A Finish!

Orphan Block Quilt

It's also a donation quilt probably going to Lifting Hands International via the Give Back Box. 

40 x 56

Last year I dug into my overflowing box of orphan blocks and made several quilt tops.

For this one I pulled out mostly warm colors and blacks. 

Then I made several rows out of them. 

I quilted it with swirls in a sunny variegated thread-- oranges, reds, yellows.

The binding came out of the leftover binding box - lots of sunny yellows. And the backing is also warm colors. 

And sew on...

 

Working On It

12 inch finished The Dandy quilt blocks. 

I have only ten more blocks to go. After these blocks I think most of my patriotic fabric will be used up and I'll be left with a lot of smaller scraps.  I'm also using red and blue plaids and homespuns and a few other miscellaneous red and blue fabrics. I think this will be a Quilt of Valor someday. 

 

Another Quickie

Interweave

It's a top!

42 x 56

Free pattern by Marlous Carter

I didn't exactly follow the pattern and did a little bit of my own thing. 

This top started with the back. Someone gave me the piece with the horses. It's not quite enough for the quilt back so I will have to add to it with the brown fabric at the side. 

After I was given that horse fabric I thought it would make a cute backing for a child's quilt. I just couldn't cut it up. So I set it aside in a little box and whenever I came across some scraps in a similar color scheme I threw them into the box. Time passed. When I had quite a few scraps in the box I figured it was time to make a top. 

I'm not sure how I recently came across the Interweave pattern but it struck me that it might be a quick and easy quilt and I might just have enough scraps collected to go with the horses so I looked into the box.

I didn't have quite enough scraps or variation in fabrics for my liking so I picked out a few pieces of yardage to supplement the mix. 

And within a few hours a quilt top was born. I think it took me longer to cut up the fabrics than it did to sew them. I don't have a design wall but I did kind of lay the strips out on the floor before I sewed them together. That was a pointless exercise because I dropped a few and then got the sequence mixed up anyway. And so it goes. 

And now that I have a backing for it almost ready it might get finished sooner than later and get off to warm a child somewhere. 

And sew on...

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

 

Every Once In Awhile A Girl Needs a Quickie

Wiggle Time Top

A Cynthia Brunz Design

Someone recently sent me 5 Fat Quarters (FQs) and I bought Cynthia's Wiggle Time pattern quite some time ago and I had a piece of fabric long enough for a background so...voila!...I whipped up a quick and easy top. AND I think I may have something for the backing but it may need a few pieces of something else added. So, this top may actually end up getting quilted in the same year the top is made which is very unusual for me. 

I've had the Wiggle Time pattern for quite awhile and this is the first time I've used it. I usually don't have FQs around and it never seems like I can decide on five fabrics that go together. When I can figure out five fabrics that go together then I don't have yardage for the background that matches. So then I move on to something else. 

This was quick and easy and and now that I know how it is constructed I think I have some orphan blocks I'll use to make one next. Or maybe some crumbs.  And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

 

Growing Crumb Flowers

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month is yellow but I've used up almost all of my yellow scraps except for a few chunks.  So I went back to January's color of red to finish up some blocks. I had some crumb strips roughly 5 inches wide made with red crumbs. I cut and trimmed a lot of 4.5 inch squares out of those red crumb strips.   Those 4.5 inch squares grew into Crumb Flowers 

I used an old Block Lotto tutorial called Violets to make my blocks that finish at 8 inches. 

The trimmed Crumb Flower "flippy corners" were turned into a few Wonky HST strips for my version of a vintage quilt. 

I still have some 4.5 inch red crumb squares and I am not sure yet what I will do with these but I do have a few ideas. 

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Animal Crackers Finish!

Animal Crackers

(Traditional H Block)

42 x 54

I made blocks with animal prints and solids last year I also made some Sixteen Patch blocks with the same fabrics; however, those are still awaiting assembly in the SAR (Some Assembly Required) box. 

I quilted with horizontal and vertical lines on my DSM. 

Backing and binding.

Ready for donation. 

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

 

Chunky Churn Dashes and Snowballs Finish

Chunky Churn Dash and Snowballs

42 x 60

It's a finish!

Sorry for the blurry photo. I'm not seeing all that well these days out of my right eye. Everything is blurry. I suppose it's time for that cataract surgery the eye doctor mentioned last year. Also the right eye lid droops a lot and is affecting my vision in that eye. Eye doctor said I might benefit from a blepharoplasty but I think that is considered cosmetic so probably won't have that done. Anyway...

Well, back in 2015 (has it really been that long?) I participated in four Chunky Churn Dash swaps - '30s and solids, patriotic, autumn and spring. I decided to challenge myself to use different alternate blocks in each of the four quilts. This is the Spring Chunky Churn quilt and I used Snowballs as the alternate block and is the last of the four quilts to be (finally!) finished.   

You can read a little about the other three quilts in previous blog posts if interested. 

I had 48 Chunky Churn Dash blocks in a spring garden theme so made 22 Snowballs and add some insects,  butterflies, spiders, ants, bees and rabbits to the garden. 

I quilted it with some three petaled flowers on my DSM. 

There's lots of butterflies on the back and the binding was an old floral. 

Now it is ready for donation.

I will probably send this and many other quilts twin, baby and child sized to Lifting Hands International via the Give Back Box.    I am not on Facebook but I see on their Facebook page that they made two shipments to Poland yesterday - "The first shipment contained 23,000 pounds (10,430 kg) of brand new bedding, baby items, personal care and first aid items. The second shipment left Utah yesterday containing about the same amount of aid as the first." Lifting Hands has a shipment tracker page; however, they must not have had time yet to update it with yesterday's shipments. I also see on their Facebook page that they have bought 52,000 lbs of flour for distribution throughout shelters as well as two vans to help evacuate people. Lifting Hands International's mission statement: "We provide aid to refugees, both at home and abroad. No politics. Simply humanitarian."

And sew on...

 

This, That and The Other Thing and The Other Thing

I like to work on lots of different projects at one time. And that means that a lot of time sewn pieces and parts pile up behind the sewing machine and when blocks are completely finished they sometimes pile up at the end of the ironing board waiting for the final go under the iron. Yesterday I ironed. And this is the story of what I found to iron. 

The Kentucky Crossroads blocks were made in January. I made one back in November to see if I actually could make the block because it was inspired by a vintage quilt. The plan is to use civil war reproduction scraps. 

Postage Stamp Pandemic

I think I now have about 80 or 90 or so of these 8 inch blocks. 

Lynn's Legos

These are 13 inch Lego blocks made Lynn's (Klein Meisje Quilts) way from 1.5 x 2.5 pieces. I cut those pieces when I have scraps - kind of the end of the scrap fabric chain. My little collection box of pieces was full so I decided to see how many blocks were in there.  This is a pretty slow moving quilt for me and that's okay -- no hurry,, no worry.  (2023 or bust? It's just a load of scrap. 

Hearts

I belong to the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild ( a group of us who like to make and donate quilts). It has been a tradition to make six inch hearts to send to a member when a parent, spouse or child passes away.  Someone's father recently passed away and bright hearts were suggested. I used some butterfly scraps. Butterflies are symbols of metamorphosis.  I need to find an envelope and mail these now so they can wing their way to Bev. 

Speaking of hearts...I also made some four inch Hearts for me. I've been reading up on genetic cardiac disorders, sudden cardiac death (SCD) and sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) and that's what prompted me to make these.   I'm making them in reds and whites. I'll alternate light hearts on dark and dark hearts on light blocks. 

Hearts

The 2.5 inch flippy corners trimmed off of the Hearts were made into HSTs and then sewn into strips for my version of a vintage inspired quilt.  I just whack off those flippy corners with a scissors so they are not precisely trimmed so some HSTs might be wonky as well as the strips and I'm all right with that. 

I've been working on six inch Double Four Patch blocks in an effort to use up a lot of brown scraps. 

I have now finished all 120 blocks - 60 with dark chains and 60 with light chains. I'm going to put these blocks away for now into my "Some Assembly Required" (SAR) box because I just have too many tops piled up right now waiting to be quilted so don't want to keep adding to that pile right now.  And I've already fixed my two boo-boos that had to go under the ripper and needle. 

I also made Jacob's Ladder blocks (webbed together at the moment) with brown scraps so I have a lot of 3.5 inch and 2 inch brown and cream scraps - scraps of scraps- you know how those scraps breed faster than rabbits.  Well, anyway, I used up some of those brown 3.5 inch scraps and made some Four Patches I matched up mostly with yellow scraps since yellow scraps were out since it is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. 

Some of those brown 3.5 inch scraps were cut into four 2.5 x 3.5 pieces and matched up with some pieces from the Eight Patch project box. I have quite the accumulation of these blocks now. 

3.5 inch brown scraps less than a square were sewn into strips for future Chinese Coins quilts. Gosh I have quite a collection of these strips too. 

I used the brown and cream 2 inch scraps to make Little Bow Ties to add to my collection. I had to fix one little boo boo. 

I used the 3.5 inch and 2 inch cream scraps left over after making the Jacob's Ladder and Double Four Patch for the center and corners of Puss in the Corner blocks. The 2 x 3.5 inch sides were cut from homespun scraps left over after making a few quilt tops with homespuns and plaids.   These light cornered Puss in the Corner blocks will alternate with some dark cornered ones already made. 

A few miscellaneous blocks that got made when I came across scraps of a certain size. Horizon blocks are made from 5 x 9.5 scraps and the Bear Paws from 2.5 and 4.5 scraps. I have quite the collection of both of these blocks and at year end (if not before) will make them all into donation quilts. 

I also put some longer brown 2 inch scraps into the Trip Around The World (TATW) box. And there's a pile of brown 3.5 inch squares for the Squares Bin and a pile of two matching 3.5 inch squares for future Four Patches. There's a little pile of 2.5 inch squares for the Squares Bin and a few pieces for the box of Legos. 

And finally, I ironed some wonky QSTs and trimmed the dog ears. Someday they will all go into my version of a vintage inspired quilt. I have quite the accumulation of these and a center block made. Won't these be fun to put together!

And sew on...