Last Hurrah for 2019!

I finally finished what will be my last quilt for 2019! 

(I still have some UFO's from 2019 projects)

This quilt is one of two from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2019! The block is called Waterfront Starburst from the book The Quilter's Paper Piecing Workbook. It will be a wedding gift for tomorrow's wedding! 

After sewing the blocks in a 3 x 4 array, I added large Kona white borders. This created large negative space for quilting. 

I FMQ in a rainbow, variegated thread mimicking the points of the starburst. I also straight line quilted around each starburst in the color of the star. 

It was such a warm, sunny day yesterday, I took advantage and went to the park for a photo shoot. It was almost too sunny!

The backing is pieced with fun stripes and brightly colored 

Day of the Dead fabric.

The quilt finished size is 60.5" x 74"

I'm linking up to Brag About Your Beauties over at From Bolt to Beauty, Can I get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

And because I promised...2019 new ornaments!

My new ornament is the snowman, my daughter's is the reindeer, and the little 3D tree is her boyfriend/partner. It has been a tradition in our family to make handmade ornaments for many years (started my my sister years ago.) We no longer exchange ornaments, but now my kids have taken up the tradition! FUN!

The little tree is so amazing! It is 3D printed! The center 2-pieced trunk fits together at 90º to form a stand, then 5 stars in varying sizes are put on, biggest to smallest. The largest size has Merry Christmas printed on it! So cute!

My August RSC Blocks

I can't believe that it is already a week into August! The summer is flying by!

The August color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is light blues. 

Although I have lots of blue scraps, light blues, not so much. 

Here is the Reverse Star block.

And the Waterfront Starburst block.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday!

Also on August 1st, the cutting instructions for the Meadow Mist Mosaic Mystery Quilt became available. Here are my cuts. 

I still need to cut one of those stacks of background squares into triangles and some borders but I will wait on that until it gets closer to the next step. 

I'm linking up here.

Not that I don't have enough to sew, but I have been back at natural dyeing. I have been trying different materials to dye. I have used black beans, grapefruit (also used oranges but I overdyed the fabric), marigolds, turmeric, madder root, and avocado pits. I also experimented with adding iron and washing soda to change the colors. 

For the second dye bath with marigolds, I decided to try a shibori technique using rubber bands. Below is the results. It is such a pretty yellow with fun markings!

Natural dyeing has been fun...makes me feel like a scientist!

I'll leave you with a sneak peek at what I'm working on...

and a picture of my grandson! Isn't he adorable! 

A finish and some slow progress

After a very busy end of the school year, I finished the T-shirt quilt that I was commissioned! The top was finished in the beginning of May but then it was on hold for a couple of reasons: I needed to complete the charity quilt for the Hands2Help project that I committed to making, I was waiting on the fabric order for the back and binding, and school was hopping at the end of the year so I was working almost every day!

They chose a grid style quilt. Gabby likes aqua blues so I used those colors for the sashings and border. 

The backing is an aqua batik.

Finished and delivered in time for her graduation party!

Then I realized, it was June which meant a new color of the month. I headed over to So Scrappy to find that dark blue will be the color play for June!

Here is Waterfront Starburst in dark blue with a low volume in blue. 

Here are the 6 blocks so far for the 2019 challenge!

And my Reverse Star block.

And all 6 together! 

Little by little I'll catch up on my monthly blocks!

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

In the meantime, I was determined to do a little bit of hand dyeing of fabrics. I started with some avocado pits. Would you guess they turn your fabrics pink? 

Avocado pits and skins. 

The avocado bath.

The apron I dyed with the avocado bath. 

The pink yardage is a bit lighter.

I have tried citrus peels but didn't get much color. It turned a very pale yellow. 

I have learned that natural dyeing is a lot of trial and error. 

I'll try a bit more but we will see if it is worth the time.

Now I need to catch up on my Quiet Play Pattern Club blocks!
Linking up to Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

May's color is ORANGE!

Orange is such a happy color! 

For May, Angela from So Scrappy announced the color ORANGE! I know it is already the second week of May and I'm just getting started with my orange blocks but....I'm working to catch up between projects!

Here is my first block ~ Waterfront Starburst ~ in  ORANGE! 

Maker Mouse, my quilting room companion, matches nicely! 😉 

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday

Now on to my second orange block!

What's on My Design Wall?

This year I am determined to do more charity quilting. I have joined up with Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and the Hands2Help Campaign. I am sewing for Jack's Basket, a charity that provides quilts to families that have a child with down syndrome. 

I am combining my desire to use up my scraps with this project so I decided to do a scrappy ribbon quilt. I choose the 4 basic colors of red, green, blue and yellow. I also found a piece of flannel fabric with a child's print in my stash that I will use for the backing. 

Next step is to sandwich and quilt this sweet quilt. I'm linking up with the first check-in to show our progress. Go check out the other great charity quilting!

I also finished my 2nd RSC block for April. 

This is my Waterfront Starburst block in aqua!

Here are the first 4 blocks of 2019!

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy.

I'm also linking up to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? and Finished or Not Friday and TGIFF at Slice of Pi Quilts.

A new month brings a new color

April has found its way which means a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! March did not go out like a lamb around here so I'm very happy April arrived! We are finally seeing a few warmer days (still below average) but sights of Spring have been spied ~ robins, buds on trees, some early Spring flowers pushing up through the soil and aqua blue!

Here is my 1st block of aqua blues. This is my Reverse Star block. 

Here are the 1st 4 blocks together! 

Each block will finish at 17"

I also got to cut into by blue stash fabrics that I pulled for the Optical Illusion quilt I planned to make. These are paper pieced churn dash blocks. The size change to create the illusion. 

I was debating on how to finish this quilt...borders? What kind? Then my daughter suggested making a giant churn dash block as the border. What a great idea! I had plenty of fabric left in my stash so I got to work. 

I love how it frames the optical illusion blocks. I used a 1/4" Kona Snow inner border as a break between the middle and the border. I sewed the big churn dash as the border with the corner HSTs being 8".  This pattern is from Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design. 

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at SoScrappy, Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not at Busy Hands Quilts, Friday Foto Fun at Powered by Quilting, and Free Motion Mavericks at Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing. 

Another block down...

I feel like I really fell behind (for a very good reason) when I went to visit my new grandson and his mommy, daddy, and aunt. Work has been extremely busy since so my time in my sewing room has been limited. 

I did accomplish my second RSC block, the Waterfront Starburst block. 

I'm just loving these blocks with the low volume prints matching the color of the month! What do you think?

Thanks to those that commented on my previous photo. My DD2 is a photographer so I am challenging myself to do a better job at my photo shoots! Hope I can keep it up!

Linking up to Scrappy Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

Since I crossed off RSC blocks from my list, I moved onto the Quiet Play blocks. Stay tuned for these cute rainbow blocks! 

I also signed up for some more charity quilting! The Comfort Quilt Challenge over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I'll be sewing for Jack's Basket. 

More Progress!

Today I have the 4th finish left over from 2018! Only 1 more to go! This is my Play Date baby quilt. 

The pattern is called Churn Link. I used fabric from my stash that is the same print in pink and yellow. The background is Kona White and the yellow border is a solid from my stash. 

The way the patterns link together and the 'twin' fabrics reminded me of how  girls and their friends would want to dress alike and would ask for a play date. 

I FMQ a daisy in the square spaces inside the churn dash blocks and straight lines quilted in the negative space and the border. 

The binding is a pink polka dot fabric from my stash. I love the girly feel to this sweet quilt!

I pieced the back with mini churn dash blocks across the quilt. 

The finished size of this quilt is 46.5" x 53.5". A nice size baby quilt!

I also finished my 2nd block for the RSC in yellow. Waterfront Starburst!

For these blocks, I'm using 1 fabric in the color of the month as the main fabric and a low volume fabric with that same color as the background. 

Remember all those HST pieces I showed you here?

Here is my medallion quilt top with all those HSTs (276) sewn together! Phew!

Can you see the circles stars?

I will be spending 2+ weeks away from my sewing room to visit with this little fellow and his parents!

I have prepared some hand stitching to bring along. I did a trial block to see exactly how challenging this will be. 

This technique is called reverse applique. The corners are a bit tricky but hopefully I'll get better as I do more! 

Linking up to ScrappyHappy Saturday at So Scrappy, Can I get a whoop whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts, and Friday Foto Fun at Powered by Quilting.

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?