Checking off the Big Priority

How are your holiday preparations going?  We need to make one last grocery store run, but our menu is set and we've divided up the cooking chores. This week my focus is on the holiday, last week my focus was on getting the 2025 Guild BOM ready to show at the meeting last Tuesday. 

I finished sewing on the last border about an hour before the meeting last Tuesday.  This is the quick shot I grabbed before folding it up for the meeting.  It was cloudy all weekend, so I didn't get my usual glamor shot.  Hopefully I can work that in before the PHD post that will go up sometime next week.  

I've moved on from one priority to the next, I've got the pieces all cut for the first block of the 2026 Guild BOM.  That has to be ready to show at the guild's December meeting. 

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, Sew and Tell Monday, and Oh Scrap.   

Priority Project

Thanksgiving is next week.  I'm not ready to be that far into the year!  But it comes regardless. Just like the November guild meeting is tomorrow.  My weekend sewing was focused on getting the 2025 Guild BOM to finished quilt top stage. 

The first two borders have been added and I started on the pieced borders. Both long sides of the quilt top have the pieced sawtooth star borders added.  I can't show the whole quilt because the color for December hasn't been announced to the guild yet. The top and bottom border blocks need to be stitched together, then stitched to the quilt top.  Then there are 2 more strip borders to add. Then it will be a finished quilt top.  I have till 6:30 PM central time tomorrow to get that done.  I don't want to jinx it, so we'll leave it at that.  

Once I get this quilt top finished, I can move on to getting ready for the 2025 Bonnie Hunter mystery that kicks off on Friday. I still need to prewash some of my fabrics and then press them.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, Sew and Tell Monday, and Oh Scrap.   

Guild Block of the Month

It wasn't the best weekend.  I'm still sniffly and mostly still breathing through my mouth. I didn't sew at all on Saturday, but I did get back to the sewing room a bit on Sunday.  My biggest priorities this month are the 2025 Guild BOM and the 2026 Guild BOM.  I've made progress on both.  For the 2026 Guild BOM, there will be three options, a square sampler and two rectangular options that include a top and bottom border.  I'm not fond of square quilts, so I decided it was worth the effort to add top and bottom pieced border.  It's not that difficult to write the instructions for the block to be used in the additional borders.  

The goal for the 2025 BOM is to get it assembled before the next meeting, which is next week. 

All the rows are sewn together. The December block has been whited out because I've not shown it to the guild.  My plan is to introduce the block color and then reveal the assembled quilt.  I have the next set of border strips cut, but not assembled.  My goal is to get all the borders assembled and on by next Sunday.  I need to focus on making that happen. 

Linking up with Patchwork &Quilts, Sew and Tell Monday, and Oh Scrap. 

Making Progress

I spent most of the weekend working on the 2025 Guild BOM.  All the Inverted Star blocks are finished with just 2 sawtooth stars left to finish.  That's a wonderful feeling. No last minute dash to the finish line the afternoon before the meeting!  The guild meeting is this week, so the November block will be shown and then just one color left to share with the guild.  Since this quilt needs to be assembled for the December meeting, I started adding the sashing strips to the blocks that have already been revealed. 

I've left the blocks for November and December out of the photo. I'll be able to add November's block after the meeting on Tuesday.  I'll have to wait till after the November meeting to finish assembly of the center.  But I'll have 3 rows that I can full assemble, so I'll work on that.  Plus, the full version of this quilt includes a sawtooth star pieced border. 

Those borders have to be laid out and stitched together too. That will take a lot of  time. So I may start on those and then finish the center after the November meeting. I just need one sawtooth star to show at the meeting, so I can add in all the others. One of the December blocks will be a corner block, so I can just add that one at the end of a border row once that meeting is over and be ready to assemble the remaining row and add the borders. Definitely doable.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, Sew and Tell Monday and Oh Scrap.  

A Bit of Spring in Autumn

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written a Monday post.  Vacation was fun, but it was nice to be back home and spend most of the weekend in the sewing room.  Saturday afternoon Scrappy Butterflies (self designed) had the last of the border strips attached. It's now a finished quilt top. 

The butterfly blocks were started in 2013 as my second Rainbow Scrap project.  I couldn't decide on a setting, that's why these blocks have languished on the UFO list for so long.  It feels really good to get them into a finished top.  Scrappy Butterflies will be the next project to go out for quilting after Melodic Mystery.  I need to raid the stash for an appropriate backing fabric. That probably won't happen till next month.  

In yesterday's post I shared photos of the hiking parts of our trip. There were a couple of quilt shop stops during our trip as well.  I had to really watch my purchases as it all had to fit in the suitcases for the trip home. There is a wonderful quilt shop in Bend, OR,  The Quilt Basket.  I didn't take any photos of the shop, but it was well stocked with lots of fabrics not common in the shops around home.  I don't normally buy kits, but the fabrics in this one really appealed to me. 

The fabrics are from the fabric line Astra by Janet Clare for Moda.  My Guy has a minor in astronomy, so the fabrics seemed fitting.  I'm not sure if I'll use the fabrics to make the Taylored Stars or if I'll do something else with them.  

We drove back to Portland over the mountains and drove through Sisters, OR where we stopped at the Stitchin' Post.  Again, no pictures of the shop. They didn't have a lot of fabrics, but did have lots of patterns.  Considering how much fabric was in the kit and how much room it was going to take up in the suitcase, I contented myself with a fat quarter bundle. 

These are from the Vintage Garden line by Rifle Paper Co. for Cotton and Steel.  The deep greens and botanical prints were a great reminder of our hikes along the Columbia River gorge. 

Thankfully the house we stayed out had a very nice washer and dryer, so we didn't come home with a lot of dirty laundry, but I do need to go deal with a few loads of that this morning and a few other household chores.  Then the plan is to get back to the sewing room and decide on what is going on the to do list for next week.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall, Patchwork & Quilts, and Oh Scrap.   

A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Someone shared recently that a group of butterflies is known as a Kaleidoscope. I'm sorry I don't remember who shared it, but I think it's a very fitting moniker for those colorful creatures.  It's very high in the running for the name of what I've been calling scrappy butterflies.  

The top and bottom border rows are sewn together. The top border and the next two rows are sewn together.  I've been working on assembling the bottom two rows of blocks.  The final two pieced side border blocks are under construction.  I'm happy with how this has come together.  The setting is self designed and there's always the chance my plan won't work. Thankfully this one has.  

Since today is a holiday, it will be another nothing but stitching day.  I'm hopeful that by the end of today, all the rows will be assembled and I will have started on the final borders. I also finished assembling the backing for another project.  I'm crossing my fingers that by the end of today, I'm back to looking over my 2023 quilt plan to decide what goes back on the active WIP list.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts and Oh Scrap.    

A Rainbow of Butterflies

I'm not ready for it to be Monday again. I don't leave the house to work these days, but Monday does mean a return to household chores and other necessary things that really have to get done.  We spent most of the weekend in Tulsa, so I didn't get in my usual weekend stitching time.  But it was nice to do something different.  We volunteered at Wild Brew, a fundraising event for George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center.  My Guy has helped rebuild Masked Bobwhite habitat in Arizona and spends a number of his Sundays driving/hiking all over the county to monitor nesting activity of Bald Eagles. The center does a lot for endangered bird species all over the country.   

Even though I didn't get in my normal stitching time, I did make good progress on my scrappy butterflies project. 

I have all the alternate blocks made and up on the design wall.  To finish out the Irish Chain pattern, I'm adding a top and bottom row of half blocks, plus half blocks at the end of each row so that all the butterflies are framed.  I've gotten started on those, but didn't get any of them up on the design wall.  With some diligence this week, those should get done and it will be on to the borders next week.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts and Oh Scrap.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Channeling the 60s?

For the first time in the seven years that I've played along with the Rainbow scrap challenge there is no new project to start in January.  Since 2012, I've started nine RSC projects and only four of them are finished projects.  In sticking with my word "Finish" for 2020, I'm going to focus my efforts there this year.  So the plan is to make some progress on the Wild and Goosey blocks that were started as last year's project.  

The green and orange combo in the photo brought to mind images of the green shag carpet and mod looking orange chairs from the 60's (thankfully we had hard wood floors in those days, I never liked the green shaggy stuff at grandma's house).  Sorry for the history detour, back to the Wild and Goosey blocks.  These blocks are little, but with 13 pieces in each 3.5" block, they aren't a quick assembly. This may end being a multi year project, it's going to take a lot of these little blocks to get even a throw sized quilt. 

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Oh Scrap.  

2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge

For the first time since I started participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I didn't end the year with a set of blocks ready for setting.  My 2019 RSC project was a rainbow version of Bonnie Hunter's Wild and Goosey pattern.  Those little blocks take a lot of time to piece, so I didn't get very far.  

Modified Wild and Goosey
Based on Bonnie Hunter's pattern in Addicted to Scraps

Not a bad stack from last year, but I still need to add purple and red-violet to the mix.  Plus I need lots more of each color (I have it figured out, but I'll spare you those details).  Since I'm trying to focus on finishes this year and limit new projects, the plan is to keep adding to the stack of Wild and Goosey blocks from 2019 as the 2020 RSC project. 

Linking up with Soscrappy for RSC Saturday and with Oh Scrap on Sunday.   

Scrappy Stuff

There's not been a Rainbow Scrap Challenge post on my blog since last March!  I knew there hadn't been many this year, but none in almost 6 months?  When I think about it, there are a few obvious reasons.  Both my personal and my professional schedules have been a bit nuts this year.  I don't have as much time to draft blog posts, I've chosen to stitch rather than get photos together and write.  Plus this year's RSC project, Wild and Goosey, isn't coming together very quickly.  Those little blocks take a while to get done. This is all I've gotten done so far this year.

Modified Wild and Goosey
Based on Bonnie Hunter's pattern in Addicted to Scrap

I just finished cutting a bunch of purple scraps for this month's color, but don't have any purple blocks started.

But there are some purple scrappy blocks back up on the design wall.  These are the blocks from the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Twinkle Stars

Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

It's way past time to get these into a finished flimsy. 

So I've got two rows back up on the design wall and have started sewing the blocks together.  I'm excited to get this quilt to the finished stage.  My One Monthly Goal was to get all the blocks sewn together.  Hopefully I can do that by Monday!  

Linking up with the weekly RSC linky party and on Sunday with Oh Scrap.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Slow Progress

It's been slow going on this year's scrappy project.  I've wanted to make a version of Bonnie Hunter's Wild and Goosey since I first saw it.  It seemed like a good scrappy project.  It is, but those little blocks aren't a quick assembly.  So my progress on each month's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been pretty underwhelming.  But as it's the last Saturday in the first quarter of 2019, it seemed like a good time to report on the progress so far.  

For March, there's one green block finished.

The darker greens look much brighter up on the design wall.  I've done a bit better with January's red and February's yellow blocks.

Seven red blocks, 2 yellow and 1 green is the sum total of scrappy stitching so far.  I'm still trying to decide on a final layout of the blocks. That's needed to determine how many of each color to make.  Here's the two front runners. 

This is My Guy's favorite.  He likes the warmer colors in the middle.  My favorite has the warmer colors at the edges. 

Either layout needs at least 16 blocks of each color, so I can keep making blocks till I get to that point. At that point, I will have to pick a final layout. Looking at what's been made to date, it will be a few more months before I have to decide between these two or come up with something else completely.  

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and with Oh Scrap.  Happy scrappy stitching this weekend.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Radiant Red Stitching

What a week!  The first full week of work after the holidays is always rough for some reason.  It was nice to get home last night and head to the sewing room for some in depth stitching therapy.   I was in the mood for some mindless stitching, this year's Rainbow Scrap Project seemed to be just the thing to work on. 

I was able to finish off the first two blocks last night. 

 Modified Wild and Goosey
Based on Bonnie Hunter's pattern in Addicted to Scraps

These blocks are 3.5" squares, that's relatively tiny for me. Each block has 13 pieces, so it takes a bit to finish off one square.  Even with all the tiny pieces, these two were a lot of fun to make.  The planned layout needs 320 blocks.  In addition to the red, the plan is to make pink, magenta, purple, blue, turquoise, green, yellow and orange blocks.  So with 320 blocks in 9 different colors, that's about 36 blocks of each color.  With those kind of stats, this project is likely to take a couple of years. We'll see if I can move it along a bit faster, but even if I can't, it's using up some of those little scraps, so how can that be a bad thing? 

Linking up with Angela over at Soscrappy today and linking up with Cynthia for Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Squared Away Isn't Yet

Weekends are so very necessary.  I was certainly glad to see Friday roll around this week.  It's performance review season at work.  We had a compressed schedule this year, two weeks to meet with personnel, complete performance summaries and write feedback.  The deadline was the 31st, I didn't get to bed till early morning on the first of November.  I'm so glad that's over for another year! 

Consequently, there hasn't been a great deal of stitching this week.  I'm still working on getting the final borders on the Inverted Star quilt.  However, the last of the planned blocks for Squared Away did get finished. Here's all of my versions up on the design wall. 

 Squared Away Sampler designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

I made a first attempt at a layout, but it's obvious I need to spread out those orange and yellow blocks a bit more.  The on point setting works for me, I'll play with a straight setting before making a final plan.  Sashing will definitely be involved, I'm just not sure what color to use.  So that has to be worked out too.  It was a fun project for the year.  Now to decide what's on tap for next year.  I'm looking forward to the dithering.  

Linking up with Soscrappy today and with Quilting is More Fun that Housework on Sunday.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Playing with Colors

It's Fall Break in our neck of the woods this week.  The Scientist in Training is home for the long weekend.  I expect she'll sleep in this morning as she didn't get the chance to yesterday as her car had to go in for service.  That meant an early departure for Tulsa yesterday morning. But she got some shopping and cheesecake out of that deal.  While she's sleeping in, I'm hoping to get caught up on email and my blog reading before heading out to the local quilt shop for the second Christmas Mystery Quilt clue. 

There's been a fair amount of scrappy sewing going on.  Two of October's Squared Away blocks are up on the design wall. 

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

There's not much dark or sage greens in my stash, so I decided to switch to red-violet for this month's blocks.  These may look purple, but they definitely are more "pinkish" then my purple blocks.  I've got the background cut for the last block, but don't have the focus fabric cut yet.  The last block should get finished this weekend.  Then I can play with layout and sashing options for the whole set.  Maybe I'll actually get this year's Rainbow Scrap Project finished before I start next year's.  Thank you Angela and Mari for such a fun RSC project this year.  

The other scrappy project sharing design wall space with the Squared Away blocks is my 2014 RSC projected, the Inverted Star blocks. 

Inverted Star:  Center blocks by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download.  Setting by Kate

The scrappy sawtooth stars for the next border have been moved here and there on the design wall this week, but a final layout did finally come out of all the fiddling.  I'm hoping to get all the sawtooth star blocks stitched together this weekend.  

Linking up with Soscrappy for this week's Rainbow Scrap Challenge party and on Sunday, linking up with Oh Scrap.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: The Dark Side

It's been cold, wet and rainy much of this week.  Autumn has definitely made it's appearance.  On the one hand it's nice, there is more reason to spend time in the sewing room. On the other, the earlier sunset seems to sap my energy to do anything.  

I did find the energy last week to finish off September's dark neutral blocks for the Squared Away Sampler. 

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

I changed up the blocks just a bit from Angela's and Mari's version.  This block would make a really cool quilt, but for now I'm stopping at three.  There has been progress on the October blocks, but not enough to be photo worthy.  I'm deviating from Angela's dark and sage green theme for October by using red-violet for my blocks.  Hopefully, I'll have something to show on that front next week. 

Happy stitching this weekend.  Linking up with Angela at Soscrappy for this week's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   And linking up with Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Dark Neutrals and a Switch-Up

We were definitely ready for the weekend.  It was a long work week for both me and My Guy.  No better way to kick off the weekend then a marathon sewing session on Friday night. My main goal was to finish off my Halloween mystery blocks and make some head way on my Squared Away blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler.  It's the middle of the month already and there hasn't been a lot of progress on those blocks yet.

I've really enjoyed working on the Squared Away sampler this year. Mari and Angela provided such fun blocks in the sampler.  But this month's block just wasn't working for me (sorry Mari and Angela).  I played around in EQ trying to work out fabric placement that worked for me.  I finally ended up with this:

Pretty much the same, but some of the HSTs  got moved around the background pieces to changed up some .  I don't have a lot of dark blue, so I had already decided to use some dark neutral scarps for this month's block.

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

Both the gray background and the black floral batik came right out of the scrap basket.  It was fun playing around with this layout. Though I tripped myself up a bit by cutting the double sized gray background pieces.  I had to un-sew a couple of pieces from the rows and then restitch them in columns in order to fit all the pieces back together without using partial seams.  Now that the first block is done, I'll know better with the next two.  

Linking up with Soscrappy on Saturday and with Oh Scrap on Sunday.   

August Wrap Up (One Monthly Goal Progress)

For those in the United States and Canada (as noted by Sandra of  MMM! Quilts), hope you've gotten a jump on enjoying your holiday weekend.  We don't have any firm plans for the holiday.  The Scientist in Training got home last night and is pretty much wiped out from the first two weeks of the fall semester. She feel asleep mid conversation after dinner.  Her request for the weekend was to be allowed to sleep in.  She has a two plus hour to complete chemistry quiz due tonight (assigned in class yesterday).  I really, really don't miss those parts of my college days.

Hard to believe it's the first of September, August went way to fast. The first week of August was miserable due to work deliverables, but it lined out towards the end of the month.  So it wasn't a bad month in the sewing room.  I didn't make my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for August which was to decide on a final layout and get the sashing at least made for the Twinkle Star quilt. 

Twinkle Stars
Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

I managed part of my goal for August, the layout got much better defined.  Both My Guy and the Scientist in Training both nixed the sashing plan.  A similar suggestion was made in many of the comments on the blog and on my Facebook posts, thank you for the feedback.  So no sashing.  Then the SIT asked me to lay out the blocks in a more of a "rainbow" order.  So I gave that a try.

Both the SIT and My Guy liked this layout better, so did I.  But without the sashing, this quilt is going to be a bit small for the intended use.  So how to make it bigger?  Add borders to make it bigger or add more blocks?  I wasn't completely happy with the way the colors merged, what if I added new blocks so there was enough of each color to make at least one diagonal row? 

I liked that thought.  So now the goal for August became to complete 18 more blocks.  By the time I went to bed last night, 6 more blocks had been completed, there are 6 in the works at the machine, and fabric has been selected for the last 6.  

The red and purple sections are both finished, plus one of two teal blocks is done.  Even though I didn't make my OMG for the month, I'm pretty happy with the progress on this quilt.  I didn't link up with the end of August OMG because it didn't feel right, but I did want to document that progress was made.  

There was also a finish this month, but no pictures yet.  I'll post about that on Monday.  So August was a much better month than I expected it to be.  I've already been thinking about what the plan is for September. 

Linking up with Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Orange is a Wrap

I am ready for a weekend, it was a really long week.  I need to catch up on a few work things, but I'll wait for tomorrow for that. My brain needs a bit of a rest from budgets and emails. 

I got an early start on my mental health treatments for the weekend by heading to my sewing room right after dinner.  I wanted to finish off the orange Squared Away blocks as this is the last weekend in August. 

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

My paler oranges aren't as bright as I usually go.  I'm hoping these will look OK with all the other blocks.  

Twinkle Stars is up on the design wall at the moment, so there's not really any place to lay out all the Squared Away blocks.  I'll put them all up when Twinkle Stars comes down next month.  I've been wondering about how I'm going to set all these, so I did a bit of mucking about in EQ8.  This is my lead contender at the moment. 

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

I definitely like the on point setting, though it will need two more blocks than the plan, but I'm OK picking a couple of blocks and making two more.  I like the idea of a pastel for the sashing and the setting triangles.  Not sure it will be teal, it depends on what's in the stash.  At least I've got a good starting spot.  I usually end up stalling on finding a setting and my RSC blocks end up hanging about in UFO-land for several years.  I'm trying to not let that happen this year.    
Linking up with Soscrappy for this week's Rainbow Scrap Challenge and on Sunday with Quilting is More Fun than Housework's Oh Scrap.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: All Caught Up

I'm declaring today a NBS day (nothing but sewing, a term borrowed from Barbara who blogs over at Cat Patches).  Work has been rough with project deadlines, instrument failures, and changes in direction/programs.  A day of stitching therapy to fortify myself for next week is sorely needed.  

As far as Rainbow Scrap Sewing goes, I'm all caught up on the Squared Away blocks.

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

 The reds look a little dull in the photograph, but they are actually very vibrant up on the design wall.  Maybe I'll take some time this weekend to put the whole set of blocks back up on the design wall and see if I can come up with a setting plan.  

Linking up over at Soscrappy for this week's Rainbow Scrap Challenge post and linking up with Oh Scrap over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework on Sunday. Happy stitching this weekend.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Teal and Red

It was a long work week, I'm definitely ready for a weekend and some stitching time.  The forecast says we've had a cold front come through so our highs this weekend will be in the mid to upper 90F range (around 35C).  That's down a bit from the high of 99F we had yesterday.  Still it's too warm to do much other than seek refuge in my nicely air conditioned sewing room this afternoon. 

It was a pretty productive week for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge project, the Squared Away Sampler.  All the teal blocks are now finished. 

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

I really like how they turned out.  With those done, I was able to make a good start on this month's red blocks and actually have one finished. 

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

These are fun blocks, they go together pretty quickly. The last two red blocks are under construction over at the sewing machine.  There's one more weekend in the month so I may actually get caught up this month! 

Linking up with Soscrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today and with Oh Scrap on Sunday.  Stay cool and stitch (my motto for July).