Sunday, January 27, 2013

Weekend Sew In

I love a weekend that has nothing on the calendar except Saturday night dinner out! I've been taking full advantage to work on my January Sew Alongs and the last items on my January Goals.
Handmade by Heidi
FNSI with Handmade by Heidi got me off and running Friday night. Hot pink blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by soscrappy were first up. I've decided to make 6 blocks a month of each color and either add another color in December or make more of the gender neutral colors so that I'll end up with 80 blocks. That will translate into 4 quilts x 2 block styles for a total of 8 quilts to donate to Project Linus. 
 
Here are my Crossroads blocks.
 And my Birds in the Air blocks, first in a chevron layout...
and in a different layout.
I am loving both of these blocks! The Crossroads blocks make such a fun secondary pattern and the Birds in the Air blocks will give me lots of layout options. I'm wondering what color we will be sewing with in February? I've loved working with pink this month.

This weekend is also the designated Sew In weekend for the Yahoo! Stashbusters group I belong to. Yesterday I pulled out my Christmas Stretched Star UFO and spread it out on my temporary table. I find that when I have to make my own design decisions I tend to procrastinate a lot. I've had this UFO out a few times and ended up stalled so I was determined to be brave, make a decision and move forward.

These are 5" charms from a swap I did years ago of metallic Christmas florals. They are really gorgeous! Last time I touched this I decided to make a table runner instead of a square table topper to best show them off on my long dining room table, but couldn't decide on the best size. 

Yesterday (Decision Day!) 4 x 12 blocks seemed like a good size so I laid the completed blocks sewn in pairs out by background color (light, green, red and black) and added some new charms to try and balance them a bit. Sometimes a bit of logic helps me work better with scrappy! I remembered having too many poinsettia prints the last time I laid them out so I added some variety. I had one too many black background so put it in the red column.
Do you know what is scary about working on old UFOs - see that strip of background fabric on the bottom? That is ALL I have left of that fabric! Talk about pressure to not waste a scrap with a mis-cut. I very carefully cut the corner squares needed to finish the new charms, laid them out in a pleasing way and started sewing them together. Here is half of the runner laying on top of the rest of the blocks.
Today I'll lay out the rest of them, take a picture of my layout for reference (I'm terrible at messing them up during assembly!) and add the top to the ready-to-sandwich group. I'm thinking a simple grid for quilting using gold thread, I want to let these fabrics shine without distraction.
 I'm linking up to soscrappy's Scrap Happy Saturday.

19 comments:

  1. This is so pretty, Deb! I had to chuckle when you talked about the small bit of neutral that you have - I can so relate to this!! Can't wait to see your finished table runner!

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  2. Your pink blocks are looking gorgeous and to make them for project linus is a really good idea! Im also loving your Christmas fabric.

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  3. I really like your pink blocks, especially the Crossroads and the Christmas Stretched Star is gorgeous.

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  4. Stopping by from the Freemotion Quilting Project. Beautiful projects! I especially like your birds in the air, both versions.

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  5. I love the crossroads blocks in pinks! All of the blocks are great and the different layouts make decision making hard, I agree. The stretched star is also very pretty and an interesting pattern. I hope you'll post a pic of the gold quilting when it's done. Sounds lovely! Found you on Leah Day's UFO Sunday page.
    Liz
    Gypsy Dreamer Quilts

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  6. That Christmas project is turning out beautiful...great idea, the fabric really shines.

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  7. I know you are thinking about fabric for the quilt, but my dilemma became -> I don't have anything for the binding that matches. It is a great idea to always put binding fabric with the old UFOs. I learned that one the hard way.

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  8. Glad you were able to devote some quality time to sewing this weekend. You got a lot done! Love all your pink blocks. Sounds like you will have a nice collection going by the end of the year. There are some beautiful fabrics in your Christmas runner, glad you were able to get them all together at last.

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  9. Love, love, love that 'Stretch Star'...have always meant to make one (a list that's a mile long at this point!!! LOL!). Haven't done a FNSI but have enjoyed all the posts from them!! Hugs, Doreen

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  10. I so enjoyed this post because I loved looking at all the pretty Christmas fabrics up close. It is coming out great!

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  11. Your pink blocks are wonderful Deb!!! Love the Crossroads blocks of course ;*D They are going to be so much fun to do in all the different colors. And your Christmas runner is perfect! I really like that design - simple but very effective!

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  12. Wow! What lovely pink blocks and wHt a great Christmas project.

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  13. Beautiful fabrics and projects. Good plans for several lovely RSC quilts. Great post!

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  14. This project is lovely. You really must get it finished for this year. Seems a shame to have it as a UFO . I love those metallic Christmas fabrics. They look so rich. Simple quilting with gold thread sounds perfect.

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  15. You are making such wonderful progress on your goal of working on UFO's. I am so amazed at how much you have gotten done already this year! I too would be stressed to have only a small amount of fabric left :)

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  16. I love those hot pink blocks! (But that's not really surprising, I guess.) I also admire your ability to work on Christmas in January! I think it's going to take me until at least September to get excited about it! :)

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  17. Love your Birds in the air blocks! They are so fun to make. You are going to have some really pretty quilts in December.

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  18. love the pink for you RSC13. you have a couple good quilts started.

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