It's A Finish!

It's a finish!

18 Patch

42 x 60

I started making these blocks as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project back in 2021. The six inch blocks are made of 18 - 1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles. They were not strip pieced. 

I finished the top in 2023.

I quilted it with vertical and horizontal lines. I added a scrappy binding. 

The back - polka dots on pink. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 ***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Treasure - I get a free Iowa Lottery ticket every month. This month I won $1. I could have bought another ticket for a progressive pot for $1 but I decided not to. I was happy enough to have won $1. 

Read - Finished a book! Water From My Heart by Charles Martin. Wealthy loner seeks redemption after disastrous choices, encountering a woman and child whose lives he impacted in Central America. Popular highlight: "Indifference is the curse of this age. We need to hear that. Indifference is evil, and it could not be further from the heart of God." Based on some real events. I've read a lot of Martin's books and have loved them all. 

I Built A Top Of Legos

Legos

52 x 78

It's a top!

I used Lynn's tutorial at Klein Meisje Quilts. 

When I pulled my project box out the other day I found 15 blocks, a little box with 1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles and a few rows for a block.  

I wanted a quilt of 24 blocks so needed to make 9 more blocks. Each block takes 78 rectangles so I needed a total of 702 rectangles and that little box defintely did not hold enough rectangles. 

So, remember a few blog posts back when I mentioned I sorted two boxes of 1.5 inch width scraps into different categories?  Well, one of those "categories" was a baggie of 1.5 inch width scraps greater than a 1.5 inch square and less than a 5.5 inch width.  Well, that is what I cut into 1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles as well as some 1.5 inch squares.  The baggie is now empty and I had enough pieces to make nine more Lego blocks. 

It looks like I started making blocks back in 2021. 

It was slow going because I was using 1.5 inch width scraps in several other quilts and was always running out of rectangles for Lego blocks. 

I like to give quilts with lots of small pieces and things to look at to folks in the hospital, hospice or extended care. It gives them something to look at and sometimes sparks conversations with visitors over what they see in the quilt. 

WITB (What's in the Box, Bin, Bag) is the theme in my sewing space for the month of March. I'm wondering how many boxes, bins and bags I can empty.  

With this quilt top I was able to empty a bag of 1.5 inch scraps and a box of Legos

I'm keeping score:

Boxes:

1- Coins

2 - Legos

Bags:

1 - Kaleidoscope

2  - solid 1.5 inch strips for 51 Waffles

3 - 1.5 inch strips for 9 Legos

I'll also be working with yellow scraps this month because that is the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color. 

And I don't always follow the challenges issued by the Scrapbuster group but this month the challenge is 1.5 inch scraps. I have some of those! 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Yesterday I sowed some poppies and forget-me-nots, wild strawberries and tall thimbleweeds. They are mostly surface sown and like cooler temps for germination so it is okay to winter sow those seeds. I usually winter sow in pots, milk jugs or bags but poppies don't like transplanting and I don't think the other flowers do either.  And today it is snowing great big snowflakes so they will get watered in!  For labels/markers so I don't forget what I sow where I buy paint stirrer sticks and write on them and then to seal them spray them with blasting freeze hairspray for a lasting "spiky cement finish". 

Waffles

Yesterday I finished fifty-one 6 inch Waffle Blocks. 

It all started because awhile ago someone gave me eleven 6 inch Waffle Blocks. 

And the other day I sorted a very large men size 13 shoebox of 1.5 inch width scraps and...

...a small box of of about the same size of 1.5 inch width scraps into different categories and widths. I'm hoping this month to greatly reduce and maybe even empty those two boxes of 1.5 inch scraps - most given to me over the last year by different folks. (Thank you, all!) I actually measure the width of most small scraps I receive. 

So, anyway, now I have bags in boxes so now I can start emptying bags. And then before you know it I'll have empty boxes! 

I just emptied a bag of long solid scraps making those 51 Waffle blocks. I cut what was not long enough for three strips for Waffles into 1.5 x 5.5 and 1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles and 1.5 inch squares. Those will now join others of the same size. 

And now that I have 62 Waffle Blocks I decided to make a twin sized comfort quilt with either 120 or 130 blocks.  I'm now making this a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I have a litttle box of solid scrap chunks in all colors so each month will cut a 1.5 inch piece off of the scraps in the color of the month and make more blocks.  I might even empty a bag of 1.5 inch squares (postage stamps) in the process. 

And now I have emptied a bag. 

WITB (What's in the Box, Bin, Bag) is the theme in my sewing space for the month of March. I'm wondering how many boxes, bins and bags I can empty.  

I'm keeping score:

Boxes:

1- Coins

Bags:

1 - Kaleidoscope

2  - solid 1.5 inch strips for 51 Waffles

I'll also be working with yellow scraps this month because that is the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color. 

And I don't always follow the challenges issued by the Scrapbuster group but this month the challenge is 1.5 inch scraps. I have some of those! 

And sew on...

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

"I count myself lucky, having long ago won a lottery paid to me in seven sunrises a week for life" - Robert Brault.

How about that! I won the same lottery!

 

A Kaleidoscope Top

Put on your sunglasses!

It's a top!

Kaleidoscope

40 x 56

I started making these blocks in 2024 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I didn't have many small yellow scraps or even much yardage that was yellow. What I did have was quite a few yellow "chunks" - pieces less than a FQ but greater than a 6 inch square. I decided to use them as background for a kaleidoscope quilt. I figured there would be enough for a child sized quilt. 

Last year I ended up making twenty-two 8 inch blocks. 

This week I pulled out a little pile of multicolor 4.5 inch width scraps I had set aside for kid's quilts  and those yellow chunks and made 13 more blocks...  

...And then I put them together into a top. 

And now I have emptied a bag. 

WITB (What's in the Box, Bin, Bag) is the theme in my sewing space for the month of March. I'm wondering how many boxes, bins and bags I can empty.  

I'm keeping score:

Boxes:

1- Coins

Bags:

1 - Kaleidoscope

I'll also be working with yellow scraps this month because that is the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color. 

And I don't always follow the challenges issued by the Scrapbuster group but this month the challenge is 1.5 inch scraps. I have some of those! 

And sew on...

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Many many years ago I bought the book To Our Children's Children. Remembering Family Histories for Generations to Come. by Bob Greene  for both my Dad and John's parents hoping they would write about some of the prompts in the book. No one ever did. When John's parents passed away I got back their copy of the book and have always been meaning to do some prompt answering myself and put them in a journal. 

To Our Children’s Children

The House of Your Growing Up

1.      What did your home look like? Was it a house or apartment? What color was it? Was it stone or wood? One story or two?

I was in third grade, the eldest of five kids, when we moved to the house I grew up in. It was a white wood two story located on a very busy one-way street. A big backyard with a sidewalk lead to the garage and there was an alley behind the garage. We were separated by lilac bushes and peonies from the quiet elderly neighbors on the west side and separated by a chain link fence from the nosey and very cranky old lady we called Nosey Agnes on the east side. We had two big elm trees in the front boulevard until they had to be cut down due to Dutch Elm disease.

2.      Can you remember the view out of any of your windows? What did you look out on?

We really didn’t have a “view”. The front of the house looked out on to a busy one-way street. Across the street on the corner was the Salvation Army in a building that used to be a movie theater. The rest of the block was houses. The windows in back looked out on the backyard and alley and the houses across the alley. I already mentioned the neighbors next to us. 

* I remember the address of the old house and found a photo online of how it looked a few years ago which is pretty much how it looked when I lived there. I also saw that the house was built in 1920.

 

A Coin Top

Coins

60 x 78

It's a top! 

I think I started making these in 2024 to use up some long 2 inch width scraps/strips. Last year I also cut a lot of quilt back trimmings into 2 inch width strips to use in these. 

I strip pieced these. I sewed together 2 strips 2 inches in width and length divisible by 3 and then cut them into 3 inch sections. The resulting strips are variable lengths. 

It sounds easier to make than it is. I decided the top should be 24 rectangles across and 52 rectangles down. Since all segments were variable in length I sometimes had to cut a segment shorter and then use those pieces in another column. I don't use  design wall so I knew some colors were going to end up next to each other. That doesn't bother me. And I also tried to start each column with yellow or orange segments so those colors are all at the top of the quilt. 

I tried to keep all of the darker colors at the bottom of the quilt. 

WITB (What's in the Box, Bin, Bag) is the theme in my sewing space for the month of March. I'm wondering how many boxes, bins and bags I can empty.  

I'll keep score:

Box - 1

I'll also be working with yellow scraps this month because that is the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color. 

And I don't always follow the challenges issued by the Scrapbuster group but this month the challenge is 1.5 inch scraps. I have some of those! 

And sew on...

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

It's been a rough couple of days here with all kinds of mishaps; however, I'm trying not to let things get me down. Dreaming of spring and flowers to come sure helps!

I finished a book - The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz. He originally published it under the name of Leigh Nichols in the 1990s. It's not the usual Dean Koontz type of book; however, it has the same underlying theme as in all of Dean Koontz books - good vs. evil and good wins.  A woman is hypnotized and her memory purged of her life's memories and she is given a new identity and false memories. Eventually with the help of a nice man she finds out the truth. 

What's In The Hoop?

What's in the hoop?

Grandma's Apron Strings

Gosh, this is an oldie! I started making blocks back in 2015 but didn't finish the top until August 2020. And now here it is already 2025. 

So I gathered some threads I thought I mightt use and started stitching. I'll only be using the light yellow perle 12 and the blanc perle 12. I think I bought all the light yellow a few years ago when I was thinking of putting this quilt in the hoop. 

And now here's the block after some stitching last night. 

I still have to stitch in the sashing area on three sides. 

I did the chicken scratch embroidery on the gingham before I made and added the sashings but left a row of gingham on both sides so I could do a running stitch through the white squares. Then I quilted in the white area of the sashing as you can see on the right side sashing. 

All of the fabrics in the blocks are kitchen themed. 

The walls were painted yellow in most kitchens when I was growing up so I chose yellow for the block backgrounds. (Plus I had a lot of it on hand at the time I started making blocks.)

I loved some of the aprons from back in the day that were made of gingham with chicken scratch embroidery so that's why I added the chicken scratch sashing. 

I called it Grandma's Apron Strings and as I stitch I'm reminded of many good times in my paternal grandmother's kitchen. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

 

March Is For Yellow Scraps

Crooked Mile

(I've also called these blocks Fractured Rails)

10 inch blocks

They are made with 3 x 3.5 inch rectangles so either width of scrap can be used to make these. 

Yellow is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for March. 

"How lovely yelllow is! It stands for the sun." - Vincent van Gogh"

I finished blocks with pink scraps I didn't get to in January and...

... with blue scraps...

...which was February's color. 

I'm making them in dark and light in the color of the month. 

I first came across the way to make the wonky stack and shuffle units fom Kathy Doughty (Material Obsession) books. Sometimes I call these "fractured units" - Fractured is the name of one of Kathy Doughty's quilts that uses these units in a larger size than what I'm making. 

Crossroads

7 x 9 inch blocks

Made with 3.5 x 4.5 inch rectangles so either width of scrap can be used. 

All blocks will have brown crosses with red centers. 

I also caught up with making blocks with pink and blue scraps. And a few brown ones snuck in there too. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

SAHRR: The Last Two Of Five

It was so windy outside this morning so I didn't think I would be able to take photos today of the last two Stay At Home Round Robin quilts I finished up yesterday.  I found a little break in the winds when I went out to feed the barn cats so grabbed the camera before the winds start up again. 

 I  am participating in the 2025 Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR).

As I mentioned in a previous post...

I am going to use the weekly prompts to make 5 kiddo sized row quilts. 

The prompt this week for round 6 is "kite units". 

This one started out with race cars as the center. 

I decided that the race cars needed some strings of pennants on bottom...

...and top. They look like "kite units" to me! 

This one started out with a piece of border print with scottie dogs and flowers as the center. 

I added 9 inch Kite Blocks (aka Periwinkle or Hummingbird blocks) to the bottom. 

And now I have five comfort quilt tops for kids. 

The other three tops got too long to make it to round 6. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

SAHRR Round 6 Linky Party

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Today is my grandson's 16th birthday. I witnessed his birth. What a joyous day! Time flies. 

 

February Fodder

Fodder - n. raw material, as for artistic creation.

"Strings and Things" has been the February theme in my sewing space. Fodder is my "and things". 

Over the past year I've been emptying little baggies of this, that and the other thing. Some baggies have come from others and some are of my making. A lot of the baggies have had HST parts in them. As I sew them together I throw them into little boxes kept near the ironing board. I just never get around to ironing them. So this month I did some ironing and some trimming.  

These are 6 inch finished Broken Dishes blocks made of 3.5 inch unfinished HSTs.  Whenever I make Quarter Square Triangle or Flying Geese blocks I use the Easy Angle Companion ruler to cut parts. Since I don't like to waste the first and last cuts on a strip of fabric at the beginning and end of the strip of fabric I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut HSTs. 

If I have four HSTs the same I usually turn them into Broken Dishes blocks. I have a whole box of Broken Dishes in different sizes - quilt fodder. That's where these will go. 

More six inch Broken Dishes.

And even more six inch Broken Dishes. 

Someone sent me these HST parts - yellows matched up with what looks like crumb pieces? I made the HSTs and then turned them into Broken Dishes. Can't remember the size. 

Those Broken Dishes are now going into the grocery bag of orphan blocks and parts that have yellow and/or orange in them.  The bag is pretty full now so maybe it is time for an orphan block quilt. 

4 inch finished HSTs in lime green and orange.

 I made QSTs for a Bramble Bloom quilt and these were the HST parts cut from the beginning and end of strips used to make those QSTs. 

More HSTs left over from making Bramble Bloom QSTs. These are green and pink. 

I have many more not shown here. Most are in multiples of four. I was going to make Broken Dishes blocks from these but decided to wait on that. I might want to use them in some other way. 

For now they are going into the shoe box of orange, lime green, and pink 4.5 inch width scraps left over from making Bramble Blooms tops.   I also have a bag of scrap chunks in the same colors. 

Four Inch Broken Dishes

I think these are some of the Easy Angle cuts (combined with neutrals) that came from making Flying Geese for my Twilight Flock blocks. 

These will go into my box of various sizes of Broken Dishes blocks. 

This little pile of 3 inch HSTs came from cutting corners while making Pineapple Quilt blocks. 

Those HSTs will go into the box of red, white and blue orphan blocks and parts. I think it's time for another orphan block quilt. That box is full of goodies.

Little QSTs. Sometimes made from binding joins and other times from waste triangles. I trim off the dog ears but otherwise don't care if they are wonky. 

They are joining in with others in a box of wonky little QSTs. Someday I will make a quilt from them inspired by a vintage quilt. That lone star is the center for the medallion quilt. 

This month I also emptied a Banker Box sized box (held reams of printer paper) of quilt back trimmings. Anything wider than six inches got put with scrap chunks organied by color. Some multicolors or big prints I put in a separate box to use for quilt back inserts or scrappy bindings. 

I have a little flat now of those trimmings - 1.5, 2, 2.5,3,3.5,4,4.5,5 and 5.5 inch width strips. They will now join others of the same size. I have quilt blocks going for almost all those sizes. I also ended up with some strings (less than 1.5 inch or wonky) and have already used some of those in this month's string quilts. 

I've got more foddering to do. 

And sew on...