Quilting

These are Scrap Stash Plus blocks from a free pattern by Quilty Love. It’s been on my list for a while, so I’m glad to be making it this year. The lighting is bad, so the bottom six look red but are really deep pink.

These are Amy Smart’s County Fair quilt blocks found in the book, “Scrap School” by Lissa Alexander. They are super scrappy with one color on the four points of the plus & a different color center with LV corners & sashing. It seemed like a perfect project for RSC to use up 2.5″ squares.

I started lurking around Angela’s blog in 2015 & followed along with her Sawtooth Star Sampler that year. I’ve wanted to do it ever since & decided the 10-year anniversary was the time. LOL So here is the first block using the Bullseye block for the center.

I didn’t have enough of these 2.5″ square rail fence blocks made last year for RSC so decided to just continue on this year, then see what I have by the fall.

My local quilt store sells these patterns & kits from The Flying Geese Log Cabin and I’ve been eyeing them for a while. I decided that this year I would buy the stand & acquire a pattern/kit for each month. I got January done halfway through the month & will start on February soon. They are cute & it’s fun to have a quick project that gets to completion quicker than a quilt.

And finally, my ghost block. Santa gave me the Frightful Fun BOM & fun rainbow fabric for Christmas, so I could practice my FPP game. It was tough getting back in the swing of it because I don’t do it often enough, but after much trauma, the ghost is here. Those eyes have lots of small pieces to get the wonky shape. I’m working on the other block for the month which is a witch’s hat & it’s going smoother.

I finally got started on some pink scraps this week! I don’t remember which of our RSC friends put me onto this Strippy Slab Star last year, but thanks-you know who you are. I was able to use some small pieces from my pink crumb bag to make the center & strips from the pink strip bin for the points. I’m planning one in each color this year.

I made a Patchwork Hearts by Quilty Love last year as an RSC2024 project & it’s just back from the quilter. I love it so much that I decided to make another this year. I rarely repeat patterns but this is a great rainbow project & looks good for a wedding or graduation quilt. Plus they are relaxing blocks to make, so why not? I kept picking up LV FQ’s whenever I was at the store last year to add to my selection & I’m overrun, so this year I’m going to use the stash! I really dug around & found unused charm packs & layer cakes that are not going to be saved for “the perfect project”, but pulled apart & used for this year’s projects.

And since one of my goals for this year is to get projects finished up, I pulled out this donation quilt that had all the blocks done. I had sewed together 2 rows, then needed the design wall for something else & took it all down & put it in the box. Over a year later, it’s ready for quilting & I have an empty box to fill with one of this year’s RSC projects! Win-win! This Chandelier quilt was made with 2 charm packs & a large hunk of clearance gray pin-dot that have lived in the stash for a really long time.

In quilt group this week, we got the centers made for the C & D blocks, which include the half-blocks for the sides. We think this Wholehearted quilt by A Bright Corner may not take us a year to make, which is our usual length of time for projects due to interruptions. My partners have different colorways that are really looking great: red, white, blue for one and navy & teal for the other. I’ve made several patterns by this local designer & they are all really cute.

January is for getting started, so I spent time getting my Creativity journal ready that one of my quilting partners gave me last year. I kept trying to decide how I wanted to use it & decided it will hold quilting & scrapbooking notes, then live in a bookstand on my desk. So here’s my RSC plan for the year. We’ll see how well I do. LOL

So there was cutting. I cut out the new quilt for my quilt group project using the Albion FQ bundle I got for Mother’s Day & have been saving for this project. Because of all our various surgeries last year, it took longer to get last year’s sampler done than we planned, so this project started in 2025.

And in this week’s FaceTime group meeting, we got the A blocks done & the centers for the B blocks. Love!

Using this curated jelly roll I got on clearance in 2023, plus the leftover white from Shine, I cut out blocks for this quilt & will sew up each month’s color as it comes. Using my stash!

I powered through this overdue kit for Stitching Hearts Worldwide using Mister Roger’s Neighborhood fabric. I checked it out just before the fall that broke my hand, so there was no sewing for quite a while, then holidays. I wanted to get it done & turned in, so got it finished up on Friday. It’s twin-sized & a cute pattern for a child using 9.5″ squares.

The first finish of 2025: Bonnie Hunter’s 2023 Winter Mystery, Indigo Way. I had it quilted in the summer & it’s been waiting in the binding queue to finally get done. I made a lap version so there are orphan pieces leftover to use for something else. Isn’t that always the way? Progress on the 2024 mystery, Old Town, has stalled out, but I’m working on Pt. 2!

And here’s a little quilty fun: we did the Lori Holt puzzle of her Let’s Make a Snowman QAL for some winter evening brain work.

With limited sewing time this week, I focused on finishing our quilt group project. We meet weekly, in person or via FaceTime, & each sew the same quilt in our own color palettes. One member loves samplers, so we often do a sampler quilt where we are sewing 2 or 3 different blocks each week. We worked together on the sashings between the four-patched blocks, then started on the larger double sashing between the blocks. This week we met in person for lunch & a gift exchange, so last week at our final 2024 meeting we decided to finish our rows on our own. That became my only sewing this week & since it’s my least favorite part of quilting, I’m really glad it’s over & maybe I can get in some peaceful soul-filling sewing tucked in between Christmas activities.

This is Two-Step from Lissa Alexander’s book “Scrap School” & I got it all webbed & sewn into a flimsy this week. It’s been busy so that’s been all the sewing that’s happened, but it’s an RSC finish for this year, so I’m happy.

After many starts & stops, I have a finish! Finished the hand-sewn binding this week on Bonnie Hunter’s Cherry Crunch. Mine is smaller than hers, so I have orphan string blocks that need to be made into a donation baby quilt. I love that red piano keys border & all the fun LV prints. It’s totally scrappy, for sure, & all from the stash. Now I’m sewing binding on her Indigo Sky Mystery quilt in the evenings.