It's been awhile...

 My last post was back in August! My how the time flys! We traveled some in September and October to Colorado and Door County, Wisconsin. We did some hiking and watched the colors change. Not peak as it seems the colors were slow to change this year.

The beautiful yellows of the aspen trees in CO

The yellows and oranges of the maples in WI

In quilting news, I finished my Green Acres quilt from the #30daysofimprovqal  After all the blocks were finished, it was composition week where you finalize your layout using several options. This year I decided to scatter each weeks blocks throughout the quilt, adding additional pieces and scraps as need to fit. 

Sorry for the poor quality photo

Once I stitched all the blocks together, I auditioned greens from my stash for the borders and found green backing and binding fabrics in my stash. 

Sandwiched and quilted between trips, it is finally finished! 

Finished size approx 42" square.

Introducing Green Acres!

October is the last month for a new color in the RSC - neutrals. I need 2 more colors to round out to 12 button colors for a 3x4 layout. I chose to make peach and gray buttons to add to the collection.

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy.

Last Saturday, I took another quilting class, Organic Shapes, through the #craftymonkies platform on IG. The instructor was @Carolina_Oneto and she was terrific! She talked about colors and shapes. She taught her techniques and how to make variations. I loved this class! Here is my finished quilt. 

I had my husband built a frame for it and I followed this tutorial to stretch it around the frame. 

I ironed 1/2" around the outside edge to make it easier when tacking to the back.

I used tacks to secure the quilt to the back.

(my husband's staple gun wasn't available and I didn't want to wait)

I quilted several concentric circles and added some big stitch hand quilting in the shapes. 

Here are some detail shots of the quilting

Finished size 13.5" x 18"

I am linking to Midweek Makers, Off the Wall Fridays, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop, Patchwork and Quilts, Friday Foto Fun, My Quilt Infatuation, Wednesday Wait Loss, Design Wall Monday

I'll leave you with a few photos of the local colors this week 

So Beautiful!

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? 

It has been a while!

       It has been a month since I have had a chance to get back here for an update!         June was a very busy month and July is proving to be just as busy! It is all good summertime fun!

Both my husband and I retired in June...me at the end of the school year and my DH on June 30th. Yesterday our daughters gave us a celebration dinner party with some close friends. We had a wonderful dinner and a beautiful evening with friends!

Today we continue celebrating with a close friend's HS graduation party!

I have had some time between spending time with my grandkids to sew! July's color is RED and I was able to make my button blocks for RSC. Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @So Scrappy

On my last post I gave a sneak peek at a quilt I was making for a wedding gift. It is now all quilted and the binding is stitched on! I am in the process of hand stitching it down. I should be able to post a picture soon. 

In the meantime, I have designed an mountain adventure quilt for a baby shower coming soon! I will not be able to attend as we will be on our retirement trip!

Here is a peek at my process.

designing with paper and pencils

First 3 sections

The 4th and start of the 5th sections

I will leave you with a couple of picture of my grand kids!

I Got a New Finish, Update on H2H and RSC

 I am so excited for my latest finish! In April I finished this quilt to the flimsy stage but then I wasn't sure about how to quilt it. I felt that it would be a good candidate for an all-over design. The only all-over design that I have previously attempted was a meander. I decided to try the lilypad design by Christina Cameli of @afewscraps. 

I practiced a bit on this piece of glass with a dry erase marker. Once I was pretty comfortable, I started on my quilt...not totally confident...but I went for it.

I was surprised about how easy it was and the overall effect of the design. 

(I quilt on my domestic machine)

I put the last stitches in the binding last night and put it through the washer and dryer before going to bed. This morning I took it out of the dryer. Here it is textured with all its crinkly goodness!

This pattern is Sparrows by @penandpaperpatterns. It is all machine pieced and free motion quilted. 

All of the solids fabrics are Kona cottons. The small accent triangles, the backing prints and binding are purchased coordinating prints. 

I really wanted the floral print for the backing but all that was left was just under 2 yards. So I found a geometric print that coordinated and pieced the back. 

My newest favorite finishes at 65" x 70"

Linking to Off the Wall Friday @Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Fridays @Alycia Quilts, Link Party @Patchwork and Quilts, Wednesday Wait Loss @the inquiring quilter and Favorite Finish Monthly Link Up @Meadow Mist Designs

Tomorrow is check in for the Hand2Help Challenge @Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Right now, I have 2 quilts that I have ready for this challenge that I will send to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids.

This is my Squiggles quilt that I made as part of the RSC in 2022. You can read more about it here.

This quilt is Play Nice quilt and it was made as part of the Stash Buster Challenge in 2022. You can read about it here.
I'm super excited to be participating in this wonderful charity quilt drive hosted by Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I hope to be able to add one more quilt to this group!

I will link to H2H check-in.

I also worked on my button blocks with the new May color-ORANGE

Here are my first 2 blocks.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy

I'm also excited to say I earned another badge from Wednesday Wait Loss for my mini quilts! 

New finishes and RSC update

 Last Saturday I took a class hosted by Rachel Pierman of #craftymonkies. This was the second class I took taught by the talented @victoria_vanderlaan. Her technique is called intuitive stacked forms. The results are unique and amazing! You can read about the 1st class and my finish here.

This 2nd class was a follow-up class - Explore your Intuition Further. I started several quilts in the class and here are 2 that I recently finished. 

This mini I'm calling 7, 8 Lay Them Straight

It was inspired from Victoria's blunt edge quilt that she showed in the class. It was inspired by a pile of sticks she found on a walk. 

I choose a plum fabric I had in my stash as my background and scraps of light gray and a bright orange from my scrap bins. It is intuitively machine pieced and densely straight-line quilted every 1/4". It finished at 14.5" x 18.5"

This mini is called Disconnected

The forms in this quilt mini are cut-offs from the wedge table topper I made. You can see it here. I chose Kona butterscotch as the background. Butterscotch was also one of the colors in the wedges so after sewing them into this piece, I realized that the middle disappears into the background creating a disconnected look. I was pleasantly surprised how this piece turned out. 

When you sew intuitively, what you think the finished piece will look like doesn't always happen!

It is machine pieced and densely straight-lined quilted about every 3/8". It finishes at 14.5" x 16.5" 

Both of these quilts are faced as the finishing. 

I'm linking to Off the Wall Fridays @Creations-Quilts, Art and More, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Linky Party @Patchwork and Quilts, Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter

I also want to mention that I was featured on Wednesday Wait Loss last week. Thanks Jennifer!

April RSC color is purple and I have made all 4 button blocks. Here are the 3rd and 4th blocks and all 4 together!

Linking up to ScrapHappy Saturday @SoScrappy

Next up is ORANGE!