Quilting

RSC2026-last green Feb week

February 28, 2026 by Sue 3 Comments

This is what I’ve spent most of my sewing time on this week. I started the Riley Blake QAL From Our House last year by cutting all the strips for the 20 log cabin blocks in January. I made the first 4 alternate designer 6.5″ center blocks & put together 1 whole block. That’s in the upper left. I became disenchanted with the alternate blocks & it got left behind as a WIP. I really like the pattern & want to finish. Inspired by my continual harping about getting WIP’s done, my quilting partners have been sewing up their purchased kits during their personal sewing time.

We are almost done with our current project of a flag quilt & last week we were discussing our next project. For the first time in all our years of sewing together, we are NOT going to make our own versions of the same pattern. Instead, we are all going to do a previously started kit or project of our own. I thought about what I wanted to do & picked this. I’ve spent the week substituting some other 6.5″ blocks so that there aren’t any duplicates from the original pattern, cutting the center blocks, adding them to bags with the previously cut logs & labeling them so I know what I’m doing. Each week, I can grab a bag, work on a block & get ‘er done!

I got all the pieces cut for my Starlets blocks & they will have to be sewed up today, the last day of green February. At the top you can see the FPP I started last week. I made the 4 A quadrants & still need to make B, C, & D then sew them into 4 shamrocks & turn them into a mini quilt for March.

I remembered I had another kinda green WIP that’s been hanging around for a while. The blocks were all sewed together & I had started hand quilting it months ago but the embroidered blocks are so heavy that the sashing doesn’t hold them. I unpicked & left it. On Saturday, I bought some green thread & did some FMQ with my machine in the sashing in one sitting, made & sewed on the binding, then three TV evenings got it tacked down. So this project begun in 2021 is done & hanging on the wall. I ordered a hanger as soon as I finished quilting & it got here at the same time as I finished binding. Win!

The colors are more vibrant IRL, but you may recall this “County Fair” quilt by Amy Smart from the book, “Scrap School”. It was an RSC2025 project, so you saw the blocks come together. Well, it’s done & I may have a hard time gifting it because I really love it. My quilting partners say I have a big enough house to have quilts everywhere! Hmm. Maybe so……

RSC2026-green Feb week 3

February 21, 2026 by Sue 7 Comments

This has been a successful green month so far. With my monthly WIP finished, I concentrated on some of the other projects. I’m doing Our Town by Material Girl Quilts for the Quilter’s Cove QAL. It’s a free pattern from Covid days when everyone was making little house quilts. I didn’t get the January blue houses done, so made 9 this week. I’m going with scrappy gray roofs & black doors for all the houses & using up charm squares, as this is a charm square friendly pattern. Ditto for the 19 trees required, which is my green for the month. There will be no green houses, because…….green trees.

I worked on the Nine-Patch & Snowball quilt by cutting all the squares & corners for the snowball blocks & making some of them. I made 5 green nine-patches & attached a snowball to all the blocks currently sewed. I also started an FPP shamrock thing that has been a fun diversion.

RSC2026-Feb week 2

February 14, 2026 by Sue 4 Comments

My WIP goal for February is done! This quilt by The Pattern Basket was begun with my quilt group in 2018 & then abandoned by me with two birds left. My partners finished theirs immediately. I should say that the bird house was my own addition, replacing two bird blocks. It’s now with one of my quilting partners for quilting. She’s thinking clouds & aqua thread because the background has aqua polka dots.

This week, I also got started on the Quilter’s Cove QAL. My pattern choice has houses & trees, so I cut out all the pieces for 19 green tree blocks & chose fabric for January’s blue houses. Hoping to get all caught up on that in the next two weeks, plus green Starlets & Nine-Patch/Snowball. Happy Valentine’s Day!

RSC2026-week 3 of January blues

January 24, 2026 by Sue 3 Comments

Progress on my blue WIP for my monthly goal. Can I finish this week?? Rocky Road to Grayson is a Bonnie Hunter pattern so the sashing is a ton of sewing: 3 strips with all 4 corners snowballed, then 1.5″ 9-patches for the cornerstones. So lots of time sending stuff under the needle. But the first two rows are together, the third is ready to have its top sashing attached, leaving two more rows for this week. Bonnie loves borders & I do not, so my lap-size version of her pattern is looking big enough for me. (Peeking out on the right are the first of the 4.5″ string blocks for Bonnie’s Stardust. Lots more are started on my table but these made it to the finish line.)

Cozy evening binding got this quilt group project all bound up. It’s a Brightly pattern, made after we did our Christmas version. This uses up all the leftover Songbook kit fabrics, with some stash thrown in, for a fully scrappy stash quilt. The night after I finished it, my son & daughter-in-law were over & I showed it to her. She loved it & asked if she could inherit it. I said, no, she could just have it now. So she chose the name, “Autumn Bloom”, I wrote on the tag, sewed it down & she left with a new quilt.

In other blue news, our current quilt group project is a flag quilt, each in our own fabrics. We’ve been working on these sawtooth stars since November. There are 60 total so lots of tiny flying geese. For Christmas, one of the group gave us each a Wing Clipper I, by Studio 180 Design, so the last set went much faster. They got sewed together with sashing this week & the blocks are now done. Next week we start sewing red & white stripe blocks.

I still need to sew my blue Starlets blocks, which are cut out. I’ve chosen my pattern for the Quilter’s Cove QAL, but no fabrics have been cut or sewn. It’s the My Town Quilt by Material Girl Quilts. I feel like blue may bleed into February!

RSC2026-blue January week 2

January 17, 2026 by Sue 5 Comments

First, this Christmas present from the hubby got hung up in my studio. Yay! 2008 is the year I first started quilting so that’s the date on the sign.

I cut little “kits” for the blue Starlets blocks. A necessary step before they can be sewed, so still in the blue mode & I hope to get the stitched up before January ends.

All blocks completed for Rocky Road to Grayson! During some 2025 months, I made string blocks to save up for future donation quilts, so 2 got made this week as L&E’s.

Cutting sashing for RR has begun & will continue next week. These will be strip sewn sets of blue-white-blue with scrappy 9-patch cornerstones. So still lots of scrap cutting & sewing to get this one to the finish line. But I’m happy about the current progress & there’s still lots of month left.

With the release of Bonnie Hunter’s new pattern, Stardust, & the strings all over the sewing table, I may have started a new quilt. Yikes! I know, you’re saying to yourself that it’s January & she’s already fallen off the wagon. But this is an entirely string quilt so it will take FOREVER, & I’m just going to stitch on it when I need relaxing sewing & want to have piles of strings all over the place. No deadline for this one, but it’s blue & white so what better month to begin???