well, that's odd... and Just One More!

a bit of sewing this week- not much, but whatever happens, the 3" squares never seem to get any less...

 

a new project for me for RSC18 is the Growing Up Odd quilt, found over at Deanna's blog, Wedding Dress Blue.



 

I've lots and lots of blues, so there were 5 blocks made this month.

 

 I've even made myself a high-tech scrawled drawing to color and count as I piece along. this will be a large quilt when it's done, (aren't they all?!) but I'm excited to see all those squares playing nicely together...

last year for RSC17 I made the low volume plus blocks in each color of the month. (3" squares again still) I laid this out on the living room floor this morning (this is not the final layout. the girls have already switched a few squares around...) and I'm 1 square short for a 5X6 layout!

 

I have an idea for that 30th square: I want to do it the opposite of all the others: a colored plus, with the low volume background. these blocks have been stalled for a couple months now, and I'm wondering if anyone can help a poor quilter out? (ha!)

 

I'm envisioning my plus for the final block to be a dark fabric, with rainbows. maybe the arc of the rainbow on a blue background? or rainbow striped fabric? it needs to read as a dark, or at the least a medium to work. I don't have any of that in my stash. does anybody have a rainbow-esque fabric that will work? I need just 5 3" squares.

 

I'd be grateful and appreciative if anyone is willing to share some squares. I'll park my address here for a couple days (you guys are the only ones who read my blog anyway...) and then I'll take it down.

 

thanks in advance! and be sure to click on over and see all the other scrappy goodness going on this week.

 

 

UFOs: 2018: in which the blogger is off to a great start!

edited to add on 4/21: I'm linking up this post because the yellow (papaya!) quilt fits in nicely with RSC18 this month. and how can you even go wrong with konas? ( I can't help it; I'm such a kona cotton snob...)

I'm participating in the UFO Challenge that Judy is hosting over at Patchwork Times. despite this being my 4th year participating, I still have some pesky UFOs lurking around!

 

January got off to a good start, with #10 being the number of our UFO to work on. to say I was disappointed would be accurate:

 

it would be fair, and again, totally accurate to say that this is my least loved UFO on the 2018 list.. but like my granny always says: "eat a bullfrog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse can happen to you all day long...."

 

so, that's what I did! since this schoolhouse (paper pieced) quilt kit from Connecting Threads has been on my UFO list for 4 years now, it's obvious that it wasn't getting  done unless I MADE myself do it!

 

I made an executive decision, too: since the fabrics are super ugly, it didn't really make sense to me to make a quilt that is so time consuming when I hated the fabrics right from the very start! I saw a nice (and easy!) quilt over at Wedding Dress Blue, and thought that would be just the ticket!

 

( I can't find the original pattern to link to; sorry! I guess it's a good thing I printed it out!)

 

this quilt finishes at a nice size of 48" X 60". there were 20 (?) FQs in the pattern pack from CT, and this quilt pattern works best with 15. some of the fabric was dated 2008 on the selvedge, so it's good that it's used up- and I'm happy to get it moving on to somewhere where it will be loved and used.

I really enjoyed making the Sidewalk Pattern quilt, so it occurred to me to dig out use another Connecting Threads kit that I had purchased (12 FQs & pattern, $13). I was interested to see how much more I would like this quilt with some brighter fabrics. and yes, I like it much better! (the blue cast is from the snow; it's much brighter in person)

 

i'll definitely be making some more of these.

 

I also finished #6 on my UFO list- it was just a matter of sewing down the binding on the back of this quilt.

I pieced this quilt 4 years ago, and it was hand-quilted by a dear friend over a year ago, so it was definitely time to get it done!

 

it didn't' really take too long to finish either, which always makes me wonder why it took me so long in the first place?

it's a twin size, and the kona yellow is papaya. the browns/tans/blacks/creams/grey is a kona jelly roll that my son gifted to me Christmas 2013. I don't think it's available anymore- I think the jelly roll was called Old Film. (or something like that...)

 

 

this quilt is another favorite (but i say that about lots of my quilts!) and I'm glad to finally have it done! thanks, Judy!

RSC18- rolling right along...

it was a cold and snowy week here, but lots of sewing happened, so it's all good!

last week I forgot to mention that the tutorial I'm using for my #holidaypatchworkforest blocks is from Amy, over at Diary of a Quilter. 16 more blocks were added to my forest this week, making them the final of the blue blocks that I 'll be doing for RSC18.

 

despite this being my 5th (!!!) year of RSCing from my suitcase of squares, it never seems to get any emptier. rather, it just gets fuller and fuller- to the point that it won't even close anymore!

( I can save you the bother of clicking through and scrolling to find out more about my suitcase of squares: I cut all my scraps into 3" squares, and then store them in a vintage suitcase that belonged to my mother.)
 

I've pieced dozens of quilts (really!) from that suitcase... some fabrics are used up now- especially the favorites, but they've been replaced with some newer favorites, and gifted and shared fabrics. so the quilting goes on...

the nice thing about using the consistent size to piece {most} of my RSC blocks is that they're all interchangeable, and it makes using up orphan blocks fairly easy. (even if not terribly attractive.)

 

 

these blocks for the RSC18 Squared Away BOM will finish at 12½" inches. it was nice to actually sew with some triangles- I've done squares for so long, that it was a nice change. I tried to play nicely with all the other playground folks, and stuck to light blues, and a contrast for the + in the middle. I'm happy with these blocks, and I look forward to seeing what else Angie and Mari come up with for the rest of this quilt...

 

click on over to see what all the other RSCers were working on this week! (and click here to see my first finished UFOs of 2018!)

icy blues... to match the weather outside!

the weather here in northern PA has continued to be rather wacky: yesterday it was 56°. today it's snowy and icy, with a low forecasted for tomorrow night of -5°!

all the better to sew with, my dear!

a bit of RSC sewing for me this week:

I've finally started on my holiday patchwork forest quilt. I'm trying to be a good RSCer, and stick to blues. the blocks are easy and fun, and I'm lliking them so far.

 

I'm a bit worried about my eclectic and bohemian look, though. not sure I can pull that off. but i'll persist, and as I add in more colors, it should be fine. (right?!)

 

I've been "studying" the #holidaypatchworkforest quilts on instagram, {how can blogger NOT EVEN KNOW the word instagram?!} and I know what I like (the bright, scrappy and a bit crazy ones) but I'm not sure that I'm headed in the right direction. pinks, yellows, oranges and aqua seem to make some beautiful quilts that I'm drawn to. many of the HPF quilts don't seem to have purple in them. did I miss the memo about purple? I like purple- I don't love it or hate it, but it seems to be conspicuously missing in many of the quilts...

a RSC finish for me this week: my granny square quilt. (and double yay- it's already at the long-arm quilter in the queue for a donation quilt. ) it turned out ok- I don't love it as much as I thought I would, but it's just fine. it turned out to be about 90" square.

 

the dolly quilt is not a RSC project, but it is blue (and all from stash!) I planned on doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt this year- On Ringo Lake. I completed clue one in a timely manner. then the triangles and geese started flying faster and faster and I realized I would never catch up. so rather then relegating 50 cute little 9 patches to the UFO pile, I finished them into a dolly quilt. all the littles at my house have been playing with it all week long, wrapping up dolls and cats, too.

 

click on over to Angie's for more RSC blue goodies!

 

i'm also linking up to Bonnie- click on over there for some beautiful On Ringo Lake quilts! 

off to a blue, chilly start!

it's still colder than blue blazes here in northern PA, but that's ok- the RSC color of the month is blue! (we're looking forward to a heat wave on Thursday- the temp is supposed to go above 40°!)

I didn't venture into the sewing room (it's upstairs, and no direct heat) until later in the week, but I had plenty to keep me busy downstairs.

my LQS gave me a big (BIG) bag of scraps- a hodgepodge of odds and ends. combined with my stash of small pieces, it took me several evenings of cutting and sorting to get them all pressed and cut into the 3" squares.

 

usually I cut the colors month by month, but this year I thought it would be better to see what colors and fabrics I have, rather than drag it out all year. it was fun to have the colorful infusion of fabrics from the quilt shop-it will make for some interesting piecing throughout the year.

 

( I am friends with the shop owner, but she knows that my friend Karen and I do a great deal of quilting for MCC quilt auctions, so that's why the fabric was passed along to me...)

this year one of my projects for RSC18 is 9 patches- above is my first installment of blue. as I was picking the color to complement the 5 blues, I purposely picked a color/combination that I would normally not choose. I'm pleased with the eclectic, bohemian look of these 9 patches.

 

I made 16 (only 1 more than I intended!) for a 90" square quilt at the end of the year.

 

my "beloved" kona cotton solids are back again this year- only this time in a 9 patch. I've used the kona indigo, splitting the 9 patches {fairly} evenly between the 5 indigo patches and 4 indigo patches. the colors are cloud, stratosphere, robins egg, Dresden, denim, nightfall, regal, and ???

 

click on over to visit Angie at soscrappy to see what everyone else is doing, and to welcome some new RSCers.