Kaleidoscopes of Green

Kaleidoscope Blocks

11 inch

Dark with light corners

Kaleidoscope Blocks

11 inch

Light with dark corners

Light and dark cornered blocks will alternate in the quilt. 

I started making these in June after I received some 6 inch width strips. I added in some greens from my scrap bag and now I have a set of 35 blocks ready for a comfort quilt. But for now the blocks are going into the SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin.

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! At Quilting is more Fun Than Housework

***

How time flies! When I started making these blocks I see from that blog post that the peonies were in bloom. So many things have bloomed since and now are starting to die back. It is almost time to start harvesting seeds for next year's gardens. "To every thing there is a season..."

The beautiful weather continues so you will probably find me outside enjoying it. 

 

Kaleidoscope of Blue

I mentioned earlier in the month that I received some 6 inch width strips and I pulled out blue ones to make a Kaleidoscope quilt. I had to dig into some of my blue scrap chunks in order to make 35 blocks that finish at 11 inches.  Now I have finished piecing all 35 blocks and have a complete block set I will put aside in my SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin. I will make the top some day in the future. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 ***

I had a nice visit with my siblings for a couple of hours Sun. - Wed. last week. We drove over to the campsite where my brother and wife from TN were staying. My sister from CA and brother from FL flew in and stayed in a cabin at the campground along with my sister who lives near here. Hubby John is not well so a couple of hours each day was all he could tolerate away from home.  It was nice to have a get together just for fun. We missed my brother-in-law who passed away a couple of years ago but he was with us in memories and spirit along with several others. My brothers are retired chefs so we had lots of good food and played several rounds of the dice game Farkle and card game 99. My brother has a Blackstone griddle. I really liked it and now think I may need to buy a small one. 

Speaking of food...I've been eating peas, snow peas, strawberries and onions from the garden. I think I can make one final harvest of lettuce but the temps are getting to warm for it. Made garlic scape pesto because someone made a comment on my last post about it and it sounded good. It is. I used it in stir fry of snow peas and onions and chicken breast. I could probably dig up a few potatoes but like to leave them in the ground as long as possible.  I might have some broccoli to harvest soon. 

The heat index was over 100 degrees yesterday and I think will continue through Monday or so. I don't have air conditioning so have been working outside in the early a.m. and just lie in front of a fan or under a ceiling fan and read most of the rest of the day. If a little breeze also blows in the window in the sewing room I sew a little. Last year I bought a couple of loose fitting house dresses like my grandma wore back in the day and I've found those cooler to wear than shorts when it is hot. 

I've finished reading a couple of books since my last post.   The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. " The bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story" of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.   After finishing that book I looked for something a little lighter to read and found a few crafty type books free with my Kindle Unlimited subscription and downloaded How to Create a Small Garden Sanctuary: Transform Small Gardens with Water, Petals & Wild Ideas. No Experience Necessary by RC Brook. I didn't really learn anything new; however, it was a nice pleasant read. It would be a nice gift for a beginning gardener. 

Greens and Blues

Intersections

11 inch blocks

Tutorial at Film in the Fridge

I recently received some baggies of 8 and 9 inch squares. I had accumulated a few to add to those as well as some 8.5 inch squares. I will be using only the green and blue 8, 8.5 and 9 inch squares to make blocks and using scrap chunks in those colors to cut pieces for the center cross.   I plan to make 35 blocks for a quilt 55 x 77.  I'm using different measurements for the rounds (see tutorial) so I don't have to worry about matching up seams in blocks when I go to assemble them. 

Kaleidoscope Blocks

11 inch

For a quilt of 35 blocks in all greens.

Kaleidoscope Blocks

11 inch

For a quilt of 35 blocks in all bues.

I was recently given a bin of 6 inch strips. I pulled out all the blues and greens to make blocks and will also use blue and green scrap chunks since I have them out already for the Intersections quilt.

Making comfort quilts one scrap at time.

And sew on...

Finished OR NOT FINISHED Friday at Alycia Quilts

***

I finished reading the medical thriller The Boomerang by Robert Bailey. A cure for cancer exists but the government wants to keep it secret. 

The Peonies are in bloom. These are old ones I've separated several times and planted in different spots. I see so many fancy ones in the nursery catalogs these days. These remind me of the ones that were in the side yard between our house and the neighbor's house growing up. 

 

In The Pink Part II

Pink is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for May.  So this week I made...

Wonky Windmills

8 inch

(These are made with a "stack and whack" method. A couple of the Hello Kitty blocks are really wonky because I didn't want to whack through too many of Kitty's heads.)

Floral in Floral Happy Blocks

8.5 inch

Kaleidoscope (yellow backgrounds)

8 inch

Flower with floral background.

8 inch

(Cut off corners were turned into Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs)). 

Broken Dishes

8 inch

(I have been slowly clearing out a 14 quart bin of different four inch blocks. The HSTs were already made long ago. I just put them together into blocks to add to collections of blocks I have going - Broken Dishes with neutrals and Broken Dishes of two different colors. )

Cheerios

10 inch

This is a new start. It uses 4.5 and 2.5 inch scraps. 

16 Patch

6 inch

(New start)

All blocks will have alternating greens because I have a LOT of green scraps. 

Bow Ties

3 inch

I have been working on these for a long time. I think I have over 700 of them but am working toward a goal of 900 for a large quilt. Maybe by the end of this year I will make an effort to just make a whole bunch of them at one time to meet my goal so I can cross Bow Ties off my list of RSC Makes. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

****

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

April 10 -- I noticed a Lone Star tick on my leg before it had a chance to bite me. That may not sound like much of a reason to celebrate but I did. We had a lot of rain off an on for a few days. I had gone outside and walked around for a few minutes to see if it was too wet to work in the gardens. It was. When I came back inside and sat down at the computer I felt what I thought was a spider crawling on me down by my ankle in my pant leg.  When I found the creepy crawly  and I looked at it I noticed it was not a spider but a tick and it got away from me crawling farther up into my pants. Ewwwwww! Well...I immediately pulled off my pants and shook them out but could see no sign of pesky tick. Then I went and got the broom and dust pan and swept and swept and swept the wood floor until I found pesky tick in the dust in my dust pan. That Lone Star tick no longer exists. 

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) Blocks

Wonky Windmills 

8 inch finished

I've found the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) to be a fun way to use up scraps over the years. It's always fun to hear what color scraps to work with each month and then go see what scraps I have in those colors. Then I make blocks. Usually I have a block or two going for each size scrap I encounter.  Sometimes I make a block for a couple of years and most of the time the blocks end up in quilts for donation. 

This month's color is yellow. Last month's color was purple. Since I spent most of March finishing up 31 donation quilts I didn't get all of my purple blocks made so worked on them this month too. Also, when I process scraps I might leave a little pile of a certain size scrap by my cutting mat to be made into blocks when I make my RSC blocks.  So this week is a catch all of RSC blocks in mostly yellow but a few other colors too. 

Wonky Windmills

8 inch finished

gray backgrounds

Flowers

(aka Violet block)

8 inch finished

all floral scraps

Kaleidoscope Blocks

8 inch finished

yellow backgrounds and corners

Monkey Wrench

5 inch finished

Windmills

4 inch finished

Indian Hatchet

4 inch finished

Happy Blocks

8.5 inch finished

(5 inch small animal print centers and 2.5 inch solid/tone on tone (tot) frames)

Happy Blocks

8.5 inch finished

(5 inch floral centers and 2.5 inch floral frames in same color)

Happy Blocks

8.5 inch finished

(TOT centers and 2.5 inch rainbow frames)

Wondering what the color will be for May...

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

****

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

April 24 - Beautiful weather! New things sprouting up and blooming in the gardens every day.

April 25 - Beautiful weather! Finally finished clearing out all the wild elderberry and honeysuckle in a patch near the house. 

April 26 - First time in about ten days I did not experience severe arthritis pain in my foot. 

 

Red Scraps Chapter II

Wonky Windmills

Gray backgrounds

8 inch finished

This week I used some 4.5 inch scraps to make some Wonky Windmills and...

...Kaleidoscope Blocks

Yellow backgrounds

8 inches finished

Boo Boo Patch (18 Patch)

3 x 6 finished

Made from 1.5 inch scraps

Named Boo Boo Patch because when I first started makinng the blocks I meant to make them out of 1.5 x 2.5 inch pieces but miscalculated the strip size needed so ended up with 1.5 x 1.5 inch pieces instead and went with that.   It's all good because most of the time when I have 1.5 inch width scraps they aren't long enough to make the 18 Patch as I originally intended. 

I also used some red scraps to make Clue #4 of the Stars Like Spaghetti Patriotic Mystery hosted by Alycia of Alycia Quilts. 

My clue #1

My clues #2 and #3

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Green Scraps Chapter II

Wonky Windmills

8 inch

Last week I dug into the green scrap bag and worked with all of the 1.5 inch scraps I found. This week I worked with the 4.5 inch green scraps I found. I started making Wonky Windmills last year. I'm using gray scraps as the background for these blocks. I'm using a stack and slash method to make the Wonky Windmills from 4.5 x 5 inch scraps. I'll make them from scraps all this year and toward year end I'll see how many blocks I have and how many donation quilts I can make. 

Flowers

8 inch

The green scraps I used in these came from a little box of floral scraps I've been using to make these Flower blocks. I'm aiming for a twin sized donation quilt. I've also been making these since last year. 

Kaleidoscope Blocks

8 inches

I made the two red Kaleidoscope blocks last year from scraps I had laying around my cutting mat. That was to remind me to add this block to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) roundup.  The green 4.5 inch scraps came out of the green scrap bag.  I'm using yellow scraps for the alternate and corner pieces in all blocks. Again these blocks will go into a donation quilt. 

Claudia's Scrapbuster

9.5 inch

These blocks are made with 4 inch, 2 inch and 2.5 inch pieces. I started making them last October to use a baggie of 4 inch squares as well as a little box of 4 inch width scraps that I seem to have accumulated mostly because I never really have made many blocks that use 4 inch pieces. I usually have a block going for most every size scrap I encounter. 

The tutorial for the block is found at Create With Claudia. 

I'm just going to make blocks each month in the RSC color of the month until that baggie and box of 4 inch scraps is used up and then decide what to do with the blocks.  For now it's all about using scraps and making blocks and enjoying the process! 

And sew on....

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

******

CELEBRATE!! (my word of the year)

Jan. 12 - Tyler Daniel, 8 lb. 3 oz., was born to my niece Katrina and her husband! They live in a distant  and warmer land called California so I just have pictures of Tyler to cuddle. 

Jan. 13 - Today is my oldest son's 50th birthday! (And I thought I was 50 until I realized mom and son can't both be the same age). 

 

Kaleidoscope of Strings Finish!

Kaleidoscope of Strings

It's a finish!

60 x 80

Last year I emptied a big box of strings and made several different string quilt tops. 

This top was finished back in October 2021.

I've made quite a few different Kaleidoscope quilts but had never made one with strings oriented lengthwise in the wedges. I used red for the background and all block corners were blues and yellows. I tried to keep with polka dots for the corners but when those ran out I added a few stripes. 

I quilted it on my DSM (Brother PQ1500SL) with swirls in a yellow and red variegated thread.  I made a scrappy binding of blues and yellows. 

If there's a next time I'll have to remember not to use strings the same color of the background! 

It's amazing that a big old pile of strings can play so nicely together in a quilt. I do not cut fabrics specifically for a string quilt. Strings around here just happen - quilt back trimmings, fabric ends, wonky cuts, odd widths given to me and so on. When my box is overflowing I get to work and make a few quilts. That's always a fun task for me. 

This will go into the donation/gift quilt pile.  When the granddaughters were younger I would get a pile of six twin/throw sized donation quilts and let them decide on four quilts to donate and they each then could pick one to keep in their "hope chest" for when they set up households. Now one granddaughter is deceased and the other has moved away and I don't see her or my grandson very often. I'm thinking this would have been a "hope chest" choice for one of them who liked Kaleidoscopes as much as I do.

The back.

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More