RSC26 - Week #9

Missing from this group photo are some green string blocks that were made early in the month.  Seeing all these blocks together makes me feel happy.  I do love green and always seem to have a lot of it in the stash, and in the scrap bins too.  But after getting all of my green RSC blocks done I'm excited to move on to a new color for March sewing.  

The blue version of Who's Found the Catnip block is now hanging with the green one I did first.  I knew once I got that green one made that I just HAD to go back and do it again in blue for January.  It's a very fun addition to my RSC block sets for 2026.

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Contessa - Finished (or not) Friday

The word NOT should be spelled KNOT for this finish, and it was in danger of NOT being finished.

I bought a new spool of Cotton and Steel thread in a warm brown to blend with the binding on this quilt.  I've bought that brand before and had great results.  But KNOT this time!!!  Can you see the big KNOT circled in blue on the left side of my picture.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that every few inches - yes inches - of hand stitching I would end up with a knot like this one.  And that was WITH the thread conditioner (wax).  It took me 3 times as long as it should have to hand stitch this binding down.  

So, finally the hand stitching is finished and I can check this quilt off the UFO list, and the PHD list.  And subtract a bunch of yardage from the stash tracking totals.  It's only 58 by 66, and I'm thankful it wasn't any larger because I might have never gotten that hand stitching done.

It's Thursday!!

Today is a big day - in terms of sports and our family anyway.  

Photo shared by the mom of a teammate.

The state wrestling tournament opens this morning, and we plan to be there to cheer on our granddaughter in her matches, and her whole team as they compete. Go Lady C-Hawks!!

I can report another small finish this week.  This is the Year of Spools mini for March.  I kept the quilting simple on this one. The first one I began with was the July one last summer, so that means we're getting close to the end with only April, May, and June remaining. 

Spring banner finish

The spring mini banner is all done and ready to hang in my office, if spring ever actually arrives.  We don't have snow but it is very definitely cold here in SD. 

With the 2 banners I've made so far, I kept the quilting very simple.  A decorative stitch along the sashing and borders is really all they needed.

These are about 10" wide and 24" long, and fit perfectly between the closet and the hallway in that narrow bit of wall. 

I'm also caught up with this month's Saturday Sampler task.  We needed to make 9-patch blocks using 2.5" squares.  Four of the blocks are sewn into 1 strip, 3 into another strip, and 2 are left as single blocks. I mixed in some of the pale backgrounds used in month #1, and lots of the colors that will show up all over the quilt. 

SAHRR and more

Monday sewing was quite productive, with progress made on several small projects.  

Yards and yards of purple binding was prepped for the Zipper quilt.  This morning I plan to attach it and get the quilt trimmed so it's ready for hand stitching.  

Last week's Stay At Home Round Robin prompt was to use only 2 colors.  The 2 colors I chose were green and yellow. 

Because I had 2 narrow borders already used, I decided to echo that and just do 2 narrow borders again with the green and yellow.  

Before I could add those borders however, I added the circle units to sides 3 and 4, since I had only done 2 sides the prior week.  I still need to do the blanket stitching around the circles on those last 2 sides.  I should have smoothed it out before taking the picture as it looks like it isn't flat.  But in reality it is nice and flat.  Wonder what final prompt tomorrow will bring?

The March mini with the shamrock is ready to quilt and bind. Since these minis are only 14" square the binding will be quick.  And I'll keep the quilting simple.

Some cutting for a Quilt of Valor quilt-along was a good way to fill a small amount of time in between other tasks yesterday.  Week #1 of Alycia's QOV project is to make 6 blue versions of these simple star blocks that finish at 8".  These will come together as Leader/Ender sewing as I work on a couple of other things this week.  
https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2026/02/week-1-of-2026-winter-qov-sew-along.html

Design Wall Monday - February 23

 Here we are on the last Monday of February already.  At the end of this week we'll be attending the SD state high school girls' wrestling tournament. 

That is because our granddaughter will be participating.  She placed 3rd in her weight class at the region tournament last Thursday.  The smiling girl on the far right is Sophia. Their team actually qualified 13 of the 14 girls' weight classes to go to the state tournament which is very impressive for a relatively new high school sport.  Most teams in the state still don't even have athletes in all 14 classes yet.  Sophia is one of several 8th graders on the varsity team, so they've done well in spite of their youth.  

The spring mini vertical banner has been quilted, and the binding is ready to press and attach to it.  This is pretty small so hopefully it will be a finish this week.  

The other binding I hope to finish this week is Contessa.  I'm on the last side with the hand stitching.

And once Contessa is done, I have binding to cut and attach to another UFO - the Zipper quilt, that I just picked up from the quilter.  

Getting some binding done will mean I can check off a LOT of yardage from my stash report finally.  All the backing fabrics I've purchased recently have made the "In" number quite large compared to the "Out" number.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC26 - Week #8

I've had some fun with green again this week but only in small doses.

The Vintage Spools blocks that I cut out last weekend, are done and now in the basket with all the previous ones I've made.  I can't decide which of these 2 different spools I like the best.  The tilted ones are quicker to make, with fewer pieces.  These are 6" finished blocks so you know I'll need a lot of them for a whole quilt.

Only 1 green Give It a Whirl block happened this week.

The final green project for this month is a 14" mini quilt kit that I'm just starting.  These are small, and usually I can get them made in just a day.  But today won't be that day.  We are heading to college basketball this afternoon and then meeting some friends at a Dualling Pianos fundraiser event this evening.  Maybe tomorrow will be the day.  LOL 

There were other random scrappy fun things - with a touch of green - taking shape this week too.  Friday morning yielded a little bit of unexpected sewing time, and I used scraps from the 30s bin to make the 1st block for Sewcialites 3.  This is the 3" version of Idyllic by Chelsi Stratton.  No firm plan is in my head for Sewcialites 3 this year, beyond making at least some of the blocks in the 3" size with my 30s scraps.  That other project above has been my Leader/Ender the past week, and I'll share more on that another day.  

                                            Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/