I got a flimsy!

 I'm happy to show you the sewing I got finished this week! After adding one more color (peach) to my wonky shoo fly blocks for the RSC 2021, I arrange the blocks in a pleasing arrangement on my design wall. I decided to go with a diagonal layout. (My Rainbowlicious quilt was laid out in rows by colors.)

Then I went about sewing the blocks into rows and then sewing the rows together. This went together reasonable quickly! Voilà, it is a flimsy!

I may still add some kind of border but I'm not 💯％ sure. I'm just happy to have my 2nd RSC quilt for 2021 put together. I'm thinking of naming this one Clover Bloom because the shoo fly block is named after the clover bloom flower. 

I'm already thinking of what block(s) to do next year. Are you?

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.

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!

PROGRESS!

Last Tuesday I showed you my spool quilt sandwiched and ready to be quilted. I also mentioned that I had finished the quilting on my 2 color bear claw quilt.

Here it is...now called Beary Sweet!

I worked backwards on this quilt, starting with and building the quilt around the backing fabric I had in my stash 

(probably inherited from my mom's stash.)

and using the book two-color Quilts my daughter gave me many years ago.

(This is the second quilt I have made using a pattern from it.)

This is my first finish of 2018! It finishes at 40" x 56" and will be donated as a charity quilt. 

My spool quilt is finished! 

This completes my Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2017. The scrappy little spools are all stacked in an organized manner on a shelf! 

The backing is another piece of fabric I inherited from my mom's stash. This is called Mumms the Word by Debbie Mumm. It has all kinds of sewing notions and   sewing needs scattered across the fabric. I also had a extra block I pieced in. I FMQ 'thread' in the color of each spool and woodgrain in the borders. This is my 2nd finish of 2018 and measures 36" x 43".  

I took some time to start piecing my Regatta Quilt (before I sandwich my next flimsy). I am following the QAL over at Home Sewn By Us. I had finally cut all my colored strips and some of my white strips and squares to get started piecing. I was so excited to get started! 

Section A complete!

These are the darkest of my colors and will actually be the first rows 

(not columns but I'm just temporarily saving room on my design wall.)

I also got my delivery (or at least most of it...one backordered 😞) for my Temperature Quilt which I'm following over at NeedledMom. 

Again, I couldn't wait to get started to see what my quilt will look like. One Square in a Square per day. I had made a spreadsheet to keep organized while waiting on my order but I think that I will continue to record daily the temperature high and lows. 

This will actually be the 1st row of the quilt with the darkest (top) square being on the left. January started very cold here, then a bit of a warm up with cooler temperatures following. This will be a fun quilt to track through the year! Head over to Needled Mom to see how different Mary's looks!

 One final update....I finally got around to building (with my hubby's help) a new design wall! It is slightly bigger than my old one. The blocks 'hang on' so much better! We followed this tutorial over at SewKatieDid. 

Here it is being put to good use!

I'm linking up to To Do Tuesday over at Stitch All The Things, FreeMotion by the River for Linky Tuesday, and Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework.

Making slow progress

On my design wall is my 'next up' project.  It will be a wedding quilt for this summer. I have cut most of the pieces...I ran out of Kona white...to finish cutting the 4 1/2" squares. 

I'm using the remains of a jelly roll of Sunkissed by Sweetwater and a few extra pieces of yardage.  

I have been able to put together a few blocks...

Some of the blocks will be mixed colors, others will be mostly one color. I'll have to play with the placement of the colors as more blocks are finished. 

I also turned every other block 90º...not sure if this arrangement will be the final...I'm sure I'll play with this too! 

This block is called Cornerstone. You can find it here.

I'm linking up with Sewjo Saturday over at My Go-Go Life. 

Head over to see what others have been working on!

Sunday's Summary

It's Sunday, which means it is time again to summarize what has been happening in and around my sewing room!

I will admit that with quilt finishes the last 2 weeks, this week's post isn't as exciting. I did have some mini finishes! 

First, my DD1 had ask me to knit a pair of boot toppers in cream or gray. She wanted a pair like the ones I knitted for myself in brown.

(sorry I never took pictures of them to share here)

Looking through my yarn stash, I didn't have enough of either of those colors so I took a trip to the yarn store. I picked up some cream alpaca yarn. 

I worked with a stretchy cast on and bind off technique found on Pinterest here and here. The pattern has three rows of cables for the cuff and ribbing for the part that tucks into your boot. I found the pattern here.

I also made a mini pincushion that adheres to my sewing machine. If I'm sewing with a lot of pins, I use a magnetic pin dish but when I am sewing small pieces and use only a pin or 2, this little pincushion is so nice. I found my inspiration on Kaaren's blog, The Painted Quilt here. 

I made it from the left over HST from last week's quilt finish, Giraffe Love. Stay tuned...I may just make some more and offer them as a giveaway. Anyone interested? Leave me a comment.

This week I have been playing with some triangles. I can't say much about this quilt yet but this is what my design wall looks like. The pattern is inspired by Anna Maria Horner’s patchwork prism quilt. I am using a 6" equilateral triangle instead of 9". I am trying to achieve a pixelated affect using triangles. More about this later. 

With the month of February ending, I completed my entries for my Art Journal challenge. 

I also found some time to play learn a little more about the Touchdraw app for my iPad. Did you notice my new improved button? 

Until next week...