Feb 2011 Happy Blocks

Today I sewed three sets of Happy Blocks for Helen, Nancy, and Cathy for the Febr. Happy Block swap in the Stashbuilders group. And, have also completed two other sets for Bobbi, and Barbara.
Also have completed piecing two of the four borders for my "Red" project. And am going to try to get the other two borders finished tomorrow.
I am anxiously awaiting tomorrow to find out what the scrap challenge color will be for March, and the new 2011 UFO challenge number as well.
I was only able to get the one large block done for #10 UFO, but, will still continue to keep working on it. And some day, hopefully soon, I will be able to complete it.

Red- Scrappy Saturday #4 The Revealing

Today is the last Saturday to work on our red scrap projects. Throughout the last month, I have shown pics of some of the different blocks that will be used in my completed top. Last night (Fri) I finished sewing the 12 all red string blocks, that I have mentioned earlier.

And this morning, I have sewed all the blocks into a top! I do still need to add the border, which I will complete yet today, or tomorrow. Sometimes when you have a plan in mind, it doesn't always come out exactly how you thought, but, I think, this one turned out pretty cute!
I know I will not get this sandwiched, quilted, nor bound, in the next two days, but, I can smile and know that I have used up lots of red and white scraps this month. That, otherwise would have still been sitting unused in a bag, box, etc. for who knows how long! I'll update with more pics when I get the border on!

More Snow, More String Blocks Done!

Once again, it snowed most of the afternoon. And it is still coming down! At times it came down light, but other times it was really big flakes and very heavy. I spent the afternoon making another 12 String Blocks.
I needed to get to the post office also, but, that will have to wait until Monday now.
The mail woman brought me some wonderful "squishy" mail today! Some completed Happy Blocks from Cathy W, and two very cute QFK quilts from Kathy K.

Snow Snow, Please go away! I didn't want you to visit today!

Snow Snow, Go away, but please don't come another day! After all the beautiful springy weather we've been having, our ground is once more covered in lots of that yucky, cold white stuff! Lol, Speaking from a parent's point of view, I sure hope they do not cancel school tomorrow!
About the only good thing about it being so cold outside is, it gave me a good excuse to retreat to my cozy sewing room, and finish those string blocks I posted about several weeks ago.

So much to sew, so little time to do it!

Wow, can't believe its already Tuesday! Lol, I guess I havn't been granted the wish all quilters surely have, to be given more hours in the day to sew!
On Monday, I had a day of sewing planned, but, lots of little interruptions bombarded me all morning, so didn't get any sewing done then at all.
In the afternoon, I wanted to get some binding sewn onto a quilt, and the rest of the nine patch blocks sewn together for the QOV quilt top I had worked on Saturday, at the QOV sew in at the IQSC. I did get part of a side done of the binding, and all the nine patches done.
After dinner, I had plans to work on the red /white scrap project, but, unfortunately it didn't go as planned.
Today, had lots of errands to run, so again no sewing during the day. The boys are in bed, so hoping to work on some more string blocks before I too, call it a night. Hope everyone had a more productive sewing day than I did!

Red- Scrappy Saturday #3

I now have 12 red / white 16 patches, 10 all red 4 patches, and 8 little tiny red/white string blocks sewn! Only 8 more all red string blocks to make, and I will start sewing the top together! I will be sewing on these later this afternoon. Right now I am off to make QAV quilts with some of the ladies from our guild.

UFO Challenge 2011-Feb. #10 -Ta-Da! 1 Block Done!

Remember in my last post how I was sewing all those colorful bricks into columns! Well, I got the chance to put all the pieces together tonight, and this is the result! One very large 24.5" awesome scrappy block! Now, off to sew more bricks together!

UFO Challenge 2011-Feb. #10 - 2/17/2011

In the last couple days I have sewn enough bars into units, to cut the triangle and wedge pieces for 7 more 12.5' blocks, and also have more bars sewn together to make more units.

UFO Challenge 2011-Feb. #10 - Update

Yesterday, I was finally able to rework the cutting directions for this pattern. I now have completed one of the 12 1/2" blocks. There are four 12 1/2" blocks in each large 24" finished block. And 12 of the large blocks in the quilt top. Hopefully, now that I have the measurements right, I can speed piece some of the scrap wedge and triangle pieces, and gain some ground on this UFO. Even if I just get the inside squares of the top completed, for the February Challenge, it will be a great accomplishment in my book. Especially, since I basically had to more or less start the whole quilt top over again. Since I took pics and wrote the directions down this time, I may be adding a tutorial on how to make the blocks in the near future.

2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge- Red- 2/12/2011

UPDATED: 2/13/2011 Added Pics:

I was only able to complete one more of the larger four patches.



But, I managed to get all 12 of the 16 patches done!



Every day there is so many little pieces of this, and small pieces of that, that make my life so inspiring, fun, happy, sad, and sometimes quite hectic! This last week, and also today, fall into the hectic category. In my life, sometimes its hard to figure out where each little piece of this, and each little bit of that fits into the giant collage of my life. But, it's a total different outcome, when I quilt! Here, no matter what shape, size, or color, that piece of this, or that, is, I can always find the perfect place for it, somewhere in a quilt, pillowcase, bag, or something! Wouldn't life be so much easier for all of us, if everyone knew the pattern ahead of time, to that quilt we are making of our lives!

On to the second, RED Saturday of the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge for February! I wanted to take pics of what I would be working on today. But, remember this is a hectic day, and my DS removed the batteries from my camera to put in his Ipod, then decided to leave the house. So, I will have to update this post with pics later.
I have 4 red/white 16 patches to finish, 10 larger all different red patterned 4 patches to complete, and if I'm lucky, and not interrupted too many times, 12 tiny 3.5" red string blocks to make! I'm pushing my luck here, so I better stop now, and get busy sewing. Hope everyone else is having a great RED Scrappy Saturday!

Making String Blocks

I love making these, and its sure a good way to use all those scraps. I've emptied part of my bag of strings out onto the table, and have gotten my center strings aligned diagonally onto my foundation fabric squares. I cut the the foundation pieces at 7" square, and then will later trim the finished string blocks to 6.5". I am going to be sewing a dozen of these tonight! I like to chain sew these, they go quite fast that way!

Quilts For Kids

These are some of the quilts that have arrived at the Lincoln chapter of Quilts For Kids recently! These quilts were all made by Eileen,a volunteer in Grand Island, NE. Bright, cheery, and ready to comfort a sick child! Thanks Eileen, they are beautiful!

If you'd like to help the chapter out in any way, it sure would be greatly appreciated! And you'd be helping to put a smile on a child's face, one quilt at a time.
We are in need of 100% cotton children's bright cheery fabrics, to make up quilt kits to send to volunteers,quilt binding,etc. Or maybe you have some cute charm squares or fat quarters that you've received in a swap and havn't gotten around to using yet, one of our volunteers would love to make them into a cute quilt to send to a child to comfort them while they are hospitalized, or going through a crisis in their life that is traumatizing to them.
It's easy also to help out by just requesting a kit, we include everything to make a small quilt except the low loft cotton batting. You just assemble it, quilt it, and send it back to us. We then donate it to children's hospitals, local hospitals, and child advocacy centers, etc.
If you'd like to request a kit, or donate something to the chapter, please email me lincolnnequiltsforkids@gmail.com Thanks Ila

Design Wall Monday (2/7/2011) Uhm Not!

I decided to let Jacob be the pic for today, although he definitely don't feel this chipper today, and its way too cold here for shorts! Unfortunately, there is nothing new today on the wall. Those same pink and brown blocks from last week are still there, and actually I have had no time to even play with them.



Today, Jacob ( my youngest son who's five) whom has had Hypotonia ( very low muscle tone,and very reduced muscle strength.) since birth has been sick today with a really yucky flu bug. He can only say a few words like mama and dada, because the hypotonia also involves his vocal cord muscles, and he usually uses sign language or a PECS book (a book that contains picture cards of objects he wants) for communication. But, sometimes its hard when there's no picture of what he wants in the book, or he uses one of his made up signs (which are quite a few) and we have to play the guessing game to find out what he really wants. But, there's no hope in him telling us he's about ready to get sick, its just too many word combination's for him to decipher. So anyway you can all about guess how my day has went!

I did try to get the backing sections cut and sewn to the Cuddle Quilt I am working on for our guild charity project. Several weeks ago, I went to a sit and sew and got the top done, and want to get it sandwiched and quilted before our meeting next monday.

And I really need to try to get some string blocks sewn for Stashbuilders group, but that will probably be tomorrow, if Jacob gets to go to school. He really loves riding the bus, and going up in the lift. He can walk some on his own, but, he does stumble quite a bit, and can only go a short distance before he gets too tired.

Well, that's it for now, hopefully tomorrow will be a much easier day!

My Scrappy Saturday

Today I worked on my red scrap project for the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and was able to get several of my red and white four patches sewn into 16 patches, a couple larger all red 4 patches sewn, and part of another block that will be going into the project.

I also had to do some adjustments to the size and cutting measurements for my 2011 UFO Challenge project #10. When I first started this quilt, I had only a picture to go by and no real pattern measurements. I thought I had measured everything correctly, as to what size to cut each piece, etc. I had already made three of the four smaller blocks, which are sewn together to make a bigger block. I didn't remember until it was too late, that, I had cut these blocks down to accommodate the slight errors in the pattern. So today I was going to piece the fourth block together, so I would have one completed block done. But, things weren't matching up right, and then I noticed that there was actually several errors in the cutting directions that I hadn't noticed when I first wrote them down almost a year and a half ago. Unfortunately they were seam allowance errors on the triangle section,wedge sections, and the width the wedge piece should be trimmed down to. So spent most of the evening reworking the pattern and cutting measurements. The hardest part was trying to figure out what size to cut the corner triangles that match up to the wedge shaped piece of the block. But finally got it worked out. So now I am back to square one, oh well, I'd rather have it right, than try to make borders fit to a top that wouldn't ever square up.

The saddest part of the ordeal to me is, that since I found my errors today, and not Thursday, all the strips of pieced 2" X 6" scrap pieces that I had gotten sewn together and trimmed, Thursday are all useless now. Unfortunately they were trimmed to the incorrect size. And my luck, the correct measurement was larger, not smaller!
Oh well, I'm off to bed, its late and I have Church in the morning. I'll upload pics of today's progress tomorrow. Happy Sewing!

2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge- Red- 2/4/2011

Throughout, the last several years. I have spent a considerable amount of time cutting my scraps into Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's System. Separating them not by color, but, by usable sizes. This system has proven to be very useful in my own personal quilting world. If I wanted to use a pattern that needed 2.5" squares, I just went to the appropriate drawer and pulled out a handful and started sewing.

When I came across soscrappy's scrap challenge I was really excited to join, but found myself debating what I was going to do, about my dilemma! I had lots, of already cut red scraps, but, if I used all the red ones out of my scrap user's system, then what would I do when I needed red in another quilt project. And yes, lol, the thought did occur to me to just go shop from my stash! But, that is easier said than done when you really only want one or two little 2" squares of red fabric that was readily available before without cutting it first!

My solution to my dilemma! I will leave all sizes of my squares, bricks,etc. in the drawers,and instead of using them for the scrap challenge, I'll use my pre-cut strips, and pieces that are larger than 3" X 6" ( I have lots of bricks this size) but, that are still smaller than a fat quarter. I will also use any red scraps that I have in my unsorted drawer. Where I toss trimmings and such in, when I absolutely don't have time to cut them into certain sizes right then. And lol, even leaving the ones I chose to, I still have more red scraps, than I can imagine using up!

I am really glad that soscrappy has this challenge going! It is really giving me some motivation to brainstorm for ideas on more projects that I could also do!

So,today I pulled out the rest of my red scraps and cut some of my white scraps, that I will be using with the reds in my project. I was able to get 40 red and white four patch blocks sewn, and 14 red and white three part blocks done. Next week, I'll cut larger squares out of some of the bigger red scrap pieces.

UFO Challenge 2011-Feb. #10

Today sewed lots of 2" X 6" bricks together, to start making the scrappy sections of the blocks.
First I sewed 2 bricks together, then 2 sets of two bricks together. Next, I sewed 2 sets of 4 bricks together. So now the sections contained 8 bricks each. Then I added one more set of 4 bricks to that, to make a section that has 12 2" X 6" bricks in a long row. The next step I did was trim a little of each side so that it now measured 4.5" X 18.5" Still need tons more of these sections, so I will continue to sew more of these together in between assembling blocks.

2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge- Red- 2/3/2011

Today I started on my Red project for February! I cut lots of 2" squares, and lots of 1.5" X 3/5" bricks. Tomorrow, I'll be cutting the same, but in white.

Garden Maze

May 2010 was my month in the Flickr group Bee Crazy that I belong to, to send out fabrics and choose the block I wanted the other Bee's to make for me. I chose the Garden Maze block. This block is on Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache The original block is pretty enough in itself, but I really loved the alternate views she shows with more colors, on page 2 and 3 of the pattern for the block. The only drawback I had, was she only gives the directions for the original block and not the alternate ones. So had to put the pencil to the paper and ingage brain to figure it out. Some of the group was a tad bit spooked by the block, so, I designed a picture tutorial of how to do the alternate blocks. Scared or not, they all did a wonderful job! The pic below is the block I received from my awesome friend Mary Lou, the host of the group! Check out her blog at quilt retreat.
In July 2010 my best friend Tammy passed away, from a long battle with cancer. So for the next few months I sort of lived in a fog, and couldn't stand to really even venture into my sewing room, let alone sew anything. So these lovelies were bagged up, and stored away for awhile.
But, thanks to the 2011 UFO Challenge, I am going to be working on finishing a couple more blocks and getting it completed! I'll also be taking pics of all the blocks I received up on the design wall, probably Monday the 7th!

Jan. 2011 Happy Blocks for Gail H.

Gail sent me the centers, I added borders, she will trim the blocks when she receives them back. These will go in the mail on Wed. Had planned on getting to the post office today, but Ole' Man Winter said otherwise! It's still snowing, and snowing along with blowing, not a pretty sight!

Ken's Birthday Quilt

This is Project #10 (Which is the # that was chosen for February).that I will be working on in the UFO Challenge 2011. I wanted to make this the first time I seen it! But, all I had to go by was a picture, no pattern. So I went to work studying and trying to figure out how to come up with the measurements to make it look like the picture. First pic is of what's done so far, and next one is of what it will look like when done. I decided to do mine in red, so will not be using any red scraps in the scrappy part of the blocks. If all goes according to plans, this will be done by the end of the month!

Bill's Anniversary Quilt

This is a favorite "have to make" scrap quilt that I want to complete. I only have a few blocks made, but I'm sure I'll like the end result. Since its very scrappy its my kind of quilt with lots of bright colors! This is project #3 that I will be working on in the designated month for the UFO Challenge 2011.

My Consolation:

My Consolation is a quilt I started several years ago to auction off at our family reunion. Life got in the way, and it still remains a UFO. This is project #1 that I will be working on in the designated month for the UFO Challenge 2011. The first pic is the blocks I have done now, which still need sewed together in rows, and the second pic, is a magazine picture that inspired me to make this.

UFO Challenge 2011

Each month during the challenge, we will work on one of our 12 chosen UFO's for that month. I am starting the first of February instead of January so I will be working on January's project a little bit each week, until completed. Quite a few, maybe even most of my UFO's, are larger quilt projects I started then for some reason or another didn't finish them. Some have lots of blocks made, some have only a couple blocks done. But, I'm hoping through this challenge that I can finish a lot of them! So here goes! If you click on the Title of each project, it will take you to the post and usually pictures of that particular quilt.

My 12 UFO's for the UFO Challenge 2011
1. My Consolation:

2. Orange Dreamisicle

3. Bill's Anniversary Quilt

4. Farm Friends

5. Garden Maze

6. Purple Passion

7. Black Butterflies

8. Alphabet Soup

9. Floral Hearts

10. Ken's Birthday Quit

11. Fuzzy Cats

12. Friendship

I'm seeing red today!

Lots of red scraps that is! scraphappy from soscrappy posted the color RED for February's 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge! So, how about grabbing a pile of your red scraps or strips, and joining in the fun!

Since I jumped in at the end of January, instead of the beginning of January I have some catching up to do! Like resorting my scraps by color, not size. I have had mine sorted into squares, bricks, strips, etc. So while I am going through my scraps, getting all the red ones out. I am also, pulling out blues because January's color was blue. I'd like to try to use some of them up although right now, I don't have a clue as to what I'll do with them! I actually have more reds than I thought I did, and I've still got tons to sort through!