More gifts!

I was so lucky to receive a bundle of scraps from another blogger, Elaine Therriault of Crazy Quilter on a Bike,  which got lost in the chaos of the recent postal strike for a few months, but they were worth the wait!

Beautiful shades of aqua - my favourite colour - this is pretty close to the actual colour of the fabrics, by the time the blocks got down it was getting late and the colours don't appear the same. 

I've decided to put them to use right away in a new project, and started a Baby Jane (based on the Jane Stickle quilt in the Bennington Museum, Vermont). I've had the book, Dear Jane, forever and I think a 2-colour quilt appeals to me the most. I don't know if I will do every block or triangle, so mine become an ode to Jane.

I picked 3 to start with, 2 easy ones, and one to test my piecing skills.

The first one is A-6, named Uncle Homer and was a very simple 9-patch variation:

The next was almost the same, with narrow outer edges of the 9-patch. It is B-13 Four Corner Press:

And the last, M-8 Mama's Maze:

This one has 33 pieces in a block that finishes at 4 1/2"! Mine actually came out a wee bit bigger, I think I took a scant more than a scant 1/4".  I'm using an 80-weight thread on top and in the bobbin to try and minimize any pressing issues. I had to think about how to put it together. I first started with the top row across, but quickly realized that wouldn't work for the centre. I ended up starting with the centre block and then adding the strips to the top and then the sides until I had a rectangle, and then added the top and bottom rows.

And speaking of gifts, I received another bundle from my friend, Kim. 

 This is the second batch I have received from her of this same fabric line. I would have received more but I convinced her she had enough to make a jelly roll quilt from her leftovers first. So she managed to get a queen-size quilt and a twin-size quilt, and still had leftovers! I think I need to go with her the next time she buys fabric for a project so she doesn't overbuy. This is also why I let her pick from my stash, she has given me so much (that green piece on the bottom is over 2 metres alone!)

Still working on the cleanup of my sewing room, but it sure is nice to be able to get some stuff done again.

Have a great week, 

Terri in BC

Scraphappy Saturday!

Today is the last Saturday of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I finally feel like I am getting my groove back.  First, I had to find my room! It had become a dumping ground long before Christmas, and I only had enough room to sew some of those last minute finishes. More on that in an upcoming post!

Last week, I finally was able to start tackling my scraps. I thought this was all I was going to accomplish for the month:

Garlic Knots by Bonnie Hunter (not a free patern)

But then my best friend gifted me with her leftovers from a project, which just happened to include red (we have a deal - she agreed not to throw out her scraps, and I'll let her pick through my stash when she needs something):

And this morning I started cutting down the smaller pieces to fit in my scrap-user's system, and made one more block (in just 15 minutes!)

Then I filed everything away in my scrappy block box. I call it Crummy Monday because I used to tackle all my scraps created in a week on a Monday night, a habit I'd like to get back in to.

After adding my new blocks, I decided to document the progress I've made so far:

Boxy Stars by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville (Free pattern)

String Blocks (tutorial by Bonnie Hunter here) 

Crumb Blocks (adapted from Bonnie Hunter's Crumb quilt) free pattern

Polaroid Blocks - I'm not sure who started this trend, but here is a link to a great tutorial that demonstrates the way I make them when I have a lot of blocks to do.

 I'm also committing to posting more, for my own benefit. Here are some future posts I have planned:

What I can accomplish is just 15 minutes


How to "make" money when cleaning your scraproom

Table runner made with leftover blocks (a quick tutorial)

 Have a great week,

         Terri in BC

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2019

I'm joining something new (to me) this year! I love rainbow-themed quilting and have a number of scrappy projects on the go. I'm going to join the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by soscrappy and make some progress on these UFOs this year.

From her page:
Each month I will announce a color.  Your job is to use your scraps to make something.  A block, a few blocks, a small project, an entire quilt.  The details are all us to you.  Hopefully, by the end of the year, you will have enough blocks for a quilt, or a finished project or two. 10 Colors for 2019 in no special order: red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, dark blue, light blue, purple, pink, brown or black.

These are the projects I'll be working on:

Crumb blocks - these use up my smallest bits and pieces:

I plan to use these to make a sewing machine cover using the original polyester dust cover as a pattern (and base). I'll have to take some measurements and plot how many more I need to make of each colour.

String blocks:

I have a few different projects on the go that need string blocks. This one was made for Bonnie Hunters' Zuckerwatte pattern, found in her first String Fling book. You can see all the quilts here - I have several on my to-do list. I'm going to do this in all the colours, in a variety of sizes ranging from 3 1/2" to  8 1/2" - if I don't have a quilt in mind quite yet for a particular colour, I'll make them in the largest size, because I can always cut them down. I use old telephone books as a base for sizing.

Boxy Stars:

Another Bonnie Hunter pattern - this one can be found on her Free Patterns page (she is such a generous lady):

I started this one simply to use up some of my many 2 1/2" strips.

Maverick Stars:

Another freebie from Bonnie, these are great for using up those little leftover triangles.

I'm going to do some with light backgrounds and others with the colour as the background. I think is going to be so much fun to look at when it is done. 

I know I have many more UFOS that could also fit into the Rainbow Challenge, but these four will make a good start and conceivable be finished this year as well!

I also found out how to backup my blog today! After six years of blogging, I would hate to lose it all. Here a screen shot of where to go in blogger from your design page (follow the yellow highlighter!) 

Linking up to the RSC2019 for the first time! If you are a first-time visitor, my name is Terri and I live on the beautiful West Coast of Canada, about 2 1/2 hours north of Seattle, WA. I still work full-time (about 4 years before my planned retirement), raised my 2 daughters as a single parent and now have 3 beautiful grandchildren that live on the same street as I do. My blog name reflects the fact that I am the queen of UFOs (50 at last count) and the "all-knowing goddess of everything" according to one of my friends - my mind is full of Useless Bits of Information (UBIs)! Looking forward to seeing what everybody else is up to!