Still Working on It. It's Still One of My Favorite Things.

Still quilting in perle #8 ...

...on my Rainbow of Favorite Things.  But I'm almost finished. 

Then I have to decide how to finish off the edges.  I'm still thinking about that.  Why plan ahead? 

Other Slow Stitching on Sunday links are at Kathy's Quilts. Go look. 

Boo hoo...my week of vacation is just about over. Hi ho! Hi ho! It's back to work I go tomorrow. 

Crumby Yellow

I didn't have many yellow scraps for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had to combine with some orange and red scraps and with a pink background I made some crumby bow tie blocks which have now been turned into a quilt top that eventually will be quilted and go to Wrap a Smile. 

To see what others have done with yellow scraps: Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Scrap Happy Saturday

To learn more about Wrap a Smile visit Sunshine Online Quilt Guild blog (and maybe even join our Yahoo group). 

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Actually, I just got back Wednesday from a week at a family reunion camping trip in Mark Twain State Park in Missouri. But since this blog isn't about camping I'll tell you about the quilt I finished yesterday while still on my summer vacation. 

To get this finished was my goal for June's Lovely Year of Finishes. 

I accomplished my goal. And I can mark off another UFO from my list. 

1930 Reproduction Fabrics/Kona Snow

c. 1930 blocks swapped on a Yahoo Group in 2010

58x72

I just did straight line quilting. You are not imagining things if  it looks like the lines are not evenly spaced.  Long story on that but I'm not going to rip out any stitches. The quilt is for me and I'm fine with it. 

The binding is scrappy. 

And the backing is muslin. Just like grandma used to make. 

So, now I'm linking up to Lovely Year of Finishes - June Finishing Party at Fiber of All Sorts  and Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

Now, to finish off my summer vacation...I have toads in my swimming pool and wild raspberries in my daylilies so my work is cut out for me. 

Time Warp

I have quite a few UFOs that use 30s reproduction fabrics (or fabrics I think remind me of my grandma's quilts). I decided I need to get them all finished before I start another 30s project. So, this weekend I worked on: 

7 more Tulip Blocks

9 more Great Granny blocks (only need 8 more for a total of 42, I think!) 

3 more Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks - Buckwheat, Butterfly at the Crossroads and...

...Cups and Saucers.  I need to count how many more I need to finish this quilt.  I file the blocks in between the pages and I probably shouldn't but other wise I probably wouldn't remember the name of the blocks or which ones I had finished. 

And I made 16 more String Star blocks

For a total of 46  that will be sewn together into groups of 4 

I can't help but feel happy stuck in a 30s time warp. 

To see what others have stuck on their design walls visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Six inch hexies are all sewn together into a quilt top and I've started hand quilting.  It's a rainbow of some of my favorite things. 

Fairies, blueberries, snowflakes, butterflies, merry-go-rounds, unicorns, pansies...

 ...Halloween, peaches, pansies, pumpkinsm daffodils...

I couldn't decide what to use for the backing. I wanted to use perle #8 in a variety of rainbow colors to do the quilting but didn't want it to look too strange on the back.  This fabric is a rainbow of flowers and the quilting blends in nicely. 

After a day in and out of the garden  - weeding and picking strawberries, playing games with and chasing around grandkids and getting ready for a camping trip next weekend I'm ready to relax, sit with a glass of homemade raspberry/rhubarb wine and do some slow Sunday stitching on my Favorite Things before bed. 

For some more Slow Sunday Stitching inspiration visit Kathy's Quilts. 

A Variety of 9 Patches

I've worked in the last week a little on various projects that involve 9 patches. All are so different.  First are the Twinklers using some red scraps. Along with the blue Twinklers they will make up a quilt for Quilts of Valor.

I also turned some of my 3 inch 9 patches from a swap with a Yahoo Group into 5 inch Sister's Choice blocks.  I've been using blue for the star points and WOW fabrics for background.  So far I have 156 blocks and I think I figured I need 388 for the size quilt I want to make.  So far I don't think I have any repeat fabrics in the 9Ps. I love looking at all the various fabrics in the 9Ps I receive in the swaps held 3 times each year.  This has been a UFO for quite a while and will probably continue to be one for quite another while.

And finally I've made some 9P blocks for another swap for another Yahoo Group. This time they are 6 inch blocks  and consist of a 30s reproduction fabric plus a white solid. I used Kona White although I usually like to use Kona Snow with 30s but it might not be as white as the other whites used in the swap.     A set consists of 5 blocks of each configuration as shown.  After I get the swapped blocks back I'm going to turn them into a 14 inch block like I saw at the Quilt Ladies website which looks like a combination of 9P and Churn Dash and then some.  I probably have enough 30s scraps to use up in those blocks.

Izzy's Wedding Quilt Update

The Back Story:  Isabelle (a.k.a.  Izzy or Belle or Bellarina), one of my granddaughters,  is 8 years old. Several times in the last several years she has told me I'm going to live at least long enough to attend her wedding. Maybe she knows something I don't know. I hope she's not getting married for a long, long time!

On January 14 a driver talking on a cell phone ran a red light and hit me broadside - $6,000 worth of damage to the car. I tried to turn out of the path of the collision and came about an inch from hitting another car head on. I was not hurt - just shook up a little. 

After that my granddaughter's words came back to me...that I would live long enough to attend her wedding.   That got me to thinking I should start on a wedding quilt for her, finish it and store it away. That way...if I'm not able to attend her wedding I will be there in spirit.

Over the years her favorite colors have switched between red and purple.  So, the color palette for her quilt will be red, purple and blue.  I've pulled some of those colors from my stash. The pattern will be Double Wedding Ring a.k.a Pickle Dish a.k.a. Gypsy Kisses.

Izzy's paternal grandmother passed away last Tuesday at the age of 58 which made me more aware than ever of my own mortality and has seemed to make more urgent my need to leave something of myself behind. 

I've journaled my progress on this quilt in previous posts.  I'm now at the stage where I'm joining my arches together and am about a third of the way finished. 

I don't have a design wall but I've kind of propped up my cutting board, covered it with leftover batting pieces and then put my background fabric up on it and put some of the joined arches up on that. So I guess I can kind of tell how it will all look.  Or can I?    

If you want to see some real design walls and some inspiring projects please visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

Crazy Cravings - June Update

This is my June block for Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013.   The blocks are eventually going to end up in a lap quilt I've named Crazy Cravings. 

Now that I see the embroidery close up I think I need to whip stitch the back stitches on the whipped cream and blueberries and maybe the leaf since you can't really tell what those are.  I can make out the strawberry and the tart okay.

 Here's another close up of some of the stitches. I back stitched some of the words already on the fabric.

 I think the name of the stitch down the side in 3 colors is called a scroll stitch (or was it coral stitch) but really don't remember. I think it looks like frosting.  And speaking of frosting...I outline stitched the frosting lines on the cupcakes.

Here's a pick of the block with 3 of the others I've completed. I now have a total of 6 and think I need 20 for my quilt. 

I've started on July's block. I hand piece my blocks and use an iron on embroidery transfer for the large middle space.     I have a funeral to attend later in the day and then I think I will do some Slow Sunday Stitching.   Kathy's Quilts has a linky party going on if you'd like to be inspired by some of the hand stitching projects. 

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

What did I do with my yellow scraps- the color for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge?  Well, there weren't many so I had to combine them with orange and red...

...to get enough for 24 - 8 inch crumby bow tie blocks...

...which are now a quilt top blowing in the wind (which makes it difficult to take a photo) that needs some borders. Then it will be a quilt for Quilts Beyond Borders or Wrap-a-Smile. 

I needed some yellow spools for my collection (now I have 150 spools) so I cut into some yellow fabrics for those and I found enough yellow in my postage stamp box (1.5 inch squares) for a yellow patch.

I also decided to cut into some yellow in my stash to work on my Floribunda quilt which is a UFO. I added 13 more blocks for a total of 25.   

So, this month I used up most of my yellow scraps and then started making more.  To check out what everyone else is doing with yellow visit SoScrappy's blog for Scrap Happy Saturday.  I'm going to go check out everyone else's projects and then go work in the garden. It's finally a sunny day and that wind felt so good while I was out taking pictures and the strawberries are ready for picking (and weeding). 

They've Been Around for About Three Years So...

...I decided it's about time I made them into a quilt.

1930 Reproduction Fabrics/Kona Snow

c. 1930 blocks swapped on a Yahoo Group in 2010

58x72

Sewn together this weekend into a top and ready to be basted, quilted and bound

Now my June Goal for a Lovely Year of Finishes

Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2013 In Review

I promised one quilt for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo.   And when I was finished with that I decided to make quilts for Quilts Beyond Borders and finished four.   
The five quilts I mailed yesterday are as follows: 

Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo

Quilts Beyond Borders 

Quilts Beyond Borders

Quilts Beyond Borders

Quilts Beyond Borders

To see what others have made as part of the challenge visit Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Using Up Yellow

Yellow is the color for June  for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC).   I don't have many yellow scraps. I used some 2.5 inch pieces in this yellow/brown top I finished this weekend. The twelve inch blocks I won in a block lottery on the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild Yahoo Group. I have many more but I used 6 in this top. 

I made some 6 inch wonky stars and used white/cream and yellow as background and brown scraps for the points and centers. 

The middle row I just sewed together brown/yellow/cream/orange 2.5 inch scraps. And for the bottom row I used 2.5 inch yellow scraps for the 6 inch snowball corners.  This quilt, when finished, will go to either Quilts Beyond Borders or Wrap a Smile. 

Yellow doesn't look so bright when used with brown.   

On the other hand....

...yellow looks quite bright in these 8 inch blocks.   I made bow tie crumb blocks but since I didn't have many yellow crumbs I combined yellow with orange and red crumbs. 

I used more 2.5 inch yellow or orange scraps for the rest of the bow tie...

.

..and used some hot pink for the background.   This is waaaaay too bright for me but I think some kid somewhere will probably like it.   My 4 year old grandson likes it so far.  He was here this weekend and to keep him busy and out of his sister and cousin's hair I asked him to help me pick out little red, yellow and orange scraps from a giant box of little scraps. He did a great job and had a lot of fun and was ready for me to give him another color but the sun finally came out so we worked in the flower garden instead.  I'm so lucky to have such a sweet little helper. 

To see what other's have done with their yellow scraps visit ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy's blog. 

I think I've used up most of my yellow scraps already!