ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC17 - Week 30

Welcome to Week 30 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  Another fun-filled week here at The Joyful Quilter.  Shall we have a look? I'll give you a clue... Quilting was involved!!  :o))


It actually started off on Saturday, AFTER posting to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Link Party:

More info can be found HERE.

SUNDAY - Today was spent packing up for an adventure.  I also pieced this little H block:

It's going to be the label of a recently completed quilt.
I made it in BLUE for the RSC (and it suits the quilt back.)

MONDAY - Adventure time!!  Sew-In Mini Marathon - Day One

My mantra was "Do something you NEED to do BEFORE doing what you WANT to do!!"

SEW...

Today, I trimmed my Bluff Quilt in Brown.  Selected binding fabric.  Made and applied binding.  Moved on to sewing the rows of my Rainbow Picnic Sew Along Blanket:

But...

I played "Binding Chicken" and LOST:

So... Bluff Quilt in Brown remains UNFINISHED.  :o((

TUESDAY - Sew-In Mini Marathon - Day Two

Once again, my mantra was "Do something you NEED to do BEFORE doing what you WANT to do!!"

SEW...

I trimmed up Bluff Quilt in Blue.  Made and applied binding. Machine stitched the binding down, as today's game of "Binding Chicken" went in my favor:

There was JUST enough.  Here I am closing up the last inch or so:

Details can be found in next week's Wonderful Wednesday post.

Moved on to assembling the scrappy top of my Rainbow Picnic Sew Along Blanket:

Only 3 seams remain:

The rows are sewn in "twosies" and the final row has been attached to the final set of two rows for a "threesie."  Progress!!  :o))

AND, if you can believe it...

Before dinner (a somewhat late dinner), I got the quilt top done:

As if THAT wasn't enough...

After dinner, I loaded a friend's Bicycle Quilt for quilting.

WEDNESDAY - Today's toss up was between a stay-at-home day or a Sew Day at Needleb's house.  What do YOU think I chose???

WRONG!!!

I stayed home.  :P

First, I did some blog hopping before getting to work. In my travels around BlogLand, I found that Alycia had posted the next clue (Clue 3) for her A6 Mystery quilt.  Now that I've got the fabric situation sorted, I hope to start my own A6 by next week.

Next came the basting AND quilting of this quilt in just 4 hours:

55 x 65

Then, I went next door to help my neighbor.  Whew!! What a day!

Here's another look at Maggie's Bicycle Quilt... as quilted by me:

And another.  What a FUN quilt:

And another.  Thanks for trusting me with your quilt, Maggie!

THURSDAY - A long day with friends and I was too tired to do any kind of sewing task.  Does it count that I actually THOUGHT about loading another quilt on the frame??  :o))

FRIDAY - My short day with friends.  Oh!  Guess what?  Today, Kevin released Clue #2 of the Sapphire Star Mystery.  Hooray!! When I got home this afternoon, I dug out the appropriately colored scrap baskets:

Let the sorting begin!!

While my scrap stash IS sorted by color, it is NOT -necessarily- sorted by size.  It was QUITE an undertaking to go through these overflowing baskets.  (Took the better part of an hour!)

What a difference THIS...

... Made to my scrap baskets:

SATURDAY - Hooray!!  It's LINK PARTY day for the RSC.  What a week it was!!  While working on the Bicycle Quilt the other day, DS1 made some sort of comment regarding the longarm and my productivity.  He asked, "Have you EVER quilted THIS many quilts in so short a time?"  The answer is NO!!!  I have NEVER BEFORE quilted THREE quilts in ONE WEEK!!!

This was DEFINITELY a week for the (personal) record books.

For the RSC Quilters... the color BLUE was involved.  Just NOT even in the production of Scrap Jar Stars.  I still haven't found the background pieces.  They've been missing for a month!!  :o((

Oh, and I'll have to catch up with all of you later today or sometime tomorrow.  DH and I are off to my MIL's.  We will be there to celebrate a happy day with her.  DS1 is already over that way and DS2 is at a party for his best friend, who is celebrating his own happy day.  I'm off to finish up making the cake.

Have a HAPPY day, you two!

Linking up with Cynthia for
Oh Scrap!

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Wonderful Wednesday - Rainbow Love

Welcome to the next edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  This week's post is about the little quilt I made over the weekend.

I didn't buy a card for my friend Kim's wedding, SEW... I decided to make one... At the last minute!  I think it turned out better (and more useful) than a "regular" card:

I started by piecing a rainbow of colorful strips.

Then, I wrote the word LOVE on freezer paper.  Next, I applied the freezer paper to the top of my rainbow strip set and free-cut around the line to make the letters chunky enough to sew down.

I usually use block letters when doing free cutting, but I wanted the letters to (mostly) be attached to one another.  (I was in a hurry!)

NOTE:  If you want smaller letters to stay together when free-cut, make sure to USE A SHORTER STITCH LENGTH!!!  (I forgot this handy tip while working on my little quilt.)  A couple of my sections separated.  Oops!!

Here are a few in-process pictures...

The freezer paper template and the rainbow scrap strata:

HERE is what it looks like on the other side:

The nearly completed quilt with the PERFECT binding option:

They LOVED the little quilt and gave it a place of honor in the reception hall:

A friend saw it when she walked in and said, " I bet Joy made that." Of course, I did!!  The BEST part of this project is that you can make it ANY size in ANY fabric.  The WORST part of this project is that I forgot to add a fusible product to the strata BEFORE cutting out the word.  That would have streamlined the applique process.  Adding bits and pieces AFTER cutting is NO FUN!!

This was my DrEAMI project for July.

Off to see if Sandra is having a Link-up over at MMM! Quilts.

Until next time...
Quilting is LOVE!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC17 - Week 29

Welcome to Week 29 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week is filled with activities.  What are the chances that I will get anything done on my quilting projects?  Let's have a look...

SUNDAY - Catching up on what's happening in BlogLand today. Later in the day, I loaded Bluff Quilt in Brown on the frame:

MONDAY - Off to Knit Group first thing in the morning.  This afternoon...  I took a road trip to Find X Designs in Sanford, North Carolina to see if they had fabric appropriate for my A6 Mystery:

Good news!!

I am no longer a fabric short, as they had the JUST the color that I was looking for:

Along with an unusual backing option, a floral designed knit fabric. AND... A really good yellow that I couldn't pass up!

Totally NOT related to the A6 project... Oops!

I was also able to order some Pfaff parts for my machine.  Hooray!! I'm SEW excited that I will FINALLY be able to stop struggling to thread my machine.  Darned aging eyes!!

I enjoyed some pleasant views of Jordan Lake on the way home:

Later, a mountain of miniature quilts...

... Complete with tales of the speaker's family heritage...

And some U.S. history, as told by Susan Pierce.

A cloudy sunset coming out of the Quilt Guild meeting:

Tonight when I got home from Quilt Guild I found that Rachel posted the finishing for her Rainbow Picnic Blanket.

TUESDAY - Today is a stay-at-home day... or is it???  NOPE!!

I did some chores around the house then went shopping for the backing of my Rainbow Picnic Blanket.  I'm not sure what's come over me, but I went with an another unconventional quilt backing. Especially, since it's supposed to be water resistant for being thrown on the ground for picnics:

Perfect, don't you think?!  Especially for BLUE month.  Hard to believe that it's a stretch denim!!!

AND... The backing for Molly's Tie Quilt:

The toile' was difficult to photograph and has a much lighter background than it would appear.  It's off-white instead of beige. Hooray!!  Another BLUE fabric for the RSC (though NOT a scrap.)

By this point, there wasn't really enough time to go home before leaving for Girls' Night Out...

So, I headed straight for Mebane Knights.  We had a bit of a revolving door this evening and did a fair amount of project swapping:

The photo above shows me knitting on Tracy's sock, Tracy binding off on Hilary's cowl, and Hilary ripping back the project that I brought to work on and hopefully complete:

It's RAINBOW, people... for the RSC, of course!!

Oops!!  Hilary's current project can be seen on the table, but her hands appear to be hiding from the camera!

Anyway, I arrived early and left early to attend my monthly Quilt Bee meeting, where I had a productive evening laying out the squares for my Rainbow Picnic Sew-Along:

The squares are all stacked up for another day:

Several online friends have been using the paper plate system and I thought it would make a good way to transport the squares.
Thanks, Quilt Diva Julie!!  (Among others... namely, my friend, Dee.  Thank you, Dee!  Your quilting through thick and thin is a true inspiration.)  See Julie's example @ bottom of THIS post.

WEDNESDAY - Another stay-at-home day, a real one this time, since Needleb is off visiting family out west.  I miss our weekly Sew Day.  :o((

I took the time to start quilting Bluff Quilt in Brown:

You can read more about that in my Wonderful Wednesday post.

THURSDAY - A long day spending time with a friend.  When I got home, I took Bluff Quilt in Blue down off the UFO shelf:

And started quilting:

FRIDAY - A short day taking care of a friend. Upon arriving home, I got back to work on Bluff Quilt in Blue.  After dinner, I finished the quilting:

I'm really glad that I had (at least) one UFO in BLUE to work on.

SATURDAY - It's LINK PARTY day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  Angela hosts the party each week so that the RSC Quilters can share their work using the Color of the Month.  As a reminder, July is:

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Wonderful Wednesday - Thread Chicken

Welcome to another installment of Wonderful Wednesday!!  It's been a while, but today I have some exciting news to share...

Bluff Quilt in Brown was loaded on the frame and ready to quilt.

SEW...

I chose thread and began quilting:

I wasn't sure how much thread it would take, nor was I versed in the fine art of estimating how far the end of a thread cone will go.  I figured that I would find out soon enough!!  (fingers crossed)

In essence, I played a game of "Thread Chicken."  This is the LAST corner of the quilt:

That was AFTER missing one section of side basting AND opting to pin the final roll of the quilt top!!

Care to venture a guess as to how much thread remained???

Not much!  Have a look for yourself:

Only the length of the thread path!!!  Yep!!  From the needle to the cone holder.  YIKES!!!  That was TOO close for comfort!!

Note:  The Baptist Fan template board was used on this quilt and ate less than ONE prewound bobbin for the whole thing.

Until next time...
Quilt tag!  You're it!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC17 - Week 28

Welcome to Week 28 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week held a wonderful treat for me.  It included not one, but TWO Sew Days!

Let's see if that did me any good...

SUNDAY - Where did the day go?!  BlogLand.  I spent the bulk of the day catching up with the RSC Quilters, writing up the notes from yesterday's monthly Quilt Bee meeting, and getting a start on this post.  I like to work up an outline on Sunday, so all I have to do is drop in the week's activities as the days go by.  It works for me.

The Basket family went out to celebrate DS2's birthday.  
Unfortunately, his 1st choice was CLOSED!!  :o((

PERMANENTLY.  Much disappointment for the celebrant.

No worries!  His 2nd choice was delicious!!  :o))

MONDAY - I spent the day with a friend that I haven't seen in quite a while.  We had a fun-filled day by sharing some time with my Knit Group, scouring for bargains at the local Used Book Store, and enjoying a bite of lunch.  Not much got done once I got back home in the late afternoon.  I was involved in baking a birthday cake and yummy making dinner.

TUESDAY - This morning I added the finishing touches on this week's Tutorial Tuesday post and set off for a Sew Day at Diane's.

Wide sections of border assembled for Bluff Quilt in Brown:

Trimmed up Clue #1 of Kevin's Sapphire Star Mystery.  RSC Quilters, please notice the BLUE for July:

Attached the short borders on Bluff Quilt in Brown:

After lunch, I rushed off to an overdue hair appointment.  The evening was spent knitting with a friend.

WEDNESDAY - I hoped to get some quilting done before heading out to J's for the day.  The more important task became searching for a project to take along.

I ended up taking the kitchen sink!!

OK, not really, but my large IKEA bag was filled with a variety of projects to keep me busy for the day.  I made corner units for my Bluff Quilt in Brown and completed the top:

Finished cutting the squares for the Rainbow Picnic Sew-Along:

and

Came up with some quilting ideas for the Birthday Quilt:

All in all, it was a VERY good day!!  (Even if I forgot the book credits for the quilting designs.  Sorry random quilt book author!)

THURSDAY - That was FAST!!  I can't believe it's Thursday!  I stayed late helping my friend and then had to go grocery shopping. Do you have ANY idea how dangerous it is to shop on an empty stomach?!?!  Speaking of that empty stomach...

Dinner was late (because DH was late getting home.)  How does he manage to be late on the day that I am the hungriest???  LOL

Happy FRIDAY!!  Today was another busy day.  When I got home from helping my friend, I got ready to go out with some friends.

Tonight was our Triple/Double Date Night.  To commemorate the event, here is a photo from the "dessert" place, Dick and Jane's:

The photo above was taken as a nod to some of my knitting friends.

Note to self:  DO NOT go to Mebane Knights on Live Band night. The music is TOO loud!!

SATURDAY - It's my favorite day of the week.  LINK PARTY day!  The best part is that today, I have time to follow all the links and catch up with what the other RSC Quilters have been doing this week.  Won't YOU come along to see all of the BLUE goodness?

Linking up with Cynthia

for Oh Scrap!

over at Quilting is More fun than Housework.

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Tutorial Tuesday - QAL Waffles and a Quilt Top?!?!

Welcome the next edition of Tutorial Tuesday!!  I'm still running two weeks behind on my posts, but I suppose you're used to that by now.  I have to tell you how much FUN making this quilt has been.

Thank you, Amanda Jean, for sharing this pattern with us!!

What's with the title of this post, Joyful?

Well...  I chose the background and cornerstone fabrics and was all set to sew.  Then I laid out a portion of the blocks...

Week 4 - Assembly... or NOT.

I had an idea that I wanted to try out:

It took...

Several iterations...

Before coming to...

The right sizing for the space:

It also took one more look at where I began...

And a stack of Britt's black fabrics...

In order to verify this was what my June was asking for:

I got to work on finishing off the bordering of my cornerstones:

Before I knew it, I had used a variety of Britt's black prints:

You know what THAT means, don't you???

It was time to lay things out on the Design Floor:

We also tried out some additional setting triangle options:

Maybe black or a white on black print:

Or perhaps a print with a black background:

I'm also waffling about what fabric to use AND if I can realistically participate in Kevin the Quilter's Sapphire Stars Mystery, along with Rachel's Rainbow Picnic Sew-Along.  Only time will tell.

Time...

... A trip to my Weekly Quilt Group (that I've been missing for months) will tell:

Thanks for the use of your design wall, Joanna!  Thank you to the Cherry Creek Lane Quilters for their valuable opinions, too.

... And the very LAST minute!!!  See the clock in the photo below.

I present my June quilt QAL quilt top:

51 x 68

Seriously... I finished it at 11:55 PM on June 30th!!!  

Here is the quilt backing that I chose for it:

If YOU love this fabric, I've got about 8 more yards or so.  Leave me a comment to that effect and maybe we can work a deal.

Dropping a link @ Crazy Mom Quilts (on Friday)

Stop by to see all of the other June QAL quilt.  You are sure to be SEW amazed by the variation in a single pattern.

and

Dropping a link @ Oh Scrap!

There should be quite a few wonderful scrappy projects for your viewing pleasure.  I bet that YOU will find (at least) one that you will want to start sewing right away.

Until next time...
Quilting along is FUN!!!