FYI

I still have roses blooming in October in my cottage garden but don't have time to stop and smell the roses right now.  I called 911 this morning because my husband was very confused, had trouble breathing and had low o2 level and high heart rate.  The ambulance took him to ED and then he was admitted.   So don't worry about me if I go missing for a few days. I'll more than likely be at the hospital sitting next to hubby.  Prayers and positive thoughts and vibes are always welcome. And thank you.

Cathy

 

It's A Hand Quilted Finish! Smitten

Smitten

63 x 81

It's a finish!

And it's hand quilted!

And this one is for me!

Back in February of this year I was pondering what to do with a Castle Wall ufo. I had three super-sized  blocks made for a quilt I was calling Valentines at the Castle Wall. The oldest block, above, was made in 2014. I really wasn't sure I liked how all three blocks looked together and I really didn't want to make any more blocks but I really wanted to use those blocks so in February I turned the one ufo, Valentines at the Castle Wall, into three different quilt tops I named "Throwing Snowballs at the Castle Wall", "Hugs and Kisses at the Castle Wall" and "Smitten". 

Smitten was inspired by a c. 1890-1900 quilt. You can read more about that and the making of Smitten on my February blog post. 

I big stitch hand quilted it very simply with red perle cotton #12.   I stitched in the ditch around the Castle Wall block and around the heart in the middle. 

In most of the six inch patches I stitched around any whole hearts that were showing. 

In the three inch and one inch patches I stitched about 1/4 inch along the seam lines. I didn't mark anything...just eyeballed it. 

The binding was aqua solid to match some of the aqua patches on front as well as the roses on aqua backing. 

This quilt is full of a few of my favorite things - scraps, hearts and roses. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

A Couple More New Starts

Well, it started when Nann sent me a link to a Scrapbuster block. (I guess she thinks I need to bust some scraps or something.)    I guess since it is a scrapbuster block by Claudia I will call it Claudia for now.  Well, anyway, I took a glance at the block and decided to give it a try as a new Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) block.  I grabbed a few scraps and tried.  Ok. Looks pretty good. Claudia might be a good Scrapbuster and I have just the box of scraps for it.   One problem...unless I missed it Claudia gives instructions for pressing the seams in the blocks; however, when it comes time to put the blocks together into a top I don't think the seams will nest properly. 

I think for the seams to nest properly in the top the blocks would have to be set like above. And I'm okay with that layout too. BUT I think I figured out how to press the blocks now so they can be assembled into a top like Claudia's.   So, this is a new RSC start. 

And the reason I've started it is because I have a little box of 4 inch width pieces that have accumulated. Most of the scraps in that box have come from others. I usually have a block in the works for each size of scrap I normally generate. As I make scraps or receive scraps I try to process those scraps right away into those blocks in the works. 4 inch width scraps is not a size I usually deal with so I just set those aside in a box when scrap processing.  Now that I have a little box of that size scrap I know what to do with them and I now have a block in the works for 4 inch width scraps and the block works well for RSC. With each color of the month I can dig into the box and find that color to work with plus I can look in my bag of scraps sorted by color (mostly scrap chunks now) to see what could be used to make blocks.  Oh, and I also will hopefully be using up a little pile of pastel bits and pieces to make the blocks. I haven't decided yet if I will make a couple of child sized donation quilts or a larger twin sized donation quilt. More later...

Then I was inspired by this photo in the latest Connecting Threads catalog.  It is called Sunset Flight by Needle in a Hayes Stack.  

I grabbed a few scraps and gave the block a try. I think I will start making these blocks as another RSC project. Also you can't really tell from the photo but I think I have enough different pieces of light leafy greens to use for the background in these blocks.  I'll probably aim for 48 blocks and a twin sized donation quilt. 

And then I will also make the same block but in a light blue and black colorway. I have a little pile of fabrics in those colors waiting to be used up. I'll aim for a twin sized 48 blocks. Happy Blocks and Flying Geese = Happy Geese.  This one isn't a RSC block. It's just fun. 

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Name That Block

Do you know the name of this block? 

I spied a vintage quilt with the unusual block. I do love vintage quilts and I'm a bit unusual so I just had to see if I could figure out how to make the blocks for a quilt of my own.  I'm going to use plaids, dots, stripes, old shirts and '30s repros.  My sample blocks above finish at 12 inches. 

I first saw the vintage quilt above at Pinterest in a search for "vintage quilt". That lead me to the website Heirloomed Collection where I could see more pictures of the quilt. I think the blocks in the vintage quilt are larger than the ones I made and I think I switched the positioning of the darks and lights in my blocks but it's all good and now I have a new start without a name. 

And sew on...

 

It's A Finish! Heart of the Matter

Heart of the Matter

(sometimes I called it Heartfelt)

42 x 56

It's a finish!

These are what I call Slab Blocks. Some might call them Crumb Blocks. For me slab pieces are bigger than crumb pieces and slab pieces have mostly straight line sides whereas crumbs might take any shape.   

So I started making these blocks back in December 2021 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I used red Heart Blocks as the center of the 14 inch Slab Blocks - the heart of the matter.   Earlier this year  when "Strings and Crumbs" was the theme in my sewing space I only needed 3 more blocks for a top so I made those and assembled the top. 

And now it is quilted - with swirls on my DSM - and it is bound with a striped print in a rainbow of colors and a few flowers. 

And the backing is a rainbow of color too.  And see the LOVE quilted in? 

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

 

It's A Top! Orphan Lester

It's a top! 

Orphan Lester

42 x 54

The September and October theme in my sewing space has been "Orphans". From time to time I am lucky enough to get a package of scraps from a few folks and once in awhile I receive orphan blocks too. I usually try and process the scraps immediately but put the orphan blocks away for another day.  Like hurricanes I've been giving the orphan block quilts names and I can't believe I am almost half way through the alphabet. 

This top consists of a lot of six inch blocks. I made Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs) for the alternate block from some small chunks of different brown fabrics and a creamy neutral. 

I like this setting because sometimes you can see Economy Blocks or...

...sometimes you can see Ohio Stars. 

And sew on...

 

It's A Finish! Wonky Log Cabin

Wonky Log Cabin

42 x 56

It's a finish!

For the centers I used some leftover 4.5 inch finished Wonky Star blocks with blue and green backgrounds. Those were old leftovers from making a couple of quilts with Wonky Stars. 

In April of this year the theme in my sewing room was "Strings" so I dug into my bottomless box of strings and dug out blue and green strings to make 14 inch Wonky Log Cabin blocks. 

I quilted it on my Brother DSM with swirls in lime green thread. For the binding I found enough pieces of green and blue leftover bindings in my leftover binding box. 

For a bit of extra fun and a surprise... this quilt has some glow in the dark fabric - the white sheep with blue background.  Those strings as well as quite a few other strings in this quilt were the result of skinny quilt back trimmings. 

The backing is a black and lime green polka dot. I do love polka dots in any colors. They just say "happy" to me. 

And sew on...

 

It's A Top! Orphan Kayleen

Orphan Kayleen

42 x 51

September and October's theme in my sewing space has been "Orphan Blocks". I've been naming each orphan block top made this month like hurricanes are named.  The orphan blocks have come from several different sources and are not just all mine. 

And sew on...

 

Jots, Iotas, Smidgens, Whits and Orts: A Finish!

It's a finish!

Made of Jots, Iotas, Smidgens, Whits and Orts

Some might even call them crumbs

59 x 72

If you've followed my blog you have probably seen me doing a little scrap processing over the years.  One of the last things I do with leftover strip after I make blocks with it is to cut squares or if there is less than a square I sew the pieces into strips by width that I always said would be made into a Chinese Coins quilt someday.  Over the years those little strips have filled up a little box so I decided it was time to sew them together in April of this year. 

I quilted it very simply on my DSM with vertical lines in a caramel colored thread. 

The binding is an orange batik. 

The backing is striped.  It was a little short in width so I added an orange scrap to one side. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

 

It's A Top! Orphan Jethro

It's a top!

Orphan Jethro

"Orphans" has been the theme in my sewing space in September and October. I've accumulated quite a few orphan blocks over the last few years so decided to try to put a lot of them together for comfort quilts for kids.  All of the orphan quilt tops have been getting names like hurricanes. I'm hoping to maybe get halfway through the alphabet before the end of October. But I'm also hoping to get some tops quilted since I have a new roll of batting sitting here. But I'm also hoping to get the gardens put to bed. But I'm also hoping...

All the pieces and parts came to me with some assembly required so I did not have to do a bunch of thinking to put this one together. 

Sometimes there is no time for thinking.

And sew on... 

 

It's A Top! Orphan Imogene

It's a top!

Orphan Imogene

42 x 48

"Orphans" has been the theme in my sewing room for September and October. A lot of orphan blocks needed to be put into comfort quilts. As I've been making the tops I've been naming them like hurricanes. I still have a lot of orphan blocks so not sure how far through the alphabet I will get!

This one started with the block in the middle and bottom right. Those two came from other folks.  I also had an old 12 inch block of squares in the orphanage (middle bottom) to add to the mix. It has Strawberry Shortcake in it and she hasn't aged a bit.  Then the top left Broken Dishes block was made with four 6 inch HSTs someone gave me. 

The rest of the blocks were made from miscellaneous 4 inch blocks from the Parts Department. 

I had two different small pieces of pink/white polka dot fabrics I used for sashing and a scrap of a strip I used for the cornerstones. When I finished the top with just the sashing I had just a small piece of the pink polka dot and the stripe left so decided to lengthen the quilt a bit and made some Flying Geese. 

Imogene is in the pink! Really, really pink!

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

Monkey Wrench Quilt Top #4

Monkey Wrench Quilt Top #4

42 x 60

FYI:

FYI - 

Monkey Wrench Top #1

Monkey Wrench Top #2

Monkey Wrench Top #3

7.5 inch Monkey Wrench blocks

For the last couple of years one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects has been Monkey Wrench block in three different sizes - 5 inch, 7.5 inch and 10 inch.  It's always fun to make blocks from scraps until I have a big pile of them. Then it's always fun to see how many donation/comfort quilts I can make from those piles. 

For this one I used most of what was left in the pile of the Monkey Wrench 7.5 inch blocks. Now I will deal with the piles of 5 and 10 inch Monkey Wrenches. 

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

 

August and September Leader/Enders

Monkey Wrench Blocks

10 inch finished

August/September Leader/Enders

For quite awhile I've been making Monkey Wrench blocks from scraps in 3 different sizes as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project.  Someone gave me a baggie of colorful 4.5 inch HST parts. I pulled out all sets of four and paired them up with a neutral to make HSTs. I have been cutting 2.5 inch width scraps that are long enough for four squares into squares for my Monkey Wrench project box. So I pulled out some of those squares and paired them up with more neutral squares to make Monkey Wrench blocks for donation quilts.   I have a big collection of blocks now so after I finish putting the pile of 7.5 inch Monkey Wrench blocks into quilt tops then I will start on the 10 inch pile. 

Now I have sets of 2 HST parts as well as single HST parts to deal with but there are not many of those. The pairs will probably be paired with pairs of the same color for Broken Dishes blocks and the single HSTs will probably go into the Parts Dept. 

And sew on...