Which Way to the Chocolate?

It's just a top. Not a finished quilt. Might not be a finish for awhile since I'm not sure how I want to quilt it. 

I had a lot of chocolate fabrics.  Some are scraps left over from my Crazy Cravings quilt.  I still have some bits and pieces left over after this quilt so I still see another chocolate quilt in my future. 

The geese finish at 4 x 8.  I had the brown fabric in my stash. I would have preferred something a little darker but I wanted to use what I have. I wasn't sure I would have enough of the brown so I pieced it whenever I could.  It was in the sale bin at Hobby Lobby earlier in the year.  I forget which color it is but it is a Kona Cotton at about half the regular price.  I like a good sale almost as much as I like chocolate!

Still Hand Quilting

I'm about 1/4 of the way through hand quilting my Petunia quilt. 

(The pattern is actually called Spinning Stars and is by Anna Maria Horner)

Inside the octagons I quilted alternate wedges with lines going across the wedge or lines going down the wedge. 

I'm quilting with regular hand quilting thread on cooler days/nights. 

In the stars between octagons I quilted around each quarter section and then one half of the quarter section gets stitched around twice.   

It's all kind of difficult to see on these busy fabrics but it makes for some nice texture. 

Doing any slow stitching? Or other hand work? 

Join us for Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. 

Dresdens and Spools

Indigo is really the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge but short of that we can substitute black and gray. 

I've been making Dresdens each month  in color of the month, color of month with b/w, color of month with w/b and color of the month with it's complement.   Since I'm substituting black and gray for indigo it kind of made it difficult to make four blocks according to my usual plans but I did my best for substitutes. 

Above is the b/w with white. 

And here we have gray with b/w and w/b and w/b with black. 

I've been making these 3 inch spools for a couple of years and have plans for a very large quilt with no borders. I think I need 783 and have 564.

Got scraps?

Join us each ScrapHappy Saturday - linky for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

It Wasn't Supposed To Be Like This

I made blocks 2 and 3 for my Follow That Butterfly quilt. 

These are large 18 inch blocks and the pattern is actually called Follow the Sun and is from Kathy Doughty's book Adding Layers. You can see a couple of versions of the finished quilt on her blog. 

Maybe I shouldn't make two blocks at the same time. 

After I added the rick rack to the circles and appliqued them to the backgrounds I noticed I mixed up backgrounds between blocks.   The block I showed in the first photo was supposed to go on this background. 

And this circle was supposed to go with...

...this background.  

I'm not going to redo the blocks.  In the end it will all work out. 

 I have to admit that I don't even usually pull fabrics for a whole quilt before I start making it.  With this quilt I was looking for something to use a pile of butterfly fabrics I have collected over the years.  I found a large piece of big flowered multicolored fabric left over from my Rainbow of Favorite Things quilt (August 2013) backing so thought I would try it as the block background in this quilt. I know I won't have enough for all of the blocks but I'll cross that bridge of what to do when I actually do run out.   And, as I make each block I just go pick out three flowered fabrics (2 for circle and 1 for star points) from the flower stash box that I think will go together with the butterfly fabric.  One block at a time and little by little a quilt gets made.  

In the end it will all work out. 

And speaking of rick rack...I was going to try to use some of the old stuff I've picked up from thrift stores over the years but they are not very colorful.  Notice the prices? 13 cents, 15 cents, 39 cents...

I wanted to try to use these so my kids won't have to cart them all back to the thrift store someday.  This is only part of the old trim collection. 

It's Wednesday so I'm going to go see some WIPs on Esther's blog where WOW=WIPs on Wednesday. 

On Friday I'm at:

WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Mother Goose Quiltie So Far

Rows 1-3 of 5

1920 Mother Goose Quiltie Pattern by Ruby Short McKim as published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Martha at Q is for Quilter has been releasing a block a week. 

Joining others in some Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. 

Snakes and Snails and Sugar and Spice

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails and sugar and spice and everything nice - that's what this quilt is made of (as well as scraps, scraps and more scraps). 

72 x 90

Wonky Logs

From scraps

For my grandnephew

I quilted it on my plain Jane Janome.   I quilted it with a loopy design going one way on the light sections and the opposite way on the colored sections. 

The blocks were made last year and this year as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  I made four nine inch wonky log cabin blocks in scraps of the color of the month and then joined the four blocks into eighteen inch blocks. 

I started each block with the traditional red square. 

I used extra wide muslin for the backing.  I don't think that red bled through...I THINK it is just showing through out in the sun.  I used three color catchers in the wash. 

I thought I had enough of that striped fabric for the binding but I accidentally used some in the potholders I've been making...ooops...no matter...I filled in with a couple of polka dot pieces.  (Don't mind the "shaky hand" quilting. It really only shows up in close up photos which I shouldn't take).  

This was my #5 Q3 Goal    for    2015 Finish Along with Adrianne of On The Windy Side

And since I used lots and lots of scraps I'm going to link up to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.   Isn't it? 

Tales from the Dark Side

The color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is indigo. Short of indigo we can use black and gray.   And so I have made 6 eight inch kaleidoscope blocks from 2.5 inch scraps. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Before I Forget

Before I forget how I wanted to use some of the butterfly fabrics I've collected over the years I decided I had better make a block to see if I liked it.  I do. 

I've finished a couple of quilts so allowed myself to start a new one.  

This block is called Follow the Sun and is from Kathy Doughty's book Adding Layers - Color, Design and Imagination.    This block is BIG and takes up all of my makeshift Design Wall - my cutting mat propped against the wall and covered with leftover batting. 

To see what's on other design walls makeshift or otherwise visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

I won't call my quilt Follow the Sun. I'll call it Follow that Butterfly. 

I Spy a Rainbow

Rainbow

40 x 56

A donation quilt for either Wrap-A-Smile or Quilts Beyond Borders

I had some rainbow looking fabric in my stash to use for borders and backing. 

I made the blocks last year as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. 

I quilted it in swirls on my plain Jane Janome. 

I used some polka dots for binding. It is recommended that we machine stitch the binding on these donation quilts. With practice I'm finally getting better at it. I prefer hand stitching down the binding. 

This was one of my goals for the 2015 Finish Along with Adrianne at On the Windy Side .  I wanted to make at least 5 donation quilts this quarter from orphan blocks, strings, crumbs, etc. and listed those quilts as goals 8-12. This is my third completion so goal number 10 can be checked off the list now. 

Today I'm linking up to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework. 

Hand Quilting

If the heat index isn't over 100 degrees (no a/c at my house) I've been doing a little hand quilting. 

Inside the octagon sections...

...I alternate the stitching in the wedge sections between lines about 1/4 inch apart going cross wise across the wedge and... 

...lines radiating out. No marking so stitching lines sometimes go astray but fabrics are so busy I don't think it matters much. 

Then there are the star sections between the octagons. 

I think the heat index will be over 100 today again so I'll probably catch up on some redwork squares instead of hand quilting. You never know. It's nice to have a choice of projects to work on.

It's Sunday and you know what that means...Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts. 

Depression Blocks Aren't Depressing

The color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is indigo. Lacking that we can use black or gray. 

From 2.5 inch scraps I made 3 eight inch Depression Blocks...

...and 8 six inch Twinklers. 

Got Scraps?

Use them up and join us each Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday. 

Sister's Choice

Sister's Choice

60 x 80

I started with some swapped 6 inch nine patches in blue and tan civil war reproduction fabrics with a red center. 

Then I added a tan background and blue star points and continued with red in the center sections of the outside of the nine patch to make a Sister's Choice block. 

Then I sewed them all randomly together since I don't have a design wall and since it is civil war repro fabrics I didn't figure they had design walls back then either.  As you can see sometimes random sewing ends up looking not so random and the same blocks end up next to each other in a quilt.  Doesn't bother me.  Most people I give my quilts to don't hold them up to inspect layouts.  

This quilt is for my husband to replace that old one he uses in his recliner. 

Sometimes when I look at the quilt I see this design  (four patch in the middle) instead of the Sister's Choice. 

I quilted it very simply with straight and diagonal lines on my DSM and bound it in red. 

I used a wide backing printed with tan roses. 

The overall quilting. 

This was my August goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.        (#33 at the Goal Setting Party)

This was also my goal #3 of my Q3 Goals for the   2015 Finish Along. 

This WIP is gone so I'll be linking today to WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden

and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

I Went to a Bridal Shower

My nephew is getting married in September. There was a bridal shower last Saturday for his fiance who evidently likes birds.  So, I made a couple of potholders with owl fabric I had on hand,  gathered up one of my previously embroidered owl dishtowels and a crocheted dishcloth as well as a couple of owl mugs, owl salt and pepper shakers...

... and added some kitchen utensils like a whisk, serving spoons, spatulas, bag clips, measuring spoons, etc. and put them in a basket as a gift. 

Leftovers

I'm making a Fractured Quilt (from Kathy Doughty's book Making Quilts) with leftovers from...

...  Petunias. (aka Spinning Stars by Anna Maria Horner)  which left me with a lot of irregular shaped scraps.  I'll make Fractured with any scraps I can and then any leftover pieces after that will go into the Rainbow Scrap Challenge box. 

(Ok...polka dots always try to creep into every project around here but that brown and white polka dot scrap doesn't belong in this photo!)

I'm making Flying Geese from leftovers from...

 ... Vintage Spin .  I took the 9 inch pieces left over from cutting the wedges for Vintage Spin and cut them further into 4 inch pieces to use in the Flying Geese blocks.  The one inch piece that's left goes into the string bin for a string quilt later on.   Not sure what the Flying Geese quilt will look like. I'll see how many Geese I have after all the scraps are gone and go from there. 

And I scooped up all of the waste triangles on my table (because I couldn't find the waste triangle box), sewed them on to the corner of a 2.5 red square of fabric and made them into a 16 inch Confetti Wave (aka Ocean Wave) block.  Hey, no need to worry about cutting off HST points! 

And why am I talking about scraps? 

It's Scraptastic Tuesday! 

And I want to give a shout out to Mad About Patchwork a sponsor of Scraptastic Tuesday. I won a gift certificate last month and am very appreciative of Pam's (of Mad About Patchwork) generosity. I just received my fun fabric selection in yesterday's mail.