a red, Christmas, RSC20 finish!

this Christmas stars quilt has been done for awhile; just now getting around to sharing it! i started these stars back in RSC15 (!!!) can you even believe it?! 

sawtooth stars are definitely on my Favorite Quilt Blocks Ever list.  i used the 3" squares from my stash, and gathered up all my reds- nearly 30 in all! 

because we all know that nothing says "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" like fabric tomatoes, right? 

the background(s) are 5 different prints with gold; very eclectic, but fun! there's a bit of negative space sprinkled in there, too, but hard to see from my pictures... 

the Red, Not So Christmas Quilt joins our other Official Christmas Quilt on the ladder in the corner of our living room. (the other, Official Christmas Quilt is also from RSC15, i noticed after looking back.) seems i was WAY more productive in earlier RSC years. i'll work on that for RSC21, promise! 

interesting side note: this fall, i saw a ladder available on Facebook marketplace. i missed out on that opportunity (Sunday afternoon nap) and was kinda bummed.  but then, to my delight, when we bought our flipper house in Sayre, there was an old, skuddy ladder in the garage! i cleaned (scrubbed and scrubbed) it off, and it's perfect for displaying the quilts that we use for snuggling in the living room/downstairs. 

in retrospect, it would have been cheaper to buy the ladder off Facebook, instead of the whole flipper house. (haha!) but that's a discussion for another day. 

anyway... back to the quilt at hand. it was a beautiful day in late October when we took pictures of some recent finishes, and everyone was feeling a bit creative. 
 

even the "little library" got in on the photo ops! as a former 500 acre dairy farm, our little  outhouse was quite the fancy place way back when- a 2 seater, even! 

anyway- that's what i've been up to. thanks for stopping by. RSCing is so fun for me- and i plan to continue into 2021. i will {tentatively} say that i do also have plans to kick my blogging and finishing quilts game up a notch as well.

we'll see.... click on over to Angela's. lots of colorful, drool worthy finishes over there! 

H2H- all done and checking in!

i do quite a bit of "charity quilting" but this is my first time participating in Sarah's Hands2Help campaign. i saw that one of the chosen gifting recipients Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project, which was specifically looking for larger quilts.  

i pieced strip sets (2½") for Rainbow Scrap Challenge in both 2015 and 2016. In 2017 i managed to get 2 "pinwheel" quilts out of that multitude of blocks!

although my youngest daughter, BJ, originally chose this quilt in our Great Quilt Gifting of 2017, she decided that she liked a different quilt, Growing Up Odd better, so she swapped. 

we packed up this behemoth, along with backing and binding, and sent it off to Sally F. in Wisconsin.  She sent me this picture of the completed quilt (thanks so much, Sally!) and i'm thrilled that it's finally done, and will go to a new home to bring warmth and comfort! 

someone to love it...

my normal morning routine is to make my cup of coffee, and browse through some quilty blogs while i'm staring and sipping... one of my favorites is Sarah, at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

and as my regular reader(s) will know, i'm an avid participant in Angie's RainbowScrapChallenge. this year is my 6th year working through my scraps color-by-color, and i'm not tired of it yet! i've managed to make MANY quilts, and a great deal of them are scrappy and/or made from 3" squares. 

i don't have a lot of IRL quilting friends, so i really enjoy the camaraderie, companionship and inspiration of the quilting/blogging/Instagram community. 

this scrappy pinwheel quilt was started as part of RSC15 (!) and was completed in June of 2017. it's a big'un, (101" X 117") so it's been in my quilting closet ever since... many of my quilts go for charity donation- mainly MCC, but when i saw that one of the Hands2Help charities this year, the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project was specifically looking for larger quilts, it was a match made in heaven!

i was matched with a long-arm quilter, Sally F, in WI, and after getting the backing pieced, it's ready to mail off to her today.

you might remember (but probably don't!) that i often do a Great Quilt Gifting when my children gather together for a holiday or special occasion. we've done that a couple times. originally, B (my youngest) had chosen this Pinwheel Quilt in December of 2017. 

when i told her about the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project, she was happy (and generous!) to swap out the Pinwheel Quilt for my recently completed Growing Up Odd quilt. 

so now 2 LARGE quilts will have happy homes, and i'm super thrilled about that!

Miles and miles of sewing....

Finally! after several evenings of dedicated piecing, I was able to get (one of) my pinwheel quilts into a flimsy!

I started piecing these "pinwheels" out of 2½" strips back in RSC15. (they're cut into 4½" squares, then 4 are sewn together. it's a pretty basic pattern...)

 

this year I started sewing the squares into the pinwheels, and since this month it's my UFO for the 2017 challenge over at Patchwork Times, I pulled it out again, finished and pressed all the blocks and worked on a layout.

it's a huge one- EQ says it's 101" X 113"! I love the look of the diagonally set quits, but those corner to corner seams sure seem like they're miles and miles long! 144" , or somewhere around there!

 

there were still 99 (!) blocks left over, and my youngest daughter, B and I arranged them into another quilt. since it's just a straight set, I'm hoping it will be a bit quicker to piece...

 

9 yellow crumb blocks round out my piecing for yellow this week. I still have a lot of yellow to work with, so I'm off to the sewing room!

click on over to so scrappy to see what everyone else is working on!

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without....

that's an old saying I remember seeing on a dear friend's wall long ago... good advice that I'm sure harkens all the way back from the depression era...

this is my 4th year participating in RSC- and I've loved every month of it! I have a suitcase of 3" squares, and I've pieced many, many quilts from those colorful squares. it seems every quilt had a leftover block or two or three... (and no matter how many quilts I make, the squares never seem to get less...)

 

Angie gave us the kick in the pants challenge to finish some of our languishing RSC projects. I have quite a few in the works, *hangs head in shame* so that was just the motivation I needed. (who doesn't love a good linky party?!) I had a goodly pile of those orphan blocks, and you can see the first tentative layout here, where I asked for some help... I took (most) of the generously and kindly offered advice, and came up with the quilt below.

 

if you peruse the tabs at the top of my page - RSC14, RSC15 and RSC16, you just might be able to spot some of the original quilts that these orphan blocks came from. (and if you don't want to take the time to do that, and I don't hardly blame you, just take my word for it that these squares represent a minimum of 12 completed quilts...)

I will say that that is one advantage of consistently using the same size square in much of my piecing: the orphan blocks will all fit together with a minimum of jiggling around.

 

while I won't say that this is the most beautiful or creative quilt I've ever made, it's certainly colorful. it's also carefully and sturdily pieced, and for the new life that is planned for this quilt, it's perfect!

 

a young girl from our church is going on a mission trip to an orphanage in Honduras next month; she plans to take this quilt along. that's why it's being tied (shown here being worked on at our monthly church sewing group) instead of quilted.

I'm excited to send this quilt along with A, and if I get any pictures, i'll be sure to share!

One square at a time, and progress is made!

I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with all my RSC16 piecing. Just a few more black, red and yellow granny squares, and then that project is done for this year!

I have a suitcase full of 3" squares- I started the task of cutting my scraps that size way back in RSC14, when I worked through my stash to get it more manageable. READ: useable. I've made many, many quilts from those 3" squares! I love the size: not too big, not too small. Just Right! ( I should call them my Baby Bear Squares! ha!)

for RSC15 I pieced 4 patches in monochromatic colors. I ended up with probably about 200 of them. the 4 patches sat, until inspiration struck. I had Bonnie Hunter's book, (can't remember which one...) and she did a bow-tie quilt. 

 

seemed like a good idea! so I paired my 4 patches with (a few more) 3" squares from the suitcase, as well as Kona ivory, papaya and storm to make this quilt. it finishes at a whopping 101" square! i'll use up some black prints from my stash for the backing, and then it's ready to be quilted for one of the MCC relief auctions next year.

 

I'm working on updating the RSC tabs at the top of my page (I  might have mentioned that before... ) and one of these days I'll surprise you all (and myself!) and get those tabs all updated, sorted out, and accurate!

 

click on over to angie's blog: she's the hostess of RSC, and see what everyone else is doing these days- tons of pretty quilts to look at, or gather inspiration from...

a cold and quilty week...

lots of gray skies here- not much blue and sunshine, but that usually means more time in the sewing room! (and that's always ok by me!)

I finally got around to cutting out my pieces for Angela's RSC16 Column-Along. just like most of the things that I put off/procrastinate on, it was not nearly as bad as I was dreading. I'm so spoiled with sewing with my squares. but to be fair to myself- it was a bit more complicated, since I could not (can not) find my easy angle rulers!!! where could they be? no clue... the last time I used them was when I made Celtic Solstice. (and acutally, that was the only time that I used them!)

 

I ended up improvising, and will have to square up those units before piecing them into the twinkle stars. but on the good side: the triangles will cover up those little boo-boos, so it's all good.

 

i'll list the Kona colors that I'm using later. the background is Coal.

 

I was very surprised that even with piecing 5+ quilts from my crumb jars, I was able to get 25 blue crumb blocks!  (and that could partially be since I was not obsessing being so particular about getting the blocks exactly. monochromatic.

 

Lover's Knot 66"X72" RSC15 I made heaps and scads and hordes of 9 patch blocks. 3 Kona white, 1 scrappy black, and 5 monochromatic blocks in the color of the month. this is the second quilt that I pieced from that pile.

this quilt from RSC15 was completed last week, but I forgot to share it with you! it's headed to a MCC auction in Kansas, but right now it's hanging in our local LQS as a sample for my Oh, Scrap: Encore class. you can read more about my RSC15 quilts as I finish them at the tab on the top of the page.

 

these two pictures are not technically RSC15 or 16 but I wanted to share them anyway. these pictures were taken this week at our church sewing group Scraps to Wraps (S2W). we meet twice monthly in the winter. we piece, tie and bind comforters (60"X80") to be given to MCC, which are then donated around the world in various relief efforts.

 

My youngest daughter, B (8) ~top picture~ is tying knots with Arlene. A (9) is tying knots in the second picture. besides the fact that we get to sew quilts and play with fabric, the ministry of S2W is very near and dear to my heart. I love (LOVE!) that my girls get to grow up with the blessing of multi-generational friendships and companionship. i think that's so important! 

the quilter's post of shame...

RSC14 was so successful for me (my first year participating)- it was just the inspiration and accountability that I needed to "tame" all my scraps and fabric, and begin to use them. using a color a month, and piecing a pile of blocks seems to work really well for me, so I jumped in. during RSC14 I made 8 (throw size) quilts: one for each of my children, one particular favorite that I couldn't part with, and a color wheel quilt for my sewing room wall.

 

so when RSC15 rolled around I jumped in even more whole-heartedly, and tried to make all the quilts. with piecing a particular block(s) each month, in a particular color, things rolled along pretty smoothly until December. then it was Time. To. Put. All. The. Quilts. Together.

 

smokey cats, batman! a tad bit overwhelming, it was... so here's my list of RSC15 quilts that will be completed into tops as part of my RSC16.

 

in no particular order:

scrappy 16 patches, using my favorite fabrics, and tan/cream neutrals. even though I only picked out my favorite fabrics, I still ended up with 188 blocks! sheesh...

the zig zag quilt. (sorry about the upside down picture) I have all the colors, and plan to make 2 quilts- vertical and horizontal zig zags.

crumby strips. I still have the green ones to piece, and still not quite sure what i'll do for the layout of this quilt. I'm thinking a diagonal set at the very least... maybe something like this?

these Split 4 Patches are made from 3" squares from my suitcase of squares. they look super cute when completed, but I think they're a pain in the dooopy to make... I still have about 16 S4P to cut and sew back together, and then this quilt will be ready to assemble....

a special pile of 16 patches- I'm making a quilt for my table at farmer's market. you can read more about this quilt here.

my monochromatic 4 patches. not sure what I want to do with these, either, but there's always my pinterest RSC board for inspiration, but here's another layout that I like.

there are still a few more blocks lurking around: like the RSC15 sampler (just need to do the X blocks for that one...)  my bright scrappy trips (bonnie hunter's pattern) and my red stars.

 

as part of my RSC16 sewing, i'll be doing *approximately* a top a month to complete all these started and unfinished RSC15 piles of blocks. and you can keep me accountable, too!

RSC15 overflow into RSC16...

sorry for the crappy picture- it's been cloudy and dreary here for weeks and weeks! this is my RSC15 crumb quilt- and it's done! as in DONE: quilted, bound and officially napped under. (that was my job...)

 

I forget the measurements- I think it's 70"X82"- right around there somewhere. it's always fun to look through and see some of the favorite fabrics, and remember the happy memories they bring back...

here's another quilt- almost done. but it's ready to go to the quilter, so that's fair, right? I used 75 (!) of my scrappy 16 patches from last year, and made a quilt/table cloth for my table at farmer's market. I picked out all the squares that had animals, vegetables or flowers on them. for good measure, I also chose some that had coffee and some sewing/quilting things on them. 

it's the ridiculously odd size of 150" X 50". I've never made a quilt that size, and I'm pretty sure nobody else has either! but: it will fit perfectly on my 2 tables, which are usually arranged in an L shape. there will be about a 2 block overhang on 3 sides. so, it's perfect, really, just an odd shape...

 

I've had this Hoffman Country Market fabric in my stash for 5+ years. I bought it when I was on my kick of making those repeating quilts (can't think of what they're called now...)  I never really liked this fabric, and that's why I didn't use it. but it's perfect for the farmer's market quilt! (i'll use it for the binding, too, and then that will be just about it for this fabric...)

 

we're busy buying seeds and stuff now- and Dave just came in and said that spring will be here before we're ready. ack! so soon it will be time to start farmer's market, too, and I'm hoping that this quilt on my table will bring some extra folks... if not for the beautiful and bountiful veggies and fruits, or the stimulating conversation with the farmers... at least they'll come to look at the pretty quilt!

feeling better, but not making much progress!

I was procrastinating on the X setting squares of the RSC15 sampler. all the stars, with crumb block centers have been done for a while now, but it was those X squares that were holding me back. (note to self: procrastination never gets you anywhere...)

 

I laid out all my star blocks on the sewing room floor, and started tediously diligently making each X block- knowing full well that I'd be very pleased and thrilled with how the sampler turned out. all the ones that I've seen on the Saturday linkys are great- so I plugged along. (and promptly made a mistake on the first X. can you see it?)

 

I made more progress than what is shown here; forgot to take a picture. after getting a good start on the second row, I somehow managed to come down with mono, which halted all sewing for 2+ weeks. ( I really was sick- not even a stich of sewing for nearly 2 weeks!) when I went back to my routine and habit of evening sewing, that's how my family knew that I was truly better! 

I've been participating in RSC for 3 years now (and looking forward to the 4th year!) and my suitcase of squares is not getting any emptier! Millie looks so cute in there, all snuggled up, but a comfy cat makes for messy piles of squares!

RSC16 is ready to start, and we're thinking of next year, too! the new little laying hens came on Wednesday- all 60 of them in a box- just like chicken nuggets! we get our new hens (Red Prods) so early since we need them to be laying in time for our first CSA boxes on June 2. we also sell a flock share, along with the veggie/farm share, so our hens need to be ready to go much earlier than most.

 

I'm looking forward to starting again with RSC16, and have a few blocks in mind that I plan on doing. however, I will say that a certain blogger that I know quite well may have bit off more than she can chew as far as RSC15 is/was concerned. not counting the RSC15 sampler, I may (or may not) have 6 more RSC15 quilts/blocks in the queue! (and that's NOT including the 3 quilts- crumb and 9 patch that I've already completed!)  ack! talk about overwhelming! add to that the fact that each one of them needs to be laid out/twiddled with on the design wall, and there is not much relaxing sewing in my foreseeable future!

 

so for RSC16, I definitely plan on finishing all of those RSC15 quilts that I started- just at a more relaxed pace- I know I can't do 6 flimsies in a month! and I've pared down my list of blocks that i'll be doing each month for RSC16.  3 years of RSCing has thought me that it's not possible to use. all. the. fabrics. when I started RSC, I thought about having so much fabric, and I was wanting to use it. not use it up, per se, but really work through that stash. but after more thought, and even more sewing, I'm looking at my fabrics as more of a resource... just like the food in my freezers, or the canning jars all lined up on shelves in the cellar. I don't hurry up to eat all the food to empty my shelves and freezer- so it's the same for the fabrics.

 

I'm putting my fabrics to good use- I know what I have, and I enjoy piecing for myself, my family and my favorite charities. and this year, i'll be thinking of RSC more as a marathon than a sprint.

oh, woe is me...

it's been quiet here (did anybody notice? if not, that's ok...) I'm heading into Day #15 of being sick. with mono. not fun, that's for sure. I sewed a tiny little bit on my RSC15 Rainbow sampler on November 30, and then it's been all downhill from there.

 

kind of reminds me of a saying on my Charlie Brown pillowcase from when I was a little girl: CB was laying in bed with a TV propped on his stomach and he was saying "happiness is being too sick to go to school, but not too sick to watch TV."

 

well, according to that, things have not been happy here. I haven't stepped foot into my sewing room in almost 2 weeks! I've been mostly hanging out in the sofa, with a few intervals of absolutely necessary errands/chores/obligations sprinkled in here and there...

 

and here's another big bummer: clue #3 is out for Bonnie's mystery, and I can't even wonder around bloggy land, or I'll give away the secret for myself! I saw clue #2 (I looked at it, hoping to convince myself that I really was well enough to sew.) nope. didn't happen. I never did do the picture of my fabrics- pretty standard, though, Kona grey and my only substitution is salmon pink for her red/burgundy. I'm excited to see how they'll all play together.

 

so, the moral of the story is: I think I might be on the upswing (the blogger says hopefully, with great confidence) and ready to

 

#1: cook my family a real dinner

#2: finish decorating the house

#3: catch up on BH mystery quilt

#4: finish a couple of my RSC15 quilts

#5: spend time with my two sweet little girls, who have been so helpful and kind while I've been under the weather.

 

thanks for stopping by! I hope to be back soon, with progress to report, and pictures!

in which the quilter acutally finishes a quilt or two...

I would not be surprised if any of you were beginning to wonder if I ever actually finished a quilt, but were just too polite to mention it... well: this is the week!

I gathered all my crumb blocks together, and was surprised at how many I had! ( I think there were 121 total, in all the colors of the rainbow!) i had a rough idea where i was planning on going with this quilt, and after some final inspiration and direction from Julie's quilt, i was ready to go.

 

with the sashing, this flimsy turned out a bit bigger than i had thought it would, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. (it's about 66X88, if i remember correctly) it's already at the home of my quilter friend, Karen, and i expect it back sometime after Christmas.

 

this Christmas quilt is all done- quilted, bound and fresh and crinkly out of the dryer! it's about 60" square, and used tons and tons of my 3" squares. (but not enough to actually put a dent in that suitcase of squares!) I love how this quilt is just so hodge-podge- fabrics from 5, probably 6 decades, and all sorts of fabrics: vintage, Christmas, not Christmas, stripes, polka dots, text, geometric, metallic, solids, novelty, civil war, florals... so many fabrics to look at!

I've promised A that we'll put this quilt out next Thursday- after our Thanksgiving dinner!

 

click over to angela's to see what everyone else is working on!

Putting all those blocks to good use. Finally.

just like last week when I showed you all my completed 16 patches it's quite surprising how many 9 patches I have, too! enough to do 2 (TWO!) quilts, with more than a dozen blocks left over!

here's my first quilt from my 9 patch blocks. this one I plan to keep. what will I do with it, and where will I put it? I've no idea! (and don't worry: I took off all the row label stickers, AND fixed the green block)

now I'm auditioning borders. tell me what you think.

without borders, this quilt is about 75". in the picture above, I pinned up the Kona white to the design board, and *sort of* laid out a border. I was planning on doing a 2½" (finished) border, with scrappy squares all around, and then another 2½" (finished) border.

 

although, now that I look at it, I'm wondering if I should not just continue the colors out into the border, completing the patterns, so to speak.

 

tell me what you think...

here's the second quilt from my 9 patches. I'm absurdly thrilled and pleased with this one. not sure why, but I think it's really cool! the idea for the layout came from Cyndy, and is loosely (?) based on her offset log cabin layout. I figured if you could do it with log cabins, why not 9 patches? this will be a charity quilt, and the backing is red fabric with knots.

 

and just in case you're not firmly convinced that I'm truly the Captain of the Crazy Train, here's another Christmas quilt that's almost done. all scrappy 4 patches- a huge conglomeration of reds, greens, yellows and white. (and honest- this isn't a new project- I sketched it out in my journal way back in January! honest...)

 

also: in the spirit of full disclosure, I would like to point out that it was not on purpose that I forgot to tell you that this week we *might have* bought a spinning wheel, and are earnestly beginning the project of carding and spinning Helga's wool. (our Icelandic sheep) ahem.

 

 

I still (and always will) consider myself a quilter first, and farmer second, but both my little girls A and B have been wanting to learn how to spin. so: here we go! I've learned the rudimentary basics right along with them, and this will be a long term, on going project. in the meantime they, and our mouser cat Millie, are thrilled with our new "knitting nook"

11 months, 189 16 patches and 3024 3" blocks later...

they say slow and steady wins the race, and if my stack of completed 16 patches is anything to go by, they're sure right!

 

I don't have anymore greens to piece into the 16s; I used all my greens already... (forget what month that was, it seems ages ago!) the background fabrics are all creams/tans/beige- no whites. each of the background fabrics repeat several (many?) times, but the colored blocks are all different.

 

so: out of the 189 blocks, there are 189 different fabrics. and each of those fabrics I chose because they were my favorite.

 

how is this possible? what's the matter with me?! can I really have 189 favorite and/or meaningful unique scraps of fabric?

the answer is yes, it seems. there are dresses, many other quilts, shirts, purses, aprons, bonnets, fabrics from friends, on and on it goes ~ it's all in here, and represented in this one conglomeration of a quilt. for me, even though it may seem just a tad ridiculous, it adds another depth of meaning and sentimentality to my quilt.

 

I plan to piece this pile of 16 patches into 2 quilts- I'm debating what the ultimate use of them will be. it's a toss up between a quilt for my table at farmer's market (using all the animal/veggie/country fabrics) and a table cloth to be used on our table at special family meals and holidays. or, I might do matching quilts for the (twin) guest room beds.

 

click over to angela's to see all the other RSC15 projects as we finish up another great  year.

it's hip to be square!

in-between my other sewing, I've still been working on my 16 patches, and they're slowly coming along. I still have lots of the blacks and greys to do (I used those 2 colors in place of the indigo)

there is something so endearing and addictive about these humble and simple little blocks- they are certainly one of my favorites!

with so many different fabrics and backgrounds to choose from, I could never decide which one is my favorite block of them all... and it's good that I don't' have to choose: I have almost 200 at last count! yikes!

I do plan to make 2 quilts from these 16 patches- one for my table at farmer's market (using all the veggie fabrics) and another for the dining room table for family holiday meals. these 16 patches finish at 10"; just a nice size.

 

 

here's a picture of the whole top of the Bethlehem Star that I pieced last week. it's 72" X 80", but it sure looks dwarfed in this picture! scroll down one post to see what else i've been up to while I was absent from the RSC link-ups. and be sure to click on over to angela's to see all the RSC goodness for this week!

 

PS: did you see that the colors for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt came out this morning? I'm so excited- the color combinations are FANTASTIC this year! who's planning on quilting along?