Scrappy Catch-Up and Finish

 I've done a little work on Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks this month.

Our challenge color was red, and I made four red, scrappy 25-patch stars earlier in the month.

Since I didn't start the 25-patch stars (yes, I'm using a throw-back name) until mid-year, I've been working backwards through previous RSC colors.  My green scraps were a little limited, but I still have lots of time to balance out colors if needed.

I also dug up some additional red scraps to make some Easy Breezy Leader-Ender blocks.  These are fun scrap-buster blocks; I need to cut some more parts to replenish my leader-ender stash.

I was finally able to photograph a finished quilt that started as an RSC project.

According to my notes, I started this quilt in 2014, but I apparently didn't blog about it until 2017.  This represents just about every blue fabric (excluding reproduction fabrics) that has made its way through my stash in the past six years!

The quilt is destined for the bed in my guest room; it measures 88 inches by 93 inches.  I didn't follow a specific pattern, just made Variable/Sawtooth Star blocks and Uneven Nine-patch blocks until the quilt was the size I wanted.  The Flying Geese border added a few extra inches and a finishing touch.

Long-arm quilting by Diane D. Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting.  I love how the double clamshell pattern worked out!

Some of you know I love the combination of blue and white.  Whether it's quilts, transferware china, or KLM houses (thanks, Barb!), I seem to gravitate to all things blue and white.  I figured this quilt was as much a collection of blue and white as anything else I collect, hence the quilt name.

Finishing this quilt was a great sunshine-y spot during the past crazy months!

August Wrap-Up

It feels like August has been the month of scattered sewing efforts.  Plenty of projects worked on, but few completed.  Distractions aplenty - in life and in the sewing room.  I'm hopeful September will allow for more focus, and maybe fewer distractions!  Hahahaha!

One project I've spent numerous hours with this month the blue and white Variable Star/Uneven Nine-patch quilt.  

The quilt finished up at a generous 88 inches x 93 inches, so hand-stitching the binding has been a PROJECT.  Happily, there's only about 40 inches of binding left to stitch!  I will get some glamour shots of the quilt when it's complete.

Another hand-stitching project that's gotten attention this month is Flamingo Hexies.  I took stock of what blocks/fabrics/colors were already made, and made a plan for wrapping up the quilt.  I cut and prepped lots of new blocks, so I'll have them ready and waiting to be stitched.

I got distracted by a mini charm pack that I received as a gift earlier in the month (Le Pavot by Sandy Gervais).  I had seen this table runner pattern on Nell's blog several years ago, and thought it would be a perfect use for the charm pack fabrics.  

I used some Moda Grunge (Vanilla) I had in my stash, and cut 2 inch strips for the setting, which is based on Bonnie Hunter's Dancing Nines quilt pattern.

I was ready to layer the finished top using batting scraps and backing fabric from the stash, but I didn't have enough batting scraps to do the job.  This is on hold until I can get some appropriate batting.  Did you know some batting manufacturers make table runner sized batts?  I believe I will be giving that a try!

Don't you have a stash of worn-out denim jeans just waiting to be recycled into something new and useful?  I decided it was time to attack my stash and start a utility quilt for one of the beds at our camp.  I'm keeping it simple with Rail Fence blocks.  This will be a long-term project, something I work on when we're at the camp.  I haven't decided if it will be quilted or tied. 

I procrastinated on the August block for Barbara Brackman's Cassandra's Circle BOM.  The appliqué prep work is almost finished and I will wrap things up by stitching all the pieces by machine.  It's been awhile since I've done any machine appliqué, so it will be good to put that skill to use.

Another distraction:  my local quilt store posted a picture of this new fabric on Instagram, and I knew I needed to have some!  I have no plans for it right now, but it will join the other Hawaiian-style fabrics in my stash.

And now I'll wrap this up with good wishes to everyone for a safe, healthy, and stitch-ful September!

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?!

Hospital Sketches BOM: Never Give Up!

No surprise - I'm still trying to catch up with my appliqué blocks for Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches BOM.

The June block was Pineapple.  The pattern introduction also featured a great story about Walt Whitman visiting Civil War hospitals in Washington, DC.  Highly recommended reading!

My fabric choices don't look so great in the photograph, but the blue print on a white background does show up better in person.  If I were doing the block over, I think I'd choose a different fabric, maybe a with a light blue background.  Learning about appliqué fabric choices was one of my goals for this project, and I've already learned lots!

The July block was Mountain Laurel.  I finished prepping all the leaves yesterday.  I just need to make the bias stems for each batch of leaves and I'll be ready to stitch everything in place.  

The next block in the series is Tennessee Rose.  I doubt I'll finish Mountain Laurel and get a good start on the rose before a new block is introduced this coming Wednesday.  It's OK, I'll just keep working through at my own speed!  It's all about the process, not the result - right?

Hospital Sketches BOM: Catching Up

Oh no!  Even using machine appliqué hasn't saved me from falling behind on Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches BOM!

The May block - Currants and Cockscombs - was a little intimidating.  Forty-eight 5/8-inch circles to prep!  Once all the pieces were prepped (freezer paper and starch method), I just needed some long stretches of uninterrupted time to stitch everything in place.

Fortunately, some of that time came my way this weekend.  I stitched and listened to a wonderful audiobook:  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

I highly recommend it!

Four blocks completed.  The June block, Pineapple, should go more quickly.  I already have the fabrics picked out, so I just need to make some patterns and I'll be on my way.  Maybe I'll even finish before the end of the month and can start on July's block - Mountain Laurel.  

Yes, I'm all about enjoying the appliqué process, but I don't want to get too far behind and run the risk of adding another UFO to the pile!

Hospital Sketches: Virginia Cockscomb

The February block for Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches BOM was Virginia Cockscomb.  The inspiration for the block was Robertson Hospital in Richmond, Virginia and its matron, Sally Louisa Tompkins.

The cockscomb pattern has been on my appliqué bucket list for some time.  I'd still like to make an appliqué quilt with several cockscomb blocks - Anita Shackelford's Cockscomb Variations (scroll down to view the book) has been calling my name for several years.  

My fabric choices didn't work out as well as I thought they would - the white background fabric in the circles gets kind of lost against the light blue cockscomb fabric.  It's a learning experience!

All the convex (outie) curves in this block almost did me in!  I was struggling to get even curves on the light blue frond - too many pointy edges instead of smooth curves.  I was ready to give up on freezer paper prep for machine appliqué and resort to hand appliqué for this block.  As I contemplated switching techniques, I did some online research on hand appliqué and discovered I should not be clipping the outside curves.  Instead, the curves should be trimmed close to the seam line and the fabric smoothed around the outer curve.  I tried that technique on my freezer paper templates, and was able to get much smoother curves.  Like I said - a learning process!

Now that I look at my finished block, I think it looks a little bare.  Some quilters added additional items to their cockscomb blocks - birds being the most popular addition.  I may have to go back and add a bird to my block, too!

  

Sneaux Day Quilting

You may have heard that parts of the Deep South experienced a little snowfall yesterday.  

At our house, all we had was cold rain and sleet, although a few places around town reported seeing fat, wet flakes falling from the sky.  Just north of the city there was enough snow to accumulate, which caused snowman building and snowball fights, not to mention vehicles slipping and sliding all over the roads.  Apparently Mike the Tiger, LSU's mascot, enjoyed his sneaux day, too!

You'd think the inclement weather would be a perfect excuse to stay home and quilt, but it didn't really work out that way.  Dear Hubby and I had planned on taking vacation days in honor of his birthday, so neither of us had to work.  Since the weather wasn't great for driving, our plans to go to the camp and/or do some antiquing got scrapped, and we wound up baking (bread and cookies) and doing Christmas decorating.   I tried to sneak in a little quilt-related activity, but didn't get far.

I started to trim the excess backing and batting from my Carpenter's Wheel quilt, but only finished one side.  I made the binding (all 300+ inches of it) last weekend, so once the quilt is trimmed and squared up, I will stitch the binding in place.  This quilt was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project in 2014; it's been hanging around, waiting for binding for over a year, so I'd really like to put in the finishing stitches before the end of 2017!

I made this mini 9-patch several years ago, using up scraps from Bento Box quilts I had made for my nieces.  

Bento Box quilt under construction, circa 2009.  Pattern by Tracey Brookshier.

The mini 9-patch sat around for a long time, waiting to be quilted.  Last week I decided this quilt needed to be DONE and set to work layering and pinning.  I found the just the right shade of orange thread in my stash and started by quilting in the ditch, because that was the easiest thing to do.  Next I did some quilting a quarter inch from the seams in the setting triangles.  I decided I liked the quarter inch quilting much better than quilting in the ditch and vowed never to use ditch quilting again unless absolutely necessary!  I finished up with more quarter inch quilting around the center of each 9-patch.  

I've almost finished hand-stitching the binding to the back of the quilt.  I love this orange bandana print backing!  

One more Finish 'Er Up project has been on the front burner over the past few weeks.  This quilt was inspired by a month of blue scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I've been working on it in fits and starts since the end of 2013, so I think it's time for this one to be DONE, too!

The quilt measures about 80 inches square right now, but I want it to fit on a queen-sized bed, so it needs to be at least 10 inches larger all around.  I want a blue and white fabric for an outer border, but haven't found The Right Thing at my local quilt shops.  I think I found a couple of candidates online, so I'm waiting for samples to arrive before I order yardage.  

Those are the projects I hope to wrap up for the end of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.  I still have plenty of RSC UFOs, but they will have to wait a bit longer to get finished.  In the meantime, I will be checking out how other RSC quilters are wrapping up their projects for the year!

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: 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!  

Prep Work in Blue

My blue Rainbow Scrap efforts this week have all involved prep work.  

 

With the design wall finally clear of other projects, I was able to lay out all the Sawtooth Star and 9-patch blocks for the blue and white quilt.  I made the blocks as a leader-ender project and randomly pulled 50 different fabrics to start.  The quilt is destined for the bed in our guest room, and I decided it needed more blocks to achieve the appropriate bed size.

 

I pulled some more blue fabrics from the stash and started cutting more parts & pieces.  My blue fabric stash (scraps & yardage) is pretty deep, in part because I made a blue and white signature quilt for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  I know there are several more blue scrap quilts in my future!

 

And here are all my block parts, organized for piecing.  I've got an additional 22 blocks ready to sew.  Even then, I'll be adding some borders to the quilt to get it to a decent bed size.  Lesson learned:  it takes a lot of 6" blocks to make a bed-sized quilt!

Since I didn't do much blue scrappy sewing this week, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been concocting with their blue scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

True Blue

It's another scrappy blue Saturday, time to share our Rainbow Scrap Challenge fun from this week.  I did some Greek Square blocks this week, but I think I created more blue scraps than I actually used!

I was hoping to try getting another picture of these blocks using outdoor lighting, but it's been so rainy this week I never had the opportunity.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the secondary patterns created when all the rainbow colors get combined in this quilt.

A few posts back I talked about the blue & white anniversary quilt I made for my parents.  I completely forgot about this blue & white cracker quilt I made for some friends as a wedding gift.  This one is also a signature quilt.  I took along a box of pre-cut white fabric strips and some Pigma pens and had all the wedding guests write messages during the reception.  I assembled everything after the wedding and presented it several months later.  This was done at least 15 years ago; happily, the friends are still married!

Speaking of weddings and anniversaries, today DH and I celebrate 33 years of marriage!  We're pretty laid back about celebrating, but I think we will make a trip down the road for a romantic dinner.  

In the meantime, I'll be linking up with the other Rainbow Scrap challengers over at Soscrappy's blog.  Check them out for lots of great scrappy ideas!

My World is Blue

Purple has always been my favorite personal color.  Purple clothes, purple jewelry, purple handbags, purple shoes...well, I don't think I've ever owned any purple shoes - guess I will have to fix that!

But when it comes to quilts, fabric (especially toile), decorating, china - blue and white are my all-time favorites!  Blue and white china (transferware) - small but growing collection.  Blue and white toile fabric - an embarrassment of riches!  Decorating schemes - some day I will have a blue & white bedroom.  Blue and white quilts - only one so far!

This Friendship Star quilt was made in honor of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary in 2003.  The star blocks have anniversary wishes from friends and family around the country, as well as pictures of my folks as children and newlyweds.  Wedding pictures of their three daughters round out the display.  The center medallion is a family group picture taken on the beach during the weekend of their anniversary celebration.  Mini friendship stars and more family pictures round out the outer border.  The free-motion quilting was done by my friend Annie Kusilek, using a treadle sewing machine.  

You would think after completing that scrappy memento I'd have a huge assortment of blue scraps.  The dirty little secret is that I don't really have scraps...more like yardage!  I have always intended to make more blue and white quilts, so I just keep collecting blue and white fabric!  Especially light-toned fabrics, as they can be hard to find.  Maybe what I need is a blue and white (scrap) quilt challenge!

I did have a fair number of ready-sliced 2" strips and squares, so assembling these 16 patches went pretty quickly.  I'll have to cut more strips and squares to complete my other rainbow blocks this month.  Maybe what I need to do is cut lots of blue squares and white squares and use them as leaders and enders.  I could have another blue and white quilt before the end of the year!

Blue is the color for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge installment - be sure to stop by Soscrappy's blog to see more amazing uses of the color blue!