June Recap and Happy July!

June was a great month, wasn’t it? It was yellow in the studio and yellow and sunshine-y outside. Once again I managed (this time by the skin of my teeth) to get my yellow sewing goals, kennel quilts and other personal donation quilt commitments done. No thanks go to Darla or Alfie, my feline supervisors. They were too busy enjoying the Cat Days of Summer, napping away in their favorite spots. Somehow, I managed without them. I think they may be getting ready for Pets on Quilts (see badge in sidebar).

The collage above shows my RSC blocks for June: 16 - 4.5” bowties; 1 crumb slab block  that was made into a kennel quilt (more on that in a minute); 4 - 8.5” crumb blocks to add to the ones I made last year; 2 selvage columns; 13 - 6.5” Friendship Stars; 2 Geese Migration blocks; 5 bookshelf blocks (which make one whole “shelf"); and 12 - 6.5” plus blocks. Total = 63.  Linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge participants.

My yellow crayon was already done from last year, so I made all the remaining crayon color blocks (4) and finished up the Color Me Crayon Quilt, which I wrote about Thursday, HERE. It is my first 2017 RSC finish.

I started another yellow project - a pineapple quilt - but only got most of it cut out. It will go into my third quarter goals for the Finish Along.  But I want to show you the great vintage sheet that cousin Kim found for me - it’s in the bottom of the picture below. Pineapples!  It’s going to be the backing and possibly the binding, too.

It was a mad dash over the last couple days to get the kennel quilts done this month. At the beginning of the month, before I started on the scrap blocks, I pieced about a half dozen of them. But then good ol’ Sally at The Objects of Design sent me some great selvages, and several of them had generous amounts of kitty fabric still on them. How could I not use those? So I pieced some more tops. Then there was my yellow crumb slab - another kennel quilt. I finally ended up with 12.

First, these three. In these I used the blocks and pieces and other black and white bits (see the animal print backing?) left over from a quilt I did for my brother-in-law last February.

I matched up Sally’s generous selvages with the last of my pink Laurel Burch kitty fabric to make two pink quilts.

Other leftover blocks (blue and some green) that were left over from my Rainbow Rails vintage sheet quilt were added to some blue strips of kitty fabric that I had leftover from the three kitty quilts I made last year for my granddaughters. By the way, if you can go back through my quilt gallery (link is just under the header) to refer to the quilts I’m talking about if you care to.

The fishy flannel, below, was a small piece I found in a thrift store for 69c, and it did a couple kennel quilt backs.

More kitty print fabric, a yellow scrappy backing and another great selvage from Sally.

Here is an out-of-focus close-up (sorry) of that paw-some selvage fabric. I’m surprised Molly let Sally send it.

And finally, the quilt made from the yellow crumb slab (both front and back) AND my favorite - a total hodgepodge of leftover scraps of cat fabric. Waste not, want not, right?

The color for July in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is blue. I have a large drawerful of blue scraps. Along with my blue blocks this month, my goal is to make 2 pillow shams to cover either the 2 Euro-sized pillows or the two large rectangle pillows for our bed to match the Aria quilt I finished last fall.

My Weight Watchers is going well. I’ve pretty much learned the program and have settled in for the long haul. I had a very successful first weigh in (lost 4 pounds). Although I don’t plan on giving weekly updates (you’re welcome), I may mention my progress now and then.

One final thing. I added a “Subscribe by Email” widget to my sidebar, if that makes it easier for some of you.  :-)  And now...... back to sewing.