Finishing Up January 2015

The first month of the new year is coming to a close.  A long month that seemed to just fly by.  Like most in the NorEast, we have had our share of cold, snow, and winds.  It made for lots of indoor time - time to spend with fabric.

I am playing again with the Rainbow Scrapt Challenge and in keeping my year simple I have just 3 projects going with the colors chosen for each month.  This project will see two houses each month.....

  

and two Sawtooth Stars.  These blocks don't take much time to make so I can easily do them up and then get to play with something else.

The woven heart - another simple block - this is going to look so cute when it is put together.

Bricks for the Now & Later quilt.  I need 40 of each, but since I have these units in my fabric food chain it doesn't take long to feed them thru the machine.  I even did up the pink for next month.

I thought the RSC15 would also be a good incentive to go thru my HSTs and be sure they are all sewn, trimmed, and in order.  Doing a color for the month is much easier than trying to go thru who knows how many all at once - yuk!  Yes, I have different sizes of these - these are just the 2.5" units.

I made a small dent in that barrel using the 2.5" squares to make the 16-patches for the Sweet16 Challenge.  I know there will be more of these as I see what Sarah has in store for us.

And I decided to go with the double 4-patch for the alternating blocks with them.  Again, these pieces all came from my fabric food chain so a quick sew.

I have three of the Sew Sweet Simplicity blocks done.  There is one more block  plus 2 bonus blocks were offered, but I am thinking of just putting these three into a table runner.

My 'Let's Book It' project is at the flimsie stage and I am still thinking on whether to add borders or buy another layer cake for more blocks.

And I did have some finishes for the month.  The first being the Little Letters quilt.  This was such a fun and easy quilt and I am thinking of doing another one.

I finished up the Charming Stars quilt.  I even tried a new to me FMQ motif - paisley flower - and it went rather well, so I can see using it again.

YES - the grape vine cross stitch got finished.  I used reverse applique to circle the piece.  I used 'grape' colored thread and the stretch stitch on my machine with my walking foot to quilt it. I used one layer of wool batt and one cotton which gave it a bit of puff to it.

It was a good first month,
Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps

This has been the month for scraps.  They are coming in large boxes, medium boxes, and baggies of all sizes.  AND I AM LOVING IT!!  So are the furkins - do you see Bella in the middle of this glorious pile?  This became scattered all over with great delight - by both her and me.

Moe loves the boxes - yup, that was one huge box!!

And I can't believe how neatly this pile is stacked when I pulled it out of the box - actually it was neater, I thumbed thru it.  I can't even fold up quilt tops neatly to pack off.  I have everything else processed down, but this one is new.  It will wait for a play date in February as I really need to get some sewing done.

Some of these went into the strip boxes, some into my different project containers, and yes even into baggies that hold a future project.  That baggy is my collection for a 'low-volumn' quilt.  Actually I have 3 of those now so I think there is enough for an April play date.

Yup, I process these as soon as they come in.  If it is a small bag I can get the done in an afternoon.  Large boxes take a day to sort and some of that sort does get put in it's place.  Then another day to finish the processing and sometimes a day to cut it down into the fabric food chain - I love cutting fabric - really, I do.

Some went into my rolling drawer towers, some into the plastic shoe bins (FQ size), some in my barrels.  As you can see, these barrels are STUFFED!!  That's where I need to tackle with a marathon session with my machine.  My SIL is using my Juki right now as her little lady went off for a Spa treatment - so my little 'Walmart' Brother machine is perfect for this - it does hum happily with chaining pieces - other things - NO.

I did do a little sewing - my blue and pink bricks for the 'Now & Later' project.  This is a RSC15 project and I need 388 bricks for this quilt, so 40 of each color over 10 months will get me there with room to play. 

And I totally freaked today because I thought I had forgotten I needed to pull a winner for my bag of salvedges.  But it was today, so sigh of relief.  And more was stuffed in here too.  The winner is:

Barb H @ StitchXStitch

I will contact her for mailing info and off they will go.  This bag fills pretty fast, so there will be future chances.

Another snow storm has hit us, so a good time to sew,
Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Let's Book It - January 2015

Wow - didn't this month go by so fast?  It's hard to believe it is already that time for the linky party.  Remember, you don't have to be finished and if you have a large project you can carry it over into as many months you need.  AND I hope it is working right, but I upgraded my InLinkz to include photos.  I think it helps draw people to your blog if they get a 'tease' photo.

This was my project for the month - long ago printed off and hanging on the wall just waiting to be played with.  I really think it was waiting for this fabric to be honest.

The cutting went really quickly once I got started on this project.

As well as the sewing part - why did I wait so long to play with this?

If you remember the laying out was a challenge due to 2 fun loving furry helpers.

And the top is complete!  This is only 51.5" square which is just too small.  So I have to think on borders - yes I hate borders, but this needs borders or maybe I'll pick up another layer cake and make more blocks - that sounds better.

This is a free pattern on Me and My Sister Designs called 'Ground Cover'.  You could easily make it from your own scraps or yardage.  Have an ugly large floral - perfect for this.  Cuts up quickly, sews up quickly, and looks fab together - a super charity quilt pattern. 

  

This year the charm pin is the cute vintage sewing machine and January's charm in Sunbonnet Sue - a great vintage block to start the year off with. 

Now it is your turn to share:

An InLinkz Link-up

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Tuesday Archives 1/27/15

This Tuesday over at Val's Quilting Studio is all about Mystery quilts and I am so honored to be a feature.  I have done a lot of mysteries with my LQS, Bonny Hunter, and other on-line hosted QALs and have been very pleased with the final results.  You will have to visit Valerie to se my mystery piece there, but I want to share another.

This was a mystery quilt offered with the very first May For Me year - 2010.  It was designed by Tonya now @ HillBilly Quilt Shop and I did some of the pattern testing for this. You can find the original final post HERE.

Have a mystery quilt to share?  Go link up with Val's Quilting Studio.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon