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.

Reverse of RSC May Table Topper

I finished this top for my dresser this morning, the other side is the year round side, and of course, this is reversible to Christmas.  I got the snowmen as an incentive for a shop hop a few years ago, each shop gave you one or two.  I gave away a few, and these I decided would be a good solution to my runner.  It's about 20 by 60 inches.       

I didn't center the snowmen, as I knew that the back would be filled with jewely boxes, perfume and such and I wanted the snowmen to not be covered up.  I didn't include the other side, as it is part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge post for this Saturday.

Disappearing Pinwheel

I had good intentions of working on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, and then I ran across this:   http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/my-pinwheel-disappearing-4-patch-using-charm-packs-t68180.html   A tutorial on the disappearing pinwheel.  I had to try it, so I decided that I haven't done a table topper for this months color, and it would be the first month that I hadn't, so I dug out my scraps and this is what I came up with.  Now I have to find a table or maybe a dresser that I want to use it on, decide if I need sashing or borders, depending on the size, and decide on a color for the back and make up another strippie, and I'll be on my way to another small finish.  
PS   I started out with four patches made from 6 1/2 inch blocks (6 inch finished) and ended up with 10 3/4 inch blocks (10 1/4 inch finished).  

New Projects on My Mind

I was reading my yahoo group emails today and one from Cyberquilters referred to free patterns from UnitedNotions.  http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/fp   I went there and there were indeed many free patterns.  My eye was attracted to this one, and I think I may have to add it to my list.  I've already added the Barn quilt a long (   https://secure.flickr.com/groups/2183559@N21/    http://www.beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-back-of-my-farmers-wife-quilt.html   ).   

Isn't it adorable, it's the Quilty Barn Along from Bee in My Bonnet.  It's already been going on a few months, but I hope to catch up my other projects and then start one of these two.  I was in my local quilt shop a couple days ago and purchased these fabrics to get started.  

And these, because they were on the half price table and I thought they would be useful.  The one on the left is a Thimbleberries Christmas line fabric, but it doesn't look Christmasy to me, and I think it might make a good border, if not, it'll be fine in many scrappies.   I was thinking of giving up quilting, or at least slowing down considerably, but it seems hard to do when I am constantly seeing new things I want to try.  I guess there are worse problems in this world.  
Candace

        

Mini Stacked Blox and May RSC Finally

I did sort through my blue scraps as Angela suggested.  This box has all 3 of the categories and it is chock full.   This is after the cutting out I did tonight. 

I hadn't finished anything for May's RSC, but I did get myself going a little tonight and got the 3 snowball and 9 patches blocks cut out. 

We had a very pleasant day today, Olive Garden with my daughter, her husband, and one of the grandsons.  My daughter and her husband gave me this Old Country Roses biscuit barrel, a belated birthday gift.  Tomorrow should be nice too, as my son is meeting us at the Mexican restaurant.  It may be a wait though with Sunday and Mother's day.  Hopefully, since we plan to meet at 11:30, we'll miss some of the worst of the crowds.   

The leftover block version from Connecting Threads kit, Stacked Blox.  We have to wait for the baby to be born to finish the larger version, but it should be any time now.  This may be able to squeak into the RSC, as there is blue, and it is from leftovers.  
I'm going now to link up with Soscrappy's RSC, if you'd like to see lots of pretty blue projects, go here.

Mini Me

40" by 50" baby quilt top.

26" x 30" from leftover blocks.  I've been using the Essential Pro from Connecting threads for piecing and have had seams coming apart for the first time ever.   I had one come apart today and figured out that for piecing it's not good as I believe that when it is pressed with a hot iron, the polyester essential pro must melt.  I had a whole, about 4 inch seam come apart in my hand today and it was one where I had really put the heat to it.  Oh well, so much for saving money, it's back to Aurifil for piecing.  Hopefully, the quilts that I've made won't be coming apart.  I already have had to mend 1 top, and I noticed a day or two ago a seam about 1" long on one of my table toppers that had come apart.  You live and you learn, but hopefully not at the expense of quilts that I've made for others.

Stacked Blox Baby Quilt Coming Along

It's coming along, not super babyish, but even with the blue still girlie.  The borders have lots of pink, so the girlie factor will increase.   In the original, the blue frames were green, and the bottom stacked block was purple flowers, so again, the same but different.  I think I'm going to use the 2 fabrics we didn't use and either add little 9 patches with them in the corners, or maybe pinwheels.  The whole pattern seems to be based on squares and rectangles, so probably little 9 patches.

In case anyone has doubts about the baby quilt issue, the bottom block explains.  I found that fabric on sale at a quilt shop, and it was perfect for this.  It had the purple and pink, which I feel lets me add the big splash of pink, and the baby is very appropriate.  I have another girl baby quilt to make for my grandson and his wife's baby, and I'm sure it'll make it into that one, too. 

Lazy, but Getting Back in the Groove

Lazy days, I wanted to do a little, but not anything too difficult and so I decided to do 40 more squares of my second Scrappy Lattice as it was cut out.  Now I have 120 out of the over 400 I need.  It's a start.

This morning, I decided to get started on the baby quilt that I'm making for my brother's friend, a Stacked Blox quilt kit from Connecting Threads.  We made a few substitutions, but I think it's going to look nice, and the first cutting steps are done.  It's going to be more of a sophisticated baby quilt, no Disney or cartoon characters, just flowers, butterflies, geometrics, etc.  I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

Good Times

It's back to normal life now, our friends have come and gone and we had a lovely visit.  We ate, relaxed by the lake, ate some more, went to SeaWorld, and ate and ate.  We did get in a little sewing, we ladies both made little Scotty dogs while the guys visited, but I have to admit that hers turned out better than my poor little guy.  It was fun though, and I like him even if he does have an elderly wrinkly behind, and slightly crooked legs and head.   I had cut them out and made several kits about 3 years ago or so and it was nice to finally get a couple of them made.   SeaWorld was great, they hadn't been before and we got to see about 4 shows.  It was overcast and sometimes drizzly, but we were grateful that it wasn't steaming hot.   We had really good seats at Shamu Stadium, the best we've ever had, and the shows were awesome.   It was hard to see them go, we haven't seen much of them over the years, but have considered them our really good friends for over 40 years, they introduced us to our church. 

His birthday was Sunday, Kaylea's was this past Monday, and Micah's and mine were yesterday, so my daughter and her husband had a family gathering at their house.  It was a very nice last evening before they had to go.  I think three birthday cakes is really going above and beyond.  Our friend had his birthday cake before they came, but we still celebrated his birthday, too.  
PS.   Since we were both sewing, I first got out my Janome Platinum, and the foot pedal was having issues (they have been long time and I've read on the net that it's not uncommon for them to keep sewing after you let off the pedal.  I ordered a new pedal today, and I certainly hope that it resolves the issue as it has had it since almost the beginning after I purchased it.  If not, I think Janome is going to get a letter from me about my unhappiness  I had tinkered with it a few months ago and thought that the problem was resolved, but uh-uh), so I got out my Featherweight.  I remembered from over 40 years ago that when we sewed together she had a really cute little black machine, and I was right, it was a Featherweight.   Anyway, I've had mine for several years, but it has been mostly a decoration and it was nice for someone who knew how to use them to plug her in and give her a little workout.  I was happy to see that she purred right along.