Quilting

Strippy Slab Star & now I have 8. I need 1 more.

4 more rail fence to add to the ones from last year, so I will need a plan soon.

4 more Patchwork Hearts from Quilty Love & now all that is needed are 2 gray hearts.

8 string blocks to throw in the drawer for future donations. I thought my aqua/teal string bin would at least not be overflowing after this, but no, it’s still piled over the top.

The last of the County Fair blocks by Amy Smart, in the book, “Scrap School” by Lissa Alexander. I had to make a few extra in other colors to have enough for the setting. So in the fall months, I’ll cut setting triangles & get this together. Hopefully. I’ve been known to procrastinate this step. (See below) Of my 8 RSC2025 projects, I now have 3 projects with all the blocks made!

Inspired by Deb A’s RSC2020 project, I made these blocks in 2021 for RSC, then left them in a project box all this time. ?? I have tons of project boxes, they are all full, & I needed one for the new quilt group project. So I pulled these out & sewed them together, thus freeing up a box & getting a WIP done for August, so wins all around. It’s going to Many Hands and Many Hearts along with the jelly roll race below.

I’ve never actually made one of these, but it seemed like a great way to use up big print teals that have been languishing in a scrap box for a long time. They don’t work for my RSC projects because they are so busy, but hopefully somebody will love the donation. And I love using up all that fabric. 5″ squares got cut for our next quilt group project, 2.5″ strips for this, & leftover strings in the bin. Scraps processed!

Now for a finish: this is my “12 Days of Christmas” auction quilt for Primary Children’s Hospital Festival of Trees, the first week of December. It’s done, so if there’s a disaster between now & then, I don’t have to stress. The fabric is from the same line as the panel, so there are figures from each verse in color in the green border, then tone-on-tone in the red border & gold sashing. The white stop border has the lyrics. All in all, it’s very cute!

I finished up the Scrap Stash Plus blocks using the free pattern from Quilty Love. I cut all the blocks in January using a curated jelly roll I got on clearance at a store-closing sale for the colors, & the leftover strips from my Shine quilt for the whites. I only used a couple strips for the shiny star pieces in that quilt so had tons left. What to do? This was perfect, so it’s all gone now. With all the blocks done, I’m ready for assembly in the fall.

The two large blocks are for Melissa Corry’s Scraptastic Stars. I need two more to make a lap size, so will have to dig for other colors, then make all the B&W sashings.

And here we have an RSC2024 finish! It’s Scrappy Hearts, also by Quilty Love. I made blocks each month last year, using scrappy LV background scraps. The backing is the new Hush Hush wide backing from Riley Blake which combines all the LV prints from the latest collection in a collage, making it super scrappy. It’s perfect & I think the trimmings from it have yielded enough for the setting triangles for this year’s County Fair RSC2025 project. Win-win!

I made some aqua progress during this busy week! The three small blocks are the last of the Moda Blockheads. I have what I need for the layout I want to do! So that’s ready for fall assembly.

The large star is from Angela’s 2015 tab at the top of the blog & has the Kick block in the center. Next month I need to get them out & decide on connecting chain blocks. (And see if I have enough stars with the 8 colors I have.)

I got half-way through the pile of Scrap Stash Plus blocks, so look for the rest next week. The colors on both photos are dark. My colors are a bit brighter.

I also sewed bindings on two quilts, so they are ready for evening hand-sewing, as I’m almost done with the current binding project. Five Ocean Waves blocks got done for L&E’s this week, so pretty soon I’ll have enough to finish off row 3. Jenny Doan of MSQC fame says, “Quilts happen one stitch at a time”, so I keep looking at that quote on my wall & remembering the joy is in the journey.

Happy sewing!

I have begun a 12-month church service mission working with FamilySearch.org that requires me to donate 12 hours/week from home. I’m happy about this opportunity but it is definitely cutting into my sewing time & I’m still adjusting. So all of you who have commented on my prodigious output can feel better that I’ll be lucky to get my projects done each month for the rest of the year. LOL Next year’s RSC plans will have to be more limited. 🙂

But what did I get done? Well, lots of aqua cutting to get ready for sewing. Tedious but necessary. This represents a bunch of blocks ready to go, so that feels good.

I sewed 3 Moda Blockheads 2 blocks, although the one on the right has a caveat. I sewed it last week with another shade of aqua instead of the white print. Every time I saw it on my design wall, I was irritated with how there wasn’t enough contrast & finally decided to pick it apart & re-make it. I cut the white print, used one of the aqua prints & sewed it together. But I was so tired when I sewed it, that I spun my 4 patches & made a totally different block! So now it’s Sue’s variation. LOL LOL

I hate to admit this, but we’re all friends here, right? I started a new quilt! Even though I’ve been swearing I would not. My local quilt store was having their big summer sale & I decided to just save some money on something I really wanted to begin. I’ve had this pattern & Melissa’s templates for a while, waiting for some WIPs to get done before I started it. (See, I have self-control!) But sale fabric!! So I bought what I needed, cut out all the squares & rectangles, cut a few of the curved pieces, pinned them while watching TV, & have been putting them under the needle here & there. My curves are not too bad & getting better. It will take me a while to finish, but that’s how I roll, it seems.

Inspired by Diann at Little Penguin Quilts, in 2021 I made this top as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge that year. Somewhere along the way it got quilted, but has been hanging in my studio closet waiting for binding as I got carried away with newer projects. In a frenzy of binding-making a few weeks ago, I got one made for this quilt, sewed it on & put it in the queue for evening hand-binding. Finally, it is a finish! I’m calling it “Zig-Zag”. (So original, I know.) It may be a future graduation quilt, or turn into a donation, if it sits around long enough.

July finishes out purple with Moda Blockheads. I finished all the ones I want to do from Set #1, so these + the aquas & teals are from Set #2. I only need 5 more blocks to finish up the layout I want to do.