Sue

I made a tabletopper, Brightly Holidays by Cluck Cluck Sew, & it’s rectangular on the pattern & wanted it square. I saved out the last row, added some leftover squares between the blocks, used pieces from the backing to make a border, & voila! A little matching bonus runner for our sideboard, all quilted & bound for the rest of summer.

Some long sewing afternoons this week got the Summer Block Party to flimsy stage. Not sure when it’s going in for quilting, but it’s all done! It’s a free sew-along & you can still sign-up through July, & get the patterns if you just can’t resist. That was my situation & so this squirrel project is done & it’s back to my regularly scheduled sewing. LOL

That included getting “Wild Blue Yonder” done for the Festival of Trees auction benefitting Primary Children’s Medical Center. I make a quilt every year for my pilot brother-in-law who died in a plane malfunction. He was an Air Force pilot. His widow & daughter pick the theme & add books & puzzles to the display for auction. We hadn’t done planes for a few years, so decided it was time. This needs to go to the quilter next week & get done so it’s ready for December, which feels like it’s right around the corner now!

I spent a bunch of time cutting & prepping for projects this week. One of them included Bonnie Hunter’s 2024 Leader & Ender Challenge: County Clare. I copy down the patterns every year but have never joined in, so this is the year. I bought the green grunge to have one part be consistent throughout, then the rest is all scrappy from my stash. I sew using an L&E method anyway, making 2 or 3 quilts at once, but since I love Irish Chains, this was too hard to pass up. So there’s a tray full of little squares & rectangles by my machine & this is how many have gone through so far. I decided to sew them together as I go & let the scraps fall where they may to make the sashing go easier. I hate sewing sashings, but love her layout with the sashings, so here we go!

I got my tabletopper quilted & bound just in time for July! Still hand-binding the bonus runner from the extra row.

Here are the next two blocks for the Summer Block Party. This is my squirrel project, but now I don’t feel guilty since I accidentally did my aqua blocks in June & can do other stuff in July! I might get to this to the finish line this month.

You saw the top already, but here’s a glamour shot of the finished Hocus Pocus quilt for my daughter-in-law. Glad to have it done & in her hands.

I started on the Festival of Trees auction quilt for December so it will be done in case something happens. Love these MSQC planes in RW&B fabrics chosen by my hubby in honor of his brother.

And just for fun, a shot of the shirt my kids gave me for my birthday. For those of us who didn’t get a letter from Hogwarts! And I cut out the kit I got for my birthday of Amy Smart’s Pine Hollow Patchwork Forest in her new Albion fabrics, so you may see some trees soon. (I made one in scrappy Christmas a few years ago that I love, so it’s time to make one in her new lovely line.)

I finished up the wonky Lori Holt paper pieced hearts in blue & will finish the AWOL February reds next month. There were lots of blue blocks to make this month with all the shades.

I made these 10 Patchwork Hearts by Quilty Love this week. At the beginning of the year, I planned out my finished quilt with how many of each color heart I wanted & where in the quilt, so that I would know each month how many I needed to make. I can’t wait for this finish, as each month I’m excited about these cute blocks! Also, in the lower left corner you can see the end of the leftover row tablerunner that has a border made from the leftover backing of the topper. Which is almost done having the binding sewn down!

Here are the first four blocks of my squirrel project! The Summer Block Party is a free sew-along where some of my favorite designers are giving away a block to sew into a fun summer quilt. They’ve released all the patterns, but are still accepting sign-ups through July, so you can get in on all the fun! I’ve been having fun working on these blocks. I’d originally intended to just do them scrappy from my stash, but couldn’t really pull together fabrics I liked, so made a trip to my local store for the suggested solids. So many had been in to buy them that I had to substitute 2 shades & get a different background than they used! But I’m liking the result.

I haven’t gotten much work done on my blue scraps the last couple weeks because of personal stuff & I’ve been working on this mini Brightly tabletopper. I got it all put together, then quilted it yesterday, so when I’m done with my current binding, I’ll get this done for my table. I’m going to make a mini runner with the extra row for our sideboard. Eventually.

I got a few more wonky Lori Holt paper pieced hearts made, plus some red that didn’t get done in February. Still need to make a few more, plus some other RSC projects in blue.

I spent the last couple days pounding out 36 blocks for the charity block drive at Many Hands and Many Hearts. You can still get in on the Two Step fun, as she’s accepting blocks until mid-August. I’m still trying to use up the fall colored fabrics I was given & said I would use for donations. This is the second charity block drive I’ve used them & still have more for next year!

I used blue scraps for this week’s quilt group blocks from the book, “Sampler Spree” by Susan Ache, so it’s appropriate for June.

I also started the Summer Block Party with the Popsicles. Try as I might, that really thin background fabric made the popsicles wonky. Maybe they are melting in the hot summer sun? LOL

We’re doing all the blues this month, so I started the month with some Two-Step from Lissa Alexander’s book “Scrap School”, made with 2.5″ squares.

I moved on to the split 9-patches & made 3 sets this month in various blue shades.

These are the scrappy 2.5″ rail fence blocks. I started making these this year on a whim, so I’m getting interested in thinking about how they are going to get laid out later this year.

And just for fun, these are the blocks I made this week in quilt group. We are working from the book, “Sampler Spree” by Susan Ache & making 3 or 4 blocks each week. We are making a total of 80 & are now at 62. I’ve been using the cool half of a layer cake as my focus prints & am now out, so needed to add in more prints & decided to get different purple shades from my scraps, so it was purple day!

And a finish! “Cascade” by Cluck Cluck Sew. This was a quilt group project last year. I used a small fat quarter bundle brought from Hawaii by a friend for my birthday several years ago. I’ve hoarded it, trying to find the “perfect” pattern to show off the fabric, & when we decided to make this pattern, I knew it was time to get those Hawaiian fabrics used up!