A New Month and a New Finish!

 This week began a new month and that means a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC)! Angela choose sunny yellow! Before I get to my yellow blocks I want to share a new finish!

Way back in September, I joined a quilt challenge hosted by the National Quilter's Circle called Starlight Mountains. In October, I finished the flimsy but then it was put aside to wait it's turn for further attention. In mid-January I was able to put the backing together and get it sandwiched. I started quilting the last days of January and finally have a finish!

I'm naming this quilt Watermelon Sparkler. All the fabrics are from my stash - most were donated to me years ago. 

The exception is the Kona black and white that are regular staples in my fabric stash. 

I think this quilt will make a nice picnic quilt with all the watermelons slices!

The quilting in the main part of the quilt is straight line along the length of the quilt. In the outside border I quilted a star and banner motif. 

You can see it better in the picture below. 

This quilt finishes at 61" x 77.5"

I was excited to pull out my yellow scrap bin and dive into making my blocks for the RSC. I am working on 2 different blocks each month as well as cutting scraps for my EPP tumbler blocks. 

First, I worked on making the wonky shoo fly blocks. This is a fun block and it gives a great opportunity to use the smallest scraps!

I made 10 of these. The background fabrics are low volume cream to beige scraps.

I then settled in to make the Joy Luck blocks. The background for these are black on white scraps or white on white scraps. 

I also cut at least 10 pieces for my EPP tumblers but those still need to be 

hand stitched.

This week was Round #3 for the SAHRR. Round #3 is hosted by Anja @AnjaQuilts. She choose flying geese for the 3rd round. Anja did some paper piecing for her flying geese so she could vary the size of the geese. This was effective for her as she is using all solids. Others did just around the corners, another did wonky geese, or double geese or even geese made into stars. Most chose to stack their geese. I chose to lay my geese side by side. Here is mine. Go to the link above to see what others have done.

I'm ready for Round #4

Inspired by my blogger friend, Annie @FreezeFrame03, I once again began a monthly calendar journal. I kept one before in 2013 and 2014. At that time I was making my monthly calendars from fabric with each month having a different theme. I used stamps and other supplies to record one thing each day. You can see some pages here and here and here. I really enjoyed making them but as you can imagine, they were time consuming. When my mom got sick, I couldn't keep up and I never got back into it. After admiring that Annie was still journaling, I asked her what calendar she used. She was actually trying to find a way to simplify making the journal and she shared a link for a downloadable calendar. Now, my creativity nor handwriting skills are not even close to Annie's. However, I did start a simpler calendar journal and that makes me happy!

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Friday Foto Fun @ Powered By Quilting, link party @Patchwork and Quilts

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!

What have I been doing?

 It has been a while since I have had time to update you on what I've been doing? In between time spent with my grandson and some time away with my DH, I have been quilting. I finished the apple table runner I previously shared and started 4 apple place mats that still need to be quilted.

I picked the quarter apple pattern from SewFresh Quilts for the placemats.

I also completed the top from the QAL from the National Quilters Circle, Starlight Mountains. This was a 5 week QAL with week 5 ~ the quilt assembly. Even though it is called Starlight Mountains, I wanted to use fabric from my stash. The watermelon fabrics were donated to me several years ago.

I'm not sure what I'll call this quilt as Starlight Mountains doesn't seem to fit. Any suggestions welcome.

I was able to sandwich my 2019 Quiet Play Pattern Club quilt! It is ready to be quilted! Soon!

Finally, I finished the 2nd step in the Morewood Mystery Quilt. Here are Steps 1 & 2!

Hope you are able to get out and enjoy the lovely Fall weather. DH and I were able to take a few days in Fond du Lac, WI and biking in Freeport, IL on the Jane Addams Trail. 

Beautiful colors in WI!

Rail to Trail ~ a wonderful time biking!
And because I can't resist...my grandson and I did a little craft making binoculars and then went on a walk in the neighborhood where he was having fun 'spying' all kinds of things! 

Thanks for hanging in on this rather long post! Stay safe!

Sew What's New?

 Although school has officially started here, kids are remote learning. There have been few opportunities to sub but I have been trained (sort of). The process is quite complicated and hasn't be tested enough. Technology is great but there seems to be glitches every step of the way. 

The good news is that I do get a bit more time in my sewing room when I'm not watching my grandson!

eating cucumbers from the garden

Sew what have I been doing? 

I purchased the A is for Apple pattern from SewFresh Quilts when she was having a 50% off sale. I started making the apples to use as a new table runner. 

I got a little bit interrupted as a friend of mine @megillicutti on Instagram commissioned me to make a drawstring bag for her. She loves vintage and has a booth at an antique mall. She is headed to an Extravaganza this weekend to shop to restock her booth. She dropped off this cart and a vintage linen tablecloth at my house. I measured the cart and started working on a drawstring bag. 

As you can see, it didn't quite fit around the cart. Realizing my mistake, 

I started again. 

Here is the 2nd bigger version! 

Isn't it cute made from the vintage tablecloth?

I had some orange ribbon that I added for a pop of color! She loved it!

I also finished the baby quilt that will go to a charity. The pattern is Traffic Jam by Pat Sloan but I am calling mine True Blue.

It was made from my overflowing box of blue scraps except for the gray dotted fabric for the sashing and borders.

The backing is a yardage piece that has been in my stash for some time!

The finished size is 31" x 45" 

The quilting is a straight-line outlining the squares and a X through the corner squares. 

All labeled and ready!

Monday was the release of Week 2 in the National Quilters Circle Starlight Mountains challenge. 

I managed to finish and here are both week 1 and week 2 blocks together!

(It looks like Christmas at first glance but the center blocks are watermelons on a blue plaid backing. Picking up the reds and greens of the watermelons.)

I'm linking to Midweek Makers @QuiltFabrication 

Design Wall and Challenges

On September 1st, Kat released the new block for the Covered in Love blocks. These blocks are called Fiddlesticks! The tutorial is found at Zippy Quilts. Kat made a few adjustments to the tutorial so that the blocks would be cut to 12.5" The background fabrics are to be solid or textured solids. I used some cottons from my stash and the sticks are from my scraps. 

On September 3rd, Cheryl released the next step in the Morewood Mystery Quilt. 90 HST ~ 60 3" size and 30 5 1/2" size. 

Here are my HST!

Cheryl also did a Facebook video that was a very helpful tip in trimming the HST without stretching. Why have I not heard of this technique before? 

The corners are perfect! 

I also started the quilt challenge from the National Quilters Circle called Starlight Mountains. Week 1 instructions were released on Monday. 

6 stars! 

This is what is on my design wall!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts.