Streak of Lightning

Twelve 12 inch Streak of Lightning blocks made from aqua/turquoise/teal/blue-green and pink scraps. 

They join the seven blocks I made last year from the 4.5 inch scrap bin. 

I have more pink scraps but right now no more blue-green scraps so this will stay a UFO for awhile. I'm aiming to make a donation quilt roughly 60 x 80. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

It's a Flimsy! Zig Zag Nine Patch

Zig Zag Nine Patch

94 x 94

It's a flimsy! 

 It started with a bin of 3 inch nine patches and a Google search of vintage quilts.  I landed on a picture of an antique Ohio Amish quilt from the Darwin D. Bearley collection and decided I would try to make one like it. 

And now back to searching...I have a lot of nine patches left.  

The Sum of Its Parts

No, it's not a picture of four small quilts but it is a picture of four large (24 inch) blocks...

 ...that look like this. When there are 16 blocks I'll have a quilt that will look similar to Denyse Schmidt's Garden Mosaic. 

Where some of the blocks meet stars are formed. 

 At other junctures a square in square forms. 

 My June One Monthly Goal (OMG) was to make at least 400 more (I had 427 at goal making time) - two inch HSTs.  According to my tally sheet I met that goal on June 10 by making just a few HSTs each day.  So I celebrated by making a four (of total sixteen) blocks. 

And as of today, June 26, I have 1460 two inch HSTs. I need 2048 to complete the quilt. 

So, June OMG was met and exceeded. 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Gifts for the Twenty-Fifth

 When it's too hot to hand quilt a big quilt I work on smaller things. 

I made a couple of gift sets that include a hot pad, embroidered towel and crocheted dish cloth. 

I like to have a box of things ready for Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers. 

Another view with the other side of the hot pads. 

I use Insulbrite in the hotpads along with some scraps of cotton flannel or old towel. 

It's a Finish! Blue Collar Work

 Blue Collar Work

80 x 88

hand quilted

 I used a kaleidoscope ruler to cut pieces. I've made several different kaleidoscope quilts.  For this one I used men's shirts from the thrift store combined with several gray shades of Kona cottons. 

I love kaleidoscope quilts.  So many patterns appear. 

 Sometimes I can see a "normal" kaleidoscope block, other times I see Rocky Road to Kansas, and still other times I see a four point "star" formed with gray points. 

As you can see I quilted it (without marking) with navy perle #8 that I had on hand. I had just a little bit of thread left over when I finished the quilting.  My goal was to finish it this month and I thought I wouldn't make it. When I had only two horizontal rows of quilting left to do we had a four day extreme heat wave and I don't have air conditioning so I had to quit hand quilting and take up some embroidery to work on at night before bed instead.  Then the rains came along with tornado warnings. The last couple of days we had some relatively cooler temps and it has been too wet to work in the gardens so I managed to get the quilt finished. 

I used navy blue cotton gingham on the back.  It was a big piece I found all wrinkled and unloved at the thrift store.  Well, I love gingham so it came home with me. 

I haven't washed it yet but it's already soft and crinkly. 

Looks like I started this in October 2014 so I'm glad I can cross this UFO off the list now. 

This was goal #16

for Q2 Finish-Along

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Crumbs and Chunks

 This week I used my aqua/teal/turquoise crumbs to make centers for some stars.  I use larger scraps for points. I've been making backgrounds in complementary colors using scraps from the chunk crate if there are any otherwise I have to dig into stash.  (Looks like I mixed up a couple of background pieces). 

 I made a few Itty Bitty Nitty Gritty Crumb Fish.  

One Slab with heart center. 

 A bunch of miscellaneous sized blocks...

 ...and a few more. 

 Ten inch "Mendota Blocks".  

I've been using RSC color for the centers and if center is primary color borders are in primary colors and centers in secondary colors get borders in secondary colors. 

 A few more Mendotas...

...and even more. 

At the end of the year all of these blocks will be worked into donation quilts.  That should be fun! 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Sunshine

I added a HST border to a round robin I'm participating in with a group of Sunshine ladies. For the HSTs I raided my 3.5 inch scrap bin for pieces close to the colors of that striped fabric.  And in the scrap chunk bin I found a piece of gray/black/white I could use.  Now it goes on to Maine for the next round. 

In case you are not familiar with Sunshine Online Quilt Guild  we are a group of charity quilters that support both Quilts Beyond Borders and Wrap-a-Smile, a Rotaplast partner. 

And speaking of Rotaplast...I was delighted to spot this quilt I made in 2015 on a little one after surgery in Arusha Tanzania.  See the fourth photo down in the blog post.  You can mostly only see the light green backing; however, I spotted the tree fabric in the top border and knew instantly it was a quilt I made. 

Sew A Column; Weed a Row

 Nine Patch variation columns

 Potato Rows

Potatoes planted at each flag. I do organic gardening so I'm the weed control and pest patrol. I left the purslane to continue to grow.  It's a weed related to portulaca or moss rose but I throw it in salads sometimes. If you research it you will find the weed purslane is good for you.  

 Nine Patch variation columns

 A few of the many pepper rows - several different varieties of hot and sweet. 

 Nine Patch variation columns

 Some of the rows of onions and cabbages.  Some of those cabbages I will make into sauerkraut later in the year.  Last year's is almost gone. 

 Nine Patch variation columns

Some of the broccoli and bean rows with some of the pumpkin and squash vines along the fence. 

The nine patch variation columns are now complete. I just need to sew them together now. I had previously made 8 columns but just made 13 more the last several days in between weeing the veggie garden. But the weeding is never done. This was just part of the veggie garden. I haven't shown the tomatoes, asparagus, beets, cucumbers, cauliflower or sugar snap peas.  And I'll show scenes from the flower garden later.  

It's a Finish! Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas

(Christmas themed Happy Blocks)

58.5 x 65

Most of these blocks were from a long ago swap.  

These Happy Blocks have four inch centers and two inch sides. 

 I pieced together some batting and quilted it with red thread in vertical lines at irregular intervals. (Notice I didn't say straight lines.) I wanted to use green thread because the backing is green but didn't have any and I'm all about using what I have on hand if possible.  

The binding was a long ago thrift store purchase  of about two yards. It still had the .95 cent price tag on it. 

 Now I have three Christmas lap quilts.  And I have three grandchildren.  So when they set up their own households they can draw straws for a Christmas quilt of their choice.  Until then I'll put them out at Christmas time.  When the two older granddaughters were younger they would sleep on the floor on a pile of quilts of their choosing when they came to visit and stay overnight.  In December they always chose the two Christmas quilts to cover up with. 

And the reason I wanted to quilt with green thread was because this is the backing. I had to do some creative piecing to get what I had to fit.  I guess the red thread doesn't look too bad. It kind of blends in with the vertical lines of the fabric. The whole thing looks kind of like wrapping paper. 

This goes toward my own Holiday Cheer Challenge - an effort to use all my holiday fabrics and to finish up all those holiday themed UFOs. 

This was goal #11

of Q2 Finish-Along

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Just A Few 3.5 Inch Scraps

Two Bow Ties and Nine Snowballs

Anything between blue and green like aqua, turquoise or teal is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This week I dug into the 3.5 inch scrap bin and only found a few scraps in that colorway.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

It's a Finish! Wandering Geese

It's a Finish! 

Wandering Geese

80 x 80

 I started making Flying Geese from 4.5 inch scraps in 2016.  I made a few each month with the body in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month.  If the color was a primary color I used a secondary color for the wings and vice versa. 

I kept making scrappy Flying Geese part way through 2017. I was never really sure what I was going to do with the Flying Geese when I started making them since my intent was really to use up scraps. A couple of blog readers commented that Flying Geese make nice star points.  And so that's how the Flying Geese wandered into some Stars. 

 I love that quite a variety of novelty fabrics play so well together and that I used up most of my bright 4.5 inch scraps. 

I quilted it on my DSM with some loops and stars. 

I made a scrappy binding. 

And I had a big piece of colorful sale fabric in my stash that I used for the backing. 

This was my goal #7

for

Q2 Finish-Along

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework