Almost Everything Is Coming Up Roses

 Back in November I mentioned I was going to work with my rose themed scraps. I divided up the scraps into a bin of pastels and a bin of darks. I have now completed 120 six inch blocks which is enough for a nice quilt with a 10 x 12 layout. I tried to use the scraps without cutting into them too much and to just make blocks with straight edges and very little if any waste.  

I probably won't get around to assembling a top until next month so I've added it to my big box of complete block sets and have now moved on to the dark rose colored scraps and different blocks. Maybe in January I'll have an assembly marathon and then in February I'll have a quilting marathon. Maybe...

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Rose Petals

This is the front of "Rose Petals" so far. 

I hurt my hand quilting "underneath finger" so set hand quilting aside for a bit to work on my Rose Petals. I now have 143 blocks all joined together like granny squares in an 11 x 13 layout. 

I started making this back in September 2019 as a way to use up 4.5 inch rose themed scraps as well as a variety of different shades of pink #10 crochet cotton.  To make the squares I first sewed  all the way around two 4.5 inch squares right sides together leaving an opening for turning. I turned right side out and blind stitched the opening closed. I then blanket stitched around the outside of edges of the square and then crocheted a simple shell stitch edging around the block with a size 7 crochet hook. Then I randomly joined squares together with a single crochet. 

I did use up most of those 4.5 rose themed scraps and I used up all of the pink partial spools of crochet cotton I had on hand and had to order more. 

 This is the back. 

I should have woven in my ends as I joined together blocks but I didn't. So now I am in the process (ugh, such a chore) of weaving in loose ends at each block intersection now that I've found my yarn needle.  After that is finished I will crochet a border all around it. 

My husband usually doesn't say too much about the things I make although sometimes he does get a chuckle. When he saw me working on this in the evenings he asked if it was for him. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

There's Geese in the Roses!

Geese in the Roses

60 x 69

It's a flimsy! 

I have been working on two different Rose quilts made from scraps; however, I also felt like digging into the yardage to make more scraps. So this quilt top happened before the two scrap quilts happened. 

I have to say my inspiration was a Flying Geese quilt at Stitched in Color.  I found it while researching different Flying Geese quilts. I kept a picture of her quilt in front of me while I was making my Flying Geese. That way I didn't have to decide a layout later on, didn't have to think too much, could just sew, knew the number of Flying Geese required, and no design wall/floor and constant arranging and rearranging of Flying Geese required. 

I do love roses. 

 Yes, I do love roses. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

'30s Thursday

Little Wonky Baskets and Hollow Nines

in '30s reproduction fabrics.

58 x 72

It's a flimsy!

You know how one thing leads to another. Well, once upon a time (back in May) I made a Churn Dash quilt top from '30s repro yardage.  Then with leftover 5 inch scraps from making Churn Dashes  and some 2. 5 inch scraps left from other projects I made an Indian Hatchet (Ribbon Candy) top in October.  

Then the cutoff corners (waste triangles) from making those Indian Hatchets led me to make some Little Wonky Baskets that finish at 4. 5inches. I used muslin bits and pieces for the background because muslin (and Kona Snow) seems to go with '30s fabrics. Then I thought the Little Wonky Baskets looked kind of plain all by themselves so I used some 2 inch 30s repro scraps and muslin to make Hollow Nines as an alternate block for this quilt top. 

And now I still have some leftover cutoff corners I will turn into little Dinky Wonky Hourglasses. 

My next task will be to evaluate any UFOs in pieces I have made with '30s reproduction fabrics and decide what I need to do with each of those UFOs. 

 

Little Wonky Stars Top II

Little Wonky Stars

It's a flimsy!

40.5 x 54

A few weeks ago I pulled out a package of Little Wonky Stars I had been making off and on for years using waste triangles for points. I divided the Stars into two piles - one with white/WOW backgrounds and "the rest".  I made a top with "the rest" a few weeks ago.  

I had to make more Little Wonky Stars with a white background to have enough for the quilt I had in mind for them. I scrounged up enough WOW (white on white) bits and pieces to make more Stars. And then I turned the Stars into Double 9 Patches.  The WOWS look like they have yellowed with age. They are actually pretty old fabrics and the last of most of them but they are really WOWs and not OYOOYs (old yellows on old yellows). 

I think that's a lot of white for a comfort quilt for where I usually donate little quilts so when finished it will probably go into the baby gift pile. 

 

Blues Busters

 And just like that I now have 120 Economy Blocks ready to be assembled into a top.  This started as a project to use some little nine patches that have been around for awhile and to use lots of blue scrap chunks. It was fun to just grab and sew - no mixing and matching, no wondering if this will go with that. 

I started with 3.5 inch (unfinished) nine patches for the centers. Then I cut two three inch squares on the diagonal for the first round. Then I cut two four inch squares on the diagonal for the second round. 

I have to say this was definitely a scrap buster. I now have some smaller blue scraps left over to deal with. But in an attempt to use scraps as I go I did cut 3 inch and 4 inch squares from some of the leftovers and I sewed together pieces less than a 3 or 4 inch square into strips for a Chinese Coins quilt I see in my future. Half way into the process of making these blocks I decided to pull the darker blue TOT (tone on tone) scraps for another project. More on that later. 

It's a Finish!

It's a finish!

42 x 60

The name of the six inch blocks that make up this quilt is Hourglass. I made a few blocks back in December 2019 for Block Lotto and then I won some blocks which left me a total of 24.  It was to be my last Block Lotto win because after several years of Lotto fun December 2019 was the end of Block Lotto. 

So this year over time I made more blocks so I would have a total of 70 for a donation quilt. (I was actually going to try to make a twin sized quilt for local donation but ran out of black solids and TOTs and since I am trying to make do that determined the smaller than twin quilt size.)  I machine quilted on the diagonal and added a scrappy black/white binding. I normally hand stitch my bindings; however, the place where this will be donated requires machine stitched bindings. I have found over the years that I prefer 2.25 inch wide binding if it is going to be stitched down by machine. Otherwise I use 2.5 inch bindings and leave about 1/4 inch of the quilt sandwich around to fill in and make a puffier binding. It is rather difficult (for me) to leave that extra 1/4 inch if binding is sewn to the back and wrapped to the front to stitch down. 

I was going to use a multicolor floral on a dark gray background for the backing BUT at the last minute I decided to piece the backing. I know this will go to a teenager so decided to piece the back. I used bits and pieces of a  variety of fabrics I thought might be fun for a teenager that I had left over from other quilt backs or from making pillowcases - pizza, headphones, guitars.   I think it took me longer to piece the backing than it did to assemble the top or quilt it on my DSM but it was nice to be able to use up a lot of aging big print scrap chunks. 

This will go to a teenager via Quilts Beyond Borders for an initiative that helps teenagers aging out of foster care find permanent homes.   Now I just need to find a box for this one and three others I have on hand that might be appropriate for teens and get them mailed out and to their destination by December 31. 

My December OMG (One Monthly Goal) was to assemble at least one top from a box of block sets so this is #1 - assembled and finished. And now, even though I exceeded my December goal I still have a lot of the month left so I'm going to see how many of those tops I can actually get assembled. 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt