another week, a bit of progress...

yay, me! I figured out the tabs at the top! I posted the info/back story about my RSC14 projects. (all completed, yay again!) click on over if you want to see.... ( so far the RSC14 tab is the only one that's done. the others are still a work in progress... i'll get to them as soon as I can!)

I'm still having fun with my suitcase of squares- (it's a vintage suitcase that was my mothers, and is FULL of 3" squares that I've cut from my stash/scraps, and sorted into colors.) I've never made a granny square block, and thought that this would be the perfect year to do some! I'm using the creams/tans left over from last year's 16 patches. I made 4 blue grannies- and I promise this year I won't go overboard, and try to use up every. single. pretty. fabric.

 

and actually, since I've been using these squares for a couple years now, the choices of colors that have 8 squares (for the outer ring) is getting slimmer and slimmer. so I guess that's a good thing, right? ha!

 

here are my 4 patches from last year- I didn't have a solid plan of where I was going with these. then inspiration struck (BAM):

I'm teaching an encore Scrap Happy class at our LQS in Feb/March and the shop owner wanted me to do a quilt from one of Bonnie Hunter's books- Adventures with Leaders and Enders.  I started making the zig-zag 9 patch on the cover, and then got distracted with the other quilt on the cover....

I realized that I could use my RSC15 4 patches, and make the bow tie blocks. (her squares are the ridiculous size of 1" finished!!!) being the reasonable person I am, (I hate twiddly sewing) I decided that my 2½" finished squares would work just fine...

 

I have to say, though, that after assembling this block, I decided that the white plaid is too thin/flimsy, so I'll replace those 8 blocks, and use a better fabric for the remaining 15 blocks.

 

click on over the Angela's and see what everyone else is sewing and creating! maybe you'll be inspired!

RSC16- off to a good start with the blues

I'm happy with my progress so far for RSC16. one of the quilts that I'm making this year is Simply Woven . especially since Angela is calling for an accent color each month, this quilt should work really well for RSC. all the fabrics are from my stash, and I'm really pleased with how this quilt looks so far. there are 4 different tans, and many, many blues, with a few purples thrown in.

 

technically, this bonnie hunter scrappy trips isn't really a RSC project, but I had pieced the blocks last year, and just this week got the top put together. with a 6X6 block layout, it finishes at about 72"- a perfect throw size.

 

this quilt is for my 2 girls' room- it uses all the same fabrics that are in their bed quilts.  they helped make the squares, picking out 5 fabrics of the color combinations of their choice. I added the Kona white as the middle constant, and this is a very bright and colorful quilt!

 

the top is done, and the backing is pieced and hanging with the quilt in my sewing room closet. I had planned on quilting this one myself (straight lines, easy peasy) but with tendonitis in my left shoulder, it's really more than I can manage, unfortunately. as the budget allows, I'll send quilts to the longarmer...

 

my farmer's market table runner/cloth went to the quilters this week, so I'm calling this a good week, quilt wise. and: I also figured out the bloggy tabs for RSC. yay, me! all of them are a work in progress, but RSC14 is done- go check it out! and while you're at it, stop by Angela's and see what everyone else has been working on!

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!

RSC16- so excited for another year of scrappy quilts!

I definitely was a big, fat show off bit off more than I could chew last year, and started TOO. MANY. QUILTS. (is that even possible? did those words just come out of my mouth?)

 

I love the soothing rhythm of sewing and sewing blocks together, paying attention only to color, an accurate seam allowance and the growing little pile of blocks. but I realized at the end of the year I had a very large stack of blocks, and to put them all together in to about a dozen quilts (really!) was not quite as soothing or relaxing. actually, it's a bit ridiculous!

 

I'm not complaining, really! but several of the quilts that I made required quite a lot of twiddling and laying them out to get the colors just right. my design wall is not quite big enough for that (still not complaining) but it was all a bit much.

 

so this year, I'm not doing as many quilts. ( I'm a quick learner, I am!).

 

here's my list of projects for RSC16- (even though I'm a bit late for the New Year's Posts that ya'll did...)

 

• Row by Row Plus blocks, with neutral (white) 3" squares. I'll only make 9 blocks each month, and then sew the row together. I promise not to obsess with the color placement of the light and dark blocks- "just sew them together, for Pete's sake!" I also have a FQ bundle of the new Allison Glass fabrics that I'll cut into for this.

• Crumb blocks- I love these, and they make such cool quilts!

• Angela's RSC16 sampler. I plan on making the lap and twin size. one I'll keep for myself/family, and one I'll donate.

• Granny squares. I've always wanted to make one of those! I think I'll use all the tan 3" squares left over from the 16patch last year, since I'll be using the whites in the RxR Plus blocks.

• I also plan on making this Woven quilt, and have all the cream rectangles cut for most of the blocks. I saw that Mary was making one, too, and it occurred to me that it would be a perfect RSC16 quilt. I'm excited about this one too- and with the addition of the accent color of the month this year, it should be an especially nice quilt!

There. doesn't that seem much more manageable? I think so! if I can figure out how to do those really cool and clever tabs at the top of my blog header (any hints, anybody?) i'll get things sorted out, and easier to keep track of and follow along.

 

I've done another post about my RSC15 quilts that are just a pile of blocks right now, and you can check out my progress on that here. thanks for stopping by!

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!

is it ok if i come out and play along today?

 officially speaking, I didn't do any RSC sewing this week, but I was busy with other stuff. (Tuesday we butchered all 25 of our turkeys- they weighed from 17lb. all the way up to 30lb. +. our bird for Thanksgiving dinner was 27lb.- plenty for 6 people!)

 

my friend asked me to make her a baby quilt for her newest great-granddaughter. I've had this jelly roll for a while- and it's sort of rainbow-y, too! (pattern here)

my DWR quilt is done! I'm happy with how it turned out, and it was definitely not as hard (or twiddly!) as I thought it would be. ( I will iron it soon, I promise!)

it's about a double size, and I plan to bind it in the gold solid. for now the plan for this quilt is to go to one of the MCC auctions, unless one of my children falls in love and claims it...

more gorgeous quilts here!

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"