July is red month over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The goal is to sew as many of our red and maroon scraps as possible into quilt blocks.
It used to be that my red scraps were mostly Christmas themed, but once I started the 150 Canadian Women project, I accumulated a wide variety of reds. (That quilt hasn't seen any progress lately... maybe I should get it out this month?)
Anyway I did use up a lot of small scraps for my Squared Away sampler blocks for July. This month's pattern is called "Round the Corner" and the pattern can be found over at the Academic Quilter.
I am making 4 blocks each month at the 5" size. And here are all my fantastic sampler blocks made this year.
Thanks to Mari and Angela for this fun project!
Hop over to the link up to see more RSC posts.
Aurifil posts a new block pattern each month in their Designer of the Month project with the interesting theme of "The Places We Go". I made their DOM last year (click here to see it) and really enjoyed it, but some of the blocks this year have been more challenging. January's block has been "in production" since January LOL! I didn't like the bridge block for April, and couldn't visually figure out what the June block was.
But then came July's block which is an easy log cabin variation called "Beach Houses" by Sherri McConnell. It involved cutting lots of 1.25" strips but once the cutting was done, the sewing part was quick and easy.
Here is my finished block.
To see other finished blocks, hop over to the June Aurifil link up.
Below is a photo of the 4 Aurifil DOM blocks I've made so far this year.
I have been working on a group baby quilt this week. Each person in the group was requested to add one or two kites to the quilt. It's a challenge working on a group quilt. Everyone contributes in whatever way they can and you have to give up all your perfectionistic tendencies to accommodate a wide range of sewing abilities.
The goal is to have everyone participate, not to get a beautifully made quilt.
I appliqued two kites to the quilt - a sock monkey kite and a striped kite.
The striped kite got a ricrac tail, and the sock monkey has a couched yarn tail which were both fastened down by machine.
I also finished the edge of the quilt with a striped binding.
Here it is hanging on the clothesline. Now I am passing the quilt onto another friend who will hopefully add a kite or two.
And then it will be gifted to our friend who is a first time grandma. So happy to be done with this "must do" project so I can get back to some fun projects of my own!
The big family camping trip of the summer is over. It was similar to all the previous ones... too much sun, lots of laughing, chatting and playing games, and not enough sleep. And for the Moms, it is way too much work. Cooking on a Coleman stove or over an open fire, and hauling water for cooking and washing dishes is not as much "fun" as it used to be when I was younger! And let's not even talk about the whole outhouse experience!
But memories were made, relationships were strengthened, and new members of the family ("add-ons" as we call them) were met. No bears were seen this year (read about the bear adventure here), but Granddog Max had a close encounter with a snapping turtle which left him with a sore nose!
Anyway, I missed "Design Wall Monday", but this quilt is on my design wall today. It's a bit of a hot mess. The project was started by a high school friend to gift to another one of our friends to celebrate becoming a grandmother. The creator of the project has no quilting experience and thought it would be "easy". The quilting was done without a walking foot and this photo doesn't show how hard it is going to be to put a binding on that wavy bunched up edge. My job is to add a kite or two, put on the binding and pass it to the next friends who will add more kites. I am trying hard to not let my quilter perfectionism get in the way of making a group gift full of good intentions for someone we love. It is what it is! Today I'm making binding for the kite quilt.
Hop over to the weekly design wall linkup at Small Quilts.
It's finally Sunday - a day of rest, reflection, renewal, and slow stitching! Why not join us as we get out our hand stitching projects and put in a few relaxing stitches?
I'm working on my Life Is Beautiful project today. I put all the finished blocks on the design wall to see where this project is at.
30 blocks are quilted, which is almost the half way point. I have quilted more embroidered blocks than the alternate blocks, so today I'm going to pin baste a stack of alternate blocks to work on.
I have the blocks appliqued, the batting and backing squares cut, and am ready to get a few more blocks completed. Well, the completion won't happen today, but lots of stitching will be happening and they will all get finished eventually.
What are you hand stitching today? We love to see what you're creating so link up your blog post and share your project with us.
**Sorry the link up didn't work right this morning! I was camping and set an autopost that apparently didn't like my instructions. Click page refresh and hopefully the updated link will appear...
An InLinkz Link-up
After making Carole's Square Dance mystery quilt top, I became preoccupied with the scraps. The first project from the tiny scraps called Diamonds in the Rough is a mini quilt. But the larger scraps were big enough to make a lap size quilt. You can see Carole's improv scrappy version here.
Here is the fun stage of trimming units and generating ideas of how they might be sewn together. I trimmed up all the blade units to the same size.
Because the original Square Dance design had windmill shapes in it, I was drawn to this windmill configuration and just had to figure out the math for pieces to fit in the open spaces.
When I was sewing it together somehow I got the white background pieces on the opposite side of the blade and didn't realize it until it was together and I was measuring the block size.
It's interesting, but not the design I was hoping for.
Try again. I took the entire block apart and resewed it.
That's better!
Chocolate Windmills!
The next step is to figure out how to make it larger by adding some scrappy sashing and/or borders.
It is time once again for the July Shop Hop. This is a large scale mystery quilt adventure sponsored by stores in southern Ontario, Canada.
This year there are 15 stores that you visit to collect a block pattern and the fabric to make it. If you go to all 15 stores, you will have a 15 block sampler quilt. Each store makes a unique sampler quilt using the same blocks, so you get to see 15 different quilts.
It is such a large project and I am amazed that they are still offering this to us for free! And there are door prizes and a grand draw prize of an amazing sewing desk made locally by Adam of Eddycrest.
I have attended on and off over the last few years:
-in 2012 it was called "Yours to Discover" and had 10 stores,
-in 2015 I collected a few blocks and Barb gave me all her blocks since she doesn't like blue,
-in 2016 we collected block fabrics in fall colours and I didn't make it to all the stores but together with some of my friends we are making a quilt to donate to the Mennonite Relief Quilt Auction with these blocks, and
-in 2017 the blocks were grey and I got around to 10 of the 15 stores.
It is quite a lot of driving, and this year I am joining with some quilting friends to try to get to as many of the 15 stores as we can before the end of the month. It is inspiring and very fun, and a very expensive adventure because of course you spend money at every store you go in.
Click here for the Shop Hop Facebook page.
Do you have shop hops where you live? Do you participate?
It used to be that my red scraps were mostly Christmas themed, but once I started the 150 Canadian Women project, I accumulated a wide variety of reds. (That quilt hasn't seen any progress lately... maybe I should get it out this month?)
