Well, at least we won't be bored...

I'm seeing red! a busy week, and i sewed and sewed red crumb blocks- 31 in all!(they'll finish at 6") and to think: there are still about 20+ (I'm guessing) to go! I'm pretty sure that i didn't get to my red crumb blocks last year, so there is a whole lot in my red jar...

and tonight Angie announced the COM for RSC (how's that for alphabet soup?!)

MULTI COLORED! (but somehow my little brain interpreted that as black, with lots of other colors, too...) however, I will confess that I am definitely a monochromatic sewer- probably 90% + of the fabrics in my stash read as one color.

 

so it's just as well that I'm forced *ahem* to sew with some of these very lovely, but slightly neglected scraps.

 

don't forget to click over to see what everyone else is working on!

Plain and simple....

a little bit of sewing (relaxing) to show for a busy, busy week.

I'm loving these 16 patches done in the Kona indigo and the COM. all 8 reds are different, although the *poor* quality of the photos makes it hard to tell.

I forgot to bring my list downstairs, so here's the colors as best I can remember: red, tomato, Chinese red, brick, lipstick, flame (?) and burgundy.

also: it's auction season! all year I sew quilts for the MCC relief auctions. here's one that will be auctioned off in Kansas. (I wrote about this in more detail here. )

More little boxes of red...

not much sewing in the sewing room this week, what with pink-eye, the stomach bug, bronchitis and a blizzard (30+" from Stella, the epic nor'easter)....

...but what did get sewn was soothing and repetitious- 3" squares in a low volume 16 patch: 10 in all. they'll join the purple and aqua ones in the drawer, waiting for all the other colors to join them in December...

 

lots of other pretty reds over at Angies: click on over to see...

Red is for September

a bit more time to sew, and even time to blog!

red is a prolific color in my stash- I've pieced 2 granny squares, with 7 more to go... that wasn't even using all my reds- just the ones that I especially like...

another row for my low volume plus quilt- with just yellow and black to go, it will soon be ready to put together! can't wait to see this one finished!

and finally, finally, FINALLY, the Simply Woven quilt is finished. judging by the likes, comments and hearts on both facebook and instagram, it's a popular one. that 's a good thing, as it will be sent to one of the MCC quilt sales (Texas, I think...)

 

 

my friend Karen is a long-armer, and we partner together to send quilts to different MCC auctions. I love to piece; she's great at quilting, and so it's a nice partnership. she's been doing it for years, I just jumped on board a couple years ago... I love to piece, and get WAY TOO MANY quilts for my house, and even still too many to share with my children, so it just works out nicely all around...

 

 

I'm updating the RSC tabs at the top of my page; come back later to see... meanwhile, click over to so scrappy and see what everyone else is up to! 

It's time: let's get these quilts together!

after sewing and sewing all these squares together, I decided to start sewing some stuff together (even though technically, I'm a month early for that...) I wanted to see some progress, and not just piles of blocks...

these 16 patches are left over from last year- if i remember, i had just stalled on what to do with them.

last week i decided: why not potholders? my old ones were pretty grimy after using them in the summer kitchen when making applesauce, and what better way to use and enjoy my favorite fabrics than in the kitchen?

let's face it: i spend more time in the kitchen than in the sewing room most days, so i can still get my fabric fix! i cut into some of my all time favorite fabrics for the backings- and I'm so glad i did!

 

another RSC project i worked on this week was my 9 patch blocks.  after sewing and sewing all year long, i was very surprised to count that i had 189+ of the 9 patches! i knew i wanted to do something interesting, and non-traditional in the setting, so after playing around for awhile, i settled on the layout below.

 



 

 

i really like this layout- and there are so many blocks left over! i'll let the little girls lay out another quilt, and we'll give that to my friend for quilting and send it off to one of the MCC auctions.

 

thanks for stopping by- click on over to angela's to see what everyone else is working on. and if you have a minute, scroll down one more post, and tell me what you think of my red stars Christmas quilt- I'm looking for some input and advice!

Tell me true!

* we went away last weekend: to the beach in Wildwood, NJ. it was a relaxing time, and the weather was even co-operative! the girls were able to play in the water, and build sand castles. (when we went in March, the weather was 37degrees, and bitterly cold and windy. such is the life of a farmer...) I missed the linky, but I'd still love your opinion! *

I'm pretty sure nobody reads my blog except for the Saturday morning link ups with soscrappy for RSC15. (my MIL doesn't even read my blog anymore! how sad is that?!)

... but it's worth a shot anyway...

here is the *tentative* layout for my JustGottaMakeIt Red Christmas Stars. sorry for the crappy kindle picture- definitely not a strong selling point for the kindle...

 

I really wanted the stars to be off-set and random~ and no 2 stars are alike! the fabrics vary widely- from vegetables, geometrics, flowers and novelty prints. there are a few Christmas prints thrown in just for good measure. while I was laying out the quilt, I also wanted to avoid (as much as possible) lining up the sawtooth star points. except for the middle row, I managed to do that.

 

as you're looking at this picture, the right hand side of the picture is the top of the quilt, the left is the bottom. the partial star at the top will have prairie points in the binding to complete that star.

 

one of the things that really has me doubting is the lightest of the backgrounds- seen in the lower left of this picture. there are actually 4 different cream/gold prints, and 3 of them are nearly identical.

SO: tell me what you think: is the layout to weird? is the negative space odd? and I definitely need to replace those too light background rectangles, right?

give it to me straight- I can take it!

summer is slipping away...

but more sewing time is just around the corner!

a new month, a new color...

RED is the color for July over at soscrappy and RSC15. I'm * mostly * caught up with all the colors, and although I have a lot of plans for red, I'll just piece steadily along, and see where I get! (July is a bit of a longer month, too, so maybe that will make a difference?)

 

I have lots of my red already cut into 3" squares, and the pile that's waiting to be cut is already pressed. I had a few minutes after Farmer's Market yesterday afternoon, so I disappeared upstairs for a couple hours.
 

this exciting pile of reds and sawtooth stars I started a few months ago. after making a couple sample blocks, I set it aside until Angela called the red month. this project was one of those ideas that popped into my head: ohmygosh,Ican'tevensleepuntilIpullfabricsandmakeacoupleofblocks. you know those kind of ideas/projects, right?

looking at that stack of reds makes me so happy! I think there are 30 different reds, some Christmas fabrics, and some "everyday" favorites. the background is cream, with gold dots. I don't have enough of the one fabric to do the background all the same, but I have 2 other fabrics that are very, very similar. i'll work through this stack, cutting my 3" squares, and a 5½" square for the center of the star, and then i'll be ready to piece a star or two as time allows.

 

who knows? maybe i'll have it done in time for Christmas!

 

(keep scrolling down to see ANOTHER project I started with my 3" squares!)

 

I'm such a crazy lady...