Cheerios and Stars

Cheerios

10 inch 

Made with 4.5 inch and 2.5 inch scraps

I've been making these blocks from scraps since 2024. It has been one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects. I think near the end of 2025 I divided up the blocks I had made into 4 comfort quilts. I have finished and already donated the two child sized quilts - a green one and a red and yellow one. I have a complete block set of blue, pink and purple blocks that needs to be assembled into a top. And finally I have this one - yellow, orange and brown.  I need a few more blocks for a 50 x 70 inch quilt.

Wonky Stars

10.5 inch

Made with 4 inch squares and 3 inch squares cut on diagonals. 

Scraps from the 4 inch width and 3 inch width scrap boxes I am trying to empty.

If you follow my blog you know I have been working to empty a box of 4 inch width scraps and have made several tops so far.  I now have completed 29 Wonky Stars from the box of 4 inch width scraps and that's all of the scraps in that box that are long enough to make Wonky Stars. From now on I am going to make the Stars from scrap chunks in the RSC color of the month. And then at some future date I will divide the blocks up into different comfort quilts. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

Wonky Stars

Wonky Stars

I've also seen them called No Point Stars and Hollow Stars,

10.5 inch finished

The plan is to use the scraps long enough in the 4 inch width scrap box and then use scrap chunks. I will just make and make and make until I am tired of making them and then divide them up into stacks for comfort quilts. 

I have a few other plans to empty out the 4 inch width scrap box. More on that later.

And sew on...

***

John has a visit with presurgical clinic on Friday May 8 and after that one with the ENT doctor. We are hoping he is eligible for surgery to repair the fractured jaw and they will then set a date.   Also while we were in Iowa City at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics John had a growth removed from his nose and near his ear. Results just came back today that the nose was "squamous cell carcinoma". So now we also have to probably fit in Mohs surgery to take care of that.  It appears I might as well get used to driving an hour away to Iowa City. Thank goodness it is mostly interstate. 

***

We came home from John's hospital stay to a lot of surprise packages of fabric and scraps. Both of us had fun looking at the contents of each box. Thanks to Lorri and Teresa, Elle (2 packages) and Sherron. I hope I didn't forget to mention anyone. The last few weeks have been a blur. Yesterday I received a surprise package from Sandi, a friend of Sherron's. I am thankful!!! Sewing is one way I deal with all the latest frustration and stress. 

***

I finished three books - 

Boundary Waters and Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Kruger; books 2 and 3 in the Cork O'Connor series. "The Cork O’Connor series is a 21-book mystery saga following former Minnesota sheriff Cork O’Connor as he investigates crimes intertwined with Ojibwe culture and small-town life."

Life and Death and Giants by Ron Rindo. It was not my usual type of reading but I liked the book. "Life, and Death, and Giants is a moving story of faith, family, buried secrets, and everyday miracles."

***

I am trying to get some gardening done. We are now past the last frost date so I can plant a lot of seeds in the veg and flower gardens. It has really been cool weather and the soil temps are still around 55 degrees so I will wait a bit to plant some seeds. In the meanwhile there is always weeding. I do have lettuce and other greens, beets, onions, sugar snap peas, potatoes and broccoli growing in the veg garden. I have my hoses hooked up and need to repair one of them that has cracked open in a spot. It is so nice to see flowers pop up each day. It is a joy to be outside. 

New Starts

New start...

Wonky Stars

10.5 inch finished

Made with nine 4 inch squares and two 3 inch squares cut on the diagonal.

The plan is to first use pieces in the 3 and 4 inch width scrap boxes and then move on to scrap chunks. I decided to use 4 inch squares for the background because that can be cut from a width of 4 inch fabric with only a little piece left over.  

For now I am going to make them in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) colors of the month. At year end, until I'm tired of making them or when I have piles of them I will just see how many blocks I have and divide them up into comfort quilts. 

Wonky Shoo Fly

4.5 inch finished.

The trimmings behind the Wonky Star points and the itty bit of the 4 inch width piece that was left over from the Wonky Star background was perfect for making Wonky Shoo fly blocks. All I needed to add to the mix was nine 2 inch solid squares. 

The Wonky Shoo Fly is NOT a new start. I have a little baggie of them I made in the past. I have a lo of small pieces of solid fabrics so I am thinking I will process some of them and get ready some sets of nine 2 inch squares. 

Rail Fence

8 inch finished

Made with 1.5 inch width scraps. 

All will be made with pink plus one other color.  I noticed I have accumulated quite a few pink 1.5 inch widths of fabric (WOF). Time to use them. 35 blocks will probably make a nice little comfort quilt. 

And sew on...

 

Wonky Stars Finish

It's a finish!

Blue Wonky Stars

42 x 42

This quilt started with a little baggie full of large dark blue waste triangles someone gave me. I immediately saw Stars! They worked perfectly as Star points on 4 inch squares. I used dark blue squares from my 4 inch squares bin. I dug into the 4 inch width scrap bin and found a few scraps long enough to use for some blocks. For other blocks I cut 4 inch widths from some multicolor chunks. 

I finished the top back in November 2025.

This one has a wild and crazy backing. I quilted it with swirls on my sewing machine. And the binding is blue to match those stars. 

And sew on...

Monday Musings at Brenda's Songbird Designs

A little quilting marathon is going on here in March . Soon I will have boxes of comfort quilts to send off to two of my favorite charities that provide quilts for kids  - Wrap-A-Smile  (WAS)  and      Quilts Beyond Borders.  (QBB).

Wrap-A-Smile (WAS) partners with Rotaplast International.

 Rotaplast International, Inc. is committed to helping children and families worldwide by eliminating the burden of cleft lip and/or palate, burn scarring, and other deformities.

Quilts Beyond Border (QBB) quilts go to many different initiatives both foreign and domestic...foster care, refugees, Indian reservations, orphanages, women's recovery centers...you will just have to go read the QBB blog because I can't remember them all.

 

It's A Wonky Stars Top!

 

It's a top! 

Wonky Stars

42 x 42

Someone gave me a little baggie full of large dark blue waste triangles. I immediately saw Stars! They worked perfectly as Star points on 4 inch squares. I used dark blue squares from my 4 inch squares bin. I found a few 4 inch width scraps long enough to use for some blocks. For other blocks I cut 4 inch widths from some multicolor chunks. 

This little comfort quilt won't get finished and donated until next year. 

And sew on...

Wonky Stars II Finish

Wonky Stars II

It's a finish!

40.5 x 54

I have this written in my UFO list as top finished in 2020; however, I can't find an old blog post that mentions it.  I made little 4.5 inch finished Wonky Stars from 2 inch scraps years ago as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I made one top and had these all on white backgrounds left over so made this top adding in some 5 inch white squares.   I put it to the bottom of a quilting pile at that time because it has a lot tof white in it and a few of the places I donate children's quilts don't want a lot of white in quilts.   Well, I thought I better get it quilted before all the whites start to age and turn yellow. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with swirls of white. 

I pieced the back with a couple of different starry fabrics. They were meant to go together...the stars in those clouds are the same colors as the fabric with lots of stars. 

The binding is scrappy and came out of the left over binding box.

And sew on...

***

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

Read. In between fictional books I've been reading a little bit now and then of Herbal Antibiotics; What Big Pharma Doesn't Want You To Know by Mary Jones.   I was reading about cinnamon and the book mentions that many studies have shown cinnamon oil as an antibacterial that can kill MRSA and other bacteria. The book also mentions the benefits of cinnamon mixed with honey - reduce risk of heart disease, enhance immunity, reduce inflammation.   I Googled and did other reading on this to verify tthe book's claims.   Funny thing is that even before I read that chapter I had eaten honey mixed with cinnamon several times the previous week. I put it on roast butternut squash - the last one from the garden. I made baked apple slices mixed with cinnamon and honey. And almost every day I eat oatmeal for breakfast and there's some cinnamon in the mix I make but no honey. But the oatmeal alone is heart healthy.

Grow.  I ordered my Patterson onion plants from Dixondale Farms. They will arrive in March. Last Fall I prepared the space in the veg garden for them since they are one of the first things planted. Several years ago I started planting onion plants instead of sets and have bigger onion that store longer. I've tried several varieties but like Patterson the best. The storage potential is 8-10 months. 

 

This And That And Then Some

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month so I have been mostly working with orange scraps but at times a few other colors of scraps snuck in. 

Cheerios

10 inch blocks

I've been making these blocks from 4.5 inch and 2.5 inch scraps. At times I've had 4 squares in each size in my squares bin to use to make the blocks. 

Wonky Stars

4.5 inch

I've been making the Cheerios with "flippy corners". The cut off pieces are being used in little 4.5 inch Wonky Stars. I cut squares for the blocks from scraps when I can and kit them up with the star points to make them as leader/enders

8 Patches

8 inch 

While I was in the 2.5 inch scraps I made some of these blocks. They can also be made with 4.5 inch scraps. 

Twilight Flock

6 inches

The Flying Geese are made with 2.5 inch scraps with 1.5 inch black sides.

Windmills

4 inch

Last week I made the blocks with 1.5 inch scraps but this week I made them with 2.5 inch scraps. 

16 Patch

6 inch

Made with 2 inch width scraps. All blocks contain green plus another color. 

Coin Strips

3 inch wide made with 2 inch width scraps. 

Various lengths.

I have not been ironing these. I will iron them when I put the columns together. I have a box of them now so maybe I'll be able to make a quilt soon. 

4 Patches

3.5 inch unfinished

Each block contains black, white and one other color. I will alternate these with 3.5 inch solid squares. 

Shoofly

7.5 inch

Made with 4 inch width scraps. I have not had any blocks in process using 4 inch scraps. When sorting scraps I receive from others I've been throwing all strips this size into the box. It is now full so I am working on emptying it now. This is one of the blocks I'll be making to use those scraps. 

Broken Dishes

7 inch

Another block I'll be making with 4 inch width scraps. 

Crossroads

7 x 9

All blocks will have a brown cross with red center. The blocks will be made with 3.5 or 4.5 inch scraps.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

***

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 16 - Lyrics from a  song by Rare Earth plays in my head:

I'm using up the time but feeling fine, every day
That's why I'm telling you I just want to celebrate
Oh, yeah

I just want to celebrate another day
Oh, I just want to celebrate another day of livin'
I just want to celebrate another day of life

 

 

Two More Finishes!

Two More Finishes!

Happy Blocks with Square in Square Centers

42 x 60

The Square in Square (SIS) blocks was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project several years ago. Then the transformation of SIS blocks to Happy Blocks has been another RSC project. 

If you missed the history of the making of this quilt more info may be found on a previous blog post made when the top was assembled. 

I quilted it with vertical and horizontal lines. 

The binding matches the backing.

Wonky Stars

37.5  x 45

December 2022 I found a baggie with some Wonky Stars I made back in 2018 plus pieces and parts for more blocks.        

I finished up making the pieces and parts into stars and assembled the top in January of this year. 

And now that I have quilted it with swirls and added a multicolored binding it is finished and ready for donation. 

The backs.

A little quilting marathon has been going on here. Soon I will have boxes of comfort quilts for two of my favorite charities that provide quilts for kids  - Wrap-A-Smile  (WAS)  and      Quilts Beyond Borders.  (QBB).

Wrap-A-Smile (WAS) partners with Rotaplast International.

 Rotaplast International, Inc. is committed to helping children and families worldwide by eliminating the burden of cleft lip and/or palate, burn scarring, and other deformities.

The latest mission was in Luxor, Egypt and if would like to see quilts in action as well as read about the wonderful work done to help children and some adults then you have to read all about it at the Rotaplast website.  A few times I have been able to spot one of my quilts with a child. Oh joy! 

Quilts Beyond Border (QBB) quilts go to many different initiatives...foster care, refugees, Indian reservations, orphanages...you will just have to go read the QBB blog because I can't remember them all. 

And sew on...

 

It's A Finish! Wonky Log Cabin

Wonky Log Cabin

42 x 56

It's a finish!

For the centers I used some leftover 4.5 inch finished Wonky Star blocks with blue and green backgrounds. Those were old leftovers from making a couple of quilts with Wonky Stars. 

In April of this year the theme in my sewing room was "Strings" so I dug into my bottomless box of strings and dug out blue and green strings to make 14 inch Wonky Log Cabin blocks. 

I quilted it on my Brother DSM with swirls in lime green thread. For the binding I found enough pieces of green and blue leftover bindings in my leftover binding box. 

For a bit of extra fun and a surprise... this quilt has some glow in the dark fabric - the white sheep with blue background.  Those strings as well as quite a few other strings in this quilt were the result of skinny quilt back trimmings. 

The backing is a black and lime green polka dot. I do love polka dots in any colors. They just say "happy" to me. 

And sew on...