This week’s sewing work: the penultimate block for the Frightful Fun! BOM. Next week’s task is the large haunted house, then trimming blocks & starting assembly. Yay!
I got the binding on this small baby donation for Joyful Welcome. I made it with the extra blocks from a lap-sized donation, added strips & it’s the right size for their needs. My next evening binding project is a super old project, so I’ll be happy to get that done.
It’s finished with a scrappy binding, made from leftovers of other bindings. This is an RSC2024 project called Two-Step from Lissa Alexander’s book “Scrap School”. Of my 6 projects for last year, I’ve finished 3, have 2 quilted & waiting for binding, & the 2.5″ rail fence blocks spilled into a project for this year. So I feel pretty good about progress. This is not to say that there aren’t projects from previous years still hanging out, but ya know……..
If you need a fun L&E project with no stress, this is all 2.5″ squares. Two are the same color, two are scrappy low volumes, then the 2-patches are sewed together. That’s it. I laid it out scrappy, but it could be ombre, rainbow, monochromatic, so many fun ways to make this quilt.
I started on the fabric baskets I’m making for my Monday quilt group as Christmas presents. I sewed some of the mini charm square panels, then decided to add the pieces to one & see how it looks. I bought some mini charm packs to get matching sets & not have to cut, but am hoping to get all the bottom panels & linings from the stash. So far, so good with #1. I need 10 of these, but bought enough stabilizer to make 12.
I never got around to the August block for my Frightful Fun BOM, so I started on it this week. This is the B for the BOO! block. September’s block is the haunted house & then assembly. I want to focus on this with my limited sewing time so I can get it to the quilter & have it for Halloween. But FPP takes time & these blocks have lots of little pieces!
My long-time Thursday quilt group started a new project this week. We “finished” the quilt from h*$# two weeks ago, but we have to put the borders on ourselves at home. I haven’t pulled it out to finish because I can’t stand the thought. The pattern writing was such a nightmare, it was a chore every week. And the blocks don’t fit together, blah, blah, blah. I’m in no hurry to finish & I have quilt tops hanging in the closet waiting for quilting, so no rush. This is “Clippings” by Thimbles & Needles & we are doing it all from our stashes. I found large chunks of the black swirl & the LV equations/writing that is backing trimmings. I love this & have used it for several backings. Then I went through my stash & cut up all the wild prints into 5″ squares, then 2.5″ squares, then into the string bin. So lots of old fabric got processed into usable pieces & out of my big boxes & the mental guilt box of not using it. YAY! I may end up making another one next year with all the leftover colored triangles & donate it. It seems like a perfect RSC2026 project.
Strippy Slab Star & now I have 8. I need 1 more.
4 more rail fence to add to the ones from last year, so I will need a plan soon.
4 more Patchwork Hearts from Quilty Love & now all that is needed are 2 gray hearts.
8 string blocks to throw in the drawer for future donations. I thought my aqua/teal string bin would at least not be overflowing after this, but no, it’s still piled over the top.
The last of the County Fair blocks by Amy Smart, in the book, “Scrap School” by Lissa Alexander. I had to make a few extra in other colors to have enough for the setting. So in the fall months, I’ll cut setting triangles & get this together. Hopefully. I’ve been known to procrastinate this step. (See below) Of my 8 RSC2025 projects, I now have 3 projects with all the blocks made!
Inspired by Deb A’s RSC2020 project, I made these blocks in 2021 for RSC, then left them in a project box all this time. ?? I have tons of project boxes, they are all full, & I needed one for the new quilt group project. So I pulled these out & sewed them together, thus freeing up a box & getting a WIP done for August, so wins all around. It’s going to Many Hands and Many Hearts along with the jelly roll race below.
I’ve never actually made one of these, but it seemed like a great way to use up big print teals that have been languishing in a scrap box for a long time. They don’t work for my RSC projects because they are so busy, but hopefully somebody will love the donation. And I love using up all that fabric. 5″ squares got cut for our next quilt group project, 2.5″ strips for this, & leftover strings in the bin. Scraps processed!
Now for a finish: this is my “12 Days of Christmas” auction quilt for Primary Children’s Hospital Festival of Trees, the first week of December. It’s done, so if there’s a disaster between now & then, I don’t have to stress. The fabric is from the same line as the panel, so there are figures from each verse in color in the green border, then tone-on-tone in the red border & gold sashing. The white stop border has the lyrics. All in all, it’s very cute!
End of August check-in: I have a goal to get 12 WIPs to flimsy stage this year, meaning a project started before 2025.
I finished up the Scrap Stash Plus blocks using the free pattern from Quilty Love. I cut all the blocks in January using a curated jelly roll I got on clearance at a store-closing sale for the colors, & the leftover strips from my Shine quilt for the whites. I only used a couple strips for the shiny star pieces in that quilt so had tons left. What to do? This was perfect, so it’s all gone now. With all the blocks done, I’m ready for assembly in the fall.
The two large blocks are for Melissa Corry’s Scraptastic Stars. I need two more to make a lap size, so will have to dig for other colors, then make all the B&W sashings.
And here we have an RSC2024 finish! It’s Scrappy Hearts, also by Quilty Love. I made blocks each month last year, using scrappy LV background scraps. The backing is the new Hush Hush wide backing from Riley Blake which combines all the LV prints from the latest collection in a collage, making it super scrappy. It’s perfect & I think the trimmings from it have yielded enough for the setting triangles for this year’s County Fair RSC2025 project. Win-win!
Monsoon season is finally arriving in Utah. Sounds funny, I know, but in August we get rain from the Pacific in our mountain/desert climate. It’s supposed to start raining today or tomorrow & we are all hoping for a break from this relentless heat & drought! Great sewing weather!
I made some aqua progress during this busy week! The three small blocks are the last of the Moda Blockheads. I have what I need for the layout I want to do! So that’s ready for fall assembly.
The large star is from Angela’s 2015 tab at the top of the blog & has the Kick block in the center. Next month I need to get them out & decide on connecting chain blocks. (And see if I have enough stars with the 8 colors I have.)
I got half-way through the pile of Scrap Stash Plus blocks, so look for the rest next week. The colors on both photos are dark. My colors are a bit brighter.
I also sewed bindings on two quilts, so they are ready for evening hand-sewing, as I’m almost done with the current binding project. Five Ocean Waves blocks got done for L&E’s this week, so pretty soon I’ll have enough to finish off row 3. Jenny Doan of MSQC fame says, “Quilts happen one stitch at a time”, so I keep looking at that quote on my wall & remembering the joy is in the journey.
Happy sewing!