Design Floor Friday - S's T-Quilt

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  Today, we see S's T-Quilt beginning to take shape.  It's been on the floor since Tuesday of this week, but it was playing shy and didn't really have a lot to say to me.  I began with Big Brother's T-Quilt underneath just to get a general idea of the amount of fill-in work I would have to do (in order to somewhat replicate the size.):

While it remained quiet, the quilt's color balance was in a good place at the end of the day:

Wednesday came and I (finally) got a (small) start on S's T-Quilt, combining ELEVEN of the shirts into three quilt blocks...

One:

 Two:

Three:

Friday arrived and here is what I added...

Filler and fluff...   :o))

If you are wondering what that means (to me), I'll explain:

Working on one square at a time, I began to make decisions about further distributing the color around the quilt and adding bits and pieces to expand the blocks into a cohesive quilt top.  It's a SLOW process, but well worth at the end of the project.

Until next time...
Get YOUR quilt on!!!

The Joyful {Quilty} Orphan Adoption

Updated 2/21/16 - The Joyful {Quilty} Orphan Adoption is now CLOSED!!!

I've tried to link-up with the Oh Scrap! Link Party over at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, but never had any luck.  I'm not quite sure what I was doing wrong, but when I saw that Cynthia was hosting the Spring 2016 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event, I thought that I should try again.  Hopefully, if you click on the icon below, it will take you directly to the auction offerings page:

(If the button doesn't work, CLICK the event title in the paragraph above.)

ADOPTION DETAILS:

1. My quilty orphan adoption will run from 12:01 AM (EDT) Friday, March 18, 2016 through 11:59 PM (EDT) on Sunday, March 20, 2016.

2. Winners will be selected from interested parties via the "name in a hat" method for those items with multiple "bidders".  Drawing will take place on Monday, March 21st.  Winners will be emailed that day and a blog announcement will be made on Wednesday, March 23rd.

3. Please leave a comment CLEARLY STATING WHICH ORPHAN YOU ARE INTERESTED IN RE-HOUSING!!!  (Charity quilting is preferred, but not necessarily required - see individual listings for details.)

4. Winners will be responsible for paying shipping from Hillsborough, North Carolina to your location.

ORPHAN LISTINGS:

1. THIMBLEBERRIES - This listing is for a stack of THIMBLEBERRIES fabrics.  The stack includes everything from scraps, to FQs, to 6" wide border strips.  (Donation intent NOT required, but appreciated.)

2. GREEN/PINK - This listing includes one and one-quarter yard of GREEN fabric with PINK "flowers".  FOUR 9-Patch Blocks, a scrap of "double-pink" fabric and a scrap of double-pink/brown fabric, and FIFTEEN 4-Patch Blocks.  (These orphan bits MUST be incorporated into a DONATION project!!)

Here's a close-up for a better idea of what the yardage looks like:

3. ANIMAL TALK - This listing is for one yard of ANIMAL TALK PATCHWORK by Spring Industries.  It's perfect for your next baby quilt!  (Donation intent NOT required.)

(Please note that the colors in this print are springier than they appear in the photo above.)

More like the photo below:

4. GELLI PRINT - Are you feeling artsy?  This listing is for one hand dyed, hand stenciled, hand painted gelli print.  100% cotton fabric, acrylic paint with fabric medium added.  (For art quilt exploration ONLY!!)

(Please note that the background fabric is a little bit browner than it appears in the photo above.)

5. BIRD IN HAND - This listing is for one piece of BIRD IN HAND by Country Threads for Benartex.  It measures approximately two and one-half yards.  (Donation intent not required.)

NOTICE:

This is a Give-Away!!  Items are offered FREE of charge.  Winners ONLY need to reimburse for shipping from 27278 (USA.)

Until next time...
Get Quilty!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC16 - Week 11

Welcome to Week 11 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week got off to a slow start.  That was a pleasant change from my normal thousands of things to do each day of most weeks.  Time to breathe and just be.  Ahh...

SUNDAY took me up to the sewing room to deal with...

The bag of scraps that Candy brought to Quilt Group on Thursday:

Thank you, Candy!!  I always enjoy seeing what new scraps I'll have to play with.  This time it's a few bits of your special Indonesian fabric scraps.  See the blue with squares in the photo above.

I'm SEW excited!!!

 Along with the scraps that Candy brought, I had a MAJOR scrap infusion from Jean the same day:

Would you believe it took me a half hour to sort them all?!?!

The small bag on the LEFT used to hold my batik scraps.  The top half of the large bag on the RIGHT came out of Jeans two scrap bags:

Thanks, Jean!!!  The bag even held a few surprises...

I got a couple of Pear Squares from the "Pear Phase" that Jean went through a while back:

As if that wasn't enough...

The small (gallon) bag that once held my batiks now holds a wealth of Jean's hand dyed leftovers:

SEW beautiful!!!

When I was done, I went off to get DS1 from college.  Spring Break began when classes ended on Friday.  I left around 1:30 and got back around 8:30.  We had many errands to run!  The good news is that our errands included a Mom and son "dinner date."  Always enjoyable!!

On MONDAY there were miscellaneous errands to run and laundry to do.  (Did I mention that DS1 was home for Spring Break???  Yes, Mt. Washmore is higher than ever!!)  I managed to finish the LAST square and assembled the final row for O's T-quilt:

I also prepped an RSC block and did part of the sewing:

 TUESDAY was my weekly Knit Group meeting.  That evening, I found that Angela posted:

Column Along March Block - Butterfly

WEDNESDAY was reserved for QUILTING!!! I took the time to add the border blocks to O's T-quilt.  I also completed ONE Maverick Star Block that I began the other day:

On THURSDAY morning, I made my way to Quilt Group.  When I got home, I assembled the completed rows of O's T-quilt into a top:

Approximately 50" x 70"

This week FRIDAY was a FREE DAY for me.  No errands, no chores, no work!  I chose to begin the design process on S's T-quilt.  I did get far, but I got a start.

The first layout mimicked that of her brother's quilt:

Then I combined some things:

Next, I will have to figure out some fill-in options because she's only 5 and all the clothes are smaller.

SATURDAY morning, I woke up EARLY to help Mr. Joyful get ready for Robotics Competition.

Unfortunately, Angela had not posted the LINK PARTY over at the So Scrappy Blog.  :o((

I'll join in later, but I'm off to get ready for Quilt Bee.  It's so early that I will have to see what all of the other RSC Quilters have been up to this week... later!  Would you wait for me???

No?  I didn't THINK so!!  That's OK... enjoy yourself and I'll catch up tonight.  :o))

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC16 - Week 10

Welcome to Week 10 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  Each week I link-up with Angela over at the So Scrappy Blog.  She is the host of the RSC16, a project that is near and dear to my heart.  The Rainbow Scrap Challenge encourages us to USE our fabric scraps!! Angela has even designed a Column-Along Sampler Quilt for this year's Challenge.  Feel free to join in at any time.

On SUNDAY, I found that Denise Russart at Justquiltin Blog is hosting a Barn Dance Quilt A Long. Unlike other QALs that she's hosted, there isn't a set schedule for block releases.  You will have to keep checking back to see when she has moved on to the next step.  Here is Denise's photo of what the quilt will look like when it is done:





I just found out that one of my nieces is engaged to be married (Congrats, Robyn!!!) and Denise is making her version for a wedding quilt, too.  Perfect!!  Now to decide on a color scheme...

MONDAY - Happy Leap Day!!  Knit Group met today.  There were so many scheduling conflicts that it was either today or Friday.  Quite frankly, Friday was simply TOO far away!!

In addition to it being Leap Day, it is also the LAST day of February.  You know what that means, don't you?  It's time for the Month in Review.  I made...

ONE (1) Maverick Star Block:

ONE (1) Slab Block:

ONE (1) String Block:

ONE (1) Tiny Nine:

For a total of FOUR (4) blocks made during BROWN month (with accents of pink):

But, WAIT!!!  There's more...



FOUR (4) Rainbow Crumb Blocks were made (even though some of the blocks don't look very crumb-like):

4 + 4 = 8

February's grand total to EIGHT (8) blocks produced:

How's that for finding a bit of balance?!?!

On TUESDAY, since it's the 1st day of March, I want to share the news of Angela's March Color Announcement.  Below, you will find her color inspiration photo:

Can you guess???

Perhaps, THIS photo of my current manicure can help.  I'm shocked that I chose a shade of...

The Color of the Month for March:

Angela threw in an accent color of the daffodils STILL blooming in my front garden:

YELLOW!!  :o))

WEDNESDAY, I sorted through the options for my niece's wedding quilt...

Option One is a combination of scraps gifted to me by my dear friend, Diane.  It's a combination of Modern prints and a hand full of solids:

Option Two is pulled from my "basket" of multi-colored scraps:

Option Three is my bag of batik scraps:

Each of these options come with an inherent set of challenges and, honestly, I'm not confident that ANY of them hold enough fabric for the quilt that I shared with you on Sunday.  Even if I discount the fact that I will need to source background fabric elsewhere in the stash!!


On THURSDAY morning, I went to take K and L to school.  That was BEFORE my Quilt Group meeting at Joanna's Mountain.  After the meeting, the ladies lunched at Bennett Pointe Grill and after that, I came home to play in my PURPLE and yellow scraps:

While waiting for our new KING SIZED bed to arrive, I pulled some PURPLE fabrics for a Maverick Star Block, but didn't manage to find any yellow for the background squares:

Later that night, after the new bed was made and all of DS2's scholarship paperwork was complete, I took a look around BlogLand and THIS is what I found:

I saw it in Gramma's Quilting Room and followed her link to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Both blog posts made for interesting reading.  If you are in one of my "Real Life" quilt groups or The Stash Busters Challenge on Ravelry... you KNOW that I have a problem, too....

FRIDAY proved to be a productive day, in between running up and down the stairs peering at O's quilt (read more about that in this Design Floor Friday post) and stitching at the machine, I completed...

ONE Tiny Nine in PURPLE with a yellow center:

ONE Rainbow Crumb Block (that looks like it was trying to imitate a Log Cabin Block) done in the Colors of the Month:

ONE Slab Block in PURPLE with yellow accents:

And THIS strange strippy thing...

... Was magically transformed into ONE String Block in PURPLE with a touch of yellow:

On SATURDAY, I took DS2 to All-State Auditions (for Concert AND Jazz Band.) Yes.  He COULD have driven himself, but auditions were a LONG way away and he wanted to get some extra sleep on the way there... and on the way back!!

When I got home, I was tired, but managed to finish this post and join Angela's LINK PARTY.

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Design Floor Friday {... On Saturday} O's T-Quilt

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  It's been quite a while since I've posted about anything on the design floor...  because it's been a LONG TIME since I've had anything out there to share.  On Wednesday, I had O's T-quilt laid out for your viewing pleasure (and to try to decide how to proceed with this quilt!!)

Yes!  I realize that Wednesday is NOT Friday, but that will just have to be OK!!

This quilt is due for a Spring delivery and Spring is on its way.  Don't think that I haven't been doing ANYTHING toward this goal!  I did purchase the backing fabric on my recent trip to Foust and Mary Jo's.  Actually, I bought TWO different fabrics for the back of this quilt!!  The first was nixed by O's mother. The second was approved.

It was a stroke of genius on my part!  I've know O since he was 2 years old.  I know his affinity for "cozy pants."  I also know that the entire family are die-hard NC State Wolfpack fans.  What better choice than a fleece fabric covered in helmets, basketballs, and team letters?!  :o))


SEW...


The quilt is out on the floor and it's been through several iterations, which, I thought you might like to see.  You would, wouldn't you???  I thought so!!

Take a look at...

Version One was basically the result of throwing all of the shirts down and attempting to arrange them so that there weren't too many of one color clumped together:

In Version Two, I moved a few things around.  The bright green lion pajama top didn't work for me up in the top corner.  Measures were taken to consolidate some of the pieces for good balance in the bottom row of shirts:

Version Three is MUCH closer to a pleasing arrangement for me.  However, I feel that there MUST be a better spot for the white skull and cross bones on black:

For now, it's back to the drawing board!  (That's because there is one or two more items to be fit in to the front of the quilt.)  Then it's back to the cutting board.  Followed by a trip to the sewing machine. Maybe tomorrow...


Which (ultimately) brought us to Friday!!  (See?  I told you.) 


The bottom half of the quilt (rows) was pieced:

Which left the top half:

Only the upper left hand corner remains...

... Along with some filler squares to balance out the rows.

 The only problem was that my computer wasn't connecting to the internet on Friday, so I'm posting this on Saturday.  :o((

Until next time...
I'll be juggling quilt squares!!!