Where has the summer gone?

 I can't believe it is the end of August, kids are back in school and Labor Day is quickly approaching. In the beginning of summer, I started a 100 day challenge to make 100 dress blocks based on the book, The Hundred Dresses. It wasn't easy making sure I took time each day to make a dress but I persevered and realized that I'm on my last 9 dresses! I also realized that I haven't blogged since July!

Many dresses were stitched since then but I will only post a few here. If you want to see all of them you can see them on my Instagram or Facebook posts. 

All the fabrics used in the dress blocks are from fabrics in my stash. 

 To involve others in my challenged, I asked those that wanted to vote for their favorite dress/girl. Several friends on Instagram and Facebook voted each week. It was interesting to see how varied everyone's choices were. This was a fun project with just a week to go!

What else have I've been doing? 

I finished my quilt based on Denyse Schmidt's class, The Proverbial Quilt. See my previous post. I will take photos over the Labor Day weekend. Stay tuned.

I made the August blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC)! August color is Aqua/Turquoise blue.

I finished the Scrappy Meets Thrift Challenge top. It is next in line for quilting!

Finally, my daughter and I spent last Friday indigo dyeing. Here are my results!

Another fun day of craftiness!

Quilt Class and RSC Blocks

 On June 27th, I was able to take a quilt class at a 'local' quilt shop, Quilter's Quest, with Denyse Schmidt! The class was based on her Proverbial Quilt. We were to come with a quote or saying that we would want to make a statement about. 

I chose the quote by Mayo Angelou 'Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.' The phase encapsulates the sentiment of the message in the song "God put a Rainbow in the Clouds." It inspired her to see the value in acts of kindness and to strive to be that kind of support for others. 

I came to the class with a loose idea of what I wanted to make. All the words except Rainbow were to be white with black prints and a black background. Conveniently, rainbow has 7 letters so each letter was a color from the rainbow with white as the background.

Denyse taught her process of making letters with her pattern for The Proverbial Quilt. We used scraps that we brought and background fabrics. During the class, I got many of the white/black letters and words finished. She encouraged us to make letters into words and words into phrases. She taught about spacing. There were large design walls to put our work as we completed words.

At the end of class, Denyse took all our finished words and phrases and tried to put them into a mixed up word soup. 

It was a fun class to take! It was similar to the improv letters class that I took with Nicholas Ball.  However, Denyse's pattern has a guide that makes it a bit easier. Both are great teachers and quilters! 

Here is the ABC's Sampler I made with Nicholas Ball.

At home, I continued to make letters and words and this morning I had a finished flimsy! YAY!

Thanks Elizabeth @emrohner for encouraging me to take the class with you!

Linking to Off the Wall Friday @Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Wait Loss Wednesday @The Inquiring Quilter, ToDo Tuesday @QuiltSchmilt

So July has arrived and the RSC color for this month is purple! I was able to get my purple blocks for this month finished early! Both traditional and improv block!

Please ignore the blue tape on my design wall. 

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy!

Orange RSC blocks

I am finally getting around to sharing my June orange blocks for the RSC! They actually have been done but I never shared. 

Here are the 5 traditional pieced blocks.

Here are all 6 month's colors together. I'm not sure of the final layout yet - whether in rows or intermingled.

Here are my 5 improv pieced blocks.

Here are 6 months of RSC improv blocks!

I'm linking up to ScrapHappySaturday over @SoScrappy!

Another quilt project that I made from a class through the @craftymonkies platform was a caricature of my pet, Nellie. The class was taught by SarahSpencer, @iothealien Sarah's methods were new to me and I really enjoyed the class.

After creating a likeness of Nellie (not her true colors) from a photo using raw edged applique, I outlined it using a technique new to me, quilted, and stretched it over a 12" x 12" canvas frame.

She has been a sweet girl to us and is now in her senior years of slowing down.  I really wanted to see if I could make a quilt from a photo of her. I may try one in her true colors!

Linking to Off the Wall Fridays @Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Wait Loss Wednesday @TheInquiringQuilter, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Sew & Tell @MelvaLovesScraps, and To Do Tuesday @QuiltSchmilt

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.