SAHRR Week ~ Round 1 and other things

Monday began Round 1 of SAHRR for 2022! 

Anja's choice to start this year is..the curved-block. Now I don't do much curved piecing so I hemmed and hawed about what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to try to keep each round to no more than 3". My original thought would have needed a filler border to make the size work out. I scraped that idea but I had already added the borders. My final decision was to just add a drunkard's path block to each corner. To make it more interesting, I pieced the bars between each corner in opposite colors from the drunkard's path block. This round nicely frames the original block.

I'm linking to Anja Quilts.

I also finished 2 blocks for the January/February block drive. Kat choice of blocks for the beginning of the year is a string block. We are using the pattern from 2019. They will be in the mail soon.

I have been working on another quilt but I can't say much about it yet. I will leave you with a sneak peek. 

 

A flimsy and other progress

 I put together one of my RSC 2021 quilts! I even had time to sandwich it yesterday! 

The pattern is called Joy Luck by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. that I purchased many years ago. I hope to get to the quilting this week. My job at school has slowed down a bit and I have the week off from babysitting my grandson. My SIL landed a new job and starts next week so they gave me the week off. Hopefully I will be productive (if I'm not called into work.)

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, and Patchwork and Quilts

I added some peach blocks to my RSC- Wonky Shoo Fly blocks.

I also made charity blocks for Covered in Love. Kat introduced the Nov/Dec CiL block drive which are textured blocks. Other than sensory quilts, I had never seen a textured block/quilt. I was intrigued with a few of the patterns and made these.

gathered strip

undulating tucks

pintucks

I tried something new while I still could find a few flowers around. It is called flower pounding on fabric. I gathered some flowers that had some good colors and a few green leaves and laid them out. 

I covered the flowers with parchment paper and taped it down. 

Then with a rubber mallet, I pounded the flowers until I could see moisture/color released from the flowers. Some flowers released more color than others and the leaves were resistant. (Marigolds and geraniums released the best.)

Here is the result. After cleaning up the remaining parts of flowers, I ironed with a hot iron to set the colors. I'm not sure how colorfast this is so I may use a salt or vinegar fixative. I'm not sure how I will use this but I may add some embroidery to enhance the flowers and add texture.

Finally, here is my finished October calendar journal. 

Hope you have a good and productive week!

Reopened for business

 Yay! My sewing room remake is finished at least enough to move back in and use. I still need to organize some things in the new space and buy some bins. It feels so good and I really love my new cutting table!

Most of the room is the same; just rearranged except for the new cutting table and new flooring. For years I was using a cabinet from my mom which was raised up to the correct height by resting on cinder blocks for my cutting table. It worked fine but it was a bit wobbly. The floor was carpet and most difficult to keep clean of threads, fabric trimmings, and pins. 

We started with removing the carpet and laying vinyl floor planks. To replace the cutting table I found an IKEA hack using 3 Kallax 4x4 units. We bought a butcher block plank from Home Depot. My DH and I worked to put it together. My cutting mat fits perfectly on one end of the cutting table. 

(A little proof that I used power tools to help however, my DH did most of the work)

Throughout August, I participated in the #30daysofimprovqal on IG. For my final composition, I decided to add large borders of negative space to increase the size. 

Here is the final composition.

And today, I found a bit of time to pin baste it.

The start of September means August calendar journal is complete! I have been journaling a thing or two about each of my days since the beginning of the year! 

My calendar journaling actually goes back quite a few years ~in 2013 and 2014 I made monthly calendar pages out of fabric. When my mom got sick I could no longer keep up. During the following years I would see Annie's journals and how cool and creative they were. She inspired me to pick up calendar journaling once again ~ this time using a calendar download, printed on cardstock. 

I also finished the new charity blocks for the September/October block drive for Covered in Love. 

September brings a new color ~ ORANGE 

Stay tuned for projects in orange and the next step in the Macaron Mystery QAL.

Small progress in the sewing room

I'm still here in case anyone was wondering! 

Since the end of May, my life has significantly changed and although my time in my sewing room is limited, I have been blessed with having my grandson (and his mom and dad) living with us. 

Adjustments and routines are starting to get more established. 

That's a good thing!

His swing was hung up this weekend in our neighbor's tree right next to our house. His smile says it all!

(we don't have a large tree so our neighbor gave us permission) 

Filling some BIG shoes!

Walking along a local park's lakefront.

I DO have a few quilting things to show you. 

The blocks for the Covered in Love charity were announced in the beginning of July. As usual, these blocks are red, white and blue stars! Any kind that you want in a 12 1/2" unfinished size. 

Here are mine for this year!

 Below is the graph paper design process I used based on a 9-patch.

These blocks were made from my scraps. 

July also brought a new color for the RSC and that color was dark blues. 

Here is my dark blue column

and all the columns together!

So far we have had 2 greens, 3 blues, a pink and orange. What will be next?

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy. 

A couple of other projects that I have been working on are the t-shirt quilt for a special graduate. I had a bit of trouble getting more interfacing to stabilize the shirts but now they are all cut and puzzled together. 

I added a 2" gray border and it is ready to be sandwiched and quilted!

I mentioned working on Elvira (quilt pattern by GE quilt designs) back in April. 

It is almost done! I found enough time to sandwich and quilt it. I also got the binding sewn on and now I'm hand stitching it down. Hopefully, this will be a finish sometime this week!

My 'I Spy' quilt is also waiting to be sandwiched. And the Morewood Mystery Quilt has started! Learn more at Meadow Mist Designs. Are you joining? I am! It was so much fun last year!