Design Line Monday

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Fall Lottery

This quilt will be donated to Wrap a Smile- quilts for kids undergoing cleft palate/cleft lip surgery.  It is made from 6 blocks won in an autumn color block lottery hosted by the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild and some other miscellaneous scraps, pinwheels and wonky stars. 

Isn't that Scottie Dog cute? They are looking for more "boyish" quilts so hopefully this could be appropriate for a girl or a boy. 

I quilted it with loops and stars on my plain Jane DSM. Looks like I should have gotten a little closer to the edge with my quilting  but that's the way it stays now. I'm also getting better at machine binding. I actually enjoy sewing down binding by hand but I do understand that machine binding is better for kids.

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 "Happy Cats"

This quilt will also go to Wrap a Smile and I think either a boy or girl would enjoy it. Who doesn't love a happy cat? 

Looks like I hung the quilt upside down so maybe the cats aren't that happy now. 

I think I have a bottomless box of happy blocks in different themes waiting to be made into quilts. 

Quilted on plain Jane DSM with spirals. Looks like I made it closer to the edges on this one with my quilting. And, again, binding is sewn down by machine. 

And now I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. But I guess since I don't have a design wall but do have a clothesline now you know why I titled my post today Design Line Monday. 

Almost Finished Except For...

 ...Labels.  I have to stitch on some labels to finish up 4 quilts - 3 for Quilts of Valor and one for a wedding gift for my niece and husband-to-be.   I hate adding labels. Don't exactly know why I procrastinate for so long.  I want to ship off the quilts and the wedding is coming up so this is on my to-do list for tonight. 

And my Rainbow of Favorite Things Hexie Quilt is almost finished except for a few red and orange patches. I might get that finished up tonight also. This quilt has been made completely by hand.  I couldn't decide how to finish off the edges. I ended up turning under 1/4 inch on top and backing and stitching the two together with ladder stitch. I think that's what it's called. Might be called blind stitch. At any rate...I'm almost finished~!! 

To see what other Slow Sunday Stitching is going on in blog land visit Kathy's Quilts. 

This is the last day of my staycation so it's hi ho! hi ho! It's off to work I go tomorrow.  I did get a lot of weeding done and a lot of flimsies made so watch for some finished quilts here soon! 

Lotteries

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for July has been teal, blue-green, aqua, turquoise. The only scraps I have left of that color are some 2.5 inch strips left over from various projects. So, this morning I made some 9 patch blocks from those scraps and combined them with some miscellaneous 6.5 inch squares that I've received in various swaps that seem "boyish".  I ended up with 4 - 12 inch blocks that I will probably send in to the August lottery for Sunshine Online Quilt Guild.  The August theme is "Boys". The way the lottery works is  - for every 2 blocks sent in one goes to the lottery and the other goes to Tammy who runs the lottery and makes quilts for Wrap a Smile and Quilts Beyond Borders from all the "second  entry" lottery blocks.  

To see what others are doing with their teal, etc scraps visit Scrap Happy Saturday at the SoScrappy blog. 

And speaking of lotteries...I joined up with Block Lotto and made some 6x9 I Spy Houses which is this month's lottery block.  I think these houses would make a fun quilt for some grandkids who love story telling. Oh, the tales they could tell about some of the people in this neighborhood! 

Seeing Stars

My July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes was to quilt and bind this Patriotic Stars quilt.  It's also another UFO finished for a UFO challenge and it's the third quilt I've finished for  Patchwork Times QOV Challenge. 

How about that! Three goals in one! 

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Quilted with loops and stars on my Plain Jane DSM

12 inch (finished) stars were swapped several years ago. 

I was on staycation this week and spent time with the grandkids shopping for school, playing games and teaching the two 8 year olds how to sew on their little Janomes. They made pillows for their moms for Christmas but wouldn't let me take photos.  Also spent time gardening. My retired DH takes care of the veggie garden but doesn't weed my flower gardens and I've been way behind on those pesky weeds. We live out here in the country and this year it looks like some thistles are spreading from who knows where as well as wild raspberries and wild grapes. Arghhhh.   And now my body aches all over. Every inch of it.  Since it has been raining off an on all day and GKs are gone and my body aches I  thought today would be a good time to relax with a glass of homemade blackberry/raspberry wine and to finish hand sewing the binding down on this quilt. 

I finished my goal for Lovely Year of Finishes and will be linking up to the Finishes Party. 

Since it's a finish I'm also linking to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

I'm also going over to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to Whoop Whoop it up. 

13 Little Monkeys Hanging on a Wall

Little Monkeys

in Teal, Blue, Aqua, Blue-green, Turquoise

Little Monkey pattern from Quiltville

Color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge from Angela at SoScrappy

Overwhelmed in Happy...

....Blocks.  

I'm participating in a Happy Block swap of sorts. People sign up for groups of 4-4.5 inch centers and/or groups of 6-6.5 inch centers.  I signed up for 2 groups of each size.  Participants send off a group of 6 centers to each participant in each group to be bordered. When you receive the centers you add 2.5 inch borders to 5 of them and keep one of your choice.   It's great fun to see what borders get added to your centers and great fun to pick out borders for other people's centers.  I'll probably use a lot of what comes back to me for donation quilts.  What follows is what I've bordered for others.  Can't wait to get mine back.

Since I've finished up so many happy blocks I guess I can link to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and then Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict? 

Izzy's Wedding Quilt - Update

I've joined together several more arches for Izzy's Double Wedding Ring Quilt.  In case you don't follow me...Izzy is my 8 year old granddaughter who told me I was going to live long enough to attend her wedding. I thought in case I don't live that long I better make her a quilt and attend her wedding in spirit.

I'm about 2/3 way finished with this part of the process. I guess there's no hurry! I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced for the first time. WOW...there's lots of lovely WIPs going on out there in blogland!!

30s Patchwork Tulips

I've finished 5 more  9 inch 30s Patchwork Tulips. Pattern is free at About.com.

Some day they will be made into a Queen-sized quilt.  This has been a UFO for far too long.Well, not as long as some other UFOs, but that's another tale for another day. 

Check out some other projects at Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.  I'm heading over there after dinner; however, it's too hot here to eat so I may not have dinner. My house has no a/c! I almost didn't feel like leaving work today to come home.  

Firewheels - Warning...Put on the Sunglasses!

Firewheels #2, #3 and #4.   16 inch blocks. Pattern from Quilter's Cache.  Feeling wild and using up some bright Kaffe Fassetts, Philip Jacobs, etc. from my stash in colors pink, yellow, orange.  I can't put them all together on a design wall along with Firewheel #1 because my design wall is my cutting board propped up on the wall with some extra batting on it.  One Firewheel is about all that fits on it for picture taking.  But, if you want to see some actual design walls full of inspiration visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  

Crazy Cravings in June

Into the mix... 

...it's time to throw my July block for my Crazy Cravings lap quilt.  It's also a project I'm journaling as part of the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013.    I've also pinned together my block for August so I can start on it. 

July CQJP block for Crazy Cravings lap quilt finished. It's a 12 inch block...

...full of rick rack...

...some stitches that sometimes miss their mark...

...variegated threads and lace...

...and some embroidered chocolate.   That button reminded me of a ginger snap cookie with a crackly top. 

Find out what other Slow Sunday Stitching is going on at Kathy's Quilts. I'm going to grab a frozen Snickers before I head on over! 

What's the Deal with Teal?

There's a Rainbow Scrap Challenge going on at the SoScrappy blog and this month's color is teal (aqua, turquoise, blue-green).  I made 35 more Sister's Choice blocks out of my 3 inch 9 patches and since all the star points on them are blue I used teal for the points on some of them.  (I consider teal as a form of blue when I'm quilt making.) I now have a total of 191 and need 288 for my quilt.  I also made a 49 patch out of some leftover 1.5 inch squares.  More teal projects can be found at the Scrap Happy Saturday linky party.

Blue Green, Aqua, Teal, Turquoise? I Haven't a Clue!

The color for July's Rainbow Scrap Challenge is teal. I'm not sure whether or not my scraps are blue green, teal, aqua or turquoise.  I've used up some 2.5 inch scraps to make some 5 inch Little Monkeys

 I had fun making these blocks and I think they are rather addictive. 

The 3 inch spools are addictive also. 

Visit Rainbow Scrap Challenge's Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy's blog and see how other's deal with teal.