A Gift for Me

It isn't very often that I splurge on something just for me.  But recently I bought Victoria Findlay Wolfe's book Playing with Purpose.

I am so happy I did!

The book is a hard back quilt retrospective of her work. The pages are filled with beautiful quilts constructed in unique ways using interesting colors and fabrics.  

I am also drawn to her concept of Playing with Purpose.  That has always been how I approach my quilting processes.  I am okay with producing less than desirable pieces because it fine tunes my style.  I love the successes and the failures (almost) equally.

Is there a book or quilt artist that you find inspiring?

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Oh Scrap! : Start, Stop or Continue

I have been spending time in my sewing room this week evaluating a number of projects.  Which ones do I want to focus on and finish up, what projects will continue on into the new year and how many new scrap projects do I want for next year?

Friday I shared my flimsy finish of my RSC Garden Quilt.  I have also decided to sew up the last blue and pink color block for a second Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.  I just need to sew up the rows and I hope to share this one later in the week.

Sorry, I am going to make you wait to see the blocks all together!

This quilt is not an RSC quilt, but I am still cutting up my tiny scraps into 1.5" squares and making 9 patches from them.  So far I have 55 blocks.  I will need hundreds of these blocks to make a quilt so I will continue to make them as I come across tiny scraps.
This project is going to be very on-going!

So that means I get to start thinking about what Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks I will make next year.  I have pared it down to seven candidates - although the star blocks don't excite me as much as the others.  The rail fence and the basket block are in the lead right now.  But I am thinking I need to start five projects so I can make the others too!

Do you have a favorite?

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It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making)

Em's ScrapBag (Moving it Forward)

End of the Garden Season

I don't have a finished quilt to share this week but I did finish up my Rainbow Scrap Challenge garden quilt top.

Sorry about the glaring sunlight in the upper corner.  There is only one spot in my fence that I can get a photo and I had to wait all day for the sun to pass.  And I couldn't wait any longer to get this post written.  (I am not gonna complain too much - it was a beautiful fall day!)

I had a lot of fun making the blocks for this quilt throughout the year.  Once a RSC color was announced, I started thinking about what garden items worked for that color.  It was fun finding or designing blocks.  I tried to stay fairly true to the items that actually can be found in my garden.

When I went to put all the blocks together, I did have to modify some of the blocks a bit to make them work with the quilt.  And there were a few previously made ones that went into the orphan block suitcase.  They will need to be used in another quilt - they just didn't make the cut!

I made my birdhouse block with the little nuthatch bird during the winter, so it was fun to see that it was a bit prophetic.

For the first time, a Bewick's Wren nested in one of the birdhouses.  It acts just like a nuthatch - and it took me a bit to figure out what kind of bird it was.  

This little mama sure kept the bugs down in my gardens!  I hope they come back next year.

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Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

From Bolt to Beauty (Brag about your Beauties)

Alycia Quilts (Finished or not Friday)

So Scrappy for RSC19 

Design Wall Monday

I seem to have finally gotten over my impulsive quilt starting phase and am now feeling motivated to finish up some projects.  So that means a lot of my design walls are empty right now.  So I spent a bit of time moving around some blocks on my design walls.  

I thought I would share some photos.

In my sewing room, I have all of the blocks completed for this Kaffe quilt finished.  I just need to work on the final layout and sew it up.

On the other wall, is the RSC color block quilt.  I was hoping to finish up the last two blocks last night and start sewing the top together, but I was easily pulled away to go have dinner with friends.

With two finishes in the near future, I need to start thinking about some backing pieces.  Conveniently, I see Connecting Threads is celebrating their 25th Anniversary with $25 off.  

Isn't that perfect timing!

 In my quilting studio, I have this RSC project up.  I am not very excited about this one but am not quite ready to give up on it.  If I have to stare at it as I quilt, maybe I will come up with some layout ideas.  Right now, I am ready to hand them off to someone else!

I also put up the blocks for this little quilt I made from some gifted leftovers.  I need to ponder what the next steps are and decide on a background fabric.

And then there are these RSC garlic knots.  This project will be continuing on into next year, so there will not be any progress on it until 2020.

So I might be starting two or three new RSC blocks for next year. 

 I need to start thinking about what  designs I want to make!

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Connecting Threads Anniversary Sale.




***This post contains affiliate links.  I apreciate the support!

Oh Scrap! : Scrap Color Blocks

The end of the year is coming fast, so I have been evaluating my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts to determine which I want to finish and which I want to carry into next year.

One of the RSC quilts I have been working on is the simple color block quilt made with 2.5" squares.  For October, I made a couple brown blocks.

I knew I needed some red blocks - so I went ahead and finished up three from squares that I had already cut and were in my stash.

A couple of yellow blocks were needed too.

At this point, I knew I was pretty close to having enough blocks to finish the quilt.  When I moved the blocks from my quilting studio to my sewing room, I knew I needed more green blocks so I went ahead and made a few of them.

So here is what I have so far.  I still need to sew up two more blocks and adjust the layout a bit.  I think I need another dark blue and maybe a pink.

Hmmm.....What do you think?

*********************************************

It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making) 

Em's ScrapBag (Moving it Forward)

So Scrappy for RSC19  

A Baby Spin! Finish

I have been wanting to make a baby version of my Spin! pattern for quite some time.  When I teach this pattern, I always talk about this variation but until now, I never had a visual sample.

I made this version out of pink, orange and yellow scraps.  

With the scrappy border, the quilt measures 52" square.

I used a white thread to quilt some swirls that would disappear into the Kona White I used for the background.  A bright orange solid was found in my stash for the binding.

I decided to go with a pink backing with sweet white flowers.

It is certainly happy and bright!

And here is a photo of the pattern quilt.

(Of course now that I compare them, I see that I stitched the little one up with the swirl going the other way - that is what happens when you don't read your own pattern...Yeesh!)

Oh well, they both look great!

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Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

From Bolt to Beauty (Brag about your Beauties)

Alycia Quilts (Finished or not Friday)