Happy Valentine's Day!

                                 Roses are Red, White is the Snow.                                        What could be better, than a finish to show? 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, I have finished my Under the Sea (#shoalsewalong) quilt! I love this quilt! It was super fun to make and I tried new things and learned new techniques!

After I finished the top, it hung on my design wall for some time while I finished quilting my Watermelon Sparkler quilt. Everytime I looked at it, I felt it wasn't quite right. Originally I had all the fish facing the same way. It needed to have a rebel fish or three. I ripped out the fish I wanted to turn around and restitched them. Much better!

This quilt was made following the improv techniques of Nicholas Ball from his book Inspiring Improv and sewing along with him on Instagram. I also took a class with him on Craftmonkies. Take one if you can! 

This quilt finished size is about 30" x 50" 

      I used the techniques of facing a quilt for the first time instead of binding.                                      Thanks to several recommendations on Instagram.                                              I used the tutorial by cottonandbourbon. It is in her highlights.                      The picture above shows the backing with a pieced border and the facing as well       as how I quilted it with gentle curves to simulate the movement of water.         The backing fabric is a piece I bought on our trip to Hawaii.

This picture show the pocket I added to hang it!

All the fabric used in this quilt was from my stash! YAY!

                                      It lives on my living room wall!                                           I'm linking to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop, Finished or not Friday, and Linky Party.

 Although this past week has been incredibly busy (subbing every day, knitting club on Monday evening, and book club on Wednesday), I finally was able to work on my SAHRR clue. Roseanne and Sue from Home Sewn By Us were the hosts this week.                                            They chose a checkerboard.                                             Here is what my SAHRR quilt looks like after adding my checkerboard border.    

I'm a little late to the party but better late than never!

I'm linking to SAHRR linky party for Round Four!

With Monday off because of President's Day and my district is giving us Friday off so we all can get our second vaccination, I should have more time to sew this week! 

Hopefully with an update for the Morewood Mystery finish!

Another Busy Week

I had another busy week this week! We had a 'snow day/remote learning day' on Tuesday so my Tuesday job was cancelled but I worked on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! I found out on Wednesday that my District was able to secure Covid-19 vaccines for all staff including regular substitutes in the district. It happened very quickly as the dates were Thursday and Friday! I was able to get an appointment for Thursday after school! I never have been more excited to get a shot!

I am thankful that our district was able to get the vaccines! #IGotMine #OneStepCloser

In my sewing room, I continued to sew on the shoalsewalong and I got my fish top finished. Nicholas explained his technique of putting together 'slabs' using the puzzle method. Here is my top!

I did make a few minor changes since this picture. 

I'm linking to the link party @Patchwork and Quilts, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict      

I also put the back together so I'm just about ready to figure out the quilting! 

But before that can happen, I needed to get to this:

My Starlight Mountain Quilt that I finished a October has been waiting to be quilted. I was able to work on it a bit and hopefully will finish this weekend. 

In the meantime, the 2nd round of the SAHRR was announced as the plus sign. There were various ways the hosts used this prompt. I decided to keep it a bit simpler since the piano keys were quite busy. I just made a few small plus signs for each corner similar to Susan's @QuiltFabrication. 

I'm linking up to Round Robin Round #2 @ The Darling Dogwood

I have taken some time to slow down and continue my hand stitching. Here is the progress I've made! 

The first set of flowers are finished!

Linking to Slow Stitching Sunday @Kathy's Quilts

Looking forward to February! The new color is bright, sunny yellow!

Hope you had a good week! Stay safe! There is hope!

A busy week

 It has been a busy week! We started back to school this week with a new hybrid model. Before school closed for the 2nd time, the hybrid model was for part of the students to return on Monday and Tuesday, part on Thursday and Friday, everyone remote on Wednesday. Of coarse, several families chose to remain completely remote. Class sizes were about 6-8 in each session. The new model is to include Wednesday as a school day. The MT kids will attend on Wednesday one week and ThF students will attend the other week. Since I am a substitute teacher, I started on Friday as I'm scheduled every Friday and the remaining days as needed. I was exhausted after one day (I have been off too long!)

On Tuesday, I took a Zoom quilt class with Nicholas Ball @craftmonkies. He taught improv fish. Although I have his book and I'm following his sewalong on Instagram, I still learned a lot on tips and insight from him. He showed us how to make fish with deep curves and curved tails. 

This is one of the fish I made during class. I'm working on putting all my fish together using his patchwork/puzzle method. 

I also worked on my SAHRR block as Round 1 was released on Monday. 

The round was to include piano keys. You were to interpret that any way you would like. Each of the round hosts post their interpretation on piano keys to help spark your imagination. Here is what I did.

I'm ready for Round 2

On Thursday, a couple of my friends got together again to quilt for charity. I previously posted about how we cut a donated quilt into 4 and then rebound them. 

They are finished and we started on making simple turned (not bound) quilts from a yard of fabric. We still sandwiched three layers and straight line quilted. 

Here are the ones we completed.

The shelter was overjoyed to receive them!

I'm linking to chrisknitssews link party this weeks hosts of SAHRR, link party at Patchwork & Quilts, and Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts.

A Week of Progress

 I have continued to work with my pink scraps for the month of January. I hope that I'm not doing too much! As Angela has said, "I won't always have this much free time." School starts again with a hybrid model Tuesday. I'm scheduled every Friday so far with additional days here and there. My latest pink blocks are from the pattern Joy Luck from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. It is one of her Schnibbles patterns that I bought a long time ago. As I was cleaning my sewing room, I ran across it and thought it was time to make it and that it would be an easy quick block for RSC. 

I have worked quite a bit on my #shoalsewalong with Nicholas Ball. I tried adding interest with inserting contrasting colors to a few bodies and tails. I am looking forward to class with Nicholas Ball on Tuesday to learn more tips and techniques. 

Improv sewing is so freeing. No rules!

I decided to join in on the SAHRR ~ Stay At Home Round Robin, hosted by Quilting Gail. I looked through my stash and decided to cut into Frolic by Sandy Gervais because I had some yardage and some fat quarters. Since I don't know what the next rounds will be I am hoping that I have enough fabric. This block is called Stacked. I left off the last round to make it a 12" block. 

I'm linking to ScrapHappy Saturday @SoScrappy,  Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @

confessions of a Fabric Addict,  Brag About Your Beauties @ From Bolt to Beauty, Peacock Party @Wendy's Quilts and More, Friday Foto Fun @Poweredbyquilting, Finished or Not Friday @ Alycia Quilts, Center Block @QuiltingGail

A lot has been happening here!

A new year and new month brought new projects! I continued working on my PINK Wonky Shoo Fly blocks. I now have 10 ~ 6 1/2" blocks. 

I'm having fun using up some of my smallest scraps! I will link up to Scrap Happy on Saturday over at SoScrappy. 

Kat over at Kat & Cat Quilts posted the Covered in Love block for the January and February. It is a 13" string quilt. The strings need to be of one color family except for one strip which should be a contrasting color. 

            Here are my blocks ~ blue with and orange contrast and red with a blue                 contrast. These blocks are sewn onto an oversized batting foundation piece and cut to size.

 

     On Monday, January 4th, the #ShoalSewalong with Nicholas Ball of       @QuiltsintheAttic started. Week one is all about the fabric pull and 

the start of cutting the pieces needed for the fish block. This is an 

improv sewalong so the size and number of pieces needed is really 

up to you. Nicholas suggested some colors for your fabrics and his 

quilt in his book is basically a 2 color quilt so you could use whatever 

you like! I pulled fabric from my stash that I bought at a lecture by 

Amy Walsh from Blue Underground Designs as my focus fabrics. I 

added some batiks from my stash. The deep blues are for the 

background water. 

Here is a very basic layout of the rectangles, squares, and triangles needed for the fish blocks! 

Week Two will include sewing these improv fish!

Linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Peacock Party @ Wendy's Quilts and More, Finished or Not Fridays @ Alycia's and Friday Foto Fun @ Powered by Quilting. 

The January instructions for the Moorwood Mystery Quilt by Meadow Mist Designs was released yesterday. This month we put together a block using some of the units that were sewn in previous months. I am excited to see how this one comes together!

There are 15 of these blocks. 

I joined some friends of mine to do some charity quilting yesterday. My friend, Marylyn, fosters many tiny kitties that are abandoned by their mammas. The shelter had a quilt that was donated to them and needed it to be cut down in size. Since it was a large square, I cut it down into 4 smaller quilts. I then set out to rebind the 2 sides that were now unfinished. Here is her little kitty helping us.

Now to hand stitch the bindings on the smaller quilts. 

Each of us took one home to finish!