Deck-ade the Halls, Step 1

My colors are a big departure from the colors in the original quilt, and I loved the colors in the quilt here, but I'm using stash so mine will be very different, yet I hope, still very cute.  The colors are off here, the background is actually Kona Snow.   These were fun to make, time consuming, but easier than I had anticipated.  I did have to recut some because I read it wrong, and I had to do a little ripping, but that was carelessness on my part.  This is only step 1, so if you want to give it a go, the info is here.
PS.  In my haste , excitement, or carelessness, I'm not sure which, I left out the 2 strips between the gingerbread men.  I have since fixed it.  

Craftsy Re-Piecing the Past - Civil War Blocks

Yea!   Last May block done.  I'm caught up finally.  My son and one of his daughter's may stay with us some next month or July, so it could be short lived, but for now, Yea!   I'm feeling rather like I'm already a bit overwhelmed, but I am just itching to start the Deck-ade the Halls and the Quilty Barn Along, what's the matter with me, am I a glutton for punishment.  

Meanwhile, a mock-up of Lessons 1 thru 7 of the Craftsy Re-Piecing the Past - Civil War Blocks. 
 

Winding April and May Down (Finally)

I decided not to do the Craftsy 2012 April BOM as I don't enjoy making the hexies, so I substituted two blocks from Delaware Quilts BOM.   This is the first one.

And this is the second.  I probably should have used a solid blue, but it should blend in in the final quilt, there'll be lots of other blocks to take the attention away.

And here are the lot of them, April and May's Sugar Block Club and Craftsy BOM Number 2, 2012.  The bottom two on the left are the Sugar Block Club blocks.   Now, only one block left to do, the Civil War block from Craftsy.  It is the cabin block, so I'm rather looking forward to it. 

April and May Sugar Block Club

Whew.....  Just 3 more blocks and I'll finally be caught up with RSC and BOM's.  Two more blocks to replace the April Craftsy BOM hexi blocks, and the house block for the Civil war Quilt. 

Happy Memorial Day!

First of all, Happy Memorial Day, to all who celebrate it.  I'm so grateful for all who have sacrificed for our country. 

 

Not a very productive week-end for me.   I have a couple of Sugar Block Club blocks cut out, but these are all that I finished.  These are the May Craftsy 2012 BOM blocks.   I skipped April, but will do a couple of blocks to replace it.  I didn't enjoy the hexies that much, so decided it's my quilt, so I can improvise.  

Update and more Travelin Crayon Cases

Tucker got his bag and his mom said "The bag hasn't left his arm since we showed it to him, I'm anxious to see what "treasures" I find in it.  Thanks again.".   He's in to a tub of frosting, his most important food group according to his mom.  She's taken up cake decorating and it looks like tucker approves.  Good thing his bag is washable.  Tucker will be two in August.  She also said "The girls LOVE their gifts!!", so I guess that they were a hit.

I'm enjoying this tutorial very much.  We are invited over to my sis-in-law's on Monday for dinner and I imagine that her 2 granddaughters will be there.  One is elementary school age and the other probably middle school or early high school, and I thought I'd make them one.  Here they are all loaded up with little lined journals, stickers, markers for the younger and colored pens for the older.  Hope they like them. 

All tied up and ready to be gifted.  I'm the world's worst bow-tier.

Wrap Up of May RSC

Lots more blue scrappys to see here.  Can't wait for the June color to be revealed.

Baby Quilt Finished

Stacked Blox for Vince's friends baby is finished.  I really like the dot binding.

Thye back is a little wild, but hopefully, they will like it. 

I'm linking up with "crazy mom quilts Finish it up Friday", there are lots of finishes to see here.  I had a couple of finishes on Wednesday too, a bag for a 2 year old boy and 3 travel crayon rolls for his sisters.  If you'd like to see them, they are here.

Tucker's Bag

Monday night I received this text from my niece, the mother of eight children, "I'm sure you're busy, but I was wondering if you might have time to make Tuck a bag for ballgames.  We're at our first one tonight & he keeps stealing the girls'.   Hard to believe of this angelic little fella. 

His sisters bags have pockets, so so does Tucker's.

I was going for "manly", so I started out with some velveteen cotton that I had, but for Tucker's we'll call it imitation suede.  It is soft.   They have horses, so I thought a cowboy hat and boots would fit the bill.   The pocket linings and the bottom of the inside lining are blue handkerchief pattern. 

And so he doesn't get bored, I did the opposite side pocket in a different color.   It's not perfect, but I used a lot of extra thread to make sure it can stand up to the rough life that could be coming its way.  There'll be lots of ballgames.  Now, I'm trying to decide whether to make his 3 younger sisters crayon rolls.  If so, I'd probably need to make one for Tucker, too.  I'm anxious to get it in the mail, it sounds like an emergency request.
I did decide to make his sisters some crayon rolls.  I didn't make one for him though, I was trying to hurry so I can get them in the mail today.  I used the tutorial from These Moments of Mine here  and it was as simple as she said.  The directions were very good and they are nice and cushy.  I could have done better with more time, I would have used different ribbon and I would have wound new bobbins.  I figured the charcoal wasn't too bad with the black ribbon though.   Now I just have to go get colors or colored pencils and little writing pads and then it's off to the post office.

Craftsy BOM 2013 April and May

Not perfect, but it's done and it's huge.  4 fan blocks and together they make one 18 1/2 inch block.  I told you it was huge.  This was Aprils.

May's block is Strippy Spools and we make 8, but only use 7 in the quilt.   Less challenging than Aprils, thank goodness. 

My Mock up is getting more filled in, which is logical.   Still a ways to go though.  Again, logical.   My brother in law's friend says older people are staters of the obvious, I guess I need to watch it.  Only a third of the month left and to catch up I still need to do May's Civil War block, and April and May's Craftsy  BOM 2012 and also April and May's Sugar Block Club.  I'm hoping to finish, but the baby my brother and I have been waiting for arrived yesterday, so now I need to do the label, baste it and quilt it.    The baby quilt goes to the top of the list, oh well, eventually I'll get to the other two projects I want to start.  I may just start the Fat Quarter Shop Deck-ade the Halls and hold off on the Barn quiltalong.  I'm starting to feel stressed and bogged down and that takes away from the fun of it all. 

 

OKCMQG Block of the Month - The Least Difficult BOM Done --- and Soap!

I really like this block (sorry, it's a bit blurry).  It is visually striking and

"This block has a bit of history to it as it is designed after a portion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial."    It is simple but meaningful.  I was catching up, this is the April Block.

Another relatively simple but striking block.  This is May, so I'm caught up on one BOM now.

January through April, the block with the prints seems to stick out a bit, but there are more blocks coming so we will see.

I love my battery operated soap dispenser, but couldn't stand the price of the refills, so I got the idea to order a wine stopper from Amazon and cut a hole in the soap.  It was much tougher to do than I thought and I'm lucky I didn't enjure myself, as I used scissors, paring knives and box cutter.  It is jagged and if I were to do it again, I'd try some kind of saw if one was available to me.  Anyway, I love my glass rooster, he goes right along with my kitchen, and it is nice to just put sticky kitchen hands underneath and let the electric eye handle it for you.  (The frog needs a good washing, but he holds scrubbers and reminds me of DH, so he will always have his place on the sink.)  Now my soap is refillable, and I can enjoy the savings.

I love my Rowe Stoneware too, though, so I have to keep the old fashioned type on my sink still.   We are either extra clean, or extra dirty.

Gathering

I have started gathering fabrics for my Fat Quarter Shop Deck-ade the Halls.  The back row is the figures.  They have 3 light greens, 3 reds and 3 turquoise blues, I had to substitute 2 blacks and a dark green (1, 4 and 7), 3 reds (2, 5, and 8) and 2 greens and a partially green with red (3, 6, and 9).   Their inner border and binding is red, mine is red peppermints with a black background, and their outer border is a small print with all their colors, mine is the musical fabric.  I'm 2 inches short on the musical fabric of what they say it requires, but if worse comes to worse there will be some kind of corner treatment added.  
PS  I'm thinking now that to keep with their 3 of each color that I'll swap the dark green, fabric number 1 on the top row,  for the black with peppermints, change fabric number 2 on the top row to be the inner border, make fabric number 9 on the top row a red, and still bind it in the black with peppermints.  Oh, and then fabric number 1 on the top row, the dark green, can be one of the 3 greens.  Clear as mud in my mind.

This is theirs and I think that it is adorable.  I think that with my colors it will still be good.  I got the required amount of background (Kona White) with a gift card from Hobby Lobby, and the inner border and binding fabric with a gift card from Joann's.  I think that if I use the fabrics that I've pulled, this will be a very efficient use of my Christmas stash and gifts from my grandson. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge May - Bright or Dark Blue

I've been trying very hard to catch up with my RSC and BOM's.   This week does it for my RSC although, I may do a collage for the last week.  This is the first month that I didn't have any duplicate fabrics for the Rainbow Scrappy Trip Along, but I did have to resort to cutting a few strips from stash. 

My 16 patches, 4 1/2 inch 9 patches, and 6 inch 9 patches. 

Table topper for my dresser, the color here is more true than below on my dresser.   The whites are white, not cream.  The reverse is rather cute Christmas, you can see it here if you like.

I am enjoying it on my dresser.  All my quilted and scrappy table toppers, runners and tablecloth seem to be getting comments from visitors, and I don't think that they are always positive, but I like them and my husband doesn't object, so it's ok.  They can do their house how they like and I'll do mine how I like, and I like quilts, large and small.   I've seen comments on forums about "Would Visitors Know if a Quilter Lived at Your House", and it amazes me that some people don't keep any for themselves, and don't have any displayed or even on their beds.  I do, I do, and I do, and I will have more before the end of the year. 

Snowball and 9 patches.  I think maybe I should have raided my stash a little on these and stuck with either dark or light frames, but maybe it will look nice in the finished product. 

My mini Stacked Blox has at least a temporary home.  I don't think it is technically RSC, but it was made from leftovers from a larger quilt, so maybe.   Anyway, except for my kaleidoscope, which I made in error in an earlier month, and my 2 1/2 inch scrap strips for my RSC Jelly Roll Race, that's it for the month.   Now it's on to catching up on my BOM"S.  I have April and May to do on my Sugar Block Club, Craftsy 2012 BOM, OKC Modern Block, and Craftsy 2013 BOM, and May on my Craftsy Civil War BOM.   It's sad, I feel an urgency to hurry because I can't wait to start the Quilty Barn Along from Bee in My Bonnet, and the Deck-Ade the Halls from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I also loved the In From The Cold Hot Cocoa pattern from UnitedNotions, but since there are mugs on the Deck-Ade the Halls I'm opting to put Hot Cocoa on my someday list.  If you'd like to see more Blue Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, go here on Saturday, Angela's Soscrappy will have lots of linkups.  
Sorry about all the links, but it keeps me from having to look things up and it gives credit to those who have shared.  

I had a gift card left from Christmas and so we stopped by Joann's today.  My RSC had overgrown the top container last month and with May's added, there was no way that the top was going to close.  I got the new container with my gift card and a 50% off coupon.  regularly 29.95, and then I got 1 1/2 yards of Christmas fabric for my Deck-Ade the Halls inner border and binding, regularly 6.95 a yard.   With those and a box of Good N Plenty's, I still have $2.88 on the card.  Not too bad.  I think the new container will hold all the way until the end of the year.