RSC16- and RSC20, too!

i've been sewing (and finishing!) behind the scenes, and have a couple quilts to share today.  

long-time RSC quilters will recognize the RSC16 column-along quilt. i did 2 that year, one to keep and one to share. they're all kona cotton solids, and i will say these quilts are one of my favorite RSC quilts we've done together. 

this RSC16 column quilt has been done (and gifted!) for awhile, but it was just recently quilted and bound. and observant readers will notice that it's a different quilt than the one shown in my header picture. (same donkey, though...) 

M/K and family are the owners of this quilt. (and now M/K have THREE children!) my youngest daughter, B, received the sister quilt for Valentine's Day last year. 

this crumb quilt is destined for a teen boy in residential foster care- Cameron. 

i "found" a home for this crumb quilt through Instagram: Quilt For A Child.  i know we all probably already have our donation connections filled, but just in case you're looking to spread the quilty love a bit further, click on over and check her out. 

and check out this fun "glamour" shot- artistically draped over a pallet outside our "little library". haha! originally, our farm was a 500+ acre dairy farm, but it's slowly gotten whittled down over the years to 7 acres, and just (basically) a hobby farm now. 

but the outhouse was a real, functioning necessity at one time. (double seater, even!) both girls and i had fun being outside this morning, and looking for photogenic places to take pictures of quilts. 

i have more quilts to share- finally finished the red stars quilt, started WAAAAAAAY back in 2015. and i'll be posting pictures of that soon. 

also: many sorries, but not including the clicky-link to angela's blog this morning. Norton seems to think some of the quilting blogs i follow are sketchy and suspicious looking. anybody know what's up with that? 

nothing says I LOVE YOU like a rainbow!

with 2 little girls still at home Valentine's Day can kind of be a big deal...

we try to make it special for them, and what's more special than a rainbow quilt from mom? i had the brainstorm a couple weeks ago to save and gift these quilts to them for Valentine's Day.

needless to say, both A (with the 9 patch kona indigo quilt) and B (with the Kona RSC16 column-along) were thrilled. 

both quilts have been used *almost* constantly since Thursday morning, and that's a great thing! i'm thrilled, too, to spread the love and quilts to my 2 youngest daughters!

go see what everyone else is stitching up this chilly February Saturday!

edited to add: the RSCsquared quilt was also #1 on my UFO list from Judy's blog. linking up to join in the fun! (I've actually made a bit of progress on some other UFOs, too, but just haven't caught up with the blogging of them...) 

Show me the {Kona} LOVE!

I'm excited with Angie's choice of yellow for such a dreary (and cold!) month! and yellow works well for a short month, too, as i don't have a lot of yellow in my stash. (but maybe I say that every month...)

I laid out *all* my yellow 3" squares for the picture above, and got 81. with all the lonely (only 1 of) squares, i'll have nearly 100 different yellows to work with. 

on a different note- it's *weird* how the cheddars, which are clearly in the yellow camp, can so quickly dessert and head over to the orange side- making the division of colors a bit stressful for monochromatic quilters like me... 

this week is all about the Konas- Kona Cotton Solids, that is!

my RSC16 column-along is DONE! like: quilted, bound (in indigo), washed and nice and crinkly done!

i made 2 of these RSC16 column-alongs. one was gifted to my oldest daughter, M and her husband K last Christmas.  i made 2 of these because I was sure I would love it too much to part with it- and I was right. This quilt is the smaller of the 2- it finished at about 56" square. 

when I first completed it this week, I wasn't too happy with how it turned out. I had done a poor & lazy job of pressing the top upon completion, and it wasn't laying as flat as it should have been. however, i determinedly and courageously (and carefully) pressed on, and managed to finish quilting loopys on the top with no wrinkles or puckers. 

the stripe fabric is a Moda/Jen Kingwell fabric that i had purchased awhile back with this quilt in mind. i pieced it so the pink was not twice in the back. after a round of washing and drying, the quilt is officially finished, and i'm pleased with the small amount of shrinkage. not only did it improve my quilting, now instead of being of the frame of mind "finished is better than perfect", i'm very happy with how it turned out with no regrets. 

the weather here in northern PA has been absolutely frigid this week (literally!) and it was too cold and windy to go outside to take a picture...  but: 

i finished my Kona 16 patch from RSC18 into a top! the sun did come out and contribute some cheeriness to the colors as we were taking this picture, but still- the picture doesn't do this quilt justice. 

this 16 patch kona/indigo is the big sister to the kona/9 patch that i also pieced during RSC18. (all squares are 3")

this quilt top seems to be glowing! i used indigo for the alternate blocks, and arranged the colors into rows. this top finished at 80" X 100". i plan to use it on my bed, and there is plenty of overhang on the sides to allow sharing with a cover hog. *ahem*.  as the weather improves, i'll take a better photo. 

linking up with Angie and the other RSC19 creators! 

hey you guys! wait for me...

i've participated in Judy's UFO challenge for quite a few years now. (5?) i'd like to sew along for 2019. (but how can you STILL have UFOs I can hear some of you saying...)

just saving my spot in the link up until i get my act together to gather and number 12 UFOs...

so here they are, in no particular order, and without a lot of extra time taken for taking beautiful pictures... (can you tell?!)

#1- it's my Kona Love Row-by-Row Sampler from RSC16. i lurve this quilt- and want to get it quilted and in use!

Add caption

#2- my bins of strips. (this is a holdover from last year) i have a lot of 2½" strips that have *magically* appeared in my sewing room. i have a plan for these, and i'm hoping that my quilty friends at our church sewing group will help me turn these into quilts that can be used and loved!

more on that later!

#3- ???

#4- neither of these is a recent picture, but i would like to get this quilt DEE OH ENN EEE. (d.o.n.e.) it's pieced into a top, and "just" needs borders and quilting.

#11- this is obviously a very unloved UFO.  i started this quilt with my quilt guild about 1997, so it's definitely time to get it done. who knows: maybe 2019 is the year!

this star quilt was a BOM and has stars in 12" and 6". i still have fabric to finish the top in with the pile, and i like the idea of a setting as seen here.

#5- my Rainbow Squares, pieced during RSC17. it was a UFO in last years list, and i have firm intentions of completing it this year! the backing is pieced, and i know how i want to quilt it.

unfortunately, i don't really enjoy the quilting aspect of quilting (i like the design/piecing the most!) but with the budget being what it is (or is not!), i really need to knuckle down and finish some of the tops in the sewing room closet myself. (put on my big girl panties and just get to it!)

#6- this isn't really a UFO, more a WIP. this picture is from last year, but i did make some progress on Crazy Mom's June quilt. i'm piecing my rectangles in neutrals, and have 53 made. i plan on using blue and yellow, too, in the quilt. i'll add a current picture later.

#7- not my work, not really a UFO. but this is an important quilt, and i need to help/encourage my youngest daughter to get it done. B pieced this carpenter star, and our Christmas gift to her is to get it quilted. the top is together; just the borders need done, and the backing pieced.

#8- again, not a UFO, more a WIP. i'm making a scrappy patchwork quilt with Kona stratosphere and a favorite selection from my 3" squares. just a simple quilt, but i have some ideas of other quilty accessories i'd like to make for our bedroom to go along with it...

#9- locate and complete the Wonky 1930's Sampler quilt. i started this quilt when B was a baby (see #7) it has matching fabrics from her baby quilt; i thought it would be nice to have a matching quilt for our bed. i think this UFO has made several appearances in the line-up through the years... 

#10- Coffee Time: a pile of 4 patches made with Bistro from Moda. i started this last year, and then changed my mind on the completion timeline and set it aside. 

#12- ???

as i've said- this is about my 4th or 5th year participating in Judy's UFO challenge. is it possible i only have 10 UFOs? maybe- not sure... need to dig deeper in the sewing room, but this is enough to get me started for now! 

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!

 





Rainbow² !

I recently finished the RSC16 Column-Along quilt and just today completed the second (and smaller) couch version.

I'm going to call it Rainbow².

for various reasons, my quilt didn't turn out exactly square, but it's pretty close... (57"X55½")

I had a couple issues with some rows (aqua, red and green) being not the right length. some of this was due to user error; another was because of faulty math assumptions.

also, some of my more observant readers might notice that my RSC16 Column-Along is "missing" a row. there was a black/grey row (Bull's Eye) included in the original design, but I omitted that row because of having a grey background.

because of these reasons, Rainbow² is "inside out" compared to my other RSC16 Column-Along. but- serendipitously, I actually like it better! I like that the 2 skinny rows (red and pink) are no longer on the edge, and I also like that the multi-color rows (blue, purple, brown) are not on the outside anymore, either.

I really like this quilt! I anticipated liking it a lot when I began piecing it- that's why I made two; one to keep, and one to give.

it's so cheery it's glowing!

finally- finally- finally! a "finish" flimsy to report! I've been working on getting some UFOs done, and part of that is my lurking RSC quilts.

1. 

I got this top together Friday afternoon- it's the RSC16 Column-Along quilt. I did it in all kona solids- with Kona Coal as the background.

lurking about somewhere is the complete list of all the konas that I used in the quilt- certainly can be found on each individual post as I completed the rows... (not that any one, including me, really wants to hunt for it that hard...)

this is the twin size- I did not take the time to measure it, but it should be somewhere around 60"X72".  I wasn't too crazy about the (purple) butterflies, so I replaced that row with 16 patches. (a personal favorite!) the last 3 rows- blue, purple and brown include the accent colors that we used last year. I decided not to do that on the remaining 6 rows.

 

 

Helga the Icelandic Sheep can't bear to think that Daisy the Donkey might get all the attention.. I also made the couch size RSC16 Column-Along. despite some feverish sewing on my part, there were a couple hiccups along the way that will delay that reveal...

 



I see that Angie is also working on her Column-Along- click on over to see!

 

 

almost there!

I'm bound and determined to get some of these lurking, nearly finished quilts DONE! (dee-oh-en-ee)

*edited to add:*  I linked up so late last week, that I'm linking this post again. also: can you even believe that it's the LAST yellow Saturday?!

the row of green can also fall under the category of "measure twice, cut once". I made my flying geese per the Eleanor Burns directions, (and ruler). I knew they would finish slightly bigger than the size Angela planned for, but since the math all worked out, I just decided to save myself some of the bother.

unfortunately, I mixed up the size squares that were to be cut for the geese and the background. I considered (for about 3 nano-seconds) re-doing the geese, but in the end figured that it would just make my quilt that much more unique in a (possible) wide sea of RSC16 Column Quilts.

not surprisingly, I fell behind on my RSC Column-Along. but for RSC17 I've been catching up on this (really, really cool) quilt one row, and one color at a time, as Angela calls the new color.

if you're interested, here's the colors I used for the green and yellow. sour apple, mint, holly, grasshopper, green grass, avocado, pickle, chartreuse and basil. yellows are daffodil, buttercup, curry, butter, canary, corn yellow, maize, and yarrow.
 

so now I've got 9 rows DONE! now it's only the pink row to go- and easy one of hatchets, and I have lots of pinks in my kona stash from my granddaughter E's quilt. can someone please direct me to the final directions/order of assembling the rows? I can't seem to find it on Angela's blog...

I'm making 2 of these quilts- the large and small ( I know, I know- I can't help it- really!) one to keep and one to give. getting excited to see the end of this quilt nearly in sight- Angela did a great job designing it.

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.

And they're off!

I got a bit of a slow start on RSC17 this year, but I think I'm finally ready... purple is the color of the month, and I've had a pleasant infusion of purple scraps the last couple months, so I'm happy to work with some new fabrics...

a new project for me this year will be some modified 16 patches, using my 3" squares. ( I can't remember where I saw another RSCer doing these blocks. if I figure it out, or if you give me a shout-out, I'll be happy to link back to you!)

 

there is only 1 (or maybe 2?) repeat in the above purples, I believe. I plan to make as many blocks as necessary each month to use *almost* all my different squares in each color of the month. the low volumes will continue to be scrappy. (they're left over from previous RSC years that I pieced a low volume plus quilt, as well as many 9 patches and 16 patches...)

(sorry for the sideways picture...) I'll continue to piece my crumb blocks (6½" unfinished) and add them to the pile from RSC16.  I particularly enjoy piecing the crumb blocks- and they make a pretty cool looking quilt when they're done, too! I've made several crumb quilts, using wildly different layouts and they're some of my favorites!

 

my other projects for RSC17:

• complete the RSC16 column-along
• piece 16 patches in Kona solids (COM) and grey
• finish piecing the RSC16 tops: pinwheels, 16 patches, granny squares, 4 patches, ect...

 

and a big SHOUT-OUT and HAPPY WELCOME to you if you're new to RSC17! we're glad to have you! this is my 4th year participating in RSC, and I've loved having the camaraderie, direction and accountability for the monthly sewing. I get lots done- and I'm happy to share all the quilts with my family and MCC.

 

also: don't let the RAINBOWY-NESS throw you off! we don't all make quilts that are ALWAYS IN RAINBOW ORDER! I know that can get a bit tiring sometimes.... it's just so nice to have ONE COLOR to focus on each month, and have a nice, colorful and scrappy pile of blocks at the end of the year. RSC has worked really well for me, and I hope it will for you, too!

 

click back to angie's  blog to see more beautiful quilts, and get LOTS of inspiration!

 

 

More good news!

I'm really happy how my RSC16 column-along is coming. the Kona solids make me pretty happy, too! BUT WAIT: there's MORE good news!  

 

 

I borrowed an accuquilt die cutter from a friend, and a (different) friend and I cleaned out the cupboard at Scraps2Wraps of all the miscellaneous (and super-annoying) little bits of small and oddly shaped fabrics. I brought them home, and in just a little over 1 hour, was able to cut this 9½" tall stack of tumblers! I was very happy about that BUT WAIT: there's MORE good news!
 

Just in time...

a few evenings this week were pleasantly passed in the sewing room. I finished up my purples, just in time to check Angela's blog to see that the COM for April is orange.

 

orange is very meager in my stash, but I recently added about 4 FQ's in anticipation of this month's color. I'm excited to play with some new fabric!

the block for this months Column-Along was the butterfly. he just wasn't singing to me, and I knew that I would never embroider antennas on him to make it look more like a butterfly, so I reverted to the trusty old 16 patches.

lots of purples with some dots of yellows. I love it! (oh, I almost forgot! can you see the BH mystery quilt, Allietare, on the chair? it's all pieced and sewn together; just needs the borders.)

and for those who want to know, here are the Kona purple and yellows that I used in these blocks: regal, amethyst, midnight, bright periwinkle, crocus, mulberry and thistle. buttercup, maize and canary were the yellows.

Sewing through the brown a bit at a time...

it was a busy week here: church sewing day, orthodontist appointments, singing lessons... but it was made especially busy because my oldest son, D, was here for a (mostly) unexpected visit. D is a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy, and he's transferring from CA to NYC. (and I, for one, am THRILLED to have him on the east coast again!) it's so nice to have the adult children when they come home, and of course I chose time with him over time in the sewing room!

 

I did get a couple things done, though. 2 rows for the RSC16 column-along. I still have some browns to make into the crumb blocks, but my brown is looking mighty slim!

the Kona browns used in these columns are: honey, sable, espresso, earth, chocolate brown and a couple mystery browns I didn't mark clearly after bringing them home. ( :( )  the pinks are pomegranate, melon, pink and candy pink.
 

these blocks are not technically RSC, but if you squint really hard, and don't' think too hard...

we have a dear, dear friend (family) who just celebrated the birth of their 8th child. how exciting is that? I met my friend through MOPS, and she and her family have been enthusiastic members of our CSA for 4 years now.

so: of course I had to make her, the baby and the family a quilt to help celebrate! all the 3" squares are from my suitcase, and A and B helped pick out the squares for the blocks. you'll notice a definite "farm theme" going on- and that's on purpose! even a bit of I Spy, too!

 

I just need to sash the blocks, and quilt it simply. I'd like to get it to my friend ASAP.

 

we were playing quirkle the other night, and isn't it funny how the blocks look sort-of like the quilt?