RSC18 -- Green & a RSC15 Flimsy!

This week I played with the green scraps for the Bonnie Hunter 2018 mystery, Good Fortune.  All my pieces were cut with Accuquilt dies.  I then took my show on the road (to school with me) and pressed them with this spiffy hobby iron that a lady at church gave me.  It worked out great! 

 

Here's what my view looked like while pressing (except with students in it.)

 

Here's my pretty stack of half chevrons.  Look at those luscious greens!  Ooo La La!



This week while looking for that binding that I made for my Catchin' Some Rays quilt just this week, I found a little bag of spool blocks.  These were part of the Bonnie Hunter 2012 leader and ender challenge called Just Spoolin' Around.  I remember making these in the color of the month.  2012 was was back before I really cared (or knew how) to hold a REAL quarter inch seam.  Some of them are really nice 3.5" blocks (3" finished).  Some...well, not so much.  But I played with the blocks that I found and it looked like this:

Before I knew it, it was a little flimsy!  I'm still thinking about how I will quilt it.  But it will make a cute little table topper for my kitchen table.

I'm linking up with Angela's blog for Scrap Happy Saturday and the RSC18.

Embroidery Bear Quilt Finish

I have another fun Finished or Not Friday Finish today!  I'm linking up with Myra at

This is my embroidery bear crib quilt.  I finished it last night and didn't have any daylight hours to take photos.  I'll share outdoor photos on Sunday because this was one of my Slow Sunday Stitching projects as well.

This little crib quilt measures 36" x 59".  I'm still not set on where I will take outdoor quilt pics.  I'm working on it.  It's a nice Ohio 51 degrees today.  Woohoo!  Bring on a little sun.

I quilted this with my Circle Lord giant template board called Square Dance.  I love the texture that it gave this little quilt.  I used a polyester blend batting.  The backing was some lavender fleece that I had left over from a customer's quilt.  The little lavender striped binding was perfect for it.

 

This was my December OMG! (One Main Goal) project.  I will link up with OMG later this month.

 

 

I'm linking up with all of these today:

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

TGIFF at Kathy's Kwilts and More.

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

What I Made Monday at Pretty Piney.

String Frenzy -- It's HERE!!!

Oh dear!  Bonnie Hunter outdid herself AGAIN!  My very own copy of String Frenzy arrived yesterday.  I took it to school to read today.  LOVE the projects!!!  Now I'm on a mission to finish five things before I start one more. 

 

A cool thing is that I ordered this book on Amazon.  Something happened that the price was higher when I purchased it than when it arrived.  Probably Black Friday happened and it was on sale somewhere else.  Amazon sent me a refund for a little under $5 and an email saying something about fair market price or something like that.  Woohoo!

Binding Time?

I'm working on the binding on my OMG quilt.  It's the embroidery bear crib quilt.

 

I felt extra energetic.  I was going to make the binding for Catchin' Some Rays (posted about on Tuesday this week).  BUT I can't find all the binding I cut.  I think I threw it back in the bag to take to the longarm room.  I'll check there this weekend.

 

It was a busy day yesterday.  Our son turned 11 and a HALF.  We had fertility issues out the wazoo when we were trying to start a family.  We never did figure out what the deal was.  BUT our God is ALWAYS on time!  He hand-picked our son just for us.  So YES!  We celebrate HALF birthdays.

 

 

Funny that dad is a builder and measures with other means.  But when the quilter shows growth progress it's Omnigrip to the rescue.  He has grown almost 1 1/2" since June.  You would think the "quilter" could have held it right on one of the lines... but you get the idea. 

 

Our elf, Chippy & Barbie were excited to celebrate Owen's HALF birthday as well.

 

WIP Wednesday 12.12.18

Even though I'm scheduled every school day from now until the first week of January, I'm still being crazy productive on my quilting projects.  Here's what happened this week:

I finished my Catchin' Some Rays quilt top AND made a back for it. 

I made nine star blocks for the December Block Lotto.  Do you have a lot of scraps?  Come join us!

 

I got "something" done while Owen was bowling. 

 

 

I finished this really old WIP from like 1982.  It will hang in my quilt room.

 

 

I added a few rows to my Short & Sweet pattern by Kim Diehl so that I can take it with me in my sew-to-go bag.  There's a lot of petals that need hand stitched to this.  (This is about half of it.)  I LOVE the colors that I have chose for this.

 

I played with my green fabrics for the Bonnie Hunter mystery, Good Fortune.  Glad we had that Sherwin Williams paint chip to guide us with picking those greens.  There's a lot of greens in the world!  See it right there in the middle of my big 30 gallon tub of greens?  Whew.  It came in handy!

I did not start any new projects this week.  My WIP list  goes down to 65 projects.  I've had list in the upper 90's in the past. 

Pieces Still Need to be Cut & Sewn

1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from Mama Spark's World 

2.  Digging up Bones (Owen's dinosaur quilt)

3.  Rock Island Campfire Quilt

4.  Picadilly Circle

5.  ...And Sew On BOM at Quiet Play (one block to go)

6.  Go Four It! -- Scrappy 4-patches started as leader/ender June 2017

7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) -- hand work for school

8.   Soul Searching -- need 2 more blocks for Julianne swap
9.   Leah Day Building Blocks QA

10.  Love Laugh Quilt Christmas Improv QA
11.  Classic Meets Modern BOM
12.  Mod Mod QA (turning this one into a baby quilt) (from block Lotto, mostly circles w/lines)

13.  Slow Sunday Stitching wool candle mat from Sue project

14.  Bonnie Hunter Garden Party (started 3.18.17.)

15.  Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Quiltville Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018.

16.  Kite Girl (RSC14)

17.  Amish Country BOM (from Lynn, Johnna's mom)

18.  Cabins at the Lake (from Fons & Porter Magazine) (only one house block complete.)

19.   2.5" Scraps from Dani making "cracker" blocks

20.  EPP mini table topper (grey, maroon, blue, cream...)

21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)

22.  Split Stars (Block Lotto win)

23.  Spools (Leader & Ender project with Bonnie Hunter)

24.  Scrappy Hourglass Quilt 

25.  Slabs with White Rectangle (RSC14 started -- need blocks each month)

26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March, 2017 (Will make baby quilt.)

27.  Super Mario QA

28.  2015 Orange, pink, grey kite blocks (from Accuquilt die, RSC17)

29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt

30.  Gypsy Wife QA (started again with Angie at Gnome Angel, August 2017)

31.  Crown of Thorns in blues

32.  2016 Plus Blocks (from left over pieces of Soul Searching blocks)

33.  RSC16 Folk Art Birds

34.  Kevin the Quilter's Sapphire Stars Mystery (started Summer 2017) 

35.  Secret O - H - I - O quilt.  Shhhh.  Can't show this one--but it's cool!

36.  Dot Dot Dash bag -- (new to the list April, 2018)

  

Blocks Still Need to be Made

1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

2.  Scrap Crystals (working on blue pieces for RSC15)

3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

4.  Amanda Murphy Designs (ugly fabric quilt)

5. Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt (my seams don't match Julianne's seams...)
6.  Drunkard's Path Variation baby quilt

7.  Kim Diehl's Table Topper from her book Simple Charm (Started August, 2017 for to-go bag.)
         

Blocks are made but need to be sewn together (and/or some sashing)
1.  Block Swap Adventure Orange/Yellow Sampler (2011-2012)
2.  Cruise blocks won from Libby
3.  Orange/Blue Fish Blocks (that I won)
4.  Split Stars (blocks won from Block Lotto; October, 2012)
5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)
6.  Tall Fly 

7.  Fortune Teller (RSC14 started)

8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt 

9.  Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blocks 

10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks (New QA starting 5/7/17 Gnome Angel)

11.  Flower Baskets (blue and white with some applique) Block Lotto win 10/1/18

12.  Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May, 2018 sew-to-go bag)

 

Quilts back needs to be made (tops are done)

1.  Pat Sloan's, I Love to Make Quilts Sampler Solstice Challenge (Red & White finished top 2017)

2. Card Trick (pink and blue) HUGE charity quilt for local quilt guild
3.  Hunter green large (bubbly -- will be a challenge to longarm) charity quilt for the local guild
4. Bubble Gum pink and navy charity quilt for local quilt guild 

5. Cross Stitch bathroom saying for Aunt Jo (just needs a frame!)

Ready to longarm
1.  Little Letters QA Quilt (A RSC14 project)
2.  Customer quilt with special block in the center (CM)
3.  Embroidery Bear crib quilt

4.  Embroidery Bear with balloons and hearts crib quilt.

5.  Catchin' Some Rays needle turn applique crib quilt started March, 2018 (adding EPP hexies!)  

 

I'm linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social.  Check it out today at Let's Bee Social.

          

A Whimsy Flimsy!

I can't believe that I finished this quilt top!  Normally once I finish the blocks they sit and sit on the shelf waiting for me to get into the mood to sash them and put them together.  It's gloomy and cold (in the 20's in Ohio), but this little quilt is bright and cheery.

 

After a quilt top is made it sits on the shelf longer until I make a quilt back.  Well, when I was looking through my stash I found the right amount of backing fabric for a perfect back.  Woohoo!  I cut it and sewed it together and a back was made!  Who is this girl???

 

The back is all of the pink color.  Don't mind the excess hanging down over the top.  I just didn't want too much of it to hit the snowy ground.

 

And then what happened almost NEVER happens...  I gathered all the little ends of the strips for the project and cut them up into usable pieces (2.5" strips, 1.5" strips, 2.5" squares, 1.5" squares...)  Again, who is this girl???  Is my motto for 2019 already starting to sit in with me?

 

Finish what you started. 

This pattern is called Catchin' Some Rays.  It was designed by Barbara Jones.  It measures approx. 52.5" x 72.5".  Except for replacing the applique flowers with EPP hexagon flowers, the pattern is as it's supposed to be!  I rarely do that either.  It was a lot of fun being one of my first EPP hexie projects.  It was fun to keep it going in my sew-to-go bag.  I made great progress.  The original pattern, Catchin' Some Rays was published in McCall's Quilting, January/February 2013 issue.

Good Fortune Clue #3 ALREADY!!! My Accuquilt Way

 

Today I had time to work on Clue #3 for Bonnie Hunter's 2018 mystery quilt called Good Fortune.  I am linking up to Bonnie's linky party at Quiltville's Quips & Snips here.  Look how fun the colors of the first three clues combined are in the little bin above!

 

Clue #3 left me play with the green scraps in the 30 gallon tub.  Boy, there are a lot of different varieties of green.  I'm so glad Bonnie gives us a paint chip color to help.  See it laying on top?

 

 

I cut the rectangles and the triangles with my Accuquilt dies.  I use the stitch and flip method for the blocks this clue.  It's stitch on the HST using a 1/4" seam.  Make sure the triangle is lined up on two sides of the rectangle.  Flip and press.  Sew on another HST.  Flip and press.  Done deal!

I didn't get all of my smaller HST sewn.  I used a different Accuquilt die to cut these.  I was able to use my 2.5" strips in my scrap saver's system.  I put the strips on the die and cranked them through.  They were neatly cut in no time.  I love the mindless sewing of chain piecing.  I'll pop in a dvd that I got from the local library and stitch and stitch.  Then I'll pop in another dvd and press and press.  Clue #3 will be done in no time. :)

 

I love the look of a fresh stack of blocks!  I learned from the first Bonnie Hunter mystery not to go crazy and lay out all my blocks for a photo.  When the time comes to put the units together, it's a lot easier if they are all stacked the same in their bin.  At that point it will just build a block and go.  I'll admire and comment on all these beautiful, fun scraps when I get to putting blocks together or when it's on the longarm.

 

 It was only 21 degrees here in Ohio, but our elf, Chippy, and his friends Barbie and Blue went out in the cold to hide in the wreath on the front door.  Brrrr.  Happy sewing!