actually called for those skinny pieces at both ends of this holly section of the runner.  My other rant - the charm pack in the kit was not actually cut square.  The pieces are not 5" square.  In reality those charm pack pieces are 4.75" by 5".  What???  It's pretty difficult to cut 4 equal 2.5" squares from something that isn't big enough.  

The kit and pattern for this runner makes the final result 62" long.  Well, my dining room table is NOT that long so I'm changing things up a little.  The border pieces should be finished today, and then I'll decide how I want to quilt it. 

Circle of Friends - block #4

Carol Doak posted the pattern for her paper pieced Circle of Friends block #4 over the weekend, but I didn't have a chance to work on it until Tuesday.  I spent the morning on it.

This time I pretty much followed her color placement because I really liked it.  My first 3 blocks all had green in them too, and the green will show up again in other months. 

The purple in that top left block looks a bit washed out, but it is the same as the lighter one in this month's block.  It's probably just a trick of the light. 

I also played a bit with a Maxi Stitch feature on my new sewing machine. This stitch is almost 2" wide, which is much larger than any of the decorative stitches on my previous machine.  I stitched this one out long enough to be able to use on a small project that is upcoming.  Tear away stabilizer was recommended, and it really did keep things nice and flat.   

Dutchman's Puzzle

Some days do not work out very well for taking photos of finished quilt tops. I fought the wind and the wind won. 

But, I managed to get a quick look at the finished Dutchman's Puzzle flimsy before our prairie wind rolled it right up and nearly off the deck.  I'm really happy with the final result - narrow sashing, aqua cornerstones, and that very colorful tropical batik for the outer border.  

 Hopefully I'll get a better picture some other day this week.  

What's next on my To Do list this week?  Time to start working on the paper pieced Circle of Friends block for October.  The designer (Carol Doak) posted the new block over the weekend.