A Finish!

Rainbow Dresden Plates

I should call it Fiesta Dinnerware

88 x 88

Hand quilted

Here's the last row on the ground. It's too long for the clothesline. 

This was another Rainbow Scrap Challenge I started a few years ago.  Each month I used scraps in the color of the month to make four Dresdens - 

1. Color of the month

2. Color of the month plus its complement

3. Color of the month plus black/white

4. Color of the month plus white/black

Each was appliqued to a gray background and had a polka dot center surrounded by gray rick rack. 

I hand quilted it with hand quilting thread first about a quarter inch inside each blade of the fans and then I used an old cardboard stencil that looked kind of like a flower or kind of like a Dresden with eight blades, traced it with mechanical pencil and quilted it where the four corners of the blocks meet.  The stitches are a little larger in the Dresdens because I didn't cut away the extra background behind the Dresdens (I was afraid to do so)  and that made for an extra layer of fabric to quilt through.  It also makes for a very heavy quilt but those are needed around here on the beds in the winter. 

True to the scrappy nature of the quilt I used a bit of  leftover binding after I ran out of the 8 gray width of fabric pieces I had prepared for binding.   I never actually measure precisely when I make binding. I just kind of guestimate in my head. In this case I knew if it was 88 on each I would need at least 2 widths of fabric per side so that is why I prepared 8 - 2.5 width of fabric pieces.  I didn't have any gray leftover binding to finish up when I got to the end but had a little piece of solid light blue that worked just fine to fill in the final gap.   And you can't see it very well but I used it for my quilt label.  I rarely label a quilt I keep for myself so this works for me to easily get it done as part of the process. 

This is the back. 

This was goal #1   for    Q2  2017 Finish-A-Long

It involved use of lots of scraps so linking up to:

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

It took a month of Sundays to hand quilt so linking up to:

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Confetti Waves

Confetti Waves

16 inch blocks using waste triangles and 2.5 inch squares of red.

I sew them together in an Ocean Waves configuration substituting squares with waste triangles for HSTs.   I think I want 25 blocks and I think I am half way there now but it looks like I'm out of this shade of red solid but have a couple of  other pieces of different shades of red.  So that will have to do. 

This box is only part of the waste triangles. I have a small plastic bag of them too. Good thing I have a couple of projects going that use these. 

We are to use our multicolored scraps this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  In previous weeks I've used scraps that have lots of colors in them (multicolored) . This week I'm using lots of colors of scraps (multi-colors) in a block. 

ScrapHappy Saturday

Smooth Sailing

Smooth Sailing

40 x 60

A donation quilt in the works.  It's now a top. 

It all started with a couple of 12 inch Happy Blocks with sailboats in them I won sometime in the distant past from the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild's Block Lotto.      I put them in a box with some other blue scraps and have been adding to the box ever since.  

Any blue scraps with a water theme - fish, sailboats, anchors - went into the box as well as...

...any sky themed scraps - stars, fireworks, clouds. 

I recently looked in the box when I was determining what goals I wanted to try to complete for the Q2 Finish-A-Long and decided there were enough scraps for a donation quilt.   So I made a few star blocks from the scraps and I made...

...a 12 inch sailboat block from a pattern at Quilter's Cache.  (I've been making these as an Rainbow Scrap Challenge too.)  

Then I just sewed everything together into a giant crumb block. No design wall...no thinking involved...I just started with the three sailboat blocks and worked my way out.

That's the Crumby part of Sane, Crazy, Crumby, you know!

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework


Ad Hoc Improv Quilting (AHIQ) with Ann and Kaja
There's a new challenge for this quarter. Don't miss out! 

Multicolor 2.5 Scrap Edition

We are supposed to use our multicolor scraps this month in our Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects so this week I dug into the 2.5 inch multicolor scraps.   I made a couple of pretty wild 10 inch Lady of the Lake blocks. 

I made a couple of 12 inch ship blocks with multicolor sails.  Looks like the one on the left is sailing in windy seas but the two ships pretty much take up the makeshift area where I take photos on an old cutting mat covered with batting.     The one on the right is going to go into a baby quilt for a family member since there seems to always be some niece  pregnant these days.   (We have 31 nieces and nephews not counting their spouses).   The rainbow sails boat will go into a donation quilt with some other nautical themed orphans and crumbs and scraps. 

I also made some multicolor four inch four patches to throw into the 4 inch block box. 

And also to be thrown into the 4 inch block pile - some multicolor Happy Blocks plus a couple more four patches that didn't fit in the previous photo. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

If You Can't Lick 'Em Join 'Em

Postage Stamps

I don't think anyone has to lick the ones that go on envelopes anymore. I'm not even sure if my kids remember licking stamps (or envelopes or mailing letters).   Well, my tongue hasn't licked any postage stamps for quite awhile but I'm happy to say I have licked my pile of  fabric postage stamps by joining them and am out of them at the moment.  That hasn't happened in a long, long time. 

I recently participated in a postage stamp swap (as I often do several times a year) and not as many people participated this round as have in the past so I received several duplicates.  And that's okay. I have several postage stamp projects in the works and I don't use strip sets for them.  

And what happened to the 1250 swapped stamps plus those I had on hand already cut? 

I made the last of the 42 blocks I need (upped recently from 36) for my quilt inspired by a vintage quilt on Ebay called Roman Stripe .  I started making the 10 inch blocks several years ago from my scraps as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project and I can't believe I can now start quilt assembly. 

This is the old quilt that inspired me. 

This is the fabric I'm going to use for the sashing.   I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not but I think I like it well enough and don't have anything else in my stash I like better.   I don't have very many big pieces of fabric in my stash anyway.  I think I will make little four patches in red and blue for the cornerstones but that may change.   I'm also thinking the sashing will be 2.5 wide (2 inch finished). 

I also made up some 36 patch blocks and some single rows of 6 so I could proceed to make more... 

...blocks like this...

...for my 42-Cents Forever Stamps quilt.   

(From 19th - Century Patchwork Divas' Treasury of Quilts)

I also made more blocks for my Plain Brown Wrapper quilt. I need to count how many I have. I've been making them for years from my brown/cream/tan scraps.   I just noticed I sometimes made 36 patches and sometimes 49 patches. Strange.  I don't know what I was thinking.     I also made a block for a neutral quilt which will not just consist of postage stamps but other neutrals. 

And I made some blocks for Gray Areas.  I need to count these too.  

And then I made a bunch of 3 inch nine patches for my Jack's Chain quilt. 

And if you'd like to swap some little nine patches...

Help Wanted! 

Owls in the Barn Door Finished!

Owls in the Barn Door

48 x 60

I used lots of bits and pieces of owl themed scraps I had left over from other quilts. I quilted it on my DSM with straight lines in red, blue and yellow thread.  I got rid of a lot of miscellaneous spools of thread as well as bobbins.  The back and binding are all a red solid just like the barn doors.  

This is a donation quilt for Camp Hobe - a camp for kids with cancer and their siblings. 

It's a Hands2Help quilt - an event sponsored by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

It used up some owl scraps:

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

It was my goal #7

for Q2  2017 Finish-A-Long

And this is my April OMG (One Monthly Goal)

with Elm Street Quilts.

Multicolor Scraps 3.5 Edition

With my 3.5 multicolor scraps I made 10 Glitter blocks...

...11 six inch bowties...

...and 15 three inch snowballs.  Well, maybe 14 three inch snowballs and one for the orphanage (orphan block box)  because the last one with the sitting cat measures 3.5 x 4.   Who put 4 inch scraps in my 3.5 inch scrap box? 

Got scraps?

ScrapHappy Saturday - a division of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

And what follows is a multicolored collage of what's going on in the garden:

Jack's Chain #2

I've been slowly, slowly working on my Jack's Chain quilt.  This is my second one and in a completely different colorway from the first which was brights on navy background.  That one a wedding quilt for my grandson and is in the hope chest . It won't be needed for awhile. He's only 9. This one is a little bigger too.   

This is the width I want but it is only about half as long as I want it. 

As you can see...this takes lots and lots and lots and oodles  and oodles of little 3 inch nine patches. 

I've been using little nine patches that are on the darker side as values may go. 

I'm getting low on little nine patches now and would be willing to swap with anyone who is interested.  I'm trying to avoid a lot of duplicate patches in my quilt.  I do swap three times a year with an online group but use the little darlings almost as soon as I get them.  

If you are interested in swapping see the tab I just added to the header of this blog -

HELP WANTED! (39P swap)


Lots of scraps going into this quilt!
Other scrap projects: Scraptastic Tuesday

New linky party:
Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share

What's In The Hoop?

What's in the hoop? 

Rainbow Dresdens

A BIG quilt - maybe 84 x 84 or so?

I'm hand quilting the Dresdens right now. 

I work on hand quilting each night for about an hour before bed.  It helps me relax, forget about all the world's troubles and to sleep better.  It also gives me callouses and broken fingernails. 

This is an old Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.   I used my 4.5 inch scraps and made four blocks each month throughout the year - one in the color of the month, one in the color of the month plus it's complement, one with black/white, one with white/black.   All are on gray backgrounds and have polka dot centers surrounded by gray rick rack. 

I'm using regular hand quilting thread (not perle) in all colors.  I did NOT cut away the fabric behind the Dresdens ( I was afraid to do that) and was thinking I would have problems stitching through all those layers but no problem...I just take a little bigger stitches.  I'm still trying to decide how I will quilt between Dresdens where the seams meet but I have plenty of time to decide. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Multicolored Miscellany

This month our Rainbow Scrap Challenge is to use multicolored scraps. 

I made 5 large Burgoyne Surrounded blocks and used multicolored fabrics for the centers.  

I've been using leftover bits and pieces (chunks) to make these. Most of the center, multicolored bits are leftovers from various quilt backs. 

When I make these blocks I make scraps from scraps (mainly 1.5 and 2.5 scraps) so I try to make these first so I can use the 1.5 and 2.5 scraps in other RSC projects I have in the works. 

Then I made 9 Floribunda blocks using multicolored floral fabric. 

Most of these florals were not scraps but they leave me with 3.5 and 2 inch scraps I'm using in other RSC projects you will see later this month (I hope). 

I am making the Floribunda (aka Jacob's Ladder) blocks because this has been a UFO for a long time and I need quite a few more blocks to make a large bed quilt so decided I'd make a few blocks each month  as an RSC project and then use the resulting scraps all in the same month instead of letting them linger. 

From multicolored 1.5 inch scraps (from Burgoyne Surrounded above and then some) I made some little 3 inch rail blocks...

...and a few of these little 2 inch units. I'm not certain how these will end up at year end but I'll figure something out. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Scrap Happy Saturday

High as a Kite

It's very windy here today. It would be a good day to fly a kite if I had one. I was almost tempted to drive into town to buy one.  

The wind doesn't make it easy to snap any photos of a finished flimsy. 

Country Nine Patch

72 x 90

It's a top! 

This is one of my oldest UFOs. 

Blocks were swapped long, long ago. 

Don't know why it has taken me so long to get it together. 

In garden news...a lot of the flower garden paths are covered with lovely blue scilla...

...a few species tulips are blooming here and there...

...and a fairy stands guard near the Hellebore.