Scrappy Saturday

Orange was the RSC colour last month and I made another sewing machine block for my collection. This is a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop and I tried it in the 6" size this time. Each block has 16 pieces to fit together like a puzzle. So FUN!

You can see my aqua block that turned into a mug mat here. And my blue sewing machine block jumped into a round robin project. So although I have made several sewing machine blocks, they keep disappearing from the RSC project box!

I also made a light green machine in anticipation of October's colour and here is my machine collection on the design wall. Purple is a 3" block, and orange and green are 6" blocks. There is also a 12" pattern but I think that's too big for me! I love these blocks and will continue this project into 2022.

I also added a few orange blocks last month to other RSC projects... a few more waffle blocks and one Easy Breezy block. I can't seem to stop sewing these Easy Breezies even though I have more than enough for a quilt. It's not logical or explainable but they continue!

And I felt like making a few more mini arrowhead blocks for that collection. 

I'll be happily digging into the light green scraps this month since it's one of my favourite colours!

Linking up to the weekly RSC party

UFO Finish - Deanna's Daisies

In March of 2010 I was a last minute substitute for a guild speaker and did a presentation on my UFO problem - you can read about it here. (We won't talk about how the UFO problem is even worse than it was back in 2010!) 

One of the UFO's that was put up for adoption at the 2010 guild meeting is this blue and yellow QST quilt top. It was made from swap blocks in the early 1990s and although I thought I was clever with the layout, I just never really liked the poor thing. And no one at the meeting liked it either! But my friend Barb took it home and mailed it off to  Deanna, my self declared "northern blog stalker".

Well Deanna took this ugly duckling and turned it into a swan!

She appliqued large daisies, and machine quilted it with loops and flowers... and it turned out so pretty!

Here is a close up of a daisy so you can see how she attached them. The petals are stitched around the outside to fasten them to the quilt top. And then they are stitched 1/4" away from the edge as part of the quilting design. I love the translucent effect!

And even the backing is made of pretty blue and yellow fabrics!

I already slept under it to give it the sleep test... only  happy dreams, so it's good to go to a new home!

This quilt will be donated to my local guild's comfort quilt project that provides quilt to victims of sexual assault receiving treatment at our local hospital.

Now I'm excited about the treasures hiding in my UFO closet just waiting to become something beautiful... maybe!

Monthly Placemat

For this month's Table Scraps Challenge I used up some 1.25" strips that were on the cutting table. I had fun playing with how to cut the strips sets and had no idea what I was going to end up with.

These are the 3.25" blocks I ended up with!

I had them on the design wall for a few days and every time I walked by, I moved the blocks around. This is how they were on sewing day, so that was the final layout. It's a very scientific process!

Then I had some fun with machine quilting using my walking foot and some orange thread. I stitched right down the centre of every strip, and did not do any planning or marking. 

Each line was eyeballed and "good enough" was my mantra.

Some of the lines formed diamond shapes and I was really pleased with how that looked.

This photo shows the pretty orange backing fabric and  the quilting design.
I enjoyed hand stitching the binding in the evening while the sun was setting. Maybe this is going to be a drink coaster and not a placemat!?!

NO... it's a placemat and it will join my collection that I will donate to Meals on Wheels in time for Christmas distribution.

Here's the 2021 collection:

Linking up to the Table Scraps Challenge,  the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday, and Wendy will link me up to the mini quilts challenge at Constant Quilters.

Design Wall Monday

I have been working on my summer mystery project that my local quilt guild hosted. Here it is before the last border.

Somehow I made 40 extra (wrongly cut) HST blocks and wanted to use them up in the last border.

And here is the finished quilt top, with the extra blocks in the outside border. Because of my error in a previous step, I just have enough fabric left for the binding.

The pattern is designed by Judy Eckhardt. Her pattern has a proper 4" border around instead of a 2" border that includes all of my mistake blocks!

Now I am thinking about how to machine quilt this project.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!

I am definitely looking forward to some slow stitching today. How about you? I hope you will take some time today to relax and to put a few stitches into your project. 

We have had a lot of rain lately, and the forecast for tomorrow is sun, so I plan to enjoy some outdoor stitching. As you can see in the photo, I have finished stitching the words on this tea towel, and have also done the martini glass. Today I'll work on the shaker and see how much I accomplish. You can also see the plethora of tomatoes from my little garden. I wish some of the other plants had done as well as the tomatoes did! I have already canned salsa and pasta sauce, and I'm getting tired of toasted tomato sandwiches. 

What will you be hand stitching today? We love to be inspired by your projects and hope you will link up your blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Scrappy Saturday

This is the last Orange week at the RSC. This month went by really fast and I don't think I made enough blocks for my RSC projects, so today I will do an inventory and keep working on orange to fill in the gaps.

This week I reevaluated the Waffle Project. There is one more  column of red blocks that I didn't have enough room for on the design wall. I made some decisions about a possible layout, size and blocks needed to finish this quilt by the end of the year. It's such a great scrap buster using up 1.5" squares. And it definitely has a shortage of juicy orange, so I'll work on that today.

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Design Wall Monday

I have been enjoying the Bats and Boos mystery quiltalong. I have 2 friends who have already finished their version, so I was inspired to get sewing on mine. I wanted more orange in the centre so I used the pumpkins in a night sky print for the centre star.

I finished the centre block today and love how it turned out. It used up several scraps of black and it was a very fun block to sew. 

Here are all the blocks on the design wall. I am ready to sew the 9 blocks together and start auditioning border fabrics.

And in a rare episode of quilting self restraint, I am not starting the new Fat Quarter Christmas mystery because I haven't finished this Halloween one AND I haven't finished my Christmas UFO of the month yet. So look at me being all self disciplined!

Must. Stay. Focused.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of all hand stitched crafts! We hope you will join us in setting aside a few moments each Sunday for some relaxing stitching on your favourite project. Pick up a needle and thread, breathe deeply, and enjoy a little vacation from the responsibilities of your life.

I did a bit of hand embroidery on my current tea towel project this week.

But mostly I had some real progress on knitting a new face/dish cloth. I went to knit at a park, which is a beside by a river that goes through town... hence the name Riverside Park! I'm about 1/3 of the way done and am happy with my progress so far. I love hand stitching outdoors, watching the river go by, listening to folks playing baseball nearby, and just relaxing. It looks like a lovely fall day ahead today, so I'll enjoy some blog reading and then more outdoor hand stitching.

What are you hand stitching in the middle of September? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

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Scrappy Saturday

This week flew by and the only sewing I did was focused on the orange bitcoin ladders. I had a lot of fun digging through the scraps, cutting and sewing strips and rectangles, and creating ladders. I have enough for the columns needed for orange, but I'm not going to assemble them until I have the green and yellow ladders done. They will join the blue, purple, aqua ladders that are already assembled for the left part of the quilt. Getting the seams lined up in the right direction is crucial to this pattern, so I'll wait for green and yellow ladders to be completed, and then join the orange.

Today I'll be sewing some orange mini arrowhead blocks and joining a Saturday guild sewin via zoom. Linking up to the RSC party at Angela's

Design Wall Monday

On the design wall today is my unfinished Bats and Boos project. I am still working on the centre star block.

In the meantime, I  have been snooping around blogland and found these Bats and Boos quilts to inspire me to finish mine:

Pretty Piney

The Tattooed Quilter

Pat Sloan (scroll down to see her cool border)

Scrapatches (added ghosts and witch hats)

Sara at My Sewing Room

Buffalo Flatts Quilt Co (made the quilt and the cross stitch!)

Dream Quilt Create (with a cute fussy cut centre square)

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Pull up a comfy chair, make yourself a cup of your favourite drink (it's pumpkin spice time!) and join us while we add a few stitches to our multiyear projects!

I'm enjoying the hand embroidery of another tea towel (design by Stitcher's Revolution). Today is forecast to be a rainy day here, so I'll be slowly stitching the remaining letters and listening to the rain. 

What are your slow stitching plans for today? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

September is orange month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I have dumped some of the orange scraps on the cutting table. I tossed my snack in the middle because it made me smile... an orange in the orange! I  determined which of my projects need more orange. 

And then I started cutting and sorting and planning... and using up another cone of Aurifil thread!

Here are some blocks coming together on the design wall... 4 orange fish for this year's leader-ender challenge, and 2 easy breezy blocks for last year's leader-ender challenge project.

Linking up to the weekly scrappy party at Angela's

Today I hope to watch some TV coverage of the 20th anniversary of 911 if I can summon the courage, and will distract myself with some soothing sewing.

Design Wall Monday

My Bitcoin project took a hold of my interest this weekend and I sewed together the left side of the project. This is not a good (late night) photo, but you can get the idea. These are the navy, purple and aqua columns for my rainbow bitcoin. Still to sew over the next few months are green, yellow, orange and red scraps. I'm hoping that placement order will make a pretty scrappy rainbow.

I really love 💜 sewing the ladders of scraps, but find the column joins to be hard work. I think I am cutting and sewing accurately, but when it comes to sewing these columns together, apparently I'm not 100%!

Pressing is particularly time consuming, but I've got a system now and I know the remaining joins will be less frustrating.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the regular weekly practice of relaxing with some hand stitching! We encourage you to join us... all you have to do is take a deep breath, find your hand stitching project and put in some stitches. 

I have another tea towel embroidery in the hoop today. This is another fun  pattern from the Stitcher's Revolution series. I am enjoying some outdoor stitching time by the river, soaking up all the last vestiges of summer. 

What are you hand stitching today? 

Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

August was the month for sewing teal/aqua scraps at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this week I have been sewing ladders for my Bitcoin project. Some of these scraps are 10 and 15 years old and they are so happy to be part of a quilt in the making. It is sometimes a challenge to keep the ladders even and straight. 

This project is a great scrap/strip eater!

And here are all the coloured ladders made so far - navy, purple and aqua.

I think I'm starting to understand the direction this quilt is taking and the next step is to decide on the size parameters of the project. Then I can start organizing these partial ladders and start sewing them together into columns. 

And also... only because it was aqua month, I enjoyed a couple of these pretty margaritas! 

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Start something new or finish something old?

I had a great time with the Fat Quarter Shop's Halloween mystery quilt last month (although it's not finished yet) so I know that the new September Christmas mystery row project called All the Trimmings will be great fun. It starts on September 7th.

But I really want to finish the Kim Diehl Christmas quilt I finished last year first. Maybe I should make a deal with myself that I can start a new Christmas project once last year's is finished. 

What do you think the odds are of a finish?

This is my goal for September - to finish my Christmas quilt. The cause for delay was I couldn't decide on whether this should be a table topper or a tree skirt. I have been hesitant to cut a hole in the middle and slice across one side.  What do you think - should this be a tree skirt or table topper?

Linking up to One Monthly Goal

Design Wall Wednesday

It's already Wednesday and I'm just getting my Monday post done. That tells you what kind of week it has been so far!

I have been slowly sewing blocks for a baby quilt that needs to be finished. It's made with these soft and cozy Robert Kaufman flannels and 8" sawtooth star blocks.

Here is a possible layout. I'm not sure if I'm liking the dark grey stars. This is a dull photo of the blocks... the true colours are in the photo above.

I'm using a medium grey flannel for the border and maybe the dark stars will look better once that is on?

Let's see....

Here is another photo that shows the border fabric hanging beside the quilt. I think it's going to be okay. I love these flannels... especially the elephants and the giraffes. 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We encourage you to pick up a project and put some stitches in today.

The only hand stitching I did so far this week was to finish the binding on my mini mug mat and my monthly placemat. Totally relaxing.

I have a new embroidery pattern pressed and ready to start stitching and that is what I will be  stitching today.

I came across an interesting article about "Embroidery as Therapy". I did not now that World War I veterans with "shell shock" used embroidery to ease their trauma. I have always believed that hand stitching improves mental health, and as the article says hand stitching can be used to "bring peace, find friends, gain confidence and make a life".

Love Welcomes

And still today, people around the world are using stitching to help trauma survivors. Programs such as Love Welcomes helps refugee women "begin to stitch their lives back together". They are using recycled materials like old life jackets to create something beautiful as a way to benefit women fleeing poverty and violence. I love their "Theory of Change" and if you are anything like me, and just feel like you have to "do something", maybe this is something you can do!?

Here is another interesting article about opportunities to help refugees around the world. 

And now, I am sitting on my stitching chair in the back yard, soaking up the last bits of summer weather and slowly putting in one stitch at a time. What are you hand stitching today?

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