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RSC2022-February aqua so far

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There was no sewing done the first half of February, so aqua may dribble over into March. I’ve decided not to be stressed about that, but just let it be. There’s no quilt police & I can do what I do & still be successful.

The design wall looks like this today. I made progress on three of my projects, so yay! The left side are my aqua/teal blocks for Sweet Kisses by Gigi’s Thimble. I cut everything for this quilt in December, so it’s fun to sew now. Just pull out pieces & put together blocks. The low-stress sewing was fun, plus I love how they look.

On the right side of the wall is a sparkling friendship star inspired by Deb A. I’m making one of these/month this year to add to the 16 I made last year, & then I’ll have enough for a lap quilt. Also low-stress sewing.

Underneath that are my four aqua blocks from the Tula Pink 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book. I’m making the Sliding Scale quilt from her book. I sat down in December & chose all the blocks, decided on the colors for each & drew up the layout. Now each month I look at my chart, find the numbered block for the color, go to that page, get the cutting directions, choose fabric, cut & sew. So each one is a small project that is a one-off & can be done in between other projects for a mind break.

So that’s February so far. We’ll see how I do on my other projects this week. They are: Shine, Cozy Stars, On the Move, Dancing Stars, & Catching Rainbows. I’ve made 8 blocks for the Covered in Love Jan/Feb Block Drive & was hoping for more, but that may be it this time. It all feels like a lot, so drifting into March doesn’t sound bad. Hope your aqua bins are going down faster than mine.

RSC2022-January red week 4

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I forgot to post my finish a couple weeks ago: Love Drops, pattern by Maker Valley. It’s going to be gifted for Christmas & used up a lot of scraps!

This is this week’s finish: Walk in the Park by V and Co. And yes, we made it exactly like the pattern! My quilting partner & I have been making ours for a long time & one of the things that drew us to it was the Ombre Confetti fabric, so we just followed the directions. I so rarely make a quilt that looks like the pattern as far as the fabrics go, that it’s a little shocking to see. LOL But it’s super cute. Mine has an aqua binding rather than the mustard, so I did vary from the pattern, after all.

I backed it with the new wide backing from V and Co. It’s ombre with confetti dots, but not metallic. I can’t tell you how darling it is!

I got my first blocks done for Sweet Kisses by Gigi’s Thimble. I’m really in love with scrappy low-volume backgrounds right now, so I’m just going with it. These will be in all the colors & set on point. These are the reds.

The first blocks for Catching Rainbows by Bonnie Hunter. Oh yes, I’m in love. The string blocks are for the border. The colors correspond to the colors of the matching blocks, so the rainbow goes around the outside.

So all my red blocks are done for RSC2022 except some more red Dancing Stars blocks. That may turn out to be a 2-year project with all the other things going on. I may make half the blocks this year & the other half next year. We’ll see.

This is why I might not get all the Dancing Stars done. I started a new project this week because I couldn’t wait. It’s Bonnie Hunter’s Rocky Road to Grayson. I’ve been sewing the string centers, but I wanted to put together one full block to see how it will look.

I made 4 more blocks for the Covered in Love Jan/Feb Block Drive, so now I have 8 of these quarter log cabin strings. I tried really starching the foundation old sheet pieces this time & voila! These four are more square with the firmer backing. I just pulled whatever out of my string boxes & they are really colorful!

After weeks of Covid, ICU, & oxygen, my quilting partner finally felt like she could sew via FaceTime for a while this week. It was so good to “get together” & we pulled out our Cookie Cutter project & worked on the third set of colored diamonds.

RSC2022-January red week 3

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I got started on another of my RSC2022 projects this week. It’s called On the Move by Melissa Corry. I’m doing the remix on her blog using the Charming Baby Quilts book. I’m only showing the long red arrow, but I did all the cutting & planning, plus sewed all the HSTs.

Here are the first stars for Dancing Stars by Amy Ellis. They are labor intensive so there are a few more reds to make next week. I think I need to make one every other day of the month going forward so I don’t get bogged down. They’re super cute, though! I saw someone making these last year for RSC & fell in love. The pattern is free for signing up for Amy’s newsletter.

I decided what to do with those four Amy Ellis Scraps blocks I made last week. I made 24 more red blocks this week, then I will set them aside and make 28 Options blocks in gray and low-volumes to alternate in a quilt. The beauty of taking a photo is that you notice the one block you made backwards, so yes, I fixed it!

In other sewing this week, I got back to the Judy Martin log cabin hearts, finishing four blocks. I have 3/4 of a coral heart plus 1/4 of a cream heart. They are stunning on the design wall, but they take a while to piece.

I have one more red project to work on next week and then I will have all my reds done. How is your month going?

RSC2022-January red week 2

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I made 16 of these blocks last year for RSC2021 & decided I needed 8 more to make a good-sized lap quilt, so I’m going to make one more/month this year. Here’s the cute little red one inspired by Deb A.

These are my four red blocks from the Tula Pink 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book. They are square & nice IRL, but got wonky when slapped on my design wall. LOL I’m making the Sliding Scale quilt from her book.

I got 3 Shine blocks made this week! This long-awaited project has been slowly gathering pieces in a box until I was ready to finally do it for RSC2022. The ombre jelly roll I’m using for the colors doesn’t have clear rainbow colors, so these are the reddish ones for this month. So happy to be finally doing this quilt. It’s a free pattern by Melissa Corry.

So here is my first Cozy Stars “super block”. I made 4 stars in each color last year as part of RSC2021 but went to sew the top together & was not feelin’ it. So I set it aside for the end of the year to think. I decided to snowball the centers to fill in all that white between the blocks & love the secondary pattern it creates. So that’s going to happen each month. Pattern is from the Pat Sloan QAL called Cozy Things. I found this Seminole Patchwork tutorial & am experimenting with it for the sashing. I’m thinking each block gets its same color on the left & bottom. Then when I decide on the layout, the top & bottom of the quilt will have corresponding colors against each block.

In some fun sewing, I raided my bags of tiny scraps & made some slabs. For what? Dunno. But I can play & use up scraps each month, then figure out what to do with them later. It’s relaxing sewing.

In more fun sewing, I made 4 blocks for the Covered in Love Jan/Feb Block Drive. She wants them sewed to old sheets & I’m guessing that starching the foundation sheet pieces might have helped my blocks be more square. Will try that on the next set I make! She did specify that wonky was fine. Whew.

And in some non-RSC2022 sewing this week, I made 16 more blocks for my Rockabilly Swing by Bonnie Hunter. I keep thinking these are going to use up so many scraps, but the pieces are so tiny, it doesn’t make much of a dent in my piles. (eye roll)

Here’s a little freebie project that I’m unsure of how it’s going to end up. For months I downloaded the free Modern Blocks each week from Amy Ellis & love them. I like this Scraps block & started some as L&E’s this week. I got four done & am debating whether I want lots of colors or if I want to alternate more reds with a different block to make a quilt. So for now I’m sewing the low-volume pieces as L&E’s & looking at it on the design wall to decide what to do. Thoughts?

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022-January red week 1

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This week has been a lot of planning & cutting. I figured out the setting & chose the blocks I want to do for this long-awaited quilt. I allocated my chosen blocks to the various colors & cut the reds.

This low-volume scrappy quilt by Gigi’s Thimble is next on my list of 2022 projects. I got all the low-volumes cut & the various colors of charm squares collected or cut. They need to be sub-cut but I’ll do that month by month.

I’ve been planning to do Catching Rainbows by Bonnie Hunter as soon as I saw her working on it. I got the pattern on release day & set aside for RSC2022. There’s a lot of cutting to do for this quilt, so I’ve got the 7 red blocks all cut & some of the pinks.

Dancing Stars by Amy Ellis is a foundation pieced project that I’m doing with a batik layer cake I’ve had for a long time. I purchased a gray grunge for the background. The gray & whites are cut & most of the colored squares, plus the patterns are copied onto foundation paper. Ready to start sewing!

In other sewing news, I’m making a September Sky by Bonnie Hunter for Christmas 2022, but it’s going to be in scrappy green & yellow. I made all 64 of the green 9-patches so half the blocks for the quilt are done. I’ll set this aside & make the scrappy yellow stars later. But it feels good to have these done.