Starburst Quilt

I don't know if any of you remember me working on these blocks because it hasn't been touched since Jan 7/2014. I love these blocks and I was making them while participating in Little Bunny Quilts Starburst QAL. I chose to make four of each of the nine blocks that were released and once I got them completed the project got shelved for one reason or another.

I wanted a full sized quilt and I decided on an on point layout but that meant I needed to make some more blocks. I have printed out the paper piecing patterns and I am working on them today. Some of the blocks are a bit challenging but I am up for it. Hopefully, over the next couple days I will have enough completed to start putting the top together. I am excited!!

Dear Jane - Ashley's Aura (C-6)

I made another Dear Jane block for Tiny Tuesday. This is another block that I chose to complete using applique. I traced the block onto freezer paper and I cut away the melon shapes. Once I did that I ironed the freezer paper onto the background fabric so that I would have an accurate template for placement of the melons.

freezer paper template

With a Frixion pen, I marked the melon shapes onto the background fabric. I then removed the freezer paper template. Once I made the melon applique shapes I used a bit of glue to hold them down in position while I stitched away.

As you can see I am still having trouble with the points on the melons but there is improvement. One of the points actually looks pretty good. ;))

My Dear Jane blocks are not perfect but I am learning and practicing many new-to-me techniques. If I waited until I had perfect skills (which is not ever going to happen!!!!) then I would never make any quilts. I am truly enjoying the process!

RSC 2015 - Week 2

This week's sampler block is called Card Trick. I am glad Angela posted the directions and a diagram to make this block because I had never made one before. I really had to pay attention when I put it together. ;)

I spent a lot of time picking my fabric scraps and not because I wanted a specific look other than the medium blue and the light background. The block required the use of 1.5" and 2.5" strips and therein lies the problem. I had a lot of trouble trying to find fabric that I wanted to use and that I had available in both sizes in my bins. I really am quite determined to use just scraps and bits and pieces from my parts bins.

I had great intentions of making some other blue scrappy blocks this week but life happened and the blocks didn't!

Wanda's Card Trick

When Angela posted the block it reminded me of the quilt that my late sister-in-law made for my husband and I. It was a gift that she made for us for Christmas 1995. I don't use it a lot because I don't want to ruin it but after I took the photo I put it on our bed. I think I will keep it there for a little while.

Pop on over to soscrappy's so you can show off what you made with your blue scraps this week!

Winding Ways is Coming Together

I swear....I am being gaslighted and the perpetrator is me!! Why am I doing this to myself??

I was missing the center pieces for four of the Winding Ways blocks and I couldn't seem to find them. So, as I wrote yesterday, I had gone on a frantic search looking for some of the leftover brown fabric and after turning everything in my sewing studio upside down I found some. My sister brought the Go die over to my place so that I could cut more pieces. Calm down...everything was going to be okay.

In the meantime, I finished making all of the blocks but the four and when I counted them I had a total of 81 + 4 which = 85. I couldn't for the life of me think what kind of layout I would have designed with 85 blocks?? I was thinking that I needed to somehow make some more blocks but I knew the piece of brown fabric I had just wouldn't be enough. What was going on?? Even though it was months ago I was so sure that my sister and I had cut enough of everything. I had tried to keep everything together as a project even though that hunk of brown fabric did escape. ;)

I decided to lay out all of the blocks onto the floor and lo and behold the numbers worked out perfectly. When I counted the blocks I must have used the 1, 2, skip a few, 3, 4....counting technique. lol.

With the number of blocks situation settled, I was preparing to cut the brown center sections to replace the missing parts but when I looked at the die I saw that it was impossible for me to not have cut all of the pieces and they had to be somewhere in my sewing studio. I walked in my sewing studio ready to search again and those missing pieces were just sitting in a bin on my sewing table. Huh?

All is well that ends well and I know my niece is going to have a gorgeous quilt but I sure hope that all of this nonsense is behind me!!

Winding Ways Blocks

Every so often I would take a little time at my sewing machine to work on my pink and brown Winding Ways blocks. Those occasional sewing sessions have added up and I now have all of the blocks finished with one small exception. I say a small exception but it really had me in a bit of a panic!

ready for pressing

I have four more of the brown blocks to finish but I don't have enough center strips to finish them. I was so sure that my sister and I had cut enough of the strips for all of the blocks but I couldn't find them anywhere. That is when the panic set in and I was hoping I had some fabric left but I wasn't 100% sure.

I had a picture in my memory of a piece of the fabric somewhere and when I checked the bin that I had stored my extra/leftover fabric for this quilt I had no luck. I searched my fabric cupboards, my fat quarter bins and my strip bins but nothing to be found. All the while I was thinking 'how will I get a replacement piece'???? I lastly checked bins that contained the parts for other projects and finally at the bottom of one stack I found a nice chunk of the brown fabric. Thank goodness...I must admit I was really relieved to find it.

Just four more to go!

I had cut this quilt using my sister's Go Winding Ways die and I was going to go visit her and use the die while I was there but when she visited me recently she brought it with her. I will just cut the last couple pieces that I need and that will be that!

Midget Block #90 - Sea Star

I finished another Midget Block for Tiny Tuesday. I pretty much copied the fabric choices for this block and I had it nearly done when I made a cutting error. I used scraps for the yellow...and I mean scraps....and naturally that is where all the trouble began. I ended up short on one of the hsts and I looked everywhere for a replacement piece but could not find anything. I checked my strip bins and my parts bins but couldn't find one piece of the yellow fabric so I pieced together two very small scrappy bits and went with it. I am pretty sure that a week from now I will find a piece of that fabric but I won't redo it.

The center square of this block was hand pieced and it was quite fiddly but the rest was done by machine.

On a very happy note, the print fabric that I used is a scrap of vintage fabric that came from my late sister-in-law's stash. I really love it when I incorporate fabric from her stash into my quilts.

Block Lotto - January

It has been many months since I have participated in Block Lotto. You know what happens - every thing is going along smoothly and then all of a sudden something gets in the way. I think that is what happened last year and one of the things that got left behind was Block Lotto and for some reason I never got back to it.

I really do like the concept - you make blocks for submission and at the end of the month a certain number of participants win those blocks. If you are not the winner then you mail off your blocks BUT if you win you get a bunch of blocks mailed to you! Pop on over and take a look around and maybe join in. Sophie does come up with great blocks including these black and white Double Nines.

Floral Seven Sisters

I showed this block last week - nice to have a reminder of what the goal is!

Today I am hiding out in the family room and prepping more diamonds for hand piecing. What am I hiding out from you ask??? Well it is the weather of course, it is atrocious outside. We had snow and freezing rain yesterday and last night and even though it is milder today it is yucky and very messy. It is very dull and gray and the temps are expected to drop and everything is going to freeze up again. I do not have any plans to go out nor am I making any!!

I am content to stay inside and do some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I now have all of the stars pieced for four more blocks plus the one completed block that I showed last week.

I also have 42 diamonds cut and ready to piece into stars for a sixth block. The quilt consists of 12 blocks so I am really moving along nicely. I am in the process of drawing the diamonds for at least one more block and they are nearly ready for me to start cutting. I would love to get all of the diamonds for the stars drawn and cut today but I think that is a bit optimistic! Of course....there are still all of the pieces that need to be prepped for the background. ;)

RSC 2015 - Week 1

Whirling Geese

I plan to make the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler this year and when Angela posted the first block I was gung-ho and I thought I was going to make it right away but I seemed to have got myself sidetracked. No matter, I just worked on my scrappy blue blocks today instead.

The Sampler is composed of a variety of 6" blocks set inside a star block based on the colour of the month. I am really undecided about which fabrics I want to use for the stars. I think I will just make the center blocks for now and then as I see how things are going I will make a decision on whether I want to keep a constant background fabric for all of the stars. I am pretty sure that I will keep the stars scrappy-ish and continue to choose those fabrics based on what is available in my scrap bins at the time.

I also made nine blue pinwheel blocks to add to my collection. Still a very long way before I have enough to even think about putting them together into a quilt.

Pop on over to soscrappy's and check out the links. Every quilter I know has tons of scraps and this is a great way to use them up. Why not join in?

Squishy in the Mail - for Me!

I think a quilter's stash says a lot about a quilter but maybe the scrap stash tells an even better story! I am pretty sure that one of the stories that my scraps tell is 'what was she thinking??'. But, even more-so, I think they tell a story of quilts dreamed about and fretted over, petted and cajoled (and sometimes harsh words that were spoken) until they finally came to fruition. Scraps are the strips and bits that are leftover from the dream and they are sitting in the scrap bins waiting for their turn to become something special.

Sometimes those scraps are taken from their nice and safe and comfy scrap bins and - IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT - given away. I was the lucky recipient of some of those scraps!!!

Cathy from Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting sent me some fabulous 30s repro scraps as well as some civil war repro scraps. How lucky can I be - she was just so generous!

When the package arrived my sister Cheryl was visiting with me and we were so excited to open the package. It was packed with strips and we were admiring all of the fabrics and looking at Cathy's blog all the while. We had so much fun looking to see if we could see some of the fabrics in her quilts.

Thank you Cathy! I know that my Midget Blocks and and my Dear Jane blocks will absolutely benefit from your scrap stash.  ;))

If you haven't already, you should check out Cathy's blog - she has so many fun and wonderful quilts finished and in-the-making...and I have to tell you....she has an amazing stash!