Progress has been made

 First, I realized that I never posted the finished quilt Oh Say Can You Sew. I posted process photos here and here , but not the finished quilt which I completed in September. We took it on vacation to Colorado to take photos! Hope you enjoy! 

I also have been working on a very special quilt for the oldest niece of my colleague and friend. Two years ago, my friend's sister died suddenly leaving behind her 3 kids, husband, parents and siblings. It has been very hard especially on the kids. 

 Shortly after I heard the news, I offered to make a quilt for each of the kids from their mom's clothes. Understandably, it took over year before they were ready to sort through her clothes. My friend asked if I was still willing to make a quilt from her sister's clothes. Of coarse I'm was willing to make 3 (or more.) 

I wanted to make something that would show off the fabrics with big pieces. I found the pattern Metamorphsis by Lo & Behold Stitchery which seemed perfect. As I was waiting for the pattern to arrive, I started deconstructing the clothes I picked out for the 1st quilt. 

I worked on piecing the butterfly blocks between our travels and babysitting time with the grandkids. Soon the flimsy was ready!

Then the quilting... I quilted 7 diamonds along the body, then I auditioned several possible patterns to quilt in the wings, choosing a star template I had and placed it so that one point was centered on the body and filled the rest of the wing.

For the background, I FMQ a loopy meander adding butterflies on occasion. 

Introducing 'A Quilt for Sylvie' 

I was able to visit my old school to deliver this quilt and visit with my friends. I love retirement but I do miss teaching!

Today I am still hopeful that I will be able to start the quilting on my RSC - Buttons quilt. I sandwiched and basted it yesterday!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link Party @ Patchwork & Quilts, Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter, and Design Wall Monday@Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

I'm back and so soon 😜

 I'm back again with more updates of what's been happening. Since I didn't want to overwhelm my last post, I decided to split it in 2 so here is part 2.

August's color of the month for the RSC is yellow! Since I was on vacation for the first 2 weeks of August, I got started with my yellow button blocks this past week. 

I can't wait to see all these buttons together as I now have quite the stack of button blocks! I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SO Scrappy

This is the 3rd year that I have participated in the #30daysofimprovqal hosted by @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio. The QAL started on July 30th and we are in the 4th week. Again, I was on vacation for the first 2 weeks but caught up by doing all 3 prompts in one week - stripes, L shapes, and triangles! This week was curves! 

As you can see, this year I am sewing only from my green scrap bin. I will probably make a few more blocks as we arrange and rearrange in Composition Week next week. 

Before my vacation, I pulled out a UFO that I started last year called 'Oh Say Can You Sew' on Facebook. The original quilt pattern called for 1152 - 1 1/2" HST. 

That is where I stopped and put the project bin away.  

After pulling that bin out again, I decided to cut down the size of the finished quilt so I would need to make fewer HSTs to finish. I would only need 648. The quilt will still be a nice size laid out in a 5x7 grid. 

Here is a peek at my current progress. I have all the blocks finished and I'm working on piecing the sashing. All fabrics are from my stash or scraps. 

I think that I can see the light at the end of this tunnel. It is rare for me to put away a quilt that I have started for as long as this one sat. Do you have projects that you give up on? Do you eventually finish them? 

Progress!

Last year I participated in a QAL called Oh Say Can You Sew. Clue 5 ask you to make 128 blocks which were made from 9- 1" HST. That meant I needed to make 1152 - 1 1/2" unfinished HST! That is a LOT of very small HSTs! 

After making 80, I put the project aside and forgot about it. Well sort of...it was in one of my project boxes just looking at me...reminding me that this UFO needed attention. So this week while I waited for the backing fabric I ordered for the mountain adventure quilt, I picked it up and took some time to figure out where I left off. Instead of making more HSTs right away, I decided to make the ones already completed into 9-patch blocks. Here is my progress.

I also cut more tumbler blocks for my EPP project so they would be ready to come on vacation with me.

I finished the binding on the quilt I made for a wedding gift! I love how it turned out! Shh! It is a surprise but I don't think anyone involved reads my blog. 

The bride wanted muted greens and my daughter picked the pattern. I did make slight changes in the pattern. I haven't yet found a name for it. A couple ideas are 'Agave You' (I love you) or just 'Agave'. My daughter thought the quilt reminded her of an agave plant hence the names.  Any suggestions are welcome! Help me decide!

The backing is all one piece.

Linking to Monday Musing @Songbird Designs, To-Do Tuesday @For the Love of Fabric, Design Wall Monday @Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Sew & Tell @Melva Loves Scraps

I also finished piecing this little baby quilt and I now received the backing I order so I need to get started on sandwiching and quilting!

Hopefully I will get started on this soon!

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?

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!

Part 2 - The Quilt Blocks

 My last post was getting a bit long so I thought I would continue on Part 2 for the quilt blocks I finished. 

For May, Angela announced sage and/or dark greens as the color of the month. I pulled my green fabrics and started cutting for the Hang Ten block.

The bonus of this block is the HST I use in my Squiggle blocks. 

Then I pulled more greens and some scraps of gray for my 3rd RSC block.

I will link up with Scrap Happy Saturday @So Scrappy.

I made 2 blocks in pink for the Stash Buster Challenge on FB.

Kat over @Kat and Cats quilts posted the new block for the 

May/June 

blocks for Covered in Love charity. Here are my blocks. 

On YouTube, I have been following Lisa Bongean for her QAL: Oh Say Can You Sew. This is a mystery QAL but I decided to try it because of the patriotic colors. Each month another clue is released. I finished working on Clue 1 for April.

Scrappy 9 patch blocks in blue and white!

I'm also getting close to finishing my Hands2Help donation quilt. Stay tuned for a separate post about this great cause!