It's A Finish! Diagonal Bars

It's a finish!

Diagonal Bars

65 x 85

This is one of my oldest UFOs. I won a May 2014 Block Lotto. I don't remember how many Diagonal Bars blocks I won that month. I think I might have won all of them in this quilt and just decided to add sashing to make it large enough for a twin sized donation quilt. 

I made the top back in August 2021.

I quilted it on my DSM (Brother PQ1500) with swirls in bright blue. 

This one finally made it to the top of the quilting queue because the theme in my sewing space this month to move UFOs forward is "Browns and Blues".  I used monthly themes last year and they worked pretty well so am using them again this month. 

I had a piece of wide backing that fit this quilt perfectly. And I had just enough of that blue and white fabric for the binding. So I guess it was all meant to be. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts.

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Jan. 25 - Speaking of Alycia - I won one of her recent giveaways and it arrived yesterday. On the right is the contents of a kit of Asian fabrics and template for making 12 inch butterfly blocks. And on the right is a few more Asian fabrics.  I do love Butterflies (almost as much as I love roses) so while I am celebrating I'm celebrating butterflies too. The strange thing is that I usually do not do much applique; however, it seems that now quite a few things on my long list of projects have applique in some form or other. I'm thinking this will be a new needle turn applique project. 

 

Diagonal Bars Flimsy

It's a flimsy!

65 x 85

I won these Diagonal Bars blocks in a May 2014 Block Lotto. They have been sitting around because I could never figure out how to put them together for a nice sized quilt without having to make a bunch more. In an effort to finally move several sets of Block Lotto winnings forward I decided to add sashing. You probably know that I don't really like making borders or sashing but these blocks kept telling me they had to have some type of sashing. I decided to mimic the blue and cream bars. Then I was going to add square cornerstones but they looked kind of clunky. So I mimicked the hst corners of the blocks and made little snowballs for the cornerstones. 

There was quite a variety of blues from light to bright to dark so I tried to arrange them with the lightest on top, bright in the middle and dark on the bottom. 

I have a few very light blue blocks (maybe six of them) left over for when I piece a backing. 

Now I think I may use some strings and make a different version of those Diagonal Bars without the sashing. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

This, That, And The Other Things

I cleaned up the leftovers from making the Coin Toss top the other day.  I cut the pieces I could into 3 inch squares and the other pieces less than a square were sewn into several strips. If I had 8 squares of the same color I made Hollow Nine Patches otherwise I put the squares in my Squares Bin. 

I made some pineapples and apples from 1.5 inch squares which was one of my goals toward my Asymmetry/Tea Towel Challenge. 

I assembled all of the sashing and cornerstone parts for Diagonal Bars blocks  I won in a 2014 Block Lotto.  I'm not going to put them in with the other block sets in my "Some Assembly Required" box. I'm going to try to get the top assembled in August. 

And I made a couple of "before I forget" blocks. I ran across a piece of Christmas fabric in with my scraps. I was too lazy to unstack my boxes to get down to the little box of Christmas fabric just to put this FQ into it. So I decided to use it. How about some Christmas Cactus Pots? I do love a play on words. The Cactus Pot block made in Christmas fabrics = Christmas Cactus! 

And also while I was thinking about it...I gathered some 3 inch nine patches from a big bin of the little cuties. I only picked out ones that had dark corners and center  and did not have a neutral for the other four squares. 

I tried them out in some Path and Stiles blocks. Ok. I like them. I'll carry on. 

And that brings me to a box of orphan blocks...

...and this box of orphan blocks. I've kind of sorted them into different groups of blocks I think would look good together. In August I am going to see how many 40 x 60 donation quilt tops I can get made. And hopefully I will be able to remove two empty boxes from the sewing space. 

My OMG (One Monthly Goal) for August is to assemble at least one top from those orphans. I'll give myself a smiley face, a big star and bonus points for any more than one top!

OMG at Elm Street Quilts

I thought I had better declare my August goal now because in a day or so I'm going to be gone for over a week of camping with some of my husband's family - a mini family reunion. 

 

Old And Blue

Dark blue is the July Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. I finished most of my blue RSC blocks previously in the light blue month so thought I would dig into the UFO bin to see what might need some blue that I could concentrate on this month.  I found some old Block Lotto Diagonal Bar blocks I won back in 2014. 

I think there a little over fifty blocks that finish at 7 inches. I'm thinking I'll just have to make a couple more blocks and I'll make a sashing and get these blocks made into a top this month. 

Then I found these even older Double Disappearing Nine Patch (DD9P) blocks from a swap that might have been around 2012 or so. One of the addy labels on the back of one of the blocks had the year 2012 on it. 

I have over 70 blocks that I think finish at 7.5 inches. Some were swapped and some I made. I didn't really like making these blocks. Honestly...I'd rather just cut the pieces and make the block as it ends up. It seems like a lot of extra steps to me to make one block and go to the work to cut it apart and then flip around pieces and sew everything back together again

.   I think these blocks have been a UFO for a long time because I didn't like the process. But, really there are enough for a nice sized donation quilt so might as well get them put together. 

There was also a big bag of parts in with the DD9P. I don't think I'll need them for the DD9P top but you never know. 

So...as long as I'm going to be working on these blue things during the RSC dark blue month of July I might as well declare a goal for One Monthly Goal (OMG).   My July OMG is to get at least one of these sets of blocks to flimsy stage. I actually hope to get both of them to flimsy stage but I think July is going to be a very busy month for me so I don't want to make overly ambitious goals for myself. 

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

OMG at Elm Street Quilts