Friday, June 30, 2017

Trying to Catch Up!

I am no different than most quilters alive today. I have too many projects! I got behind on the RSC Challenge but I pushed to finish up yellow blocks this week. 
 Here are the rest of the blocks I have finished. I did not do the multi-colored blocks in April.
Blue is the color chosen for July. 

I made more blocks with the floral strings. 
But I have now put these aside because I am working on a graduation quilt; yes, it will be a belated gift. But I am not showing any pictures as I want it to be kept a surprise.

I'm linking up with 
http://superscrappy.blogspot.ca/2017/07/new-month-new-color.html


Monday, June 5, 2017

Two Projects and a Surprise

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of production for me. I made a banner to hang in the church sanctuary, reflecting the current sermon series...

Size: 72"L x 42"W
 I used the book Word Play Quilts by Tonya Ricucci to build the words. It was a new technique to learn, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process!

My nephew and his wife had a baby girl, so of course I made a quilt! I choose the colors based on the fabric used for the window treatment. 
Front, using mostly Cotton and Steel fabrics

Back, luscious minky!
 I quilted it on my Juki sewing machine, using the Baptist fan motif. 

And for the surprise...
I work the garden beds at church, and there was a small tree sprouting in the bed right next to the building. Of course I had to remove it. I never expected this!
That is a sprouting walnut! (Somewhere there is a very hungry squirrel looking for his lunch!) It was such an unexpected surprise; I came home and planted it in a pot in my backyard! I hope I can keep it growing.

I'm linking up today with Beth/Monday Making at http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/2017/06/monday-making.html


Friday, March 17, 2017

Piecework

I started to make a baby quilt last week but it did not get finished in time for the baby shower. 
Just Keep Swimming
I need to add a couple of borders, but it is set aside for now. Instead I am busy working on another baby quilt. Here is a sneak peek!



Thursday, March 9, 2017

I Spy Quilt Finished and Delivered

A family in my church recently birthed a baby, a second son. I decided to finish up an I Spy quilt that I pieced a year or two ago and gift it to them.  The two boys can have fun playing I Spy together in a few years!

(The 5" squares were collected
through an online I Spy swap.)
 I had a very puffy polyester batting that I used because I thought it would be so soft and fun! It is just that, but it was a bear to quilt on my machine. The lines were rather wavy in spots. You can see how I quilted it on the back...




Friday, March 3, 2017

What a mess!!

I've been trimming down my stash of floral fabrics. Sure makes a mess in my sewing/dining room!

I am cutting 5" and 2" squares for a future project, then strip cutting the rest.

I made two more 9" string blocks. Just playing around with them...


They really look like watercolor blocks. It will be fun to play with layouts when I complete more units.

Linking up today with 
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Friday, February 24, 2017

Trial Blocks

I am going to sew a baby quilt, but before cutting into my chosen fabrics, I decided to sew trial blocks. 

These blocks are cut in stacks, then the fabrics rearranged. Finished size of blocks are 5.25".

Next are scrappy stars. I was looking through a book from the library and fell in love with the little stars. 

Since I have so many scraps cut into squares, I knew it would be quick and easy to make these.I used 2" squares, and my blocks finish at 5.75"

Earlier this week I read a tutorial on a quilt blog regarding string block construction without using a foundation or paper. I had to try it!
It worked beautifully! Finished block size is 9"
Here is the back, nice and neat. I ran a basting stitch around the outside to keep the stitching from unraveling. 


I'm linking up today with http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2017/02/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-quiltcon-2017.html

Monday, February 20, 2017

Two more...

I found I had two more charity quilts made from the stack of fabric squares a friend passed on to me. I assembled them last year, but they kind of got buried during the holidays!

The first one is a simple baby quilt. There were so many of the blue floral squares that I put them in their own quilt. 


The second one is a lap quilt; I thought I should try to make at least one masculine quilt!


I've passed these on for quilting and binding. Glad to have them all out of the house at last!

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

What a difference!

I put borders on the charity quilt. Such a difference!

Here it is without the borders: Not all that attractive, just okay.

And here it is with the borders! I really like it now!


Here are the other quilt tops I sewed with the same large pile of squares from a friend. I am thinking they would have benefited with added borders. 😕




Saturday, February 11, 2017

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

For two years I have been watching the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/. Angela, the blog hostess chooses one color each month, and she challenges her readers to use scraps in that color to make blocks. Eventually a participant will have enough blocks to make a quilt in the colors of the rainbow.Well, this year I am playing along! 


The color in January was purple. 

The February color is aqua.

I start with 2" squares, and the finished block size is 9".

A few years ago I was trimming red scraps into usable squares. What to do with the leftover bits of fabrics that were too small for squares but too large for the wastebasket? I made slab blocks!


I decided to make more slab blocks each month in the chosen color.


I simply sew together the scraps until the slab measures between 6 and 8 inches square. The backside of the slab shows many seams, making the blocks thick and heavy. 

Eventually I will come up with a plan for the slabs, but until then I will keep making them!






Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Determination

I've had a mess on my dining room table, and I have been determined to get it cleaned up. 
I had been sorting some fabrics and also cutting up the teal blue scraps into usable squares.
Here is the result of perseverance! 
*The table is cleaned off. 
*Nice piles of teal blue squares will be added to the storage boxes. 
*There is a pile of leftover scraps that can be sewed into improvisational blocks. 
*I also cut out enough colorful fabrics to make six additional blocks for a charity quilt.
I sewed those six blocks together, then got busy arranging the squares into a pleasing design. 
I like this one best!
This setting is kind of fun, but it does not look so nice using these unrelated fabric scraps.

I'm working on using my pre-cut scrap squares to make these blocks. More on that in the next post.
Completed purple blocks
Teal blocks ready to sew