October in the Scrap Patch

Our pumpkins are all picked, sorted and most of them have been given to family. I think we'll make a quick weekend trip up to Idaho in the next week or two to visit daughter Emily and family who moved there from Colorado just before school started.  Our garden has nothing left in it but three tomato bushes who haven't read the memo yet that autumn is here. They're still producing, and so we'll keep picking tomatoes until we can't. But the patio furniture is going into hibernation this weekend. I'm ready.

I also plan to decorate the house for autumn this weekend. First, however, I want to finish the pumpkin wall hanging I'm working on. (Punkin' Patch from String Frenzy by Bonnie Hunter).  The pumpkin blocks are all sewn and in formation. I used lots of gray scraps for the background. The green patchwork border is all sewn together, and the top border is attached to the quilt. The sides and bottom are just pinned. Finishing up the border won't take long, then I can sandwich the whole thing up and quilt it. Oh, and then bind it and add a hanging sleeve. I'm pretty sure I can finish today. It should measure about 28x42".

The backing will be one of these three orange fabrics. The center one is my favorite, and the one on the right is next favorite. That's why I probably won't use them. The method to that madness is that I'll save them for the front of a gender-neutral kids quilt. So I'll probably use the one on the left. I'd like to have some bright orange binding, but I'll check to see what I have for that. It may end up green or gray.

For October, the colors selected for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are dark neutrals; black, gray, brown. I dug in my scraps to get the gray backgrounds for the Punkin' Patch quilt above, but otherwise haven't sewn any of my ongoing RSC blocks yet. I've got the rest of the large drawerful of  black and gray scraps roughly sorted by value, with the strings in separate piles. Next, I'll tackle my brown drawer and combine the two. I think I'll have enough to do at least two, possibly three quilts. But in the meantime, we can all hop over to the Scrappy Saturday post because there's always lots of good scrappy inspiration there!

From these scraps, I'll first do the tumbler blocks for my Gumdrops rainbow tumbler quilt of fabric and selvages. That'll give me time to select a quilt pattern or two for these scraps. I'm thinking of a Jacob's Ladder-type quilt (HSTs and 4-patches) with dark/light values for one of the quilts and some sort of string quilt for the other. After that, I may just make crumb blocks and alternate them with some wild colors or multi-colored prints and play on the design board. A lot of creative possibilities to look forward to!

Cousin Kim and I joined a Block of the Month class at one of our local quilt stores. I don't think I've shown my first block(s).  The purple one is for the class (their fabrics) and the multi-and-blue one is a second block I made for a potential kids quilt. I have a lot of that print fabric and will just follow along with the BOM blocks and add a second one for this quilt.

Have a beautiful autumn weekend everyone! Unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere (Jenny, I know YOU are) - then have a nice spring weekend!

Good Fortune and Bad Fortune

So, first the bad. My trusty little iron died. It was about 3-4 years old, the longest I’ve ever had one of the little ones. (The big weight-lifting caliber Rowena still functions just fine, dammit!) I use the little one almost daily. Since it plugs directly into the multi-outlet surge protector (like the sewing machines), everything gets turned off when I’m finished working (which really means playing) for the day. Bruce, an electrical engineer, was able to fix it, but it was not designed to be put back together. Insert sad face here! So, I’ll be using an Amazon gift card I got for Mother’s Day to buy a new one - and some new quilting gloves. Since the weekend, I’ve quilted 4 small baby quilts for Quilts for Kids and finally really LOOKED at my poor gloves. They're hole-y and worn out, so I’ve got some serious online quilty shopping to do.

And speaking of Mother’s Day, which was over 3 weeks ago I realize, I also was given an orchid. I snapped a picture of it to prove I’ve managed to keep it alive for three weeks so far. My green thumb is definitely limited to the outdoor garden, not indoor plants and flowers. Here is a picture of the orchid along with some matching irises (pure “coinkydink") from the yard.

I won’t regale you with all the false starts I had in the sewing room today that fall under the category of Bad Fortune. Instead, here is my Good Fortune quilt that I finally added the binding to this afternoon. YAY!  It finished at 55x69” - I intentionally left out one of the borders. This was Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt-Along quilt for 2018-2019, and the first Bonnie Hunter quilt that I’ve finished - but not the last!

The back is the 2-tone green print that I’ve had in my stash for a few years.  The quilting I did was free-motion flowers, swirls, feathers and anything else I wanted to practice on. It actually looks pretty OK. You can kinda/sorta see parts of it in the picture below.  This was goal #2 on my Finish-Along list for the second quarter. You can see my list here.

Since we were out in the garden snapping pictures of Good Fortune, I had to take some more pictures of the garden. After all, I hadn’t taken any pictures since Monday. HAHA! Actually, we had some incredible weather in the high seventies/low eighties (F) on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Today it’s been raining and is breezy again. I guess those two days were our summer......) Anyway, look at the difference in some of these pictures!

So, this is my Chihuly rose; it’s a floribunda. The picture on the left was taken Monday, June 3 and the one on the left (different angle and time of day) was taken today, June 6.

Chihuly Rose

And this red climbing rose and irises are shown on Monday (left) and Thursday (today, right)

Our vegetable plants have gone nuts and are finally growing by leaps and bounds. Even one of our tomato plants has a tomato!

I know I’ve shown this vignette under the apricot a time or two already this spring with the bird bath, the miniature roses, Boomer’s headstone and the hollyhocks. But just look at how those hollyhocks have taken off. They’ll be blooming soon!

Now, I’m off to see if I still have time to pick a goal for June for One Monthly Goal (OMG) and link up.  

Quilty Plans for 2019

First of all, Happy New Year to all of you. May 2019 be happy, healthy and full of all good things for you! I’ve been putting off writing this Plan for 2019 post because I can’t quite define, or wrap my head around, what exactly I want to do quilting-wise this year. Oh, I have plenty of ideas and fabric, but I’m just not sure how well I can describe them. It feels to me like a bunch of floating ideas, not a cohesive plan. But here goes....

I try to be an organized person. After working for about 35 years outside the home, I was adept at keeping a planner, making schedules and lists and sticking to them. When I retired, it was a priority of mine to let go of timetables, planners, schedules. Even sleeping in (until 8:00 am!) was a luxury. But I found my footing over several years and now find that I need to add some of that back in. The operative word here being some.  This is the 3rd year that I’m using a planner again. This year I’m trying the Quilter’s Planner. It is expensive, detailed, but not in the ways I want. It’s too big and there’s so much stuff I’m not interested in. Last year I just bought a planner at Barnes & Noble that seemed to suit my needs. But it was too generic and bare bones. Too small. Back in 2017 I used Lori Holt’s Scrappy Project Planner. We are only a few days into 2019, and I can already tell you that going forward (2020 and beyond) I’ll be going back to Lori’s Scrappy Project Planner. It is just right! (Are you thinking of Goldilocks and the Three Bears here?)  I still use some of the leftover Scrappy Project Planner pages to supplement my other books. Live and learn.

The online tools I use to keep me on track (insert sound of whip cracking here) are the Finish-Along goal-setting and finishing link-ups (with prizes!).  We set our own quarterly goals and work toward them. No pressure, just self-accountability. When we finish a project, we blog about it, link up to their end-of-quarter post and become eligible for prizes. It’s the same concept for OMG - One Monthly Goal - only that’s done on a monthly basis. Again, it’s a project we choose to work toward completing. No penalty for not finishing, but eligibility for prize incentives if we do. But my favorite of all is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - working with an assigned color every month, we work through our scraps to make whatever we want. The buttons and links for these are on my right sidebar if you’d like to learn more about them.

Now, let’s get down to business. Generally speaking, I want to do more charity quilting. Last year I made some quilts for Quilty Hugs (see link on sidebar) and one at year-end for Quilts for Kids. In 2017 (and a few in 2018) I made lots of kennel quilts for the local Best Friends Animal Society. This year, I plan to participate with all three charities. I have no family gift quilts I need to make (after Saguaro Sunset, which I’ll talk about in a minute) and my closets are overflowing with quilts. Literally! I’ve already contacted our (family) contractor Jeff and spoken to him about expanding our hall linen closet. No lie. I’ve wanted to do it since we moved in 15 years ago, but it will happen this spring.


Like everyone else, I’m doing string scraps this year. I believe 2019 is Year of the String. At Christmastime, I treated myself to two new books, both published at the end of the year and both about string quilting.

Left: Strip Quilt Secrets by Diane Knott. My favorite of the two; very do-able projects (including a selvage project). You can check it out HERE.

Right: Bonnie Hunter’s String Frenzy. To get an autographed copy, check out Bonnie’s blog (full-price is charged, but you get a free extra pattern download). Or check out other retailers. HERE is a link to the publisher, C&T Publishing.

So that moves me on to my favorite subject - the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month, our organizer and leader, Angela of SoScrappy, has called the color RED for January. Our weekly Saturday link-up is HERE.

This week I tackled my selvages. I had hoped not to have to do any selvage project this year, but they keep accumulating. I swear, this is the last year for selvages. I’m not going to save them anymore!!  So, I’ve got 2 small selvage projects going. Last year I made 6.5” selvage blocks, but then made some 4.5” blocks when the colors ran low and I couldn’t make the full 6.5”.  So, I’m supplementing those smaller blocks with any remaining colored selvages in the color of the month and pairing them with low-volume and color background fabrics to make 8.5” (unfinished size) 4-patches. Eventually, I hope to get a smallish donation quilt out of them.

My multi-colored selvages - those that do not identify with a particular color family - have grown completely out of control.  Witness these two boxes full (not sorted; some obviously will fit in with a particular color.

Since I bought myself a (used) Go! Baby cutter last fall, and had the tumbler die, I decided to pair multi-colored selvages with single color tumblers. I made 5” selvage blocks, ran them through the cutter, then cut red tumblers and sewed together.

Yield: One red scrappy tumbler row, measuring approximately 39” across. I’ll make one of these every month in the monthly color and have a rainbow quilt in 10 months. I can add a border or two to expand it to whatever size I’ll need for donation and use up my selvages in the process.

I haven’t tackled my strings yet, although I’m planning at least two multi-colored string projects (again, strings from random scraps that don’t fit into a particular color family) and one RSC project where I’ll make string blocks in the monthly color. I have a week or two to make a final decision on that pattern.

What I did tackle this week were some scrappy red chunks so that I could make a test block of two of the blocks I’m definitely doing for this year’s RSC.  The first is Crackers. I love this block so much; it’s easy and fun to make.

I’ll be using black on white backgrounds for these. In fact, I’ve already pulled some additional fabric in red, white and black with scottie dogs on it to make dozens of these blocks into a donation quilt this month.  Maybe one thing I’ll be doing is making a small kids’ donation quilt in the color of the month. We’ll see how that pans out. I’ll have more pictures and updates on this as the month progresses.

The other block I’m doing is Jen Kingwell’s Little White Dove block. You can click THIS LINK  for the pattern.  But the picture that got my juices flowing was HERE.  And this is my first test block. More to follow (hopefully at least 4 per color) as the month progresses.

That’s all for my rainbow projects for this week, but I did make progress on Saguaro Sunset. This is the quilt I’m making for my SIL and BIL for when we go to visit them in Arizona next month.  It will be 12 cacti set in three rows of four, with the sunset fading from darker at the top to lighter at the bottom. I bought an ombre fabric (but not enough) for the background. So, I found a similar ombre and bought a couple yards of that to cut up for borders and use here an there.

After piecing the first row, I decided that I needed to forego the pattern and just cut the background pieces in 2.5” squares to better control the gradation of color. Hence the haphazard pinning and piecing you see here.

The above picture is how it looked at the beginning of the week. In the picture below, I’ve pieced one cactus in the second row and am OK with the colors. My hope is to make substantial progress on this second row in the coming week.

That’s about it from here. Today I have to go out and pick up Bernadette (my Bernina) who is ready to come home from the “spa” (annual servicing). I got an email on Thursday night that she was ready, but the store was closed for inventory yesterday. So today it is. And then I have to head south down to Thimbles & Threads (The Quilter’s Lodge) to pick up an order. They had some beautiful masculine fabric on sale at year-end online. I’m trying to make more boy- or masculine-themed donation quilts this year. And finally, I have a donation quilt to drop off. But first I have floors to clean before I can get my shower. Then I’ll have lunch and head out to run the errands. With a little luck, I might be able to squeeze in a couple hours of sewing today. If not, well, there’s always tomorrow!!

Good Fortune Pt. 5, Zip Pouch and Merry Christmas!

I’ve been stitching along with Bonnie Hunter’s Good Fortune Mystery Quilt-along. I’m only doing half (or slightly more) of the counts she’s giving us, but I’m keeping up. After the reveal, I can decide how large I want my quilt to be. Anyway, here are my Part 5 pieces. I really enjoyed making these! Come check out everyone’s participation over at the Mystery Monday Part 5 Linkup!

Yesterday I started on a new quilt, Saguaro Sunset, a free pattern by Kairlee Oakes.  This will be for my sister- and brother-in-law when we go to visit them in Arizona in February. They love and collect cacti.

The quilt contains 12 cacti, set four across and three down. Instead of a solid background, I’m using an ombre fabric and hoping to piece it to (roughly) represent an Arizona Sunset. So, the top four cacti will have the dark purples and oranges.  The middle four cacti will have the orange-reds, oranges and orange-yellows. And the lower four cacti will have the range of yellows, medium to light.

I hope I can pull it off. There is sashing involved, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to get more fabric. But the piecing itself is fairly straight forward.

Today, in addition to baking cookies (just enough for a small family gathering), I made myself a long-awaited zip pouch for my colored pencils. I use the pencils a lot when designing quilts (like Lattice Birds, and All You Need is Love), so with the new year around the corner, I knew it was time to corral these pencils in something cute.

I used that way cute colored pencil fabric (by Tamara Kate, “kayajoy” on Spoonflower) on the outside and quilted it with s simple loop design. The inside is a piece of regular pencil fabric I got who-knows-where.

And the pencils fit great. In fact, there’s enough room for me to add to my collection. Santa, are you listening??

Finally, I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I appreciate you all reading along and commenting and just being great friends. May your Holidays be wonderful and filled with love and good health.

Darla and Alfalfa would also like to add their greetings, especially to Molly and Buddy, Trixie,  Smitty and Sadie, and “cousins” Emmett, Bella, Pashmina, Teddy and George. Alfie says he’s been as good as he can be and promises that this will be him and Darla tonight:

HA!  Bruce and I know better. We’re pretty sure that as soon as we go to bed, THIS is what Alfie and Darla will be doing:

Good Fortune, the Beginning!

Welcome to my little corner of the quilting world! I’ve been absent for about a week because it’s been crazy (by design) around here with Thanksgiving, family, and our alternate celebration FIESTA. That’s where we get together (those who celebrated elsewhere at Thanksgiving) and have Mexican food. Yeah - by the end of next week we’re sick of turkey AND Mexican food. LOL.

Even though I haven’t finished up On Ringo Lake - the mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter generously provided for us last year (although the pieces are all sewn and the quilt top is currently under assembly) -  I am venturing into this year’s mystery, Good Fortune.

Here are my units for Clue #1.  Lots of sweet four-patches. I switched from red to hot pink because I have so much more pink in my stash (read: granddaughters) and I’m trying to use scraps. Also, some of my red stash is earmarked for other things, so pink it is.

This year, I’m taking Bonnie’s suggestion and only doing a fraction of the specified number of units for each clue. I want to participate and sew some of each the units, but I’m not going to kill myself trying to get it all done and assembled during the Holidays. However, I am linking up to Bonnie’s Clue #1 linky party HERE. If you are interested, you can read about this year’s mystery quilt, Good Fortune, at her Quiltville blog. Click on the Good Fortune Mystery tab (here). She has all the information there.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Right now I’ve got two other quilting projects that have high priority for the next couple weeks.

The first of my priorities is All You Need is Love, which will be a Christmas present for my daughter and needs to be mailed within the next 10 days or so.

Here it is after I added the aqua round a couple weeks ago. I swore it wasn’t wonky, but just looking odd because the top was pinned to the design board and the bottom half was just hanging. But it really, really bugged me. Today I took it down from the design wall, laid it flat on my work tables, pressed it with Best Press and measured it.

Um, yeah, it’s wonky. An inch off from top to bottom. Surprise, surprise.

The aqua border has been removed. I measured around the hearts border and they were only a quarter inch off, so I figured out where to cinch that up. Now I’ll re-add the aqua strip after pressing and trimming it to the exact size before sewing it on. That’s what I get for just sewing it on willy-nilly to begin with.

Then I can add the final blocks, strips and corner medallions, which are all sewn and ready to go. I’ll have a picture of the entire top this weekend.

My second priority is quilting a large quilt for Cousin Kim. We basted it together last week. The quilt is a Hunter’s Star that will be a present for her son (I can say that because he doesn’t read my blog). I’ll show a picture of that, too, when it’s all quilted. I told her that it would be done between the 5th-10th of December, which should give her plenty time to bind it before the big day. As I’ll be wrestling quilting it on my domestic Bernina with a relatively small harp space, I’m not looking forward to quilting it. Luckily, she has decided on a simple loop design, so it will be easy enough to just pace myself and get through it over the next week or so. I’ll share a picture when that’s done.

Finally, I’ll do a November recap post on Thursday or Friday to show all my December finishes, including the Christmas Tree Skirt that is now in the wild, under the tree!  :-)  Have a great week!!

On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt Part 1

Along with hundreds, if not thousands, of other quilters across the country/world, I am participating in Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt-along. This year, Bonnie’s inspiration was taken from a family visit to Minnesota and Ringo Lake.  The colors she chose were aqua blue, coral/melon, chocolate brown and neutrals of white to ivory. Since I always try to use my stash first, I switched the chocolate brown to dark grays. The colors look great together.

Our first step was to sew dozens of small nine-patches. Bonnie gave lots of great time-saving and accuracy tips for us, and in no time at all, my patches were finished and trimmed. I can hardly wait for Step 2, which will be released on Friday. I’m linking up to Bonnie’s weekly sharing post, HERE.

If you are new to my blog, welcome! I’m an avid quitter who blogs once or twice a week, mostly about my quilting. But sometimes I add in other creative pursuits (stitching, gardening), our cats’ antics, and occasionally personal stuff. 

Meanwhile this week, this is on the design board, just plastered up there. The blocks are only partially trimmed, and I’m just beginning to sew them together. It will basically be a medallion layout using most of the colors of the rainbow. Stay tuned!

And I’m quilting the Tulips quilt this week for a friendChristmas present. I really need to finish it off this week so I can pass it on to my buddy Terri to do the binding. Terri and I both sewed the tulips, then I sashed it. Now it’s basted and ready for quilting.

So much quilting, so little time!  See you back here on Saturday for Rainbow Scrap Saturday!