May's Rainbow Scrap Challenge and some sewing behind the scenes

I'm happy to say that I have had the time to work on my RSC blocks early in the month! May's color is green! Such a nice color for May as the grass turns green, leaves and spring flowers start budding! 

I have a lot of greens in my stash from yellow green to dark green. I randomly chose 10 different greens to make my blocks - 5 traditional and 5 improv.

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy

One last 'catch-up' quilt from 2024 is Pattern Play. This quilt was made using techniques taught by @victoria_vanderlaan and stretched over a 12" x 12" canvas. I used some solid scraps from my scrap bin and improv piecing. 

I also have been sewing some secret projects. 
Firstly, I have been making a quilt for our son-in-law for his birthday. He is the only one in my immediate family without a quilt. Here is a glimpse.

I also was commissioned to make a wedding robe for my girlfriend's granddaughter from her mother's wedding dress. 

The wedding is in June but I'm sure none of them read my blog. 

After searching for a robe pattern that was the style that was wanted (wrap-around with sash tie), I started the deconstruction of the wedding gown. It was a bit tricky because behind the lace the satan was cut away. The layout needed to be strategically placed. I wanted to include the lace around the hem of the gown to go around the hem of the robe. 

The lace need to be reattached and stitched. I found that I didn't have enough satan for the sleeves so I needed to use the lace panels as the sleeves. I deconstructed the lace from the train of the gown and fitted 2 of them to bell sleeves. I also repurposed some the beaded lace to the back of the robe. 

Here is how it turned out! I'm please with it and more importantly, my friend and her daughter-in-law love it! The bride (or her sisters) haven't seen it yet. 

This has turned out to be a long post.  Thanks for hanging with me. I will save another of my secret projects for my next post! 

Linking to Finished or Not Fridays @AlyciaQuilts, and Off the Wall Fridays @Creations-Quilts, Arts and Whatever.

April's RSC blocks and some Stripe Hype

 I finally found some free time to work on April's RSC blocks! April's color of the month is red. 5 improv blocks and 5 traditional blocks. 

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at SoScrappy.

I'm still catching up with pictures of quilts I made in 2024 but forgot to post on my blog. Today I'm sharing my Stripe Hype collection. I made my first in September 2024 (read more here.) I decided to add to it and make a quartet of coordinating 10" x 10" stretched canvas pieces. 

The inspiration for these pieces came from various sources on Pinterest including an advertisement for a rug, an art print by Batta Anastasia, and some Bauhaus prints. I changed some of the colors to fit into my color palette of black, white and red. I very happy with this graphic line work.

I also joined a QAL @reproquiltlover on Instagram. It is called #scrappymeetsthriftchallenge. I'm making the 3" paper pieced economy block using the template by Taryn. Here are my first 25 blocks!

I'm linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, TGIFF @Devoted Quilter, and Off the Wall Fridays @Creations-Arts Quilts Whatever.
 

March RSC blocks and another finish from 2024

 March is almost over and although I finished these blocks about a week ago, I haven't had time to post. March's color for the RSC is yellow. I made 5 yellow traditional blocks to join January and February's blocks. 

And 5 yellow improv blocks to join January and February's blocks.

I'm enjoying making these blocks and it is fun to see the difference between the traditional and improv of basically the same block.

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @Soscrappy

In my last blog post, I wrote about my Wish Upon a Star quilt that was started at the @craftymonkies retreat last summer. Another of the quilts that I started there was my Citrus quilt. At the retreat, Nicholas Ball taught a class called Fruits and Vegetables. If you don't know about Nicholas Ball, he is a improv extraordinaire! I went into the class with the idea that I would make a grapefruit with the possibility of adding additional citrus fruits later. I left the retreat with this completed block.

Once I got home and started on the orange, lemon, and lime blocks, I realized that the grapefruit should be the largest fruit but it wasn't. So I carefully unpicked the peel, the pith and then added a section and increase the size of the current sections. I then added back the pith and the peel. This is the final grapefruit block.

Here are the 4 citrus fruits together.

I straight line quilted this piece vertically about 1/4" apart but I used citrus colored threads to out line the word citrus. 

Citrus finished at 31" x 31" and was completed in October 2024.

I'm linking to Finished or Not Friday over @Alyciaquilts

Memory Quilt and more

 March has been a busy month for me! I have been working on a few behind the scenes projects. Some I have finished and some are still ongoing. 

I previously mentioned my colleague and friend's sister who passed away a few years ago and left her 3 children behind. I offered to make quilts for them in memory of their mom from some of her clothes. I previously finished quilts for her 2 nieces. You can see them here and here.  I had one left to make for her nephew. I wanted to make a more masculine quilt so I decided to highlight the textures in the clothes and frame the squares with coordinating cottons. 

I cut 12" squares and stabilized them (like making a t-shirt quilt). I tried to get 2 squares from each article of clothing but a few I could only manage to get one. Once the borders were sewn, I arranged the squares in a pleasing and balanced order. 

The quilt was machine pieced and mostly straight line quilted (4 blocks FMQ). Each block has different quilting depending on what spoke to me. 

The back is a large piece of backing fabric: black brush stokes. The binding is in Kona Glacier.

I delivered it to my friend at school this past week. She was deeply touched and said it would be appreciated and loved by her nephew.

I labeled it with this poem.

Maker photo! Finished size 48" x 64"

Here is another one of my quilts from 2024 that escaped getting attention on my blog. 

Wish Upon a Star is a wallhanging quilt that was made following the @Craftymonkies retreat. The class was from Collage to Quilt and was taught by @SarahHibbert. At the retreat I made a collage out of paper scraps. Once home, I pick this collage to make into a quilt.

Sorting through my stash I found fabrics that would work nicely to replicate the collage.

Using the technique that Sarah explains in her book (From Collage to Quilt), I enlarged the image to the desired size. 

Once it was pieced, I quilted in straight lines with coordinating thread colors. Then I stretched it over a canvas frame using the method taught by @victoria_vanderlaan (another teacher at the retreat). I am so proud of this accomplishment!

Maker photo!

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!