Finished Ruby Mosaic and a swap

I had two finishes this weekend!  Yay for stormy weather.  This quilt is being donated to Seattle Children's Hospital through Katie's Comforter Guild.  My niece is going to drop it off at her next appointment so she might be a bit distracted from her frequent visits there recently.  I didn't make this or try to finish it in time for 100 Quilts for Kids, but since I did manage to complete it two days before the due date and it will shortly be on its way, I might link up.

      It is quilted with simple loops all over in pink thread and is about 48 x 60".

     My other finish is part of a scrap swap for the SSMQG.  My partner happened to not catch the part of being only a fat quarter worth of scraps.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this, so I think it will be ok to post a picture.  She'll probably get it on Wednesday anyway or my kids might adopt it as their own.

     Many of her fabrics were fall themed or with leaves so I decided to make some Modern Maple blocks.  It's an envelope closure on the back of the pillow.  I think I shouldn't have overlapped the back quite as much, but once the pillow is in there, it will be difficult for anyone to get it out.

Beejeebers for October

     The block for me is based on Nancy Cabot's Boston Streets pattern.  I'm not concerned about having the paths going through the quilt as it shows at the linked site.  The block finishes at 20.5".

You will need:

Quantity	Square size (inches)	Color
5	4.5	Gray
10	5	Kona white
1	5	Red
1	5	Navy
8	5	Assorted colors (red, green, orange, blue and yellow)

1.  Draw a diagonal line across the white squares.  

2.  Pair up each white square with a colored 5" squares.

3.  Stitch 1/4" away from both sides of the diagonal line.  Cut on diagonal line.

4.  Press to the dark (or open).

5.  Trim HST units to 4.5 inches.

6.  Layout HST as shown in the diagram below.  Please put the red and navy HST where it shows in the diagram or sample block so I can put together the blocks. You may choose where the other colored HST go but please have diamonds of all one color.

7.  Sew together the block and press seams open.  

     If you want to make some of your diamonds scrappy (two different HST fabrics of similar colors) that is fine.  I did that with some of mine just to make the red and navy not stand out so much when I put the blocks together.  I'd prefer that the HST fabrics read as one color.  

Ruby Mosaic

     The school year has started and it has been a busy one.  Remind me to get house projects done   in the summer.  Silly me making the initial weekends of the year busier than they needed to be.  

    Here are the Beejeebers blocks for the month.  Lindsay requested St. Louis 16 patch blocks using the following tutorial http://sewwithsass.blogspot.com/2013/04/quilts-st-louis-16-patch.html.

She wanted warm and cool colored blocks.  I don't know how thrilled I am with my fabric choices. 

     Next, I went to the guild sew day and managed to sew 86 charms into HST, press half of them and begin trimming.  This weekend the remaining 86 HST were trimmed, and a decision not to go to the state fair due to weather gave me enough time to get this to a quilt top today.  And it is now basted too.  It didn't take me all day either.  Yay for rain and wind.

     It is made of 9 16" Mosaic blocks, like this one of mine from the Summer Sampler Series.  There is also one row of half blocks.  For some reason, my math was off and I felt the need to cut 2 squares of Bliss fabric that was completely unnecessary.  Oops.  The math was after the school year started as well.

     This is the fabric for the back of the quilt.  I do not remember what it is called, but I purchased it recently from Hancock's of Paducah.  I think it is Dena Designs.  I went through their web sales and purchased a few backing fabrics for quilts that I intend to donate in the future.  None of those quilts are made yet.   I had 2 Ruby charm packs and no plan to use them so I figured they would be perfect to start with.

     And now I'll go back to regular programming of not really posting much, attempting to sew a little, and balancing the rest of work and life.  Have a fabulous Monday.

Just a little sewing

     With the start of work, a few thunderstorms in the evening and a desire to make my yard and house look a little nicer this winter and next year, I haven't sewn quite as much of late.  This weekend I tackled our block of the month block for my guild and the sample block for my month of Beejeebers.

Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs wrote up the tutorial.  We are making red and aqua blocks to donate for a charity quilt.  I think I've decided that I am going to just make one block each month and not make a quilt for myself.  I might change my mind.  With different color placement, this block is also called the 4 H block.  Next month I get to be the tutorial writer.  Good thing that it is written and needs final editing and then I can post it.

      In October, it is my turn in Beejeebers.  Since nearly every weekend is filled with activities or house projects before then, I figured I should make my sample block.  It is a 20.5" finished block and might be familiar if you saw the Boston Streets quilt.

    With 4.5 inch HST and gray squares, here's my rough plan.  If the red and the navy HST are placed in the same locations then I can join up different blocks.  The other colors are in there just as placeholders and not as a guide for color placement.  

     When I showed my nephew the Kona color card to ask him his favorite colors, he started by pointing to a navy blue shade and then proceeded to say he liked them all.  I'm choosing not to request pink or purple but will ask for greens, yellows, reds, oranges, and blues that are primarily monochromatic prints or prints that read as one color.   I was going to make a few of the pinwheel spokes scrappy so the navy and reds don't stick out quite as much.  It will be fine either way.  Probably ok with black as well I think.  (And why is it that I can't manage to format this paragraph so it is aligned on the left side?)

     Here are two blocks together (right side is assembled, the left is just set out).  It just seems a bit warm to use the iron this evening so I stopped at the one block.  

     I also sewed the final 6 blocks for Birdie Stitches from a few years ago.  I still need to embroider 7.5 of them.  That quilt will get donated when it is finally finished.  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I started that since cute is generally not a word I use.