Rainbow Scrap Challenge finish

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and time with family and friends. We had a wonderful time and found time to rest and reflect on the Reason for the Season, the Birth of Jesus!

I also found some time to work in my sewing room completing my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, Rainbow Geese. 

I added blocks of peach and gray to bring the total blocks to 12. In making these blocks, the small HST blocks become a bonus. They are 3/4" finished and work great in the border. I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday. This will be my last flimsy finish in 2018. 

I have also kept up with my Temperature quilt...only 7 blocks to go!  

I'm looking forward to new challenges in 2019! 

What challenges, quilt alongs, mystery quilts, etc. have you joined for 2019? 

Some sunshine finally!

Hello Mr. Sunshine! It has been a while since you have come out! 

I finally was able to take some pictures of My Little Blue Neighborhood quilt. Since it has been done, we has seen little sunshine and it also gets dark so early that by the time I get home from school, there isn't time to do a photo shoot. 

Last Saturday, I was able to go to the place that I wanted to do some photos only to find that it was too sunny. My quilt was washed out.

The shadows were coming quickly.

On the back I put the 3 houses that I found duplicates of and started a 'new subdivision' for my neighborhood. 

The colors and whites are a bit off due to too much sunlight but I really like the painted brick wall background so I went back again for another shoot.

The colors are much better! 

Just down from the 1st photo shoot, I found a string already strung across the bricks. How convenient! 

 All labeled! A finish!

I also started putting together my Flying Geese RSC quilt. I added two additional blocks, one gray and the other peach, to make 12 blocks. 

I also pulled out the small HSTs that resulted from making the flying geese blocks. I am planning on using them for a border as shown above. They are pretty small and will finish at about 3/4" , adding about 1 1/2" to the size of the quilt. It should finish at 37.5" x 49.5". 

I added another row to my temperature quilt...only 2 rows left for 2018!

Linking to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River,  Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

Busy times and updates

Once again I have failed to keep up with life, quilting and blogging. 

The month of November was quite a blur as we welcomed (and helped move) our DD1, her partner and dog, Ole to our home after they lost their lease and decided to try to save some money to buy instead of keep renting. We moved most of their things to storage and the rest to our house. 

We are glad to help but I have to admit, it is a bit of adjustment after being empty nesters for many years. 

Thanksgiving week, we welcomed home our DD2, our SIL and their dog, Miss Sadie and our DD3. The house was full and BUSY!

We hiked. We ate out. We visited. We cooked. We crafted. We baked. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. So many blessings to be thankful for! We took the opportunity for a family picture (missing one). 

On Friday, we ventured downtown as our out-of-town kids wanted to have a family day there. We strolled through Maggie Daly Park, and Millennium Park. Saw the Chicago Christmas tree and went to Cindy's on top of the Chicago Athletic Association Building for a beautiful view of the skyline. We also went to the (very crowded) Christkindlmarket for some holiday cheer!

 Maggie Daly Park

kids of all ages @Maggie Daly Park 

 Millennium Park

 Chicago Tree
still too light out to get the full effect

view from Cindy's

 my daughters and me from Cindy's

hubby bought me a giant pretzel at the market

On Saturday, we had a Baby Shower for my DD2 with our friends and family. 

(I am limiting the number of pictures from the shower as this post is a bit photo heavy)

dessert table

 center piece we crafted

our dear friend said the welcome and dedication

On Sunday, DD3 flew back home early. DD2, SIL and Miss Sadie headed back home a little after 1:00pm. A storm was brewing so even though it was sad to see them go, we were happy for them to get out before the weather got bad. 

It was a good thing because at 1am my husband woke and said we had lost power. The blizzard was in full force. It was 36+ hours before we had electricity and HEAT. Schools were closed for a Snow Day on Monday so my job was cancelled. By Monday night, the temperature had dropped to 20º and it was COLD in our house. It gets dark by 4:30 so we had candles and battery operated lanterns to give some light. My husband had to leave for an out-of-town business trip which left my daughter and me with 2 dogs. Thankfully, the power was restored on Tuesday afternoon! It took a bit to get everything back online but we are back up. 

As for quilting, My Little Blue House quilt is waiting for an opportunity to photograph it. It is all finished. I hope to have pictures soon!

I also put together one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. 

I decided to add a dog as if sitting in front of the quilt as I took a picture. Kind of like a photo bomb...? This will be a charity quilt. It is waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. 

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday @ So Scrappy

I also have been working on trying to catch up on my Temperature quilt. I continued to log the daily highs and lows but have to admit that I fell quite behind on actually making the blocks. 

At least, I'm into November now.  See how the temperatures are dropping. Orange and reds are gone for the year. I will start to see more greens and blues now as we come to the end of 2018! 

In the Nick of Time

October is almost over and yesterday was the last Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge ~ Scrap Happy Saturday! 

I had to get my dark green blocks completed!

So I carved out a bit of time this week to catch up, once again, on the blocks. 

Here is the Plus Blocks: 

and the Flying Geese Block:

I usually make a few more blocks to add to the size of the quilt even though this was the last official color of the month. 

I will link to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy. 

 Now on to catching up on my Temperature Quilt!

Update!

It seems like forever since I have had anything to post about. Life just seems to get busier and my best intentions seem to go by the wayside. 

Until this week, I have had only little snippets of time to sew. So instead of starting a new project, I have been working on making progress on my little blue neighborhood. I could do a house in a small amount of time so I got several done. The next thing I knew, the population had grown to 100 little blue houses! 

After looking at the 100 houses and my almost diminished supply of different blue scraps, I decided that the neighborhood had reached it's quota. 

I sewed them into a 10 X 10 grid of houses. 

I then searched for a border that I thought would frame the neighborhood. I decided on a diamond chain border. Before I was even finished with it, I knew that it would need something more. 

Years ago, I framed my landscape quilt with a double border with mitered corners. I would do a mitered border but I would do a triple border. 

I love how it turned out! 

Each house is 4", the diamond border is 4", and the triple mitered border is 

2 1/2" making the quilt 53" squared.

I started making the blue and white houses back in February 2016 as a 'fill in' project when I didn't have enough time to work on anything else. I last reported on the neighborhood in August with 81 finished houses. I didn't really see the end of this project until I reach 100! 

While putting it together, I did find 3 duplicates fabrics, so I made 3 additional houses. The duplicates will probably end up on the back of the quilt. With 100 fabrics over almost 4 years, it was getting difficult to remember if I had already used certain fabrics. 

Next step...on to the quilting!

Linking up to To Do Tuesday @Stitch All the Things and Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

Doing some catching up

It has been a while since I have update my temperature quilt! My summer plans were to start and complete a few quilts. In doing so, it was hard to sneak in time to do the regulars like my temperature blocks. I did, however, continue to log the highs and lows of every day!

I spent the last few days catching up on it...cutting all the block pieces and piecing them together, then the rows and finally adding them to the top! 

Here it is!

Look how warm our summer has been! I think we will have at least another row of those warm colors before the colors start to shift back to the cool yellow and greens AND before getting into the cold blues. 

Since we are in September already, the Rainbow Scrap Challenged announced a new color ~ dark blues. Plenty of those in my scrap bin! 

Here is my flying geese block.

I really like this block and will probably add more blocks to make the size of the quilt bigger! I will be limited by the amount of the crosshatch fabric I have left.

I also finished the Plus blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Only a few more months to go!

I'm linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts, Making Monday at Love Laugh Quilt, Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag, To Do Tuesday at Stitch All The Things, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, and Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy

After a Small Hiatus

First , let me tell you about our news and why I took a small hiatus from blogging (quilting and knitting, too) to visit family in Austin. We have some pretty exciting things happening there! My DD2 and SIL are expecting their first child AND our first grandchild in January! They are very excited as are we! 

Baby K Bump! They are not finding out the sex of the baby so we all will be surprised upon arrival!

These are a few of the things my daughter has made. She indigo dyed the onesie, made the teether/pacifier leash with teething beads and stitched one of her ultrasound pictures of Baby K! 

We were able to be in Austin for one of the ultrasounds! Things sure have changed since I had my daughter 30 years ago! Pretty amazing!

My SIL practicing on Miss Sadie!

MORE exciting news from Austin is that my DD3 was cloaked with her white coat at the ceremony officially starting her entry into Pharmacy School. In 4 years she will be a PhD! 

We are incredibly proud of her!

Since I have been back, I pieced another baby quilt! 

I love the churn dash block and this block came up on my Pinterest feed and I knew that I needed to would make it!

I had the perfect fabric in my stash...a sweet baby pink fabric with little flowers and the same fabric in a soft yellow! 

And guess what I did with all the HST cutoffs from the Churn Link block? Yep, I made them into small 4" churn dash blocks. 

These will be pieced into the backing! 

More on the technique I used to pieced these small blocks coming!

Happy Quilting!

A finish!

I'm excited to show you my latest finish! Last Friday, I showed you the spiral quilting on my quilt, Blush. Today, I'll can show you it all finished! 

I added quilting in the white borders around the 4 patch blocks, in the sashing between the blocks, more quilting in the white borders and in the ditch of the piano keys. 

The quilting in the border corners of the 4-patch blocks reminds me of  arrowheads. Sometimes I get stuck on how to turn the corners when quilting. Do you feel this way too? 

The quilting in the sashing are flowers that mimic the flowers in the fabric. 

I quilted flying geese in the borders and also a rope. Lots of different elements. 

The fabric line is Blush by Basic Grey and it was the first fabric bundle I purchased way back when I was a fairly new quilter. The background is Kona White, I think the inner border is Kona Bahama Blue, and the binding is Kona Chocolate. 

The back was pieced using all the remaining fabric from the line and a few coordinating pieces from my stash. 

The quilt finishes at approx. 51" x 61".

It sure does feel good to have another finish before school starts!

I'm linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, To Do Tuesday at Stitch All Things, Color Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon Quilting, and MCM at Cooking Up Quilts.

Under my needle

After finishing my Rhythm in Blues quilt and catching up on my RSC blocks, I had time to start a new project. 

I challenge myself to work from what's in my stash as much as possible. 

In my stash, I was gifted a large amount of fabric with bees on it. 

Did I ever mention that my husband is a hobby bee keeper with some friends? We have been around bees and harvesting honey for many years. I'm sure most of you have heard of the situation with bees dying and campaigns to save the bees. So I decided to use the 'bee' fabric to make a quilt. 

I found the pattern Pinwheel Puzzle by Elaine Theriault in the March/April 2018 issue of McCall's Quilting magazine. I made it a bit smaller than the pattern and then added the words Save the Bees on the side. I used the book Spelling Bee by Lori Holt for the letters. The top is finished but it needs to wait for quilting until I finish what went under my needle this morning...Blush!

I pieced this quilt back in May but it has been waiting for quilting. I pushed the Harry Potter, Rhythm in Blues and KF Mini ahead of it so it starting nagging begging me to start quilting it. Yesterday, I got busy and sandwiched it and this morning it went under the needle. I quilted the spirals in the centers of the 4 patch blocks. Borders and sashings are next. 

I'm linking up to Finished or Not Fridays at Busy Hands Quilt, Can I get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Off the Wall Friday at Creations.

Here is my entry for Pets on Quilts 2018! 

Nellie loves to sit on the quilt and rest her head as she watches out the window! Feel free to vote for her! Head over to see all the cute furry friends!

New monthly color and a neighborhood update!

August is here and a new color has been announced for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge ~ ORANGE!

I was able to find some time yesterday to work on my RSC blocks! 

Plus Sign blocks

Flying Geese Block

I'm linking to Scrap Saturday at So Scrappy. 

I'm excited to announce that my little neighborhood has grown. Another population explosion and we are up to 81 houses! 

I still haven't run out of blue scraps! Each house is made out of a different blue fabric mostly from my scraps. My friend, Joy, gave me a few of her blue scraps to add to the neighborhood. I'm always looking for more so I can keep expanding my neighborhood! Since these houses are only 4 1/2" unfinished, it doesn't take a big scrap. 

Do you have some blue scraps to share?   

Linking to Show Off Saturday at She Can Sew

Rhythm in Blues!

Rhythm in Blues is finished! 

It went from this idea

to this finished quilt!

My daughter has been doing indigo dying and has been encouraging me to try dying my own fabrics for my quilts. I just haven't been able to get all the supplies ordered when I found Marika Indigo Batiks by Connecting Threads. While at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago (way back in April), I purchased a Strips Pack (their name for a jelly roll). I realized that I would need an additional pack and some yardage for the ends and backing. I ordered them and then they sat for some time as other things got priority of my time. 

I finally was able to start cutting out the fabric and sewing! 

After opening the Strip Pack, I realized that 4 of the strips (in each pack) were with white background, so I put them aside to use as the borders. The rest were cut in 10" pieces for the field of my quilt. 

I sewed the strips together in the method you would use to join strips together for making a binding. However, since I wanted the angles to be different on each end to form a trapezoid, the layout of the fabric and angle drawn is different. 

I named my quilt Rhythm in Blues because of the movement created by the alternating trapezoid shapes. I quilted using a freeform curve idea I found on Pinterest. 

My quilt finishes at 46.5" x 56".

I wrote up a pattern with more pictures if you are interested in making my quilt Rhythm in Blues. I would love to see your version! You can share by tagging me @dmtornes #rhythminblues on Instagram.

Here is the link to my pattern Rhythm in Blues.

I'm linking up to Finished or Not Fridays at Busy Hands Quilts, Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and TGIFF at Anja Quilts.