RSC16 week 18

SUMMING UP

At the end of four months I have finally caught up with my blocks of the month and have begun the finishing of a WIP row quilt.

This is my April twinkler and I can finally say that I made it with only one ripping and recutting.  I don't dare think I can do one without any problems, but I'm getting closer.  Here are the four.

The other final block I completed was the April slab block, which was far more fun than doing the star.  Do I prefer the easy way out?

And here are my four slab blocks.

The 16-patch blocks turned out to be fun, even though the February one became orange instead of pink with brown, and so it is now officially the April block.

I mentioned that I keep an ongoing list of my projects.  When I finish one I reward myself with a little happy face emoticon at each stage.  For the RSC blocks I use little sailboats, squares, stars, etc.  For the final completion I give myself a lovely pink flower.  Guess I'm in my second childhood a bit these days!

That is only half of my list, but it really works for me.  My next WIP started with a random drawing of  90 HSTs  from Summer at Easy Quilter.  I turned them into a lot of pinwheels and have worked them into rows.  I have started piecing the rows together and it should not take long to finish, I hope.

  

As you see, I will still be working with orange, but I stowed away every bit of brown I could find, at last!

We can all enjoy new colors, Hooray!  Have a great week.

I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy , Sew Cute Tuesday at
Blossom Heart Quilts and WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden 

RSC16 week 17

A MYSTERY BLOCK AND MEMORIES

This has been a catchup week for working on my self-commitment to six monthly blocks.  For Rainbow Scrap Challenge I'm doing .a twinkle star, a 16-patch at 8 Inches, a slab block of the same size and a slightly smaller sailboat.  They are all in the RSC monthly colors.  They just seem to have somehow added themselves of their own volition.  All of a sudden there they are saying "Me next!  Don't forget about me."

This slab block got me finally caught up for January.  I do enjoy these the most because they allow me to be inventive.

In addition, I am doing a Modern HST Sampler block every other week, also in the RSC colors.  As long as I have to drag out all my orange and brown scraps, I might as well go all the way with them.  These are 12-inch blocks, however, and should be a fine sampler quilt by year end.

This block was titled Intersection, using 16 HSTs.  I did not like the pattern arrangement when done in my fabrics, so I just moved them around to get this block.  I don't know if it has a name.  If any of you know it, I would appreciate you telling me.  All you quilt history buffs and Dear Jane followers must know hundreds of them. 

 

Before he passed away a year ago, my son, Chris, and I used to take rides in the country and he especially loved old weathered barns.  When I learned there were many barn quilts to be seen in the next county, we started seeking them out with an excellent listing of all the Green County barn quilts. We only got to visit a few before winter set in, but here is a photo of one which we took with the owner's permission.

I'm now hoping that I can carry on where Chris and I left off, by interpreting some of the barns and barn quilts I've seen in person or on Pinterest.  Thank you, Julie Sefton, for your inspiring book, BUILD-A-BARN, which I bought and am using to plan a 'barn quilt' barn quilt.  Julie, Quiltdivajulie, has a blog called thefreepiecedbarnproject.blogspot.com and I highly recommend it for process not patterns.

 I hope you all have a colorful week.  I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts and WIPS BE GONE at A Qulting Reader's Garden.

Build A Barn , April 16

  I recently ordered Julie Sefton's book, Build-A-Barn, from Amazon.  I have been enjoying it very much.  She has wonderful illustrations of her process rather than giving patterns.  It allows you to interpret it as you prefer.

I grew up in Rhode Island and saw very few barns in New England.  I began to notice them when we lived in Spokane, Eastern Washington, in the heart of farming country.  Since moving to Wisconsin in 2007, I've fallen in love with the variety of barns around here.  

Before he passed away last year, my son, Chris, and I used to take rides in the country and he especially loved old weathered barns.  When I learned there were many barn quilts to be seen in the next county, we started seeking them out with an excellent listing of all the Green County barn quilts. We only got to visit a few before winter set in, but here is a photo of one which we took with the owner's permission.

I'm now hoping that I can carry on where Chris and I left off, by interpreting some of the barns and barn quilts I've seen in person or on Pinterest.  Thank you, Julie, for this inspiring book.

RSC16 week 16

DEADLINES MET

My main goal this week was to finish my Dog Park quilt, which I last showed as a flimsy, needed for Monona Quilters charity collection on May 9. Once I switched to using the walking foot for it, I wanted to do the entire job before using my 1/4-inch foot again.  A friend helped me to get it pinned to the fleece backing on the weekend.  It was only about 45 inches square, a lot easier to handle than the 50 x 60 ones I've made in the past.  Here it is after quilting.

I bought the kids fleece blanket about a year ago and the dog fabric last fall to coordinate with it.  With the deadline looming, I quilted  and bound it in three days. The gold binding was left over from another project with just inches to spare.  

I quilted in the ditch for the strip pieces and did meandering rows in the dog area so it would not look like they were fenced in, but free to run.  It shows best on the back.

The finished quilt: 

My other goal was the Modern HST Sampler block called Pointed, which I managed to muddle through just in time to do these photos.  Of course, it is done in RSC16  April colors.

For the eight HSTs in orange I used a different method called The Eight Square Method by Honey Bear Lane on Pinterest.  You end up with straight grain on two sides and only the diagonal on the bias.  I don't want to mess around with stretchy edges and it is easy to do.  

Over all it was a very nice week with warm sunny days at last and that feeling of satisfaction from meeting my goals.  I hope you all had a good week and I'll be checking your posts on Rainbow Scrap Challenge at so scrappy tomorrow.

RSC16 week 15

SAILING IN STYLE

Time to set sail again in the April colors.  Here is my little sloop with cheerful orange sails.  I'm carrying on a family tradition.  My Norwegian uncle used to buy sailboats at a bargain and restore them to good condition.  He had a workshop with an old heavy duty Singer where he made his own new sails. Of course his were not colorful, but they did the job well when we sailed off to Newport or Block Island for a day or a week.  

SWITCHEROO

When it came time to make my April 16-patch block I took out the previous ones.  When I saw my February block with its wild orange colors and a bit of brown, I realized it was more  aptly an April block, so here is its return under a new name.

Well, that was the fastest RSC block I've ever made, but now I had to make a February one, so I really splurged on pink.

A VERY USEFUL FIND

Yesterday when I took my garbage down to the basement I got a great find without having to dive in the dumpster.  This stack of drawers was sitting waiting for me to snatch it up and find a place for it in my ever-crowded studio/bedroom space.  Fabric was slowly (actually quickly) trying to take over the room like kudzu.  I've never seen the pesky vine but it's the best analogy.  Here is the cabinet on arrival.

And here it is happily filled with fabric and making a big difference in my space.

It is now paired up with my previous dumpster reclamation, the blue stacked bins.  Now I can actually get in the room easily.  I like my Melody Johnson wall quilt sitting in front of my darker piece behind it because it makes Melody's shine even brighter.

Speaking of shining, the first tiny daffodil popped open in our garden to make me smile.  Hope you are all enjoying spring or fall wherever you live.  

I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts.