Sanctuary Finished!

I am trying some new patterns and this one is Kim Brackett's Sanctuary pattern from Scrap Basket Beauties book. It seemed like a fun idea when I changed the orientation of the blocks so the dark pieces were not all in alignment, but I'm not sure it was an improvement.

I'm mainly posting this finish because I really like the pantograph I tried out for this one. It is the  Adrienne pantograph and was designed by Christy Dillon over at mycreativestitches.

It is very likely this quilt will be donated to the Comfort Quilts program, but I might gift it to family or friends. I haven't yet decided.

This was Kim's original block arrangement. I may try this next time.

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers and Oh Scrap!

Tuesday ToDo #60

I have been very busy finishing UFOs this month. I decided before I would let myself start a new project I needed to spend the last couple of months of the year working on UFOs. I don't have to finish them all, but I did want to make a dent in them. I think I have.

This past week I finished the two Arlington Square twin-size flimsies I worked on during the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. My original plan was to make one big quilt, but then I decided I already have too many bed-size quilts so I split the blocks in half and made two smaller quilts. Those blocks are 14" so they're still pretty big.

I finished piecing, quilting, and binding this crib-size Broken Bricks leader-ender project I've had sitting around next to my machine for at least a couple of months. The border on this one is the leftover bits I cut off the Rhododendron Trail after I quilted it so all of it is scraps, except the backing. (This is the photo before I got it bound. I haven't yet taken a photo of it with the binding.) I believe I'll be giving this one to the Comfort Quilts program unless someone in my family gets in touch that they want it before the next quilt guild meeting.

I've finished binding this adorable panel I quilted for our local quilt guild for their Comfort Quilts program. I used some yellow flannel for the backing. The pantograph is a precious Baby Bunny pantograph designed by Donna Kleinke at One Song Needle Arts. It was perfect for this panel.

I've finished labeling and binding the Flowers for Nana Girl lap quilt. Photos will be updated after I have time to take them. This is definitely my favorite of all the RSC projects I worked on. I'll be keeping this one; likely the rest will be gifted to family/friends.

For this coming week, I would very much like to finish all the quilts I've quilted but not yet bound.

Bloom lap quilt

Sanctuary scrappy quilt (for the Comfort Quilts program)

Broken Bricks in purple and blues

Paducah Log Cabin

If there is time, it would also be nice to finish those Arlington Square quilts, but I suspect I will run out of time. Depending on how impatient I am, I may keep working on UFOs during the first couple of weeks of January and then start on Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt.

Thanks to Linda for hosting the Tuesday ToDo for more than a year. I'm sure it is quite a time commitment to make a weekly post and then go and read the posts that folks link. I hope you know your efforts were appreciated.

RSC 2023 Plans

2022 was the first time I participated in Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I learned some things about what I like and what I don't. I've been thinking about how I want to approach 2023. I've realized I don't like super-scrappy projects and I think I need to constrain the colors on my projects to only two or three colors or more carefully plan projects with lots of colors.

For my projects, I want to pick my border fabric and then make the quilt in colors to match, instead of making a quilt and then trying to find something to use for the border. (That is how I end up buying more fabric when I already have mountains of stash.) When a new color is announced, I'll go find a fabric in my stash that will work for the border then pick scraps to go with it.

I do have one project I've been thinking about working on but I won't be able to sew blocks as I go along. I'll be cutting out pieces and then sewing them up at the end. This is the pattern and fabric I'm hoping to use for the border.

I think I will be making blocks for this project. I likely won't be using this border fabric again, but I didn't have the actual fabric imported into Electric Quilt.

And I hope to continue working on my Stained Glass quilt. Last year I finished the red and yellow blocks before it got too hot during the summer to run the iron all day.

I probably will make some really scrappy lap quilts throughout the year, but I'll make them for Comfort Quilts for our local quilt guild and I'll finish them and pass them on throughout the year.

One Last Broken Bricks

This was my leader-ender project during the past couple of months. I finished piecing it this morning. I made it crib-size so I can donate it to the local quilt guild for their comfort quilts program. These little quilts go really fast.

I used a neat pantograph designed by Donna Kleinke called Daisies Panto 4. It's nice that it doesn't have an obvious direction so you can load your quilt either way and it still looks good. And it stitches out well.

I tried the So Fine thread again that gave me fits on my Rhododendron Trail quilt and today it was fine. Clearly, I got closer to the correct tension this time.

I had this highlighter pink batik that I got with one of my fabric scores. I would likely never use it on the front side, but it was fine for a backing.

So now I have yet another quilt to finish binding in the next week. I have so many to do now, probably more than half a dozen.

Arlington Square Flimsies!

The Arlington Square flimsies are finished! 

This is a nickel quilt designed by Pat Speth from her Nickel Quilts book. This started out as a queen-size quilt but I decided I already have too many bed-size quilts so I made two smaller quilts with half the blocks. They are certainly not perfect, but somewhere mid-way through these quilts I decided done was better.

This is the third finish of my four Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for the year. The only one I have left is the stained glass quilt and I'll just go ahead and roll it over into next year.

I'm linking up with Scrap Happy Saturday.

Trying to Finish Two More

 ...before the end of the year. I can probably make it. 

This is the Arlington Square quilt pattern. It's a nickel quilt designed by Pat Speth from her Nickel Quilts book. I will admit I accidentally made a change to the pattern that hasn't really turned out. In Pat's original design, she used scrappy squares through the block, not three-in-a-row as I've done here. I'm not entirely sure how I ended up making that change. It was unintentional and it did not improve the pattern.

Anyway, I spent the year making block parts with the rainbow scrap challenge and I'm trying to get this project finished before the end of the year so I can start fresh next year.

Here is where I am at. I made the border pieces then realized I'd need to make a couple more. I'll need to fit my inside sashing to make the blocks work, but I need the finished measurement first. I am not good at the math, but I'll give it my best shot to get this to fit right. 

Then, once I am done with this one, I get to do it all again, because I have another set of this many big blocks. LOL The race is on to finish them both by the end of the month.

Linking up with Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Arlington Square Progress

Arlington Square designed
by Pat Speth

(This post is overdue because last week I managed to drop my fairly new MacBook computer and cracked the screen. Oops. An expensive mistake. So my computer spent the last week in the shop and I was unable to post blog posts until I got it back so I have a lot to put into one post.)

When I originally started Pat Speth's Arlington Square pattern for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I was thinking it might take me two years to finish. One year to finish the block corner pieces, and then the second year to finish assembling the blocks and making the border pieces.

Since I've finished the other two quilts and there are still a couple of weeks left before the end of the year, I decided to try to finish this one as well. That would leave me with only one project rolling over to next year.

I pulled out all the block pieces I made throughout the year and laid most of them out in the photo below. I made about 10 each month and I used whatever scraps I found, including uglies, but I only used white fabrics for the light portion. 

Since I made so many quilts with white scraps this year, I actually ran out of them. Towards the end, I had to start cutting strips off yardage so I figured I might as well cut out the fiddly border on my Cricut. It definitely saved fabric because if I had cut them out by hand, I would have cut 6.5" strips and then clipped off the corner. Instead, I was able to cut out the little white triangles for the pinwheels from that bit of fabric.

After digging around in my scrap boxes for colored waste triangles I found nearly all that I needed.

I've spent a few hours this past week assembling the blocks. I actually made 24 of them, but I have decided I really don't need another bed-size quilt. I already have too many. So, instead, I've decided to make two throw-sized quilts and gift them.  Here is the first batch of blocks assembled. 

I haven't decided if I'm going to carry it on through the borders and then start the second, or build the second set of blocks and work on the borders for both at the same time.