General

#1-Scraptastic Stars by Melissa Corry made it to flimsy stage & is waiting to be quilted

#2-County Fair by Amy Smart is currently at the quilter

#3-2.5″ Rail Fence blocks were begun in 2024 & continued this year; it’s a flimsy ready to be donated to Many Hands Many Hearts with my February box

I finished these County Fair blocks in August. The pattern is by Amy Smart, found in the book, “Scrap School” by Lissa Alexander. Last week I cut sashing strips, cornerstones, & setting triangles. This week I got it up on the wall & the photo is cracking me up. I put the blocks up with my head to the side in order to see the rows come together & the result is a diagonal slog to the right. Hilarious! But if you look in the upper left, I have the first two rows together, plus the next two rows sewed with a sashing strip made. So a nice start. The sashing all came from backing trimmings. I backed two quilts recently in the new Hush Hush wide back that has all the prints from the line included in small repeating chunks. So it cuts up into lovely low volume pieces that compliment the LV squares. I had the pink cornerstone fabric in my stash. I will have to shop the stash for a colored stop border, then more of the backing trimmings. Looking ahead at a busy week, maybe two weeks to get this together??

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.