Starts and Finishes

Here are two starts and one finish for you to enjoy.  First up the starts. 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022 I chose Whirl pattern.  It's a 9" finished block.  I specifically chose a 9" block so that I could use my Accuquilt Go 9" Cube and Go Companion Set Angles.  I'm continuing to try to use my Go dies as often as possible this year.  Over the last 2 years I've gone a little crazy buying dies (mostly on sale) so I really need to use them.  I can't decide whether to make only this block or make several different pinwheel style blocks.  What do you think?  

If one is good how about 2 and a sew along block? 

I want to make 3 RSC blocks each month so I would have 30 blocks after 10 months of colors.  We'll see if I actually succeed. The top block is the first block in Sherri McConnell's Quilting Life Quilt Block of the Month. You can read all about it, find the fabric requirements and the first block here. My friend Sharon has been doing these yearly sew alongs for awhile.  I decided to join her this year. I hope she pushes me to keep up. 

Next up is one of my finishes from December.  

Hum, for some reason this didn't come out as great as I thought it did.  I fell in love with this fabric with little bunnies wearing hats and holding peppermints. Truth be told, I bought it from Thousands of Bolts, Just One Nut probably in 2018 or so.  It was on sale for maybe $5.00/yard.  I let it simmer in my stash for a while but finally chose a pattern from one of Ursula Reikes books and made it up. It sat for a while  until I decided it was time to buy backing fabric and get it finished.  I originally planned to give it away but I like it way too much to send it out into the world.  It will be donated eventually but I'm enjoying it now.  

Here's an up close of the backing.  I can't find any info on the quilting design.  I know it is fairly new to me but I haven't been able to find it at any of the regular places I purchase designs from.  Weird. I do know I used a white So Fine thread from Superior Threads for the top and bobbin.  Unfortunately, I have not been recording all that information in my quilting book so I'm not sure the exact color number or the name of the design. It's a small quilt, maybe 35" square. (When I next go down to the studio I'll check the design name and the company name.) Click on the pic of the backing to see the design better. In fact, all the pics should enlarge if you click on them.

Last picture -- Pat holding the quilt with snow in the foreground. (That snow is left over from Jan 3.) 

I hope you will spend some time with these linky parties: 

Midweek Makers

Needle and Thread Thursday

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

Scrap Happy Saturday

That's it for this Friday evening.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and check out what people are making across the Internet. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 10 - 2018

My goals list was shot to pieces as in I hardly did anything!  I did take pictures of all the quilts I've finished over the last few weeks though.  Several All were donated.  Up first is the rail fence quilt.  This started as another quilter's project.  After she died I was given her stash and projects.  I've used quite a few of her pieces for backings.  This rail fence had been started but not finished.  I decided it would be good to finish it and donate it to one of the charities Virginia Star Quilters support as she had been a member.  

These photos were taken near the end of the day and lighting was wonderful.  More dumb luck than skill but happy to have such decent photos.  The edge to edge design is Saffron Blossom by Apricot Moon.  Thread was So Fine but I don't remember which color.  Evidently it blended well with the various fabrics.   Oh well.  In this blog I asked for suggestions about the sashing.  I thought I liked the dark blue the best but I didn't have enough of it.  I had enough of this cranberry and I really like how it brightened up the piece.  

Next I finished this panel for CP.  The guild was given a lot of fabric from a man who was dealing with his wife's stash.  I'm not sure how or why he learned about Country Piecemakers but he did and donated a bunch of very usable fabric to us.  I volunteered to quilt several panels -- this is the only one I actually took a picture of. 

I like how the pattern really shows on this quilt and it almost looks like puffy clouds.  It's called Melody and was designed by Sarah Ann Myers.  I've liked the quilting results on every project I've put this design on.  I may actually use in on my Jamestown Landing quilt when I finally quilt it.  This went to the NICU at St. Francis Hospital in the Richmond area. 

Finally here is 9 Patch Garden.  The pattern is from one of the Quiltmakers magazines.  I was given quite a bit of fabric from a friend who is no longer quilting.  She was tickled to see this picture of her fabric and very pleased that it was going to a nursing home Country Piecemakers support.   I've got about a half yard of the flowerpot fabric left.  And, it was used on the back too.  Great use of the fabric and I was able to use a bit of my fabric too.  Must think about how the last piece of it can be used.

Most of these quilts won't give me large fabric usage but at least I am getting some of my fabrics used.  (9 patches, borders and bindings on 9 Patch Flower Garden and bindings on the other two and the sashing of the rail fence.)

Today we were hit with a winter storm.  Yikes.  It started snowing around 10 am and kept up until after dark.  In the end we probably only got 5" or so but that is a lot for our part of Virginia at this time of the year.  Here's a picture of the deer sculpture that is outside of our development.  During the warmer weather there is a fountain too.  Hum, the deer is about midway down on the left side.  She's kicking up her heels.  Unfortunately there is no where to park to actually get pictures of it so this was taken in a moving car.  The trees were covered in snow.  Hopefully tomorrow it will all melt and we can go back to getting things done! 

I'm almost embarrassed to share my goals this week.  I really didn't get all that much done. 

December 3, 2018

Load Jamestown Landing eek… didn’t do it 

Finish the Angel ornaments double eek … didn’t do it 

Sing Sparetime Singer’s Concert√

Attend Country Piecemaker’s meeting√

Pick a UFO and work on it oops — didn’t do it

Quilt a charity quilt and bind it√ finally I did something quilty! 

Work on a counted cross stitched ornament√ started yea! 

And here's what's happening this week:

December 10, 2018

Work on counted cross stitched ornament 

Embroider grand’s Christmas shirts 

Finish Angel ornaments

Attend 2 rehearsals and 2 performances for the Spotsylvanians 

Eye Appointment and Hair Cut! 

Have the family over for pizza 

Bind a charity quilt

There's a good chance I won't get all that much sewing done this week -- just too many other things happening. But I really want to finish the shirts for the grands so I can give them their shirt when they visit Sunday. (I'm hoping everyone will come to our afternoon concert and then come for pizza at the house.) 

Linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving it Forward.  Check them out.  Lots of holidays are floating around the internet! (I'll try to get the other two linked up on Monday in the morning.)  Enjoy your week! 

Happy Quilting All.  Bonnie 

Have You Tried This?

Even with my new Accuquilt Go I am still going to have to cut with rotary cutter and ruler -- think of the expense of all those dies?  I remember seeing a teacher  talk about cutting her strips this way and decided to try it again.  

I was cutting 3 1/2" strips.  I have my large 8 1/2" ruler placed to the left of my fabric end.  Then I used a smaller ruler to actually measure the 3 1/2" strip.  Once I determined that the measurement was accurate at top and bottom, I removed the small ruler while carefully holding the large ruler steady.  And then it was time to cut. 

It worked like a charm!  It saved the step of flipping the fabric after I evened up the edge. I think I will use my 6 x 12" ruler from now on as it has a larger straight edge to align the large ruler.  Here's where these borders went to: 

Most of these fabrics with the exception of the cream background, the border and a few of the brick fabrics, were part of a bigger bag of fabrics I got at the last retreat for FCQ.  Someone had donated fabric to be used for a challenge.  I got a bag of (excuse me if you love these but) awful fabrics. Ugh.  Too busy. There were several color ways of hummingbirds, strawberries, raspberries and flowers. We had to use some of the fabric on either the front or the back.   I saw the Stacking Brick pattern at Jo's Country Junction and drew it in EQ to make it a bit bigger. (Easier to count how many bricks I needed to cut.) It was a snap to make.  All the rows are made the same. On the end of each row you add a square instead of a brick.  When you lay it out you flip the row so that the square is on the left, next one on the right... etc.  Tres easy!  

Back to the challenge fabrics. I didn't make much of a dent in my fabrics and I sure didn't want any leftovers.  So, I picked several untouched fat quarters and some of the leftovers from the blocks and pieced the backing.  I tried to put less busy fabrics next to the busy ones but honestly, there wasn't much I could do to calm it down.

First row done. 

Backing complete.

Hopefully it will be fine on the back.  I believe these quilts will be donated to Project Linus when completed.  Hopefully this one will be done to hang in the FCQ quilt show in April.  

Do you live in the Mid-Atlantic states?  Watch out then.  Here's the snowfall predictions for the storm that is moving in tomorrow.  Do you see Richmond down there?  We live a bit to the left of it.  About where the 3 to 6" turns into 6 to 12".  Our kids both live in the 12 to 24" area. Yuck.  Done that, been there and really don't want to do it again. 

So we are prepping our house and lives for a snowy weekend.  Gas is available for the small generator we have.  Water is available for drinking in case we don't want to run the generator for long periods of time. (We have a well.)   Food is available that doesn't have to be heated up.  Ice is packed into the freezers to help keep the food cold.  I keep charging the electronics so that I can have something to read on. (I have an old cell phone I only charge up when I will be somewhere that may not have electricity to recharge for a while.)  And, I've got lots of fabric I can cut up on my Go if the power does go out.  We have a gravel driveway so we don't have to clear that although, we probably won't be able to leave for a few days either.  Our streets get plowed early on because the local sheriff lives in the neighborhood.  Stay warm this weekend and sew to your heart's content! I'll be firing up Ruthie this morning to quilt some quilts today and tomorrow, hopefully. 

I'm linking up with Really Random Thursday, Let's Be Social, Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop? which I'll add once it is up. 

Happy Quilting All! a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com" target="_blank">

Design Wall Monday -- February 23, 2015

What an unproductive week!  We had a major snow storm on Monday into Tuesday.  10" of snow in our little county, the most in all of central Virginia.  And, it brought the whole area to a standstill. Generally, after a snowstorm the weather immediately warms up and it all melts. Nope, didn't happen.  Instead we broke low records during the week.  Good gracious, one night it was -3º!  Now, I'm sure some of you northern girls are laughing your heads off and commenting about the -20º you are facing, and worse, but I moved South so I wouldn't have to deal with all that really cold weather.  Bummer!

Schools were canceled for the rest of the week.  Nearly every social event was canceled.  We got out of our drive way on Wed morning to do our normal workout at the Y.  But the roads weren't plowed in our neighborhood so we were cautious. And, the snow didn't melt!  A week later we have snow but at least some of it is melting now.  Thank goodness.  More snow is predicted this weekend and we don't have any sustained time with temps above freezing.  The snow is going to hang around for a while. 

Unlike others, snow doesn't make me want to run upstairs and quilt.  I tend to huddle under quilts and read.  But even I was getting sick of reading after a few days.  And, then Saturday we woke up to no electricity.  And, it didn't come back on until dinnertime.  Well that made it really hard to do any quilting.  Boy it got cold in the house -- 54º.  Luckily we were meeting a friend for lunch so we really only had half a day with no electricity.  The only good news was by Sunday afternoon I was ready for some quilting time. 

Last week I picked a new UFO to work on and I've been diligently adding to my black and white log cabin blocks.  I've moved the whole project along nicely.  I'm hoping to get 24 or so blocks finished in the next week or so.  These are in all different stages of logs, but you get the idea.  

I started getting the borders on the Wild Dogs yesterday but had 2 long phone calls interrupt.  I will try to get at least some more borders on this week.  Who knows if I will.  Perhaps the log cabin blocks will go back to the back burner. 

My goals didn't get accomplished for the most part.  And, it isn't looking too much better this week.  I've got a social obligation and a fun obligation.  Friday a group of us are going to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and I have a big shopping list.  Whoop! Whoop! 

Here's sad results from last week's goals:

Week of February 16, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, and b quilt.

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.

Get the borders on the Wild Dog Quilt Started finally

Attend several social things this week everything was canceled with one exception!

And this week's: 

Week of February 23, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, b quilt

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.

Finish Wild Dog Borders

Attend Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

That's it from here.  I'll be linking up with Patchwork Times.

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday -- February 16, 2015

This cold did me in for a good part of last week.  Although after getting some medications I did start feeling better.  Not 100% yet but definitely on the mend. 

I have to admit I didn't get a whole lot finished on any project.  What I'm showing above is using up some of the Happy Blocks left over from previous quilts.  I've asked the gals in FCQ Equilters to make me a few of these blocks so I can use up the blocks I have and make a few more baby quilts.  I've got one more to go with this set.  These are all animals/fish.  I've got another pile that would be for a boy quilt and one with lots of pink for girl quilt.  Once I finish the block I'll be ready to put this one together.  

My goals got partially done.  Remember, I was under the weather for the whole week so I'm happy I got anything done! 

Week of February 9, 2015

Mail embroidered shirts to the grands√

Finish the backing for the r, w, and b quilt and get it loaded and quilted√ it’s half quilted

Get the borders on the Wild Dog Quilt Sigh, Will I ever work on this again??

Pick another quilt to work on and do it! Started back on black and white log cabin

Week of February 16, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, and b quilt.

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.

Get the borders on the Wild Dog Quilt

Attend several social things this week

My poor Wild Dogs quilt hasn't seen the light of day for weeks. But maybe it will soon. Check out our weather forecast: 

WAIT!  

NO! 

I moved south to Central Virginia from NE PA so I wouldn't have snow like this.

If the electricity stays on I should be able to get some decent sewing done.  Plus, I can cuddle under a quilt and read too!  In my community it is suppose to start snowing in 36 minutes. (GOOD GRIEF minute by minute forecasting???) 

That's it for me today.  Hubby and I are hitting the grocery store and having lunch out and then we'll stay home until we can get out of the driveway again. We have a gravel drive so we can't use a snow blower on it and we aren't shoveling the length of it.  I'm linking with Patchwork Times. Oops, Judy hasn't posted DWM link-up yet so stay tuned.  I'll check back later today and get linked up. 

Happy Quilting and Stay Warm and Dry.