February RSC blocks

 Today I am sharing my RSC blocks for February (and January). February's color is blue! I have lots of blue scraps in my stash so I made 5 blocks of each of my blocks patterns. 

This is my traditional block.

In January, I only made 3 blocks of each so I added 2 more pinks!

This is my improv block. 

Again I added 2 more blocks of pinks.

I'm liking these blocks a lot! Can't wait to see how this all develops! Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @So Scrappy

Happy Valentine's Day! 

I love to make cards for my friends and family for Valentine's Day. This year I decided to play with watercolors and hearts. I searched for inspiration on Pinterest and this is the result of my play!

These are postcard size cards. I wrote little messages to each person on the back. 

It was a fun activity! 

I also made 3 postcards with stitched paper hearts for my 3 grandchildren. Here is a picture of 2 of the 3 cards. I forgot to take a picture of the 3rd before delivering it. 🤷‍♀️ It was like the bottom heart but in red thread.

First Finish of 2025!

I have a finish! Yesterday I put the last stitch in on the binding of the Marble Mystery quilt! Today I braved the cold weather to get some outside photos of the quilt. 

This QAL was hosted by Cheryl @meadowmistdesigns

Cheryl hosts a QAL every year and I have participated in many. I love Cheryl's patterns and the way the QAL is written. It gives plenty of time to complete each step along the way! The Marble Mystery QAL began back in July 2024 and the last clue was released in January. All completed quilts and quilt tops will be on parade on March 10th.

The top and bottom border was added to make the quilt rectangular rather than square.  It is all machine pieced and machine quilted - both straight-line and FMQ.

I built the color theme around the multi-colored print that I was gifted several years ago. The pink, green and yellow prints were smaller pieces in my stash.  Only the Kona Violet was purchased for this quilt. 

The backing is a larger yellow print that I had in my stash!

The finished size is approx 65" x 76"

Here is my quilt maker photo! 

I'm linking up to the Marble Mystery linking party here. 

Welcome 2025!

 I'm back and hopefully will be able to blog on a more consistent basis this year! Although 2024 had so many fun things packed in, it made for an extremely busy year! I will attempt to post about some additional quilts from 2024 at the end of each post (until I catch up), mostly for myself, as a record of my quilts. 

Starting out 2025, I finished the top for the Meadow Mystery QAL! 

This QAL is called Marble Mystery and was designed by Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs. She offers this annual QAL free. I have been doing her QALs for many years. They are well written and I love her designs. If you are like me and don't like mystery QALs, Cheryl offers a secret sneak peek. It helps me in my color choices and I feel confident that I will like the quilt after all the work put in. 😆

This quilt is about 63" square. I am thinking of adding an additional border to the top and bottom to make it a rectangular quilt. The final reveal parade will be in March!

I also will be joining the RSC QAL over @SoScrappy. This is my 13th or 14th year of joining in on this quilty fun. January color was announced as pink!

This year I choose to make this stripe block. I will alternate the month's color with a cream color. I'm using Confetti Cotton Vintage White from my stash for the background. I will make 3-4 blocks in each color. The block is 9 1/2" square.

While sewing the first blocks, I decided to try to do the same block but improv stripes. The color of the month is paired with a gray from my stash (not exactly sure the color name). This block is 8" square. 

I am linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy.

Now for one of many quilts from 2024 that need some time on my blog:

I made this quilt from a class I took with @quiltcarl through the @Craftymonkies platform. The class was called Improv Toolbox and I'm calling this Mix It Up. Carl taught a lot of different techniques as well as encouraged us to look up Irene Roderick and her book Improv Quilting. 

The backing is this graphic black and white fabric from my stash pieced with a strip of black. 

I quilted it with straight line quilting with 4 different color threads. This piece finishes at 31" x 35"

I'm liking to Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, TGIFF @BooksandBlocks, Put your Foot Down @AQuiltery, Off the Wall Friday @Creations, Art Whatever, and Free Motion Mavericks @QuiltingandLearning

More 2024 quilts to come! 

Finished my RSC quilt for 2024

 Right before leaving for Colorado and our daughter's wedding, I put the final stitches in the binding of my 2024 Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, Circle of Friends! 

Since we were driving to Colorado and spending about 10 - 12 days there, I tucked the quilt in the car hoping to get in a photo shoot. 

We were way too busy leading up to the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding! 

You know I needed to show of few snaps from the wedding!

Beautiful venue

The day after, we took off for a short trip into the mountains for some hiking (and photoshoot)!

Here is my finish!

The pattern is Circle of Friends. Here is the free tutorial. All the monthly color blocks were made from fabrics from my scrap bins. The flying geese border was previously made from prior RSC project's bonus HSTs. I put them together into flying geese. I had enough to go around 2 of the corners. Lesson:Don't throw away those bonus HSTs, they may come in handy someday!

I quilted it in a large off set spiral.  

Backing is scraps from a previous quilt back.

The photoshoot was taken at Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado. It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp day to hike and for the photoshoot!

The finished size of this quilt is 41" x 52.5"

Rainbow Scrap Challenge finished until next year! 

Need to find a block pattern to make next!

I'm linking to Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter, Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrapy, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Midweek Makers @QuiltFabrication, Needle and Thread Thursday @MyQuiltInfatuation, and TGIFF @Devoted Quilter, Put Your Foot Down @A Quiltery, Off The Wall Friday @ Creations, Free Motion Mavericks @Quilting and Learning

Summer Update: Part 6

After getting back in mid August, I got to work on catching up on quilting. I was able to make several on the RSC blocks that I have let go during this busy season. 

May's color was pink

June's color was blue

July's color was aquamarine

August's color was orange

September's and October's colors are dark

I actually made a brown and black, and to even out my blocks to 12, I made a light green and a peach block.

Here are all my Circle of Friends blocks!

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy

Summer Update: Part 5

Moving right along in my busy season, I started working on a baby quilt for my daughter's baby shower.  The theme for the nursery is Costa Rican jungle with Monstera leaves and toucans. The color theme is muted greens, blues with some pinks and yellow highlights. 

The paper piece quilt pattern I purchased was only one block that finished at 18". It came without instructions. It was a bit tricky to figure out how to sew the blocks together. 

Each block had 16 sub blocks that are sewn together to make an 18" block. The number of pieces in each of the sub blocks ranged from 6 to 25. I made 6 blocks for a total of 684 pieces of fabric in the quilt. It finished at 36.5" x 53".

We had a beautiful day to celebrate this new life and the parents to be!

It was a pleasure to shower this couple and my newest granddaughter with love!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, and Wednesday Wait Loss @TheInquiringQuilter

Summer Update: Part 4

 On August 1st, my husband and I climb aboard our flight to Norway! About a year ago, we had booked a voyage on Havila Voyages from Bergen, Norway to Kirkenes, Norway and back - a 12 voyage! Our total trip with travel days was 15 days!

My husband was born and grew up in Norway and it has been a Bucket List item for many years. 

After a day visit in beautiful Bergen, Norway, we boarded the ship, Polaris with our close friends On August 3rd. 

Note: We took hundreds of photos but I will limit to one or 2 per day. If you are interested, head to my Instagram page for more from each day of our voyage.

Bergen harbor

We set sail and on our first day, we sailed into Geirangerfjord, a famous fjord on the west coast of Norway. 

On Sailing Day 2 we spent some time in Trondheim, Norway where we took a city walking excursion along the Nidelva River to the Nideros Cathedral.

Sailing Day 3

We spent a relaxing day on the ship enjoying the beautiful sites along the coast of Norway! Sunset in Rorvik, Norway

Sailing Day 4

We passed the Arctic Circle today! We also sailed the magical Trollfjorden. What a beautiful site!

Arctic Circle marker

Sailing Day 5

Today we took an excursion to the North Cape where we saw reindeer herds owned by the Sami people. I also surprised my husband with arranging a trip to the bridge to meet the Captain!

North Cape marker

Sailing Day 6

Today we are in Kirkenes, Norway's most eastern town. We did some visiting but it was early and most things we closed. 

We start on the southern route back to Bergen. Although there were many more days, the ports are basically the same but at different times. I will share some of the wonderful food we had aboard the ship!

Norway is an absolutely beautiful country and the Havila Voyage cruise are a delight! Go check them out!