Wonderful Wednesday - {Hawaiian Holiday Remembered}

Happy New Year!!!  Can you BELIEVE that this is what I found in my garden on New Year's Eve??? A blooming daffodil.  Totally unheard of in DECEMBER, as it's a SPRING flower... and it's BLOOMING in the WINTER!!!

My family recently returned from a long-awaited holiday.  A Hawaiian Holiday!  It was a dream come true and yet it took a near-death experience to bring it about.  When a child has a life-threatening illness, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is contacted by someone with knowledge of the child's condition, in our case, DS2's hospital social worker referred him for a wish.

Once DS2 was approved to receive a wish, he was visited by volunteers from Make-A-Wish of Eastern North Carolina to assess what kind of wish he might like.  It was a TOUGH decision, since his school community (and CRHS Bands) had been so generous during his hospitalization!

The majority of wishes fall into five categories:

1. I wish to go...
2. I wish to be...
3. I wish to meet...
4. I wish to have...
5. I wish to give...

Ultimately, DS2 decided that a family trip to Hawaii might make up for some of the stress our family went through (and, at that time, was still expecting to go through during his scheduled heart surgery - which was subsequently - indefinitely - postponed.)  His illness came during DS1's senior year of high school and severely impacted the family as a whole.  Thank you Make-A-Wish for a fun and relaxing vacation.  We enjoyed spending quality time together as a family.

While on Oahu, our family enjoyed a luau, a helicopter tour, a snorkel excursion, and a Pearl Harbor tour.  If you need ANYTHING while on the island, we found that (any one of the bajillion) ABC Stores has exactly what you want!!  On the "mainland" ABC Stores are strictly for wine and spirits. Not so in Hawaii.  We found snacks, sunscreen, t-shirts, and a variety of other souvenirs.  The only store that rivaled it was Lawson Station in the lobby of the Sheraton Waikiki!

What did you bring back, Joyful???

From the luau, I purchased a 2-yard piece of fabric (intended to be a sarong) for a backing of a future quilt - possibly for DS2:

Near the end of the evening, DS2 was invited to the stage and presented this handcrafted gift:

Thank you, Chief's Luau at Sea Life Park!  We had a wonderful evening.

From the helicopter tour, I could decide on a T-shirt, so I just took photos:

Thank you, Makani Kai Helicopters and Pilot Jim!  We enjoyed the "bird's eye" view of your beautiful island.

From the snorkel excursion, I bought a bag to use for small knitting projects:

Thank you, Ko Olina Ocean Adventures!  Thanks to our Captain, I didn't have a panic attack AND my DH was able to get a fabulous Whale Tail shot!  Both of our boys thoroughly enjoyed their FIRST EVER snorkeling adventure.

From the Pearl Harbor tour, DS2 was gifted a commemorative tote bag filled with:

A ton of goodies (including a baseball cap, a pack of post cards, and a souvenir newspaper.)

Thank you, Pacific Historic Parks!  We learned a lot about the history of the USS Arizona Memorial and the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor.

From the lobby of our hotel, came an assortment of notion bags for knitting and a (water-resistant) project tote for larger projects or for use as a purse:

And...

From the ABC Store, Christmas gifts for the family, including DS2:

My DH:

And a super-soft shirt for DS1:

It was a VERY happy holiday!!!  Thank you, Make-A-Wish of Eastern North Carolina.  Mahalo! to Make-A-Wish Hawaii and Sheraton Waikiki for making DS2's Hawaiian dreams come true.  He may have waited a year and a half, but it was WELL worth the year-and-a-half wait!!!  It was the trip of a lifetime!!

Until next time...
Aloha!!!

Mystery Monday! Allietare! Part 6!!

Welcome to Part 6 of Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Winter Mystery.  Allietare!!  It means to gladden, to rejoice, or to become cheerful.  (PERFECT for a quilt that made Bonnie so happy as it was coming together!)  This quilt was inspired by her recent trip to Italy, this past Spring.  She released the color inspiration on Halloween and then those participating anxiously waited for the day after Thanksgiving for the first clue.  Six weeks have passed since then.

The time went SEW quickly!!!

Our 6th clue was released on New Year's Eve.  It turns out that it was also the REVEAL!!!

Since I was away over Christmas, I caught up on the trimming for Clue 4:

You KNOW that I had to make bonus HST units while piecing the "Center-less Bow-ties", right?!?!

Here are the units that came from the various instructions:

This is what the components for Clue 5 looked like... after digging through bits of remaining components leftover from other clues:

Lined up for sewing:

This photo shows the completed unit:

 My one-quarter sized quilt required fewer units to "complete" the clue:

BEFORE working on Clue 6... We were instructed to do MORE cutting:

I used a portion of my time on New Year's Day to create the blocks for Allietare.  These are the schematics that Bonnie shared on her Reveal Post.

Star Block:



Oops!  Here's my layout:

Hmm... This looks better:

Echoes of Pisa Block:



My block layout:

However, I quickly realized that I was missing some components... PLUS... I really like the quilt and want to make a half-sized version instead of the one-quarter sized version that I had planned.

The rest of Clue 6 will have to wait for another day!  I just didn't have the energy to make the setting triangles and corner triangles.  I think that I'll wait until everyone is back to school and work. Until then...  Go visit the LINK-UP to see how far the other Mystery Quilters got!

Here's Bonnie's beautiful quilt:



Until next time...
Back to the cutting board (and then to the sewing machine)!!!

If YOU like the "real life" version of Bonnie's quilt (shown above)... There's STILL time for you to make your own Allietare!!  Head over to Quiltville.blogspot.com to find all of the instructions.  HURRY!! They will only stay up for a limited time.

2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC16)

Welcome to the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This is my 2nd year of participation in Angela's annual event over on the So Scrappy Blog.  You can read about this year's Challenge HERE.  Each month there will be a different color to play with, along with a block tutorial.  Angela is doing something NEW for 2016.  She's calling it a Column Along.  Follow this LINK to find out more.

I have yet to decide exactly how I will play along this year.  Angela encourages up to customize the Challenge to fit our needs.  If you don't have a particular Color of the Month, change it up to work with your scrap stash!  If you don't find yourself drawn to Sampler Quilts, decide on a block (or a number of blocks) that you WOULD like and make those instead!  It's all good because it is getting involved in actively USING your scraps.

Angela started the year with...

January Color Announcement and Fabric Giveaway

Along with the Color of the Month (which was BLUE with hints of PURPLE), she also announced:

Column Along January - Twinkler

The tutorial for the Twinkler Block (and all other blocks for the RSC16 Column Along) can be found HERE on her blog.  Thanks, Angela!!  The PDF instructions are SEW helpful.

2015 was an exciting year.  The RSC15 encouraged me to use my fabric scraps and helped my fall in love with quilting again.  I was SEW excited during the 1st half of the year that I turned the RSC into a race to see how many quilt blocks I could make in a month!  I couldn't stay away from my sewing machine for more than a day.  I settled down during the 2nd half  of 2015 (because I had been more than a little obsessed!)  Read more about last year's block production in THIS post.


Really, Joyful?  Same old, same old???


Yep!  I'll be making MORE of the Maverick Stars, Slabs, Strings, and Tiny Nines from last year's Challenge:

After laying them out on my "design floor" to tally up the totals, I realized that I didn't have enough blocks to make the quilts that I had in mind.  That's OK!  I still have PLENTY of scraps!!!  :o))


What's NEW for the RSC16, Joyful???


Star Points and Alternate Blocks will be my major focus for the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I didn't make them last year (because I wasn't interested in making a Sampler Quilt.)  However, at the end of 2015, I decided that Angela's design would work well with the Slab Blocks that I made.  I'm excited to get started with this goal in mind.

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

PRESS HERE TO VISIT THE LINK PARTY!!!

Fall 2015 (Ravelry) UFO Club - The Results

The FALL 2015 UFO Club is now CLOSED.

Any interested quilters with 5 (or more) UFOs were required to sign up by Midnight (EST) on October 7, 2015. All qualifying UFOs must have been completed and posted to this discussion thread by Midnight (EST) on December 31, 2015.

Membership (26):

SEND (3):

andimc13
zookeeper74: 1 finished project
KnitforMolli

NO SEND (23):

basketcase9702
sockjeannieous: 7 completed projects
ejs9904: 4 completed projects
amalberti: 1 completed project
siberspinner
kris7: 4 completed projects
JanniePooh
bowie
Innerpeace1081: 5 completed projects
Yarnosophy: 2 completed projects
monicarose51: 1 completed project
jrnylst: 5 completed projects
aerieiris
needleb: 2 completed project
laceyspinner: 1 completed project
CatWithCats
freshwaterfibers: 2 completed projects
GBKDalton: 6 completed projects
hexiemum: 1 completed project
spyndragon
epararas: 1 completed project
sheepless: 2 completed project
stitchnknitter: 2 completed projects

SessionTotals: 17 quilters completed 47 projects.  Congrats! to all of our finishers.  Thank you to all of our participants and to those who encouraged us along the way.  Congrats! to Yarnosophy, this quarter’s Queen of the Last Minute, finishing a project only 2 hours before the midnight deadline!

It was a RECORD BREAKING quarter for the UFO Club!!!  With 47 finishes, we surpassed our prior record of 46 finishes from Spring of 2014.  Congratulations to all of you finishers who contributed to this record-breaking session!!!

Unfortunately, I didn't complete ANY of the projects on my list this quarter.  :o((

Hope to see YOU back for the Winter 2016 UFO Club.  Sign-ups open through January 7, 2016 on the Quilters Knitting group on Ravelry, if you'd like to join in the Finishing FUN.

Until next time...
Quilty New Year!!!

Mystery Monday Link-up! Allietare! Part 5!!

Welcome to Part FIVE of the Allietare Mystery!!  Bonnie released the clue on Saturday (since Christmas fell on Friday this year.) I didn't get a chance to look at the instructions because my family went away for the holidays.

I will catch up, but not today.  :o((

We arrived home yesterday afternoon.  I didn't even get through my email before falling asleep (at the computer!)

Today, jet lag has me feeling a bit dizzy and sewing tasks are out of the question, at the moment. Three of these fabrics will be waiting for me:

In Clue 5, Bonnie has us using our neutral, gray, and black fabrics (for some more easy piecing - from what I've heard from friends.)  Here's hoping that I will be able to have some fun with them BEFORE the next clue comes out!!

Visit the Link Up to see if others were productive.

Until then...
Be mysterious!!!

2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge - The Year in Review

WARNING:  THIS IS A PICTURE-HEAVY POST!!!

At the end of last year, I happened upon the So Scrappy Blog.  The blog's author, Angela, was hosting  the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge and had designed the 2015 RSC Sampler Quilt for the occasion.  I find it difficult to believe that 52 weeks have gone by since then!

While I wasn't planning to participate in making the Sampler, I had PLENTY of scraps in a RAINBOW of colors and a list of blocks that I had been wanting to make!  I chose FOUR blocks from my list and got to work.

OK!  So I went a LITTLE overboard, during the first few months, but I was having SEW much FUN!!!  It had been a LONG time since I was this excited about spending time in my sewing room. Thank you, Angela, for renewing my love of quilting with your Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Your weekly LINK PARTY only added to my enthusiasm.


My "design floor" took on a new look as the Color of the Month changed throughout the year.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

One of the RSC Quilters showed a stack of blocks in March and I thought that it might be interesting to see how my own pile of blocks grew over the course of the year...

Would you care to have a look???


In January the stack of completed blocks looked very BLUE:

February's stack grew with the addition of PINK blocks:

In March, we added some YELLOW blocks onto the growing stack:

April saw the addition of PURPLE blocks:

Oops! You can tell that I've been quilting this month by the angle of my machine cover.  LOL

May brought GREEN blocks to the stack:

In June, the pile only experienced slight growth with the addition of LIGHT BLUE blocks:

July saw the small addition of RED blocks:

August added INDIGO to the ever-growing stack:

In September, the stack grew imperceptibly, with the addition of ORANGE blocks:

October added BROWN blocks to the growing pile:

November meant that a FEW Light/Gright GREEN blocks were added to the stack:

December is the month when all good Rainbow Scrap Quilters are assembling their blocks in to quilts and finishing up projects.

Not so, with me!  I did, however, take a lovely photo of the block stack together with its accompanying stack of Rainbow Crumb Block for you to see:

Wow!!!  That looks QUITE impressive.

I'm pleased with all I've gotten done this year.  Thanks to Angela and the RSC Quilters, I've got Rainbow blocks coming out my ears!!  (OK.  Not literally.)

Here's a  look back at the Mid-Year Review:

THIS is the way the 2nd half of the year turned out:

And...

THIS is how it all stacks up for the Year-End Review:

Let's not forget a year's worth of RAINBOW Crumb Blocks:

Perch those at the top of the stack and HERE is what you've got:

A pretty BIG pile of blocks... ALL made during the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!!


Shall I break the block pile down by type??

Sure, Joyful!  Why not?!?!

THIRTY-ONE (31) Maverick Stars:

FORTY-EIGHT (48) Slab Blocks:

SEVENTY-EIGHT (78) String Blocks:

SEVENTY-NINE (79) Tiny Nines:

For a TOTAL of  TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX (236) Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blocks made between January and November 2015!!  That's an average of 21.45 blocks per month during RSC15.

And, of course, let's not forget the ONE HUNDRED FIFTY (150) Rainbow Crumbs:

For a GRAND TOTAL of THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX (386) quilt blocks made during 2015!!!  That's 1.057 blocks per day... assuming this quilter ACTUALLY sewed EVERY day!!!  :P

It's all well and good to see piles of blocks up on a pedestal, but ...

What do they look like all laid out, Joyful???


Maverick Stars:

Slab Blocks:

String Blocks:

Tiny Nines:

And, last, but not least...

A Rainbow of Crumb Blocks:

From time to time, projects just don't pan out the way you expect them to.  You don't like the proposed layout or other projects (or several!!) take center stage.  I'm sorry to say that is what happened to one of my RSC projects.  The Rainbow Crumb Blocks took over and the Bricks fell to the wayside (never to be heard from again.)  That's OK!  Another RSC Challenge will soon begin.

Again, I want to thank Angela for hosting the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It inspired me to spend more time in my studio playing with my fabric scraps.  I've got the makings of SEVERAL quilts and I'm already looking forward to the fun that I will have participating in the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

I also want to thank YOU for reading about my journey and commenting along the way.  Your kind words have meant more to me than you could possibly know.

Until next time...
Scrappy New Year!!!