UFO2017: a challenge is just what i needed!

I'm late to the linky, but I met my goal in time! Judy is hosting a UFO2017 "party" and I'm always game for a bit of accountability! (and a deadline!)

the first quilt was a fat quarter pile of shot cottons that I was given. the plan for this quilt is to go to one of the MCC quilt auctions.

technically, a pile of fabrics is not a UFO, but a 60° triangle quilt has been on my list for awhile. after finding my triangle (buried in the step basket!) I had no more excuses!

I love how these turned out- and they were super easy, too!  the layout in the second quilt is totally random- and it's a perfect quilt to go down to Honduras with one of our next mission trips.

 

now that I've tackled this style of quilt, I'd like to make more. that is, as soon as I whittle down my pile of UFOs. ha!

 

galloping along- but still a bit behind!

I will not start out this blog post (my first in 4 weeks!) saying how busy I've been... with Farmer's Markets- 2 a week. sometimes 3 (or even 4!) babysitting. freezing corn. butchering chickens. an upcoming visit from my DIL and granddaughter, E. the normal life stuff that we all do...

 

we're all busy... but winter is coming...

I had one (ONE!) glass gallon jar of blue scraps. (which as you remember, blue was the RSC color for July... ) one more night of sewing, and I think i'll have all my blue crumb blocks done.

 

so that makes me a bit nervous thinking about FOUR jars of neutral scraps for my crumb blocks....

 

 

 

 

I've been working on my Kona Indigo 16 patch blocks. since all my other RSC17 projects use neutrals (low volume pluses and 16 patches in the color of the month) I've only had these blocks to work on. 

 

 

I know I say it every month, but I really do LOVE how these blocks are turning out. no idea how I'll put them together, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

 



the Kona cotton colors used for the above 11 blocks are: (in no particular order) white, ivory, snow, parchment, mushroom, silver, eggshell, putty, steel, slate and medium grey.

 

teensy, weensy bit of cheating here: the above quilt (flimsy) I made a few years ago right at the beginning of my low volume craze. it's a simply pieced rail fence variation. I can't even remember where I got my inspiration., influencing the sprinkling of the (Kona grey) squares throughout. maybe I could focus on getting this one quilted this month... the chances are probably slim to none, but who knows?

 

make sure to visit Angies blog to see what everyone else has been doing- lots of folks get tons of sewing time in the summer- mine just mostly comes in the winter.

 





sewing the blues

blue squares were the project of the week...

it was a crazy, busy week (but don't most of us say that every week?)but I got just a bit of sewing time in .

looking forward to finishing some blue this week- 16 patches and maybe get a start on the crumb blocks.

my blue squares had baby blues!

when Angie said that us quilters have lots of blues, she must have been thinking of my blue stash! yikes!

these are just the 3"' squares- all ??? of them! after a busy, busy week, I was finally able to sort them all last night- and it was a Big Job.

 

and the blues? there's Royal blue. and Baby blue. don't forget Sky blue and Slate blue. of course there's Navy blue and Light blue, just for good measure.

 

all these squares have been sorted into the piles for my low volume plus blocks, and the 16 patches. I'm off to the sewing room for some much needed relaxing sewing time- after linking up to Angies blog, of course, and seeing what everyone else is up to.

it's a good thing I can swim...

or I'd be drowning in all my blues over here!

I finished my blues and indigo Kona Cotton 16 patches- loving them just as much as ever...

 

it's taken me the rest of the week to put a dent in the taming of all my other blue scraps.  I just have a few oddballs left to sort and trim, and then I'm ready to work on my low volumes with the blues: a low volume plus, and the low volume 16 patches.

 

and the crumbs: it's a mountain of crumbs that will take several (many?!) evenings to sew into the blue crumb blocks.

 

 

better get busy! click on over to angie's to see what everyone else is working on...

yellow: happy quilter, happy life...

I promise I do other  things in my life besides quilting with RSC! we have a full and busy life, I just most often use my blog (these days) for quilting related link ups... 

 

it's July 1- and we're on to blue now. I still have a few yellows to finish up, but got them all done! now I'm ready to tackle the blues. as Angie pointed out- blues are often a huge color for us quilters, and I'm no exception!

  

I had a pleasantly surprising infusion of yellow scraps the last couple weeks- 2 friends stopped by and gave me a bag of scraps. it's fun to sort through, and have some fresh scraps to add to all the RSC projects.

 

again- the yellows are interesting: pale yellows that make me wonder if they should go in with the low volume scraps, bright sunshiny yellows, goldish yellows and then the cheddars that make me wonder some more if they should go in with the oranges... 43 (in all) yellow crumb blocks- I'm going to have to think of something great to do with all my crumb blocks- I have lots, too!

click on over to Angie's to see what other scrappy goodness is showcased this week!

Miles and miles of sewing....

Finally! after several evenings of dedicated piecing, I was able to get (one of) my pinwheel quilts into a flimsy!

I started piecing these "pinwheels" out of 2½" strips back in RSC15. (they're cut into 4½" squares, then 4 are sewn together. it's a pretty basic pattern...)

 

this year I started sewing the squares into the pinwheels, and since this month it's my UFO for the 2017 challenge over at Patchwork Times, I pulled it out again, finished and pressed all the blocks and worked on a layout.

it's a huge one- EQ says it's 101" X 113"! I love the look of the diagonally set quits, but those corner to corner seams sure seem like they're miles and miles long! 144" , or somewhere around there!

 

there were still 99 (!) blocks left over, and my youngest daughter, B and I arranged them into another quilt. since it's just a straight set, I'm hoping it will be a bit quicker to piece...

 

9 yellow crumb blocks round out my piecing for yellow this week. I still have a lot of yellow to work with, so I'm off to the sewing room!

click on over to so scrappy to see what everyone else is working on!

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.

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!

In which the blogger actually FINISHES a quilt!

can you even believe it?! i finished a RSC quilt! we won't be too picky about how this is a RSC15 quilt, and it's RSC17... 

i had this top pieced into a flimsy for a while, and it was even quilted (baptist fans) for a longer while, and EVEN on the guest room bed with no binding for a while, too!

my cousin contacted me, and was interested in buying this quilt. turns out, i hated to let it go, D(there are so many scraps and memories in this quilt) but she loved it, and i knew it was going to a good home. i quickly finished off the binding, and this quilt went to its new forever home a couple weeks ago.