Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) Round 3

The prompt for round #3 of the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is Triangles. 

My triangles are in the 20 - 6 inch (finished) Sawtooth Stars I made for this round. 

My quilt now is a 36.5 inch square.  I believe there are 3 more rounds to go. 

After I added the Stars around I thought maybe I should have added a coping border first but I didn't so I quickly quit thinking. 

I guess this quilt wants to be all blue and white. I didn't have enough of any blue or tiny blue flowers on white fabrics so I used a couple of chunks of each to make the Stars. Who knows what I will come up with to use in the next rounds but surely I will be able to be creative and make do. 

And sew on...

SAHRR Linky for Round 3

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb. 4 - Wish I had a picture. The sunrise brought with it an oh so beautiful golden hour glow. What a way to start the day!  

 Also the last few days I've been celebrating Winter Sowing. You can Google to find more info on winter sowing. I've been doing it for years.  So far I've sown seeds of several different Larkspurs and Delphiniums, Love Lies Bleeding, Forget-Me-Nots, Verbena Hostata, Cowslip, Wild Primrose, Sea Holly, Snapdragons, a couple of different columbines, a couple of different Foxgloves, Butterfly Weed, Rattlesnake Master, Hoary Vervain, Borage and Jacob's Ladder.  I will probably post more about this in some future Wednesday Wandering posts.  If my packet has a lot of seeds I sow in milk jugs otherwise I sow in 4 inch pots.  I still have a lot more winter sowing to do. I'm looking forward to that early Spring the groundhog predicted! And I hope the groundhog I've been battling around here for a couple of years takes a long long long winter's nap!

Feb. 5 -  I received a lovely package from a friend that had some of the finest homespuns I've ever seen as well as a couple of potholders, lotion and herbal tea sampler.  I am blessed to know so many wonderful generous people.  Those homespuns will make a nice comfort quilt. I'm thinking of making one like the Dandy Quilt I made for my husband's friend. 

Bramble Blooms

The latest prompt for the Bramble Blooms Quilt Along (QAL) is "Add a border with repeat applique motifs to your centerpiece, with quarter-triangle style cornerstone blocks."

My repeat applique motif is a butterfly. For my QST style cornerstones I divided up the cornerstones into four quarters with four appliqued flower petals using one of the templates I made for the smallest Coneflower in the center block. 

When we started this QAL we were to pull several piles of fabrics because for this QAL we will be making 3 improv quilts.  All three of my piles have the same orange and lime green piles of scrap chunks. This quilt has saturated purples added in.  So those are the colors I'm working with.  Pretty wild...yes, I know. 

My borders are 6 inch finished.  Like I mentioned previously...I used a flower petal from my small coneflower for my template for the four petaled needleturn appliqued "QST flowers". 

I made a butterfly template and traced around it on the back side of a  piece of  light (not fusible) interfacing I had on hand.  Then I put the right sides of a lime green scrap and the interfacing together and sewed around the traced line. I then trimmed around the sewn line and clipped curves then cut a small slit in the interfacing and turned the butterfly right side out - a butterfly emerging from it's coccoon!  Ok. So that might seem like a lot of work for 20 little butterflies but I think for me that was a lot easier than trying to needleturn applique around all those curves on the little butterflies. I don't see all that well and my fingers aren't as nimble as they used to be. 

So then I did a blanket stitch around the butterflies with two strands of a variegated embroidery thread that was purple and lime green. I found my milliner's (straw) needles so I could make a long bullion stitch for the butterfly bodies. I can't believe I actually remembered how to do a bullion stitch! So anyway...it is best to use a milliner's needle for long bullions because those needles are a little longer than embroidery needles and the eye and shaft are the same size (no bulge at eye) so that makes it easier to pull the needle through the bullion wraps.  I used perle #12 for the thread and was able to get 42 wraps. I wish I had used a thicker thread so the bodies (bullions) were a little fatter or been able to get a few more wraps so bodies were a little longer but I will just quit wishing and be satisfied with my end result.  Oh, and then I added some antennae with black perle #12 backstitches. 

And now I am ready for the next round. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 3 - Yesterday I went out to put outgoing mail in my mailbox and what was in my breezeway but - SURPRISE! - a roll of batting. I have no idea who to thank for that big surprise. That almost brought tears to my eyes. I have so many mostly comfort quilt tops that need quilting but I'm usually always short on batting. This surprise roll came at a very good time. The roll I've been working with is getting low and I've been looking for a good sale for a couple of weeks.  THANK YOU, anonymous donor(s)!  There was no info on who sent this with the batting and unless I'm getting very forgetful I know I didn't order it.   Now I guess I need to get some quilts finished!  My mantra for donation quilts this year is "44 (or more) in '24"! 

 

Red Scraps Chapter I

Overlapped Nine Patch

7.5 inch finished

All of the Rainbow Scrap Challege (RSC) blocks this week use 3.5 and 2 inch red scraps. When I make these blocks I cut strips in those sizes off of a scrap chunk.  

The Overlapped Nine Patch block also needs a 2 inch solid strip.  I've been making these off and on since around June 2022.  The block instructions are courtesy of Lynn at Klein Meisje Quilts. 

Dalarna

6 inch blocks

These blocks also include a solid. I've also been making these off and on since 2022. 

A quilt called Dalarna can be found in an issue of Quiltmania (Issue 68, 2008, #4) and was made by Mariet Soethout-Mous.  Her quilt was inspired by a child's quilt found in Asa Wettre's book Old Swedish Quilts. Now I've been inspired by Mariet's Dalarna to make my own version of an Old Swedish Quilt. 

Hummingbird Blocks

9 inch finished

The red scraps are combined with a brown/beige/taupe/cream scrap and all will have muslin backgrounds.  I was inspired by a vintage quilt to make a Hummingbird (aka Periwinkle aka Arkansas Snowflake) quilt. 

So I was able to spread a 3.5 inch width scrap and 2 inch width scrap across three different blocks. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb. 2 - I celebrated twice. I woke up at about 1:30 a.m. to get a drink of water. The sky was full of stars and a big beautiful half (or last quarter) moon.    Then later in the day a surprise box of scraps arrived at my door.  It took me about an hour to touch and sort each piece last night. Oh joy! There was even a piece of fabric with words like CELEBRATE.  The little pile of red scraps will probably show up in blocks later this month. 

 

Stars Like Spaghetti Patriotic Mystery Clues #2 and #3

Clue #2 of Stars Like Spaghetti Patriotic Mystery 

by Alycia at Alycia Quilts.

Clue #3 of Stars Like Spaghetti Patriotic Mystery

by Alycia at Alycia Quilts 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Jan. 31 - My youngest brother has been battling prostate cancer with bone metastases. At his Jan. 31 doctor appointment the doctor said there were no signs of cancer and that his psa level was good. Wonderful news!  Hopefully that is true. I live in Iowa and my brother lives in Florida and he doesn't always tell his siblings or daughter the truth about his health. 

Feb. 1 - Today the sky at sunrise was a beautiful pink and blue. 

 

Cool Colors. Warm Quilt.

It's a finish!

58 x 72

This started with a junior jelly roll someone gave me. I don't buy precuts so I had never heard of JUNIOR jelly rolls. Those only have 20 strips, not 40. So I added in some blue strips from the blue scrap bag. 

I finished the top back in June 2022. 

I quilted it on my DSM (Brother PQ1500) with some white swirls. 

Before I quilted it I should have read my June 2022 post where I mentioned I had a block turned the wrong way. It would have been an easy fix. But I didn't and so it goes.

The back is solid blue and the binding is a blue and white stripe. 

And now it is ready for donation.

"Blues and Browns" has been the theme this month in my sewing space to move UFOs forward.  In February my theme is "Free Range" -- I'll allow myself to range with freedom through the sewing space and work on any UFOs that suit my fancy. 

And sew on...

CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Jan. 30 - Melting snow.We had some deep snow and drifts. Melting snow. That's cause for celebration!  I could make it out the backdoor and take a picture of my finished quilt hanging on the clothesline. While I was out I was also able to walk back to the gardens. I was pleasantly surprised that no trees have fallen this year in any of my garden areas.  I have a veg garden, cutting garden, herb garden, cottage garden and native wildflower garden.  I was not celebrating when I saw all the deer poop everywhere and damage to plants. 😢

 

Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) Round 2

The round 2 prompt for the SAHRR is "using only 2 colors do whatever you want".

I used blue and white as my 2 colors and added a border of 2.5 x 4.5 (unfinished) Flying Geese.  After round 2 my block is a 24.5 inch square. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Jan. 29 - Celebrating a good book and good author - I finished the second book of the Cullen's Celtic Cabaret series - A Beautiful Ferocity by Jean Grainger.  I started reading the third book in the series - Rivers of Wrath.  I've read a number of different books by Jean Grainger and liked them all. 

 

And Then There Were Twelve

I have all twelve of my Stars finished and ready for the pink background to be added.  The quilt is from the book Scrappy Firework Quilts by Edyta Sitar and she calls it Bluberry Farm. I'm calling mine Peace Patch. 

Whew! It was close on that brown batik fabric with peace signs! I had less than the pattern called for and so thought I might have to piece together some of the scraps. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Jan. 28 -Celebrating scraps! The postman dropped off a medium flat rate box Saturday evening. On Sunday most of the box was processed. Some scraps went into project bags and boxes and some went into scrap bags kept by color. I love scraps! I also love quilty friends with scraps! And I do have a few quilty friends I love that send backing pieces once in awhile too.  Yes, celebrating scraps and friends with scraps and scrappy comfort quilts!  I get by with a little help from my friends.