That Slowly Moving Clarissa

My OMG  (One Monthly Goal) for April was to complete 8 more Clarissa blocks.  I've completed 11 blocks this month and I now have 24 blocks toward my total goal of 36 blocks.  Inspired by a vintage quilt each block consists of 36 hourglasses (144 pieces cut from 1.5 inch strips).  I work on these for at least 20 minutes each day. Continuing with 20 minutes per day maybe by the end of next month I will have all the blocks I need to start assembly.  Hmmm...maybe I should decide on what I'm going to use for a sashing. Or maybe first I should decide how much yardage I will need for sashing. Let's see...2 inch finished sashing cut at 2.5 x 12.5...

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Stackin' and Whackin'; Slicin' and Dicin'

I recently dug out one of my oldest UFOs to work on - Four Patch Posies.  The UFO must be pre-2009 because I can't find any mention of it on my blog.  

In a large manila envelope I found 30 blocks made from a green, gray, purple floral. I also found 18 blocks in that floral with the pink background plus a stack of more of that floral all pinned together ready for cutting. Also in the envelope were pieces of several other fabrics I guess I was going to use to make some posies.    I managed to make 29 more blocks with that pink background. 

 I had enough of one of the fabrics for four repeats so made 42 more blocks. These are made of 3 inch pieces for a 5 inch finished block.  

 I ended up with a total of 119 posies from three different fabrics. I'm hoping I counted incorrectly and there is actually one more hidden in those piles for a total of 120 blocks. Then I can have a layout of 10 x 12 (50 x 60 inches) which is a respectable size. There were four repeats of a floral with a black background in that manila envelope but I'm not going to cut that up. Maybe I'll just use it on the back.   Now I have to decide how to put these together. I usually sew blocks together randomly but I'm thinking this one might take some planning. I'm even thinking a very thin dark green sashing might be nice.   Anyway...I moved this oldie forward and had some fun doing it. 

And then I was in Whacky mode and felt like slicing up more fabric. 

 These blocks finish at 14 inches.  The free tutorial for Twirla can be found at Butterfly Threads.  (I'll call mine Twirl and Whirl or something like that instead of Twirla because Twirla also happens to be the name of a contraceptive patch). 

I was first thinking I would make it with some scrap chunks of gray, purple and yellow but found I didn't really have many yellows so also added in some aqua. 

 In no time at all I had eight blocks.   And then I was bored with that but still felt like whacking away at more fabric so...

...I broke open a package of I Spy Bugs/ Critters that someone gifted me last year. I don't buy precuts myself but I think this is a layer cake? Package had several 10 inch pieces. 

And I have a few bugs myself. 

 I made some stack and shuffle nine patches that finish at about 8 inches or so. 

 I used the method similar to what I had bookmarked at Zippity Quilts only I used larger sized squares.   And then...

...I remembered another package of floral 11.5 inch squares I was gifted a couple of years ago.

And I found some stash I could add to the mix because I decided I would like to make a twin sized donation quilt. 

These I am stacking and slicing on the diagonals...

...and they are being made into Hourglass blocks that finish at around 10 inches or so. 

Well, I can't seem to work on one thing at a time but I'm not putting any of these away as a UFO until I get them to flimsy stage so I expect to have four flimsies to show soon if I work on them all a little each day. 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Wedding Ring Blues

Wedding Ring blocks that finish at 7.5 inches. 

This is my second year of making these. I usually use 2 inch scraps but didn't have many in blue so used scrap chunks. Light and bright blue is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month for April but I used all blues to make these.  I thought I made twelve blocks but only found 11 at picture taking time. 

I'm ready for a new color!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Plaid-ish Finish

 Americana Plaid-ish

It's a finish!

64 x 82

A donation quilt.

 I finished the top last October and used scraps left over from another quilt that is still in the to-be-quilted pile and then some. 

 Plaid-ish is a free quilt pattern from Kitchen Table Quilting. 

My sewing machine still has not gotten into the shop for repair so I'm using the backup machine (with tension problems off and on. In order to have correct tension the top tension is at a high number so thread frequently breaks. The light bulb just burned out and there is no auto needle threader so I can't see well to thread needle) and so kept to some easy quilting with horizontal and vertical lines. I was glad I had some navy blue machine quilting thread on hand. 

 I originally thought I had enough of that navy blue plaid to use for the backing. Since I didn't I pieced a backing and added some stars and stripes prints from the patriotic fabrics box. 

The binding was scrappy red and blues. 

And another UFO gets crossed off the list! 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Milquetoast Is Finished!

 It's a finish!

Milquetoast

85.5 x 85.5

Hand quilted with perle #12 and #8

 The block is called Bright Hopes and finishes at 4.5. I started making blocks back in July 2019 as a way to use a small box of low volume scraps.  

The top was finished in August 2019. 

This is not really a quilt because I did not use any batting so there are not three layers. I guess you could call it a coverlet or summer quilt. I named it Milquetoast because it was quite a departure from the bright and wild quilts I normally make. 

  Big stitch hand quilting was started in March 2020.  I used low volume threads I had on hand in white, ecru, gray, light blue, yellow and pink. I stitched both vertical and horizontal lines and did no marking. 

This is quite a collection of low volume scraps accumulated over many years. The last pieces of many fabrics are in this coverlet but I still have some yardage or chunks of others. The cherries and ginghams went into several quilts. The ladybug, Christmas holly and toys, little blue roses,  and the kites came from the thrift store long ago. The pale orange and purple butterflies were some of the first pastels I ever bought to make H swapped blocks. I made several hotpads with that recipe fabric...Oh what a summer quilt full of memories!

 The backing was from the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby. I thought it looked like a summer sheet. Actually, I think it kind of makes the coverlet reversible. The threads I used for quilting match the colors in the backing.  I used the same fabric for binding. I was hoping to have enough fabric left for pillowcases but I didn't.  And so it goes. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

More Blue Scraps

 From 2.5 inch scraps...ten Dakota Farmer Stars. (Sheesh, that's a lot of HSTs)

From 1.5 inch scraps...four Plus Postage blocks. (Sheesh, that's a lot of little 1.5 inch squares)

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

It's a Top!

It's a top!

Four Patch Baskets Crib Quilt

40 x 56

This was inspired by a vintage crib quilt at Q is for Quilter.  My blocks are a little larger than the original - the baskets finish at four inches and the four patches finish at eight inches. I made a different basket than the original because I didn't want to applique handles.  I used civil war reproduction scraps in browns and pinks.  I made two blocks back in June 2017  when the inspiration first hit me.  Last month I decided this would be the next UFO to move forward so I made more blocks and assembled the top.   Time to decide on the next UFO to move forward. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

It's a Flimsy!

This was a recent Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts) mystery  Clues were released daily over a couple of weeks and I stayed caught up and made blocks each day. When it came time to sew blocks together my sewing machine went kerplunk. I now have tension issues under control on a backup machine so finally have a finished top.  

 I used rose themed scraps and yardage.  

Edyta calls it California; however, I'm calling mine Wild Roses. 

 Not sure how I will quilt it.  One of these months I'm going to have to declare it the month of roses and get all the rose themed quilts in the piles quilted. 

It's a Finish!

 Prepare!

68 x 88

Hand quilted.

 Prepare. Don't just duck and cover. 

I have had this top made since September 2017. I blogged then a little about the quilt. 

I have so many quilt tops that need quilting that sometimes it makes it difficult to decide which top to quilt next. This one has been sitting around a long time because I never felt the urge to finish it. But with current events I decided now was the time to get it finished. 

 Ever since the Duck and Cover drills I practiced as a young girl I have felt the need to be prepared for a catastrophe. Of course as a young girl I also knew there would be little chance of survival with a nuclear bomb but I did know where the nearest fallout shelters happened to be. However, I worried about post apocalyptic times and what I would do about food. As I've grown older I've learned various survival skills and have made sure to have some food stuffs set aside like rice, beans, flour, pasta and canned and dried garden veggies and herbs.   

Around 2011 the CDC published guidlines for  Zombie Prepardness  so I added some zombies to my quilt. They are at the window trying to get into the cache of canned goods.  The "chalkboard" above the "window" lists reasons (embroidered in glow in the dark thread) to be prepared.  Pandemic is listed as one of those reasons. 

 Glow in the dark eyes of more zombies trying to get in. Although I think they are after brain and not my canned goods so I probably don't have to worry much about that. 

 I really am a survivalist (if you want to call it that) at heart. I guess I would call it more self-reliance.   Some friends I used to work with have called me recently to invite themselves to my house because they know they could at least get bread and homemade jam if food got scarce because they never did heed my warnings about being prepared. We all got a good laugh. 

My quilt shows me prepared with lots of chocolate and other snacks. Of course we know that is to have on hand!  But who knew TP would be even more important.  Not even the CDC had that on the Zombie preparedness list. 

 Bacon is another essential. 

 I've had this backing around for ages. I bought it specifically for the back of this quilt. It has dishes on shelves. 

I made a canning jar stamp in my scrapbook supplies so stamped it on my label. A lot of times my quilts don't get labeled but I think this one needed some documentation about the importance of preparedness in case this heirloom gets handed down through the generations. 

Top finished September 2017.

Little did I know that 3 years later there would be a global pandemic of CVD-19.

Hand quilted during self quarantine March-April 2020.