A Monkey Wrench Finish

 

It's a finish! 

Monkey Wrench

60 x 80

In 2022 and 2023 I made Monkey Wrench blocks in three different sizes as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects. I decided to make them in three different sizes because that covered almost every width of scrap. 

I have been able to make many different comfort quilts from all the blocks. This one consists of ten inch black blocks. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with gray thread . 

I bought a bolt of black and white daisies to use as the backing on several quilts. This is quilt #4 with that fabric. 

And sew on...

***

The weather has been so beautiful for this time of year. I have been working outside the last few days in short sleeves. There is always something to do in the gardens. I think now that it is going to get quite a bit cooler and I see some rain in the forecast so I might be forced to do a little housework.

Monkey Wrench Top

 

It's a top! 

Monkey Wrench

60 x 80

A few years ago I made Monkey Wrench blocks in three different sizes from scraps as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I have been able to make a lot of comfort quilts with them. I can't believe I am still working with these blocks. 

These are 10 inch blocks. I love brown! It is such a comforting color. 

I had enough brown blocks for a large quilt. The complete block set has been in my SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin for awhile. Since I am working with dark neutrals this month I decided to assemble the top. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! At Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Quarter Stars and Monkey Wrenches

 

I worked with some brown scraps this week because dark neutrals is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. 

I finished  80 more brown Quarter Stars. I now have met my goal of 320 Quarter Stars to make 80 whole stars. The quilt will measure 64 x 80 in an 8 x 10 layout.

I will probably start assembling Stars as a leader/ender project. 

I finished making 4 brown Monkey Wrench blocks that finish at 7.5 inches. That completes my goal of 35 blocks. 

Now I need to make more brown Hollow Nine blocks with 3 inch squares. They will be the alternate block in the quilt. 

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

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I finished a book! The Moonshiner's Daughter by Donna Everhart. It was about the effect of generational trauma, evil people and kind people on a family. Of course it was also about moonshiners. I did not expect the ending. 

***

My granddaughter let me be one of the first to know she is engaged to be married. She will be 21 years old on Halloween. They will probably wait a couple of years to be married. Gosh I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday! 

***

John's youngest sister thought she was having a stroke. She went to the ER and they found a brain tumor, transferred her to specialty facility and operated the next day which was Monday. They did some type of GPS guided surgery. She was up walking a few days later and now has been transferred back to the original hospital for care. Just before they found the brain tumor she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in lung stage 4.

***

We contract with neighbor to farm a couple of small fields we own. This year's crop is soybeans and with China not buying I am not sure there will be any money to be made. We actually don't make that much in a good year. I feel bad for farmers especially our neighbor. 

***

I shipped two boxes with a total of 16 ( I think. I kept squishing them in there) small quilts to Wrap-A-Smile. For what I think are significant cost savings on shipping I use third party software Pirateship.com. I weigh and measure box, buy label, print label and then take box to a UPS drop off. I calculate box weight by weighing myself then weighing myself holding box then I subtract the two. I need to ship more often because that is the only time I step on the bathroom scale and each time I have shipped boxes this year I have weighed a few pounds less than the previous time. 

A Little Monkey Wrench Finish

 

It's a finish!

Monkey Wrench

34 x 45

Several years ago I made Monkey Wrench blocks from scraps in three different sizes as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I was able to make a lot of comfort quilts with the blocks. Some are still in the To Be Quilted (TBQ) pile.

These 10 inch blocks were the blocks left over that didn't really fit in with any of the other quilts so I put them in the orphanage. Well, this month I have been digging through all the bits and pieces of this and that for odds and ends to use in small quilts for Wrap-A-Smile and I came upon these Monkey Wrench blocks.

I wasn't sure how to make  ice cream, Christmas ornaments, owls, zig zags, stripes and polka dots in many different colors play nicely together but finally decided maybe a bright multicolored sashings might do the trick. I also added some cornerstones and binding full of sunshine. 

I used a couple of colorful pieces on back. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! At Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Dark Neutral Goodies

 

Dark Neutral is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month so I dug into the dark neutral scraps and added blocks to some of my collections. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

A Monkey Wrench Top

 

It's a top! 

Monkey Wrenches

In black

60 x 80

In 2022 and 2023 I used scraps to make three different sizes of Monkey Wrench block. It was one of many RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) projects and I have been able to make quite a few Monkey Wrench comfort quilts. 

I had a complete set of black Monkey Wrench blocks in my SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin. I decided to assemble the top because next month I hope to quilt some tops that can use a black and white floral backing. I bought a bolt of it a few months ago so I can finish up a few larger tops.

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alicia Quilts. 

A New Top!

Monkey Wrench Top

86 x 93

5 inch blocks on point

Monkey Wrench blocks were sewn together randomly.

Several years ago one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects was making Monkey Wrench blocks from scraps in three different sizes - 5 inch, 7.5 inch and 10 inch.   

I have finished several different comfort quilts from both the 7.5 and 10 inch blocks; however, this is the only one made from 5 inch blocks. 

There sure were a lot of points to try to match up in this one. 

And how did I manage to iron, sew into rows and then sew rows together and miss that oopsie until now? 

And now I suppose it will be awhile before it gets quilted. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Oct. 6 - Finished a book! - The Huntress by Kate Quinn. Fictional story about the several people who band together to hunt for a WWII Nazi murderess. The Nazi murderess is based on two real women, one a female camp guard named Hermine Braunsteiner, the other an SS officer's wife named Erna Petri. This is the third book I have read by Kate Quinn. The other two were The Rose Code and The Alice Network.  

Oct. 7 - Hubby John had bone biopsy on Oct. 2. Results today show no cancer or dysplasia!!!!! 

Oct. 8 - My brother Kerry's 69th birthday.

 

Piece Work

Monkey Wrench

10 inch

I think the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color(s) for September are black and brown. I have several quilts that need blocks with blacks and browns.   

In 2022 and 2023 I made Monkey Wrench blocks in three different sizes from scraps for donation quilts. I've finished dozens of quilts but still have a few piles of blocks that need more blocks before I can assemble a top.   One of those piles is a pile of black 10 inch blocks for a teen quilt 60 x 80 so I need 48 blocks total for a 6 x 8 layout.  I dug into my pile of black chunks and cut what 4.5 inch pieces I could in order to make the HSTs.   I have a little box of 2.5 inch scraps already cut and had enough black scrps for the rest of the Monkey Wrench pieces. 

Now I have a complete block set. Sometimes I put complete block sets in my SAR (Some Assembly Required) box but I think I'm going to try to assemble this top in September. 

Wonky Windmill

8 inch

And since I was working with the black 4.5 inch scraps I cut pieces that were long enough for two 4.5 x 5 rectangles to make more Wonky Windmill blocks for a teen sized Wonky Windmill quilt with pink and black windmills on gray backgrounds.  My goal is 32 pink and 31 black Windmills for a 7 x 9 (56 x 63 inch) layout. 

I've been making Windmill blocks from scraps for over a year and recently divided them up into piles for 4 different quilts. I've already assembled one top. 

Shoofly

10.5 inch

Made with 4 inch width scraps.

I have a small box of 4 inch width scraps and recently started making Shoofly blocks with the scraps that are long enough.  I pulled out any black and brown pieces and matched them up with other scraps in the box. I haven't decided upon size of quilt or number of blocks yet. My goal is to first see how many blocks I end up with from that box of 4 inch scraps. 

Broken Dishes

7 inch

Also made with scraps from the 4 inch scrap box that weren't long enough to make a Shoofly block.

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday 

And sew on...

****

CELEBRATE (my word of the year)

August 30 - There was a beautiful pink glow over the land because of a glorious pink sky at sunset. Looking through rose colored glasses....

 

Monkey Wrench Finish

Monkey Wrenches

It's a finish!

45 x 60

For a couple of years I made Monkey Wrench blocks from scraps in three different sizes - 5, 7.5 and 10. After I accumulated big piles of blocks I divided them up to make several donation quilts. This one is made with 7.5 inch blocks. 

This was one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects in 2022 and 2023 so I made a few blocks in each size each month with scraps in the RSC color of the month.

I quilted it on my DSM (Brother PQ1500SL) with vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines in cream colored thread. 

The back and binding. 

And now it's ready for donation.

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 18 - I sorted a box of 3 inch width scraps into piles for different quilts. Oh, what fun! Stay turned. In September I'm going to work on those quilts and hope to empty the box. How many quilts do you think it will take to empty the box? (I'll show a pic of the box and contents in a future blog post). 

August 19 - I won $1 on my free Iowa lottery ticket for August. 

August 20 - I finished a book - The Consequence of Anna by Kate Birkin. I am not sure I really liked the book. I would probably not have finished the book if it wasn't based on a true story. I just had to see how it all ended. It seemed like such a ridiculous story to be true.  The main character, Anna, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, disassociative personality disorder and Asperger's Syndrome.   Also I'm glad I read books on my Kindle (I can enlarge print and it is backlit so I can see better to read) because it is very easy to look up words in the dictionary while reading. I can't remember any other book I have read where I had to look up more than one word if that many. I had to look up dozens of words in this book. I also did some super speedy reading through a lot of the book. It could have been a lot shorter book if you ask me.  Well, on to the next...

August 21 - beautiful weather. I've been working outside a lot and enjoying the birds, butterflies and other pollinators. I've also been weeding and cutting back lots of scrub brush and brambles. Once in awhile I stop to smell the roses (now that the deer leave them alone since I've been spraying with Bobbex and actually have some roses to smell!)