in which the blogger finally gets her colors right!

after a bit of confusion on my part, and suddenly remembering that I DID have teal/aqua scraps (neatly stored in a different place) I made some more blocks for RSC14. I'm loving how these blocks are turning out, and it's fun to look at all the other blocks that are being made, too...

click over here to see more blocks and inspiration!

RSC14- green!

May 10, 2014:

I pieced my green blocks back in March- the disorganized (or too organized?) quilter had stored the teal/aqua scraps somewhere different, and could not find them. so she used green that month instead.

but actually, my original mistake turned out to work very well. this month we're super busy planting (what farmer is NOT crazy busy in May?) and we also have a wedding (in Tennessee, no less!) at the end of the month, so there is not much sewing time here these days.

 

above are my green blocks- all 12 of them. and below is the general idea of where I'd like to go with all my rainbow crumb blocks. can't wait! (but it's definitely a work in progress, and will not be completed too quickly!)
 

 

I designed my rainbow quilt on EQ5-  I'm not even sure if it's an original! I was inspired by lots of the quilts I saw on so scrappy's rainbow pinterest board, and some ideas from Sunday Morning Quilts as well. ( Cheryl and Amanda designs are intriguing to me- I love to haunt their blogs!)

 

and on a completely unrelated note: have you heard about the new mystery quilt? I know I'm crazy, but I'm in!

 

one quick question: does anyone know if we'll be doing black/brown/grey/white as part of the RSC14? I know they're not technically "rainbow", but I do have a fair amount of scraps in those colors...

 

Design Wall Monday: a first for me!

the weather is still cold, snowy and ridiculous here, but not too many complaints from me... I think I'm the only person I know who doesn't really mind the winter weather. spring will be here before we know it, and then it's off to the gardens, fields and high tunnel for me.

this is the design wall in my sewing room (just a piece of 1" foam insulation, covered with batting. while there are usually a few random or lonely blocks slapped up on there, this is the first time I've made it "official" and linked up with design wall Monday. and heck, while I'm at it, I'll link up with RSC14, too!

 

the homespun blocks are some leftover 3½" squares (that I purchased) from when we made our new minister and his wife a quilt. I've had them for several years (they even made it onto my 2011 UFO list for Judy's challenge as UFO #12., and then again in 2012 as UFO #9!)  obviously, I changed my mind on how I would piece them. I settled on a simple 9 patch- with 3 lights/6 darks. I plan to set the blocks in an off-set barn raising pattern. I have about 40 blocks done, and need 81+.

 

in the upper left corner there are a few lonely scrappy trips blocks. the strips were leftover from a quilt that I pieced for my (baby) niece this summer. there are only 6 blocks, so not quite enough to do something with, but I was contemplating slashing into them and making something like this. still pondering that though, so there they sit...

 

the blue and pink blocks are from RSC14. this is my first year for participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I was all ready to jump in since I already had my scraps sorted by color. I've already been piecing 6½" blocks by (monochromatic) colors, but it's nice to jump in and let soscrappy choose a color for each month. January was blue; February is pink. I've worked through both of my scrap jars in those colors, and was able to use most of my scraps. I do have a quilt in mind that I plan on doing with my blocks, but that will wait awhile. be sure to check out the pinterest page she has with so many beautiful quilts for inspiration!

 

and one more thing: (thanks for reading this far, by the way!) out of the 18 quilts I had listed for the 2011 and 2012 UFO's with Judy, I finished 14 of them. not too bad, huh?

 

 

 

Tell It To The Stars: all that you wanted to know and more...

loving how Tell It To The Stars is turning out so far. each month until June, we'll be doing two blocks. (click on the link above to go to the original post about TITTS, and a link to each month's progress, AND everyone's linky's)

February 1: the next blocks for Judy's mystery quilt just came out, and I got right to it... they're done!

January's blocks: done!

here are my fabric choices. fabric #3 is the royal blue that I used in my wedding, #4 is Kona lupine.  fabric #6 is my favoritest ever~ stones!

and there was much sewing and piecing in the land...

January has been very cold (pretty much everywhere!) but I've been happily piecing away all month long. I've enjoyed the time in my sewing room, and I'm so thankful that I can take the time to piece away!

 

again this year I'm doing Judy's mystery quilt. this year it's Tell It To The Stars. here are my first two blocks all completed. I'm loving my fabric choices so far. I've chosen the yellow as my main fabric, banking on the fact that any quilt with the name Tell It To The Stars is bound to have many stars in it! the grey is rock fabric- my favorite, favorite ever! the purple is Kona Lupine, and the blue is the fabric from my wedding. can't wait to see how it turns out month by month...

 

my daughter A got me this book for Christmas. I was so happy to receive it, and pieced two quilts from it already.

the first is this quilt- I used a neutrals Kona cotton jelly roll, and Kona papaya for the yellow. I plan to quilt it myself, using vertical cables. someday, that is!

next was this one- again, all from stash! when I'm almost done with a fabric, I'll cut it into 2½" strips, and put it in the bin in my closet. there are so many patterns out there that use the 2½" strips, and jelly rolls can be SO expensive, that often I'll make up my own jelly roll. I really like the way this quilt turned out, too! so many of the fabrics have a little story behind them, and it's fun to search for all the different dresses, quilts, pillow cases and shirts that I've made for my children in the past 15+ years.

this was my first Bonnie Hunter mystery- Celtic Solstice. i found out about it at the last minute, but I'm glad I jumped in. again, I pieced this all from stash (isn't that such a good feeling?) I chose to do this mystery, since I know Bonnie's patterns often have gazillions of tiny pieces, and it's so different from what I would normally do. ( I usually shy away from tons of little pieces, and twiddly patterns). but- I'm happy with how this turned out, and would do another mystery of hers- as long as it's only once a year!

most of the chevron blocks I pieced wrong; there are only 7 in the quilt that I pieced the right way. oh, well. I considered ripping them all out, but (easily) talked myself out of it! I have no plans to quilt this at this time, but it's hanging in my sewing room closet with the backing fabric (a blue and orange paisley purchased for $2/yd) all pieced, and the binding fabric cut and rolled with it.

 

PS: is it just me, or is blogger really irritating? I can't get my pictures to rotate or center the way I want them to. sorry!

squares, Squares and more SQUARES!

i've been quilting for 25+ years now, and over those years my quilting style has changed. before I was mostly making matchy-matchy quilts, (with no borders!) in fairly traditional styles and colors. in the past few years, I've been drawn to white and black backgrounds, and very bright colors in unexpected combinations. old habits die hard, but my quilts have certainly changed recently.

 

one of the quilts that I really like was (is) Film at Five. I had been wanting to make this quilt for awhile, but with the busy gardening and growing season, that just wasn't happening.

 

this quilt has a bit of a funny story to it. we work so hard in the spring and summer planting, weeding, tending and harvesting our LARGE garden for our CSA that there is not much time or energy for me to sew. finally I began this quilt as a leaders/enders project, and got far enough that I was excited to push through and finish it. I had a nice amount (1000+) of 2" squares that I had begun collecting for a watercolor quilt about 15 years ago. I lost interest in that quilt, and had this bag of floral squares for a LONG time and never did anything with it. I had even taken the bag of squares to our quilt group yard sale, in the hopes of selling it. when it didn't sell, that's when I got the idea to make a Film at Five quilt with it. however, I thought it would be easier to do as a leader/ender project if I did a 16 patch instead of a 25 patch. it wasn't until I went to put the sashings together that I realized it HAD to be a 25 patch for the sashing math to work out properly... so I improvised. all the squares are florals, and in honor of our extensive gardening/farming, I put in a few squares of my favorite stone fabric. I LOVE how this quilt turned out!

 

my two (sweet) little girls, A and B do not have a full size quilt for their beds. they both have several smaller quilts, but not matching full sized quilts for the beds in the room that they share. I had promised them that when we put the gardens to bed this fall, we'd start on their quilts. A's quilt has yellow, green, pink and orange squares.

B's quilt has yellow, green, blue and purple squares. both quilts have the exact. same. yellow and green fabric, but it's amazing how different they look. now we know what they mean when they say pinks and oranges are "warm" and purple and blues are "cool"! we'll take these to our long arm friend right after Christmas.

 

all 3 of these quilts are very different than what I would have made 20 years ago, but I L.O.V.E. them all. thanks for stopping by!

some exciting progress to share on mysterious quilts!

it's been a busy week- and I know we've ALL been busy. I'm enjoying working on Bonnie's mystery Celtic Solstice. clues #1 and 3 are done. clues #2 and 4 are ¾ done. not too bad, considering all that's been going on this week.

just a couple guesses as to the layout of some of the squares. I especially like the one in the upper left; I hope that's how it will be in the quilt. and also hoping for more blue and neutral. (a blue and yellow 4 patch would be ideal!)

here's my completed carpenter's star. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

and here's my completed Mystery Medallion from 2013, sponsored by Judy (and Vicky) at patchwork times. she's doing another mystery, Tell It To the Stars for 2014. I have my fabrics pulled, and I'm looking forward to starting that one, too. it's not too late to join in...

thanks for looking! have a wonderful Christmas- it's extra special here at my house- all 6 of my children are home! it's the first Christmas that they've all been here in 5 years!

making progress on those mysteries!

the second clue for Bonnie Hunter's mystery came out on Friday. (you can also see the progress of all the other beautiful quilts here. ) I was away for part of the weekend, but I managed to cut out my pieces before it was time to leave, and took along my trusty featherweight. so Friday night in the hotel, it was just me, my machine and good ol' HGTV for company. I got a bit done, but was tired from driving. also, I had already finished last weeks' clue #1. however, since this is my first mystery with Bonnie, I didn't realize What.A.Big.Deal.the.Mr.Linky.Is.  I love the alternate colors that others are doing- especially the ones with black/grey and teal. I would have loved to do other colors, but my stash didn't really allow for that- I was able to pull all the colors for the Celtic Solstice from my stash.

 

I've also been working on a carpenter's star. this week 3 friends came over, and we all worked on making one of these- mine was the smallest, and the brightest, too! it's almost done now, but this is the most recent picture at the moment.  

  

 

 last winter we received this junk magazine from our electric company. I don't think I even read it, but the colors on the front immediately caught my eye- and it's been hanging on my bulletin board in the sewing room ever since. recently it dawned on me that it would be perfect to translate it into a carpenter's star with all solids, and a black background. (Kona cotton, of course!) I'm very happy with how it's turning out. (and my daughter A tells me that she likes it very much, and would like it for her own...)

 

the carpenter's star quilt is actually the 4th quilt I've done in black/solids. (you can see my calendar quilt here.) the others I've not blogged about, but should really try to get those pictures up soon!

and the last clue is out- and just in time, too!

 

last January I (we) began a mystery quilt with Judy. it's been lots of fun, and the last clue just came out this morning! just a purple and teal border to add, and then it's done! with the exception of some funkiness in the center star (I keep debating if I should rip a few seams, and reverse the green and yellow star points- what do you think?) I love it! i'm happy with my color choices, and it's a different style than what I normally gravitate to. with the clues coming out only once a month, it's been very manageable... be sure to pop on over and see the other quilts!

 

here's a few more pictures of what I've been up to while holing up in the sewing room:

 

I've made 2 of these Film at Five quilts: one for A and one for B. this is A's. the quilts are similar in color, but A's has pink and orange, and B's has purple and blue.

here are some of my fabric choices for Tell it to the Stars. (another Judy and Vicki's mystery quilt). I auditioned several fabric stacks this week, but I think this is what I'll go with. shown are # 3- royal blue, #4- light, #5- medium, and #6- dark. #1, the background, I plan on getting white. and #2, which Judy tells us is a very dominant color, I'm going to go out on a limb and get yellow. since the quilt is named Tell it to the Stars, I'm going to guess there are some stars in it, and choose yellow. i'm excited about starting another mystery quilt with these gals!

last night the little girls and I made this quickie plus quilt for an unknown friend in need. it was super quick (I machine stitched the binding) and A and B had fun helping to lay out the pluses on the design wall.

hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, a huge turkey, and lots of leftovers! thanks for stopping by!

a little piece of advice from me...

I pieced this little coffee themed quilt (I used a moda charm pack, "bistro")  for a special (secret) reason. I got the pattern off moda bake shop that you can find right here.

while I originally thought that I would like this pattern, it turns out I was wrong. also, if you decide to make this, make sure that after you print out the PDF, you go through the tutorial on the blog, and fix all the mistakes. the directions on the moda bake shop blog are correct, but the PDF has not been fixed yet. (i'm glad that I checked back before I started making this quilt!!)

I love this coffee line, bistro, and have hoarded collected several charm packs of it, just waiting to find that perfect pattern. if I were to make another quilt, I would use the line dance pattern, which you can find over here.

I made the line dance quilt this summer for our scraps to wraps quilting group at church. I used a charm pack of oink-a-doodle-moo, but do you think I can find a picture of  it? (no!)

anyway- have fun piecing!