Sew Sunshine

I am once again participating in Hands2Help comfort quilt challenge. This year Mari @  Academic Quilter  is hosting. You can find out more information by clicking on the link above.   I chose the  Little Lambs  Foundation for Kids again.  I am also working on several comfort quilts for my local  Quilts for Kids .  So far I am working on an idea for a scrappy quilt. I am using bright or solid 6.5" squares I cut out of a box of scrapped FQ's. I have just enough to make the quilt using my randomly sewn together scrap strips.  I think this is going to work and be fun!! I made a couple sample blocks and love the wonky mix mash of strips. We shall see. In other progress lately, I worked on a Kawandi quilt. This is handmade quilt starting from the outside in. I did not use batting in mine as I was not sure how it was going to work. I turned under the edges of the top most pieces and stitched it all down with big stitch.  I really liked the process but ended with a bit of extra fabric

This is the Fingerpaints quilt by  Quiltfortco  from last summers qal. I used her pattern but made it improv style. I used a ton of scrappy solids and tone on tone pieces from my stash along with tons of strips in my scrap bins. I finished it out a little bigger by using a few more strips.  74" x 79" quilted by  Grace Elizabeths longarm I grabbed a few photos but it has been super windy the last couple of days.  This was truly a fun quilt to make. I love the play on light with the fabrics and I like how my photos sorta looked like the light from behind it was shining on the lighter spots. :) linking up with  Oh Scrap Wendys  Peacock Party from bolt to beauty

Time for Project Quilting  13.1 first challenge of 2022 All the colors is the theme over at Persimon dreams website. I have been doing quite a few of these challenges since some of the first seasons. Sometimes you need a boost to get started on something.  This challenge was perfect to start because it is so cold and blah outside right now.  This quilt is 40" x 55"  fabric from stash, low volume backgrounds, solids, serpentine quilting The pattern I found in a quilt magazine I have been saving. Design is by Susan Ache and it is called "Postage Plus". I decided to start the challenge by picking a random magazine and making a random quilt that fit the challenge. I have so many books and magazines that are not getting used...as in made into quilts and I am saving them for that reason so ..why not?  I have been slow to get back to quilting so I thought to start small as in quilt size. I failed to realize that postage stamp blocks are usually tres small too.  This quilt

I put my boots on and went to a few of my photo haunts today. Some easy to get to others not so much because of all the piled up snow. It was so beautiful and calm outside this morning. Fog and rime on trees and surfaces.  Anyway, scrappy scraps here was what I was working on trying to get to the bottom of my scrap bin. Can't even see a dent yet so....more to come hopefully.  You can't really see how beautiful this tree frost is but take my word.  You can see a little more on that front branch.  Oh yeah back to the quilt..... I think I am walking in deer tracks and other various critters.  I could have went scrappier on the back of this one but with so many seams on the front it just felt safer to use a bigger piece. I have plenty of those in my stash too.  This scrap quilt measures 50" x 56" All stash/scraps diamond grid straight line quilting My other recent scrap quilt can be found  HERE linking up with Sarah and  Can I get a whoop whoop and Wendy @  Peacock Party

I....love....this....scrappy quilt! As soon as project quilting 12.2 was over I set out to start to tackle some scraps. Bags and bags and bags of scraps. You know, you finish a project and some scraps go in a bag, or you go out to a sew day (well in the old days) and you take limited stuff with you and then you come home so tired you don't put away and you end up with...bags! I probably emptied and stripped 12 or 13 smallish bags. Some of course had to stay in bags as that project may not have been finished.  Still I started sewing strips together after cutting and making size piles.  I was making some pretty good progress...then  Project Quilting 12.3 Virtual Vacation  came out on Sunday. You have to start a project after the theme is given out. So when I went to see the challenge I came across Sarah's post for  String Therapy tutorials  @ Confessions of a Quilt Addict. This tutorial she got from Christina HERE  from the blog A few scraps. Her tutorial was for the scrappy stri

I recently came across Caroline over at  Sew Can She  making another of her Color by Number quilts. This time she is focusing on the quilting doing a qal week by week. I was looking for more kid sized easy quilts to make for my project Quilts for Kids. Her color by number is a really simple strip quilt to make. I did have to adjust the size of the strip block to make a smaller sized quilt but the concept is still the same.  When you read the directions (by the way the pattern is free on her page above) you see that for each fabric you have to cut 1 and then 1/2 of a strip. Well in quilts for kids terms that means if you cut one more strip (3) you will have enough to make 2 quilts. So .......... dig out some eh.... fabric and see what you can make that might be kid friendly.  This strip method does not take long at all. I was able to cut and piece 3 big slabs like this (above) in an afternoon.  I then decided on layout start point and cut the strips accordingly.  By evening I had both c

So far this has been a kind of a rough year for me health-wise and now it seems it will be so much more than rough for everyone. I am going to choose to keep working on my projects when I have good days because it really does make me feel better.  I started sewing some of my black and white prints together back in Jan. I wanted mindless sewing so I made 4 big squares.  I kind of think this would have made a fun quilt as is but I decided to cut them up and sew them back together.  Add a pop of red for the backing and binding and there it is.  48" x 48"  Did it make a dent in my black and white fabric...um probably not! ha Last week for PQ 11.5 I made a quilt for the theme Give it away and I washed up my current stack to Give. 

Blossom Heart Quilts  is releasing a new pattern on 8-13-19. It's Double Dash and it is a super fun quilt to make.   I jumped at the chance to test the pattern thinking I would do a scrappy version.  I was able to find several solids and a stack of low volumne to go with. I adore the colors of orange and pink and red. There is coral and raspberry too.   I jumped on the large 15" version and made enough for Queen size.  I love how all the scraps worked together to make the lights and darks.  Pretty soon it was huge! I took the first pic out at the park near my house and tried to take some more but the weather never did cooperate until today. I was able to use a ladder and snap a few.  Thanks to Alyce for creating a great design. I think she may be celebrating a birthday now too...Yay Celebrate!! To buy her pattern click on the link at the top!