Quilting as I go

Hi everyone!  How is your week going? We are having another cold snap and woke up to snow yesterday.  Really, I am ready to be done with this.  But in keeping with the weather, I finished quilting up the Christmas quilt and only have a bit of the binding left to stitch. More on that quilt on Friday, but for now I'm working on using up the old jelly roll of solids.

If you recall, I decided to use that old solids jelly roll to make two versions of the Regatta quilt by Daniela at Block M, one in blues and greens and one in the warmer colors. It occurred to me that these were the perfect quilt-as-you-go projects, so I started with this backing for the blue and green version:

I want these quilts to end up about 40 by 50, so I cut the backing about 60 inches long, then basted on some leftover batting.  Then I just started stitching on some of the prepared strips:

This is super-easy so far.  I may go back when I'm done and add in some more straight lines, but for now it's going pretty fast. 

Because the quilts I'm making are smaller than the original pattern, I'm only using three "steps" instead of four, at 10, 14, and 18 inches.  I think it's going to work just fine.  For my size, I'm planning on 25 strips, 12 of the pattern and 13 of the solids. 

I'm hoping to have the blue and green quilt pieced this week, then work on the warm-colored one.  I have this backing for that version:

Isn't that fun? I happened to look at Sarah's plan for the Hands to Help Challenge this year (check HERE), and it looks like these quilts will be perfect for donating to the Challenge.  I guess that's where they'll be headed then!

Hope you are all having a good week and staying warm.  It's the last day of January, so can spring be far behind?

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.

Patchwork scrap stars

Hello scrappy friends! Today I am showing my latest RSC project, but I wanted to alert you that there is a small giveaway at the end of this post! 

A few weeks ago, which by total coincidence was the beginning of the new year, I decided that this is the year that I finally move out some of the scraps that have been hanging on here forever.  Some of them I have had for years and years and they haven't been used.  Many of them I can't believe I moved across the country, and some of them I just don't like any more.  So, to use up as many of those scrap bits as possible, this year I have three-- yes, three-- projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  There's the Squared Away quilt, of course, and the little 9-patches, and here is the third project:

Light blue is hard to photograph!

Patchwork scrap stars!  I"m sticking with that name, though I've seen these called a lot of different things.  I chose to make mine using 3-inch squares that I cut from the leftover hunks and chunks in the light blue scrap bin.  Some of the ones I've seen are 25-patches, but I've stuck with the 16-patch because those finish at 12 inches square, which is a really nice, easy size to fit into lots of different layouts.

Check out those happy yellow stars! I know most people use white for the stars, but I decided to go ahead and just use any contrasting scraps for the stars.  So at the end of the year I'll have a bunch of multicolored stars on the solid-ish 16-patches.  This quilt definitely won't look like any of the others!

I also managed to eke out a few more of the blue and the light neutral 4-1/2 inch 9-patches.

These go really fast and are super easy to make, which is probably why I managed to make about 25 of them in light blue, white neutral prints, and light beige neutrals.  And two grays, which still surprises me.

And now for the giveaway! Since I really want to clean out those scrap bins, at the end of each month this year I'll be giving away whatever is left in the bin.  That way I get an empty bin and someone else gets a new infusion of scraps! Here is what is in this month's giveaway:

Since I didn't have a lot of light blue to begin with, the pile was pathetically small, so I added in some of the whites and light neutrals, and also the grays.  Also included is a generous handful of both 2-inch squares and 1-1/2 inch squares (In those little bags).  I have no hope of fully cleaning out the bins full of those squares, but this will help spread the wealth around.

I feel that I have to warn you that these are generally hunks and chunks of fabric, mostly leftover from other projects.  There are no fat quarters here, but no tiny pieces either.  All told there is almost 2 pounds of fabric to be had.  I'd really like this to go to someone who will use it.  Some of it is several years old, but it deserves to be in a quilt and not stuck in a box.

To enter, just leave a comment letting me know that you'd like this fabric.  Really, that's all! (You can also leave a comment if you don't want it, just tell me to leave you out!) I would be thrilled to stuff this all into a flat-rate envelope and send it off to you.  I'll do a random number thing on Sunday night (January 28) and get the fabric sent right away.

Thanks everyone!  This giveaway is now closed!

That's it for today!  Hope you are having a lovely, relaxing Saturday and getting to the end of those light blue scraps!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC18.

Frozen waves

Wow, that weather thing changes fast!  Earlier in the week it was quite nice, and now it's suddenly quite cold again.  It has been really up and down--50s one day and 20s the next.  Just enough to make people a little crazy and a little sick. This weekend will be cold and so will also be the first real test of our attic insulation project, so I really hope we did it right.  (We did. It's really hard to mess up!)  I always associate the cold with the color blue for some reason, so this week's finish fits right in with the temperatures.

Today I'm showing off another quilt that finally got finished after being in time-out in the closet two separate times:

That's a lot of blue!  I started this Ocean Waves variation a few years ago, and then got a little bored with all the repetition.  It was in the closet for a while, then finally made it to the finished top stage last year.  And now it's quilted! This is made from a pattern by Joan Ford in her book Scraps Plus One.  Mine is substantially smaller than the pattern, which is a bed size in the book.  My version finished up at just about 48 by 66.

I'm pretty happy that I finally pulled this one out of the closet and got it quilted!  It certainly wasn't doing anyone any good on the shelf.  This was expertly quilted by my friend Diane Minkley, who does amazing work and would be thrilled to help you out with your project.  This is quilted in an edge to edge pattern with light blue thread, which I was afraid would be a problem on the dark blue, but it isn't at all.

I'm pretty sure this little quilt has every blue I've ever had in it in some form or another.  Blue is not my favorite color and I don't really use it very much, but I'm trying to expand my horizons.  I do admit that the blue and white is quite striking, though.  I'm also glad that I decided to use the same fabric as the border for the binding.  I think it looks great that way.

The backing for this quilt is this odd blue and white print that I found on a clearance table somewhere.  It's mostly squiggles that sometimes look like letters or numbers, but not quite.  There's something interesting about it and I don't think it would look good cut up, plus I'm a real sucker for a good bargain.  It's a strange print, but it makes a great backing for this little quilt. 

So there's another one in the finished column!  The shelf of unfinished tops is getting smaller and smaller, which feels pretty good.  It's nice to see my work actually done and being used instead of folded up on a closet shelf.  I really envy the people who have the wherewithal to completely finish one quilt before they move on to another.  I get bored with a project and usually have to let it rest for a while before it gets finished. 

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!  I don't know what I'm doing yet, beyond cleaning the bathroom and shivering (two separate things!)  I also have a bunch of reading-type research I'm hoping to get to, so we'll see how it goes!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and crazymomquilts.

Strips and spam

For those of you who are working at getting UFOs cleaned out, how's it going?  Over the weekend I decided that I needed a new project in addition to pulling another UFO out to finish.  I did pull out another UFO, an old unquilted top that I sent off to be quilted, plus I have the Christmas blocks all together and basted, but not quilted. I figure those are points in my favor and I get to start something new.  Because you can't always work on old projects, right?  I did start with some old fabric, though:

I had this ancient jelly roll of Kona colors that I never used.  It's so old that the price tag was $22.  It's been pretty to look at on the shelf, but I'm ready for it to be out of here.  So I decided to use it to make a couple of Regatta quilts, a free pattern from Block M Quilts that can be found HERE. 

The pattern calls for white or another solid with the strips of color, but I thought I might try it with strips of patterned fabric and the solids.  I think I have it narrowed down to these two possibilities:

Here's a better picture of the print fabrics:

 The background of the dotted fabric is an off-white while the little triangles are on a true white ground. I'm planning to make two smaller quilts with the strips I have, so I could use both of them, which would just mean more cutting.  It occurs to me (just now!) that that I could use blues and greens on one background and reds, oranges, and yellows on the other.  Hmm, which would be which?

So that's one new project!  I also have these for another new project:

These are some fun flannels to make a few baby blankets for a dear friend who's going to be a first-time grandma!  It's a boy due in March! I also started a baby quilt, but that's going to stay under wraps for now.

There's another thing to talk about today: spam.  Did you know that *you* (yes, you!) could be branded a spammer by Blogger even if you aren't posting about real estate on every blog you see AND you have been a blogger for years?  It's true! A very nice person that I met through the blog is having a problem with this right now.  Her comments are flagged as spam and not published to any blog she comments on. This means her comment doesn't appear on the post, but the blog owner still gets notified. Then the poor blog owner is left puzzled because the comment isn't on the actual post. I know personally that if you are the blog owner, you will still get the notification of the comment, so you may not realize that it's been flagged, even if you answer it.

There appears to be only one way around this-- checking the spam folder and marking comments from "real" people as "not spam." You can check at Danice's post HERE to see how to check your spam folder on Blogger.  I was amazed at what I found, because there were several comments in there from people who are definitely not spammers. (Somehow the real spam always gets published and has to be deleted.) I really encourage you to read the whole story over at Danice's and check your own spam folders.  And if you have any good insights or suggestions, please share!

Just a pretty picture! Soon, soon. . .

Now that we've dealt with that heavy subject, I'm going to go sort those Kona strips some more and start cutting!  Hope everyone is having a good week, and that your spam folders are completely empty!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social.