COUSINS: it's getting a bit crowded in the gene pool...

i've been sewing along with Angela's RSC for 7 (SEVEN!!!) years now, and i've heavily relied on my stash of 3" squares. i'm fairly certain no one will ever accuse me of making quilts that are too time consuming, or intricate. that's ok with me, really. however, i do enjoy being creative and colorful. 

the following 3 quilts have made at least a brief appearance on the blog here already, but today they're here, all together, and ALL COMPLETED!

the above quilt, Rainbow Boxes, was a RSC17 project. i recently finished (DEE-OOO-EN-EEE) this quilt. it's on my bed now.

this Rainbow Columns i finished during the quarantine. i just quilted horizontal straight lines on it; matching the thread to the row. matching as much as possible, that is, considering it was quarantine, and thread was hard to come by if it wasn't stashed. Youngest daughter B seems to have adopted this quilt.

my Rainbow Plus quilt was made during RSC16. it's quilted in baptist fans. a good friend moved away in the fall. i didn't realize how much i would miss H until after she was gone. she came to visit over Memorial Day weekend, and i gifted her with this quilt. she was super thrilled and so appreciative. (and that's always a big deal to a quilter- that our quilts are loved and used!) 

and: a few more shots of B and Daisy.  Daisy really seems to know what's expected of her when the quilts come out!

i backed the Rainbow Rows quilt with this neat-o ruler type fabric i've had in my stash for ages. (and after the quarantine, i bet alot of us won't feel nearly so guilty for having a deep stash!) i also found this black, dotty, colorful fabric in my stash; perfect for the binding.

the above picture was taken a different day, but it was too cute not to share. L and daddy were visiting. L was giving Daisy a treat. Daisy would ever-so-gently take it from L's hand with quivering lips. L was delighted, and would turn around and look at me with a big grin, clapping and saying "yay!" with so much cuteness going on, Daisy got a few more treats than normal that afternoon. 

here's the backing of the Rainbow Boxes quilt: a random Kaffe Fassett print i found. i love the big print and bold colors. 

you can't see it in any of the pictures, i guess, but i bound this quilt in a calico brown. brown seems to nearly always be a good choice for the rainbow quilts. 

as i said, the quilt is on my bed now; and most afternoons our cat, Millie, can be found melted in a puddle on our bed. it's been really hot here. 

and just for funnies: look who came waddling over when were were taking quilt pictures with Daisy the other night. it's Flossie, our duck. she's so funny. and noisy! Flossie is pretty tame, and every afternoon at 4PM she comes to the back door and QUACK QUACK QUACKS until we come out and feed her her dinner of dog food. she'll eat it right out of our hand. 

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! 

sharing the love... spreading the warmth...

since my children live spread out all over the country (a son in WA and another son in the Bronx) we planned to celebrate our Christmas early this year while we were all together. We had our family Christmas on Saturday, December 16. it was a lovely day- full of memories, and all the traditions that we would normally do on the 25th.

 

my youngest son, G, chose not to come, but my mother heart loves him all the same, and despite the full house with all the children and grands, I missed him just the same...

the little girls, A and B, were especially happy for new jammies!  and look: everyone smiling! everyone looking!

we drew numbers for the quilt picking- #1-#5. I had 11 quilts to choose from (!!!) so even the last person had a nice selection to pick their favorite. my oldest daughter, M and her husband K were first. they chose one of the RSC16 column-along quilts. (they chose the twin size; that leaves the lap size for me! yay!) here they are in front of the tree with "baby" C. C will have a new baby brother in March, the quilt is hiding M's cute belly...

 

my son D is a Corpsman in the Navy, stationed in Bronx, NY. (go figure...) he and A chose the Flying Geese quilt.

 

second son N is married to P, and they have a little girl, E. N is in the Army, stationed in Seattle, WA. it was a treat to have them here and visit with them for almost a week. (it was fun to watch the 2 cousins together, too. they're only 6 days apart in age) N and P chose a low-volume patchwork quilt, sofa size. I guess I never blogged about it... but you might have seen it on instagram.

 

 

A is 11, and chose this Roman Stripes quilt. (it's made out of the same fabrics as D & A's quilt) I made this quilt quite awhile ago- glad it's finally found someone to snuggle with...

 

(here's a tutorial on how I made it) and here's where I pieced it together- almost 8 years ago. yikes! 

 

 

baby BJ (sometimes I still call her that, even though she's 10 years old now...) chose the pinwheel quilt. I blogged about this quilt here, too. this project has been in my RSC roundup for a few years, going through several evolutions, and even thrown in as a UFO a time or two, too... but now it's "done" and we'll piece a backing for it this week, and set it aside to be quilted.

 

a couple quilts weren't chosen that I was sure would be top on the list, but that's ok. we might have a wedding in our near future, and some can live in the sewing room closet until they find a home. others will go to MCC. one way or another, all the quilts will be loved and used.

 

my instagram feed has been full of smiling children, happy faces and lots of snippets of memories in the making- not much sewing at all for me this month of December. but- of course, that's OK! i was glad to have some time with my family. when our children are small, we honestly don't' realize how fast the years will fly- because those days can really drag, can't they?

 

one day they're all grown and gone, and it's a big deal when they all come home and we can be together. enjoy those moments while you can!

 

and click on over to Angie's, too! lots of great quilts getting done!

 





little bits, every oncet in a while...

halfway through June (already!!!) and it's my first link up for RSC. I've been working in bits and bobs as time and energy allows.

above are the (gallon) glass jars that I keep my scraps bits in that I use to piece my crumb blocks for the month. (not pictured are the 4(!) jars of neutral/low volume scraps and bits) despite piecing the crumb blocks (6½" cut) for 4 years now, the jars are never empty! (reminds me of a bible story!) but it's all good- I really enjoy piecing the crumb blocks!

I pieced 9 of the yellow/indigo kona 16 patches- with colors like butter, yarrow, daffodil, corn yellow, curry, canary, butter, maize, buttercup, ect...

I just know I'd gonna lovelovelove this quilt when it's done!

this Thursday I had a few "free" moments before I needed to set up for Farm Market, and got out my pinwheel blocks- I started these in RSC15. my plans for the layout of these blocks has changed at least 2 times along the way, but for the first quilt, I've settled on an on-point setting, with the colors running diagonally through the quilt.

(funny how the cats in a quilty household are so "helpful", right?)

as usual, I've managed to be an over-achiever: the layout needed 162 blocks, and I've pieced 259! sheesh! there are many, many different fabrics in this quilt- very little repeats of the colors. the purple row is 17 unique pinwheels- not a single duplicate! I would never have guessed that I even HAD that many purples!

I'm looking forward to getting this pieced together, and then i'll tackle another smaller quilt with the leftobers. Judy is doing a UFO "challenge" for 2017. she's petered out in the quilting (but loves knitting!) but I'm just glad for the extra motivation to get some lurking UFOs done. for the 6 months of 2017, I've completed 5 of my older UFOs. sure glad about that!

make sure you go see all the other cheery yellows the RSCrs are working on!

better late than never, right?

good thing February was a short month! I don't have much in the way of teal/sea green scraps, so I was able to get all my piecing done in short order... and with a bit of the month left over, combined with a "late" announcement of the March color, I got caught up on my Rainbow Column- Along from 2016!

over on instagram, I've started making a month marker. (who knew that was a thing.... I'm always late to parties like that...)

2 more rows done this month for my RSC16 Column-Along- the red and teal. I'm using coal for the back ground, and all scrappy colors of the month for piecing. the Kona reds are: wine, lipstick, red, burgundy, brink, Chinese red, tomato and a mystery red. the aqua Konas are teal blue, candy apple green, turquoise, cyan, breakers, peacock and Caribbean.

above is a picture of the blocks at the point where I got stuck last year. so with 6 rows completed now, I think I'm over half done! only yellow, green and a variation of the grey row to go! it's fun to see these completed quilts/flimsys show up in the linky parties every once in a while. soon i'll be able to add mine!

 

see the other beautiful reds and teals over at angies.

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!

Big News!

a yellow granny square quilt block? really? who wants to see another one of those when there is a new baby in the world?

1 week overdue, 30+ hours of (agonizing) labor, and my new (and first!!!) grandbaby is here! we'll give him the bloggy name of CD. can I say that we're all just thrilled? 

it was a long, long wait- even longer for my oldest daughter, M (CD's mama) but he's here! even though we've just met him, and hardly know him, we love him so much already!

Aunts A and B (my 2nd and 3rd daughters, 5th & 6th children) will be so happy for every chance they can get to hold, cuddle, kiss and love on this new, sweet baby.

 

now, for all you grandmas out there: how am I supposed to get any work done, knowing that this little sweety is only a few miles away, and probably pining for his grandma? it's a new stage in our lives, and an exciting one at that!

 

click on over to angies for more exciting news! (and colors! and quilts!)

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...

Still plugging along....

I fell a bit behind in my piecing projects for RSC16. (this year I'm making granny blocks, crumb blocks, low-volume plus blocks and the RSC16 Column-Along. I also started Simply Woven as a RSC project, using the color of the month, and the accent. when it was close to finished, I just went ahead and finished, rather than have it lingering around- as so many of my blocks are wont to do...)

 

I'm slowly but surely catching up (except for the Column-Along.... I'm way far behind on that, but look forward to getting caught up- I'm doing it all in Kona solids) and if I didn't keep getting distracted with MORE fabric, and MORE quilts, I'd be doing a lot better... but, it is what it is, right?

 

I did finish my Low Volume Plus (showed that here before) and since I didn't do as many projects/blocks as I did in RSC15, I should be able to finish some tops before too long...

this week I pieced several more red granny square blocks, as well as a few yellow ones. all my blocks have the fabrics picked out, and paired with 12 of the background squares, so I'll continue to work on them a few at a time. I think i'll have 60+ when I'm done!!! yikes! but I'm thinking that will make 2 quilts, 6 X 6 setting with sashing.

a few weekends ago, my quilt, Celtic Solstice, was sold at the Washington Mennonite Relief Sale for an astounding and flattering price. I was so excited to be able to help in such a way, and I couldn't hardly sleep that night with the thoughts of all the quilts, and all the fabrics floating through my head!

 

part of the reason I haven't been doing as much RSC piecing is because I have 2 more quilts started for the MCC auctions. (ok, it's really more like 6, but who's counting?!) my friend Karen is a long arm quilter, and she has a passion for quilting for MCC. her mother, Jean, is the third part of our "team"- she loves to do the binding.  while I've been sewing for our church group, Scraps2Wraps for 8+ years, it's only in the last 2 years or so that I've enthusiastically caught the vision of sewing for MCC. it's so satisfying to know that we can work together to complete a quilt to send to one of the auctions, and the monies raised will go directly to where it's needed most, and used by the missionaries who are already in the field, assimilated into the culture and community. I don't even have a passport, but I know that I can help folks around the world, all the while still farming with my husband and homeschooling our 2 youngest. (among other things!)

 

here's a picture of my Simply Woven quilt, as taken from the Texas Relief Sale facebook page. I don't often get to see my quilts completely finished (I pass them along as tops) and definitely not as a full and beautifully taken picture as this. I'm so excited to participate in this way, and to be part of a team where we all are so blessed to do the part of quilting that we love the best, using our talents that are God-given to serve Him.

 

click on over to SoScrappy, hosted by Angie to see what others are doing this week- it will be a colorful visit, I promise!

Soon: very, very soon!!!

the babies are coming! the babies are coming!

they're not here yet, but really, really soon! can you tell I'm excited!

My son, N and his wife P, are having a baby girl mid-November. P requested a quilt that is pink and yellow. they live in WA, but P is in Tennessee this weekend for some weddings and her baby shower. I was glad to only have to mail the quilt to TN... (unfortunately, to travel from PA to TN for the baby shower is a bit much, although I would have loved to go!)

 

the quilt is all Kona cottons. it was fun to make. the backing is a blue sky Winnie-the-Pooh fabric. their nursery is decorated in Pooh bear. I made them a matching (pooh bear) crib sheet, too.

September was pink month for RSC16, so the baby quilt fits right in, right? (the baby shower isn't until tomorrow night, Sunday, but I'm pretty sure neither P nor N reads my blog....)

M had her baby shower way back in august. she's my oldest child, oldest daughter. above I'm pictured with A and B, too. A/B are the "babies" of the family- 10 and 9 respectively. they are also SUPER excited to be aunts.

 

M didn't really have too much input on her baby's quilt; I knew she was doing her nursery in owls, so I took my color inspiration from her favorite owl fabric. (which I bought yards and yards of at $4/clearance. yay, me!)

 

I fussy cut all the owls for the center of the blocks (the first AND last time I ever fussy cut fabric!) and surrounded the blocks with coordinating Kona cottons. (surprise, surprise!) the backing is the same owl fabric, and the binding is brown.

 

we have less than 3 weeks to wait for M's baby, and the little girls and I will be flying out to WA December 1. can't wait!

 

and notice Daisy the donkey? she adds that extra special touch to the photo shoots of the quilts. (and the molasses treats she gets doesn't hurt, either!)

 

 

It's that time of year!

even though it's October, and "technically" we're still a month away from putting quilts together; I should be working on my yellows (that's the color for October, right? I haven't' even pieced yellow blocks- except for the low volume plus...) I got way too excited and finished 2 quilts these last 2 weeks- my Low Volume Plus quilt, (RSC16) and a 16 Patch quilt (RSC15)

This Plus Quilt is so simple, but can I just say I lovelovelove it? again- lots of favorite fabrics in here; all my family is represented with dresses, shirts, quilts, aprons, ect...

our sweet little miniature donkey, Daisy, now has the hang of the quilt photo shoots. Quilt + Camera = treats for the donkey. she's so cute!

RSC15 was the year of the 16 patches for me. (and again: simple but effective) I used my Farmer's Market quilt all summer. but as usual: I went a bit overboard and pieced HEAPS AND SCADS of the 16 patches. (over 200. sheesh....)

just a simple layout for this one. I laid the colors out in diagonal rows- there was a lot of red; red will also be the backing and binding.

this quilt will go to one of the MCC auctions; probably next fall.

AND: I still have about 20 16 patch blocks left! I'm thinking a baby quilt, or dolly quilt... we'll see.