Doing another scrap challenge quilt

This is my latest project….. it’s going to be a very scrappy quilt using mostly 30s, shirtings and novelty scraps in softer colors. This is a scrap challenge I’m doing through IG @retroquiltlover

She organized a nine patch scrap change last year and this year it’s these economy (or thrift) blocks.

I bought a new acrylic template to make cutting/trimming these blocks easier. I cut the center using my 

2-1/2” template then cut 2 three inch squares which I then subcut on a diagonal. Those are added to the 4 sides of the center piece. I  press then my new template is used to trim. 

 

 

After trimming I add 4 more triangles and use it to trim again. It gives me perfect little 4” economy blocks. 

I’ve decided that I’ll need about 250 of these blocks to make my quilt. So far I have 70. And of course that hasn’t made a dent in my scrap basket🫣

But I’m having a great time digging through these …making fun little blocks. 

Tomorrow I’ll probably put these away so I can make my next RSC2025 block (rainbow scrap challenge). Plus it’s time to pin baste the thousand pyramids quilt!

March rainbow block

The color for March is yellow, for the rainbow scrap challenge. These are really large blocks (18”) so I’m only doing one a month. I’ve decided to use Kaffe, Amy Butler, Brandon, type fabrics… But this month, since I was short of yellows, I tucked in a couple Dr Seuss scraps

Three months in and I’m already loving how this quilt is looking.

This is my other “current” project. I have 12 rows done, 15 total needed for this Thousand Pyramid quilt. I’d love to have this completed this month. It’s gonna be close. I’m also hand quilting a top that I’d also like to finish up. 

It’s going to be a busy month with all this and helping my brothers with maple syrup. They have a farm in northern Michigan with 40 trees they plan to tap. 

This pic is of Lake Michigan as we were heading into the U.P. of Michigan. The frozen lake is so beautiful. It looks cold but it was a beautiful warm (57 degrees F) day. Perfect to start collecting maple drippings.

Blue February block

 

My current projects: 1. Hand quilting my vintage style quilt 2. Making monthly rainbow scrap challenge blocks (above), feb is blue 3. Still making triangular blocks for my Thousand Pyramids quilt. 

I decided to do a very large Bear Paw block for this year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I really love these blocks. It’s going to be scraps of Kaffe or Amy Butler or whatever brighter pretty scraps are hanging around, then a coordinating solid. The background fabric is one I found as I cleaned and unpacked my sewing room. It was supposed to go with an animal quilt that I decided not to make. So I have plenty. These are 18” blocks, so I figure I can make one a month for 2025 and I’ll have a bright top for quilting in the winter of 2026.

I’m trying to make a few blocks a day for the pyramid quilt. It’s really fun digging through old fabrics to find 3 that look good together and work with the quilt. Some of these fabrics are REALLY old like that Wamsutta in the photo… might be 90s? There’s also a bunch of shirtings thrown in plus text fabrics, Kaffe stripes, and even Jinny Beyer. Of course it’s mostly Judie Rothermel and Paula Barnes, my favorites!

And this is what I’m hand quilting… I’m not the best at it but it works for me. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be so I’ll be happy just to have it done. I’m taking it on my trip to Florida when I go. It’ll give me a nice project to work on if we have any rainy days.

 I have a finish for 2025!! This is the first of what I hope will be many finishes this year. This quilt started in 2019 or 2020 as something to keep me busy in Florida.  I had planned to just do the curved applique pieces but quickly got bored so I put it away. 

In 2024 I was unpacking and cleaning, and I found 16 of those petals. I played around with them and came up with the block with the plus and 4 petals. After that I thought I'd design something Swedish /Scandinavian looking and drew up the pieced block to alternate with the petals. Those were time consuming...I think there were about 69 pieces per block. But, Al really liked them so I made more. 

And I'm glad I listened to him (dont let him know I said that, it'll go to his head). Im really happy with this. The red and white quilts have always been a favorite of mine... glad I now have one.

First quilt finish this year

This is the first finish of 2023!

 I wanted to get one of two "great niece " quilts finished. The top was made last year as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I did 4 sets last year. One set I gave away, 2 are tops and one is still just blocks. 

Basting was pretty quick on this one, but finding batting wasn't.  I had to piece together a few smaller white scraps. The only whole batts were cream and those showed through the white background. 

I'm using my favorite pinning tool, which I heard isn't being made any longer. It's called the Kwik Klip. If you'd like one, maybe try Ebay or Etsy? 

So, it took 2 days to quilt the top...I had to work a bit at a time. It's really hard on my shoulders lately (must be getting old).

The backing is a purple and aqua print that my granson, Charlie,  thought Evelyn would like. Her favorite color is purple but I couldn't find a matching purple fabric for binding so I used this aqua gingham. It's cut on the bias, just to look cuter. 

And that's a finish! Evelyn's quilt is done...time to baste her sister's quilt.

 

Another block plus basting a rainbow quilt

Block 3 made. Since I'm starting a new quilt, I'm quilting a previous one.

Today I basted one of my Rainbow scrap challenge quilts. This one will be for my great niece,  Evelyn. I used a purple & blue backing because according to my grandson Charlie, Evie likes purple the best. 

 

I'll be doing two rainbow quilts...two sisters. I'm going to start FMQing this tomorrow so that I have time to add binding... done by Friday? We'll see.

Starting a Family Room Quilt

Here I go again.  Starting a new quilt 😆 My daughter Jenn came over and sorted through my HUGE pile of fabrics I dumped in the family room. I was struggling to choose fabrics that coordinated. She said I had too many so she narrowed them down these.

This is her picks on the floor. I like what she chose...they look perfect. 

I guess paying for that fine arts degree paid off.

The last few days I've gone through a bunch of patterns trying to decide what kind of quilt I wanted. I was thinking something simple. Also, I wanted stars. 

So here's what I picked...an Ohio Star block. These will be the main part of the quilt...20 blocks,  I think. The sashing might be dark or it might be scrappy...flying geese or 1/2 square triangles?..I'll figure that out later. There's even a possibility that I'll skip sashing and just alternate dark and light stars. Still deciding...

So right now, I'm putting the third block together. I'm using a pattern I found in a vintage magazine. It's easy cutting and so far fast sewing. 

 

My SEWJO is back

I finished a top! This is super thrilling for me since lately I just haven't felt like sewing.  I lost my SEWJO in January and just couldn't get it back.

Well, this past weekend we met up with family.  I met a niece for the first time and her two adorable little girls. I have tops made for the little ones but just haven't had the ambition to quilt them. But now I do! 

First I figured I'd get this top off the floor and onto the "to be quilted" pile.

I woke up early, started doing laundry and then decided to go down to the sewing room and, at least, finish the friendship stars...maybe add them to the header and footer.

I did that and forced myself to finish...put it all together. There really wasnt that much to do!

So it's done! It's a top. And I think I have my sewjo back because, as I was having a cup of coffee, staring at my new ottoman, I decided I need a new quilt for this room.

I have mostly blue, gray and white in the upstairs. I needed some warmth so last fall I ordered a new "coffee table". Actually, I found this cute leather ottoman and a tray to serve as a coffee table we can put our feet on. The leather picks up the warm tones in the rug and in my fish picture. 

Now I need a quilt that matches better. I pulled out my Autumn/Halloween quilt for now. But I'm thinking gray beige, blue, and a bit of orange/rust might be nice.

So I guess I back😁 Time to get working on more quilts!

Quilting in 2023

 It's 2023, the year to get my tops quilted! 

I've decided to join @allpeoplequilt on Instagram doing a monthly UFO challenge.  We picked 12 UFOs and number them 1 to 12. All People Quilt will pick a number each month...that's the project to work on and HOPEFULLY finish it.

This is my list. Two of my projects aren't quilts, just sewing that needs to be done. I have an ottoman in the basement family room that has seen it's best days. It needs to be reupholstered desperately. I've had the fabric to do it for over a year. Maybe doing this challenge will be the push I need to do it.

I also put recovering two living pillows as a UFO. This is an easy thing to do but I just keep putting it off. 

So for January APQ picked #3. That's this one,  my gray star quilt.  

The quilting has been started but I stopped when I got really frustrated. I wanted it machine and hand quilted. We'll, as I finished up a section of hand work, I thought I'd put in a bit of fancy free-motion quilting. I did feathers in four corners. But, I used too light of a thread and it looked TERRIBLE. I knew I'd never be happy with how it looked so decided to remove all those stitches.  It took FOREVER and that's when I shelved it. It's ready to be worked on again I just need motivation. 😩  Maybe I should start with some hand quilting. 

End of 2022

 The year is at a close. It seems like a good time to look at what I've accomplished and what I plan to do in 2023.

Plenty of tops were finished off, some of them started over 10 years ago. There's one final top that I'd like to add to the list and that's the #lonestarquilt I'm currently working on.

This top has been challenging. It was supposed to be a 9 patch lone star (9 lone star blocks sewn as a huge 9-patch). I made 4 blocks about 12 years ago then went to make a 5th block more recently. The fifth block ended up smaller. I'm not sure why. So rather than make 8 more stars of the smaller size (I just wanted this UFO done!), I decided to make it a 4-patch and use the odd block separately. The 4-patch idea worked well...love how it looks with the sashing and checkerboard cornerstones. What I didnt like was the size, 59 inches square. I prefer a more "usable" size. So then, with the help of IG friends, I came up with a header and footer to this quilt. 

The 5th #lonestar was split and added top and bottom. I made stars out of leftovers to flank the 1/2 star. Today I need to make 7 more friendship stars to finish this top. 

I'd LOVE to have it done in 2022!

So besides working on this top, I've finished up 2 more grandniece/nephew quilts:

Della's and Lewis's quilts were completed and sent to them. I still have more greatnieces to make quilts for and with any luck those will get completed this year. 

This #rainbowscrapchallengequilt will be going to a great neice. I've made quite a few rainbow quilts through the years. We start them in January (yes, I'll be doing it again this year) by sorting out scraps into color piles, boxes or baggies. Then each month a color is chosen and we make a block or two (or 10😂) out of that color. Do any block you want and as many as you want. 

The rainbow quilt above is from a few years ago. This past year I completed two rainbow tops, gave away one set of blocks and kept the final set to add to in 2023. 

These two #rainbowquilttops were completed and now need quilting.

So! For 2023, I'm going to concentrate on quilting tops. The pile of "to be quilted" is high....maybe 20 tops? It's a lot! I'd like to see how many can get completed this year. It may not be all.... Well, we know it wont be all...but 5 to 10 of them would be a good goal. And even that may be reaching because Al and I plan to sell our house and build next door😱. So I'm also designing a house, drawing the plans up, packing, moving into a rental, building (which includes us laying our own wood floor, painting, landscaping....)....well, you get it. It'll be a busy year! Sound like too much? Yup!😀 Let's see what the year brings🎉

Quilt tops everywhere!

 I'm working on quilt top number 19? I think. The stack of tops is huge...almost overwhelming. But my thought is, get the started quilts all made into tops then slowly quilt them next year. This current one is a #rainbowscrapchallenge quilt. I'm just finishing up a few blocks then I'll sew it together.

I make the block oversize then trim it to a perfect 8-1/2".

The strips are all scraps that were sorted into color piles earlier in the year. I didn't really have a plan with these but then I laid them out in rainbow order and loved it.

And now I want to add a border to each side. I thought a fringe looking border might be cute but as I look at the pictures I'm changing my mind. I may cut large half square triangle blocks instead. We'll see....

This is my pile of tops. Eighteen here...one more almost done. Three more partial tops on my sewing table. I think next year I'll be donating some quilts to the hospital. Plenty to go around! 😱😁