Quilt Whatcha Wanna

There's a popular song in New Orleans - performed by the ReBirth Brass Band - called "Do Whatcha Wanna".  It's about getting ready to hit the streets on Mardi Gras, where the day holds the promise of all sorts of fun.  The rhythm of the music gets your feet moving and your spirit soaring.  I always wind up dancing and singing along whenever I hear it.

Since we're not celebrating Mardi Gras this year (well, almost - more on that in a minute), I turned my Carnival energy to quilting what I wanna!

Final t-shirt quilt.  Just needs outer borders and cornerstones.  I'm procrastinating - can you blame me?

Finished hand-stitching the binding on Ring of Stars (pattern by Nancy Rink).  It's too cold for outdoor photographs right now, so this one will have to wait for warmer weather before I take some glamour shots. 

We had to do some weather prep at our camp in Mississippi, as a hard freeze was predicted beginning Sunday night.  Dear Husband wanted to spend the night, so I knew I needed something to work on while we were there.   I prepped block #5 from Poppy's Polka Dot Garden to work on during the evening.  After spending the morning taking precautions to protect the plants and pipes at the camp, DH decided we should head back to our warm(er) house in New Orleans!

The weather has been so rainy, cold, and nasty I wanted a bright and colorful quilt to cheer things up.  I hung the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Sampler quilt on my dining room quilt hanger, and now I smile every time I walk through the room!

I made some more 25-Patch Star blocks.  I haven't decided on a final layout, but I know I need a dozen or so more blocks to have a decent-sized quilt.   More block parts are cut and ready for stitching.

OK, there's more quilty stuff to talk about, but I'll save it for another post.

In the meantime, it's Mardi Gras y'all!

I need to make more Mardi Gras quilts.  This wall-hanging is all I've got so far!  Purple, green, and gold are the colors of Mardi Gras, so it's not even difficult to come up with a quilt color scheme.

This year's Mardi Gras celebrations (at least in New Orleans) were all cancelled long ago due to the pandemic.  It's hard to keep New Orleanians from observing one of their favorite holidays though, and enterprising and socially-distant alternatives started popping up all over.

One of my favorites is the idea of House Floats.  Instead of having parades with floats and marching bands and hordes of participants (Mardi Gras parades are not for genteel observing - you have to participate in them!), folks took to decorating their houses like parade floats.

One of my favorites is Saint Dolly - Dolly Parton as the patron saint of Covid-19 vaccines.  It's hard to see in the picture, but she's holding a vaccine syringe in her right hand.  The sign on the left side of the yard, "Vaccine, Vaccine, Vaccine, Vacciiiine!" is sung to the tune of her song, "Jolene".

Another favorite is the Mystic Krewe of Unicorns.  I don't think there is an actual Krewe of Unicorns, but if there is, I want to be a member!

If you have a few spare minutes, do a Google search for New Orleans House Floats and click on the Images option - guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Scraps and Hurricanes

 

OK, I've weathered a lifetime of hurricanes, but I've never seen TWO storms in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time!  

As my friend Karen (@kareylou on IG) said: "Who had double hurricanes on their 2020 bingo card?!"

We are making the usual preparations, but the storm situation is very fluid.  I don't think we will have an accurate forecast for the storm tracks until Sunday evening or Monday morning.  The waiting is the hardest part!

In the meantime, fabric therapy helps.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August is purple, so I found some purple prints and stitched up some 25 Patch Stars.

From a distance, this print looks more like pea soup, but it's definitely got some purple!

Since I didn't start the 25 Patch Stars until the middle of the year, I decided to work backwards and pick up some of the previous RSC colors.  

I also pulled out an RSC project from 2019 - Ring of Stars.  When I finished all the rainbow scrappy blocks, I wasn't sure if I should add the border as given in the pattern, so I put the flimsy away to marinate.  

I brought out the quilt top this week and after laying it out on my bed, decided the border was definitely needed.

The border is made of partial block sections.  I finished up the sections yesterday morning; now I just need cornerstones for the four corners of the quilt.  Solid fabric squares would work, but maybe mini stars would look good, too.  More fabric therapy!

A Few Orange Scraps and a Ring of Stars

It's a new month and a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  

This month's challenge is to use up orange scraps.  

So far this year, I'm only piecing one RSC project - Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Chain quilt.  Here are a few blocks I've assembled from orange scraps.

I'm making the blocks leader-ender style, so it's handy to have a stack of pre-cut block parts at the ready.

And I've been putting those leader-enders to good use as I've assembled the Ring of Stars blocks started during the 2019 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I still have one more row to stitch together, but the quilt top is essentially finished.

I really enjoyed making these blocks in rainbow colors, but I'm not sure the visual impact of the quilt is the same as when the blocks are all made from the same color family.  I think the secondary circular design gets a little lost with all the color changes.  Maybe I'll make another version using all one color!

Find more rainbow scrappiness at the weekly RSC link-up.

Missing in Action

As usual, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s were a blogging break for me.  I don’t necessarily plan it that way, but time and desire to blog seem to disappear during that time frame.  Lucky for me, my quilting mojo didn’t disappear, so I have a few things to report on before we turn the page to a new year.

Our oldest son (Andrew) moved to Denver, Colorado at the beginning of September.  When he left, he only took the stuff he could fit in his car, and left his remaining belongings and dog with us until he could retrieve them later in the year.  He flew home for Thanksgiving, and by Saturday morning we had packed his stuff into Dear Husband’s pick-up truck and headed for Denver (dog included).

I won’t bore you will all of our adventures, but I will say I look forward to flying to Denver next time around!  We came back to New Orleans using a different route in an attempt to avoid some bad traffic congestion along the Texas/New Mexico route.  All told, we traveled 2700 miles and passed through seven states!

Just as we returned, our youngest son (David) flew in from Dallas.  It just so happened to be the perfect time to celebrate David and Dear Husband's December birthdays.  David is also a huge fan of his alma mater's football team - LSU - so his Dallas friends surprised him with an LSU football-themed birthday cake. 

Dear Husband and Bailey

Right before Christmas, our dog Bailey, a black lab mix, succumbed to a rapidly spreading form of cancer.  Bailey came to us as a puppy twelve years ago.  She was left on our front door-step in a basket with pink toys and a pink blanket.  Since she arrived just before my husband’s birthday, he considered her the Best Birthday Present Ever, and they were bonded at the hip.  The house feels pretty empty now, since Andrew’s dog is gone, too.  Our sweetheart yellow lab, McKenzie, doesn’t quite know what to do with herself.

In between all that, I managed to do some stitching here and there.

Project Numero Uno was to finish the black and gold Endless Chain quilt I started for Andrew.  I completed the piecing before Thanksgiving, and Diane Knott (Butterfly Threads Quilting) was able to long-arm quilt it for me while I was adventuring out west.  I’ve been trying to get the binding stitched and label attached so I can send it to Andrew as soon as possible.

I also made some blocks for Barb Vedder’s Oh My Stars swap.  Oops!  I didn’t take any pictures before I sent the finished blocks to Barb.  I did the Modern swap this time, and I’m looking forward to playing with my blocks later in January!

Thinking toward 2020, I knew there were a couple of Rainbow Scrap projects that needed some attention.  I made a batch of yellow Ring of Stars blocks, but I still need red blocks before I can assemble my RSC efforts on this quilt.

I also cut up lots of scraps for Carolina Chain leader-ender blocks.  Some Christmas fabric scraps made it into the latest batch of blocks.

There’s more to share, but I’ll stop here for now.  I’m not in much of a mind to do a retrospective of the quilts of 2019, but I have been giving a lot of thought to what stitching projects will be under the needle in 2020.  Let’s hope it’s a great year for quilting!

Purple Patchwork

We're already half-way through the month of September, and I'm just getting around to playing with this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color:  purple!

Two purple Sugar Bowls wrapped up the design plan for using these blocks in a quilt.  I won't be able to start assembling the blocks any time soon, but but I have a plan.  

I've really enjoyed this block style - I think I'll try a different basket-style block for a future RSC project!

Ring of Stars has been another fun block project.  I'm making this quilt for a friend, but I like the pattern so much, I might have to make another one for myself!

I'm always amazed by the varieties of the color purple.  Both of these fabrics are purple, but they look completely different!  

And...purples are hard to photograph!  This fabric is dark purple, but not as dark as the photo.

I'll save all my purple Tiny Tuesday blocks for a post later this month.  In the meantime, there's more purple inspiration at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge link-up for today.

A Little More Pink

It was a fun Saturday!  My company sponsors health fairs around the state to help kids get back-to-school check-ups.  Today's health fair was here in New Orleans, so our local office team helped out.  We had a great turn-out, and lots of kids got check-ups.  I was on my feet for a big chunk of the day, so I was happy to get home, have a cup of tea, and then do a little sewing!

I'm still making blocks for a Ring of Stars quilt.  They go together quickly and use up lots of scrappy chunks.  

I didn't start making these blocks until March of this year, so I missed a few Rainbow Scrap colors.  I'll have to go back and catch them later.

I found enough pink chunks to make another pink Burgoyne Surrounded block.  I only need three more Burgoyne blocks, so I think I'll just go ahead and finish them.  Maybe I won't make any mistakes if I do them all at the same time!

The days of pink for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are winding down, but there's still plenty of inspiration at the weekly link-up.

Let the Summer Fun Begin!

Hi blog!  I've missed you!  Life has been keeping me away from you, but I'm back and ready to share some stitching fun.

Summer started out with a family trip to Wisconsin.  Even though I grew up in Florida, I was born in Wisconsin, and both my parents have extensive family history there.  Somehow, I wrangled both boys and my dear hubby into making this trip to visit family and family history sites.  We had a great trip and made lots of great new memories!

Once we got back from our trip, it was back to work and back to stitching.  I needed to make a fourth orange Tiny Tuesday block.  I struck off on my own for this block, as this Hayes Corner block (upper left) tickled my fancy.  

Once the orange Tiny Tuesday blocks were wrapped up, it was time to dig into a new batch of scraps.  Dark blue is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for June, and I jumped in and made a blue Burgoyne Surrounded block.  

Next up - Ring of Stars blocks.  They look pretty good in dark blues!

Sugar Bowl blocks are still on the menu, too.  After finishing these RSC blocks, there was a noticeable decrease in the pile of dark blue scraps and chunks!

And so my RSC blocks for the month are done.  There are still Tiny Tuesday blocks to make each week, but now I can direct my stitching time to catching up on my Hospital Sketches blocks.  Of course, there's always temptation inspiration to be found in the weekly Rainbow Scrap link-up!

Orange Scraps Are Very Appealing!

Fabric therapy time has been in short supply the past few weeks.  Happily, I was able to rummage through the orange scraps and put together some blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Two orange Sugar Bowl blocks were added to the collection.

I set them together with Sugar Bowl blocks from last year.  The plan is to set the blocks in groups of four like this.

I used some scrappy chunks to make more Ring of Stars blocks.  I'm definitely planning to gift this quilt to a friend when it's finished, but I might have to make one of these for myself!

Bits of this and that got turned into 4-patch blocks.  These go in the Parts Department for now.

One all orange Burgoyne Surrounded block used up a good hunk of scraps.  

I wanted to see how all my Burgoyne colors were balancing out, so they all went for a spin on the design wall.  I still need some pink blocks, more blue blocks, and maybe another purple.  I only need seven more blocks before I can start the assembly process.  The final quilt will have sashing and 9-patch cornerstones (already complete).  

Now that the Rainbow Scrap projects are wrapped up, I'm ready to focus on my Hospital Sketches BOM.  This month's block is a challenge, for sure!

If scrappy quilts are appealing to you, check out the Rainbow Scrap Challenge weekly link-up.

Antidote for Age-Shock: April Aqua!

I think most of us would agree that quilt-making equals Fabric Therapy and Fabric Therapy helps us deal with the stresses of life. 💖 Since the beginning of April, I have been using Fabric Therapy as an antidote (or celebration?!) to the observation of another trip around the sun.  

I managed to finish up my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects using this month's soothing color of aqua.

I made two Sugar Bowl blocks to add to the collection.

It was easy to pull together six Ring of Stars blocks using chunks of fabric left over from previous projects.  

An aqua fleur de lis Burgoyne Surrounded block

And an aqua and pink Burgoyne Surrounded

Only seven blocks still needed to complete the requirements for the Burgoyne quilt!

I also pulled out a long-term UFO and decided it needed finishing - now!

The pattern is Merry-Go-Round by Sandy Klop (American Jane Patterns - be careful if you go here - it's a rabbit hole of great pattens!).  It's a fun take on hexagons using fabric strips and an equilateral triangle ruler.  The triangles are assembled in half-hexagons, then sewn into strips, matching hexagon tops and bottoms.  

 I was inspired to try the pattern using a fat quarter collection of tropical brights I purchased at a quilt show many moons ago.  I started the blocks at least ten years ago, but put them away when I needed the design wall for another project.  I "found" the bag of blocks and and scrappy strips a few weeks ago and decided it was time to finish things up.  Since I made my blocks using fat quarters instead of jelly rolls, I had a more limited amount of fabric to make hexagons.  There were enough hexies for a wall-hanging, and that was good enough!  I've gotten all the hexie parts sewn into strips and now need to sew the strips together.  Another UFO will be crossed off the list!

And now that it's Saturday, it's time for the Rainbow Scrap link-up AND more Fabric Therapy!

Scrappy Ring of Stars

I've been wanting to make a quilt for a friend of mine.  I almost gave her my Windblown Wishes quilt when it was finished (pictures coming as soon as we have some decent weather for photography), but decided I couldn't part with that particular quilt.  I find it easier to give away a quilt if I have a certain person in mind from the get-go.

I thought about quilt blocks/patterns on my bucket list and finally focused on star blocks made with the Tri-Recs ruler.   Back in the early 1990s, my quilt guild made an opportunity quilt based on the Fifty-Four Forty or Fight quilt block.  At the time, there were no specialty rulers to help in the construction of the blocks, so we all learned to paper-piece the blocks required for the quilt.  I loved those spiky star blocks and always wanted to make a quilt of my own featuring them.  I'm so happy I can now use a specialty ruler to make the blocks rather than paper piecing!

Ring of Stars by Nancy Rink

This quilt caught my attention several years ago when I did a Google search for starry quilt patterns.  It's kind of a deconstructed Fifty-Four Forty or Fight block - with the 4-patches used in another block to make a secondary pattern.  I decided it might lend itself to a Rainbow Scrap Challenge treatment and downloaded the pattern from Connecting Threads.

I did some sketching and planning and figured I would need at least 3 sets of blocks in each rainbow color.  I also decided to make 9 inch blocks, so I could use scraps from my 3.5 inch strip bin.  I think this project may turn out to be a great scrap buster!

As always, there's more scrappy inspiration at the weekly RSC link-up!