Sugar Block Club, Submissions Wanted and Fabric Diet

This year I am participating in the Sugar Block Club 3.0 with Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock. I actually participated a couple years ago, but after the second month it got into territory that my skills (at the time) would not allow me to follow. I just cannot “grock” paper piecing.  But I had completed two blocks (and in time since had created two more). So, I was thrilled this year when I learned they are not paper pieced and that the whole program is FREE.  Check it out here.

This is my block for this month, which is a variation on the classic Churn Dash Block.

The blocks this year will all be variations of classic blocks.  And this is my plan for completing this quilt. Since I had four blocks made and will need 20 (all at 12” finished) for a quilt, I plan to do two blocks per month for January - August (16), which will give me my 20. One will be the SBC block and the second will be another block of my choosing.  This month I already did my personal choice block, a Dutchman’s Puzzle block with Flying Geese. I needed the warm-up with the geese.

The fabric I am using is primarily (but not solely) Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry. I love hot pink and orange together. Always have, always will.  The background fabrics will range from white to cream to print-on-white - just a mix. I need to get more variation going there to make it look intentional (because it wasn’t originally!!).  Anyway, this is what the six blocks look like together pinned on my design board.  

The finished quilt will have sashing of some kind, and I am thinking of doing something outrageous, like a hot pink or orange sashing.  But I may end up just doing white. We will see come August......

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Pam Kellogg, Editor of Crazy Quilting Quarterly is calling for submissions for the SUMMER issue of CQQ.  You can find out about it HERE.  She is looking for crazy quilting work in summer themes like birds, birdhouses, butterflies, dragonflies, fruit (grapes, watermelon, cherries) cottages - anything that has a summer theme.  Pictures and tutorials welcome.  This is a picture of the February SPRING issue, which will be published on February 1. Don’t miss it!



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And on a note of unfinished business,  my “fabric diet” totals for December were not nearly as impressive as November's. But in my defense, I had planned  (and even announced) that I wanted to take advantage of year-end sales to stock up on solids. And I did! Total fabric IN was 25 yards, Total fabric out was 24 yards, for a net gain of 1 yard.

Out:
Used in 2 quilts, 14.25 (doesn’t include a vintage sheet backing)
Used in 3 pillow shams/covers, 2.5 (doesn’t include scraps)
Sold on Etsy: 6.25
Given to niece: 1 yd

IN:
4 yards were for a quilt I will be making my son Shane
4 yards were background fabric for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt,
2 yards were binding (striped) fabrics,
8 yards were colored solids,
4 yards were Christmas fabrics
3 yards were white/black prints and other “must-have”s. You know how THAT goes.

Until next time,

Revving up the Sewing Machine

Welcome to 2016! I hope you, like me, are ready to kick off another year of sewing, stitching, quilting and fun.

I am starting with the super-fun Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela at So Scrappy. Today, like every Saturday, we all have a linky party to show our progress for using our color-of-the-month scraps. Now, Angela just announced January’s color yesterday. It’s blue, from icy shades to deepest navy. However, we are leaving out the green-blues because they will have their own month down the line.

Needless to say, I don’t have too much progress to report in one day, but I did piece my first block.  It is 9.5” unfinished, and sitting on a design board (it’s NOT framed, LOL). This year we are doing a column-along (optional), and each month will be a new block/color. For the size of quilt I am doing, I will make a total of 8 of these blocks. They will not be matching, but scrappy.  I thought it would be cute to use some of my blue Lori Holt Modern Minis leftover squares for the 3.5” center. Appropriately, I chose the “Just take one stitch at a time”  for the center of my first block.

After I finish those 8 blocks, I will sew some Dresden Plate blocks. Each flower will take 20 petals, and as the pieces are fairly large (for scraps), they are the next to be cut and assembled. I hope to get 2 Dresdens per month, and this will be an ongoing project until I decide I have enough for a quilt. All I know is that the background will be a pale pink cotton (vintage-y looking) that I’ve had sitting around for years. I must have 4-5 yards of it.

I also want to make some of Sally T’s kittens. Alfalfa and Darla are wary of this idea, but I think it will be fun.

This year two of my goals are to make a quilt from my vintage sheet, and a quilt or small wall-hanging from my selvages.  I also have a lot of waste triangles, and I need to begin clearing some of those out.

L-R:  Blue selvages, Blue waste triangles (some with white), Blue vintage sheet fabric

So here is the plan. Every month I will do a block or two from the selvage pieces in the color of the month. I eventually want to assemble each block to look like library shelves. See the quilt here; it’s my inspiration.

With the sheets, I will sew rail fence blocks and eventually assemble them in a zig-zag rainbow patterned quilt.

The waste triangles I will sew up into HSTs and trim, then throw in with the crumbs tiny scraps; I’ll come back to that in a minute.

I really miss working on the wonky log cabins I did last year with color plus black/white. So, any strips of fabric I have in the color of the month will be made into 9” strip blocks, pieced diagonally then with two white/black corner square triangles. Here is an example by Amy Smart, a local quilter that I really admire. I hope to have some in the next week or two to show you.

Finally, I’ll put any 2.5” squares into 16-patch blocks. Anything that is too small to use there will be thrown in with the waste HSTs and I will just improv my way through them, making odd blocks or “slabs”. I have no idea what those will become eventually.

So, is that too much??  Believe me, that is my pared-down list. But still, some thing(s) may have to go. I will give it a try this month and then revise plans accordingly.

Until next time,

Another Finish and November “Quilt Diet” Results

The last half of November has been crazy for me. You too?  So much preparation for the Holidays (referring to Thanksgiving and Christmas)!   At least my gift sewing is done and I have moved on to other projects. I loved doing the zippy pouches, but the pillowcases were so b.o.r.i.n.g.

Anyway, how about some pictures???

Above are some of the pillowcases I made for stocking stuffers (actually, I guess I could stuff the stockings in THEM). Anyway, I made a total of 17 pillowcases and 20 zip pouches of varying sizes. I have shown some of the pouches before, but the newer ones were cuter. I just didn’t get pictures of them all. In addition, I sewed the two playmats (critters with clothing) for granddaughters and a lingerie case for my DDIL. They have already been shown and counted for my 2015 Finish Along.

But I have another quilty finish from my 4th Quarter Goals for the Finish Along. This is the light-up Christmas wall hanging called Starry Night. It was #10 on my list, but the fifth of my finishes for this quarter.

Yes, I know it looks wonky, but it is even, I promise. It’s just that all the Christmas lights (string of LED lights and battery box on the back side) do not make for an evenly-hanging quilt.

Here is the backside with pocket (bottom) for battery box

It turned out really cute, especially when lit. I do have to add two more holes to accommodate all 20 lights instead of the 18 I did; it will serve to take up some of the light string slack. And next year I will add a rod pocket at the top so we can hang it on a proper rod to move it an inch or two out from the wall.  

I even did some swirly quilting.  With the size of this finishing at 24 x 35” or so, it was a great piece to practice free-motion quilting on.

This final picture shows how you’re advised to stitch around the areas you plan to cut open for light holes. Nothing glamorous, just a small pit stop while you’re FMQ’ing. It doesn’t even show, really.

So that leaves me with 5 more projects to finish by the end of the year, which of course is not going to happen.  However, I will finish Rainbow Orbs. The quilting is 2/3 done, and although I didn’t work on it last week due to Thanksgiving, etc., I will finish it this week. And then the large matching pillow shams are ready to be assembled, so I will be able to check those off for sure. That will bring my total to 7 of the 10 project goals, which is likely where I will end up. But I am thrilled with that.

My farm girl quilt is coming along, but Lori has added several new block patterns this month, so I want to get them in - either into the quilt or on the shams. I have purchased the patterns and pulled the fabrics, so I may get close on those.

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Now, let’s talk about my Fabric Diet, LOL.  You may remember that I have decided to make a concerted effort to reduce my stash.  I decided I would not buy any fabric until 2016, with the exception of some basic Kona solids when the end-of-year clearance sales start.

Well, I  didn’t even make it one month!  There were some great Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, so I did buy about 14 yards of solids. However, in my defense, they were PLANNED purchases, just moved up a month. I bought 4 yards of medium gray (future quilt background), 3 maize (to add to the 1 yard already in my stash to be a background for a future 30’s-style quilt); 3 yards of black and 1 yd dark berry to go into a quilt for DS Shane that we are planning for the second half of 2016, and some red and teal.  Plus I had bought 2 FQs of specialty fabrics for the zip pouches. That is a total of 14.5 yards IN for November.

But the OUT (sewn/sold) story is better.  Here is my tally:

17 Pillowcases = 17 yards
20 zip pouches @ .25 yd each = 5 yards
2 Playmats, backing, fabric clothes = 1.5 yards
Pieced backing for Rainbow Orbs = 6 yards
Fabric gift to DGD (to sew Xmas gift for my cousin) = 2.5 yds
Sold on Etsy (I decided to count these after all) = 10.75
Sewn: Lined Lingerie Case = 1 yd
Christmas Wallhanging (incl binding, pockets) = 1.75 yds
Donation to thrift store (flawed embroidered batiste): 2 yds
Total OUT:  47.5 yds

So, with 47.5 yards out and 14.5 yards in, I had a net stash reduction of 33 yards!!  I did not count any scraps used in the making of Farm Girl blocks (which I will show next post) or the Rainbow Orbs shams. Those are scraps, and scraps generated by my sewing or used in my sewing are not counted.

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So, if you are still awake and with me, LOL, I won’t give such a detailed accounting of fabric ins and outs every month, but it was enlightening for me to do it this month. But I will report my month-end tallies so I can see the progress I am making!!

And one final thing. I have started an I SPY quilt of 5” charm squares from a fabric swap way back in 2012 at the Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City that I attended.  Here it is pinned up on my design wall:

I would like to finish it in December to gift to my DDIL Stacy for her kids (and those she babysits). Maybe a good winter pastime to encourage new words. And naps.  :-)

Until next time!

Finished Zippy Pouches - Do they Multiply in the Dark?

I have been sewing merrily away on Christmas gifts over the last couple weeks. After completing lots of pouches (I lost count because some have already been gifted or used for other things) I thought I should probably snap a picture or two and declare this goal for my 4th Quarter Finish-Along Challenge completed. Item number 6 on that list was to finish six zip pouches (in addition to the three pictured in that list).

So here (above) are a dozen pouches that have been constructed so far. This does not include the ones I used for gifts already or those that are in progress (another six or so).

My son Shane is an artist who likes to paint cityscapes. I thought this fabric was plenty masculine and so constructed a long pouch for him to carry supplies in. Most of the pouches  will be stocking stuffers and will likely have other small gifts tucked inside.

Two of my daughters are getting these sweet pieced pouches of Lori Holt fabrics (Modern Minis). I love the sentiments on them!!

We have baseball fans and hunters and all sorts of other interests within the men and boys of the family, so all interests were covered. If nothing else, I’ll tell them these make great storage cases for cords and rechargers for tech gear when traveling. In addition to the pouches, I have sewn six individual pillowcases for grandkids. Next up I will start on the pairs of pillowcases for the couples. I started these on a whim to use up fabric (I’ll talk about that in a minute) and they are not on my goal list.

So, the zippy pouches become the 4th finish (of 10 goals) for this quarter. My Rainbow Orbs quilt has been backed and basted and I hope to begin quilting it this week.  It is looking as though that will become finish #5 when it happens.

I have decided to go on a “Fabric Diet” for a few months (with the exception of end-of-year sales where I plan to pick up on some solids for backgrounds).  So far in November, I bought two quarter yards of special interest fabrics to finish four pouches. (+1/2 yard), but have already used 9.5 yards in fabric for the gifts and 6 yards to back Rainbow Orbs. I will do a full accounting of my fabric ins and outs at month-end.

Finally, I am listing some older fabrics in my Etsy shop. No, I will not be counting those listings/sales in my Fabric Diet. They were selected for listing weeks (if not months) ago, and I am finally just getting around to doing it.

I will be back later in the week with a post about my bright green blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge November color of the month, and a progress report on the Rainbow Orbs quilt itself.

Enjoy the lovely autumn!