The Sewin' o' the Green

The color this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been green.  I used most of my smaller green scraps this month and moved on to my small chunks of green to make some 12 inch Dandy quilt blocks.  

Got Scraps of the color of the month?

Join us each ScrapHappy Saturday and show off what you've done with them. 

Trippin'

Trippin'

66 x 66

A quilt for my brother

A UFO finish.

The squares are 6.5 inches and from an I Spy travel themed swap I participated in several years ago. 

Colors we swapped were red, green, white/cream, blue and black.  I had to add some of my own fabrics. 

I don't know that it is evident because the squares are so big but I arranged the squares in the conventional "Trip Around the World" configuration. 

I quilted it with one big spiral (trip around the world) on my plain Jane DSM. I took Sophie's advice and made sure I rotated quilt clockwise.   It still wasn't all that easy to get the quilting done on such a large quilt but it was actually easier than I thought it would be.  

And why is the quilt for my brother?   Because I'm proud of him. 

I don't know the number of years...maybe 20 or so...but many years ago he was a cocaine addict and an alcoholic.  After he got down as low as a person can go he changed his life around and kicked both habits after many starts and many failures. 

He has been a chef in Florida at a country club for quite some time. So he gets to take a lot of vacation time off during the "slow season" - the summer months.   In the past so many (is it 20?) years he has exchanged his cocaine trippin' habit  for some world trippin' and has traveled all over the world - a lot of times to take cooking classes in the foreign countries he has traveled. 

So this quilt is to celebrate my brother's long years of sobriety. 

I hope my brother continues to have a good trip. 

Linking to:

Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Friday HSTeria

Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber is hosting a HSTeria quilt along. 

One of my HST projects has been 16 inch Depression Blocks for a Quilt of Valor.  Each block consists of 16 - 4.5 inch HSTs. 

I finished 4 more blocks this week. Only 5 more blocks left before the blocks become a top. 

Got HSTs? Join us. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Gardening season is here so I haven't worked too much on any hand sewing. A few minutes after work each night  I've been embroidering dishtowels and crocheting dish cloths for Christmas (or whatever) gifts/stocking stuffers. 

I've done all the gardening I can stand today (and I don't think I can stand any longer) so I will settle down on the deck with some hand sewing and a Margarita if there aren't too many gnats out there. 

First I need to finish binding a quilt for my brother for Christmas. 

And then I'll work a bit on my Crazy Farm Crazy Quilt (lap size). I haven't done that in a while so I prepped two 12 inch blocks. I piece scraps to a muslin foundation by hand then embroider and embellish. 

Slow Stitching? 

Join us for Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts. 

Oops

Green is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I have used a lot of my smaller scraps and have quite a few chunks of green I thought I would make into 12 inch Dandy Quilt blocks - instructions at Quilter's Cache.    I've made a Dandy Queen-sized quilt in 30s reproductions and a Dandy lap quilt so I figured there was no need to look at the pattern and just started making blocks.   After I finished four blocks I knew there was something wrong. 

Rather than fix them they are going to stay that way. 

Hey, these are scraps!

I just haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to continue with the blocks in this manner or make more blocks following the pattern.  I have LOTS of green chunk scraps. 

I also made a few 3 inch 9 patches since I usually swap those 3 times a year with an on-line group. We also swap 4.5 inch HSTs so I added a few of those to the pile.    And those center 3 inch blocks are what was left over from making the 9 patches. 

Do you have scraps? 

Use them up and join us each ScrapHappy Saturday and show off what you've done with them. 

Friday HSTeria

Vicki Welsh  of Field Trips in Fiber is hosting a HSTeria Quilt Along. 

I've been making a quilt for QOV with some of my HSTs.  The Depression Blocks are 16 inches and I've completed 11 of them. I think 20 blocks will make a nice quilt 64 x 80.  

(No design wall at my house so I had to take two photos). 

I've also added 6 - 9 inch blocks to my collection of basket blocks.  I think I have only a few more left to make.  I think these make a total of 38 baskets. 

Just an FYI - I cut my HSTs with an Easy Angle ruler.  They always seem to turn out perfect when I use this method. 

A,B,C,D,E, F is for Finish!

I've finished a quilt for my niece's baby. 

She's due to deliver in June and is doing things the old-fashioned way...she won't know the sex of the baby until it is born and baby will be delivered with the help of a midwife. 

I've participated in several ABC swaps so keep some ABC happy blocks on hand and ready to be assembled quickly into a quilt.  I've had the rows sewn together for a year or so but replaced the spaceships for S with some Seattle Seahawks fabric.   Funny thing is that I received that Seahawks fabric a couple of years ag by accident in an on-line order with Fabric.com.   They sent the correct fabric later on and told me to keep the Seahawks fabric. And I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I used a little of it in a b/w string quilt but have had the rest of it in with the rest of my b/w stash. 

Then I found out last year when my niece got married to her college sweetheart that her husband was from Seattle and they actually got engaged at a Seahawks game. Weird, huh? 

Blocks are 10 inches - 6.5 inch centers with 2.5 inch sides. 

It finishes at 50 x 60 for a rather large baby quilt. 

I ironed on the letters of the alphabet.  They have a velvety texture. 

I quilted it with some spirals on my plain Jane Janome DSM. 

I bound it with some polka dot fabric. 

Backing was pieced together from some fabric I picked up last year at the thrift store. It must be very old since it was only 36 inches wide. (I remember those days). 

So, that's another UFO finish  I can cross off the list. 

This was my May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

I was #82 at the May ALYoF Goal Setting Party. 

Linking up today to:

 Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts