Monday, Monday....

I've been busy trying to get my green, blue and brown little squares all sewn into their 100 patch units. I need twelve of them...  yes, that means I did cut out 1200 squares to make these blocks.  The good news...... all the fabrics came out of my fabric scrap bins with a few parts pulled from the closet of fabrics. At this point I have 10 of them done... which I think is enough to figure out which two colors I will use for my borders. I am pulling a cream and an indigo blue from another project..... but the decision needs to be made for my other color. Do I use light blue, green, or brown....... decisions, decisions. I have all my paper piece parts cut out and marked... I just need to make the final decision and start cutting so I can get this together. Lets see how much I can get done in my free 2.5 hours of kid free time over the next few days......
So far the instructions are very clear and well written. Fingers crossed that it sews up nice and easy. This is the original pattern and quilt over at Canuck Quilter. A beautiful quilt... I can't wait to see mine finished! She will have the pattern for sale very soon...... this truly is a great scrappy quilt.

Weekend wrap up...

It is the second Saturday in blue for the rainbow scrap challenge and I have not done very much sewing. Oh well, there is still time in the month to get the blue scraps used up a bit more. I am just trying to get back into a school routine and it has been a little strange this week. Greg was home with me until Thursday when he went back to work. It is not normal to have him home for getting the kids ready for school and doing the drop off and pick ups. I had doctor appointments Monday and Tuesday he got to drive me to and then we headed to a conference in Orlando for Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday was my day to finally get back to my normal kid routine and errand running.  I got my month end finished this week for work and dropped it to the accountant Friday and had a nice chat with her. Saturday was Greg's Birthday and Sunday was our family cake and ice cream gathering. Too busy to sew =(.

I did manage to make a sampler block or two Angela posted this week. They used up some blue scraps in the bin. I also made a couple more hexie flowers which I hand pieced. I think I like hand piecing them better than doing the English paper piecing method. I need to pull some more blues and prep a few more - these are taking me about 30 minutes to put one flower together. I know this because I did one Monday waiting for 30 minutes at the doctors and the second on Tuesday waiting for the doctor. =).

My ongoing hand applique project is these little orange peels. I've decided to frame the X blocks with color and the O blocks with creams. I am working on the peels that will go around the border for this quilt. I love how it is coming out and my little baggie of peels lives in my purse so I have them wherever I go.

I'm hooking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. Go check them out and see what great projects are being worked on out in blog land.

Tiny Tuesday for 2014

It is a new year and after having a couple of months off from the midget blocks, I really miss having a regular 'Tuesday' post. I've been looking through my quilting library and decided to work through the Civil War Love Letters book by Rosemary Young.

This contains letters from soldiers with blocks that seem to fit the letter. Each block in the book will finish at 6 inches. There are no patterns in this book - just a picture of the finished block. I figure it is time for me to start working on drafting things in preparation for a Dear Jane sometime in the far off future. Some blocks I will piece by machine and some by hand. The goal is to work on one or two a week all year and see if I can get all 121 blocks done by December 31, 2014. Anyone want to join me?

This should be a nice use of 2.5 inch strips.... of which I have a nice Jelly Roll to use. I purchased this and a 10 inch stack from Connecting Threads sometime in the last year or two of the line called American Celebration. I hope I have enough to work through these 121 blocks but if not I'm sure I can find something in the stash that will work as a fill in. I noticed there are a few of the mottled solids and star collection prints in there so I can always fill in with those. I'm planning this as a red,cream and blue quilt that when finished will probably be donated to QOV. So nice to have a plan ahead of time for a quilt - although life does tend to throw some curve balls in and things sometimes change.

My first block is called Enthusiasm. I found it so helpful to use my flying geese ruler to cut my HST units to make my 2.5 inch HST units in this block. Add five 2.5 inch squares and block one is completed.

Slow Stitch Sunday 2014

Today I've picked up an oldie but a goodie. The fireworks quilt has come out to play again and this year he will get finished. There, I've said it. I had it out the other day and while I was looking at this block and trying to figure out what other quilting to put in there (while Miss Emily was trying to get under it since it is 'comfy' - a 40x40 quilt in a hoop, mind you!) I saw my tervis water glass. Yes, inspiration does strike in the most strange ways. Those white blocks will be hand quilted circles in there. I just drew around it with a pencil and hopefully it will erase or wash out ok. I'll be smart and use the quilt marking pencils for the next one. That should help me get through the five blocks like this. Then it will be back to square one for the other four - but I think I have some notes written down somewhere on ideas for those blocks. Multiple color thread and fireworks seem to ring a bell.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other lovely projects are being worked on. I do have to thank her - since she was my inspiration to try hand quilting and hand work and I have been so lucky to love it. It is so nice to use that 'wasted' time and create some beautiful things.

RSC 2014 - The first Saturday of the year!

I have to say, I am so happy to be in a new month and a new year. December 2013 was a rough one for me medically and I am so happy to turn the calendar to a new month and year!
I checked back and in January 2011 I was hooking up with SoScrappy for a blue scrappy month! How is it that after 3 full years I seem to have MORE scraps than I did back then? I think the fabric has parties at night and multiplies.... It couldn't possibly be from me adding to the stash =).

This year I am going to finish off some orange peels which will become the nice scrappy border for my Hugs and Kisses Quilt I started last year in the challenge. These are great for doctor office visits and waiting for the kids. Sorry - I was too lazy to lay them out again but that last X has been made.

I am also joining the hexie craze (I do have willpower - I held off for 2 years!) and I think I will make a nice garden of flowers all with a pretty yellow center of some sort. That will be the constant as I think yellow goes will all the colors in the rainbow and tends to be the center color for most flowers. I made one here using the  english paper piecing method. I have not decided if I will applique them down onto a background or create paths to go around them. Plenty of time to figure that out.

I have two more cut out and traced to be hand pieced. I'll do some each way and see which one works better for me.

This year Angela is hosting a 6 inch sampler block quilt along with the RSC challenge. I dug into the bins and created these two blocks with some scraps. I think they are cute! I could really see a whole quilt of colorful hst's in that first block.

I also finally got into the sewing room today and started on a quilt I am testing the pattern on. Nothing like waiting for the last minute- those darn medical issues! Here are my first two blocks.

I have the rest of the blocks cut out.... but may switch to the paper pieced borders since this part went smooth. My hope is to get some sewing time in tomorrow while everyone is home. As for tonight - we have been invited to Grandma's for dinner. I believe she said the kids made Chicken.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other projects are being started or continued this year.

2014 - Hexie time

This is the year of hexie's for me. I found this website a long time ago where I can print out hexie papers at 1 inch per side. I saved off the PDF onto my computer so I will always have it. Now to cut them out and prep some fabrics. I cut a few out last night and think I need to make them a bit bigger. Any tips for me?

I am not sure exactly what they will turn into but with a bunch of doctor appointments already scheduled for this month I am sure to have plenty of wait time for these and finishing up some orange peels for the border on one of last years RSC quilts.

A new year......

Time to show an old project that I made a couple of months ago and still have yet to mail out to a few people. Sometimes life just gets in the way. When I got the 'Remembering Adelia' book last Christmas I flipped though it and knew I was going to play with Orange Peels but I was also intrigued with a little needle case. I finally made a few of them up back in October or November. I have been using mine and it sure does come in handy. Sometime in the next month or two a couple of them should find their way to the post office and be shipped off to their new homes.