A Busy Week!

This Friday, I'm getting out of town, and heading off on a road trip with my college friends!  Eight of us rented a big house together, and 40 years ago this year we graduated from Colorado State University.  It was a few short years in our lives that created lifelong friends.  Here we are when we first started rooming together, in 1974.  Aren't we cute?!

Next week I'll show you a current picture!  :)

So, this week, I had a couple of goals to accomplish in my sewing room.  One was to finish up a gift for my roommate who is hosting all of us for the weekend.  In college, my friend studied entomology, and even though she is now retired from her career, she is still fascinated by bugs of all kinds.  When I won this fat quarter bundle of Sweet as Honey from Linda at The Road to Oklahoma back in February, I knew it would be perfect to make something for my roommate, the entomologist.

You might remember that I already used some of this fabric to make myself a table topper.  When I started that one, I made double the number of HSTs I actually needed, and had a bunch leftover to make another table topper for my friend.

For hers, I made sure I used all of the fabric with honeybees and honeycombs and hives.  

I pieced the back out of the larger pieces I had left, bound it in the leftover honeycomb fabric, and added some triangles in the corners in case she wants to hang it on the wall.

I sure hope my friend enjoys this little mini quilt!

I also wanted to make sure I finished up my June Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, because when I get back it will just about be July.  That meant making one more Scrap Jar Star, and I think this is the prettiest one yet!  (That happens to me every month - lol!)

With the darker teals, I think the addition of the lime green works really well.  My June stars:

And all the stars so far!  So pretty together!

Now that I met my goals for the week, I can take my little Janome in for a visit to the spa tomorrow, and pick her up when I get back from my trip.  She needs to be ready to get back to work when I get home!

Wishing you all a great rest of the week and a lovely weekend.  If I have access to WiFi over the weekend, I'll link up with Angela and Cynthia and all my favorite scrappy quilters!

Playing with Log Cabins

After working on my RSC blocks earlier this week, I then decided to pull out my first few beginnings of log cabins from May, and work on making more.  Almost like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, I sorted through my strings, in search of just the right color and size, and stitched them together before trimming up the final block.  I now have four 12 1/2 inch log cabins in the three primary colors and green.

Here is a fun layout!

Starting with two 2 1/2 inch squares gives me a chance for a little fussy cutting!  This is about all I have left of my Charley Harper cardinals!

I love having this kind of project which is content to wait for when you are in the mood for it - no deadlines, no hurry.  The next blocks I work on will come out of my orange, pink, and purple strings.  Maybe a black and white one will appear as well!

I'll be linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework and Log Cabin Lunacy over at JulieK Quilts.

A Turquoise Star

This week I have had the chance to stitch up a turquoise version of my Scrap Jar Stars.  I'm calling it turquoise because it is closest to the turquoise in the teal, turquoise, aqua color chart I posted about a few weeks ago.

I love these sweet, summery fabrics, especially those flowers that have the darker centers!  Since my plan is to make both a light block and a darker block in each of the monthly color combinations, I pulled these fabrics for my second June star.  This one will have a bit of lime green in it!

I also finished up my 16 patches for the month and had fun laying them out again.  There are now 36 blocks, and it's starting to look like a quilt!  I'm getting antsy to start sewing rows together, but I know there are 4 more months of blocks to make.  I am loving this quilt already!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

Scrappy Zipper Pouch

I have had a lot of fun making different kinds of zippered pouches the last few years.  Although I'm not a zipper expert by any means, I'm getting a lot better at them!  Here are three of my favorites made in 2015.

So, when I saw that Preeti, who blogs over at Sew Preeti Quilts, had posted a tutorial for a different zipper pouch than I had made before, I knew I had to try it!  Preeti calls it the Simplest Zippered Pouch, so that told me I could do it, even though I still have a very stiff wrist and can only sew a little bit at a time before it gets mad at me!  (I started my therapy last week, and I'm doing my exercises, I promise!)

I also wanted to make something more with my Caribbean Blue scraps (see yesterday's post)!  I started with a larger piece of the ocean blue - cut 11 x 6.5.  I bordered that with two pieces of the sunset blue - cut 11 x 2.5.  I layered that piece with a scrap piece of batting and a piece for the backing cut from the sunset blue also.

I quilted it with some simple lines, according to Preeti's example!  Then she gives excellent directions for putting in the zipper, and how to sew up the sides so that the pouch lays kind of flat and the zipper is on the front.  I love this!  It's completely different from any of my other pouches.

Looks like it will be perfect for carrying some sewing supplies if I happen to be taking them somewhere!

If you're needing some more scrappy inspiration, check out Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework! 

Caribbean Blues

I've continued to hunt around in my stash for the perfect fabrics for some 16 patch blocks to add to my Rainbow 16 patch collection - and here are my finds of the week!

I've never been to the Caribbean, but these reminded me of a visit to San Diego a few years back when my family and I rented a beach house together for Thanksgiving, and we were treated to the most spectacular sunset!  These fabrics seemed like they would be just right for this month's RSC color scheme.

Below you can see my busy sewing table!

I also made a couple of 16 patches with my Tula Prince Charming scraps, and one with some Elementary scraps in teal.

The frog prince is peeking out to say hello!

Playing with the greens, blues and aquamarines - 

Happy ScrapHappy Saturday to everyone!  I'll be linking up with Angela to see what everyone else has been up to!

Red, White, and Blue Geese - a Finish

Back in April, I shared that I had been playing around with making Flying Geese blocks out of some 30s reproduction fabric scraps that a friend had shared at my quilt group meeting.  I left off with this possible layout:

This week, I decided I wanted to finish this up as a summery mini for my table, and I just completed it this afternoon!  In spite of my faulty quilt math when making these geese, it went together pretty quickly and easily!

I quilted it with wacky, wavy, organic lines in a light blue thread, and used my favorite blue and white print for the backing and binding.  To make finishing it even faster, I machine stitched the binding both to the back and the front, and I like how it turned out!

I decided it would make a nice table topper for the outdoor door table on our deck, which is where we eat most of our meals throughout the summer.

It's always a good feeling to have a little finish to share - especially a WiP that was just a pile of blocks a few days ago!

Oh - and one more fun photo from my photographer husband - my little penguins!

If you are interested in some more scrap quilting inspiration, check out Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework today.

New RSC Colors for June

As has happened every month this year, I was looking forward to seeing what colors Angela chose for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in June.  Finding out that they were "blues tending toward aqua with a pop of lime green" sent me in search of the perfect scraps for this month's blocks.

Of course, a question that came up right away for me was "What's the difference between aqua, turquoise, and teal?"  A quick Google search led me to this image from Janet Carr at thisbugslife, and an interesting discussion about just that very topic!

Of course, for my purposes, I think a mix of these colors will work, and I'm not going to get too worried about the details!  

Pretty quickly, I realized that my Tula Pink Prince Charming scraps, so generously shared with me by Cynthia from Quilting is More Fun than Housework, are the exact right mix of blues tending toward aqua, and even a little lime green!  And lucky for me, I still have some pieces that are the perfect length and width for some 16 patch blocks!

Meanwhile, I also stitched up some Monkey Wrench blocks to add to my collection.

Just for fun, my husband got out the mirage lens for his fancy camera and took a picture of my monkey blocks.  Love it!

And now I'm off to sew a few 16 patches!  Tomorrow I'll be linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Quilters for ScrapHappy Saturday to get some more aqua and lime green inspiration!