Aqua Broken Brick Flimsy / Feb RSC Wrap Up

I had a good month playing with my Aqua Scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The list of quilts that I'm working on is here.

I made 10 blocks for my Arlington Square quilt.

I made one block for the Bloom quilt.

And I made one block for the Flowers For Nana Girl quilt

I didn't make any of the "stained glass" blocks because my design doesn't call for aqua. So, instead, I decided to make another leader-ender quilt using a stack of aqua 4" squares I've been storing for nearly 20 years.

For the purple, I used yardage that I originally bought for making square dance clothes. And I did just buy the border fabric at JoAnn's at a sale earlier this month. Otherwise, the rest of the fabric was scraps.

I've now found this pattern in two of my quilt books! In addition to Spruce Root Basket, M'Liss Rae Hawley includes this same pattern in her Fat Quarter Quilts book under the name Broken Bricks. To be honest, I prefer that name. (Sorry about the terrible photo, the light right now is horrible. It's really overcast and rainy here.)

I am really looking forward to next month's color. Yellow is my second favorite color (after purple), so I'll really enjoy playing with it. And I have a TON of yellow scraps. 

Thanks to Angela for hosting the Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up. I'm having a really good time participating this year.

Rhododendron Trail Flimsy!

It's finished! I enjoyed participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I don't normally go for pink, but this quilt is so bright and cheerful that it's definitely growing on me. I changed my quilt from Bonnie Hunter's original design; I used the border geese for the sashing and omitted the solid aqua sashing. I also reduced the number of rows and added a fabric border.

I have a bunch of blocks leftover, so I am definitely going to figure out something else to make with them. I'm thinking about making one lap quilt and using the rest for the backing on the big one.

This completes my One Monthly Goal, with a few days to spare! 

This flimsy will get tucked into the tub and will get quilted once I get my new Handiquilter long arm. I think our basement is going to be finished in the next two weeks and then we can figure out how we're going to shuffle around the furniture and fit in the long arm. 

I'm linking up with

One Monthly Goal

Needle & Thread Thursday

Finished (Or Not) Friday

Brag About Your Beauties

Peacock Party

Tuesday ToDo #35

It's Tuesday again! This winter has been flying by. Last week I hoped to work on the following tasks:

1. Finish assembling the Rhododendron Trail quilt flimsy.

So close. I finished assembling the center portion, but it still needs the border. I will get it finished in another couple of hours. It outgrew my small design wall so I have to put it on the floor now.

2. Continue work on my latest Leader-Ender quilt.

I finished sewing all the pieces that I had cut out, but then I decided it would be too bland to make the quilt with just aqua pieces.

So, today I cut out and started sewing some light purple pieces as well. Now it will be more like this when it is finished. Of course, now I'll have twice as many pieces as I'll need so I may end up making a second one in the same colors.

3. Start getting ready to move my quilting room. I need to figure out the final arrangement of furniture for the relocation and I need to decide if I should pack up any of my stash.

I got distracted over the weekend with cleaning and washing fabric. I had quite a large pile of unwashed fabric and I spent all weekend washing it and still didn't get it all finished. I have clearly started hoarding fabric. It's time to stop buying fabric.

This is the pile of washed but not yet ironed fabric.
There is still fabric in the machines so the pile will get higher. Sigh.

On the topic of shopping, I did manage to get a great score at JoAnn's this weekend. I was able to use a 60% off coupon on a 15-yard roll of Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 quilt batting. I am ready to have my long arm delivered.

I also spent several hours doing general cleaning upstairs over the weekend in preparation for the furniture shuffle. As soon as the basement is finished we're going to be moving our bedroom down into the basement and I am going to take over the master bedroom as my quilting studio. Yes, I have the best husband ever. =)

Bonus: I also started getting ready for Edyta Sitar's 2022 Mystery Quilt. It starts on Feb 28 Mar 15. Fortunately, I bought the Alaska ruler on a whim last summer when I had a coupon for the Fat Quarter Shop, so I'm all ready to go.

I learned from the last mystery quilt and decided to change the colors to better suit my taste. I like purple a lot more than blue so I pulled various shades from my stash. This is the first pass, but now I'm thinking the colors are too dark; I definitely need to add more mediums and pull out the darkest couple.

For next week, I would like to:

1. Put the outer border on the Rhododendron Trail quilt.
2. Continue work on the Leader-Ender quilt.
3. Start on the Rhododendron Trail lap quilt using the leftover blocks.
4. Keep cleaning my sewing room!

Thanks to Linda for hosting the Tuesday ToDo linkup. I'm also linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Feb Friday Night Sew In

For this month's Friday Night Sew-In, I decided to focus on my Rhododendron Trail no-longer-a Mystery Quilt. By bedtime, I'm about 75% finished. All the filler corner pieces are finished. The rows are assembled and I have to sew three more of them on.

Once I finish sewing them together, I'll have to trim down the inner border and add the outer border. Unless I get distracted, I should be able to finish this weekend.

Pieces of My Heart Quilt Flimsy

The Tickled Pink Blog Hop gave me the perfect excuse to make a heart quilt I had recently designed in Electric Quilt. It was one of the most difficult projects I have made because it included hearts that were paper pieced⏤which I had never done before⏤and the diamonds were not one of the standard ruler sizes so I had to cut them out with my Cricut. (Have I mentioned how much I love my Cricut Maker 3?)

Anyway, I'm calling it Pieces of My Heart.

It has a variety of hearts from different sources. Most of the blocks came pre-programmed in Electric Quilt 8, but at least two of the paper-pieced heart designs were from Carol Doak's 300 Paper-Pieced Blocks book. I think I may have also copied a couple of designs I saw at pinterest. Most of the red and pink fabrics were from my scrap bin, though I did buy several pieces of pink because I didn't have much in my stash. Now, if this had been Tickled Purple Blog Hop, I would have been set.

The alternate block is called the Diamond Star or Amethyst block. It was surprisingly difficult to assemble and the bias-cut fabric stretched out a little bit as I constructed them so it made the quilt assembly a little less precise than I prefer. Some of the blocks look a little loose, but I'm hoping it will be fine once I get it quilted up. I'll do a fairly tight stitching pattern to help stabilize them.

I'll be taking delivery on a Handiquilter long arm in a few weeks, as soon as I manage to get my quilt studio set up. (The basement remodel is nearly finished!) I have so many flimsies I've been saving up, but this quilt will surely be among the early batch of quilts I'll get finished.

And for a giveaway, I have two sets of pink fat quarters. I had to buy full yards of the pink fabrics, so I'm happy to share the remaining fabric. They've been prewashed and are from Marshall Dry Goods.

To qualify, you need to live in the United States and become a follower (or already be a follower) of my blog. (Sorry, international shipping is too expensive.) Please leave me a comment below letting me know you've become a follower. I'll do a random number drawing on Sunday evening to pick two winners.

I'm also linking up with 

Brag About Your Beauties

Finished (Or Not) Friday

Midweek Makers

Peacock Party

TGI Finished Friday

Thanks for visiting my blog. This was a fun blog hop and I'm glad I got the chance to share my project with you. I hope you'll also visit the rest of the Tickled Pink Blog Hop participants.

Monday, February 14th

Just Let Me Quilt 

Vrooman's Quilts 

Becky's Adventures in Quilting and Travel 

Creative Latitude 

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs 

Karen's Korner

Days Filled With Joy 

Tuesday, February 15th 

Moose Stash Quilting 

Stitch and Quilt 

Samelia's Mum 

Ms P Designs USA 

lynn's blog 

Storied Quilts 

Songbird Designs 

Wednesday, February 16th 

Selina Quilts 

Quilt Schmilt 

Quilting Gail 

Scrapdash.com 

Lianne Makes Stuff 

Karrin's Crazy World

Dragon’s Heart Quilting (You are here)

Bumbleberry Stitches 

Thursday, February 17th 

Creatin' in the Sticks 

Beaquilter 

Stitchin at Home 

Happy Cottage Quilter 

Patchouli Moon Studio 

Words & Stitches 

Inflorescence 

Quilted Delights

Tuesday ToDo #34

It's hard to believe the week has wrapped around to Tuesday again already.  I guess it's time for another ToDo list update. Last week I hoped to do the following projects:

Finish my Tinkled Pink Blog Hop project. 

The flimsy for this one is finished. My day is tomorrow, so there will be a post about it then.

Start assembling my Rhododendron Trail quilt. 

I've gotten started on this one as well. The assembly is a little slow going because it's quite a bit of work matching points on the sashing now that I'm using the geese instead of plain fabric.

Continue to work on my 4-Square Log Cabin.

The quilt flimsy was finished a few days ago.

I also cut out my latest leader-ender project. These were 4-inch aqua squares from my scrap bin that I decided to use because of the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

For next week, I'd like to:

1. Finish assembling the Rhododendron Trail quilt flimsy.
2. Continue work on my latest Ender-Leader quilt.
3. Start getting ready to move my quilting room. I need to figure out the final arrangement of furniture for the relocation and I need to decide if I should pack up any of my stash.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the weekly Tuesday ToDo linkup.

Flower Paths Quilt

I've taken to playing with Electric Quilt in the evenings when my husband and I watch television. Most designs don't see the light of day, but I like this one and named it Flower Paths. I think I'll add this lap quilt to my "queue."

On my actual design wall is the Rhododendron Trail quilt which I am finally sewing together. I waffled for a couple weeks and even bought some fabric for the sashing but didn't end up using it. I finally decided to use the geese in the sashing but I am reducing the number of rows to allow an outside border. I have started assembly line piecing it, so I don't have good layout photos yet.

This is my final layout plan

I will make a lap quilt with the leftover pieces.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Four Patch Log Cabin Flimsy

I finished another leader-ender quilt flimsy! I didn't have a great plan when I started out and was sort of winging it. Except for the sashing, this was made from scraps. It's a little funky because I didn't plan out the arrangement of colors, but it will be a nice practice quilt when I get my long arm next month.

I finished this one pretty quickly as well. I obviously have a problem with getting distracted by leader-ender projects. That pile of pieces provided a nice diversion when I didn't feel like working on the Pieces of My Heart quilt.

I'm going to make another Spruce Root Basket quilt for my next leader-ender project. They're super quick to cut out. It's going to be in aqua for this month's RSC color.

I'm linking up with 

Brag About Your Beauties

Finished (or Not) Friday

Peacock Party

Thank God It's Finished Friday

Tuesday ToDo #33

I guess I forgot to post my list last week. I've gotten distracted with basement remodel-related tasks lately and haven't had quite as much time to sew.

I've continued to work on my list from 2 weeks ago.

Sew 4 more heart blocks for the Tickled Pink project. ✔

Finished. The project is mostly done; I just need to add the outer border. I'm not going to show it yet, though, because I need to save it for the Tickled Pink blog hop.

Finish the Leader Ender lap quilt. ✔

Yeah, I did that and then I made a 2nd one. I'm discovering that I suck at managing leader-ender projects. As soon as I get to about 50% finished I have a low resistance to turning my attention to the project and just working on it to completion.

Figure out the next Leader Ender project and start cutting it out. ✔

I did this one too. It uses more of those purple 4" squares that I've had for so long.

4-Square Log Cabin

I've done more than start cutting it out. LOL

Except for the sashing, this is made from scraps. I'm not arranging the colors in the purple border stripes, so they'll probably end up a little funky. I'm just cutting a lot of 2" squares and sewing them together in basically a random arrangement.

Make the setting triangles for the Rhododendron Trail no-longer-a-mystery quilt. ✔

I've done this too.

Here is my list for next Tuesday.

1. Finish my Tinkled Pink project. This one has to be finished.
2. Start assembling my Rhododendron Trail quilt. 
3. Continue to work on my 4-Square Log Cabin.

I'm linking up with the rest of the folks at the Tuesday ToDo linkup.

Feb Friday Night w/Friends

As usual, I got an early start on my Friday Night With Friends. I spent most of the day cutting out the neutral fabrics for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts so I should be able to get the blocks finished really quickly when the next color is announced. 

I also cut out the rest of the pieces for the Rhododendron Trail filler blocks. Bonnie Hunter's directions said we should cut out squares and trim them off to be triangles before attaching the border. I decided to cut out triangles rather than squares because I was able to use smaller scraps and I think I wasted less fabric.

I also finished assembling the 18 filler triangles for the on-point setting.

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting Friday Night With Friends. I look forward to joining you each month.