Quilting

First, a rainbow finish inspired our host, Angela. I got the binding sewed onto “Diamond Strings”, which I’ve been working on here & there for the last couple years. It was a fun project!

My hubby gave me the book “Splash of Color” by Jackie Kunkel a few years ago because I want to make every quilt in it. They are all black & white with splashes of color. To that end, I have been collecting pieces of black on white whenever I see them on sale. I used a bunch for the Sun Print quilt last year, but with plenty leftover, I’m embarking on this quilt called “Hip to be Square”. There is no pink, so this is the first month. I cut all the pieces last month, so they are just hanging out in a project box to be sewn together. There are 9 blocks & 4 half blocks for the edges.

A yellow row accomplished on the zig-zag quilt from Diann at Little Penguin Quilts. No Nearly LeMoyne blocks this month as there is no yellow in the Free Spirit scrap box I’m using for that project.

By ripping apart the old project & repairing 7 of them, then constructing 2 new ones, I have 9 cross blocks for the too-be-determined cross quilt. Yes, the bottom block has an extra gray column. Since I don’t know how I’m sashing it, I didn’t unpick that until I decide.

I’m making a king-size Irish Chain quilt as a Christmas gift so it will need to be done before the year is out. So even though it’s a rainbow quilt, it won’t exactly work with the monthly goals due to the deadline. I’m working on the four-patches in all the colors, but thought I’d get the yellow blocks all done this month because….yellow! I’m using the tutorial from Melissa Corry. I made a queen-size for my guest bed a few years ago & it’s probably my fav quilt EVER that I’ve made.

I made 4 of my tweaked Cozy Stars from the Pat Sloan QAL called Cozy Things . These are happy little pinwheel stars that just look fun.

I worked on these checkerboard blocks last year and have a pile in various colors. Since I now have the pattern, Cynthia Brunz‘s Scrap Mixology pattern called Chaser, I counted my blocks & figured out how many I still need to make in which colors. So I have a plan now & there were 3 more yellow needed to keep this project on track.

I got 2 yellow columns made for the quilt inspired by Julie of Me and My Quilts. This is a great L&E project. I pulled the already cut gray 2.5″ squares & yellow 2.5″x4.5″ yellow rectangles, made sets of 4 & put them by my machine to run through while working on other projects. And all of a sudden there were 2 columns!

I made four Nearly Lemoyne blocks by Bonnie Hunter and I’m excited about how this scrappy quilt will come out. I’m using a Free Spirit Scrap Box of strips that I had around for the bright centers, then stash for the light pieces & the background. That’s my plan for the year until I have enough blocks, or the strips run out & I have to find some other fabric.

So I watched Diann at Little Penguin Quilts work on this quilt all last year & every month I became more determined to make one someday. This week is the last week of pink and on Friday I just decided to add it to my list. It makes #9 on my list of RSC projects for this year which is probably not sustainable for the whole year. But I cut & sewed these blocks in a couple hours & it made me happy, so even if I don’t get it done this year, I’ll get a few rows made and finish next year.

And finally, a pink project to show off. I bought the fat quarters for the hearts to make this for last February & life got in the way. So this week I pulled background, backing, & batting, cut & sewed it up, quilted it on my home machine & got it bound. Just in time to put on my table for February. Yay!

These blocks are from a Pat Sloan QAL from last year. It was called Cozy Things and I really love this star. I’m calling it Cozy Star in a nod to her designing it. It’s Block 6 from the QAL but I’ve shrunk it down from a 12″ block to an 8.75″ unfinished block by subtracting an inch from the dimensions of all the subcut pieces. My plan is to make some of these each month all year, then decide on a setting. Sashing? Straight line? On point? Spectrum order? Scrappy? Whatever moves me in November. LOL

I made progress on three more of my projects for this year. This friendship star block is a direct lift from Deb A. I saw these blocks last year in the RSC link up & determined that quilt was in my future. Thanks for the inspiration! They were a great L&E block to do with my other sewing.

I made some more checkerboard blocks to go with the pile I started last year so there should be enough for a quilt later this year. I got this inspiration from Making a Lather, who credited Cynthia Brunz with her inspiration. In a nice circle of coincidence, her Jan 15 blog post is of her newest Scrap Mixology pattern called Chaser, which is this quilt! I’ve purchased her previous modules & immediately got this one. Her approach to designing your own quilts with these inspirations is genius. I have plans for several of these modules in the future.

These cross blocks have an interesting history. I designed a quilt with dark gray squares for background & colored crosses that intersect randomly. I loved how it looked on my graph paper with colored pencils, but as I started making the blocks a couple years ago & sewing the rows together, I lost enthusiasm because it just looked like a mess. So this year I decided to start ripping it apart and turning it into crosses with something in between. I’m not sure if I want squares as the sashing, solid sashing, something colored in the square between the crosses, off-set crosses. Just not sure. So I’m going to make a bunch of these all year in the monthly colors from the ripping & making new, then lay them out & make some decisions.