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.

RSC16 week 14

 PROGRESS REPORT

DOG PARK QUILT.  The flimsie went together quickly and I showed it at our Monona Quilters meeting on Monday.

The fleece backing has a dog theme and is so fluffy and soft after washing.  Yesterday I got it pinned and ready for some simple quilting.  It is about 43 inches square.

Modern HST Sampler blocks to date:  

As you see, I am doing these in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors, since they come every other week.  Can't wait to get going on April's orange with black or brown for all my projects.

It's taking me quite a while to do my slab blocks because it's not just a crazy patch, but more of a designed piece, evolving bit by bit and I'm enjoying the process very much.  It's a challenge to make it exactly 8.5 inches to match my 16-patch blocks.  Here is the February one I just finished today.

It's been a good quilting month for me.  The next step is to quilt and bind the Dog Park quilt, then back to my single blocks.  Those will just stack up till December, but I have number of WIPs to finish.

Thanks for all your nice comments this past week.  I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts.  Be sure to see what fun things are going on there.

Paula B Quilts

  I'm using the Rainbow Scrap Challenge monthly colors for my blocks.

RSC 16 week 13

UNCHARTED WATERS

This week has been a happy time for me with my piecing.  I made the latest Modern HST Sampler block, Formation.  I stayed with straight purple for the simple block, although it looks more like navy here.

So I completed the blocks for this month.  I'm trying to keep to the more modern look for this set of blocks.

The most fun I had this week was building a boat.  I had seen Gayle's tiny boat and then Sue's larger two-masted version, both so cute I had to make one.  Since I work with lots of 2.5-inch strips, I designed my own 6.5-inch boat block, in March colors of course.  It only took ten minutes to make it, using flip triangles for the boat shape and some HSTs I already had on hand.

The only problem with these little boats is that, like potato chips, you can't have just one.  So I made two more in January and February colors, but I know it won't stop there.  Sailing has been in my blood since I sailed with my Norwegian uncle in RI waters as a girl.  I love the silence except for the sound of the rushing water and also love the rough seas.  I sure do miss the ocean here in Wisconsin.

The other fun time I had was making another 16-patch block because I had not done a blue one that I liked.  The first one was just plain dull.

I tried to make this blue one as colorful as my other 16p blocks, which is trickier with blue and purple.

I was really happy with the result.  Now I have several more slab blocks to catch up, plus my Dog Park quilt and that is coming along well.

I hope each of you had a satisfying Quilty week.  I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts. Check them out to see what everyone is up to.

RSC 16 week 12

HARD WORK WITH PURPLE

The entire result of my piecing this week was only two blocks.  Life seemed to keep me away from my quilting.  One beautiful sunny afternoon I did get out to see the birds passing through.  It was my first sighting of cedar waxwings, a group of them flitting around a tree full of dried berries.  That was the best day of the week.

I did finish my purple with yellow slab block.  It is 8.5 inches, to mix in with my 16-patch blocks.  

The rest of the last couple of days was spent RIPPING AND ROARING.  I was making my third twinkler  block and had a nice selection of scraps picked out.  On the first blue one In Januarly I had cut and pieced the wrong fabric and had to rip it and replace it.  On the second one, brown and pink, I repeated the same mistake again.  I certainly did not learn that lesson.

This time I made sure I had the right fabrics for the right blocks, but I merrily stitched one set of them upside down.  Rip again times four.  Not the end. They were lined up wrong so two more ripped out.  And by this time I was so upset and anxious to finish that I ended up with at least two more rips.  

But I finally finished it as best I could just in time to get my photos taken.

I think I must have dyslexia of piecing, or whatever you call it.  I have not decided whether to continue making this block.  Maybe it's a mental block block.  I do love those twinklers, so we shall see what April brings.  Have a good week everyone and much success in your efforts.

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

RSC16 week 11

A MOUNTAIN AND A PROJECT LINUS QUILT

Despite a week busy with constant distractions, I did get a few things done.  One was pulling fabrics and then more fabrics.  I'm starting to have piles of pulled fabrics cluttering my work space.  But they are all so special!  

We received another Modern HST Sampler pattern, the Mountain.  There was a special fat quarter I knew that I wanted to use.  After looking everywhere at least twice with no luck, it finally showed up in the very bottom of a box. Hallelujah!  

The special fabric is the middle one with twinkling stars and flowers, my touch of yellow.

My other touch of yellow was this pot of mini daffodils. My son Chris bought me a pot every year, so a friend got them for me in remembrance of Chris.

Update on my zipper pouch:  A good friend came by the other day and had a tough time hunting in her huge purse.  She loved the little pouch and I gave it to her.  She quickly filled it and went away happy and better organized.

Today I looked at the calendar and realized it is only two months until our quilt group charity collection and I have nothing to donate.  So more fabrics came out.  Fortunately I have a fleece blanket with dog motifs waiting to be used.  In my stash I also found doggie fabric on green, at least a yard.  A row quilt is so easy to make, so I laid out the idea below.

When I added the border of cars the name was obvious, Dog Park.  It won't be as long as the other ones I've made, probably more of a square.  No purple, but who knows what the color will be for May?

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

RSC16 week 10

   PURPLE AT LAST!

I've been so excited about the March colors that I dug through all my scraps, strips, bits and pieces to find things to work with.  Having them all sorted by color made it an easier job.

Since I don't have a block in mind for this month, I decided to use the crumbs and scraps first.  It took me a lo-o-ong time to trim and square them.  I decided to continue making 16-patch blocks. Also, I love Joy's slab blocks (The Joyful Quilter).  She kindly gave me hints about how to construct them.   

Time has flown this week and my shoulder does not like the damp cold weather.  But working with these cheerful fabrics has been so much fun that it brightened my days.  Sometimes I just sit and stare at them, so-called deep thinking.  But the more I look the better I can tell what looks right for my style. Yes, now that I am the Rainbow Gal I have a direction and a focus, which really is exciting. (I keep my official rainbow cape hidden away during the day, but at night who knows?

So here is my work for this week, one partially stitched 16-p and the start of a slab block, both to be 8 inches finished.

Oops, I forgot one thing, my first ever Easy Zippered Pouch, a tutorial at The Renegade Seamstress.  It is only 6 x 8 inches with a 7-inch zipper.  I found the zipper in my zipper stash. I'm sure everyone has one of those!  I found the scrap of brown for the outside and a fat quarter for the lining, and cut them out, one last chance at brown.  The directions were good, but somehow I ended up with one brown outside out and one yellow lining print outside.  Ah well, I really wanted a reversible pouch, right?

I do like it and plan to make more.  It is a good size to stick in a bigger purse, nice for gifts.  Not such a bad week after all.

I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Modern HST Sampler at Blossom Heart Quilts.  See what other folks have been doing in March.

Sew Cute Tuesday bonus post

My favorite quilt was made about 25 years ago.  I was trying to get the effect of light shining through stained glass.  I call it Shekinah, the light of God's presence in our midst.

The other effect I worked on was fading out to the edges, which involved lots of time at the design wall, testing out each triangle to make crosses and stars based on the color arrangements.

I machine quilted it in one week for a show deadline.  It now has the place of honor in my small apartment. I enjoy seeing it every day.

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

Sew Cute Tuesday, March 1

MODERN HST PROGRESS

The Modern HST Sampler is a challenge I am enjoying very much.  I've completed each of the four  blocks and learned a lot about HSTs.  The method I like best is definitely the Easy Eights.  I used that for the Stepping Stones block, even though there were two extra blocks. 

As you can see, I've used the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors of the month, blue with purple for January and brown with pink for February.  I loved the brown batiks I dug up, which blended the two colors so nicely.

My calendar is marked with the dates for each new block pattern because I'm so excited to be doing them.

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

RSC16 week 9

BROWN GOES OUT WITH A BANG!

Why has the shortest month seemed like the longest?  I think the five Saturdays have had a lot to do with it, especially being Brown Month.  

However, I've managed to come up with a colorful ending for it.

My actual production this month has been mainly two RSC 9-inch blocks and four Modern HST Sampler 12-inch blocks, finished size.

Here is the fourth block for MHSQ, Stepping Stones, finished this week.

We had the choice of how to make the six HSTs. I chose to use the Easy Eight method with two blocks left over.  It is the fastest and easiest method and has two sides on grain.  I also picked up a couple of tips that made it faster, squaring the blocks before pressing them open and sliding the ruler to cut only one side.  Cutting one instead of four sides was a real time saver.   Those tips were found in other posts and I'm sorry I don't recall where, so I cannot give them the credit they deserve.

Here are the six blocks total, involving lots of work, ripping and learning.  I guess the learning is worth the aggravation.

So for a change I have been working on some other projects.  

The first is an Easy Zippered Pouch, a tutorial at The Renegade Seamstress.  It is only 6 x 8 inches with a 7-inch zipper.  I found the zipper in my zipper stash. I'm sure everyone has one of those!  I found the scrap of brown for the outside and a fat quarter for the lining, and cut them out today, my last chance at brown.

The other project is 16-patches, which are 10.5 inches.  Two of them, the blue and the lime, resulted from not wanting to waste two experiments I was unhappy with.  

For my final brown block I wanted it bright.  No more dull colors for this rainbow gal, so here is my interpretation of brown with pizazz!

So let's look forward with excitement to March and new colors and spring. (Thanks to WENDY for supplying us with flowers from her mum's gorgeous garden in New Zealand this week.)

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

RSC16 week 8

STILL BLUE AND BROWN - AND A SURPRISE

This week I finally caught up with my RSC16 Twinkle Star blocks by finishing the blue one.  It did not get its turn in January, so better late than never.  It almost was never due to my frustration.  For the second time I cut the half triangles from the wrong fabric instead of the white!  Don't know where my brain was.  I'm happy with the scrappy pieces I found, especially the center block with the purple flowers.

Here is the first star I did in brown and pink batiks.  The center was a nice fussy cut find from a layer cake piece of batik.

For the Modern HST Sampler blocks given by Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts, I used the RSC16 colors again.  These are 12.5-inch blocks and there are two given each month.  So I get extra chances to play with Angela's lovely color choices.

This is number three of the Modern HST Sampler blocks called Lantern.  The example showed a white center block, but I added the warm 'light' in the lantern, one of my favorite batik pieces.  I love the swirling blend of the colors.

On Monday the fourth Modern HST Sampler block will be released.  Each one is designed to be a little more challenging than the last, so I should be very comfortable with HSTs by December.

NEWS FLASH:  Just after I finished the above post, I found a package delivery outside my door from Fat Quarter Shop.  This had to be an exception to my fabric fast.  I have been looking at the Note To Self line from Henry Glass since it came out.  I love the Fruits of the Spirit named on the apples  in the design.

Here are two of the Apple color prints and a red flower piece from the line.  These were all half price on the 24-hour Flash Sale.  The Black and White Text from Ella Blue was also on sale.  Could you resist? There are a couple of others you have to wait until next week to see.

I hope all of you have a great quilting week. I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Modern HST Sampler at Blossom Heart Quilts.

Sew Cute Tuesday February 16

SAME OLD WINTER

Now would be a good time to visit quilting buddies in Austrailia or New Zealand, I think.  Here in WI we have the same snow we had in December with just a few added inches.   Fortunately we have been spared the bad storms of you folks in the South and East.  A few flowers would do my heart good right now.  I miss my hubby on Valentine's Day.  He loved giving me flowers or a spring plant. 

But I did get something, the satisfaction of some small quilting finishes.  I loved doing the Modern HST Sampler Lantern pattern in brown and pink, the RSC16 colors this month.  I did add a light in the lantern.

 

The batiks worked very well in this color combination because they blend together quite naturally. 

 

A HAPPY SOLUTION TO A PESKY PROBLEM

I have a slight hand tremor, which gets worse under stress, such as rotary cutting, etc. This causes slipping when trying to cut or mark fabrics.  I do have good solutions for my rulers, but the marking is difficult.  I saw a sand board advertised, but all the sites on Google no longer are selling them.  So I found the easiest answer.

I bought a pack of three 9 x 11-inch fine 400 grit sandpaper sheets and they happen to have non slip backing.  So when I firmly set the sheet on my cutting board it stays put, and so does the fabric when I mark it. So simple and cheap!

All in all it has been a productive week, if you measure it in single blocks rather than multiple quilts.  I really ended up learning a lot.

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

RSC16 week 7

 FRUSTRATION AND A SOLUTION

This has been a tough week as far as piecing new blocks. I was so sure I could make a Twinkle Star block. On the first try I cut eight half triangle in the wrong fabric.  After cutting again (good practice) it took forever to find the correct orientation of the side triangles to the main one.  When the light finally dawned, it went fairly smoothly.  Thanks, Angela, for the good tutorial.

I was glad I chose the batiks for this color combo because they just flowed together perfectly.  When I recover I plan to do a blue one.

This Monday we received the new Lantern block for Modern HST Sampler from Blossom Star Quilts.  This 12-inch block used the eight at a time method for making HSTs.  It went very smoothly. Again I was happy with the brown and rose batiks. 

I have a slight hand tremor, which gets worse under stress.  This causes slipping when trying to cut or mark fabrics.  I do have good solutions for my rulers, but the marking is difficult.  I saw a sand board advertised, but all the sites on Google no longer are selling them.  So I found the easiest answer.

I bought a pack of three 9 x 11-inch fine 400 grit sandpaper sheets and they happen to have non slip backing.  So when I firmly set the sheet on my cutting board it stays put, and so does the fabric when I mark it. So simple and cheap!

All in all it has been a productive week, if you measure it in single blocks rather than multiple quilts.  I really ended up learning a lot.

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

Sew Cute Tuesday February 9

MY SEWING SPACE

Half of my bedroom is my sewing area 'studio'.  I have lots of storage space.  I took the doors off the long closet and filled it with shelves.  In front of it I've added this rolling bin, a junk room find.  It holds my pre-cuts very nicely.  Rolls of fleece and other backings are on the lower shelves. 

To hide the upper shelves my SIL used paper clips and clamps for a chargeable wall hanging display.

My daughter brought over these two tall storage bin units, which fit neatly in a hall closet.  She labeled them for me.  They hold larger pieces by color sort and jelly roll strips.

 

My work area is condensed, but everything is at hand.  I love my custom sewing table with extra work space.  Beside it is an old office table used for pressing with an ironing pad, or for cutting, etc.  it's also great for holding larger quilts during the quilting stage.  My small bookcase holds scraps sorted by size and color.  All my tools are within reach.  The green fabric bin on the floor holds WIPs and is lightweight to scoot out of the way.  Also, I love looking at my special quilts when I'm lying in bed.

In short, I have more sewing room in my one bedroom apartment than I've ever had before.

RSC16 week 6

IN BETWEEN

This has been a slow week for quilting here.  My shoulder has been acting up and also I am waiting for the mailman every day to bring what I need to get started.

   1.  For the Strips That Sizzle I decided, after piecing it, that a double border would be good to show off more of that great batik.  But the blue fabric from my stash turned out to be a bit stretchy in the width, probably from latex added.  So here is my plan so far:

These are the widths I'm planning to use, but now I'm waiting for some Windsor blue Kona which I ordered this week. I have lots of the batik left.

2.  I really did not like the first 16-inch scrappy block that I labored over so much.  I have been wanting to do leaders/Enders 16-patches.  So I started ripping apart the big block to reuse the blue pieces.  Some of them are here.  I will save the blue and whites for the future.

3.  It's February, so what about the new colors?  They are only colors so far.  I have decided to make Twinkles after all, because I just love the ones I've seen from so many of you.  My tri-recs have not yet arrived, so that is on hold for now.

This pile of batiks should be good for the Twinkles I plan to do and for the next two Modern HST Sampler blocks.  At least I did not wait until summer to change direction!

I link up with RSC16 at soscrappy and Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt.  Do check out what the talented folks are doing.