Making Pink RSC Sawtooth Stars

 I sorted out my pink scraps , don’t have many so I added chunks and FQs:

I used the scraps to make as many 4.5” Crumb blocks as possible. They made 6.

Then I pieced the Sawtooth Stars cutting from the larger pieces of fabric. I used a green with white polka dot fabric for the star points in two of the blocks to get a bit more contrast.

I am rather disappointed with these blocks, not enough contrast in them for my liking. But those were the pinks I had available so I worked with them.

I have been following Pat Sloan’s YouTube videos for some weeks now and really enjoying them. Yesterday I watched the interview she had on a site called Textile Talks. I enjoyed that video and then found an older one where Kaffe Fassett and his niece Erin were interviewed.

 It was fantastic! I am a Kaffe fan and have been lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions and also visited several of his exhibitions so I knew he was a multi talented guy - painting, knitting, cross stitch, patchwork and fabric design but this video blew me away! 

Something he said resonated with me.

Last Sunday was Mothering Sunday here in the UK and our daughter Caroline arranged for a local florist to deliver a pretty jar of flowers, all different pinks and purple blooms.

Kaffe said an artist he knew always painted vases of flowers when the flowers were almost dead because their colour was intensified. This intrigued me so I took another photo yesterday, a week after I received them and they are definitely on their last legs, but I do think the colours are more intense.

Aren’t we lucky to be able to watch videos such as these? Do watch if you can.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

RSC roundup of the Yellows

 Had a busy week with yellow scraps, adding 2 more Sawtooth Blocks to the ones I finished last week.

4 Twinkler blocks

L

12 String blocks 

18 Little Wonky Stars

And 2 little Ticky Tacky houses

 Now ready for the new colour for April.

Linking up with Angela’s SoScrappy blog.

Thinking of Ukraine

 Like everyone in the world I am worried about the horrific situation in Ukraine and feel helpless as to how to help other than donate money to relief charities.

However I discovered that one of our daughter’s school Mums acquaintances is Ukrainian, her elderly parents, brother, sister in law and family live in Ukraine. We think the parents and brother’s wife and family were hoping to escape but know nothing further. Then I watched Pat Sloan’s YouTube about making a small quilt in the Ukrainian flag colours ( her’s was a hanging for her door), downloading the pattern in exchange for a donation. I decided to make one for Tanya whom I’ve never met and that’s what I’ve been working on. Now finished, ready for a label and then I can deliver it to Tanya in the hope she knows her family is in my thoughts and prayers.

I used a binding made from 2.25” strips which was great. I normally make bindings from 2.5” strips but remember a while ago using the narrower one and loving it and intending to continue using it. But I forgot and didn’t! I like it, must use this in the future for all my quilts!!!

So I haven’t done much RSC sewing but I have made 6 Sawtooth blocks with yellow crumb centres. Two more kitted out but no time to finish today.

The backing for my Ukrainian quilt (measuring 24” square) is a yellow tiny check so the trimmings have given me more yellow scraps so I think more RSC blocks will be happening next week, the last week for Yellow.

So, my thoughts are with Ukraine. Whatever you can donate please do. Money, prayers, everything. Linking with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC blog.

Leave no scraps!

 Earlier this week I watched a Pat Sloan video where she was showing the blocks she had made all year from scraps. She intends to use up scraps as they are created rather than put them away to use up sometime in the future. I made a mental note of that idea when I made my red RSC Sawtooth blocks this week.

The centre of the block is a 4.5” Crumb square made from last week’s red leftovers.

Then I used the cut off bonus triangles (created when I made the star points in each block) to make another batch of little Wonky Star blocks:

At the beginning of the week I made more little Wonky Stars, cut out last week and ready to be sewn together.

I always have fun searching through my tin of 2” squares to look for the centres of these stars.

Although I don’t have a lot of red scraps I have already made a lot of blocks this month and there are more to come.

Having fun sewing as it’s been extremely cold here and I’m not good in the cold weather because of heart issues so instead of walking I’ve been sewing. 

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

Sawtooth Stars baby quilt

 As there is a lot of yellow in the Sawtooth Stars quilt I finished this week I am adding to my yellow RSC 2021 total for February. And the other RSC connection is that the inspiration for the sawtooth blocks came from Cathy’s Sawtooth Stars quilt in 2019 ( Sane, Crazy Crumby Quilter).

I made 5 of them in April 2019 to see if I liked them, using a novelty fabric for the centre square and star points with a strong contrasting background. And later I made some using Crumb centres like Cathy had done. Then they got put away! And forgotten.

Last month I discovered my cousin’s son and wife were expecting a second baby in February . As I had given a quilt to their first child Margot I obviously needed to make one for Baby2. They weren’t finding our whether they were expecting a girl or boy so I decided to go with strong colours- reds, greens, oranges, yellows - and then remembered my Sawtooth Stars. I think I had about 10 but chose the novelty fabric ones, leaving the crumb centred ones for another quilt. I then set about making extra stars. Interestingly I had packed away some of the original novelty fabrics with the Sawtooth Stars so that gave me a good start. I finished the quilt just in time as Polly Maeve was born on 17th February.

As you can see there is a lot of yellow in the quilt, including the 2 borders. It measures 46” square. I machined down the columns and along the rows in the ditch and then hand stitched around the squares with a variety of Perle threads which match the star fabric.

Close ups of some of the stars:

Coincidentally shamrocks feature in some blocks. My cousin and I had a Irish grandmother and Polly’s middle name is Irish ( just because her parents liked the name I think) so I thought those stars had been included “for a reason”.

The backing  was pieced from two pieces of fabric leftover from a baby quilt I made last October. The paler green fabric is paw prints. Again very suitable because Mummy is a vet.

For the last few years when I’m making a baby quilt for a family with an older sister I make a Doll Quilt for her. This is the one I made for Big Sister Margot.

It measures 18” x 21” and was quickly made from 3.5” squares from my stash.

The backing was from a piece a quilting friend gifted me several years ago.

My cousin Jayne phoned yesterday to thank me for the quilts. I had posted them to her and she had just handed them over. Mummy and Daddy were thrilled and Margot loved opening her parcel and immediately  wrapped her toy monkey in it! That made my day.

Joining up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

 

Being creative with red scraps

This month’s colour for making Sunshine Guild blocks is Red, another colour that is always lacking in my stash so I had to get creative. I had some 1.5” strips, a few 2.5” and 3” squares in the scraps collection gifted by Wendy and a couple of Christmas fabrics that I thought I could use. “Holiday “ fabrics are not allowed so no Santa Claus, Christmas story, Easter eggs etc.  However I have risked using a snowflake fabric and a red with gold etched flowers.

I made some 4 Patch blocks from the 2.5” squares and trimmed the 3” squares down so I could have a bit more variety.
I enjoy making Sawtooth blocks and found I could make some 8” ones which I framed with a double border to bring them up to the requested 12.5” block size.
Here they are:

I made 5 blocks in January in the Blue and Yellow colours that were requested. I saw the block on a blog and tried to replicate it. Most are right but I seem to have twisted the four parts of the block around wrongly in a couple of them. But I decided not to do any seam ripping!

It’s a very dull day here so I’m afraid the colours look much duller in the photographs that they actually are.
I’ll post these to Tammy in Texas tomorrow.