Scrappy Saturday

I was able to get some Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks done. I finally moved on to orange, and I’m enjoying working on these bright, colorful blocks.

I got two of these finished. 

And, two of these sixteen patch stars.

In my head, I call them the “biggie stars”. The blocks are 16”, so they look really big to me. I should be able to make a good sized quilt with them. Oh, I have a problem; I am going to run out of the background fabric soon. I have looked for more, including online, and can’t seem to find any. There is nothing written on the selvedge so that is no help. This is a closeup:

If anyone has any, I would be happy to purchase it! 

I only got one of these done:

It’s a little uneven on the edges. Not sure how I managed to do that! It’s such a pretty fabric, and I only had a partial strip, but it was just enough to do a block. I will work on more of these smaller blocks next week. I need more of them than anything else. 

I walked to the side of the house yesterday to see what still needs to be done on that flowerbed. My gardenia is blooming like crazy this year!

It always blooms this time of year, but not as many flowers at one time. Look at all these buds!

I can’t remember if I fertilized it or not, but I must have. I don’t go on that side of my house too often.

What I’ve Been Working On

I sat down and got this post written at the last minute. I’ve been working on a few things; most of them aren’t quilt related. I’m trying to get the yard in shape, well mostly the flower beds. We got the good rain last week, and the weeds really took off! 

I got some quilts finished and spent some extra time making binding. 

I did two Texas A&M quilts for a customer, and the maroon binding will go on those. The navy is for one or two donation quilts. I decided I would make some solid colors of binding and keep it on hand for the donation quilts I make. Fabric is getting so expensive, and as much as I like nice fabric, I think I can use the cheaper stuff for the binding, and it will be okay. Walmart has the precut packages of solids for around $6 for a two-yard cut. I bought the navy, also some red, green, black, orange, and turquoise. I prefer the binding cut on the bias—it seems to lay better on the quilt—and I can get enough for several quilts from a two-yard package. Anyway, that is just how my brain works, and it will be nice to have some made up and ready to go. 

When I got tired of dealing with binding, I worked on some potholders. I had seen a tutorial on YouTube for a No-bind Potholder, and I wanted to try it. The first one I made was a little poofy in the middle. 

It’s still cute though. On the second one, I was a little more careful with the center piece, and I think it was a better. 

Like anything, it will get better as I make more. It’s a few layers of fabric plus Insulbrite plus a layer of cotton batting, so plenty thick. I may try some without the Insulbrite and maybe two pieces of batting and see how that works out. 

Last night I worked on some orange RSC blocks. More on that tomorrow.

Scrappy Saturday

Oh my gosh, I have let myself get so far behind! This is the point where I typically get overwhelmed and give up after starting the year with a lot of motivation! My last RSC post was March, and I had done a few red blocks. I found some red hst’s that I hadn’t finished, so I did that first. 

I used the rest of the red squares to make a few of the nine patch blocks. 

Since I didn’t do a collage of the reds in March, I did one last night. Here it is:

I often pick my grandson from school, and they had early dismissal yesterday. The weather was getting bad with rain and hail was forecast, and I wanted to get home and get my car in the garage before the hail started. That gave me an opportunity to work on my pink blocks.

I already had everything cut out and a couple of them were completed, so it went pretty fast. Here are all of the pinks together. 

I think I am ready to move on to the orange scraps, and I will work on that this week—in my spare time! 

Free Pattern Friday

I don’t know if anyone remembers, but I posted a picture of this quilt about a month ago.

The lady that made it said it was a free pattern she’d found “somewhere” and she would look for it when she got home and let me know where to find it. It’s called HoneyBell, and here is a link to the pattern. 

The pattern sample is done in four fabrics plus a white sashing, and the big blocks are cut 9-1/2” square. 

Of course I’m always trying to find different patterns to use my large collection of precuts, so I dug through the boxes and came up with this layer cake. 

The quilt finishes at 61” x 61”, and I wanted mine to be longer. Adding an extra row will make it about 76” long so I decided to do that. That means i need 20 blocks instead of 16. I had to cut a few of the smaller squares from my stash, but I found some blenders that would work.

I think I cut about twelve extra 4-1/2” squares. I’m using black for the sashing. Here are the ones I’ve gotten done so far. 

No sashing between the blocks yet, but you get the idea. I think I’m going to like it! Let me know what you think if you decide to try it. 

Back to Work

Let me just say, I have had trouble getting back into the swing of things. I did nothing Monday except unpack and wash clothes and sit around thinking about a lot of things. I generally stay so busy I don’t have time to think, so this was an unusual day for me. But, it was a good change. Oh, my church hosted bunco Monday night, so I did play Bunco. We provide the meal, but I didn’t feel like fixing anything complex, so I picked up strawberries, grapes, and blackberries, and washed everything and put it on a plate. Easy and good! 

I got a couple of quilts done on Tuesday, and I got the binding done on one of them yesterday. 

The photos don’t really do it justice; the colors are so pretty and vibrant. The back is pretty too! She picked it up yesterday and was happy with it. 

I have to get the binding finished on the other one I quilted. Maybe it will happen today. I spent some time yesterday just driving around and saw this:

I actually felt bad about that quilt. There used to be a department store here that sold quilts that were mass produced in China. They were hand quilted, but still mass produced. I’m hoping this one was one of the Chinese ones. Well, I can’t save them all. My house is already full.

The dogs are happy to be home. I picked Ruthie up on Sunday evening, and she came home and passed out in her bed. Look at that sweet little face!

 I couldn’t get Reba and Ryder until Monday, but they are all here now. 

I need to get back to sewing soon. I have some strips cut for my RSC and will get busy with it soon. I have the time now but not much motivation. 

Longarm Classes

I had four full days of classes. I have been looking for advanced training for my particular machine, and it is harder than you would think to find any. There are lots of beginner-type classes available, but not so much advanced. The advanced features are the computer software and how to manipulate it to achieve different effects. That is how I ended up in Utah. I really wasn’t interested in the beginner class, but this particular instructor requires that you take the two-day beginner class from her before you can take the advanced one. The first day was basic edge-to-edge work. 

The second day was using different types and weights of threads and to keep even tension whatever you use. 

Some of the rows are metallic, some are 30, 40, 50, or 60 weight.

The third and fourth days were advanced training. There were only 4 of us that stayed for that part. I didn’t quite get finished with day 3, and my brain was hurting when I got out of there. 

Each block has a different technique.

On the fourth day, we put it all together into one quilt. 

Here’s the back:

All four of us were able to finish. Notice, mine is the only pieced one! The other three are printed. I was in such a panic to get all those tops pieced, and I was the only one who pieced all four.

I really hope I can retain everything I learned. Right now, I just want to be back in my house. My flight is at 4:00 pm today, and I should be home by 11:00. I’ll get my dogs back Monday. 

I Made It!

Oh my, what an exhausting day, but I made it. 

It was a full day of traveling. I left Victoria at 5:30 am, and got to Houston about 30 minutes later. That was the easy part. 

I had to change terminals in Houston, but that typically happens, so I had left myself two hours to make the switch. Then flew to LA.

The topography is so different from what I am used to. I hadn’t been to the Los Angeles airport in about 15 years, but it hasn’t changed much. Still super busy. 

They had an interesting display of textile art on one of the walls. 

Sorry about the glare—I worked hard to edit it out, but this was as good as I could do without losing too much resolution. 

I finally got to my hotel around 5:30, so it was a full day. It’s really pretty here. 

I actually managed to finish the other two quilt tops I needed for my class.