Total Purple 2020RSC blocks

 Last Saturday in August - where has this month gone?

I never have many purple fabrics or scraps in my stash so I am surprised how many blocks I have been able to make.

From top to bottom: 1.5” 49 patch block with a Roman Stripe block either side,

                                  13 x Ticky Tacky houses 

                                   2 of each my the three sizes of Sailing Boats.

Linking up with Angela’s So scrappy blog

    

2017 finishes & plans for 2018

New Year's Eve! Goodness how has 2017 disappeared so fast?

I have managed to finish another quilt ( a UFO from moons ago) so I am delighted with that.

It measures 30" x 40" so ideal as a baby's Play Quilt. Going into my stash for gifting in the future.
I ditch stitched the quilt using my new ditch-stitcher foot and it worked quite well, better than doing it with the normal foot anyway.  I hand quilted around 4 patches in the square in a square border blocks and they stand out nicely.

This brings my 2017 total of finished quilts to 8, very small total compared to last year's 20.
5 of those 8 have already been gifted. I haven't finished many quilts but I have also made 2 flimsies, one using a pile of UFO blocks, the other using a lot of my stash of Crumb blocks.

I made lots of little gifts this year: little drawstring bags, baby knitting, crochet baby blanket etc.

I have also made a lot of blocks using ideas gleaned from the RSC 2017 posts.  As a result I have enough 5" String blocks to make a quilt and several packets of other blocks which I intend to add to during the RSC2018 campaign.

Although I live in the UK I have been reading about the shocking fires in California. We have friends of friends in that area, fortunately, although the fires came close to their home, it was safe. Other connections were an Exhibition created by our NZ friends which was being held in the same area.  Again, thankfully it was OK.  So with this in mind when I spotted Carole from My Caroline Home blog requesting blocks to make quilts for victims of the fires I set to this afternoon and have made 4 to post after New Year.

 

This is the block suggested by the Ventura Quilt Guild.
So, plans for 2018:
* Finally finish a bright Spider Web quilt that is 95% finished- on my 2017 list too!
* Make quilts from my 2 flimsies
* Make the RSC String blocks into a quilt
*Continue with Roman Stripe blocks, 4 patches from 1.5" fabric squares,49 patch blocks, Twinkler
  blocks, bow tie blocks, Cake Stand blocks
* Make the small 4 patches into square in a square blocks (like the Mr Scarecrow borders)
* Continue making Happy blocks to use up my Cute cats fabric patches.
* Make a baby quilt for one of my daughter's friends

First job is to turn a baby flimsy into a quilt.  I am waiting for baby to be born so I can applique the name, baste and hand quilt it.

So, plenty to do.

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year.
See you next year!

Finished ! A Rainbow of Twinkling Stars

Just before the end of the year I have finished the scrap quilt made using Cathy's Twinkler Star blocks idea and that I made over around nine months as part of the RSC on Angela's So Scrappy Blog.

 

I have renamed it A Rainbow of Twinkling Stars

 

The quilt is machine quilted with a double row of Perle hand quilting around each star.

It measure 53" squares and is completely made from scraps and pieces of fabric from my stash.

 

I had thought this would be  a Donation Quilt but I'm afraid I can't part with it, I love it!

I have two other flimsies that will be donated and they will be finished in the New Year.

 

I am joining up with RSC 2017, this is the first Rainbow Scraps Challenge quilt I have ever done.

 

Happy Christmas and all good wishes for 2018.

Hurrah! A Flower basket block!

I have been admiring Cathy's Flower basket blocks for quite a while (Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting blog).  She turns out these beautifully bright and various blocks as easy as cutting out circles of pastry to make jam tarts!  I have been wanting to try to make one, studied the blog and had a go.  Really difficult because although I got something similar I only achieved it with a lot of trimming and fiddling around - and I knew it wasn't right.

So, an email to dear Cathy and she directed me to a couple of tutorials.  I used this one:

http://ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk/quilt-block-patterns/cake-stand-quilt-block-pattern

Had a go this afternoon:

 

As I mentioned in my previous post about the scrap triangles I turned into rectangular blocks to make a Premature baby quilt, I have real problems with spatial awareness and this block has really tested me.  I had already done a bit of seam ripping when I thought I had cracked it. Took a photo, started this block post and then when I added the photo I realised it was wrong again! At this point our son-in-law arrived to watch a football match on TV with my husband. He immediately spotted the mistake and said "your daughter has the same problem". Well she doesn't quilt and I didn't know but she also obviously struggles seeing how things fit.  So I ripped it out again, rejiggled the pieces, sewed it up, pressed it ....................and I had put it in wrongly again ( a different kind of wrongly!).  More ripping out, another press, another photo and I think it's OK now.

Just taken me all afternoon.

 

Here's the first block I did, made up by yours truly:

 

 

I'm adding this post to Angela's So Scrappy RSC blog post.  It is made from scraps and I wouldn't have made it if I hadn't spotted Cathy's blocks on the RSC site so I think it qualifies.

 

Just going to lie down in a darkened room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Turning RSC 4 patches into blocks

I have turned last week's small brown 4 patches into Square in a square blocks.  I have been working on an old UFO and these will make a great border.

I used 2.5" stash squares for the outside triangles.

Linking with Angela's So Scrappy blog for RSC 2017

RSC 2017 Using browns

This month's colour chosen by Angela on her So Scrappy blog is dark fabrics, brown and black.
I have very little of either colour but did make 4 x 5" strippy blocks and some 4 patches made from 1.5" squares.

 

I have also made a few 4 patches using pink, purple and orange:

 

Joining up with The RSC on So Scrappy blog.

 

64 x 1.5" pink squares = ?

64 squares sounds a lot, doesn't?  Not when you are talking about tiny 1.5" squares, especially when one block needs 49 of those 64!

So, Linking up with Angela's So Scrappy RSC blog to show you these 2 blocks:

And 2 more RSC blocks: a Blue 49 patch ( again 1.5" squares) and a Yellow 5" Strippy block:

RSC: Making a start on pink

Not much time for sewing at the moment but I did manage to make 4 Roman Stripe blocks yesterday afternoon. I had a pile of 1.5" pink squares already stacked together in my tin and a set of cream strips cut to the correct size.  So handy to have them ready for the odd few minutes of sewing time.

Linking up to Angela's So Scrappy Blog.

Linking to RSC 2017

As I didn't have any orange scraps to make more RSC blocks I'm linking to So scrappy blog with my trial layout for my Twinkler Quilt.  I have been making these blocks for the past six months or so and decided I probably had enough to make a quilt. There are Orange blocks in there!

 

I might change out some to the blue and pink blocks for some other colours as I have 30 Twinklers over.

Linking up with So Scrappy Saturday

Angie has announced the new colour for September - it's orange, a colour that is extremely sparse in my stash so I have very few scraps to play with.  I like the colour and love using it in my quilts but find it tends to get used up and so, no scraps.

Over the past month or so I have been cutting many of my really tiny scraps into 1.5" squares so I knew I had a few orange ones.  However many of them are repeats but I did manage to make 2 Roman Stripe blocks.

I did quite a bit of sewing with scraps yesterday and a little more today and produced a few more Roman Stripe blocks. I am making sure I make pairs of the same colour because when they fit together into a quilt you need two pairs of different colours in each block - eg 2 pinks and 2 greens.

The single turquoise block pairs with another turquoise one I made earlier in the week.

I also made 2 x 49 patch blocks, green and yellow.  These are quite fiddly to make so I will only make single ones occasionally!