It's A Flimsy! Hole in the Barn Door

Hole In The Barn Door

40 x 60

It's a top!

Blue is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. At the beginning of the month I dug into my blue scraps and found a junior jelly roll (20 - 2.5 inch lengths) of icy blues someone had given me.  I decided to dig into my winter/Christmas fabrics and scraps to add more strips to that junior jelly roll. Most of the fabrics I chose were blues with snowflakes.  With those I made a really cool top. 

After that I decided that those chunks of blue with snowflakes were too small to put back into the winter/Christmas fabric box.  I figured I should just add them to my box of blue scraps instead. Or making something with them. But what?  And then the Stasbusters group  came up with the idea to have a Churn Dash Challenge in memory of a group member who has passed away. Churn Dash was her favorite block.   So....how about Churn Dash blocks.   But which Churn Dash pattern? How big of a quilt can I make?  Then I remembered seeing some snowmen fabrics along with the snowflakes in the Christmas/winter box. So, I found enough snowmen on white backgrounds and a few other scraps with winter scenes someone gave me. So...

I found a few white on white (WOW) fabrics with circles (snowballs), snowflakes, etc. 

So...It's snowing. There's lots of blue barns out there. And I see snowmen and snow scenes through the Hole(s) in the Barn Door(s). 

I made 12 inch (finished) blocks - 6.5 inch centers, 3.5 inch HSTs and 2 x 6.5 inch sides. 

This is usually more white than I use in a donation quilt for kids but so it goes. Kids play in dirty snow too.  I usually make kid's quilts 40 x 60 so I made 15 blocks. Columns of 5 blocks made my 60 inch length. I added two 2.5 inch strips between columns to get to my 40 inch width. I didn't have any WOW left for the strips but I did have a gray and white kind of sparkly fabric that looked kind of like hoarfrost ( a grayish-white crystalline deposit of frozen water vapor formed in clear still weather on vegetation, fences, etc) so that was used for the strips. Voila! 

Hole in the Barn Door

And sew it goes...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

Blue Scraps Part II

Six inch (finished) Buekeye Beauty blocks.

I've been making these for a couple of years and this month I finally met my goal of 120 blocks for a 10 x 12 block layout and a quilt 60 x 72. 

I've been using shirts I picked up from the thrift store over 5 years ago as well as scraps in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month as well as dark multicolor scraps.  This is one of many blocks I picked out several years ago that uses 3.5 and 2 inch pieces. 

I then cleaned most of the 3.5 inch scraps left over from making Buckeye Beauty blocks for years and some blue 3.5 inch scraps and made these 8 Patch blocks.  I have a big pile of them and at year end they will go into making donation quilts.   I like this block because it uses 3.5 or 2.5 inch width scraps and if I have lengths of those widths left over from making a quilt I can easily cut and make a few of these blocks when cleaning up leftovers. 

I also started a new block this week that uses 3.5 and 2 inch scraps. I made these to use up more of those Buckeye Beauty scraps as well as a few blue scraps I had in both 3.5 and 2 inch width scraps.  Not sure of the name of it but I have added it now to my list of RSC blocks and will be combining the RSC color of the month with a solid to make these blocks. 

The block is from an issue of Quiltmania (Issue 68, 2008, #4).  I'm  not making the block per the instructions and my block size is 6 inches. I guess I like looking at pictures. 

Overlapping Nine Patch

(7.5 inch finished)

And still cleaning up all those Buckeye Beauty scraps (3.5 plus 2 inch pieces) plus some blues, I made these blocks. Lynn at Klein Meisje Quilts recently posted instructions for making these blocks.  Might as well make them along with the Quiltmania blocks while I have the solids out. 

And since I use the Easy Angle and Easy Angle Companion ruler to cut pieces for that Quiltmania block I had some extra pieces to make into HSTs. I'll decide what to do with those later but I think I see some cute little Broken Dishes might be in the cards for those 2 inch HSTs. 

And back to some of the remaining Buckey Beauty 2 inch scraps that needed to be cleaned up...I added a few 3 inch (finished) Bow Ties to my collection. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

It's A Finish!

18 Patches in Blue

48  x 60

It's a finish!

Late last year I took a little pile of blue butterfly and rose scraps and made some 18 patches.  And then I made a top.

Now the top has been quilted on my DSM with some 3 petaled flowers. I used a blue variegated thread. 

There was just enough of the old floral stripe for the back. And the binding came out of that blue scrap pile. I set it aside when I made the top. 

And sew it goes...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Note: Normally when you comment it gets sent to my email and then I reply to you from there if your email address is listed in order to reply.  Well, anyway, I happened to notice yesterday that somewhere along the line comments were not coming to my email anymore. My blog setting were evidently reset and not by me. I worked on it for an hour last night and now I think all is back to normal.  Just know I do appreciate your visit and comments but if I don't reply to a comment made in the last couple of days I do apologize. 

 

Wednesday Wandering

Seems like there should be more hours in a day this time of year.  I do love working outside in the gardens.   Seems like there's something new to see every day. But before you know it some flowers have come and gone before I've had time to take a photo. 

Herbaceous peonies are in bloom. Seems like the flowers are smaller this year. Maybe it is because we have not had much rain. 

I've had my peonies for a long time.  I have white ones...

...some with a light pink blush...

...some light pink ones...

...and some dark pink ones.  These I transplanted in a corner of the veggie garden about 6 years ago or so. I thought someday I would have an entire floral fence around the veggie garden but this is about as far as I got.   And I always think someday I'll get those round wire supports they have for peonies but I don't. I guess there's still a bunch of somedays to come. 

The Martagon (Turk's Cap) Lily blooms are starting to open up. It's difficult to get a photo since they are in shade most of the day. 

Some roses are starting to bud and open.  I am always glad to see roses.  The last several years the rabbits and deer have severely pruned my rose canes.  Then if I do get roses they open in time for the Japanese beetles to devour. Most of my roses are old fashioned or heirloom varieties and are scented. 

A long time ago a Wild Rose popped up back near the barn and I just let it grow there.  It's a big bush now and when in bloom it smells fantastic. Normally I pull out wild roses because they can be invasive. 

This one I transplanted about a month ago to this sunnier spot. I guess it is happy now.  Even though it is very short it has a bud.  

This white rose has had lots of flowers on it along some arching canes. I've enjoyed the scent and beauty every day when I walk along the garden path. But now that I've decided to take a photo there is only this rose open. 

Speaking of scents...I love Dianthus (Carnations, Pinks, Sweet William). Most have a scent.  I like to tuck them here, there and everywhere. I've grown all of my different perennials from seed. 

I almost harvested those golden oyster mushrooms on a log back near the barbed wire fence but then I spotted..."leaves of three let them be"...poison ivy! 

It has been so dry I wonder if that is why the Foxglove see to be shorter and have smaller flowers this year.  This patch is biennial foxglove but it reseeds itself so I usually have some plants there every year. 

This yellow Foxglove is a perennial.   And I have been spying bindweed in several of this week's photos. Yes, I'm behind on weeding the flower garden because most of my time has been spent the last few weeks getting the veggie garden planted as well as potting up most of my perennials I started this year. I want to keep them in little pots on the deck for awhile before I plant them into the gardens. Most of those are native wildflowers. 

I did harvest some strawberries a couple of days in a row and then I think a deer, squirrel or raccoon harvested some as they trampled through my strawberry patch. (I forgot to stick plastic forks here and there throughout the patch which seemed to stop them last year.  I still see some green strawberries so hopefully I'll beat the varmints to them when they ripen. 

And so it grows...

 

What's In The Hoop?

What's in my new 17 inch square hoop? 

Skimpy Scrimption Stars

(scrimption = small portion, little bit, scrap, pittance)

I'm big stitch hand quilting with yellow and red perle #12. 

And I have a new 17 inch square hoop. 

Both my round wooden and 14 inch square hoops cracked after all these years so time for a new one.  

Inspired by a c 1880 vintage quilt I saw online at Mingei International Museum in the Pat L Nickols collection.  Usually if I'm inspired by a vintage quilt I like to hand quilt my version too. 

These are 12 inch blocks. 

I used the String Star tutorial at Coriander Quilts.

I used selvages for my strings.

Started in December 2018.

Top finished August 2020.

Quilt is 60 x 84

It's fun to read some of the selvages as I quilt. And sometimes fun things show up in some of those scrimptions. 

And sew it goes...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

Blue Scraps Part I

Blue, bright and dark, is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for June. I'm going to use all blues. I have a lot of blue scraps. The first thing I did was sort them by size.  This week I used pieces that were 5 to 5.5 inches or so in width. 

If they were long enough for a 5 x 9.5 inch piece then that's what I cut to make these Horizon Blocks. 

Sometimes other colors sneak into the mix. I will make these blocks from scraps until year end and then see how many donation quilts I can make with them. 

I'm making two different sizes of Square in Square blocks (Chips) and this is the bigger size made with 5 inch squares and 2.75 squares in the corners.  I am using white on black with the RSC color of the month in jewel tones and have been making them for a couple of years now.  I trim the corners and make QSTs.  Not sure what will become of those but I have quite a collection of them and there might be enough for a small quilt when all is said and done. Or they might make a fun sashing for something. Time will tell. 

Any 5 inch pieces that aren't long enough for Horizon blocks but longer than a square will be cut in half lengthwise and added to the 2.5 inch width scraps and will be made into other blocks when it comes time for me to use 2.5 inch width scraps. 

The pieces that were shorter but at least a square's worth got cut into squares. I have a bin with all different sizes of squares where they are stored until I decide to make something with them. 

Any 5 inch piece less than a square was sewn into strips for a Chinese Coin quilt. That box of coins is overflowing because I've been adding to it for years so maybe I should make that Chinese Coins sooner rather than later. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

A Really Cool Flimsy

A Really Cool Flimsy! 

58 x 72

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC)  color of the month is blue - bright and dark- but I'm going to use all my shades of blue.   I dug into the blue box of scraps to sort them all out and found what I thought was a jelly roll someone had given me a few months ago. Well, it had only 20 and not 40 strips in it and after a little research I found out there are such things as junior jelly rolls.  ( I don't buy precuts). So I rounded  up 20 more of my own cool fabric bits and pieces to make this easy quilt top. 

    I mostly did strip piecing (5 width of fabric sewn together lengthwise and cut into 10.5 inch blocks) but some of the fabrics I added in were not long enough so some fabrics were cut into 10.5 inch lengths and sewn together for blocks. I don't usually like to strip piece or make fast and easy quilts  but that junior jelly roll was just begging to be used immediately.  And it will make a really cool donation quilt someday when I get it finished.

I had two different pieces of big print blues I've never figured out how to use so they became the side setting triangles. 

And it wasn't until I looked at this picture that I noticed a block orientation mistake. Oops!

And sew it goes...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts