Quilting

I haven’t been posting, but I have been sewing during October. Because I got off track with the monthly color, I went off doing my own thing. But here’s an update on my RSC progress, plus some other stuff. I sewed together the top for the zig-zag quilt inspired by Diann at Little Penguin Quilts. I drooled over this last year when she was making it & I’m so glad I did it this year. I decided it’s a big enough lap quilt without any borders, so it’s in the pile for the quilter. Yay!

I also sewed the top for Brick House, which becomes my third top done for RSC2021! I got the idea for this quilt from Sylvia, who was inspired by Jo’s Country Junction, who found the idea originated with Julie of Me and My Quilts. Again, a quilt I coveted in the past & got around to sewing this year. So cute & scrappy.

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. I made 2 blocks each month this year & put them up on my design wall. After mulling it over, I decided I want it larger & need 8 more blocks. So this project will continue in 2022 where I’ll make 1 block/month & finish it off then. I love how sparkly it is!

In honor of my friend who passed away at the end of Sept after her third fight with breast cancer & for October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I bought the new Riley Blake fat quarter bundle for this quilt. I pulled out an old pattern that I’ve never made called Helter Skelter by Abbey Lane Quilts & just pounded through it. It went to the quilter at the end of October. My plan is to finish it off & save it for a friend or family member who needs it.

My quilting partner & I made this modern hexagon quilt this month over FaceTime. We also sewed the backing & binding together so it’s ready for the quilter & finishing when it’s quilted. This was a fun challenge to get those hexies lined up. When I showed it to my husband, he asked me why there weren’t blocks in all that open space on each side. I tried to explain modern design but he just asked if we were keeping it or giving it away, cuz it’s not his favorite. I said, gifting.

Also this month, I made this top as a favor for a friend to give her son for Christmas. I used my stash & she bought the backing & is paying for the quilting. The pattern is Dual Screen by A Bright Corner & it’s in his college colors. The pattern was just released & I bought it, so it was in the set of possibles I sent her. She liked it the best, so I was able to make a brand new pattern! It’s also at the quilter right now.

And a flurry of sewing down binding & movie watching has gotten me three finishes this month. “The Beehive” is slated for a Christmas gift & is from an old FQS Sew Sampler box. The fabric has been in a project box for years waiting for the perfect person. Now it’s made & ready.

This is the Festival of Trees 2021 auction quilt to raise money for Primary Children’s Medical Center. It’s in honor of my brother-in-law, an Air Force pilot who died in the line of duty. I’ve been doing a quilt for him for several years now, since it got too hard for our extended family to do a large tree. His widow adds books & my niece adds a small tree to the mix & we pick a theme each year that has something to do with his life. This year it refers to him being in a high school production of “The Wizard of Oz” with a sister. Fabric collection & free pattern are Jill Howarth from Riley Blake.

And this is “The Farmer’s Wife”. My husband gave me the book several years ago for Christmas, & my quilt group started working on it. We did one or two blocks a month so it took us a very long time. Theirs are done in traditional repro fabrics, but of course, mine is a bright modern rainbow! I actually love this way more than I thought I would while we were making the blocks, so I think another rainbow sampler is in my future.

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!