April goals finished

The first part of my one monthly goal was completed earlier in the month. I finished a quiltville mystery quilt called Carolina crossroads.

Now I am working on Double delight for the mystery finish challenge that I am doing along with Jo's Country junction's string challenge. I have the first border cut and ready to sew. Once I finish the swap blocks, I will have a little more finishing focus.

My second one monthly goal was to quilt my civil war Christmas quilt. It has blocked the longarm for 2 weeks as I couldn't decide how to quilt baptist fans on it. I tried circle templates, and unpicked, I tried marking from a stencil, and unpicked it. I tried a variation of baptist fans pantograph and unpicked it. I decided to just try something else instead. So it is finished. yay

It's always fun to see all the monthly finishes at Elm street quilts.

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

Oh Scrap   link in sidebar

One monthly goal

Stash report April 29, 2018

Our guild received word that there was an estate sale of a quilter that we were invited to attend. I am afraid I was a little late, some of the larger pieces of fabric was gone, but There were a few kits left.  as a scrappy quilter, this box was very intriguing. I think all the pieces are here with only a few sewn together  along with the pattern. Who wouldn't love a quilter who had left even the scraps in the box. I'm sure she was a treasure.

 And of course, the other fabric that noone wanted was..... Christmas fabric. Yep and I bought it. 40 yards for 30.00..... sigh... I know I am trying to reduce my tubs of Christmas. But there it was. All alone in a closet in a neat stack. I didn't know how much was there. So, there will be more Christmas quilts in my future. But that's it, no more ...really

It's time to reassess my goals for May and decide what great adventure I will have next month with fabric and thread.

I still need to finish stuff, I have a swap I want to go away soon. And my longarm needs to get busy again.
 Spring has not been very Springlike around here. It has been cold and rainy. I was afraid the magnolia would not bloom with the night temps in the 30s, but most of it is trying.  Grass is growing of course.

I have binding to do today for slow stitch Sunday. yay

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 211 1/4 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 40 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 110 3/4 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 100 1/2 yards used more than purchased. 

I sewed at least 15 min 7 days this week. friendship stars swap

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

and Oh Scrap link in sidebar

rsc squared away

 The month is nearly done and the rainbow scrap challenge color will change in May, but, for now I still have yellow on my mind. I have really enjoyed the sampler blocks we are doing for the RSC this year. It's called squared away and it is free and a new one is available every month. I have finished 3 for April in yellow and gold.  I am using 2 1/2 inch strips for mine.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday

project box decisions

I found a project box in my reorganiztion and decided I just wanted to finish these projects and be done with the whole box. I am afraid the word just has been my undoing many times. After finishing the sewing on hippie baby, I moved on to Twisted braid. This is from a jelly roll book that I have had for a long time. I had this wonderful set of jelly roll strips in red, white, and blue. And then it was put on the project shelf. I decided I wanted to make this quilt, I still like it, and everything I needed was in the box.

I spent one evening watching "When calls the heart" and had it cut. I think it is going back into the project box for another time. But, I moved it another step closer.

 project #3 was a 1 1/2 in jelly roll and 2 yards of matching fabric. I have really tried to figure out what I had in mind, but, I can't. I did some research on the internet for a new exciting project that I could use, but nothing has impressed me. I think, mostly, because I have too many projects already. I still love the colors and fabrics, but I am sending this back into the fabric stash. Maybe someday.... but not now.

Meanwhile, I have a few more friendship stars finished

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts

Christmas snowflake part 2

I am working on cutting and sewing this Christmas quilt. I am planning on sharing as I go along. The plan is for every Thursday.
I will be calling it Christmas snowflake.

Last week I shared a bit about how to start and included links to the paper piecing templates.
Intro/ templates

This week I am listing the fabric requirements.

16 assorted red and green fat quarters
6 1/2 yards of white solid for background
5/8 yard binding
4 1/2 yards of backing
79 square of batting
quilt is about 71 1/2 inches square when finished

 I didn't use fat quarters since I am using scraps. I found I could cut most of it from 2 1/2 inch strips and 3 1/2 inch strips.
I used the easy angle and the companion angle rulers to cut.
Surely, there are Christmas scraps and pieces in everybody's stash. I used a Christmas white on white snowflakes for the background. I found I had more red than green in my stash.

I am linking (links in the sidebar) to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap

hippie baby is a top

I have pieced the top for Nate's love quilt. I really like it. Adding the love border just makes it seem more special to me. I'm sure He will not care, but I do.

I found this great piece of fabric in my stash that is big enough without piecing for the back. And, it is very kid friendly, and I can't imagine where I would have used it any better.

the binding is ready

And I made a label

Now, it will have to wait in line for the quilting. I am moving it to the top. But, I am working on an April goal quilt right now.

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends

yellow birch trees

In preparation for quilt guild show this fall, one of our members made and donated 2 barn quilts to sell. I have a barn and have tried to wrangle a barn quilt for it for some time. I even took a class, but we made a little one and I guess, I have been intimidated by the whole process. Sandy also mentioned 

she would take orders. Hmm...

Guess what I can hang on my barn now? It is wonderful!

I finished the last 3 yellow birch trees for the rainbow scrap challenge.

And my design board is getting full with all the rainbow goodies.

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday - 

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday

hippie love

I have not worked on the Quiltville mystery challenge at all this week. But I did find double delight mystery quilt. Which was next and temporarily missing. It was buried in a project bag.

I have been distracted, and happily so, with the new project.
The longer I worked on the hippie baby quilt, the more I thought it would make a great quilt for my Grandson in Utah. I thought it was too small, but I had an idea to make it bigger that would say just what I wanted it to say.  Such an adventure. I am just winging it.

The hearts were added because I had run out of background fabric. I like them.

The borders are ready. It won't be long now.

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

Oh Scrap   link in sidebar

Stash report April 22, 2018

It was an exceptionally rewarding day at goodwill this week for fabric. It has been a long time since I have found anything remotely worth the trip. It was fun, but, it won't look good on my numbers for stash report. There was 6 yards of the top oldie but goodie fabric, 5 yards of the blue and 3 1/2 of shirting plaid.

 There was 2 yards of homespun and, of course, Christmas. Altogether, there was 29 1/2 yards. I spent $15.00.

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 1 1/2 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 211 1/4 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 29 1/2 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 70 3/4 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 140 1/2 yards used more than purchased. 

I sewed at least 15 min 7 days this week. Yay, a few new projects.

The first set of border is done on Uncle Sam's hat, and I will sit and stitch on that this Sunday. I am looking forward to adding navy to the border.

There are a few more stars to the collection.

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

friday quilt group

I have 3 birch trees blocks finished for April and I have 3 dark gold yet to do. Yellow doesn't photograph well. I made these tree parts from a gifted scrap bag. The rainbow Scrap challenge has been a great motivator to make quilts that I might not have found the time for otherwise. It is much easier to sneak in a few blocks each week/ month. And so much fun keeping it to a certain color. April's color is yellow/gold.

We had a fun day on Friday with our little quilt group. Spring had brought out the finishes. Linda O was very prolific. She had 3 donation quilts ready to bind.

Connie M was binding a donation quilt

And Shelly was ready to machine quilt this beauty.

I sure love this group of wonderful women.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday

more hippie baby

I have been arranging blocks for hippie baby. And I am never very good at this part. I just keep moving things around and not satisfied. So, I just did it.

 I think it is smaller than I envisioned. But the top is together and I am ready to find borders.

But, wait, I have an idea.... so much for a simple, quick finish.
A few more stars.

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts

free Christmas quilt along

I have been scouring the internet on several occasions to find a pattern for Homespun Holiday for purchase in case anyone else would like to make one.

I haven't found any. My pattern is from a 2013 magazine that I had cut and saved for myself. Tanya Finken, who designed the pattern for Quilt magazine, doesn't seem to have an internet presence. and it looks like Quilt magazine went out of business. So I am baffled.  I don't want to step on any copyright laws, but I feel I have done my due diligence.
So, on that note, I have found the pattern named something else with the downloads for the same pattern. If you are interested, you can find it here. I will be sharing each week how I am making it and encourage anyone else who might be interested.
The first step would be to download the paper piecing templates. If you follow the link and scroll to the bottom of the page, there will be download links for the 16 inch block that I will be making. You need to print 8 copies of the square in a square ( Base block). You will need 64 copies of the built up square ( corner geese block). and 32 copies of the flying geese ( straight geese block).

I went to the dollar store and bought a great paper for tearing and printing and it was only a dollar per pad. Any cheap drawing paper will work. you will need 112 sheets of paper. Some of the templates will print 2 per page.

next week, I will have fabric requirements.

I am linking (links in the sidebar) to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap

hippie baby part 2

Project #1, in the project box, was to take odds and ends blocks and leftover pieces from a quilt I did a few years ago and make a baby quilt with it.
I first had to take a rail off the rail fence blocks since mine had 5 rails and the pattern called for 4. But I knew I would use that rail as another piece.

Then I needed to cut the blocks into 4 1/2 inch strip sets.

 I added 7/8 of a yard of the light fabric that I showed in my blog post on Monday. I didn't have enough block fabric to make the 4 1/2 in rectangles, so I added from my 2 1/2 inch strip bin. Here it is all cut and ready to be assembled.

It was easy to add the side rectangles to the strip sets making an 8 1/2 inch block. I added 2 1/2 inch squares to the individual rectangles. And I made strip sets of 2 of 8 1/2 inch strips.

This is the alternate block.

I am thrilled to be using the leftovers from a previous quilt and to be actually sewing. I have been cutting, mostly, for some time, and I was restless for an easy project.

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends