Crayon Quilt Finished!

I was hoping to finish this quilt before month-end, and I did. The pattern is Color Me by Emily Herrick, but I added an additional crayon (aqua/teal) to make it bigger and fit in better with my monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors. This was so easy and so much fun - and a great way to use up scraps. I started it last summer and wanted to finish it this summer so that all my rainbow scrap quilts wouldn’t finish up at the same time. That happened to me last year and it took me months to get them all done (in addition to Christmas quilts).

So Color Me finished at 51x68”. The batting is my usual Warm & Plush. The background is a white on white print I had just enough of, the backing and binding are this crayon print that I picked up on the local shop hop earlier this month.

The backing is pretty basic and not too exciting. I would have loved it if the print had contained some greens and pinks, but that’s just me.  Below is a picture I snapped on the floor of the living room. Not a great showcase for the quilt exactly, but it does show all the textural goodness after it was washed.

I spent several days quilting this, trying new-to-me things. First, I did the white sashing between the crayons. I was inspired by Lori Kennedy of The Inbox Jaunt. Between her blog, Instagram and Pinterest (I have all my favorites pinned) and her new book Free Motion Quilting 1-2-3) which I bought a couple months ago, the only problem was narrowing down the ideas. Some I tried and just couldn’t “grock”, even after practice (case in point; the motif between the aqua and green, below). It’s no secret to me that my brain works differently, LOL. But other patterns I tried I really loved.

The crayons were all quilted with what I call a sine wave.  Easy, zen, not necessarily even from patch to patch but I don’t really care about that.

My favorite motif was the little curvy line with bubbles (mine have 3 instead of 5) between the yellow and orange crayons and in another spot, too.

All the crayons had swirls in the tip and dense quilting (either small stippling or pebbling) around the tip to make them stand out.

I also quilted waves, zig-zags, leaves and more with varying amounts of success. The border ended up being a wavy line with hearts, with the exception of the first 3 motifs, which started as leaves before morphing into hearts. Like I said, my brain is different - it had already carved a mental heart path and didn’t want to do leaves.

So, Color Me is my 7th quilt finish this quarter (I am not counting those 4 whole-cloth flannel baby quilts that I showed in the last post). This one was #2 on my Quarter 2 Finish Along Goals. But, there I ran into a problem. It seems that when I posted my list back in April, I didn’t link up properly to the Finish Along link party, and my post never appeared to them. So, have I been toiling in vain? No! Although I am not eligible for the quarter-end linky party and prizes, the main motivation for me is to make goals and stick to them. Out of the 7 quilts I had listed as goals, I finished five of them. Not bad, especially considering that I also finished six baby quilts and countless kennel quilts that were not on the list.

**pats self on back**  

I may be an airhead, but I can be a productive one!

By the way, just a reminder that you can check out my Quilt Gallery page any time. The link is right under the blog header. I’ll be back on Saturday with a yellow scrap recap and the start of a new color for July!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday and
Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Slow Summer Sewing Week

Where did this past week go? Seriously, it’s like the days just vanished before I knew it. I can remember a few highlights, so to prove I was not totally comatose for the last 7 days, I feel some things need to be related here.



First, I finished the four baby quilts for the local church quilt charity. They will go to the Salt Lake Refugee Center. This is a picture before they were washed. They’re all flannel, both sides, although the bindings are not.
I told the ladies that I have four more quilts to do over the next few months for their next drive. I knew I couldn't get them done in time for the collection deadline on Friday!

On Tuesday, I finally re-joined Weight Watchers. For the better part of a year, I`ve been trying to psyche myself up to get healthy - to actually take the steps, that is. My decision to join the family females who are going to Africa next year was what finally (pardon the pun) tipped the scales in favor of getting moving on a serious lifestyle change. Not a diet, but a full-fledged plan to be more active, eat healthier (and less perhaps) and take better care of myself. I’m 63 and I want to be around another couple decades.


So, Weight Watchers was Tuesday, and the rest of the day and most of Wednesday was, after moving around doing yard work and housework, spent learning the program. And then shopping for more healthy groceries. It seems we NEVER have enough fruit around here because we eat a lot of it. So, now I will plan to go to the store 2-3 times per week. Our local store has just rearranged the interior shelving (not the outer areas of the store like produce, dairy, meats, deli, etc) and it’s a nightmare. So, armed with my shopping list, it`s like going on a scavenger hunt. Luckily, I enjoy grocery shopping.


I did finish up working on my yellow scraps, making my yellow crumbs into a slab. This will be the top to one of the 12 kennel quilts I’ve matched up with batting and backings.


So now I have a pile of kennel quilts with fronts, backs and battings (Franken-pieced) waiting to be sewn together then quilted. I also made and stuffed two doggie bed pillows with sewing and batting scraps. They just need to be stitched closed. I will have pictures of all that next week.


One day this week was spent tending 4 of my sweet grandkids. We had a blast playing games indoors. I brought along our Candyland and Chutes & Ladders games because no one plays them here anymore, LOL. And it was a good thing I brought them, because grandson Hunter was happy I brought Candyland because their game was “broken”.

Finally, I stitched my crayons together and the quilt top is finished. It looks wonky pinned up on the design board, but I assure you it is even!

I even got it basted on Friday, and it is ready to begin quilting this weekend. I think I`d like to use it as a practice piece to learn some border treatments (a la Lori Kennedy and her current challenge at The Inbox Jaunt).

Finally, the month and quarter are drawing to a close, so I will probably do a mid-week post to recap all my June Rainbow Scrap progress. As well, I will do a recap of my 2nd Quarter Finish-Along goals and progress, BUT..... it seems that when I posted my goals for this quarter, I did not link up correctly to the Finish Along. So, I am not “official” this quarter. But that’s OK - it helps keep me on track. I still want to see how I did. It’s also a good time for me to update my quilt gallery and begin thinking of quilting goals for next quarter.

Weight goals, quilting goals...... Yep, I’m “goal-den” this month.

Linking up to Angela’s So Scrappy blog for Rainbow Scrap Saturday.

Starting the Red Scraps

This month, Angela chose red as our color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have a few red scraps, but not as many as most other colors.  When we had red as an RSC color last fall, I had and used tons of red scraps, leaving only a few behind. So, although I did add to it with some Christmas scraps, trimmings and whatnot, there are not as many as I normally like to work with. So, I confess to cutting into a couple red FQs (bought for the express purpose of rounding out my red “scraps”).

But I did get one thing sewn up so far; a red crayon!  Linking up my meager red offering to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday post for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Of all the projects I work on with the color each month, the crayon always seems to be the first. I guess that’s because I want to get as much variety in it before I chop scraps up too small to use. There are several duplicates in there, as always, but that’s just fine.

Here is the state of my red scraps. I also have some ancient cream with red yardage I hope to use up this month, as well as a lot of scraps that are mostly white with red. We will see what develops.

I’ve been working on sewing this quilt top together. I have it laid out sideways on my design board, but have flipped the picture so you can see the correct orientation. Two out of six rows are sewn.  And then the borders. This will be a priority this week so I can get it into a flimsy state and free up my design board.

Finally, I finished the quilting on my penultimate RSC16 project, the scrappy 16-patches. It is just a diagonal grid. What fun it was just to straight stitch with my walking foot again!

I will do a full reveal post later this week after I have trimmed, bound and washed it!

In hubby news, the surgery last Monday went well, but long-term lab results show they did not get all the cancer on either site of his forearm. So, there is another surgery scheduled on Wednesday to take more (hopefully just tissue). But first, we will meet with the plastic surgeon on Monday, who is coordinating with the actual oncology surgeon. I am doing Bruce’s daily wound care and dressing change, and it is a real “grown up moment” when you see the actual working tendons and arteries in his arm. His clothes are easy-on pants (a shopping trip was involved), and I have to drive him to the Trax station which takes him to work. He is on light duty and working as a docent instead of his usual job of building/engineering/computergeeking. And if the truth be known, it’s good for him (and me, LOL) to have him back in his regular routine, even if only for a few days before we go back to square one to “rinse and repeat”.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with my son Ryan and DIL Kim. We are really looking forward to that!  Have a wonderful week.

Another Scrappy, Happy Week!

This has been a cold week with lots of snow here in the Salt Lake Valley. It clears up for a day or so in between storms; brilliant sunshine and blue skies with glittering snow on the ground. Gorgeous. And then another storm comes in to cleanse the air and prevent pollution build-up. And so it goes. I don’t mind the snow - in fact I enjoy it -  because I`m retired. All I ever have to do is occasionally shovel the walkway for the mailman if hubby and the snowblower aren’t in the vicinity.  But since I’ve only come to live where there are four seasons in my adulthood (I grew up in sunny Southern California), I have never built a snowman. I ALMOST started one last Tuesday, but thought better of it.  :-)  I was in the front yard and could just imagine the neighbors wondering what this crazy ol’ broad was doing....

This week is the first week of PURPLE for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Angela’s So Scrappy blog. Lots of purple goodness to check out! But also, we veteran RSC’ers were asked to share some of our past makes. Rather than add them in here, I have created a GALLERY page (blue link, above, next to “Home”). It starts with my 2016 quilts and goes back to 2012. Enjoy!

So, this is what I got done this week, sewing-wise:

Rainbow Selvages. This is actually four columns; two in purple (or blue-purple) and two in red-purple. The like colors will eventually be sewn together into their own single column, but I figured it was easier to photograph them this way. Besides, each column will alternate from starting with a solid to starting with selvages, checkerboard fashion. So, in the end I’ll have to rearrange a section here and there. No biggie.

These were so fun to whip up! And for now they will go into their little pile and await other colored friends to join them throughout the year.  :-)

Crayons.  The light purple crayon below was done last year (August) when we had the month of misty purple/acid green or do-your-own-thing.  This week I sewed up the dark purple. They are sewn together because they are neighbors on the quilt.  Actually, their length will be the width of the quilt (before borders, etc.)

Planned for next week is the purple blocks of the Rainbow Bookshelf. And then some work with 2.5” scraps.

I found the picture of the warm version of the Improv Scrap Blocks flimsy to show. It has a back pieced for it and is just waiting its turn in line for quilting.

I just totally love it! The sashing is Kona Cream, and I questioned whether it “worked” or not at first. But I think it does. This quilt is set 6x8 blocks and will finish at 62”x72”.


Right now I am in the middle of quilting Rainbow Rails (the vintage sheet rail fence), then after that is the Cool Improv Scraps (like above, only in blues, greens, purple with black sashing), then the Warm Improv above, and finally the Rainbow Dresdens. They will all become goals for the Finish-Along 1st Quarter.

Finally, I stitched up a sleeping bag and pillows for one of my granddaughter’s American Girl dolls. I still need to run to JoAnn and get a 20” separating zipper and sew on the ribbon ties. But It’s fun to show it even at this stage. I took the opportunity to practice my free motion swirls, and as you can see, I do need practice! But it’s OK for this, right?  LOL

I’m feeling a sort of loss, not having kitty blocks to work on! Did you see Missouri Star Quilt Company’s tutorial for this week? It’s a cat quilt!!  I’m almost tempted.......   Almost, but not quite.