What's happening and monthly blocks

I participated in the #improvtrianglesewalong on Instagram hosted by Nicholas Ball, the author of Inspiring Improv. I got the book out of my local library and prepared for the sew-along to start the first week of February. 

The first week we were to start cutting our fabric pulls into random sized squares, rectangles, and triangles.  In week 2, we started sewing the triangles together using his improv triangle method... without measuring or use of rulers.

In week 3, we learned a bit about joining all these triangles together. It was a puzzle to fit all these random blocks together into what he calls a slab. 

Keep making slabs that will eventually fit all together!

This was a fun and challenging sew-along!  

I enjoyed it so much that I was sad when I had to return the book 

to the library. That meant that I needed my own copy!

A great mail day! My very own Inspiring Improv book! 

This still needs to be quilted but I'm debating on whether to add more to make it bigger or leave it as a wall hanging. 

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

If you are interested in seeing more amazing quilts, go to Instagram and search the #improvtrianglesewalong.

March snuck up fast and the monthly charity blocks and colors were announced! 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela announced the color of teal. 

The first three months!

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday.

For the Covered in Love charity, Kat of Kat & Cat Quilts chose a variation of the fence rail block in blue and yellow. Here is the tutorial.

And I started a new project...currently on my design wall! Here is a sneak peek!

I have 2 more sections to piece before I can put this together! Stay tuned!

The start of 2020

Now that we are about 3 weeks into 2020, I thought I should give an update as to what's happening in my sewing room. The 1st week was busy with a family visit to Austin to celebrate our grandson's 1st birthday, my daughter's birthday and have our Christmas so nothing happened in my sewing room.

'I'm So Big!

Surprise visit by her sister!

Family time is so precious!

I came home to a busy work week but I managed to finish up a few things. 

I put together my flimsy to the Mosaic Mystery Quilt. My goal is to sandwich and start quilting this week!

I really like the way this quilt top came together!

Linking to Brag about your Beauty @From Bolt to Beauty, and Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

I also worked with the color for January for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This year I decided to work long columns of the monthly colors with squares and HST with a gray background. 

Column 1 done. Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

In 2020, I will continue to make bimonthly charity blocks for the Covered In Love charity hosted by Kat & Cat Quilts. Here are my January/February blocks.

I also finished another knitted charity blanket and have done some sewing and knitting for Australia; making bat wraps, and joey pouches. 

Our knitting club is also knitting red baby hats for February's heart awareness month. These will be heading to the hospital soon. 

Sorry no pictures. 

Small Steps

I made some small steps in my sewing room. I put together the top to one of Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts:Waterfront Starburst! The backing is also ready so now I need to find some time to sandwich, quilt and bind it.

Another small step was to finish Step 3 in the Mosaic Mystery Quilt ~ The Diagonal Block.

 Wouldn't this make a cute quilt!

I will link up to the November Diagonal Block Linkup at Meadow Mist Designs. 

I made 2 charity blocks for the Covered in Love charity hosted by Kat & Cat Quilts. The November/December block requested the color palette of sea foam green, navy blue, true blue, light icy blues, snowy off whites, and some grays.

Here are my blocks! I really love these blocks.

My knitting club does charity knitting for a local hospital and other charities. I just finished this baby blanket.

Doesn't it remind you of the Neapolitan Coconut candies? Remember these?

My grandson will turn one on January 1st...his golden birthday! To make it special I made this crown to go with the theme of his birthday based on the story Where the Wild Things Are.

He will be treated royally! 👑

Where Does the Time Go?

It seems like I keep getting busier! I find I have less time in my sewing room than I did before. My monthly commitments, that I have done for several years, now always seem to fall behind. I have been unintentionally absent from my blog as I just don't find the time! UGH!

Enough complaining...

On the positive side, I have accomplished a few things.

First up is the 2 blocks I made for the Covered in Love charity hosted by Kat and Cat Quilts. This block is for the months of September/October. 

Next up are my blocks for the Mosaic

Mystery Quilt. Step 2 was released October 3rd. We made 2 different Square in a Square blocks. 

Step 2

 
Steps 1 & 2
Linking up to Square in a Square linkup.
Finally, I was able to finish a baby quilt for my nephew's baby. I took it with us on our Door County extended weekend over Columbus Day to finish and photograph. 

A beautiful setting!

 Even with the gray overcast sky!

 I drew the pattern based on a quarter log cabin with the logs in varying sizes. 

Woodsy fall leaves!

This quilt finishes at 34.5" x 44.5"

Progress!

This week I'm on Spring Break from school so I have a bit more time in my sewing room. After catching up with the monthly obligations, I was able to get back to my last UFO from 2018....My Temperature quilt!

Yesterday I pulled from my stash the backing fabric, cut a piece of batting and got everything ready to be sandwiched. So this happened today!

Tomorrow I will start on the quilting. I'm leaning toward doing some straight lined quilting along the rows but I may change my mind. 

I also finished the March/April blocks for Covered in Love sponsored by Kat & Cat. This block is a flower block in bright, Spring colors.  

The block is 12.5" and you can find the tutorial at the link above. 

The nice thing is that the tutorial makes both blocks at the same time 

~ 2 for 1! 

See how the petals spin the opposite direction?

Linking up to To Do Tuesday at Stitch All the Things and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

Second Finish in 2019 and more!

I finished my second WIP from 2018!  Last post, I reported that I found time to sandwich my Save the Bees quilt, renamed The Plight of Bees. I have been diligently working on completing the 2018 WIPs and I was able to quilt and bind this quilt this week! I used a FMQ meandering loop to mimic the flight of bees. 

All the fabrics used in this quilt were from my stash! The bee fabric was gifted to me from a friend. It was used for table linens for a baby shower.  

The pattern is Pinwheel Puzzle from McCall's Quilting March/April 2018 issue. 

I added the words 'Save The Bees' using letters from the Spelling Bee book by Lori Holt.

The quilt finishes at 58" x 68.5".

I'm linking up to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts.

I finally pulled fabrics from my stash for the Optical Illusion quilt. 

Here are my blues.

4 of the 5 fabrics were wrapped in my mini bolts I recently made to organize my out of control fabric stash. The one 2nd from the right, I pulled from my stash that was previously organized and folded to size around a ruler then piled by color in an old dresser. How do you organize your stash?

I made 2 more charity blocks for the Covered in Love charity sponsored by 

Kat & Cat Quilts. Now I have 4 to send off in the mail soon. 

Finally, I got The Quilter's Paper-Pieced Workbook out from the library.

I found several block that I really liked. I decided to do one of the easy ones as a second RSC block. January is red month so...

I will be using low volume fabric with the color of the month in the center and fabric scraps for the starburst. 

I will Link up to Scrappy Saturday over at So Scrappy. 

This has been a productive week with Monday being a day off of school to recognize the holiday celebrating MLK, Jr. 

What have you been working on?

2019 is under way!

With the New Year comes new goals, quilt alongs, BOM and projects. I have set some goals this year and joined some quilt alongs and BOM. Hopefully I didn't do too much! 

It is so hard to resist! 

One of my goals is to make charity blocks for Covered in Love. You can read more about this charity at Kat & Cat Quilts. Every 2 months, the block changes. For January and February the block is a variation of a string block. 

Here are my blocks that I will send to Covered in Love.

I will continue the monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by So Scrappy. January's color is red. This year I will make the reverse rainbow starburst block.

You can find the tutorial here.

I will link up to Scrappy Saturday.

I also joined the Quiet Play Pattern Club. Each month, around the 15th, 3 patterns will be released and emailed. One word block, one picture block and a bonus block from her favorites. Quiet Play is known for her foundation pieced, rainbow, geometric blocks. I'm excited to get started!

I was intrigued by the Bitty Block Follow-A-Long over at Quilt Art Designs. I love the challenge of working with tiny pieces (and it was a challenge!) This is another paper pieced block project. 

This month the Bitty Block is a Tiny Bee.

I will also be doing the Block of the Month Optical illusion with Nine Patch blocks over at Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design. It appears that you just make this at your leisure as I don't see a link up for it. I haven't pulled fabrics for this yet. 

I like the optical illusion challenge of this quilt!

The last BOM I'm interested in is Scandinavian Flowers over at Angie's Bits and Pieces. This is an applique BOM which is not usually my thing but I will be away from my sewing room for 2+ weeks in February and I thought that I could practice this skill. I will get January and February blocks ready before I leave to bring with me. Time to perfect this skill!

I also started a medallion quilt. I don't have pictures yet. This is a quilt that I have had in my head for a while. Materials were purchased back in late summer/fall. Stay tuned. 

 Of coarse, I need to catch up on quilting the quilts left from 2018. 

I did finish Dog 'n Quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap quilts. 

In this picture you can see the stand that my hubby got me for Christmas. I can hang my quilts to make taking photos easier!

The quilting is a simple straight line, 1" apart and stitched in the ditch around the dog. 

The back is a purple floral from my stash.

This quilt was made entirely from scraps and stash. Yay! 

It finished at 43" x 53" and will be donated to charity.