A finish and RSC and Sparrows QAL

 This week I finished the quilting and binding on the second quilt from last year's Stash Buster Challenge. The original quilt was so big that I wasn't comfortable quilting it. I intended to send it out to charity as a flimsy but the postage was so much. I ended up taking it apart and making 2 quilts instead. The first (larger) quilt was gifted to friends. This quilt will be sent to charity as part of the Hands2Help 2023 campaign hosted by Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  

I changed the layout to a 4 x 5 grid and quilted vertically in straight lines about 1" apart.

I used a piece from my stash for the backing and a coordinating piece for the binding. 

I'm calling this quilt Play Nice!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Linky Party @Patchwork & Quilts, and Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter

I also finished 2 of the purple button blocks for this months RSC.

2 more purple buttons to stitch! Linking to ScrapHappy Saturday @SoScrappy.

My Sparrows top is all put together! I'm loving it. More to come soon!

A New Finish!

 I am excited to show you my newest finish! I have been working on it in bits since late January. I bought the Fresh as a Daisy pattern from Lindsey @penandpaperpatterns a while back because it was so cute, but I had other things going on so it was put aside until I saw this quilt! I loved the colors and I had the perfect fabric in my stash for it! Years ago, several yards of this green dotted fabric was given to me. I used some of it in other quilts (most recently here) but I knew I needed to make a daisy quilt with it. There was plenty left!

The daisies are made with Kona white and a Kona yellow from my stash.  I really enjoyed the method of construction in this pattern. The pattern is well written and easy to understand with illustrations to help. It was fun to make!

The backing piece from my mom's stash (that I inherited) was another perfect match. 

I quilted in the ditch around each daisy and I FMQ a spiral in the centers and loopy meanders in the background.

The binding is the same Kona cotton yellow as the daisy. 

This quilt finished at 43.5" x 53" after making some adjustments to the layout from the original baby quilt. Lindsey's pattern is arranged in a 4 x 4 square measuring 48" sq. I still made 16 daisies but altered the position of the daisies similar to the throw size lay out. I prefer rectangular quilts over square... 

Photos were taken in one of our local parks with lots of green and spring flowers!

This quilt was made to be donated for #hands2help2021. I'm not going to lie, this one will be hard to give up. I guess I need to make another!

I'm linking to Can I get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Link Party @Quilting Patchwork Applique, Friday Foto Fun @PoweredbyQuilting

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 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!

Hands2Help2020 Parade

The Hands2Help2020 challenge comes to a close the week of May 31st. I felt a final parade of the 4 baby quilts that I donated to the Little Lambs Foundation was in need. Although I have posted about each quilt before, here I include the 4 all together.

The Hands2Help challenge is hosted by Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict. The challenge started in 2011 but I just first read about it last year. I really enjoyed making a quilt for Jack's Basket last year so this year I decided I could do more than one. I planned on making 2 baby quilts for the Little Lambs Foundation. 

While doing a sew-along for improv piecing, 2 of the practice pieces turned into the 2 additional baby quilts for a total of 4!

First up is In The Neighborhood. 

This baby quilt was built around the cute Bear fabric. 

You can read more about it here.

It finished size is 31" x 36"

Next is the first practice piece made into a baby quilt. 

It is called Stacks of Blocks after the improv stacks technique. You can read more about this quilt here.  

This baby quilt finished at 28" x 37".

The 3rd baby quilt I made was another practice piece for the improv sew-along. 

It is called Small Wonders and the improv technique is called insert. You can read more about it here.

This one finished at 40" x 40"

And the last of the baby quilts for the Little Lambs Foundation is Kimba. 

This quilt was built around the cute baby lion print. Not made in traditional baby colors, but I am pleased with it and hope some child in need will be too!

You can read more about it here. 

Its finished size is approx. 36" x46".

They were all packed and sent in the mail to Little Lambs Foundation.

Thanks to Sarah for all her work in putting together this great opportunity to give to those in need! 

Hand2Help2020 is a wrap!

Linking to the Linky Party for 2020 Hands2Help Challenge. 

The Big Reveal

Several people have commented about the peek at my quilt in my last post and were looking forward to the reveal. Well, here it is!

The pattern is called Braque after the cubist artist George Braque. I have named it Orphism which is an offshoot of the Cubism Art movement.  This art movement focused more on abstraction and bright colors. The bright yellow pops of colors make this a bright and happy quilt!

The back was pieced with pieces from my stash and 

the binding is Kona charcoal.

It was machine pieced in sections to get the random effect of the mostly HSTs.

I machine quilted it in straight, vertical lines about 1/2" apart. 

It was a bright sunny day to do the photo shoot!

I think this is my new favorite quilt!

The quilt finishes at 60" x 75"

I also finished the binding on the last of 4 charity quilts for Hands2Help2020 challenge. 

I'm named it Kimba for the lion featured in the fabric. I built the quilt around the cute lion and coordinating light green fabrics I purchased. The remaining fabrics (rusty oranges and white) were from my stash. It is an unusual color for a baby quilt but I really love how it turned out. 

The pattern included 2 basic blocks: a friendship star and a whirligig. 

It was machine pieced and quilted. I chose to stitch in the ditch around the friendship star and stitched a star pattern in the whirligig. I kept the quilting simple to allow for it to be soft and fluffy. 

The back was pieced with the scraps from the lion and green fabrics and a piece from my stash. The binding was a gold from my stash. 

It finishes at 36.5" x  46.5"

Labeled and ready to be sent off! 

Linking up to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Brag About Your Beauty, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, and My Quilt Infatuation and UFO Busting

Almost done!

This week I worked on the final donation quilt for Hands2Help2020. Last night I ran out of steam after making the binding. 

I sewed the binding on this morning and now it needs to be hand stitched.

When this is done, 4 charity quilts will be ready to be mailed out! 

Thanks Sarah for this great opportunity to serve.

I'm linking up to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Brag about Your Beauties, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun.  

I am currently about 1/3 of the way done with the hand stitching on this quilt.

I have also kept busy with more mask making. This batch puts me over 75. 

Stay healthy and stay safe everyone!