Purple sewing for RSC

           July's color for the RSC is purple! After I finished my Sweet Summer Strawberry quilt, I had time to pull out my purple scraps and work on my RSC blocks. 

My Hang Ten block and the bonus Squiggle blocks in purple delight!

And my gray and color of the month block (no name) in purple. 

I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday @So Scrappy. 

I also finished 31 9-patch blocks in red/white for the Oh Say Can You Sew QAL.

I'm linking to Off The Wall Fridays @Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Finished or Not Fridays @Alycia Quilts, Linky Party @Patchwork and Quilts, Friday Foto Fun @Powered by Quilting, TGIFF@Lisa in Port Hope.

It is time for the next mystery QAL with Meadow Mist Designs, Melodic Mystery. Cheryl sent out fabric instructions for July. This is my fabric pull. I decided to go with Christmas fabric since I have so much it wouldn't required a fabric purchase! 🤣

               I also decided to pull out a WIP that I had put aside for a while.                  Not quite a flimsy yet but I'm hopefully that it will be soon!

What are you working on?

Oh, My Strawberry Quilt!

 I finished my Sweet Summer Strawberries Quilt! 

The strawberries are all made from pink or red scraps from my stash. The green fabrics for the leaves, the border and the binding are also from my stash. The red dotted fabric for the backing is also from stash. The only fabric that was purchased was the strawberry fabric for the pieced back and some additional Kona White. It makes me so happy when I can use my stash with positive results!

The pattern is Strawberry Social by The Pattern Basket. It is machine pieced and mostly FMQ in various patterns: small loops with red or pink threads inside the the strawberries. Larger loops were FMQ with white thread outside the strawberries and even larger loops in the outer border. Curls were FMQ in the first white border and straight-line quilted around the strawberries and elongated zigzags in the sashing between the strawberries. With green thread, I FMQ leaves in the strawberry leaves and straight-line quilted around the stems. I also FMQ a string of leaves in the green border.  

This quilt finished at 53" x 66 1/4"

The photo with one of my strawberry plants!

And a bowl of fresh strawberries! Yum!

I'm linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Linky Party @Patchwork and Quilting, Free Motion Mavericks @ Quilting and Learning, Brag about Your Beauty @From Bolt to Beauty, TGIFF @chrisknits, Friday Foto Fun @Powered By Quilting, Off the Wall Friday @Creations, Quilts, Art...Whatever.

Quick Update

         I'm dropping by to give a quick update into what I've been working on.                   I did a bit of sewing for the 4th of July this year. I made some small flags and put them on a ribbon to string in my windows. 

I used scraps from my stash to create them. Each one is approx. 4.5" x 6.5" and the blue corner is 2" x 3". I sandwiched them together, then sewed around the raw edges. I also quilted straight lines in the stripes. I also used them in a small white box with my table runner and flags.

For my monthly sewing, I made my 4 blocks for the Stash Buster Challenge. I choose to make the blocks in purple this month which is also the color for the RSC blocks (which I haven't made yet.) 

I have been slowly working on quilting my strawberry quilt. 

It should be done soon if I get some more time to devote to 

quilting. It has been a busy time helping my daughter 

with the kids!

A new month means a calendar journal finish! 

Here is June (my birthday month!) 

Hope to be back soon! How is your summer going?

My Secret Sewing Reveal and Other Things

 I have been very quiet here on my blog but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing! I actually started and finished a bit of secret sewing. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my reveal reel. 

My daughter and SIL finally gave me an idea of what they wanted for their wedding quilt. We have had much conversation over the past year but when they told me they liked this pattern and the colors, I started right away. 

I ordered the pattern, Banner Day by Heather Black and some Kona cottons. I did change the colors a bit from the original pattern. I used Kona Prussian, Ivory, Natural, Shell, Seafoam, Yarrow, Raffia, Black and Snow. 

When I first looked at the picture, I wondered 'How do you make this?' But after reading through the pattern, I found that it is cleverly constructed to give the layered look and that it wasn't as complicated as it looks. Of course, there is a bit of curved piecing and some long straight piecing!

the picture looks like the quilt is not straight but it is just not smoothed out

                  The quilt is all machine pieced and machine quilted. The quilting                                    was inspired by the beautiful quilting by Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl                                  and her post about the quilting she did on her recent                                                   Garden Peony Quilt. I used several of her tips                                     and invaluable advice. The quilting is 1" apart. 

This quilt has an modern feel yet 

also a mid century modern feel...so I named it Modern Mix. 

The backing is pieced with a coordinating print and Kona solids.  

The binding is Kona black. 

My daughter and SIL, happy with their quilt!

The finished size approx. 60" x 72"

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts and Friday Foto Fun and Favorite Monthly Finish @Meadow Mist Design @Poweredbyquilting

In other quilty news, I finished 4 blocks for the Stash Buster Challenge.

...and 31 Ohio Star blocks for the Oh Say Can You Sew Mystery QAL. 

I have a few more projects in the works. Hopefully it won't take so long for the next reveal!

It's Strawberry Season at my house!

Nothing better than some freshly made strawberries (except freshly grown ones!) While I'm waiting for a fabric order, I started making these adorable strawberry blocks. I bought the pattern last summer and never got around to making them. It is called Strawberry Social by The Picnic Basket.

I will be making 7 more blocks. These are all make from my red, pink and green scraps! The background is Kona white. Aren't they just too cute!

I finished my 4 May blocks for the Stash Busters Challenge. 

So pretty in pink! Next I'll work in purple or turquoise!

Angela announced blue to be the color of the month for the RSC. 

Here are my blue blocks.

Blue with scrappy gray background

Blue Hang Ten quilt block

Blue Squiggle blocks

Here are all 6 color blocks together!

Although I forgot to post my April calendar, I have been keeping up. Here are my April and May calendar journals.

I'll be linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Friday Foto Fun @Poweredbyquilting, TGIFF @Anja Quilts

Hands2Help 2022 Challenge Parade

 I have participated in the Hands2Help Challenge since 2019. I came upon the challenge when Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict was hosting. That first year, I donated 1 quilt to Jack's Basket. In 2020 and 2021 I increased the number of quilts I donated. In 2020, they went to Little Lambs Foundation. In 2021, I donated to Little Lambs and Hometown Heros. This year, Sarah could not host due to personal reasons but Mari from The Academic Quilter stepped up. 

This year I donated 2 quilts to The Little Lambs Foundation. 

My first quilt is called Whirligig. I drew up this pattern on graph paper and found fabrics in my stash that would coordinate. 

The backing is a woven green plaid from my stash.

details: machine pieced and machine quilted in straight lines 1/2" apart.

It finished at 36.5" x 42.5" 

I knew that I wouldn't have time to make another quilt (see my previous post for why) but wanted to donate another one so I looked through the abundance of quilts that I have made and that have been living at my house in my quilt cabinet. I decided to chose one to donate to Little Lambs. This quilt is called Soho Chic.

I made this quilt in 2014. The fabric is by Sandy Gervais. I had several mini charm packs so I made 9-patch blocks and snowball blocks.

The finished size is 36.5" square.

I love this little quilt but it wasn't getting the love that it would get by being donated to a great cause. 

I added a label to note that this was donated as part of the Hands2Help 2022 Challenge and sent it off. 

I hope it will be as loved as much as I love it!

Linking to Hands2Help2022 Challenge Parade @The Academic Quilter

A very busy but very good time!

 It seems that things happen at the same time! We have been extremely busy in our personal lives and those of our kids. When my daughter announced that she would be having our 2nd grandchild in May, we knew it would be close to when our youngest daughter would graduate from pharmacy school. We just didn't know how close! It just happened that my daughter's scheduled C-Section was scheduled for May 17th and my other daughter's graduation was on May 20th (in Austin, TX.) Arrangements were made for watching Magnus (the big brother) after we needed to leave for Austin early Thursday morning. But before we left, we were able to visit our new granddaughter in the hospital!

Happy Mormor

Happy family

Magnus holding his baby sister

Sweet Freya Ruth

We were headed to Austin early Thursday morning and met up with my daughter and her fiance, Brendan. We met Brendan's parents for the first time and had a wonderful time getting to know them. We celebrated Brendan and Kari's engagement! However, the main event of the weekend was Kari's graduation from pharmacy school. We now have a Dr. of Pharmacy in our family! 

Congratulations Kari! We are so proud of you!

So in between all this excitement, I did finish 124 blocks for Clue 2 of the O Say Can You Sew! QAL. It took me nearly the entire month to finish and trim each block!

I also finished the stitching on my hoop embroidery project. I'm please with how it turned out. I still need to trim and secure it in the hoop!

I'll be linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Friday Fun Foto @Powered by Quilting, TGIFF @Sarah Goer Quilts, and Linky Party @Patchwork and Quilting

I'll be back tomorrow for the final parade of quilts for the 

Hands2Helps2022 Challenge!