orange you glad it's not banana

The plan for this month's birch trees was to do two light and two dark orange, but I didn't have another light orange. I am thinking it might be time to start assembling this quilt. I wanted 42 blocks - 6x7, and I might have that many now. A count is in order. And then a plan.

I worked on birch trees at Friday quilt group. Have you noticed how much faster a project goes when in the company of other quilters?

Since Linda and I are also working on our wedding ring quilts. Sue brought her Mother's double wedding ring quilt to share with us. It was spectacular. We are thinking the fabrics look more like the 40s and 50s. Sue remembers that her Mother didn't want to make the center white in case it would yellow, so she chose pink.

It's hand pieced and hand quilted. What a treasure.

I am linking to

 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday

Oh Scrap

red birch trees

I took birch trees with me to my small Friday group. We meet at the library. When I arrived, I realized I didn't have my cutting mat, and these need a lot of cutting. Fortunately, the time was not lost, because the library has a closet of sewing machines and stuff for the patrons to use. I guess it was a grant of some kind. I did get to work on these until the power went out from a quick storm. We waited 10 minutes and then called it a day.

I thought I had planned and cut for six blocks in red, but there were only four in my bag. I think the other two were separated as, I excitedly cleaned up my cutting table for my new cutting mat.
I purchased it at the Marion Indiana quilter's hall of fame quilt show. I have 2 of the rulers and really like them. My cutting mat was showing enough wear, that I knew it was time to make a decision any way.

As soon as I find and make those rascally birch blocks, I will be caught up with the rainbow scrap challenge for the month of red.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday


ufo busting

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

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

Stash report April 15, 2018

I was gifted a magic bundle of scraps. I have kept them near my cutting table waiting for inspiration to strike. But, as I was cleaning, I rediscovered them, and decided it was time to just do something, even if it was just throw them into the string bucket. There were pieces already sewn together, mostly 1 1/2 inch strips. The fabrics were so cute, I just knew there had to be a good use for them.

They were not all the same size at all. I thought about just cutting them into 4 patches and 9 patches, but, there would be so many, but not enough for any one scrappy project. Then it hit me. I needed to work on Birch trees, and these would be great sewn together for the strips. It would not be a big waste in time or function. And I would be moving a project I already have, forward. Score!

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 31 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 209 3/4 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 41 1/4 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 168 1/2 yards used more than purchased. Then why is there still so much hanging around?

I sewed at least 15 min 7 days this week. I finally found my cutting table.

My project for slow Sunday stitching. It is time to work on the border. woohoo!

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

spring birch trees

birch trees
Today is the rainbow scrap challenge at Soscrappy. And the color is green.
I found 8 - 12 inch pieces of green in my scrap drawer for birch trees. 2 light 4 medium and 2 dark. I really enjoy sewing these. I can get all crazy with the rotary cutter. I have several sets of strings made ahead, and I can just cut them into strips when I am ready. I am keeping with 1 1/2 inches and 2 inch slices so that the leftovers will fit each other to build additional strip sets.

There are lots of great rainbow ideas for beautiful quilts here.
we are going to see our Grandchildren this weekend and I am so excited. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is doing a live streaming concert of Handel's Messiah that will be thrilling, to say the least. Seeing it in person would definitely be a bucket list item for me. I was in the choir for the Messiah once myself here in our community and loved every minute. I can still sing along to most of it.....if no one is watching :)


I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday

BConcert On-Demand

After the live stream ends, the on-demand concerts will be immediately available in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish (approximately 11:00 p.m. MDT) for on-demand viewing at motab.org/messiah until Monday, April 9 at 11:59 p.m. MDT.

purple birch trees

I've added purple birch trees to my rainbow scrap challenges. I made 4 of them this month. I started this quilt as a rainbow project in January.

oops - I need to pay more attention to the up and down of each piece....

I am trying to be random with the slicing, but it seems that they are all the same anyway. One a little straighter, one leaning left, one leaning right. I guess there are only so many options.
I am making them about 12 inches for now, and will wait to trim them down when I am ready to piece the top.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc17 super saturday

Stash report February 10, 2018

I made a few more string units for birch trees on string Saturday.

I spun more natural dorset fleece for spinning Sunday

and yesterday I quilted a customer quilt.

and spread out a new mess looking for a navy background for my rug hooking project- Uncle Sam's hat. And, before I knew it, I had decided to sort and measure all the blue wool. It was so much fun petting the wool and thinking of all the projects I want to make, but, sorting wasn't even on the to do list anywhere. Now I have to add 'put it all away' on the to do list.

And I am late with last week's stash report

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 5 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 31.5 yards


Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 21.5 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 10 yards used more than purchased.

I sewed 15 min every day this week.

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday - 

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday

Slow Sunday Stitching

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

birch trees

As one of my rainbow scrap challenge quilts for 2018, I am making birch trees. I started by making a few string blocks in more upbeat colors. I cut one strip 2 inches wide and 2 strips 1 1/2 inches wide.
I cut the main blocks 12 inches to start with, and I trimmed them to 12 inches after adding the pieced strips.

The quilts I have seen that I like the best are done with solid colors. I was going to use any light blue scraps I liked in my drawer, but they were all too busy, so I did use the only light blue solid I could find. They look gray in the picture but they are a light blue. I just put a ruler on the block at an angle and sliced the square.

I rejoined the pieces after I inserted the strips. This is very fun and about as improv as I get. It will be fun to see all the colors at the end of the year. If I do 2 every month, I will have 20 blocks. But I think I will want it bigger, so some months I may make more than 2 blocks.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc17 super saturday