Wonderful Wednesday - Virtual Scrap Club {And the Amended Mystery Quilt}

A UFO Club Finish

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  If you've visited here before, you've heard of Kevin the Quilter.  I am absolutely in love with him!!  He hosts Scrap Club near his home (well... he did before covid) and he finally agreed to go virtual.  You KNOW that I love scraps, right?!?!?!

SEW...

How could I resist his very first Mystery?  You can find the Sapphire Stars QAL Announcement can be found HERE.  In looking at Kevin's post, you will notice that this QAL took place during the summer of 2017.  I had fully intended to keep up and release a single post for the entire Mystery.  Alas, that didn't happen...

Sorry, Kevin!!!

The good news is that the clues are still available over on Kevin's blog.  YOU can head over to make your very own quilt or better yet, a QOV (Quilt of Valor.)

I got off to a great start...

Sapphire Stars Mystery Clue #1 shared the cutting:

It also instructed participants on the first bit of sewing:

Light followed by dark corners:

Let's not forget marking for the "double sewing":

And the sewing:

 Plus trimming up before pressing, and even MORE trimming:

Hmm... Wonder what I will do with those little Bonus HSTs???

First units pressed and ready to go:

Clue #2 felt like a LONG time coming!!  FINALLY, the release day came and then began the sorting of the mounds of scraps:

Hard to believe that ALL THIS was jammed into those baskets:

HERE are the pieces that I cut from about HALF of those scraps:

The assembled blocks:

Clue #3 (would have) had me jumping through some hoops!  At least, the use of the Tri-Recs Tool usually makes me feel that way.  At this point,  I had some other projects in the works and this is the one that got pushed aside.  :o((

Surprise Clue!!!

Thanks for the extra clue, Kevin...  Goodness knows, I wasn't far enough behind the rest of the Mystery makers.  :P

Clue #4 saw the construction of "Up on the Housetop" blocks.  This would have been an easy clue, but this is where I really got side tracked.  Zero blocks were completed.  Sigh...

Clue #5 was the final clue (for the interior of the quilt.)  It was another challenging set of instructions (in my opinion.)  Quite manageable once you take the time to "wrap your head around it"... IF the time had been taken to actually SEW this step!

Shortly thereafter, Kevin released the assembly instructions and finishing details.

A portion of  Sapphire Stars, The Conclusion was worked on at Mountain Quilt Camp in October 2017.  First, I assembled Star centers (like a good little mystery maker):

Then, side borders were sewn:

Last, I stitched up the top and bottom borders:

My stacks of fabrics are were STILL sitting on my sewing table (all these many months years later!!)  I keep kept hoping to return to finish Kevin's lovely quilt.  Here is how his turned out:

Go visit THIS POST to get a better look at Kevin's quilt.  One of these days, I'll post a photo of MY completed quilt... whenever it is that I finally finish it! 

Oh, wait!!  That time is now...

Summer 2020 brought many new things, including a nasty virus, a new vocabulary, and a new layout for my accumulated pieces and parts of this project.  One that was on my Summer 2020 (Ravelry) UFO Club List.

I changed it up and checked it off the list!!!  You can read about that HERE.

The photo below was taken last week, as I was sewing down the binding:

What better project to finish during RED month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge???  The was PLENTY of the Color of the Month in this 3 year-old quilting project:

My completed quilt with the Blackeyed Susans...

... With the "immortal" iris...

... And with the RED Charger:

A different angle of my quilt, Sapphires. No Stars. for your viewing pleasure:

37" x 43.5"

I don't currently have a purpose for this quilt.  It began in support of my friend Kevin the Quilter's fledgling teaching career.  It was (finally) finished just to get it off my table!  Now that it's done, it will wait for its higher purpose.  You know, other than simply using up some scrap fabrics!  Whether it ends up as a donation, gift, or a throw for our patriotic-themed family room, I'm SEW happy that it's DONE.  Maybe it will end up as a "car quilt" for a classic.  :o))

Just after finishing this post, I found the following donation opportunity (one of several in a post filled with Oregon Wildfire 2020 Quilts information) posted by Lori @ Humble Quilts:

100 quilts went to Talent And Phoenix Elementary school children today. Still need another 350 twin or lap size so every child who has lost their home will have something to snuggle with. Then we will try to serve the middle and high school kids. Please help by sending new or barely used quilts to Sew Creative Ashland at 115 East Main St. Ashland, Oregon 97520

My quilt would be about the right size for a child's snuggle quilt.  It didn't take long to realize that this was where my little quilt was destined to be.  Off it goes!  :o))

Sharing with Alycia

for

Finished (Or Not) Friday

Until next time...

Unearth a UFO!!!

Tidy-Up Tuesday - {Quilted Basket} Challenge - Take Four

Welcome to another edition of Tidy-Up Tuesday!! My friend Judy @ Busy Hands are Happy Hands and I are up to our old tricks.  Throughout 2020, we have had a series of Quilted Basket Challenges as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Here's where we left off in June, Quilted Basket Challenge, Take Three was Dark Blue:

Baskets in a variety of other colors were made in other years.

This month, I needed a (bigger) RED Quilted Basket for the RSC.  My smaller (non-quilted) basket was overflowing:

SEW...

I commented on Judy's blog post:

On Sep 1, 2020, at 8:36 AM, The Joyful Quilter wrote:

 The Joyful Quilter has left a new comment on your post "ScrapHappy Saturday August 29":

What a lovely bunch of PURPLE Easy Breezy blocks to finish out the month, Judy! Are you up for a RED basket challenge for September??? I could stand to add a larger container for my scraps.

Judy's response soon followed:

You are on, Joy!  Let’s do it! I’ve cleared a shelf and everything! 

Sent from my iPad

What happened then, Joyful???

Quilted Basket Challenge, Take Four...

I had other projects to focus on prior to starting on my basket, but decided to work on it as I created my Hello Fall Blog Hop project:

The Leader/Ender thing actually worked this time:

By the time my Hop project was done, I had made a really good start on my RED Quilted Scrap Basket:

Next came sewing and pressing pairs of pairs...

... And since the Leader/Ender thing was working well for me, I decided to make some progress on my niece's wedding quilt while assembling the pieces of my RED Quilted Scrap Basket:

Chunks were sewn together:

This was the preliminary layout that I posted on Due Day...

You see, Judy and I had decided to share our COMPLETED baskets at Angela's LINK PARTY on September 26th.  With the deadline in the books and NO basket to show for it, I finally assembled my scrappy RED basket panel:

Then, it was time to choose a lining for my basket...

That's where this J. Crew shirt comes into play:

While it was one of the most beautifully made shirts I've seen in a long while, the weight of the fabric and its various shades of RED would make a great lining:

I only felt bad for about a minute after disassembling (deboning?) the shirt before I had it layered up with my basket panel and a scrap piece of batting...

... Pinned and ready for quilting:

I try to do something a little different on each basket:

Matchstick quilting was my weapon of choice for this one:

NOT the best option when you are in a hurry (or if you get bored easily!), but if there's no rush (and your deadline has passed, anyway), it adds a LOT of texture to any quilted piece:

Trimmed and assembled into a basket shape...

... I chose a binding from the Scrap Binding drawer:

This empty bobbins shows that I had NO THREAD left after attaching the binding and stitching it down...

Thread chicken?  I win!!!  :o))

Amazingly enough, there was JUST ENOUGH to finish sewing down the binding!!  The end of the thread pulled out of the bobbin as I took the basket from the machine...

... Promptly loaded it with my RED fabric scraps...

... And took pictures...

... From every side:

I dumped the scraps on the sewing table to take my new Quilted Scrap Basket out into the garden...

For a photo with one of the LAST Blackeyed Susans of the season:

On the porch rail:

With the LAST white iris of the (third) season of this year:

Oh!  Let's not forget a shot with DH's latest toy:

Here is one final shot in the late afternoon sunshine, to give you a better look at the binding I chose and another look at the glorious texture that I quilted into my RED Quilted Scrap Basket:

Sharing with Cynthia

for

Oh Scrap!

Until next time...

Scrapping to infinity (and beyond!!)

Just one more photo of the bottom of the basket, which I was hoping (a little of this section) would make it up onto a side: