August Wrap Up

Somehow, I managed to lose the entire month of August.  I feel as though I blinked on July 31st and when I opened my eyes it was Labor Day weekend.  When my daughter was home on vacation, she brought home a pile of skirts with various ailments:  hems hanging half way down, seams ripped, and one that needed new elastic in the waist.  Even though she is 25, she is still hard on clothing.  I fixed all but one of the skirts and should have the last one finished this weekend.   She was offered a full time job in the University research lab where she was working during her Master's program and is waiting for the final paperwork to go through.  Although, I admire her thriftiness, hopefully, with a little money in her pocket, she will buy some new clothes and I can stop mending for a while.

I did manage to take pictures of the blocks I completed.  This weekend is the last chance to finish up this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color, light and/or bright green.  The two blocks below use a mint tone on tone that looks a  bit washed out.

I added a light green row to my Rainbow Chevron quilt.

Our church's craft group received a donation of an unfinished quilt top that was a perfect example of how not to make a quilt.  I suspect it was the first attempt for the person who made it. The various patches were not uniform in size and the seams were stitched in varieties of zig zag stitches, tight satin stitches, decorative stars stitches and tiny straight stitches.  The fabrics used were a combination of jersey knits, cotton/poly blends, and what appeared to be ribbon.  The ladies at church were about to throw it away, but I liked the Peter Rabbit squares that formed the center of the blocks.  It took me two days with a sharp, new seam ripper to take the blocks apart.  I trimmed the squares to a uniform size and started a new quilt top.  I have a few more blocks to put together.

I like how the blocks look in person, but after seeing the photo, the pink seems very distracting.  I'm thinking of sashing them with white so that may help.   There are three that have a light dotted fabric in the final border and they will have to be changed.

I've been going through my stash and trying to find sensible uses for some of the older fabrics.  I have two large Rubbermaid bins loaded with novelty fabrics.  I spent a few days fussy cutting some of the fabric into 5 inch charms.  I will be making a few Eye Spy quilts using the 254 squares I already cut.  Truthfully, it didn't make as much of a dent as I had hoped.

I turned piles of scraps into 2.5 inch charms

Made few more four patch blocks for my ongoing project.

These are the blocks I made this week.  I took the picture on our very sunny deck and the moment I snapped the picture, the wind blew the blocks all over the yard.  The 7 four patch blocks on the left are lying on dark blue fabric because they were completely washed out on the sheet.  The seven bordered blocks will receive sashing and then be cut into wonky squares for an Eye Spy quilt.The quilt requires 30 blocks, so I will be making more in Septembe.

The August goal for the 350 block Project at Prairie Moon Quilts is 30.  I struggled this month to finish 40 blocks, but I am delighted that I met the goal.  My total number of blocks made this year is 529.
I am linking up with Angela and all of the other great quilters at Sew Scrappy for the August Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I didn't have much bright/light green fabric to make use of this month, hopefully, I can get more blocks done in September when the color will be orange.

July Wrap Up

The last two weeks of July were filled with vacation trips, but not much sewing. My daughter has been home on vacation and we have been taking advantage of the great weather.  When she comes home, she loves to do all of the same things we did during the summers when she was growing up.  That includes a trip to Greenport and riding the ferries.  The first ferry goes from North Haven to Shelter Island, we ride across Shelter Island and take the North bound ferry to Greenport.

She always rides the carousel.

I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the quilting pictures.  I have been having some problems with the settings on my camera.
I managed to finish two quilt tops, both made from the Film at Five pattern from Wedding Dress Blue. I've already made a quilt from this pattern so the 2 new quilts are Film at Five-Thirty and Film at Six O'Clock.

It is really a fun pattern to make and uses up a lot of scraps, but I think three times is my limit, so I won't be making any more for a very long time.

I finished up six more blocks for my red postage stamp quilt.  I plan on making the quilt 64 x 80, so in addition to the  five blocks I made earlier in the month, I will need nine more blocks.

 Even though I did not have as much time to sew as I would have liked to, I managed to take my boot on a carousel ride,  finish two quilt tops and thirty nine blocks in July.   That's a total of 489 blocks so far for the year.  I've met my goal for The 350 Blocks Project at Prairie Moon Quilts each month in 2014.  The challenge has really kept me on track.  Hopefully, I can keep working at this rate and finish strong for the year.

Catching Up With The Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Red for July

Although I have been busy making blocks, I haven't had a chance to post them this month.  I don't have many red scraps and my stash also seems to be lacking in red, but I found enough to add to my RSC blocks. Below are some Happy House blocks, a Mod Cabin, a Dottie Block, and some four patch blocks.

I added a red row to the Rainbow Chevron quilt.

Last year, I made postage stamp blocks each month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I really liked the way the red and white blocks looked and thought I would like to make an entire quilt with those two colors.  I revisited the idea this month, but decided I would prefer an antique look so I chose to use cream, tan, beige, or cream on cream fabrics instead of white.  This will be a long term project adding blocks as I accumulate more red scraps.

I haven't been consistent with making the Happy House blocks so I have been catching up with some of the colors I missed.

I also added to my Garlic Knot, Mod Cabin, and Dottie Blocks with colors I missed in previous months.

I have three quilt tops that are almost finished.  Hopefully, I will complete them this week.  The goal this month for the 350 Blocks Project at Prairie Moon Quilts is thirty. With 33 blocks already completed, I've already surpassed the goal with another week to add to the total.
I'm linking up with other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters over at Angela's So Scrappy Blog.  There are lots of great projects to see.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Mid Year Celebration

With half the year gone, Angela, hostess of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, at So Scrappy has invited all of the participants to post the blocks and projects they have made for the challenge this year.
As I started to gather the blocks, I was amazed to see how many I made.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as focused as I hoped to be.  My projects seem to be a little scattered, but I am enjoying them.

The blocks for the blue chevron quilt below were made during January.  Putting them together as a top will be my July project.

Each month I have been adding the chosen color to my Rainbow Chevron quilt.

In February, pink was the color and I started a pink chevron quilt.

The Ground Cover quilt below was made during the month for green and donated to the Hands 2 Help Challenge.

The  blocks below are from a Moda Bake Shop recipe called Dottie.

The Knot Blocks are from a tutorial by Angela at So Scrappy.  I will be tracing back to earlier months so that I will finish with four blocks of each color.  

I used The Happy House block tutorial from  Bonnie.  They will be placed in a wonky setting after all of the blocks are finished.

I'm not sure what I will be doing with the 96 four patch blocks I've made so far, but I'm sure they will come in handy. 

I started the Mod Log Cabin blocks in June and will continue adding colors as the challenge continues.

The Rainbow Postage Stamp blocks will be added to blocks I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2013.

It feels good to look back and see how much of my scrap bins and old stash has been used.  I am linking up with the Mid Year Celebration at Sew Scrappy.  There are lots of great projects made by other quilters participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge that you can check out.

June Wrap Up

There's one day left in June, but I'm wrapping up the month today.  I exceeded the thirty block goal for the 350 Blocks Project at Prairie Moon Quilts.  My total number of blocks for June is 53.  I also managed to finish one UFO quilt top.
The June color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was yellow.  In addition to the yellow blocks I made earlier in the month, I started a new project from the Summer 2014 issue of Easy Quilts by Fons and Porter.  With so many free patterns on the internet, I have curbed my magazine addiction, but this issue was hard to resist.  There are 7 quilts that I would like to try.  Of course, that will never happen, but I did start one, Mod Cabin.  It uses 2.5 inch strips in a rainbow of colors.  I  made three of the blocks in yellow.

Here are the yellow blocks mixed with the other colors I made.

I added a yellow row to my Rainbow Chevron quilt.

I even managed to squeeze in some of Bonnie Hunter's Happy House blocks.

I love making these Knot blocks.  They work up quickly and are a great use for scraps.

I also made six more 4 patch blocks.

I thought limiting myself to using older stash fabrics and scraps would have me bored to tears by now, but I am really enjoying the challenge.  The eight yard bolt of white on white that I bought on sale at Joann's fabrics earlier this year has less than a 1/2 yard left.  It has really helped me to brighten up the look of some of my older stash and at 40% off was a great bargain.

I won a lovely prize from the Hands 2 Help Challenge donated by Karen Green of K's Quilting Korner.    There are 100 novelty charms, post-it notes and a pen, Presencia thread (my favorite to quilt with), a spool of thread from Connecting Threads, a no waste Flying Geese chart, a Quick Quarter ruler for making HSTs, and two packs of candy made near her hometown.  The candy was devoured immediately.  My husband inhaled the chocolate covered pecan patties and I claimed the mint patties for myself.  It came with a beautiful fabric basket that is perfect for stray threads and fabric clippings.

Thank you Karen for donating such a lovely prize.  Although most of the quilters that participate in the H2H challenge do it for the pleasure of donating quilts to worthy causes, it is always fun to receive a surprise in the mail.

I am linking up with Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Sew Scrappy.  Stop by and check out the other links.  There are lots of great projects this week.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Yellow

I have been poking through my stash looking for yellow fabric.  Yellow and orange always seem to be in short supply in my sewing room.  During this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I have been envious of Sharon V's Garlic Knot blocks.  I finally decided to make some of my own.  I used the tutorial offered by Angela (the hostess of the RSC) on her Super Scrappy blog.  I changed the size by using some of the 2.5 strips I had in my stash.  My version finishes at 8 inches instead of the original 6 inches.  Angela has lots of tutorials for six inch blocks that work well to use up scraps.

I made a few more blocks from the Dottie pattern and more four patches for my collection.

I enjoyed making the Knot blocks so much that I made them in other colors.

I also finished another scrappy top with blocks I made last summer. I loved being able to use lots of 2 inch scrap strips.

 Retired guy was kind enough to hold up the quilt for me and to pose with his new gardening hat.

My stylish new footwear has been keeping me close to home so I have extra time to sew.  I've gotten through the first week of the six week period.  I have a different style to wear while I sleep.  Hopefully, my Achilles tendon will heal and I will be able to avoid surgery.  In the meantime, please don't ask me to dance.

I'm linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy.  As usual, there are lots of great projects to see.

Christmas Panel Giveaway Winner

May and June have been filled with short trips for my husband and I.  This weekend, we were back in Boston to see my daughter.  We visited one of her favorite places, the Boston Aquarium.  Our family has visited many Marine Life Centers over the years, Boston is definitely one of the best we have seen.  Their penguin habitats are really fun.

There were divers cleaning the huge tanks while we were there.

I even managed to pick a winner for the Christmas panel giveaway right there in front of the tank.

I will send notify Debra by email.

Hands 2 Help Challenge and May Wrap Up

My apologies to anyone who placed their name in the Christmas panel giveaway.  I haven't had access to my blog so I will post the winner tomorrow.
Unfortunately, my knees did not allow me to baste any quilts during May, but I did manage to complete 2 quilt tops.  I am sending four quilt tops to Sarah, at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, for the Hands to Help Challenge that she will quilt on her long arm.  I will be mailing the Gum Drop 3 quilt, Rainbow Postage Stamp quilt, and Film at Five, and Ground Cover, the two I finished in May.

 Gum Drop Three-56 x 70.

 Rainbow Postage Stamp, using blocks made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2013-
 64 X 80.

Film at Five was completed in May- 54 x 70.

 I also finished the Ground Cover quilt top in May, 68 x 85. There are 9 additional blocks that can be used on the back.

I am linking up with other participants in the Hands 2 Help Challenge.  I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to quilt my tops, but I'm grateful that Sarah will be quilting them on Jolene her long arm and using them as part of her church's mission trip to New Jersey to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.

As part of the 350 Blocks Project for 2014 at Prairie Moon Quilts, I finished 111 quilt blocks.