Quilting

So busy around here that there hasn’t been much time or energy for sewing. But I have managed a little bit of blue stitching. Dark blue column done for the Brickyard quilt inspired by Julie of Me and My Quilts. Even though it’s a curvy line on the floor, it’s sewed straight! LOL

The dark blue chevron is complete for the zig-zag quilt from Diann at Little Penguin Quilts. I’m only planning to do one more row for this top, in orange, then lay out & see if I’m happy or need more rows. Yippee!

I actually made seven new blocks for the July-August Covered in Love block drive . This makes 12 for me & I still have more time next month to add to the pile. I continued my fun in making lots of different blocks. The top is Twinkle Lights from Pat Sloan’s current sew-along called Summer Soiree. The wonky star with the blue background is a tutorial from The Silly BooDilly. Sawtooth star with a blue string center. The bottom four are Whirlwind blocks I made from the same 3 fabrics as opposites. I used a free pdf of the Fabric Stash Block from the April/May 2011 issue of Quilt Magazine. I printed several of these patterns to use this month as I was looking for stars, but I literally can’t find them anywhere on the interwebs now. I thought I’d pinned them, but no, & Mr. Google isn’t helping me. So any basic Whirlwind block pattern you have will do the job.

Look at me! I randomly have another blue finish this week. Hilarious! This little shark quilt is from fabric purchased on sale several years ago. This was back when I thought it took a lot of fabric to make a quilt. Ha! I used this & have enough leftover for one or two more. But part of an old pile was conquered. I took this in to my quilter & she said she had done a custom pattern with the sharks in it back when this fabric was new & popular. So we used that & although it doesn’t show much on the busy front, it’s super cute on the minky backing.

Two more blocks for the July-August Covered in Love block drive . This is #4 & 5 for me. The top is 16 Patch Sawtooth Star from Delaware Quilts. The bottom is Day into Night Star from Pat Sloan.

And finally, I got some work done on one of my actual RSC projects. These are the 4 dark blue resized Cozy Stars from the Pat Sloan QAL called Cozy Things. Last month when I was looking at the purple ones on my wall, I thought maybe I should snowball the four inner squares to put a colored square on point there to add interest. Then 4 stars together make one big block with colored sashing between the blocks. Maybe?? Pretty soon I will have to start making some layout decisions for all these block projects I’ve got going.

First, a blue finish. “America the Beautiful” is destined for a nephew for Christmas. Inspired by this quilt by Julie, I used my stash entirely for this 5″ tumbler quilt. This is my second ever tumbler quilt, but the first to be finished. The other was made for RSC & is quilted & trimmed but in the pile waiting for binding. I’m very happy to have used up all the cream fabric with state names leftover from the backing on the original “America the Beautiful” quilt made with my quilt group. The red & blue came from charm packs I stashed from MSQC Daily Deals once upon a time.

I’m working on star blocks for the July-August Covered in Love block drive & they feature red, white, & blue so I’m in the blue groove here. These are the 3-12.5″ blocks I’ve done so far. Fun to play with different block patterns!

I got some dark blue blocks done during the light blue month, so I haven’t pulled out my boxes of projects yet. My focus is sewing all the Irish Chain blocks into rows & adding the sashing. Not my favorite, so it’s going slow, plus king-size rows are LONG! I have three left & am hoping to get it to the quilter next week.

Even though there’s not much blue going on here, there’s plenty of sewing happening. Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been cutting & organizing logs for a Judy Martin heart quilt. I saw one of the retreaters at Quiltville Inn making one on Bonnie Hunter’s blog. (No, I can’t find the post to link to it. Sorry. But the book is Judy Martin’s Log Cabin Quilt Book). I immediately ordered a used copy of Judy’s book & set to work cutting. This is an organization task of great magnitude. Here’s hoping it makes the cabin sewing go faster, but she assures me it will. 🙂 My hubby gave me a big box of new Wonder Clips for my recent birthday so I could clip these all up! I’m also trimming quilts & sewing on binding this week, so many tasks getting checked off.

Got another finish. “See the Beauty” is a really old WIP. It’s Me & My Sisters fabric & one of their patterns that I cut out in maybe 2010. I tripped over it in my closet storage while looking for another project & realized it would be perfect for a gift quilt I need for Christmas. So I pulled it out & sewed it up. When I bought it, I thought it would be a challenging quilt, but now it sewed it up in two afternoons! Perspective & experience. The quilting is so cute with that pink thread!

I have my plus blocks below, and 4 resized Cozy Stars from the Pat Sloan QAL called Cozy Things. The tall column is the purple column for the Brickyard quilt inspired by Julie of Me and My Quilts. The chevron is actually a row put sideways to fit on my wall & is the purple for the zig-zag quilt from Diann at Little Penguin Quilts. The blocks on the right are the full & half blocks for “Hip to be Square” from “Splash of Color” by Jackie Kunkel. Only orange left until I start putting this quilt together. So lots of progress going on.

I recently was given 2 boxes of fabric from a friend who was tasked with finding a good home for it. She received it from an older woman who was moving to assisted living & couldn’t use it anymore. It included these “sand” fabrics, so I included some random “sea” charm squares from my stash to make 11 charity blocks for the Covered in Love May/June block drive. I’ve been wanting to participate in these block drives but just haven’t gotten around to it, so this donation gave me the motivation & now they have been sent.

These are the 12 purple blocks needed for the King-size Irish Chain quilt using the tutorial from Melissa Corry. This is a Christmas gift so I tackled these first this month. With the orange blocks left to make, then all the sashing & sewing the rows together, I may not be able to wait until orange becomes the color of the month. Rainbow scrap quilts have needs!

These friendship star blocks are low-stress & with all the other things going on this week, they were easy to do & feel like I’d accomplished a goal. Thanks to Deb A. for the inspiration, & more purple in the coming week.