And Red It Is PLUS a Finish or Two!

Angela has chosen RED as the color for April. We Rainbow Scrap Challengees try to use as much of the monthly color as possible, trying to use up our scraps. Do we really think that will happen? I have to say that some of the participants have actually made dents and that's progress!

I haven't started any red sewing as of yet but I have looked over my possibilities for the Gem Tones. You know what? I've decided not to make any red ones. I just can't get into light, medium, and dark reds. I did play around and found one color combination but I was really struggling with a second block. This hobby of mine is supposed to be fun so I'm opting out of red. Let's see what we can come up with in May.

I do have a finished quilt to share with you though. This quilt pattern was an AccuQuilt pattern by Eleanor Burns called Grandma's Star Quilt. The fabrics were bought when I went on a Shop Hop in Melbourne FL with my friend Vickie. Our husbands were there for a military reunion and we were all there in April 2023 to enjoy memories and past friendships from our Hawaii assignments in the 1980s.

Then in October 2023, Vickie and I joined our friend Sharon at a Kinderhook retreat. Sharon was the instigator that the three of us should make a quilt together, a friendship quilt. We each started working on our quilts at that time together. By the end of retreat, we shared our progress.

Mine (horrible photo)

Vickie's

Sharon's

All versions turned out so pretty. I even like mine now that it's finished. Quilted, washed, and ready for snuggles!

Close ...

Closer ...

Closest!

After I washed it, I folded it up. That's why there are a few wrinkles but, honestly, it lies straight. Maybe I'll fluff it another day and take better "beauty" shots. Yeah, maybe. Anyway, this one finished at a nice 56-1/2" x 69" after all was said and done.

My backing was just a bit shy so I inserted a strip of the orange fabric. Looks so good with the black & white backing fabric I chose.

The back is so pretty!
Love the orange strip with the orange binding.

A couple more pictures to show off the block, the fabrics, and the quilting.

The backing is full of friendship phrases and was the perfect choice for my "friendship" quilt.

Now I'm ready for the next clue of the mystery quilt being offered at my local quilt store. That'll be on Monday. I'm also ready for the next block of The Quilting Life quilt-along which I believe will also drop on Monday. I'm signed up for a class on Wednesday called Posh Peneope. It uses the Sew Wonderful Curve ruler like my pineapples used. I love their projects and I plan on using several pieces of gradient fabric that I think I got from a free table during guild or retreat.

Speaking of class, I forgot to share with you my 4-Pocket Case. I took this class at my local quilt shop and discovered zippers and vinyl are not to be feared! Lol!

4-Pocket Case
Love the Dragonfly Fabric!

Pouch Opened
Two Zippered See-Through Pockets on Top

Two Open Pockets Under the Zippered Pockets
So Convenient!

I'm sure you're wondering about the pattern. Here's a picture of the cover. The one I made was the large size. Someone made the smaller size and it looks very useful too. I'm planning on making one of those also -- another day.

Pattern by Aneela Hoey (#AH116)

Don't you think I've rambled on enough by now? It's rainy here in the Midwest. My rain gauge measured 6-1/2" of rain since Thursday. I emptied it out this morning to see how much more we receive. I can tell you all the docks are underwater around our pond! YIKES! I think it's a good day for sewing.

Have a great weekend. I hope we dry out soon. Catch all the RSC sewing blogs HERE.

Where's the Blue???

I can't seem to find time for RSC Blue sewing. February is such a short month, I'd better get my mojo going or, before I know, it'll be March and a new color suggestion.

What I managed this week:

Used My AccuQuilt Baby to Cut the Pieces
for Two Blue GemTones Blocks

Leftover GemTones Fabrics for 
A-Maze-Zing Blocks

Pink AccuQuilt Quilt Pin-Basted and
Marked in BLUE for Quilting!

I worked last night a bit more on my cross-stitch project. I've made quite a bit of progress on it because I ordered a Spring project that I want to jump into when it arrives. UPDATE: Came in the mail this morning!

'Tis Spring by
With Thy Needle & Thread

This is the one I'll be putting aside so I can get going on my Spring pillow.

As Last Seen on January 30th Post

As of Today

To give you perspective on this December cross-stitch, it'll finish 6" x 4.5" approximately. It's very tiny with lots of teeny Xs.

That's about it on the Creative Front around here. I hope you have a super SuperBowl weekend! There's more to enjoy on Angela's SoScrappy post HERE and see what my friends got up to on this month's Friday Night with Friends evening. Cheryll corrals us up on Gone Stitchin' HERE.

Getting Into Pink?

During the first full week of Rainbow Scrap Challenge Pink, I thought I'd dig into my pineapple blocks and get that taken care of right away. I needed two more of these blocks and figured I make them pink since that was the color Angela called for. Ta! Da!

And while I was at it, I finished sewing up the third dark purple pineapple too!

Next, I grabbed my bin full of pink scraps and quickly set to cut the first couple of blocks for the GemTones SAL with American Patchwork & Quilting. I decided this would be a great time to break in my AccuQuilt cutter. If I never use it, I'll never learn it. I converted the pieces into die numbers, grabbed my cutter & dies, nabbed the pink scraps and a background, and set about to the task. In really not that long, I had a bag of cut pieces for two 16" blocks!

I guess I'll find out later this week if I cut
the first set of blocks correctly when I start sewing!

 
I did go downstairs with the intention of sewing the pieces together and seeing if I was going to be happy or disappointed with my pieces, but then I spied a very pink project that just needed three borders and then quilting. After two separate days of sewing, I got the first two borders on! Look at all that pink!

A Portion of Grandma's Stars

This is the project I started a couple of years ago at a Kinderhook Retreat. I'd cut out all my 12" blocks and also that of Vickie's with my AccuQuilt cutter. The fabric was bought while we were at our husband' military reunion a couple of years ago in Florida. Of course, I'm lagging because Vickie's quilt was completed a  long time ago. Lol!

On Monday, we got quite a bit of snow -- 8 or 9 inches. We were recovering from that when yesterday, Friday, we got a couple more inches of snow. Goodness! Enough is enough until we catch up a bit, please! Here are a couple of pictures taken Friday morning before our walk.

Cleared Space on the Pond Dueto the Fountain

Ready, Set, Go!

I hope you've all stayed warm if you happened to have been in the snow belt this past week. I wish a speedy recovery to the people of California. Those fires have been too much to fully comprehend.

If you'd like to see more pink, visit Angela's blog SoScrappy! Have a good week!

So Ends RSC Blue for June -- AND A FINISH!!

As the end of June is almost here, it's time for a bit of a wrap-up for the month of June. Angela chose BLUES for our Rainbow Scrap Color for the month and that meant time to pull out Rainbow Pineapple blocks, a quilt I started in 2023. Here are the three pineapple blocks I managed this month.

Three Blue Pineapple Blocks for June 2024

Close-Up Picture

I thought it might be fun to see what all of my 2024 blocks look like together.

A Field of Happy, Scrappy Pineapples!

Red Threads SAL has been progressing. Here are the embroidery blocks I completed this week.

Sweet Wren

More Wheat! Ack!

You may recall I won a Go! Baby AccuQuilt Cutter in 2022. I then decided to join the AccuQuilt Club at my LQS to learn about my "new toy". This past month, for Summer and all the Patriotic Holidays during Summer, it was suggested we make the Tumbler Flag using whatever size tumbler we have. Well, a 4-1/2" tumbler was included with the Go! Baby so that's what I used. Of course, I went scrappy. It turned out a bit larger than I anticipated. The pattern says it finishes at 28" x 48".

Scrappy Patriotic Tumbler Flag - 28x48

Some of the Free-Motion Quilting Done
on My Domestic Machine

Some of the Scrappy Reds & Whites

Had Some Stars Fabric in My Stash
Extra Tumblers were Made From a
Denim-Colored FQ Won in a Drawing

Leftover Gray Backing Fabric Worked Great
with Some Stars Printed in the Background

So see!!?? I got a finish! I got a finish! Yay me!!!! This sweet quilt will hang in the hallway until after Labor Day. (The blue field of stars keeps with the June RSC theme! *wink*)

Wishing you a terrific final June weekend. We've had a bit of rain here in the St. Louis area and a little cooler temps lately. Hopefully the weather will be cool enough for some greatly missed cook-outs in the near future!

Linking up with all the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters on Angela's blog, SoScrappy.

Blues, Browns, & Tumblers!

I've been trying to catch up on all things quilting, including this blog. I was absent due to a trip to be with Brody on his 5th birthday and then a couple days later my niece for a bridal shower. You can catch up on those events HERE if you like but I warn you -- it is very picture heavy.

Since this is my quilty blog, let's get down to business. Working on my Red Threads (which I'm doing in brown), my latest ones are shown below.

Last night was Friday Night Sew In with Wendy & Friends. I traced out a couple more Red Threads blocks and got to work on one. Here's my progress from yesterday.

I'm still working on pineapple blocks and trying to keep up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Any shade of blue was selected for June's activities so here we are. I need to dig through my green scraps and get the tops sewn on these pineapples. I think they turning out pretty good!

My friend Sharon & I go to an AccuQuilt Club monthly and it was suggested we make Tumbler Flags using our dies. Let me just say that these tumblers went together beautifully! I'm just about finished with the quilting on this project and then I'll need to sew on the binding. I think I'll have it finished by Club meeting this Thursday, don't you?

The Stars were Fussy-Cut

There is also a block that I'll need to make for the exchange and that should also go together in a snap.

We are hot, hot, hot here in the St. Louis area. I know we are not the only region suffering from the heat but, really, it's a super chore to walk the dog in the mornings. Looking forward to some relief one day ....

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs to see how everyone's Friday Night Sew In went. Then on to Angela at SoScrappy to see how my Blues Sisters are doing with their RSC projects!

There Goes September AND October!

Started: October 2, 2023

September has come and gone and I have no finishes to show. What the heck happened? My sister came and we even spent two days sewing at a retreat center together! Oh well.

Here in Illinois we had the All-Illinois Shop Hop running from August through September. I managed to get all the stamps for my region. My completed passport went out in the mail Friday. I would like to mention that, after visiting a nice quilt shop in Columbia IL, Mom, Fred, and I went to a restaurant called Reifschneider's for an early dinner. What a surprise to find that we were there on a Tuesday and the special of the day was: 6oz sirloin, dinner salad, and mashed potatoes for $12.95. What a deal!

My hands haven't been 100% idle though. I have to confess

Finishing this post today, November 11:

Update: I won a Regional Grand Prize on the All IL Shop Hop again this year. You may remember that last year I one an AccuQuilt Baby. This year I scored a Janome Serger! It was donated by Times Square Quilt Shop in Jacksonville IL and I'll pick it up soon. Last year's prize was donated by A to Z Quilt Shop in Quincy IL. At least this year's travel to pick up the prize is a bit closer.

So what have I been up to? I finished all my blocks for Uptown. They need to be squared up, the set-in triangles cut, and then the top sewn together. Here's a photo of the last block. I ran out of bigger pieces of red fabrics used in the previous blocks so in this block, where I used red it was supposed to be blue and where I used blue it was supposed to be red. Looks fine and the quilt police didn't even raid my studio! Lol!

In September I started another quilt with Sentimental Stitches called Red Threads. I'm using brown thread instead so I'll have to come up with a different name for my quilt. It consists of 49 embroidered blocks which we get a new pattern every Friday. Here are a few that I've completed although many need to be pressed.

My Favorite So Far

Just this morning I put the tops on my RSC turquoise pineapples. Geez, they were started in September!

From This ....

To this!

Twilight Stars Sew-a-Long with Primitive Gatherings is still going strong. Here are a few pictures of new stars recently made.

Made These at Kinderhook Retreat in October

Oopsy Doopsy!

That's a Better Star on the Left Now

I found an old project from 2005 or 2006. All it needed was to be quilted and bound. It has Insul-Bright inside so you can place a hot dish on it. I think I'll use it this Thanksgiving for the mashed potatoes!

Very Old Kansas Troubles Fabrics
Finished at Kinderhook Retreat

Back Side to Show the Fancy Machine Quilting Stitches

I used my Accu-Quilt Baby to cut out two quilt tops, one for me with my fabrics and one for Vickie using her fabrics. We joined Sharon, who had cut out her own quilt top, and then all three of us sewed our tops up at Kinderhook. All three look different and mine is definitely not photogenic. It's actually kind of ugly looking, isn't it?

Sharon's

Vickie's

Mine

Of course another Chubby Charmer had to be made. Here is the Fall version for my daughter. The fabric line was Fall Frolic by Moda, I believe.

Polly Needed to Check It Out When I Got Home

That pretty much catches you up on my sewing endeavors. Last month we did our annual Fall Family Visit and I'll catch you up on another post. This one has gone on long enough. Did you make it to the end? Congratulations! Hahaha!

Sharing with my RSC friends on Angela's SoScrappy blog.