Quilting

Finishes! The shade from the tree makes the background look blue but it’s really scrappy white & cream. LOL This is the King-size Irish Chain quilt using the tutorial from Melissa Corry that I’ve been working on all year for RSC2021. Because it’s a Christmas gift, I went ahead on my monthly colors to get it done & to the quilter. But I worked on it monthly for the first half of the year & many of the RSC gang was very encouraging. It was large to piece & so big to hand sew the binding. I had to put it on a kitchen chair in front of me to hold the bulk while I sewed it. It was too heavy & bulky to keep on my lap. The binding is black Confetti Ombre by V & Co. & it’s really fun.

I finished the binding on “Pumpkin Patch” on the last night of September so it’s in the orange month. This was fast-tracked because it’s for me & I want to snuggle with it this fall. I bought the fabric on August 10 & hammered through cutting & piecing it, got it to the quilter, then binding done quickly. So happy to have it done & proud of myself for doing it so fast with all the other projects going on. And I ate breakfast this morning with it draped over my lap while reading & eating! Happy dance!

Orange plus blocks. These are from the partial top I’ve been ripping apart to re-envision into a whole new design. They are all weird sized because I left some gray around some of them whenever possible while ripping because I now have an idea of how I want to lay them out & I need “sashing”. No idea how many I actually have or need, so when I lay them out, I may need to make more. And the last row for the super fun zig-zag quilt from Diann at Little Penguin Quilts. Will sew rows in October or November & think about borders.

Orange is probably the final color for several of my projects. Next month I will start laying some of these out & seeing if I need more of anything. The friendship star blocks were inspired by Deb A. & I love how they turn out. The middle column are 4 resized Cozy Stars from the Pat Sloan QAL called Cozy Things. The tall columns are for the Brickyard quilt inspired by Julie of Me and My Quilts. I have orange blocks for two more RSC projects to finish up during the last few days of September coming up.

Here’s my big accomplishment for the week: I finished up the final week, Week 8, of the Clear Sky Quilt Along with Andy Knowlton of A Bright Corner. I kept up each week & this week I put together the flimsy. Although I did each block with scrappy white backgrounds, I used the same fabric for the sashing. Turns out I didn’t have enough for the borders, so I cut what I had left into sashing size for a stop border & made my own pieced border from leftovers. I used up most of the Lori Holt aqua & brown chunks I used as the basis for the quilt, so that was good, & the rest can go into upcoming scrap quilts.

Last week was crazy with medical stuff for both of us, so all I really got done was Week 6 for the Clear Sky Quilt Along with Andy Knowlton of A Bright Corner. No oranges so I didn’t link up. But these are cute & I’m proud of myself for keeping up.

And here is Week 7. This is the last of the blocks. Next week is the final week & we have to assemble the top, so I’ll have a flimsy done. So excited to lay it out & see if my weekly scrappy choices add up to a good visual combination.

So excited for these! The orange full & half blocks are the final ones for “Hip to be Square” from “Splash of Color” by Jackie Kunkel. I’ve made the blocks each applicable month this year so next month I’ll start working on sashing them together. I’ve had this book for a long time & want to make all the patterns in it, so I’m happy to be finally making one!

These are my tall nine patch blocks for the Sept-Oct Covered in Love block drive. She has a tutorial & wants them in this saturated fall palette. Most of the fabric came from the chunks donated by my friend’s retired quilter friend. So again, it’s going to good use in her honor. They look a little wild, so I hope they’re OK!

I just cut a bunch & sewed them & ended up with 16, so that’s a good chunk of a quilt for CIL.

I’m calling this “Tumbling Strings” & it was an RSC2020 project. I saw Cathy working on a quilt like this in a previous year using selvages for the strings. I loved the look of it, & decided it was going to be a project for last year. So I added a row each month using my strings & pillaging my I Spy stash. I got all my RSC tops done last year but am slowly getting them quilted & binding on as there have been so many gift quilts to do. But it’s kind of fun to have these RSC projects sneak in.

I got Week 5 done for the Clear Sky Quilt Along with Andy Knowlton of A Bright Corner. I’m so proud of myself for keeping up with a QAL! First time ever. Maybe another one in my future? LOL. Three more weeks to go & I’ll have a top done. Wow! So I’m looking at my scrappy fabric choices & it’s amazing how that one on the left looks like a completely different block with the star in less contrast to the background. Since it’s a sampler quilt I guess it will look fine.

Also done this week is the cutting for my new L&E project. This is actually Jelly Belly Bars from FQShop (free pattern), but Patty at elm street quilts was asked to participate with FQS for their release & she personalized it by adding flying geese to the plain centers. I love FG, so immediately printed her tutorial & set aside some fabric. That was at the beginning of 2020 & lately it’s been calling my name from the pile of “ready to go” boxes or kits stored under my cutting table. So now it’s cut up & ready for some L&E action.

My virtual quilting partner & I are closing in on the end of Walk in the Park by Vanessa Christenson. We’ve been working on these blocks off & on for a couple of years using V & Co. confetti ombre & woven gray background. We sewed the blocks into rows this week & in a couple weeks when we get together via FaceTime, we’ll sew the rows & have a top. I got the new V & Co. confetti wide backing in gray & made the teal binding yesterday, so I’m ready to be done & get it quilted!

You may remember this as one of my 2020 RSC projects & now the binding is sewed & it’s ready to give away for a wedding in October. I really love this quilt!

I sewed this top last year & it’s been waiting to get quilted & finished. Finally happened. The pattern is “Color in the Lines” from Melissa Corry’s book, “Charming Baby Quilts”. I want to make one of all of the quilts in the book because they are all so cute. LOL Here’s the first! I made it with a really old set of charm packs that were hanging around wanting to be used & that gold background was also an old stash piece.

These are the blocks for Week 4 of the Clear Sky Quilt Along with Andy Knowlton of A Bright Corner. This is the last week my aqua will match the color of the month, but I’m going to keep up with this QAL!

And I started a new project: Rockabilly Swing by Bonnie Hunter. She released it in July but I’ve been watching her make the blocks for a year & wanting to make it, so as soon as the pattern released, I got a copy. I started last week & it took me a bit to remember all the paper piecing tricks & get back in the “swing”. Haha! So the first 4 are done, & I’m busy working on more. I need to make 148 for the smaller size I’m making. That seems like a lot!