Postage Stamps and Churn Dashes in Blue

Blue is still the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. Now I'm looking forward to the next color. I think we have red, purple and yellow left. Which will it be? 

I made a few PSP20 (Postage Stamp Pandemic 2020) blocks with blue solids earlier in the month but added a few more to the collection.  This is a perfect project for this time of year - easy to pick up and put down on breaks from the gardening.  I'm using 1.5 inch square scraps plus solids to make these blocks.  I have a little pencil case of squares I've been cutting as I've been emptying my 1.5 inch width scrap bin. 

And I caught up on some colors and added a few oranges to my collection...

...because I was a lucky winner recently of some solids from Sally of Objects of Design.  so I now have lots of solids to play with.  I also caught the PSP20 from Sally. 

I made two Churn Dash blocks that finish at 13.5 inches. I've been making two per month with scrap chunks so at the end of the year I will have 24 blocks. I will divide them into two sets and set them 3 x 4 and make two donation quilts. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Still in the Pink

 This week I worked with my 2.5 inch pink scraps because pink is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. 

I made three Dakota Farmer 8 inch blocks. 

 And then I made six Hourglass blocks that finish at six inches. 

 Then I cut the rest of the pink 2.5 inch scraps into 2.5 x 3.5 rectangles for a quilt that will require 800 of those little rectangles.  Then I cut squares for some unknown future project. Then I sewed the pieces that were less than a 2.5 inch square into strips for a future Chinese Coins quilt. 

Then I grabbed a couple of pink scrap chunks and made two Churn Dashes that finish at 14 inches. 

Now I need to check out the 2 inch scrap bin and see what I scraps I have. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

And Now For A Dash of Color

 

 

 

 

 

I made several of these large Churn Dash Variation blocks that finish at 13.5 inches in the last week or so. 

I made two blocks last December after I found a pattern from McCall's quilting May/June 2010 designed by Julia LaBaune and Tammy Silvers.  I often make a couple of blocks as the urge strikes so I don't forget that I really want to make something.   I needed some color this past week so I picked it up again to work on.  I'm using my 30s reproduction fabrics.  I'm not following the pattern instructions because I have my own method of making HSTs. I guess the picture was the inspiration.  

Well, anyhow I want to move this forward to a quilt top this month so I'm declaring this my May OMG (One Monthly Goal). I think I have 21 blocks and am working toward 36 blocks in a 6 x 6 layout plus I think I will add a border of gingham for one big quilt. 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Scraps of Blue-green

 Churn Dashes that finish at 13.5 inches

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month is teal. It's also aqua, turquoise and blue-green . When I was growing up I called it all turquoise. I think they are all different hues of blue-green and aqua is lighter than turquoise and teal is darker than turquoise but I'm definitely not a color expert. In order to know what color I should call my blue-green scraps I guess I would have to see scraps of all the blue-green hues together in one place and sort them accordingly into light, medium and dark piles. Not going to happen! Girls just want to have fun with scraps no matter what the color.

  First off I usually start off the month with my scrap chunks which are larger than 4.5 inches and less than a fat quarter (FQ).  I've been trying to make two of these large churn dash blocks each month for donation quilts. I think 24 will be enough for two small or one large quilt. 

 Double X Mosaic and Snowballs that finish at 4 inches. 

This is my second year of making these blocks inspired by a vintage quilt. 

These pieces require 2.5 and 1.5 inch parts so I cut those pieces from my scrap chunks. I had a lot of that light green yardage I'm using for the background in my stash. I'm making blocks until I run out of that light green yardage. 

 Wishing Rings that finish at 3.5 inches. 

This is another project started last year and continuing into this year. It takes a lot of them to make a big quilt. 

I cut pieces for these from scraps from the 3.5 and 1.5 scrap bins if I have them. Otherwise I cut from scrap chunks.  The center which is 2 inches unfinished and the corners which are 1.5 inch squares are usually cut from a 3.5 inch scrap.  The sides usually come from the 1.5 inch scrap bin. 

 Then since I was in the 3.5 inch scrap bin I made Broken Dishes blocks that finish at six inches. I think this may be my third year of making these blocks. Someday they will make it into a quilt. For now they are a good use of scraps. 

Hourglass Blocks that finish at six inches. 

I just started making hourglass blocks from my 3.5 inch scraps.  I'm also going to start making them from 2 inch scraps. Those made with 2 inch scraps will finish at 3 inches. I'll combine both sizes in a quilt someday when I have enough of each. For now I'm just using bright scraps. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Green Scraps - 2.5 Inch Edition

 I dug into the light and bright (and in a few instances dark) green 2.5 inch scraps this week. 

I made some Dakota Farmer blocks.  When I hurt my back a few months ago I went through some old magazines and found instructions to make the Dakota Farmer blocks in Bonnie Hunter’s Addicted to Scraps column in the Nov/Dec ’13 issue of Quiltmaker. But I didn't follow the instructions. I used 2.5 inch scraps instead of 2 inch per the instructions so my blocks finish at 8 instead of 6 inches. 

 I also made some Hourglass blocks - the final block for Block Lotto since it has come to an end.  Lucky me...I won 28 of those six inch (finished) Hourglass blocks so I decided to make more for a twin sized quilt.  The Hourglass and Dakota Farmer blocks are the only two blocks I'm making this year from 2.5 inch scraps. 

 One of my old Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects made with 2.5 inch scraps is a Plus block.  I haven't worked on these in a long time.  I dug out the pile of them and found that if I alternated light and dark backgrounds I only needed 10 more blocks for a small quilt 42 x 54 (7 x 9 layout).  So I made 10 blocks. 

 And now the blocks are ready for assembly according to that secret code. 

 I've been working on Sprout blocks off and on evidently since March 2016 according to my blog.  Since I was in the 2.5 inch scraps I decided to evaluate what I needed to start assembling these blocks. What you see above is what I needed.  

 So now these blocks are ready for top assembly. I'm thinking the top will end up to be 52 x 72 - a nice comfort quilt size. 

I'm going to try this year to rid myself of all the scraps in the 2.5 inch scrap bin. So I'm going to cut anything left over after I make my Dakota Farmer and Hourglass blocks into 2.5 inch squares. 

 And if a scrap is less than a 2.5 inch square then it goes into a strip. I've been making scrappy strips in various sizes for a couple of years now so at the end of this year I think I'll have a nice (and probably huge) scrappy Chinese Coins quilt. 

After I finished playing in all the light and bright green 2.5 inch scraps I picked out a couple of small chunks of green and made two Churn Dash blocks that finish at a big 13.5 inches. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

'30s Reproductions Miscellanea

 The last couple of days I've been working with some '30s reproduction fabrics. I've added more Wagon Wheel blocks to my collection and now have 39 blocks out of the 63 I need for this quilt. I see that I started making these blocks way back in 2013 so this is a very old UFO. My OMG (One Monthly Goal) for January is to complete 24 more blocks to really move this UFO forward. 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

I wanted to make a Hummingbird quilt but found I didn't have enough of the fabric I want to use for the background. I have a lot of different pieces of yellow so thought I would make a test block to see what I think of piecing the block. I think I'm not so sure I now really want to make a Hummingbird quilt. I'm going to put this aside for now and complete all the blocks for the Wagon Wheel with all those curves and then decide if I really want to proceed with the Hummingbird quilt.  If I do proceed I guess I'll use a variety of different solid yellows and '30s reproduction fabrics. 

 These large 13 inch Churn Dash blocks are a new start using '30s reproduction fabrics. They work up fast so I'll have a large quilt in no time. I'm using blues, reds, yellows and browns.  

 I just finished this 36 inch square baby quilt top made of orphans I received from a quilty friend and my '30s scraps. 

 Two sets of four blocks were already set like you see here.  Yes, one block is not oriented the same way as the others but so be it. I was not going to rip. 

 I also received eight single blocks that were a little different from the other sets in that two corners were not white but matched the center fabric. I set those four blocks the same as the others  - sashed with yellow 1.5 inch strips. 

Then I joined all four blocks of four with some 2.5 inch sashing cut from scraps.  And then I added a 1.5 inch green polka dot border and then added a 3 inch border of ducklings. I was just going to add a white outer border but thought that would be too much white for a baby quilt and besides...the baby ducks made it seem more baby quilt-ish. 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Peppa and Friends Flimsy

 Peppa and Friends Baby Quilt

It's a flimsy!

36 x 36

This will go to Jack's Basket when finished.  

This is one of several quilts going toward the Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge charities this year.  If you want further info and/or are interested in participating this is sign-up week. 

I actually started out to make all 12 inch Hole in the Barn Door blocks in red and gray with farm animals as the block centers but when I started digging around for barn animals an old remnant of Peppa and Friends was the first thing I ran across so the plan changed.  That's probably a good thing since I don't think I had enough red solid to begin with. 

Churn Dash and Churn

Ok. So my blog post title today sounds like the name of a still life painting or something but I just couldn't resist taking a photo of my Churn Dash Quilt with a photo of my dusty old churn. 

Side note: I haven't ever used the butter churn but I have made butter several times with the grandkids.  We shake up cream in a jar with marbles - no churn dash - and love to eat it on homemade muffins or homemade biscuits. 

60 x 72

120- 6 inch churn dash blocks in Civil War reproduction fabrics. 

I swapped some of the blocks last year with members of Block_Swappers. And also last year I swapped CW Repro 2.5 inch fabric strips with members of Quiltville Swap.

I did some straight line vertical and horizontal quilting on my plain Jane Janome. 

I quilted each side of the center squares and then also quilted in the ditch between blocks. 

I don't really like to quilt in the ditch. It's kind of hard to neatly stay in the ditch when you can't really see the ditch all too well. 

But, it's a UFO and it's done. It's washed. It's crinkly soft. It's mine. 

And it will keep me warm this winter while I'm sitting on the couch in this old farm house (heated by wood) eating those homemade biscuits with homemade butter.     (Side note: I don't sit on the couch covered in a quilt to eat those same homemade biscuits if they are covered with homemade jam instead of butter. I end up covered in quilt and jam.) 

A Lovely Year of Finishes - Finished April Goal, Setting May Goal

I've successful met my April goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes  - Complete a top consisting of 120 six inch churn dash blocks made of civil war reproduction fabrics. 

(#86 at the goal setting party)

I knew I would be too busy to get it quilted and bound so didn't include that as part of my goal although I did purchase some muslin for the back, just in case.

My May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to finish an ABC alphabet quilt for my niece Genevieve who is due in June.   I participate in an Alphabet I Spy swap every year and go ahead and make up Happy Blocks so they are ready when I need them.  I iron on textured letters.   I'm going to replace S for Spaceships with S for Seattle Seahawks.    Strange story about that.  Years ago I received the Seahawks fabric by mistake when I placed an online order. I was told to keep it and actual order was later sent.  I had no clue what to do with the fabric except to cut it up and use with other b/w fabric.   Funny thing...last year when my niece got married I read that she got engaged at a Seattle Seahawks game. Who knew her fiance that she met in college in IA was from Seattle and loved the Seahawks!!! 

Churning out Churn Dashes

I swapped positive/negative six inch churn dash blocks in civil war reproduction fabrics last year with the Block_Swappers Yahoo Group. 

And then later in the year I swapped light and dark 2.5 inch civil war reproduction fabric strips with Quiltville Swap Yahoo Group.

 So, I sewed them into churn dashes. 

And now I have 120 churn dash blocks - 60 light on dark and 60 dark on light. 

This month I want to get them sewn into a quilt top. 

That's my April goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

My 5 year old grandson wanted to know what to call that shape.  So I told him about making butter, butter churns,and churn dashes.  We inspected my old butter churn and he discovered it has a different kind of dash.