Sue

Not very fun but necessary for finishes, right? I made eight bindings for quilts hanging in the closet ready for them, or currently at the quilter, or hanging in the queue to go next. Two were sewed onto quilts so I’m hand sewing them in the evenings.

But this IS fun! I finished the large potion bottles for June, then the Frightful Fun! BOM cat block for July dropped, so I just went ahead & made it while the FPP mess was all over. It’s big: 18×18. I’m not squaring up any of these until I get the finishing directions, so yes, there’s a little wonkiness on the edges. Only two more blocks to go, then I can put it together. Can’t wait!

On the left is my Strippy Slab Star made with small pieces from my crumb bag in the center & strips from the bin for the points. That’s the last of my 8 designated RSC2025 projects so I’m caught up! While the string bin was out I made 15 string blocks at 6.5″ that will go in a donation pile for later.

This month’s blocks for the Frightful Fun! FPP BOM are potion bottles, so I got the blocks of small bottles done & now I need to make the large bottles, then on to July.

Finished the binding last night on my quilt group project from last year using the Wholehearted pattern by A Bright Corner. I used part of the Albion FQ bundle by Amy Smart that I was gifted by the hubby last year for Mother’s Day & it turned out to be a perfect choice!

This is my WIP completion for the month. I have several of these Rainbow I-Spy kits cut & ready for webbing. I’ve made five of these for donation in the past, but these kits have been sitting around for at least five years & need to be sewn up & donated. So I got busy & it’s ready to send to Many Hands and Many Hearts with my block drive contribution. I use Amy Smart’s tutorial if you are interested. They are cute, use fun novelty prints, & could be done in several limited palettes rather than the rainbow.

I made two Scraptastic Stars by Melissa Corry this month so that I could have orange & peach. The Scrap Stash Plus blocks are from a free pattern by Quilty Love & there are only a few left to make to finish this quilt, as I cut them all out in January.

The next 5 Moda Blockheads are done & I’m really loving how these turned out. This leaves one more orange block for next week, so I’m doing well with my progress.

I sewed more Scrappy Chains for the Many Hands and Many Hearts block drive, making a total of 38 to send off. Instructions here if you want to add to Cynthia’s pile.

Happy summer sewing!

Two more orange blocks done this week: County Fair blocks by Amy Smart from “Scrap School” by Lissa Alexander and Angela’s Sawtooth Star with the Woven Four Patches center block. So happy to finally be making these from her 2015 tab! They’ve been on my wish list for 10 years. Y’all know how that is!

You may recall I had plans to make one of these small hangings for this stand that correspond to each month. I have most of the kits & got Jan-March done and this April cut out. Then all the things happened that got me behind & I just left this project. I pieced, hand-quilting, & bound it this week & we are pretending it’s for June. I’m going to have to catch up next week. It’s all good.

I started on blocks for the next block drive for Many Hands and Many Hearts. It’s called Scrappy Chains & you can make some, too! Instructions here. I started cutting strips like crazy & then turned them into blocks, getting 16 done, with more to go next week. I do love this pattern & need to use up some of my stash to make some for myself one day.

June’s color is orange & I made a start on some blocks. I got the Patchwork Hearts done in orange & the related peach & coral, plus 4 more scrappy rail fence blocks with 2.5″ squares.

Remember Bonnie Hunter’s L&E Challenge from last summer called County Clare? I was excited about it because I like it & also loved the colors she chose for it. But it turned out to be too fiddly for me as an L&E, so after working on it for a while, I let it languish & started working on a new L&E project (Ocean Waves with scrap HSTs). I was inspired to get it out this week & power through to a finish. Admittedly, it was much easier to do when focused on it full-time and I’m happy with the result. I bought a green grunge for some continuity, then the blues & LVs are all dug out of my bins. As usual, mine is smaller than hers & finished at a lap size. It’s now hanging in the closet waiting for its turn at the quilters.

I finished binding this group quilt project this week. I’m very happy with how it turned out. We each made one with our own choices of fabrics & made the same blocks each week, working together. I made this entirely from my stash, using the cool half of an old Elizabeth Hartman layer cake, supplemented with matching fabrics I had in my bins. The sashing came from the cut-off sides of another quilt’s backing. Scrappy samplers often seem overwhelming to me, so I wanted to experiment with a limited palette & I’m very happy with the result. The pattern is from “Sampler Spree, 100+ Fresh & Fun Quilt Blocks” by Susan Ache.

I didn’t use all the Bonnie Hunter Catching Rainbows blocks from a previous RSC year in the quilt I ended up making, so what to do with leftovers? Make two donation quilts designed by yours truly, quilted by one of my quilting partners, & bound by me. Glad to have these done.