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!

Another Busy Week

I had another busy week this week! We had a 'snow day/remote learning day' on Tuesday so my Tuesday job was cancelled but I worked on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! I found out on Wednesday that my District was able to secure Covid-19 vaccines for all staff including regular substitutes in the district. It happened very quickly as the dates were Thursday and Friday! I was able to get an appointment for Thursday after school! I never have been more excited to get a shot!

I am thankful that our district was able to get the vaccines! #IGotMine #OneStepCloser

In my sewing room, I continued to sew on the shoalsewalong and I got my fish top finished. Nicholas explained his technique of putting together 'slabs' using the puzzle method. Here is my top!

I did make a few minor changes since this picture. 

I'm linking to the link party @Patchwork and Quilts, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict      

I also put the back together so I'm just about ready to figure out the quilting! 

But before that can happen, I needed to get to this:

My Starlight Mountain Quilt that I finished a October has been waiting to be quilted. I was able to work on it a bit and hopefully will finish this weekend. 

In the meantime, the 2nd round of the SAHRR was announced as the plus sign. There were various ways the hosts used this prompt. I decided to keep it a bit simpler since the piano keys were quite busy. I just made a few small plus signs for each corner similar to Susan's @QuiltFabrication. 

I'm linking up to Round Robin Round #2 @ The Darling Dogwood

I have taken some time to slow down and continue my hand stitching. Here is the progress I've made! 

The first set of flowers are finished!

Linking to Slow Stitching Sunday @Kathy's Quilts

Looking forward to February! The new color is bright, sunny yellow!

Hope you had a good week! Stay safe! There is hope!

A Week of Progress

 I have continued to work with my pink scraps for the month of January. I hope that I'm not doing too much! As Angela has said, "I won't always have this much free time." School starts again with a hybrid model Tuesday. I'm scheduled every Friday so far with additional days here and there. My latest pink blocks are from the pattern Joy Luck from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. It is one of her Schnibbles patterns that I bought a long time ago. As I was cleaning my sewing room, I ran across it and thought it was time to make it and that it would be an easy quick block for RSC. 

I have worked quite a bit on my #shoalsewalong with Nicholas Ball. I tried adding interest with inserting contrasting colors to a few bodies and tails. I am looking forward to class with Nicholas Ball on Tuesday to learn more tips and techniques. 

Improv sewing is so freeing. No rules!

I decided to join in on the SAHRR ~ Stay At Home Round Robin, hosted by Quilting Gail. I looked through my stash and decided to cut into Frolic by Sandy Gervais because I had some yardage and some fat quarters. Since I don't know what the next rounds will be I am hoping that I have enough fabric. This block is called Stacked. I left off the last round to make it a 12" block. 

I'm linking to ScrapHappy Saturday @SoScrappy,  Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @

confessions of a Fabric Addict,  Brag About Your Beauties @ From Bolt to Beauty, Peacock Party @Wendy's Quilts and More, Friday Foto Fun @Poweredbyquilting, Finished or Not Friday @ Alycia Quilts, Center Block @QuiltingGail

A little bit of this and that

Although I have been staying at home with the exception of walking the dog and a few porch drop offs, I haven't seem to get a lot done. 

What have I been doing? 

Well, I have done some baking which really isn't in my wheel house. I've made bread, mini donuts and a cake. Today, I'm making scones. 

I've done a little bit of clean up in the gardens. Up until this past weekend, we really haven't had the weather for it. 

I've also been going through old paperwork and shredding, shredding, shredding. And that stack of old magazines that I saved because 'I would definitely do some of the great ideas, make the recipes or go on those fabulous vacations.' I've been going through them one last time and then recycling them. 

One the sewing front, I've made several batches of masks. At first, I tested a couple of patterns but eventually settled on one. I did run out of elastic and switched to ties. I also made a couple with a filter pocket. 

~sent to a local nursing home

~for friends and family

~more friends requests

~my daughter and boyfriend

~more friends and family

On the quilting side, I finished the 2nd quilt that resulted from my improv practice for the #improvtrianglesewalong. This technique by Nicholas Ball is called insert. I'm calling this one Small Wonders.

Depending on the number of inserts, the blocks look like crosses to hashtags. 

I added the inner border from the fabric I used as the inserts and the outer border the background fabric. 

All the fabric for this quilt are from my stash. 

In the center blocks, I straight lined quilted 1/4" apart horizontally. In the inner border, I FMQ large loops, and the outer border I quilted 2 rows of large scallops. 

It finishes at approx. 40" x 40" and will be donated as part of the Hands2Help 2020 challenge. 

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

Lastly, I finally got around to making one more of the Quiet Play Pattern Club 2019 blocks. 

These blocks are all paper pieced. Although I do enjoy paper piecing, I do think they are a bit time consuming. I have a few more blocks to complete before I can start arranging the word and picture blocks in to a quilt top! 

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!