WIP Wednesday 10.1.2025

 In August, I agreed to help Darby's cousin (well, the grandfathers were brothers, the dad's are first cousins and I guess, Darby and Buffy are second cousins?) with a few of her mother's UFO's. The Mom is a quilter, 87 years old and suffering from dementia and is unable to sew and/or quilt. I immediately agreed to help without really 'knowing what' I was getting into...

The first project I tackled was this little quilt. M (Buffy's mom) was hand quilting it. Buff said that I could totally remove any stitches and finish it on the long arm. It just about broke my heart to take out all the hand stitching but I finally am nearing the end of the stitch removal. 

pattern: BQ 2, I think.

Another box I received from Buffy had a notation on it: 'just needs borders', easy right? 

This is a mystery from 2001. M had already cut the final border wider than the pattern suggested so I just continued on her path. This is a monster! 75 x 95 inches! Unquilted!

I 'knew' I was close on batting but I lost 'batting chicken' today. :(

Sharing today with The Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.

SoScrappy Saturday 9.27.2025

Today is the fourth Saturday of September of the colors light blue and light green. It is also the reveal of the Table Scraps Challenge for September. Our prompt this month is Television and /or radio.

The first place mats I worked on where the motorhome place mats. The two for the table were too large so I took off the bindings and cut them down to our local Meals-on-Wheels size. DH wasn't too crazy about the place mats as he thought they 'looked like Christmas'. I can see it...with the flying geese and former red binding. This time, I used brown binding... 

I'm counting this as 'green' but doesn't work for the 'television/radio' portion of the challenge.

I went to my trusty source of inspiration, Pinterest. I did find a Lori Holt free tv block but what to put on the screen? I searched my novelties and found an older Hobby Lobby print of cowboys. That's sorta 'Howdy Dowdy' -ish right? So I worked on piecing two place mats. This is where I left off the other day. They are sandwiched and ready for the quilting.

Took a little spin through Baby Brother for just enough quilting to hold the place mats together! 

Ta-Da! Light blue background with a older TV... check and check! :)

pattern: Lori Holt's free pattern

Sharing today with SoScrappy Saturday and 

Joy at Table Scraps Challenge 2025.

Finish or NOT Friday 9.26.2025

I have two finishes this week!

I finished my offset brick wall. I used a new to me panto but I actually miss my favorite serpentine panto!.

pattern: Off set brick wall: public domain

                I used 3.5 x 6.5 inch bricks, 3.5 x 3.5 inch chips and a hunk of novelty

panto: Forever friends by Dave Hudson

My second finish is a QOV based on Lisa Sutherland's Scrap Strips and Stars. The change I made was to use 3.5 inch scraps and strips instead of 2.5 inch scraps and strips. Oh...I also made Floating Stars instead of Sawtooth Stars.

pattern inspiration: Lisa Sutherland's Scrap Strips and Stars

panto: serpentine

Sharing today with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday.

 

WIP Wednesday 9.24.2025

I decided to make another Quilt of Valor using leftover 3.5 inch cut strips. I had made the floating stars earlier in the year so all I had to do is sew my leftovers end to end, press, measure and sew together. This quilt is based on Lisa Sutherland's Strippy Stars.

pattern inspiration: Lisa Sutherland's Scrap Strips and Star

                               my 'wonky meets floating stars' ( I cut my legs at 4.0 inches)

After I have my strips sewn end to end, I rough cut the strips then sew along the length. For example, if I want my strata to be 48.5 inches then I cut my strips at 52 inches and trim to my desired size.

I also sewed the borders onto this quilt. Yes, it really is this quick since I already had the floating stars made. :)

Sharing today with The Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.

Design Wall Monday 9.22.2025

 I'm doing another quilt with 3.5 x 6.3 inch (cut) bricks and 3.5 inch (cut) chips. It's the staggered brick wall. I'm going to insert the print between the bricks. Here is my starting point and quite a few of the fabrics are from the free table at guild.

The novelty measured 40.5 inches so that meant I could only sew 6 full bricks across for 36.5 inches. I opted to make the rows first.

I then rowed it together and placed the novelty towards the top of the quilt.

I wanted it a little bigger so I added a small 2.5 inch (cut) border. The black might be a little harsh but it was what I had/found in the stash.

pattern: Brickwall with novelty inserrt.

Sharing today with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoSrappy Saturday 9.20.2025

Today is the third Saturday of September of the colors light blue and light green. I've put a pause on blocks for two of my RSC2025 blocks...the 2025 Stash Buster Challenge Block and fish...so I made a few more Happy Blocks. There is always room for more Happy Blocks!

pattern: MaryJ's Happy Blocks

Sharing today with SoScrappy Saturday.

Finish or NOT Friday 9.19.2025

I have my Brick-a-Brack quilts finished! 

I noticed the smaller the quilt...the quicker the cutting, sewing, quilting and binding!

The green/white version (aka Michigan State University Spartans) and 

the blue/yellow version (aka University of Michigan Wolverines).

pattern: Brick-a-Brack. Here is a post that blogs about this quilt.

panto: serpentine

Sharing today with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday and 

Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation's Needle and Thread Thursday.

WIP Wednesday 9.17.2025

I pieced the green/white Brick-a-Brack quilt to a flimsy. Green/white are the colors for Michigan State University.

Since I am a graduate of The University of Michigan and the school colors are maize and blue, I dipped into the blue fabrics. This is my fabric pull already cut and ready to sew. Well, almost ready...I still need to cut the yellow background pieces.

In a jiffy, I had the maize and blue Brick-a-Brack into a flimsy, too. I decided to make this one shorter so if someone at guild wants to make one for donation, the guild long armers will quilt it pro bono. (The girls only accepts pro bono quilts that are under 60 inches - it has to do with the physical limitations handling large amounts of fabric causes. Old shoulder injuries, if I am not mistaken!)

pattern: Brick-a-Brack. Published in the April/May 2014 issue of McCall's Quick

                Quilts. Here is a post that talks about the quilt.

Sharing today with The Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.

Design Wall Monday 9.15.2025

The 3.5 inch dive continues...

This time I am using a combination of the following cuts: 3.5 inch squares, 3.5 x 6.5 inch bricks, 6.5 inch squares, 3.5 x 6.5 inch background, 3.5 x 9.5 inch background, 3.5 inch x WOF background and 5.0 x WOF background.

I had orginally downloaded this pattern many years ago but unfortunately, it didn't make the move. I must have moved it around the sewing room for 5+ years and finally thought that I would never make it...

pattern: Here is a Pinterest link I found that tells more about this quilt.

EDIT:   This quilt is call 'Brick-a-Brack'

Here is the fabric draw for a green/white version of this quilt.

I decided to make the inner portion slighter larger.

It seems like I unpicked and re-sewed the inner portion a number of times until I decided to leave it as...

Sharing today with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoScrappy Saturday 9.13.2025

Today is the second Saturday of September of the colors light blue and light green. I was away from the studio the first week of September so I am presenting to you my Happy Blocks, in light blue. I had just enough of the light blue to make these 5 blocks. It appears that I have 'found' my animal stash of 4.5 inch cut blocks.

pattern: MaryJ's Happy Blocks

Sharing today with SoScrappy Saturday.