Down the Rabbit Hole (or how many projects can I work on in two days)

Welcome back, once again! I have been sewing, but neglecting to post - I must do better. Heads up, this is an extra-long post.

Thanks to an extra-long weekend, I was able to sew for two full days. I needed to finish the girls Easter dresses, so of course, I pulled out on old project to see where I was at! Talk about being a major procrastinator.

The project I pulled out was the 365 Challenge by Kathryn Kerr in Australia (https://www.365challenge.com.au/). This is what it will look like when it is finished - I'm doing mine in black/grey, red, and white/cream.

She started this challenge in 2016, and I did start it then, but intended it to be a long term project. Here's where I'm at so far - 35 3.5" blocks, and the centre medallion.

Each year she offers the same blocks, but sometimes in a different order. I decided to finish the centre medallion, so I started making the chevron/flying geese blocks when I realized I had some other fabric that would work perfectly with this project. .So far I have made two of the side strips. The fabric from the other project is the words on the right-hand side of the flying geese.

This is when I fell down the rabbit hole - that other project kept nagging at me - all of the fabrics would work so well in this quilt, so I pulled it out.

It was a kit I bought on sale for $25 at my local quilt shop, Hamels Fabrics, about 5-6 years ago. It was a panel and the two fabrics that make up the border. I had also bought some coordinating fat quarters and eventually a great piece of lime green from a different manufacturer/designer also called Wordplay - perfect to brighten up the black/white design.

First, I cut the panel into the individual blocks, then choose specific words from the lime green and raw-edge appliqued them on the blocks.

(my personal favourite...)

Once that was done, I placed strips varying in size from 1.5" to 2.5", log cabin style to bring the blocks up to approximately 13.5". 

Once I had the blocks done, I used my design wall (bed), added a few strips where a couple of blocks were short, and webbed the quilt. By that night, I had the top completed! (still need to press it and take a picture). Now all those fabrics are free to be used in my 365 project!

In between, I also worked on some leaders and enders - Step 4 of On Ringo Lake by Bonnie Hunter:

and 1.5" nine-patches:

 By now, it was Saturday night, and I still had to sew the facings down on the girls' dresses. I put the buttons on and set up their goodies for the morning visit.

We had an Easter egg hunt at the neighbours, and then it was warm enough to even pull out the small pool!

So how many projects did I end up working on? Five in all! If I could only do this every weekend, I'd make progress on my many UFOS!

A new year, a new challenge!

It's a new year, so it was time to find a new challenge.  I wanted one that didn't require me to purchase much fabric, rather I wanted to use what I had on hand. I also wanted one that would get me in the sewing room, but not take up too much time, so that I would be inclined to stay in there and work on my massive UFO pile.

I found my challenge, thanks to a fellow quilter! The 365 Challenge Quilt Blocks features mostly 3" finished blocks, but also has some 6" blocks, 12" corner blocks and a 15" medallion centre.  Every day you make a block and at the end of the year, you have a 90"x90" sampler quilt. And as a bonus, it's free (although they are asking for a small donation to offset the server costs - it's easy to do through Paypal).

I love little blocks and most of these only took a few minutes, but that bonus block with its 28 pieces in a 3" block did take about a 1/2 hour. I did switch the colour scheme of the block for Day 3, but the Red Cross just had to be in red & white!

Didn't too bad with matching the seams though!  I can't promise that will always happen, but I take this one!

I used the Easy Angle template to cut my matched pairs of half-square triangles. I swear by this template to create exact-sized HST that only require the dog ears to be trimmed.

Look at those babies - they are 1 1/4" square, and finish at 3/4" inside the block!

These tiny pieces need to be pressed with the seams open, which I don't normally do. I did end up with a few "twisted sisters", but overall the open seams really do help with accuracy on the front!

I'm using an old line of fabric - I had a layer cake of Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater from Moda, and with a few solids, I can make quite a few blocks.  The yardage requirements are quite high for this quilt, but Moda is launching Volume II of the same line in the spring, so if I am keeping up, I can buy similar fabric then.

It's not too late to join the challenge. You can sign up on  Facebook or on the website http://www.365challenge.com.au/. Hope you join me!