RSC in blue....

I think I am finally all caught up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler blocks.... until she posts the next one! I had issues with that tic-tac -toe one and just added the light all the way around to make it the correct size. I guess mine will be truly unique!

I seem to not have very much variety in my blue scraps this year - I think I must have really cleared them out last year making my double bed size wonky log cabin. Hmmmm... maybe I can work on getting that one prepped for quilting next week. It would be great to get that one finished so I can put it on my bed. All the fabrics for this were from my stash and most of the block construction was from the scrap bin. I did purchase a 104 inch backing for this - much easier than piecing one this size.

I decided to make some churn dash blocks this year and while attempting to tame my scraps and cut them into some usable sizes I am making sure to do some 2.5 and 1.5 inch strips to make these little blocks. Lots of taming to go and one more week to get it done. These will be all colors through the year.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday morning and see what other projects are being made with some blue scraps. There were over 50 links last week and I admit - I am still working my way through them! Lots of temptation with so many neat projects.

Quilters Scrapbook is finished.......!

TaDa!

I think it came out great. I guess the fence out back needs to be bigger. How about this way.

I completed the top for this yesterday morning. The pattern for this is awesome and those sashing and borders are super easy to make with her paper pieced parts and instructions. The good news, the pattern is now available for sale at Canuck Quilters Craftsy site here. This is such a versatile pattern - you could just do 10.5 inch solid blocks instead of the 100 square blocks and do some awesome hand stitching in there, swap another block as one of the testers did here, or make your own block. I might just have to make another and clear out a bunch of green scraps this time! A big Thank you to Joann for letting me play with her pattern to test it.

Tiny Tuesday - Back Home

Did you think I forgot? I just flipped through the book to find another easy one as I only had about 25 minutes before I had to pick up a kid from school this morning. I decided to make the block labeled Back Home. It was very easy with HST's of 2.5 inches to make my 6.5 inch block this week.
Here are my two so far from The Civil War Love Letter book.

Slow stitching Sunday

Today when I am not at work or at my machine I will be working away on my orange peels for the border of my hugs and kisses quilt. I am adding a frame to the blocks as I sew other projects and eventually this one will become a quilt top. Until then, I am enjoying every slow stitch in those little stolen moments of time during the day. It is so hard to believe that all these little peels were stitched in the car while waiting for kids, at doctor's office waiting rooms or in the evenings watching tv. I love that I can show something got done during that time and I get a beautiful quilt out of the deal. Such a bonus.

Greg is dropping the kids to Grandma today and I have about 30 minutes before I need to head into work. I think I'll go work on borders for my Quilters Scrapbook. Tonight I get a date night with the hubby and then we'll gather the kids from Grandma. No school tomorrow so we don't need them settled and in bed by a certain time. Tomorrow - a play date at the park in the morning.

To see other slow stitching projects, head on over to Kathy's Quilts and enjoy the show.

Saturday in blue....

It is blue over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month. I have not had too much time to dig into my bins to find blue but I have been playing along with the sew along and have six blocks completed. You can find information on this here.

I'm also showing some progress on my quilters scrapbook - I got the sashing rows attached despite the 'help' from the cats. I hope to get some good sewing time in later this evening and tomorrow to get all my outer rows made and attached. I do love working with blue and that dark blue has such a nice feel. I got it from Connecting threads - antique cream and indigo blue. The light was from the stash. All those little squares were from my scrap bins. A true scrap quilt. Joanne has wonderful instructions and the patter should be on sale very soon. I've provided a link to her website above to check out her's. Poke around there as she has some beautiful quilts to show.

First thing this morning the kids wanted to make their 'calming jars' that I had shown them on facebook a few days ago. Not sure how 'calming' they will be but it sure did entertain me yesterday at work! I made the purple one there and kept going out to the floor of the store to shake it and watch the glitter move. Lessons learned - use warm water so the glitter glue will work into the water better. Don't add too many drops of food coloring (5 red and 5 blue is way too much for purple - lots of dilution went on!) I used two drops for the kids and it was much better. Em had red and Aidan green. It looks better when the glitter is a different color from the dye. The instructions can be found here.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other wonderful scrap projects are being worked on this week. I'll warn you - you are going to want to make a bunch of them =). As for us - we are headed to a 1st birthday party at the park. It is a chilly 50 degrees - I think some hot cocoa when we get home will be the perfect thing.

A quick quilt......

It seems Miss Emily told her teacher we were making a quilt for her daughters first birthday party on Saturday. She informed me of this after school on Monday. Well, I had picked up some cream fabric with lots of colored dots on it a while ago from my LQS (local quilt shop - for Mom). I pulled a yard of two different pinks and let her select one. She wanted Jordan to have a quilt like her white and purple one... only a little bit bigger. This purple quilt was a gift from her grandfather's neighbor when she was born. Thank goodness it was an easy pattern. I just cut some strips at 4.5 inches. Sewed them together and sub cut. Sewed the four patches together and then made my rows. Added a border Thursday, found the backing in the stash (purple was requested by Miss Em) and did some stitching with the walking foot. A quick binding made and machine stitched to the front..... just some hand stitching to the back to go.

It has been another busy couple of days. I had promised we could go to the trail head (forest of trails for walking, biking and horse trails) for a walk on Wednesday and we did. They have been working on it over the last few months and there were big mountains of dirt on the sides of the horse trails. The kids loved walking on them.

Yesterday I had promised them bowling - so once they had lanes and all other things were done we headed out late afternoon. The kids each bowled a game and I need to go get their feet measured and new shoes. Yikes - they are growing. Aidan beat Emily by a pin - 82 to 81 with bumpers up but no ramp. They did pretty good.

I would show a picture of my Quilters Scrapbook but someone (a black and white four leg creature who will remain nameless) had been in there and it looks similar to this. All the sashing rows are attached to each row.... and then I ran out of bobbin. Hopefully I can get that all attached later tonight and make some progress tomorrow morning. For today.... hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.

Progress....

It is Wednesday. Oops... I missed a Tiny Tuesday post. I've been concentrating on the Quilters Scrapbook quilt so will catch up next week when it is done!
Monday I finished the last two blocks and cut out the frames for them. Tuesday I decided light blue as my accent color and cut and sewed up the paper pieced parts.
Wednesday - I sewed the sashing together and put the paper pieced parts together. Now I can see where this quilt is going. This is how it will look........  the light blue is a little washed out in the photo but looks better in person.

now to finish off the sashing and sew this part together. The outside border with dark blue and cream is really going to set this quilt off.

Somehow Monday Miss Emily informed me that she told her teacher we were making a quilt for Jordan for her first birthday party on Saturday. Ummmm. We are? We decided on a quick pattern - 4.5 inch blocks in two colors. She picked the pink to go with a nice cream with dots. Just need to quickly sew some rows together and pop the border on. This will just be a quick quilt through the squares and then pop the binding on. Hopefully I can get it done by the party on Saturday afternoon. I plan to hand sew that binding down at work on Friday.... shhh, don't tell the boss. Oh right, I am the boss =) The advantage of owning your own business! I am swapping work days with hubby so I can take the kids to the birthday party on Saturday and he can have kid time on Friday.

 Back to the sewing room for me. Let's see what I can get done in an hour before I have to pick up a kiddo from school. Then lunch and lots of HIPPY lessons before picking up second kiddo from school. Emmy and I will pull the papers off while waiting in the car line. No speech today since her teacher has a doctor appointment. I believe I promised we could go to the trailhead for a nature walk this afternoon, which will tie in nice with one of the HIPPY lessons. Then we'll have to use up some apples so an apple crisp will get made this afternoon as well. Yesterday the kids helped to make meatballs to go with our spaghetti sauce. Everyone had seconds so I guess it was a hit. Then it will be two days off school for the boy while his sister has classes in the morning. Think I can talk him into helping me sew tomorrow morning? Hmmmmm. Off to sew.