More Yellow Sewing

Can you tell it’s winter? If you live in the US, of course you can! According to the National Weather Service, there is currently more snow on the ground in the USA (73% of the country) than at any previous time in modern record-keeping. In reading a bit further, however, we learn that they’ve only been tracking that statistic since 2003. But still. I think we can all be grateful if we’re not living in Texas now, eh?

We got our fair share of snow in Salt Lake over a couple days this week - well over a foot here on the valley floor. And the mountains surrounding us got absolutely plastered. It’s wonderful! We’ve got fantastic winter sports conditions for those who participate and lots of water for our reservoirs come spring for those of us who drink water, LOL.

This week in the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR), we were assigned Wonky (or other) Stars by this week’s hostess, Wendy. So, I did try the wonky stars. Really, I tried. But it seems I do wonky best when I’m not intending to, because when I really tried I kept wasting fabric and not covering the area I needed to. Geez, how hard can it be? It’s not rocket science, after all. (And speaking of rocket science, did you get to see NASA’s landing of Perseverance -“Percy” - on Mars?? It was amazing and so much more educational and watcher-friendly than I could have imagined!)

But I digress...

So, getting back to my SAHRR quilt top, I ended up piecing 6” (finished size) Friendship Star variation blocks for my next round. I’m a bit disappointed that the fabric I used (which is the same as in the Broken Wheel block at the very center) turned out looking mushy instead of crisp. I’m trying to use up several cuts of old Bonnie and Camille fabric. I love the print, but.... visual mush. In retrospect, I probably should’ve used the other green print that I used in the cornerstones of the flying geese round. Oh well.

So that brings the quilt measurements up to 42.5” across and 48.5” lengthwise with two rounds left to go. The next round, depending on what it is, may just be applied along the top and bottom to make it more rectangular. I’m thinking it’ll include some navy. I’m linking up to Wendy’s blog where everyone is sharing the progress on their quilts. It’s so interesting to see all the interpretations!

This week in the Yellow Month of February for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I decided it was high time to tackle my yellow strings before they tackled me. You think I’m kidding? When the dust settled, there were THIRTY THREE (yes, 33) yellow string blocks - and a much lighter yellow scrap bin!

If I add these string blocks to the 24 I already had on hand, I could easily make a totally yellow string quilt. But I’m not, at least for now. I’ll talk about that in a moment.  First, here is the little Dancing Zebras donation quilt. It finished at 39.5 x 46”. Quilting was just a simple loopy design. It is labeled and added to the new pile of donation quilts for Quilts for Kids (QFK).

Among all the boxes and bags of scraps that our QFK chapter gave me to make quilts with were lots of fugly scraps - blah colors, single strips, trimmings, etc.  As I sorted them, the wide strip of animal print fabric below declared that it would like some gold and brown and oddball scraps to join it for a party. (Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m just relaying the message).  So I obliged.  Here’s the top half:

And here’s the bottom half. It sure did eat up a lot of junk scraps. And I don’t think there are any two strips of the same width. I’ll get a single picture of the quilt top next week after it’s basted and quilted. 

Finally, I’ve started on what I hope will be the 4th and final donation quilt from the yellow/gold scraps. The photo below is NOT A LAYOUT. It’s just the first step in my design (and I do use that word loosely) process which allows me to see if/when I have enough strips, blocks, scraps and bits to cover an area sufficiently sized for a kid quilt. 

This is where some of those string blocks may come into play. I also made several yellow 9-patch blocks. I can still make crumb blocks or Happy blocks, or use the one-of-a-kind novelty strips or whatever to fill it out. This is just the beginning. The scraps themselves will tell me where to go. Wait. Oh heck, you know what I mean. 

Stay warm, stay safe and stay healthy.