Brights with Black and White

I love any excuse to make a baby quilt! This is for my husband's niece. I purchased the animal panel several years ago at our guild's quilt show. It has been patiently waiting in my stash for the perfect project. The Thicket Little Critter panel is by Gingiber for Moda Fabrics.

I pulled out my black and white prints and cut 3" squares for this quilt, with a few solids added here and there. I shopped my stash and found plenty of whimsical prints to add to the mix, and of course I have enough fabric to make five more quilts. The animals are surrounded with eight different solid colors and measure 9" x 12". The finished quilt is 45" x 54" so Alexis can use it as a toddler as well.

I often enjoy adding the baby's name with free-pieced letters, sometimes on the back and this time on the front. There were eight animals in the panel, so I decided positioning her name in the middle would be a nice layout.

I had fun quilting lines, loops and hearts. I used some of each solid color for a multi-colored binding.

I haven't started working on my green scraps yet, but there is some green in this quilt, so linking up with RSC and Oh Scrap!

Yellow Finish

 My scrappy sort-of yellow churn dash quilt is finished and ready for donation. Each block has at least a little bit of yellow, the February RSC color. Our guild annually donates quilts to Hole in the Wall Gang camp which recently suffered a devastating fire. They hope to be able to rebuild and have modified camp sessions this year. With the camp closed last summer and now the fire, our guild is more motivated than ever to provide lots of fun quilts and pillow cases for the campers. I have several other quilts in the works, and I'm sure other guild members are inspired to work with their stash as well.

The finished quilt measures 45" x 54"

When quilting donation quilts, I've been using up some partial spools of Sulky thread that have been languishing in a box for years. This quilt received a stipple with the remainder of a yellow spool and some cream.

I happily cleared out some yellow, beige and tan fabrics for the backing.

Linking up with Sarah at Whoop Whoop and RSC.

Yellow Strings and Scraps

 I made surprisingly good progress with my yellow strings, scraps and crumbs this week.

I pulled strings that were at least 6.5" long and made these rectangles which finish at 6.5" x 9.5". I will add borders on two sides to make the blocks 9.5" square and alternate the orientation in the quilt. I'm thinking about bordering with a dark blue, but will audition some fabrics from my stash. I easily made 30 of these blocks without cutting into any larger yellow pieces.

I also made some yellow crumb blocks and I'm excited to see that my yellow scrap bin is much depleted.

Our guild had a virtual challenge: "Inspired by a Book Title". I decided to use wool applique to make this little wall hanging (19" x 20") inspired by The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a YA book my daughter once read. It was fun to see all the creations during our virtual show-and-tell. Not quite as nice as admiring the pieces in person. but we happily had good participation. The wool applique house was inspired by designs in the book Wild Wool & Colorful Cotton Quilts by Erica Kaprow.

Linking up with RSC!

Digging Into Yellows

Yellow is such a happy color! However, when I started digging through my stash, I found many more golds and tans than bright yellows. I thew them into the mix for my scrappy trip around the world blocks. 

The deep snowdrift on my back porch was a perfect background for the yellow.

I picked through my collection of scrappy churn dash blocks (made last spring) for any that contained some yellow. I then used some of my bigger yellow scraps to make some more blocks for a total of 20. They will combine for a nice donation quilt.

 

I also recently finished some donation quilts using bricks. Sometimes when I look at a pile of random fabrics I want to clear out, I find the 4" x 8" bricks are just the right size to use up strips from trimming the backs and other big-ish pieces. I have made this Free Brick Quilt Pattern a number of times.

This donation quilt finished at 40" x 56".

This collection of bricks featured sample fabrics from "Cats & Dogs" by Sarah Golden and Andover fabrics. The distribution of lights and darks did not seem suited to the staggered pattern, so I just alternated direction of two bricks sewn together.

 

A fun "Love the Earth" panel from Virginia Kraljevic and Windham Fabrics was perfect for the back. This donation quilt finished at 40" x 56".

Linking up with RSC at So Scrappy and Finish or Not Friday.

 

Scrappy Batiks

 Several recent finishes made good use of batik scraps and I am pleased that my batik box is no long overflowing.

This quilt used 3" x 6" bricks arranged into twelve 12" blocks. Nothing fancy, but I like the look of all the batik colors scattered across the quilt. I quilted it with a freehand feather swirl. This 47" x 58" quilt will be donated through my guild.

This "Diamond Magic" pattern (Willow Brook Quilts) has been on my list for awhile. I bought the pattern at a cute quilt shop several years ago while visiting my father. I pieced the top last April to keep busy when all my usual activities were canceled. The pattern is illustrated with ombre fabrics, which look fantastic, but I decided to use some Anthology Batik sample fabrics with a black background. I quilted and finished the binding during my push to finish-lots-of-tops in December and January.

The extra pieces make a nice accent for the back. This 50" square quilt will be donated through my guild.

Linking up with Oh Scrap where I always find lots of inspiration!

January Pink Report

 I have been doing lots of sewing but not much blogging. I am joining in again with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge to focus on using up some of my color-sorted scraps. I made some good pink progress in January.

First up are 9" churn dash blocks in pink. I was going to make a few each month in the rainbow colors, but once I got going, I realized I had enough blocks which included at least a little pink for a full top. I purchased an Accuquilt cutter this summer, and have made good use of the churn dash die. I will donate this 45" x 54" quilt through my guild.

The back used up some pretty border print strips left over from a long-ago project.

Next up are quarter log cabin blocks which made a pretty good dent in my pink strings. I was inspired by Sarah's scrappy blue blocks and found this top worked up quickly.

I had fun quilting with hearts and loops, and finished up some partial spools of pink variegated thread. This 45" x 63" quilt will also be donated through my guild.

I dug deep in my "random pieces of fabric" pile to choose those with a little bit of pink to put together this scrappy backing. I'm glad to have these fabrics used up.

To finish off my pink month, I made a decent dent in my drawer full of 2.5" strips. I made some pink scrappy trip around the world blocks (from Bonnie Hunter's instructions).

I also started some blocks for a rainbow Rickrack quilt using this Missouri Star Quilt tutorial. I will use the light yellow flower fabric for the background for all of the blocks.

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday and Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Seminole Patchwork Samples

I am leading a virtual Seminole Patchwork workshop for my quilt guild early next year. So, of course, I needed to make some samples for the class. I found great instruction and designs in the book Basic Seminole Patchwork by Cheryl Greider Bradkin.

First I made this 20" x 24" wall hanging.

I had a lot of fun pulling strips from my solid bins, and did simple quilting in matching colors. However, when I showed it to some guild friends, they thought the tiny pieces looked a little too intimidating. So I did three of the designs at twice the size.

This 20" x 20" piece would be good for a wall hanging, tote bag or center of a medallion quilt. Hopefully, not as intimidating.

Our guild is still ironing out the kinks with zoom meetings and workshops, so I'm not sure how much we can accomplish in one day. I will demonstrate the three larger designs, and then if people are inspired, they can add more and/or smaller designs.

Our guild had a very productive Quilts of Valor virtual Sew Day in October. Many members participated, some making one or two star blocks, others making complete quilt tops and still others finished quilts. I'm doing most of the quilting, but others are assembling tops and adding binding. Here are the first seven we have completed. We have ten more in the works! People are mailing pieces and parts to one another, as well as meeting in parking lots and outdoor space to pass things off. Great to see how we're making it work.

It was great to have a nice sunny day to spread out the quilts for a picture!

Linking up with Oh Scrap!