Friday, January 12, 2018

Another Blue Saturday

It’s been a good week of seeing family visiting from out of town and getting things done.    The weather has been mild (for a mountain valley winter), with highs averaging in the high forties and no snow.

Bruce and I have taken to mall-walking. We love it! Fashion Place Mall is about a mile from our house, and any time between 7am - 10am when the mall opens, you can find lots of people walking. The mall plays great music and there are two coffee shops that are open and a lot of old-timers congregate there afterwards. There are even parents and grandparents walking babes in strollers. And I love when we run into (metaphorically speaking) someone we know! Once the weather is nice, we’ll switch to walking in the neighborhood and at Wheeler Farm, a block from our house.

Anyway, there was also a lot of sewing happening this week. I have linked up to the Scrappy Saturday blog party and you can see lots of great blue happenings there. January is for our light-to-mid range blue scraps. 


These are my two Linked Squares blocks for January. I saw a quilt with these blocks in it on Pinterest, but there was no linked site or instructions, so I just figured it out on my own. The finished blocks will measure 16” and be set 4x5 in a rainbow quilt. I won’t use sashing, so it  should measure 64x80” when done. I’m thinking it will be a great 2018 start and finish for a donation purposes.

Next I tackled my selvages. Selvages reproduce in the dark, you know. They grow like mint in your garden. You can’t get rid of them. So, I made ten 6.5” squares of light blue selvages. The rest are going into a baggie, and at the end of the year I’ll give them away with my other color selvage leftovers.  


And finally I began some 6.5” quarter square log cabins. I had done several of these last year in mixed colors, trying to alternate light and dark colors. It was a failed experiment, and they reside in the parts department where they will eventually find a home in a donation quilt. In the meantime, here are my ten light blue (with some medium blue) quarter logs:

And since the logs and the selvages are the same size, I had to mix them just to see what that looked like. Hmmmm..... Well, they’re not really meant to go together, and this is still just January. My guess is that I’ll have plenty of both blocks by fall to make separate quilts. 


And then this happened this week...... Starry, Starry Day is a finished flimsy that is sandwiched and ready to be quilted. 
I’ll do that on Bernadette (my Bernina 550QE, returned from her annual “spa” treatment) this week. I haven’t decided on a quilting pattern yet, but I’m leaning toward simple lines or even ditch quilting. I think the only thing that would actually ruin it would be too too much (like matchstick) quilting. 

I’m so excited to have this one nearly complete and am planning on the reveal next weekend.




19 comments:

  1. Great blocks! But what happened to Friday? I thought I had missed a day. LOL! It's interesting to hear you talk about places I've been, or at least driven past recently. We had dinner in Fashion Place Mall one night, but didn't do any shopping. Years ago, that was THE mall in town! I haven't been to Wheeler Farm, but remember seeing signs, and I know my sis has been there.

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  2. Your projects are a beautiful sea of tranquility. And congratulations on finishing the friendship variation quilt top and then layering it. Sometimes I feel like that's the hardest part!

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  3. Starry, Starry Day is looking fine! Soon she'll be a completed quilt, hooray!

    I really like your linked squares block. That will make a neat quilt. I cleaned out all my light blue scraps and only managed to squeak out three string blocks. That color is my smallest scrap pile, oddly enough. I have tons of green, so I hope that color comes up next!

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  4. I really like your linked squares block. Looks like it goes together in log cabin fashion. What size square did you start with? I want to make a block for future reference; too many RSC projects already in the works.

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  5. Oh, those linky blocks look like a ton of fun! (As long as you keep your wits about you, though, right? I can see all kinds of possibilities for going astray!)
    And I'm really happy about Starry Starry Day! Such a beautiful quilt!

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  6. Those Linked Squares are great blocks, Cathy! It will be fun to see that one grow. All your blues are pretty, and hooray for finishing up your friendship stars, too!

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  7. Your post made me smile! Just imagined all those various folk walking round the mall - with their Fitbits I hope. My husband and I walk every day we can, I have a Fitbit and I think I may be getting a bit obsessional! Love your new RSC blocks. I'm sure at the end the of the year you will magic up some great quilts.

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  8. Beautiful blocks! Thanks for sharing on RSC ... :) Pat

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  9. Nice, what a pretty post, I'm enjoying seeing all the blues. Those linked squares are neat, almost like the letter Q, and your Starry Starry Day quilt is delightful.

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  10. Great use of scraps. I've not seen the linked squares but looks cute, fast and easy. In case I want a quickie I'll keep it in mind!

    Looking forward to the quilted Stars!

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  11. Love love love Starry Day. So many pretty colors. Have fun with the quilting. Looks like you are all set to get her finished up

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  12. Such a pretty quilt and it will be even better once quilted - enjoy!

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  13. Congrats! on getting Starry, Starry Day sewn up and layered for quilting. You've made lots of BLUE progress for the RSC, too!!

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  14. Beautiful blocks, and I love how the Selvage and the Log cabin work together!

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  15. Looks like you have plenty of inspiration for this year's RSC! I especially like the Linked Squares blocks. Quilting suggestion: instead of ditch quilting, stitch 1/4 inch from each side of the seams to outline your stars. Have fun, whatever you choose!

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  16. Lovely blocks there for RSC blues... certainly a lot of sewing in the quarter-square log blocks!

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  17. Starry, Starry Night looks fabulous! Good luck with the other blocks.

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  18. I love blue so I know I'm going to like all the blocks you create this month. You must be excited to be getting so close to completing Starry Starry Night. Glad to know that things multiply in your house too!

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