Quilting

I finished up the wonky Lori Holt paper pieced hearts in blue & will finish the AWOL February reds next month. There were lots of blue blocks to make this month with all the shades.

I made these 10 Patchwork Hearts by Quilty Love this week. At the beginning of the year, I planned out my finished quilt with how many of each color heart I wanted & where in the quilt, so that I would know each month how many I needed to make. I can’t wait for this finish, as each month I’m excited about these cute blocks! Also, in the lower left corner you can see the end of the leftover row tablerunner that has a border made from the leftover backing of the topper. Which is almost done having the binding sewn down!

Here are the first four blocks of my squirrel project! The Summer Block Party is a free sew-along where some of my favorite designers are giving away a block to sew into a fun summer quilt. They’ve released all the patterns, but are still accepting sign-ups through July, so you can get in on all the fun! I’ve been having fun working on these blocks. I’d originally intended to just do them scrappy from my stash, but couldn’t really pull together fabrics I liked, so made a trip to my local store for the suggested solids. So many had been in to buy them that I had to substitute 2 shades & get a different background than they used! But I’m liking the result.

I haven’t gotten much work done on my blue scraps the last couple weeks because of personal stuff & I’ve been working on this mini Brightly tabletopper. I got it all put together, then quilted it yesterday, so when I’m done with my current binding, I’ll get this done for my table. I’m going to make a mini runner with the extra row for our sideboard. Eventually.

I got a few more wonky Lori Holt paper pieced hearts made, plus some red that didn’t get done in February. Still need to make a few more, plus some other RSC projects in blue.

I spent the last couple days pounding out 36 blocks for the charity block drive at Many Hands and Many Hearts. You can still get in on the Two Step fun, as she’s accepting blocks until mid-August. I’m still trying to use up the fall colored fabrics I was given & said I would use for donations. This is the second charity block drive I’ve used them & still have more for next year!

I used blue scraps for this week’s quilt group blocks from the book, “Sampler Spree” by Susan Ache, so it’s appropriate for June.

I also started the Summer Block Party with the Popsicles. Try as I might, that really thin background fabric made the popsicles wonky. Maybe they are melting in the hot summer sun? LOL

We’re doing all the blues this month, so I started the month with some Two-Step from Lissa Alexander’s book “Scrap School”, made with 2.5″ squares.

I moved on to the split 9-patches & made 3 sets this month in various blue shades.

These are the scrappy 2.5″ rail fence blocks. I started making these this year on a whim, so I’m getting interested in thinking about how they are going to get laid out later this year.

And just for fun, these are the blocks I made this week in quilt group. We are working from the book, “Sampler Spree” by Susan Ache & making 3 or 4 blocks each week. We are making a total of 80 & are now at 62. I’ve been using the cool half of a layer cake as my focus prints & am now out, so needed to add in more prints & decided to get different purple shades from my scraps, so it was purple day!

And a finish! “Cascade” by Cluck Cluck Sew. This was a quilt group project last year. I used a small fat quarter bundle brought from Hawaii by a friend for my birthday several years ago. I’ve hoarded it, trying to find the “perfect” pattern to show off the fabric, & when we decided to make this pattern, I knew it was time to get those Hawaiian fabrics used up!

I finished playing with pink scraps at the beginning of the month & decided I wanted to finish up the Indigo Way Mystery by Bonnie Hunter. She always says, “You do you!” So I used part of the units to make a lap size quilt & made some alterations to the border treatment. I will use the leftover blocks to make a donation quilt sometime in the future because right now I am tired of this quilt. I love how it turned out, but there was a lot of cutting, piecing, & unpicking. I have other projects needing some attention, plus June’s blue blocks. So here’s to a couple weeks of good work done, now on to other things.

Happy sewing in the new month!

With my pink scraps sewn up for the month’s projects, I turned my sights to necessary, but less fun, things. I made these 4 bindings & sewed 3 of them on quilts, so they are in the pipeline for hand-sewing. The fourth is for the pumpkin quilt dropped off at the quilter yesterday, so it will be ready when it’s done. Yay!

Here is what I’ve been sewing up the rest of the week: blocks for the Indigo Way Mystery. Yes, all the units are now finished & the next clue is to start making Block A & Block B. I made several of A & then wanted to see how it looks with the B block, so made three of those. It’s super cool! I made all the units asked for in the clues, but will be putting together a lap quilt, then making a donation quilt with the leftover blocks. (In case you’re curious, the setting triangles are made of half blocks using the same units, much like the quarter block corners.)

And finally, we went shopping on Friday & bought all the fabrics to make a smaller baby quilt out of this MSQC pattern. It will be this year’s silent auction quilt for Festival of Trees, benefitting Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. I will get cutting after Indigo Way gets off the wall.