Autumn abounds

 Hi everyone! So, just like that, it's October. How on earth did that happen? While 2020 cannot be over soon enough for me, the year is just rushing by now. I guess this means that it's really fall, too, and the next season will be here before too long. With the pandemic and all, can't we just skip that and go right to next spring? That only seems fair.

I have another finish to share today! The closet full o' tops is slowly getting whittled down to just a few. Here is this week's finish:

 

Artsy, and remarkably seasonally appropriate! This is a fall flowers quilt that I made in 2018 with a bundle that I curated for Bernie's shop. Some of the fabrics are still available there, although the bundle itself is sold out. (I would hope so, since it was two years ago, after all!)

As you can see, the sunshine from this morning made getting a whole picture a little challenging. I don't care, because I am loving the sun. I looked back at the original post of the finished top, and it appears that the sunshine was an issue there, too. This little quilt apparently loves the sun!

 

 

I did have this quilted with a leaf pattern, which is fairly loose and makes it feel like the leaves are blowing across the top. This was quilted by my friend Diane, who always does a wonderful job and would do so for you, too, if you'd like.

 

There is no real pattern for this quilt, but you can find patterns for the individual blocks under the Intricate Stitches tab above. I remember challenging myself to use the whole bundle, and I did only have a few scraps, but I liked some of the fabrics so much that I ordered more of them. You can see at least two in my Phoenix quilt blocks, for example. It's not like I have a closet full of other fabric to use or anything. . .but that's a subject for another time!

The only thing I am not really sure of with this quilt is the binding. I was going to go for pink, but it didn't look right, and I didn't want another beige, so I went with a dark green that has some pink and gold in it. I'm not sure I like it in the finished quilt, but there's no way I'm going to redo it.

So, there is another quilt finished! I feel very virtuous. And warm and cozy because-- quilt!  Hope you all have a lovely autumn weekend. Right now there are carpenters making loud banging noises and cutting a new door from the garage to the house. Ordinarily, I would just go somewhere else with wifi, but the pandemic kind of has us all trapped, so maybe I'll just go for a walk. I might need a cookie first, though!

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, and Finished or Not Friday.

Summer florals

Hi all!  Is it unbearably hot at your house? Right now my handy dandy weather station says that it's 96 degrees. That's a bit extreme, don't you think? It's supposed to rain tomorrow and break the heat, and for once I'll be thrilled to see rain around here.  In our ongoing housing saga, we think we've found another house. Hurray! Send all your good thoughts that they accept our offer.  Every finger I have is crossed!

So, if you remember, I somehow packed my favorite quarter inch foot when I was packing up the sewing room.  That was a dumb move! I finally gave in and bought a new one, and then I had to test it out to be sure I liked the seam it gave.  Everyone has to do that, right?  Well, one thing led to another and I ended up with this:

That's a lovely little test piece, don't you think?  Obviously I had a lot of sewing mojo built up because I just kept stitching, and it was such a joy. 

This took just a couple of afternoons when no one was scheduled to tour the house.  I admit that I didn't draw lines on all of those little squares, so some of the corners are a little bit "organic."  I love them anyway, and we all know that real flowers aren't perfect, so I refuse to let myself feel bad about it at all.

This whole piece is made from scraps. For the flowers, I sorted through my box of 2-1/2 inch squares and just chose the first nine that had four matching squares.  The leaves all came from the 2-1/2 inch squares box, too. The flower centers came from the 1-1/2 inch square box, though they had to be trimmed down just a bit. The lavender sashing was in the string jar, which is sitting out and acting decorative in one of the bedrooms.

I actually had a pattern for this, though I didn't really need it once I got going.  It's from Quilt Sampler magazine from. . . Spring 2012.  Yeah, it took that long.  But it was worth the wait!

I plan to quilt this up and use it on the table just as soon as there is time to set up the machine for an hour or two again. It looks great already, but I think it will look even better with a simple crosshatch.  I think I have a scrap binding that's big enough if I can locate the ziplock bag I put those in. Pretty sure I know where it is, though, which is a good thing because I don't know where half my clothes are right now.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend that is nice and cool.  We will have all of our fingers crossed, plus we have three showings and then an open house, so we'll be busy.  Send many good thoughts!

It's still Friday, so I'm sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or not Friday, as well as Alycia's TGIFF and Cynthia's Oh Scrap!

Tiny yellow flower block

Hi everyone!  Today is my turn to share a tutorial for a fun Tiny Tuesday block!  This little block is a part of the sampler that is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for this year over at soscrappy.  Today's block is a lovely yellow flower that will put a hint of spring into the quilt.

Here is the block we'll be making:

This little touch of spring looks complicated but is easy to piece and doesn't have any odd angles or strange measurements.  Since the block finishes at just 4-1/2 inches, you may want to shorten your stitch length, but all of the seams remain the standard 1/4 inch.

One note before we start-- I made my block with a pieced center, but you can choose to simply use a solid square of any color if you don't want to piece it.  The resulting block still looks great!

With the unpieced pink center.

Cutting:

Important note: Pieces marked with a * are already purposely oversized for trimming during construction.  Because the pieces here are so small, this gives us the best shot at having the block turn out the proper size.  No need to oversize them again!

From the green, cut:

    1 3-3/4 inch square*
   4 1-1/4 inch squares

From the yellow:

    4 2-1/4 squares*
    4 1-1/2 inch squares*

From the pink:

    4 1-1/2 inch squares*   OR
    1 2-inch square

From the background:

    1 3-3/4 inch square*
    4 1-1/4 inch squares
    8 1-1/2 inch squares*

Construction:

First, make the corners. Use the two 3-3/4-inch squares to make eight half-square triangles using the Magic 8 method.  Trim these hsts to 1-1/4 inch square.  Yes, there will be a little bit of waste, but this avoids cutting things in odd inch increments.

Take the hsts you just made and the green and background 1-1/4 inch squares and lay them out as shown, making sure that the triangles "kiss" in the middle:

Press to the solid squares. Make 4.  These should measure 2 inches square.

Next, make the center. If you are using a 2-inch solid square for the center, skip this part and go to the petal units.

Use the 1-1/2 inch squares of yellow and pink to make what I call "cheater hsts."  To do this, draw a line from corner to corner on the back of each of the pink squares.  Layer with a yellow square and stitch on the drawn line.

Trim 1/4 inch away from the line, open out and press into a perfect hst.  Trim each of these to 1-1/4 inches square.

Lay out all four of the hsts you just made as shown, with the pink to the middle.  Stitch and press well.  Seams can go whichever way you think best since they won't be joined to other pieced units.  This little unit should measure 2 inches square.

Finally, make the petal units.  Draw a line from corner to corner on the back of each of the 1-1/2 inch  background squares.  Stitch one square to a corner of each of the 2-1/4 inch yellow squares, as shown:

Trim and press, then add another square to the other corner to make a "house" unit, as shown:

Trim the corner and press, then trim the whole unit to 2 inches square.  Make sure you leave 1/4 inch seam allowance past the point of the "house."

Assembly:

Lay out the units you've made as shown:

Join the units into rows and the rows into a finished block.  Give it a good press, stand back, and admire!

Your block should measure 5 inches to finish at 4-1/2 inches in the quilt.

Now that you've made this block, be sure to visit Angela's page this weekend to see everyone else's blocks.  And if you'd like to jump in for this sampler, it's not too late! You can find all of the information HERE.  Happy stitching!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC19.

Finished QOV top

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a blessed Easter for those who celebrate.  Our weekend was fantastic. We had great weather and our daughter was home. It was very relaxing and we all had a lovely time together.

On Friday, I showed the blocks I was making for Kevin the Quilter's Quilts of Valor block drive. I managed to make 31 blocks from the fabric I had. This felt really good, because it takes 30 blocks to make a top. Since I had them, why not put the blocks together? Here's what it ended up looking like:

Hmmm. It looks a little wonky and odd in the picture, but I swear that it is square and lovely in person. I wanted to take a picture outside, but of course it's raining, so I pinned it to the wall near a window. Note to self: find a better place to take pictures. I will be packing this up and sending it off by the end of the week so it can be quilted up and given to a deserving veteran. Last time I looked he had gotten enough blocks and tops for 98 quilts, so I think this week he will definitely go over 100.

This was a super-easy pattern that made for a quick and easy top. Can't you see making it for other charity uses in other fabrics? Maybe some large florals with solid inserts for a women's shelter, or sized down to 6 inch blocks in bright prints for Project Linus? I think I have some ideas for later!

On another happy note, these appeared in the garden this weekend:

Spring is finally coming! Happy, happy!