Sunshine on My Scrap Pile

We have finally been getting lots of snow time here in the Salt Lake Valley. The snow itself doesn’t seem to accumulate or stick around long here in the valley, but hopefully it is more copious in the mountains surrounding us. Like I said, it’s snow TIME - days of the white stuff (or rain) coming down, clearing up, clouding up, rinse and repeat. I just wish there was more white (snow) and less gray (clouds, wet streets, moods). 

And so, as usual, I turn to my sewing studio where it’s Yellow February for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This week I decided to start off with these two Spring Stars. I’m doing two per month (they’ll finish at 12” each) so that I’ll have 20 to assemble into a quilt come the end of the year. 

Uh-oh. I just saw my mistake!! REALLY?!? How could I not see it when I sewed it? When I pressed the block then slapped it up on the design board? When I edited the picture?? Sheesh. It’s an easy fix, though, so I guess that’ll be the first thing on my sewing agenda today. 

Unlike the blocks above, the 20 small little square-in-square blocks below are supposed to go this way and that. Ten are bordered in whites and ten in black. They’re only 4.5” each so far. Many, many more to go over the year.

I also did one other yellow block which I showed on my mid-week post. It isn’t really for an RSC project, but for a Block-of-the-Month quilt that I abandoned last year (due to Covid lockdowns at the local quilt shop). I needed three more blocks, and since I had yellows out, that’s what I made. Oh, on that post you can also see my progress for this week on the Stay At Home Round Robin. 

After that I decided it was time to tackle the first yellow scraps quilt for Quilts for Kids. Among the scraps I was given to play with was a Duck, Duck Goose partial panel with the words and 12 little printed squares. There were six “Duck, Duck” blocks with Orange and blue borders and six “Goose” blocks with yellow and Orange borders. And other scraps. This is what I was able to cobble together.

It would’ve looked better if I could’ve switched the blue Duck print in the center with the yellow used for the wide sides, but the cut of the pieces I had to work with didn’t allow it. There was a lot of small piecing and “making do” with what I had, but that’s the fun and challenge of it! In the end, there’ll be a serviceable quilt that some kid will love, design aesthetics aside.

Duck, Duck Goose is about 38x46. The backing was pieced together with some of the same fabrics (different color way) and it’s all sandwiched together now, waiting for me to quilt it this weekend. 

A few days ago I got a call from Laura, who is my granddaughter London’s other grandma (London’s mom’s mom). We’ve been friends since before London was born (in fact, we planned and hosted the baby shower together all those years ago). Anyway, in our conversation, Laura told me how much everyone loves the kitty quilt I made for London. Apparently Londy brings it to Laura’s house when she sleeps over, and Laura’s six-year-old grandson Xander always cries when London takes it back home with her. So I offered to make Xander a quilt, which then meant I also have to make one for his three-year-old brother Brody. Xander’s HAS to be a kitty quilt, but Brody’s can be anything. I have 2 matching dinosaur panels that will be perfect; I’ll make them both this summer - one for Brody and one for Quilts for Kids. But back to the kitty quilt...

I decided there was no time like the present to start on the first “litter” of kittens.

This arrangement of a Mom-cat (my own pattern) and the kittens (Sally’s pattern) is different than the litters of kittens I made for three quilts for my granddaughters back in 2016, which you can see HERE. Instead of having a mom and 12 kittens per litter (too much work for her AND for me, hehe), these litters will only number five along with the mom.  I can make a nice-sized kid quilt out of nine cat families if I sash each 18” litter and add a nice border. I’ve already got another yellow cat family cut out and ready to sew. I’ll also add a couple blue families, a couple green families, and three other colors (I’m thinking orange, purple and brown or red). These quilts aren’t promised until summer, so I can follow along with the monthly RSC colors.

And finally, I got the next ten blocks cut out for my Wishing Ring quilt. 

Since I was sewing on kitty blocks and doing a lot of cutting, my Sewing Supervisor of the Day was Darla.  She was curious to see how kittens are made.