Blue and yellow sunburst

 Hi everyone! So here we are in November, all of a sudden. Wasn't it just September? I can't keep track, except that it's definitely cooled off and we even had a freeze the other night. And it really is dark when I get home, so we must be slouching towards winter. As long as the snow holds off for a bit more, I think we'll be okay.

So, it isn't Friday, but I do have a finish. I know, it's like I'm breaking a rule! But I finally got pictures taken yesterday so why wait? Have a look:

Okay, that is a very bright quilt top! Maybe we shouldn't look at it head on. I don't know if you can see it on your monitor (or phone) but there are some of the diagonals in the corners are a pale yellow. It's really kind of pretty.

I started this as a wedding quilt for a friend, but we all know I wasn't going to make it in time for the wedding, right? And then we had family drama and trauma, so I ended up giving the happy couple a different quilt, which they totally loved. That left me with a half-finished quilt top, which I have now finished off.

Somebody is going to have to rake up all those leaves! This quilt top is about 60 by 72, a really nice size for a couch quilt. I did strip piece much of it, though it was complicated by the half square triangles. I managed, and I do think the triangles add a lot to it. I actually started with split 9 patches as a beginning design point before I ended up twisting and turning things around.

I'm pretty proud of the yellow gradations in this quilt. Have you ever tried a yellow gradation? It is not easy, but I managed it. It was actually fun to play around with, and now I have some more yellows on the shelves. And more yellow scraps, which is always nice! I'm happy to say, too, that those dark blues are all used up. Thank goodness!

This lovely is headed for the closet to age properly while I search for a backing and figure out how to get it quilted up. In the meantime, you can see what my outdoor job to burn off stress is going to be!

I'll end this up with a picture of the hill behind our house, which was in all kinds of fall glory. The sun shining through was just wonderful. Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm having lunch with some friends, then maybe tackling those leaves. And sleeping in for an extra hour Sunday-- fabulous! Just what I need!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique

Peace and plenty of color

 Hi all! How has your week been? We have moved on from hot and dry to extremely hot and just about to storm like crazy. We broke temperature records four days in a row this week. Try to imagine college students in a classroom in a building built in the 1890s when it's 100 degrees outside. Zero fun, do not recommend.

I have a fun finsh to show off today, though-- I have finished the top of the Peace and Plenty quilt! Take a look and see if you think it's as gorgeous as I do:

Wow, that's a lot of color! This was one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for this year. We're finishing off with aqua for this year, and after I made those blocks it was only a short step to completing  the top. That idea of making a few blocks a month really works out!

Above are the aqua blocks by themselves. Aren't they pretty? Aqua is such a great color and I tried to choose one that was 'greener' and one that was 'bluer' and one I just liked. The truth is I love them all, of course. And that pink rose is a lovely contrast!

I love how this turned out, but I do recognize that all the colors kind of break up the pattern and the movement in the top. If all of the blocks were in one color there would be a lot more secondary patterns across the quilt top. There are plenty of secondary patterns in here, though, and all the color is definitely more fun. If you'd like to make some blocks yourself, the directions and cutting sizes are right HERE. I made my blocks in the 12-inch size.

I wasn't going to add a border, but I added the very colorful one just to finish off all those raw edges. Why not? It was all the perfect colors and finished everything off nicely. I think I have enough for the binding in that same fabric, too. My top finished at just about 66 by 78, a nice cozy size.

Now that this top is done I've started getting last year's projects ready to send out for quilting. I love long arming, but it would work so much better for me if I could load a quilt one day and stitch it over the next few days instead of having to get two quilts done in the space of less than 6 hours, including loading. It's time to admit I'm not going to do that and get these tops sent out so a real longarmer can finish them up.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I am going to try not to get too wet in the storms and I also have to take my main machine to the machine-fixer-people. I was stitching away happily and hit a pin, which broke the needle, which then fell into the machine. I couldn't get it out, and the timing is off now too, so time to call in the pros. Hope that never happens to you! I'll close with a picture of a volunteer coleus that sprung up in one of my pots. It's so pretty-- and it kind of goes with the quilt!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23 and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

A small riot of color

 Hello everyone! Guess what? It isn't raining, for the first time in days, literally. Holy cow, it has been gray here. But I'm looking out the window right now and it looks like the sun is out and nothing is falling from the sky. And wonder of wonders, the grass got cut yesterday. I'd say it was knee-high, which would be an exaggeration, but it certainly felt that way.

This is our last week of class, so I haven't had a lot of time, but I did put together a small quilt top from some leftover blocks, and all the rain we've had gave me a couple of really good pictures:

Okay, I don't know whether to look at the flowers or the quilt top! I so wanted to take a picture of last week's purple quilt with these azaleas, but it just didn't happen because of the rain. But just look at them now!

I had these churn dash blocks made, but I never really figured out what to do with them. Do you ever just make something because they're fun to make, but you don't have a plan? That's what happened with these blocks.They're so colorful, and I have been in a "use it up" mode, so I stuck them together into a little top. It's actually about 40 by 45, so it's a decent size and will make a nice donation quilt.

I had no idea I had this very cute border fabric until I started looking through things for a border. When did I get this? Who knows, but it worked out really well with all the bright colors in this quilt top.

I so, so wanted to quilt this up, too, and I have a backing all ready for it, but alas! I had things to grade. With all of the tops that I have piled up, it looks like it's time to have a quilting marathon, too. Just as soon as I finish reading these research papers. . .

I'll leave you with another picture of those beautiful purple azaleas. They're as big as my hand! If you look carefully near the top, you'll find one very happy honeybee, too.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or not Friday, and the Quilting, Patchwork, Applique linkup.

Filling the borders

[There is a small giveaway at the end of this post!]

 

Hello everyone, from a still-soggy Baltimore! It rained two inches today and is supposed to rain all weekend. I wouldn't mind since we planted grass seed and such, but it also got cold again. The heat is back on and the gutters are working overtime. 

All of which made getting pictures of this week's project pretty difficult. Here is the best outdoor picture I got, on the covered back porch:

 

Not too terribly bad for a rainy day! At least you can see the borders pretty well. If you recall, this is the purple month for the rainbow scrap challenge, and I had half a million purple 4-patches leftover from another project. (You can read that whole story HERE.) I made them up into blocks and then arranged those blocks into a fun border. Then I had to fill the border!

This was not as easy as it sounds. There were so many options! Plus, I had used a really strong green for the border, and everything else just faded away with those borders. Because I did not want to do a lot of piecing, and because I had never made them, I decided on Disappearing 9-patch. The first attempt using some fabrics from a re-discovered kit was not a success:

See what I mean? They did not look good. The green is just so strong. So I dug out every single scrap of that green that I could find, including a few small pieces from the trash, and cut every piece of purple I had that was big enough, put them together and made some blocks that looked a lot better. It was a major pain to do, but it was worth it! 

I used every piece of purple I could, and I think it turned out well. I don't think I'll make the DNP blocks again soon, but they went fast and filled in the quilt, which finished at just about 48 by 60. 

So there is that quilt top done! Hurray! It used up a lot of purple, and I only have little pieces left. I managed to scrape together enough pieces to make two 6-inch blocks:

Cuties! I didn't get to make a couple of crumb blocks, but I definitely will, because I finally figured out what I'm going to do with them. For now, though, I am pretty tired of purple and ready for some new projects. I am really happy to have used up those purple 4-patches, though! They hung out here for way too long.

And now for the giveaway! In the spirit of letting go of things that do not give me joy, and clearing out some older stuff besides, I'd like to give away what remains of the old kit that I dug out:

As you can see, there are some themed charm squares that came with the kit (minus most of the purples), along with a bunch of others that I found hiding in there as well, the two "failed' blocks, a yard and a half  of themed fabric (in 2 pieces), and the pattern that was stuck in there, too. The fabric is Natural Garden by Holly Taylor, and I'll warn you that the reason that I never made the pattern is because it requires a specialty ruler. 

If you are in the US and would like to have this package sent to you free of charge (though I won't say no to postage), all you have to do is go and fill out this Google Form right HERE. You'll see that this comes up as a quiz, but you know both answers! This is the first time I've tried this, but I can't afford one of the services and comments get bulky, so try it and we'll do the random number thing on Wednesday, May 3. If the form doesn't work, I'll delete this and do something else, but I've used Google quizzes and they do work.

Okay, enough with the purple! On to something else! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

 

Super soggy! It was worth a try!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Scraps all around

 Hi everyone! I hope you have had a good week. I am starting to see some leaf buds on our trees, and I am happy dancing like crazy over that. Soon there will be leaves! That means there will be shade over the balcony and the deck again, and at some point it might get warm enough to have breakfast outside again. Won't that be glorious?

 

If you have been following along, you'll know that I started the Stay at Home Round Robin, a project hosted by Quilting Gail and featuring several of my favorite bloggers. (waving wildly to Roseanne and Sue, Wendy, Anja, Emily, and Chris!) Astoundingly, I have finished the round robin quilt top! Take a look:

 

You know, I had my doubts, but I think I like it! The center block is a panel that I have had for a long time, and the final border is a coordinating print, which I cut lengthwise for the side borders. I had folded the receipt in with that yard of fabric, and it appears that I bought the panel and coordinating yard in 2008. Yeah, time to use them up.

In addition to the round robin challenge, I challenged myself to use up a specific set of scraps that I had saved that went pretty well with the center block. I used up a whole lot of them and only have a few squares left, which is a huge win in my book.

 

Because I only had small pieces left by the time I got to the end, I made the final pinwheel round as spinners instead of pinwheels made with hsts. I only had big enough pieces to make a few, but I think they work scattered in with the bird fabric. I also used up a ton of leftover 4-patches, and man am I happy to see those used up!

This quilt measures just about 60 by 70, which is perfect because I wanted a top big enough to donate. Because there is so much going on in this quilt, I'm thinking of just quilting it with straight lines across. Or do you think a serpentine stitch would look better? Or meandering? Now I'm confused. . .let me know what you think!

So yay me for finishing this, using up those scraps, and having something that I'll be able to donate, too. I feel very accomplished about this. Before I sign off for the weekend, I have to show you one more thing:

An entire herd of deer in a field near us where an old house was torn down! It was quite the majestic sight!

Hope you all have a great weekend! They're predicting rain for us, mixed with snow. I guess winter isn't done with us quite yet!

Sharing at the SAHRR linkup at Quilting Gail's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or not Friday, and the Quilting, Patchwork, Applique linkup.

A taste of spring

 Hello quilty friends! How was your week? Mine was more of the same, except for that one day where it hit 80 degrees. Not joking! It was a taste of spring that didn't last very long, because although today has dawned nice and sunny, it may snow this afternoon. Again, not joking! It's going to be a good day to read and sew.

The weather was not the real taste of spring for this week, though. It was this happy and fun pink quilt top that I finished just yesterday:

A little washed out by morning light, but is that not very springy? This is the quilt top I made to use up some leftover pink parts from another quilt. Since this is the pink month at the rainbow scrap challenge, I pulled them out and hoped to make something from them. And I did, so I win!

 

The leftover pieces in question were the triangle in a square parts. After many good suggestions, I turned them into some spinny flowers, then strip-pieced the single Irish chain blocks to fill out the top. It was easy and went fast. The border is a long-stashed half yard that gave the quilt a little zip and protected the seams at the edges. I have just enough of the pink fabric left to make a binding. It's smaller than it looks at just about 48 by 54.

 

I'm amazed that there were enough pink parts to make all those flower blocks. I didn't know there were so many! I even had a few left-- and I threw them away. Okay, it was two triangle squares, plus a bunch of cut triangles, but no pink "wings." I just couldn't see keeping them, and I didn't want to make more squares so I could make a bigger quilt. I think I put in enough work to use up those leftovers.

 

So now those pieces are used, and I've almost met all my goals for the pink scraps. I'm still working on the crossed canoes quilt, but a good bit of the pink scraps will be all used up by the end of next week. It's likely that I never would have made this quilt top or used up so many pink scraps without the RSC, so I am thrilled to bits. But not little bits, because that would be more scraps.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I have amassed a number of small projects and quilt tops that need to be quilted, so I think I had better start with the basting. Looks like a good day for that, too!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC23.

Feeling kinda modern

 Hi everyone! How are you doing these days? Things have not been too snappy here at chez AQ, topped off with a root canal and then final exams. Talk about piling on! But we're not going to dwell on the negative and instead we're just going to look at a nice quilt top I finished off this week.It's a little modern and a little different for me, but it turned out quite well and I'm pretty happy with it.

Here is my finished Solstice Sampler quilt top:

Yahoo! I can't believe I kept up with this sewalong and actually finished the top in a reasonable time. This is the Solstice Sampler organized by Alderwood Studio, and you can get the instructions and patterns right HERE, but only until December 31. After that some of the designers will be selling their patterns, so grab them while you can. 

I started this project to distract me from some of my troubles, but I'm really surprised at how much I like the finished product. Some of the blocks are very modern, but most of them are different takes on traditional. This top is just about 60 by 60 and will get a binding from that same blue if I can eke it out of the scraps. Also, I really need to use more batiks. Note to self: go fabric shopping.

 

Of course, I had to modify some of the blocks to make them fit my own feelings, too. For example, the original design of the block in the bottom left corner had more floating elements that just reminded me of the floating candles in the Harry Potter movies, so those had to go and everything else got shifted around. I like how it turned out, though, and it's close to the original.

The problem child of this quilt was the center star block above, which I remade because the original (in THIS post) just looked like a hole in the quilt. It was paper pieced and came together well enough, but it took forever (at least four hours) to make each copy of the block. So many pieces! Maddening. But at least it looks good in the quilt now! I saved the first one and am going to turn it into a small pillow or something, too.

So there we are, another quilt top finished! I have amassed a big stack now, so it's time to rent some longarm time and get a bunch of things finished up. Sounds like a good way to spend the rest of the year, doesn't it? 

Hope you all are doing well and getting ready for the big holiday that I would like to skip this year. I won't, but it's very tempting. For right now, though, I have to find a small rake or something to clean the carpet in the sewing room. There is thread and little bits of paper-piecing paper everywhere!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or Not Friday, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique.

Sparkly stars

 Hi everyone! Somehow, it was 72 degrees here today. Has someone checked to be sure it's November? I know some people have had snow already, but it looks like we're sticking with rain and above average temperatures for the next little bit. Totally okay with me, except for the leaves that keep falling.

 

I've got a finished top to show off today. It's my stars top from this year's rainbow scrap challenge, and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Here she is:

 

 

Well, that is different, isn't it? But quite sparkly! Not at all what I thought I would get at the beginning of this year, but this year itself has not been what I thought it would be. Looking at it hanging up like that, I think it needs a narrow border all around, like 3 inches or so, just to make it look more finished.

These are the stars I made all year, plus one more that I made to finish out a row. The stars are 9 inches finished, and you can get Angela's directions for making them right HERE. Mine are, of course, a little different because I used the white square in the center instead of another scrap. I like the open and lacy look, and it sure makes this layout very sparkly.

You may notice that not all the colors are in this quilt top. That's because I sat down to make some orange and some bright green stars (both great colors for stars, by the way) and it just made me tired, so I thought "what if I didn't?" What if I didn't make more stars and just challenged myself to come up with a new layout that used only what I had?

 

 

I felt energized right away, and then started laying out the stars in a rough pattern. As I made it, I cleaned things up so that it's actually symetrical, with the bottom section a mirror of the top section, with a different row right there in the middle To finish off that middle row, I had to add in another star, but I'm not telling which one it is. I'm just really, really pleased with the way that it turned out, even though it doesn't have any orange stars.

One RSC project down, two more to complete! I have a very good idea about the birds, and I finished off the orange round on the medallion quilt. The final border for that one is paper pieced, so it's taking a little longer, but it's going to be spectacular.

Hope you all have a spectacular weekend, no matter the weather. It's November, though, so it's probably best to hedge your bets and just stay in and sew. With some chocolate on the side, of course!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

 

A challenge in black prints

 Hi everyone! I hope you have been having a good week, though I acknowledge it's been a difficult one here in the US, again. (See the bottom of this post for some somber thoughts.) Once again today, we are in the rain. This week the grass was so long that there are clumps all over the lawn from cutting it. Seriously, it looked like a pasture or something out there. All the better for the flowers, though, right?

Did you ever have a project where you made a few blocks and thought you would really like the finished quilt, but you just didn't have the motivation to make the rest of the blocks? That's pretty much how I felt about the black blocks that I had been working on off and on for a couple of years. I loved them but didn't want to make any more of them. Before we go any further with this story, let me show you what they turned into:

 

Not what I had in mind at the beginning! I was looking through the project boxes to put away the pink and green star blocks, and I pulled the black blocks box (say that three times fast!) out of the stack. "I have to make some more of those blocks," I said to myself (with a dramatic sigh.) Then I thought, "but what if I didn't?"

What if I didn't make more blocks? What could I do with just the ten blocks that I had? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I could have a personal challenge to use those ten blocks and make them into a quilt. I told myself I could make some easy alternate blocks and any kind of borders that I wanted, but no more black blocks.

Pull out the paper and start planning! Once I decided on the alternate blocks, it all came together pretty easily. The really fun part was choosing colors to go with the black blocks. I chose the light grayish blue and the very pale yellow, and I think they both worked. They're hard to see in the pictures but are charming in person. I almost went with a red, but I'm so glad that I didn't. 

 

 

I made the blocks for this quilt a couple of years ago from various black prints, and used a random half yard for the alternate blocks. The border is a very old print from Marti Michell and Maywood Studio. It's super pretty, but I am glad to use it up after all this time. There's about an 8-inch square left, which makes me seriously happy.

I think my experiment worked, though it's a bit bigger than intended. It's about 60 by 75, which would be great for a dorm, wouldn't it? Not bad for starting with ten blocks. Plus, I was left with an empty project box, which I quickly filled with some scraps so that another project doesn't jump in there when I'm not looking.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend. This weekend I'm planning to plant flowers while I pray for the children murdered in Uvalde, Texas. There's a lot that I could say, but nothing that really adds to any solutions. I find myself thinking a lot about my students who just graduated-- strong, brave, smart young people, many of whom are headed for their first teaching positions. Will they someday be forced to step over the bodies of their students and walk past the bodies of their peers? Or will they sacrifice themselves to save the children in their classes? How many of them will continue teaching in the face of preparing for violence every day? Every one of them would stand in front of a gunman without question, though they should never have to. But this is the country we live in right now. That's really all the words I have, because it's all been said before.

I could go on, but instead I'll just wish you peace and a restful weekend.

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.