Hey, Pam posted early this week, so I’ll take the late spot!  I’ve had a great time working on these donation blocks for Kat’s Covered in Love block drive.  You have all of September and October, so there’s lots of time to get involved.  Aren’t the colors beautiful?  And these 18 blocks used 144 of my 3.5″ squares!  (No, you can’t see a difference in the bins…!)

I recommend pressing all your HST seams open.  That makes it easier to see the intersections and reduces bulk.

After those were made, I just laid all the patches out and chain-pieced them.  After a few, I was down to nine minutes each.  Quick, and no pins!  My kind of block!

I’m stopping at 18 blocks, but it’s been a fun break in the large, heavy stuff.  Next up:  a back for Layer Cake Explosion.

Hope you’re making progress!

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the United States.  It’s been chilly and rainy, and the cats and I are on our own, so it’s perfect for sewing.

I did pretty well on my goals, achieving 3/4 of them.  Layer Cake Explosion took a long time to assemble, and I may take a break from it for a few days.

August Goals:

1. Finish piecing Layer Cake Explosion.  Yes!
2. Continue with Pacific Stars.  Yes!
3. Make Christmas wall hangings for my shop.  Yes!  Here.
4. Make a scrap quilt for donation.  No.  This did not happen.

September Goals:

1. Make back for Layer Cake Explosion.
2. Make donation blocks for Kat’s September/October block drive.
3. Continue with Pacific Stars Mystery Quilt.
4. Customer quilt commission? (in the works)

I’ve already pulled the scraps for the donation blocks, so those should be done soon.  These blocks use lots of 3.5″ squares, and I have lots!

Good luck on your goals, and enjoy your sewing time.

Before I talk goals, I want to share things from two other blogs.

I am completely in love with this top made by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts!  It’s a modern use of a traditional block, and the colors!  Oh!

And BadAss Quilters Society has some guidelines on copyright infringement (stealing).

I was partially successful in completing my July goals.

July Goals

1. Make blocks for Kat’s July/August Covered in Love block drive.  Yes!  And even mailed!  18 blocks.
2. Continue with Layer Cake Explosion, whichever step I’m on.  Um, no, I put this off because it’s paper pieced, then my printer fritzed.
3. Continue with Pacific Stars.  Yes!  Clue 3 complete.
4. Experiment with some kind of floral, layered art quilt thingy.  (Vague enough?) No.  Nothing.

Bonus:  I made The Last Zebra baby quilt.  Got those scraps out from under my sewing cabinet.

August Goals:

1. Finish piecing Layer Cake Explosion.
2. Continue with Pacific Stars.
3. Make Christmas wall hangings for my shop.
4. Make a scrap quilt for donation.

I know many of you have far less sewing time than I do, but I’m enjoying seeing you working away at your goals as you can.  Keep it up!

We have had beautiful weather here in my part of Ohio.  It’s tempting to work outside all day, but it’s also cool enough to sew, so I had a personal sew-in this weekend.

Just a little change in the numbers this week.  I purchased a yard of red and white striped fabric that will make good bindings.

Then I used two and a half yards to make these blocks for Kat’s July/August block drive (if July got away from you as it did me, you still have a month to make any kind of star blocks in red, white, and blue.  I love seeing fabrics from past projects as I make donation blocks, buts here’s a take on the way others may view your scraps.

This week:  +  1 yard,  – 2.5  yards
This year:  + 75.25 yards,  – 85.25 yards
Net destashed added in 2017:  10 yards
Creeping along, but I’ll get to 50 yards.  Are you using your stash?

So, last July, I counted up my “bank” (pitcher in the china cabinet), spent the money on Craftsy classes, and pledged to do even better this year.  And then I didn’t.

I didn’t notice at the time, but my spending/buying habits changed a lot.  I was still recovering from the first knee surgery, and then had the second in September, so I was driving less and shopping in stores less for most of the year.   I’m trying to declutter here, so I said no to lots of stuff while I was shopping.  When I did treat myself, it was to clothes and shoes, mostly bought online, so no change back.  I had fewer Etsy sales, so fewer trips to the Post Office and nearby coffee shop.

I think I probably saved a lot of money, but that poor pitcher stayed nearely empty!  So apparently this savings method is no longer for me.

Check out the Piggy Bank Challenge at Val’s Quilting Studio to find others who were much more successfull!

I hope you all had a great weekend including those of you in the US, who were BBQing, parading, fireworking, etc.

I was tired from the extended weekend, and didn’t have firm plans to sew, until I saw Christa’s post this morning about her HST Remix.  Her scrappy half square triangles were exactly what I needed to turn the last of my zebra scraps into one more baby quilt!  I’ve pieced triangles before, out of necessity,  but always with the same fabric.  I don’t know why it never occurred to me make them scrappy!  So I shamelessly stole Christa’s idea and did just that.

All my scraps were already 6 7/8″ in width, but short of being squares.  I sewed them into one long strip, then cut that into squares to make the HSTs.  I paired them with pale green and gray fabrics.  I like how they soften it up.

I’m still arranging blocks.  The lower left corner is not as dark as in the photo, but I may sub out a lighter gray.

Anyway, thanks, Christa!

Happy July to everyone!  Happy Canada Day, too!  Congradulations on 150 years!

I was all set to give myself an A+ for completing my modest June goals, but I think I’m confused on the steps to the Layer Cake Explosion quilt-along.  It’s what I get for doing two group quilts at the same time!  Oh, well.  Progress was made.  It was good.

June Goals:

(Well, June is half over, so I’ll keep it brief.)

1. Layer Cake Explosion, Clue 2 (Twilter Quilt-Along) Yes!  Here.
2. Layer Cake Explosion, Clue 3  Um, no.  I think I got confused about the clues, and thought I was caught up.  Oh, well.
3. Pacific Stars Mystery Quilt (by Charlotte Scott on Carol’s Quilts blog), Clue 1  Yes!
4. Pacific Stars, Clue 2  Yes!  Here.

Bonus:  Zebra Baby Quilt

I’ll be traveling some in July, gardening, preserving, reading, summering, so these goals are modest, too.

July Goals

1. Make blocks for Kat’s July/August Covered in Love block drive.
2. Continue with Layer Cake Explosion, whichever step I’m on.
3. Continue with Pacific Stars.
4. Experiment with some kind of floral, layered art quilt thingy.  (Vague enough?)

Truly hope all of you are enjoying your summer (or winter) and your sewing.

Yesterday I completed Clue #2 of Charlotte Scott’s mystery quilt, Pacific Stars, hosted by Carol’s Quilts.   It is very much a mystery to me how this will turn out.  I hope my fabrics turn out to be good choices.  Everything has been scraps or older fabrics (“stash dogs”), except for the light gray fabric, which I had to buy.  My “dark indigo” is very dark, almost black, which is probably why it’s still in my stash.  We’ll see.

So, I’m caught up on this quilt, and I’ve met my goal on Daisy’s quilt-along, Layer Cake Explosion.  Not too bad.

What do you have in progress?

Today was a beautiful, cool day in the studio!  Lots of rain for the garden, and lots of sewing time for me.

First I cut and sewed Clue 3 for Layer Cake Explosion. 

Later, I was antsy and looking for some mindless sewing, so I pulled out these zebra blocks .  I may have made too many, okay, double, the number of blocks I needed for my last zebra baby quilt.  The green is prettier than this, I was losing my light.

These were already numbered and ready to sew together.  When I get back from traveling, I’ll quilt this up for donation.

Wishing all of you good sewing weather!