Scrappy Star SAL - Finished!

One of my goals for 2020 is to finish several quilts in the "Needs Binding" queue.  I recently finished hand-stitching the binding and label on this large blue and white quilt and took it to our camp for some photographs.  

I started the quilt in 2017 as part of Diane Knott's Summer Star Sew Along.  I chose the blue, white, and cream color scheme as a way to use up some of my huge blue fabric stash.

I finished the top fairly quickly, but didn't get around to the quilting until last year.  Fortunately, Diane began long-arm quilting during the quilt's hiatus.  It was only appropriate I ask the quilt designer to also do the quilting!  She did a wonderful job of quilting in large, soft swirls.

All that remained was to bind the quilt and add a label.  I found the blue batik binding fabric in my stash, and luckily there was enough to bind the 94 inch x 94 inch quilt!

Now that the quilt is finished, it will have pride of place in my newly-refurbished guest room.  Would you believe I didn't notice the boo-boo in the quilt border until just now as I was reviewing the pictures for this blog entry?!

Good-bye 2017, Hello 2018!

It's a windy and chilly New Year's Day here in the Crescent City.  The temperature is hovering in the upper 20s (-2º C), but at least the sun is shining!  Dear Hubby and I are recuperating from a rather whirlwind trip to the mountains of North Carolina to see family and friends.  All in all, the perfect day to take stock of what's happening in my quilting studio and make plans for the coming year.

For the past several years, I've made a list of quilting priorities - based on WIPs and UFOs - for the coming year.  I keep the list pinned to a bulletin board in my studio and refer to it when I need to stay focused.

Last year, I joined in with Meredithe's 17UFOsin2017 project, which was a challenge to at least move 17 UFOs a little farther toward the "complete" category.  

I tweaked my notecard list and compiled 17 projects to work on during 2017.  (Many thanks to Kyle for the fancy stationery!)  The new list helped intensify my focus on UFOs and I managed to finish many of my projects and move some others along.  Unfortunately, there were still several projects that went untouched for the entire year!

Of course, one never knows when inspiration will strike, so several projects were begun in 2017 that weren't on any list!

Diane Knott's Scrappy Star Sew-Along called my name during the summer of 2017.

Inspired by Cathy and Gayle, I was also bitten by the Burgoyne Surrounded bug - as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  If you find yourself being tugged toward Burgoyne - here is a link to the great free pattern by Becky of Quilted Twins.

Flamingo hexies also crept into my 2017 quilting world.

Then there are all of the quilts still hanging out on my Quilting Bucket List.  

I've had this pattern by Edyta Sitar for years.  Will 2018 be the year I tackle it?

Or how about a Double Wedding Ring style quilt, like this one by Diane Knott?

I still haven't decided on my final list of quilting priorities for 2018, but I'm sure whatever piques my imagination will be colorful, challenging and great fabric therapy!

Summer Star Scrappy SAL: Finished Flimsy!

Thanks to some dedicated sewing time last weekend, I was able to finish piecing my version of Diane Knott's Summer Star Scrappy Sew Along quilt.

The SAL appealed to me because it was a scrappy project and I felt the need to make use of more fabrics and scraps from the blue stash.  My blue fabric stash is huge and never seems to shrink, so this seemed like a good way to try to make a dent.

This did help me use up lots of blue scraps and when the scraps were used up I cut into yardage.  The blue fabric drawers now have a bit more room, but they're far from empty!  I also made a big dent in my collection of off-white, cream and white scraps and yardage.

This is not a complicated pattern, and Diane's instructions are very clear.  The assembly went quickly, especially since I had a stack of ready-cut blue strips left over from other projects.  The finished quilt is about 90 inches by 90 inches.  I will have it quilted by my local long-arm quilter - there's no way I want to attempt to quilt this on my sewing machine!  

And...amazingly - I just noticed a mistake in the top row.  I never even saw this when it was pinned to the design wall!

Summer Star Scrappy SAL: Obsession

Our cable and internet service was out for a good chunk of the day today.  That's probably a good thing, as I had been obsessively watching coverage of Hurricane Harvey and feeling depressed and hopeless.   Based on past experience, my best way to fight depression and hopelessness is to sew.

I've been working on completing Diane Knott's Summer Star Scrappy Sew-Along.  I finished most of the body of the quilt last week.

All that remains to be done is sew the four long rows together to complete the star.

Diane offered different options for the quilt borders.  I decided I wanted my quilt to look like her sample: double strips of pieced squares separated by a white strip.  

Diane came up with a great way to piece the borders, making strip piecing feasible.

So, I obsessively pieced border components yesterday and today.  

Here are the blocks for the border corners.  

And a stack of pieced strips that will eventually become the borders.  The strips are sewn together into blocks containing five strips, which are then assembled to become the borders.  I'm hopeful I will be able to assemble a block here and there during the week - keep the fabric therapy going!  (BTW, there are 180 of these strips.  I definitely made a dent in my blue scraps, chunks and yardage!)

If you have been watching news from Texas and are wondering how to help, I have a few suggestions.  Last year, when the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana had catastrophic flooding, local agencies seemed to provide the fastest and most useful services.  I'm not knocking the Red Cross, but I really prefer to give my money to hyper-local groups.  This link from Texas Monthly magazine has some good ideas.  

Whenever bad things were happening, a friend of mine used to say she was going to mix up a big batch of Voodoo Vinaigrette to make things right again.  I'm definitely going to be mixing up a batch of it myself, and including lots of prayers and Hurricane-Go-Away-Vibes as well.  I hope you'll join me!

Summer Star Scrappy SAL: Assembly Progess

There was no evening stitching after work this week, so I was happy to have some blocks of sewing time this weekend.  I focused on getting more blocks assembled for Diane Knott's Summer Star Scrappy Sew Along.

By this afternoon, I finally finished piecing all the half & half blocks.

Once the half & half blocks were complete, I was ready to start assembling the individual blocks into larger sections.

The neutral 9-patch blocks get assembled into larger sections - 3 blocks by 3 blocks.

Blue 9-patches and blue and white half & half blocks were assembled for another component.

Finally, I assembled these blocks - wrong!!  The colors are flipped - the blue triangle blocks should be white and the remainder of the block should be blue!  That's what happens when Dear Husband and Dear Dogs are clamoring for your attention at the end of the afternoon!

I'm enjoying the Sew Along, even if I don't have as much stitching time as I'd like.  Diane's design is pretty ingenious, and her directions are great!  I'm looking forward to seeing more SAL projects in the weekly link-up.

Summer Star Scrappy SAL: Neutral Nines & Split Nines

I'm doing my best to keep up with Diane's Sew Along, but stitching time was limited last week.  I spent a good chunk of yesterday stitching all my neutral 9-patch blocks together, and more time last night prepping for the split 9-patch blocks.

A few hours ago, I arranged everything for a photograph.  

All the neutral 9-Patch blocks are finished.  I had prepped some blue squares and blue and white HSTs for the Split 9-Patch blocks.  All I needed was some more blue squares and some white and cream squares.  I thought this might be my stopping point for today, but I managed to power on and cut the remaining required parts.

I decided to make one Split 9-Patch block just to see how they went together.  Before long I had four blocks assembled!  I have all the parts and pieces laid out on my sewing table, so it will be easy to pop in and stitch up a block this week when I have a few spare minutes.  I love it when prep work makes sewing simple during the work week!

Summer Star Scrappy SAL: Nine Patches Without End!

I've made some progress on the steps for the Summer Star Scrappy SAL.  I'm not completely ready to start the latest step provided by Diane, but I'm not too far behind, either.  Participating in a SAL can be UFO-inducing, and I'm trying to avoid that!

This week, I finished all 48 nine patch blocks called for in step 1.  My stash of blue fabric scraps, chunks and yardage is deep and wide, so I had fun trying to put a dent in the collection.

I also made progress on step 2:  creating white and neutral nine patch blocks.  Today I was able to finish assembling all the 3-patch sections (180 sections!), so I can work on turning them into nine patch blocks this week.

Step 3 involves making split nine patch blocks, for which HSTs are required.  It just so happens I have a hefty stack of blue and white HSTs that were waste triangles from a big batch of Flying Geese blocks I just made.  The HSTs need stitching and trimming, but I'm just happy to have them waiting in the wings.  

Sorry to not have any pretty pictures this week; it's just all about the process right now.  It will be fun to start assembling the blocks when that step rolls around!  

No Escape from the Blues

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge focus on blue is about to come to an end.  My stash of blue strips, squares and chunks has thinned and my RSC projects have edged closer to completion.  On the other hand, working with blue fabric this month inspired me to pull out a blue and white UFO and start another blue and white scrap quilt.  I think I'll be working with blue for more than just the month of July!

One RSC project I've been working on this year is 4 patches.  These were just a simple way to use up bits and pieces of strips and squares left over from other projects.  I don't have a plan for these right now; I think I'll just hold on to them until inspiration strikes.

Another RSC project has been Windblown Wishes blocks from Diane Knott's book Scrap Quilt Secrets.  When I finish all the rainbow colors, I'll have 16 ten-inch blocks.  I think I will stop there and turn them into a wall hanging.  Unless different inspiration strikes!

Now that all the RSC projects have their blue additions, I'll be back to working on my blue & white Sawtooth Star and Uneven 9-Patch quilt (aka Big Blue Monster).  I've decided the BBM needs a border of Flying Geese blocks, and I still need to make about 40 of them.  And when that's finished, I'll be working on Diane's Summer Star Scrappy Sew Along - in my case, another blue and white scrap quilt!

Summer Star Scrappy Sew Along: The Fun Begins

Several weeks ago, Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting queried her readers about their interest in a scrappy summer sew along.  At the time, I was trying to come up with a way to further decrease my blue scrap bin and I thought Diane's idea sounded interesting.  I decided to participate and started prepping a stack of blue scrappy strips.

Diane shared the first SAL step last week:  creating nine patch blocks with a variety of scraps.  The SAL directions call for using fabrics of all colors, but I'm planning to use only blue, white and cream.  These block components were made by sewing strips together and cutting them to the requisite size.  I pulled lots of pieces from my 2 1/2 inch strip bin - some short pieces and some long pieces.  Using smaller pieces made the block component creation take a little longer, but I was happy to be using up lots of scraps!

I've pieced about half of the required 48 nine patch blocks so far.  It was hard for me to piece the nine patch blocks randomly, instead of in the traditional dark and light patterns.  I knew the fabrics would need to have some contrast, otherwise the blocks would end up looking like mush.  I may go back and cut some more strips to add a little more contrast and fabric variety to the mix.

Diane is sponsoring a weekly link-up on Sundays so participants can share their progress.  I can't wait to see what scrappy colors and fabrics other quilters will be using!