Quilting

I finished this L&E project that was cut out in early 2021. It sat by my machine & slowly the squares & rectangles became flying geese, then they got sewed together, then they got borders. By the beginning of 2022, I had them laid out on the design wall & sewed them together. The flimsy hung around awhile, then went to the quilter, came home, got binding, & finally some hand-sewing to finish it off. And now “Flying Home” is ready to be gifted at a future date. The pattern is the free Jelly Belly Bars from FQS, but with the flying geese variation from Elm Street Quilts.

My blue Sweet Kisses blocks, plus a blue block for the May/June block drive at Covered in Love. Also a red/yellow still on the wall, made last month.

Catching Rainbows with string border blocks; another twinkling friendship star in the lower right; 10 blue blocks for the Tula Pink sampler. I like the contrast I got in these, which is better in person.

I recently picked up three kits of these zipper blocks to sew for Quilts for Kids. Here is the first flimsy done.

I got some work done on my scrap projects this week: 6 Sweet Kisses in dark green with some light green saved for another month; 1 green twinkling friendship star; 2 green Shine. These are the only greens in the jelly roll I’m using for this project, so I sewed them up.

On the design wall: This is what I’ve been working on mostly the last couple weeks. I have 2 large sections done with 1 more to go at the bottom. It’s Star Trails by A Bright Corner, her new pattern. It’s going to be another masculine donation quilt. At the top are the two Covered in Love Block Drive blocks completed so far. These are excellent as L&E’s. (and scrap busters!)

“Bricks” has its scrappy aqua binding on it & is a finish. This was an RSC2021 project that was a flimsy before the end of the year. It got quilted & bound this year. I got the idea for this quilt from Sylvia, who was inspired by Jo’s Country Junction, who found the idea originated with Julie of Me and My Quilts. I used scrappy light gray squares for the low-volume sections.

This is the first of my masculine donation tops to be completed. It’s from a free pattern called Plus Quilt by Jen Eskridge. Hers is a baby quilt, with some cutting & pasting of her worksheet, I expanded it to 60×70 to fit their requirements. This was quick & fun and used some blue & tan.

I made the pink blocks for Catching Rainbows & more stars for September Sky, both patterns by Bonnie Hunter. I need 53 stars for the quilt & 11 are completed, with all the parts done. With the pink sewed, I’ve accomplished my pink projects for this month! I’m removing the Amy Ellis Dancing Stars from my RSC lineup for this year so I’m down to five monthly projects. More time for squirrels!

Here’s my design wall showing what I got done on pink blocks this week. I did a twinkling Friendship Star block. I made two a month last year & wanted more so am making one a month this year. Below that are the five pink blocks for the Tula Pink sampler. I was a little annoyed that my fabrics weren’t as contrasted as I thought when I chose & cut them. Especially the upper left one. It’s hard to tell the pattern unless you are close up. Grr. The string blocks on the right are the border blocks for Catching Rainbows by Bonnie Hunter. Next week I’ll tackle the actual blocks.

After doing some pink, I wanted to move along some other projects a little bit since it’s only halfway through the month & I have time. So I put together some Rocky Road to Grayson blocks by Bonnie Hunter. They are the blue stars. I have several BH projects going right now & love them, but if you’ve ever made one of her patterns you know that each block requires a lot of piecing. After making lots of the parts, I wanted to make some blocks to feel like I’m getting something done. So I also started sewing together the scrappy yellow stars I’m making for September Sky. The lovely rainbow circles are some progress on Cookie Cutter by Jaybird Quilts with my virtual quilt partner. We sewed all the bottom halves of the circles together & had time to sew 5 whole blocks! That was awesome because, again, it felt like real progress after months of sewing parts. A few more weeks & this WIP will be a flimsy! Hers uses solids like the pattern & mine uses some Tula Pink fabric.

After taking a month off because there were no yellows in the jelly roll I’m using, it was back to ombre Shine blocks. These are the two that can be considered pink. I’ve wanted to make this quilt for forever so I almost squeal each month when I pull down the box & get started.

I cut all the pieces for this Sweet Kisses quilt in January, so now it’s just a matter of pulling it out & sewing up the month’s color. (Same with Shine) I did this last year with a couple projects & it helped me get more done during the year when I only had to cut out a couple projects each month.

I did it! Here’s the top in the final week, #5, of the Hyalite SAL from Plains & Pine. I finished up sewing the large diamond blocks into the four quadrants with the background triangles, then did this week’s task of sewing the four quadrants together. This was a fun project & I definitely got better as I went along. It’s all bias so one quadrant is a little stretched, but I got the rest done well. I’m so happy to have tried something new, plus used some really old stash fabric that I love.