Hunting for pink projects

 On Sunday I decided to look deeper into the closet for any pink UFO projects.  I knew there was bound to be something pink that should see daylight again.

Hanging in the back of the closet was this little collection of blocks plus the rest of the layer cake I was using.  The block is Wisdom - one of the free Sewcialites blocks from 2020.  So I'm guessing that is about the time this set of blocks was born.  I know I made a donation quilt from these blocks about that time, and obviously started on another set.  This block is basically a churn dash with a 4-patch in the center.   

The layer cake has a lot of pinks, coral, aqua - mostly in soft floral prints. I cut the pieces for a couple more of these 9" blocks on Sunday.  And 3 more were cut on Monday.  These should sew up very quickly.  

This VERY pink block, the pattern, plus more of the fabric has been in a ziplock bag for a couple of years.  I'm not 100% sure that I had a plan for this.  The block is about 15" square, so I think if I made 5 more it would be a good baby quilt size.

Small finishes

Today is the day - I'll be heading out shortly for the heart ablation procedure.  It's outpatient, which is nice.  But I must admit I'm very nervous.  Since I'm not sewing today I thought I'd show you a couple of finishes from last week that I saved to share this week.

The binding was finished on Star of Wonder just in time to take to guild on Saturday morning for Show and Tell.  This was a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop last fall, but the fabric all came from the "Christmas drawer" in my stash. 

The little doll quilt was a finish right before New Year, but there was left over sailboat fabric tucked in with the doll quilt flimsy when I pulled it out.  In order to NOT put more blue into the blue scrap bin, I made the 12" churn dash block that will get added to the baby quilt pile.  Then I made 2 mug rugs with the sailboats fussy cut in the middle.  One single 3.5" square remained of the sailboat print and that went into the bin with those squares.  

Design Wall Monday - Jan. 6, 2025

I'm a list maker and spreadsheet keeper - but I'm also not setting those lists and spreadsheets into concrete.  It's OK to change my mind, and deviate from the list.  That doesn't stress me out, because I know I'll circle back eventually.  

With that said, I've swapped out my "main" UFO project for January from the batik Hunters Star, to the 2024 Saturday Sampler.  Turning this big stack of blocks into a whole quilt top will empty that project box so it's ready for the 2025 Saturday Sampler.

The final 4 blocks are done, which means I can begin to assemble the rows. They are the corners of the quilt.  This is going to be another big quilt, so it might take me a couple of weeks to get the flimsy put together.  I already have a wide backing ready for it too, so it will go to the quilter early in the year.  

For handwork this week, I'm focusing on 2 projects - binding the Scrappy Kitties and hand quilting the outer border of the guild swap star project that I've been working on in fits and starts for a couple of years.  Three sides are done now, so it's not like it's a huge undertaking.  I'm also hoping I have more of that solid purple (next to the yellow) for binding.   

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC25 - Week #1

A new year, a new color - let the fun begin!

These were already cut out before New Year's Day, so they were really quick to stitch.  Buckeye Beauty blocks will be one of the new blocks I'm doing for RSC in 2025.  I made a few in various colors last fall so there is a good start already.

Night Vision, plus the 2 bonus pinwheels made from the trimmed Flying Geese corners . . . join a significant pile of blocks from last year.  There are still 2 sets of the black and white parts cut and in with the block pattern.  So, 2 more blocks will follow for sure.  Then I'll decide if it will make a large enough quilt, or if more are needed. 

And then there is this cat block.  I felt the need to work on something completely whimsical, even though there is no firm plan yet.  I still need to do the blanket stitching on this applique, but it is fused down onto a 15" background.  The block pattern is from Helen Knoff's Garden Patch Cats series.  This is Stalker.  I have 2 more of the patterns, each one with a different shape based on garden veggies.  Stalker was green in the pattern picture and looks sort of like an asparagus stalk.  He's pretty cute in pink too. 

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

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

Contemplating goals

My regular readers know I'm a list maker and spreadsheet keeper.  Well, realistically there are too many items on my list to all be on a reasonable goal list.  So I'm trying to pare things down a bit.

January goals . . . see what I mean?  Way too many things on this list. 

* Finish final 4 blocks for 2024 Saturday Sampler
* Choose fabrics for new 2025 Saturday Sampler
* Choose fabrics for the Riley Blake Design (RBD) Challenge
* Make January paper pieced block for Circle of Friends
* Make extra blocks for batik Hunter's Star
* Finish hand quilting Guild Swap Stars
* Finish binding Star of Wonder (Christmas wall hanging)
* Bind Scrappy Kitties quilt
* Blanket stitch pink Cat applique block
* make lots of scrappy pink blocks for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Getting a start with pink

I'm tickled pink to begin 2025 using my pink scraps.  Although the first finish wasn't technically made from scraps. 

The Hemingway Pouch is much easier to make than it actually looks.  The hardest part was getting the zipper pull connected to both sides of the zipper.  I bought that floral fat quarter with this bag in mind, and the inside is a hot pink.  The small one is actually made from the part that was cut off the big one to make that angled zipper.  This was my PIG for January, and I can check it off.  Yay!

There is a plan floating around in my head that is not fully developed.  But the first step in that plan was to choose some scraps of pink to create this cat applique.  Once I have this further along I'll share some pattern info with you all.  But I just had to PLAY yesterday, and this is what happened.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!  

Are you working on any projects on this first day of 2025?  A new project or finishing a UFO or WIP? 

My focus yesterday was to finish up a couple small projects that were lingering, and in danger of becoming UFOs.  The mini Snowflake quilt is now in the hanger on the fireplace hearth for the month of January.  This one took longer that I expected, but I like the result.  It's a paper pieced project from Shabby Fabrics.  The other little quilt is another of the doll quilts that needed quilting and binding.  Also done but still needs a stuffed animal to go with it!

Today I'm hoping to attach the binding on this Christmas wall hanging that just came back from the quilter.  It was a fall project and will be ready for next Christmas.  And I will prep the binding for the first bigger UFO of 2025.