It's been awhile but I have a few updates!

 In the nick of time, I am posting my RSC block! March's color is purple and here is my purple Circle of Friends block!

Here are the first 3 months blocks

Ready for April! Where does the time go? April's color is yellow!

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy.

I also finished my Best Buds quilt. I joined the QAL with Lindsey @PenandPaperPatterns and over 6 weeks, we were to have the top finished. I accomplished that goal! 

It was up to us to finish the quilt on our own. I needed to decide how I wanted to quilt it. I debated with myself if I should do straight lines, checkerboard or an overall pattern. I finally decided on quilting baptist fans across the quilt. The quilting took a long time on my domestic machine but I'm pleased at the finish!

The fabrics I used were all from my stash (probably inherited from my mom's stash) except for the Kona white. I used up all of the pink and most of the blue fabric! Such a good feeling!

The pattern is Best Buds by @PenandPaperPatterns. If you have never made one of Lindsey's patterns, you should. Her patterns are cute and very well written. I have a hard time resisting them. 

This quilt is fairly large, finishing at 71" x 85" 

Here are a couple of close-up pictures of the quilting! I used my EZ Circle Cut template to mark my stitching lines and quilted in a pink thread. 

On my design wall:

I also have been working on a small 3D quilt just for fun! Here is the finished top!

I saw this print image somewhere (sorry I don't remember but if anyone does I will give credit back to them) and decided to draw it up and see if I could recreate the 3D effect in a quilt. Now to quilt it!

I'm linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Wait Loss Wednesday @The Inquiring Quilter, and Off the Wall Fridays @Creations

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! 

Snowy Forest is Finished!

 Yay! I finished my Snowy Forest quilt! I made this quilt in conjunction with the #improvtrianglesewalong with Nicholas Ball @quiltsfromtheattic. He hosted this QAL on Instagram in February. This is the 2nd year that I participated. His book Inspiring Improv is a great resource for improv quilting! 

Once all most of the triangles were sewn, I started to make 'slabs.'

And puzzle them together adding additional triangles or pieces as needed.

All the fabric, mostly scraps, were from my stash. The Kona white is a staple in my stash, and the white/gray marble is from a cut-off from a previous quilt's backing.

It was ready for quilting! I quilted the 'forest' with intersecting diagonal lines about 1/2" apart. 

I found some evergreen trees in a local park for a photoshoot.

The backing is 2 larger pieces of green from my stash.

The quilt finishes at 33.5" x 45"

I'm linking to Midweek Makers @QuiltFabrication, NTT @My Quilt Infatuation,

Off the Wall Friday@Creations-Quilts, Arts, Whatever, Finished or Not Friday@Alycia Quilts

Happy Valentine's Day!

                                 Roses are Red, White is the Snow.                                        What could be better, than a finish to show? 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, I have finished my Under the Sea (#shoalsewalong) quilt! I love this quilt! It was super fun to make and I tried new things and learned new techniques!

After I finished the top, it hung on my design wall for some time while I finished quilting my Watermelon Sparkler quilt. Everytime I looked at it, I felt it wasn't quite right. Originally I had all the fish facing the same way. It needed to have a rebel fish or three. I ripped out the fish I wanted to turn around and restitched them. Much better!

This quilt was made following the improv techniques of Nicholas Ball from his book Inspiring Improv and sewing along with him on Instagram. I also took a class with him on Craftmonkies. Take one if you can! 

This quilt finished size is about 30" x 50" 

      I used the techniques of facing a quilt for the first time instead of binding.                                      Thanks to several recommendations on Instagram.                                              I used the tutorial by cottonandbourbon. It is in her highlights.                      The picture above shows the backing with a pieced border and the facing as well       as how I quilted it with gentle curves to simulate the movement of water.         The backing fabric is a piece I bought on our trip to Hawaii.

This picture show the pocket I added to hang it!

All the fabric used in this quilt was from my stash! YAY!

                                      It lives on my living room wall!                                           I'm linking to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop, Finished or not Friday, and Linky Party.

 Although this past week has been incredibly busy (subbing every day, knitting club on Monday evening, and book club on Wednesday), I finally was able to work on my SAHRR clue. Roseanne and Sue from Home Sewn By Us were the hosts this week.                                            They chose a checkerboard.                                             Here is what my SAHRR quilt looks like after adding my checkerboard border.    

I'm a little late to the party but better late than never!

I'm linking to SAHRR linky party for Round Four!

With Monday off because of President's Day and my district is giving us Friday off so we all can get our second vaccination, I should have more time to sew this week! 

Hopefully with an update for the Morewood Mystery finish!

First Finish of 2021!

 I'm excited to show you my first finish of 2021! This quilt was made over the coarse of 2020 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy. I'm naming it Color My World. I'm linking to So Scrappy.

With the exception of the border fabric, everything was used from my scrap bins or my stash!

This quilt finishes at 47" x 64"

Each month one color column was made and after 10 months, I put them together. I wanted to add a border to make the quilt a bit larger. I found the border fabric at Joann's. I love how the triangles and colors plays with the top! 

I didn't get a chance to work on this quilt until after Christmas when I finally was able to sandwich and quilt it. I straight-lined quilted on a diagonal across the columns and FMQ a triangular dot to dot pattern from Angela Walters in the border.  

My grandson's snowman, Uno, appreciated the cozy warmth of this quilt!

I'm linking to Link Party Patchwork & Quilts #33 @quiltingpatch.

Edit: I'm linking to Favorite Finish @Meadow Mist Designs.

Once again, I am joining Angela @SoScrappy on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2021. January's color is pink. Angela also recently shared a few tutorials for blocks. I decided that one of my RSC blocks will be the Wonky Shoo Fly block based on Angela's tutorial. I will be using low volume fabrics from my stash for the background. Generally, I make only one block each month but this year I plan on making several of each color. 

I'm also considering, making a Circle of Friends block.

I usually don't make a plan for the year as I prefer to quilt as I am inspired but I can tell you that I do have a few plans for this year! I will be joining Nicholas Ball on another quilt along starting Monday, January 4th! I also signed up for his class on January 19th. I loved making the improv triangle quilt with him last year and I own his book, Inspiring Improv Quilting! Can't wait to get started!

I also signed up for a recorded lecture by Victoria Findlay Wolfe on January 5th. I love her style and her creativity. I went to a lecture by her at my LQS many years ago (before she won at QuiltCon in 2013) and I was in awe of her! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take her class. I do own several of her books. This lecture is about how she made a coat out of one of her quilts. I love this idea! 

I will continue with the Moorwood Mystery Quilt at Meadow Mist Designs and Cheryl just announced that there will be another Mystery Quilt starting in July! 

 I really like how Cheryl runs the QAL. Won't you consider joining?

I have another quilt in progress but I can't mention too much about it as it is a gift. 

And finally, I plan on doing a bit of hand piecing tumbler blocks. I bought some 2 1/2" paper tumbler templates years ago and I think it is time to slowly start another hand pieced quilt. 

Hope everyone has had a great start to 2021!

I finally finished it!

 I am excited to show you my finished Quiet Play Pattern Club 2019 finish! I named it~ Look on the Bright Side. This quilt is entirely paper pieced. I love paper piecing but it does take me longer to finish each block as there are many small pieces that go into these blocks. 

The top has been finished since late summer but I really didn't know how to quilt it.

The backing is a piece of rainbow stripe fabric.

I finally decided to just quilt an overall meander. 

This quilt makes me so happy! 

I bound it with Kona Navy. 

Here is the coloring sheet I used as I made each block. 

This quilt finishes at 51" x 61.5"

The Quiet Play Pattern Club is the creation of Kristy Lea.  She did run a club for 2020 but I didn't participate because I was still working on my 2019 blocks!

I will link to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? @Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Favorite Finish Monthly Link Up @MeadowMistDesign.

 

I also put together my RSC quilt! Here it is with borders added.

Linking to ScrapHappyBooDay @SoScrappy.

Linking to SoScrappy:Wrapping up the year

I promised to show you the placemats I finished to go with the Tossed Apples table runner. Here they are...

They are getting good use this Fall!

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful Fall weather! We have had some snow flurries but the colors were beautiful this year! 

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