Wrap that Pink up in a bow and call it done

Roll Roll Cotton Boll...that has been the focus this week. I am leaving no rock unturned in my efforts to round up enough light neutrals to complete the 600 2" hst's. This will be the UFO that I take along to the UFO day planned today by my guild. Twelve hours of sewing, chatting, laughing, eating, snacking and some more sewing. This is the state at which it sits right now...at 505! I have great expectations for myself to get a lot of this sewn together. I will take along the rest of the strips I have put together, get the cutting and piecing done. Next UFO to become a flimsy will be my RRCB.

I am very pleased with the pink-progress to date. I have a nice stack of pink-string-alongs.

and my pink-16-patch-throw-down (one more to do), and my two pink Block-in-a-Block Sawtooth Stars.

and some pink blossoms on a "Spring Showers Bouquet" quilted postcard for my friend Mary Holdgrafer.

Pink, aka February, has been a delightful month and I extend many many thanks to all of the other quilters that have shared their pink-bin-creativeness over at SoScrappy.
Love and hugs
Kathy

Spring Showers Bouquet

Our friend Mary Holdgrafer is teaching a quilted postcards class at the Arts Festival on Gabriola this spring. In preparation for that, she has asked all her quilty friends to send her a 5" x 7" quilted postcard, and she will send us one in return.

I used a slice of an "expired inspiration" (sorry Joyce) as the base for my Spring Showers Bouquet.

I then added a few free cut circles of pink (the fabric colour of choice to use up in February).
 
I did some free motion quilting to hold them in place, sewed on a few small buttons (well away from the edge so as to not interfere with the post office machinery),  have written a cheery message on the back and it shall go into the mail in the morning.

Spring Showers Bouquet

Love and hugs to you all

Kathy

Training the Next Generation

I had a wonderful Valentine's / Family Day (in Alberta it's a provincial holiday) weekend. I went to the 'farm', to spend the long weekend watching 3 of my grandchildren while my son and DIL went skiing at Marmot Basin in Jasper National Park.

I had a few planned activities, as we would be together for 3 days. But for the most part it was to also let them just play,  like making quilt forts in the living room. When I asked them what they were doing in there...their reply was they were waiting in their hunting box and watching their bear camera.

And a great sledding hill that their Dad made out of a few large round bales. It was a beautiful sunny day on Saturday with fresh snow, which made it perfect for the building of snowmen, for supersliders...and small dogs.

I  did a round of mending; my son's calving jacket, a little barrel racers' favorite shirt, and a teddy bear who was loosing his stuffing.

I brought along my bag of blue strings and scraps and it was my youngest (6 years old) who loved making string blocks. "We" made 24 while I was there.  I had brought the blue bag as I wanted to make a few more string blocks with their complimentary colour orange. I have a few ideas percolating about how they will be used, but I would still have a lot more to make...heck I have all year to work through a rainbow of colours over at SoScrappy and the RSC15.

The pink this week belongs to those tender soft cheeks of my youngest granddaughter.

To see what other quilted pink happiness is going on this week, head over to SoScrappy here.
Love and Hugs
Kathy

String along with me

How much fun can one possibly have with pink string blocks? I love sewing them together and then opening up and pressing. Each one is a tiny gift. And just to keep it even more interesting, I have done a few yellow string blocks. True confessions working with yellow is my favourite of all colours.

What is my plan for using these? Not a clue at this point. Slice them in half diagonally and treating them like these Roll Roll Cotton Boll alternate blocks? I am open to suggestions...Or perhaps it is just to early to tell?

Roll Roll Cotton Boll string blocks

And I do love the these 16 patch centred Sawtooth Stars. It was fun to gather up the 2" pink squares and get them into this exciting block. These are really coming together quite beautifully...LOVE THEM.

16 Patch Sawtooth Stars

And this new RSC15 block is sew pretty. I made the choice to make 4.5" string block centre, and I so glad that I did.

To catch up on other pink loveliness from around the planet, check out the SoScrappy pinky-linky party.
love and hugs
Kathy

and then I met Marley

Angela over at SoScrappy has posted the next in the series of rainbow blocks for this years RSC2015 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015). Each month we work with a different colour and luckily this month's colour is Pink. This 'Morley' was designed by Julie Hirt at 'Six Two Seven' and tutorial by Angela. I am so happy with this pink block. The SawTooth Star Points are just laid out here (yet to be sewn), but the centre is done and it is perfect.

I have spent the rest of this week cleaning out the closet BEHIND my sewing chair. Out of sight out of mind I believe applies here. Oh my, the treasures and "what-was-I-thinking" that were found. There is a whole load of donations to take to the Reuse Centre on Saturday morning.

In other quilty news though, Kim Caskey Custom Quilting has my Passionate Greys quilt ready to LA. So exciting!!

To see what other progress others have made with their pinks check in over at SoScrappy. Make a cuppa...this could take a while.

Love and Hugs
Kathy

Bye Bye Blue - Hello Pinky-ness

This is the last week of concentrating on blue scraps from the blue bin!! True confessions, I have a whole year of blue still in that bin. Although, now that they have been sorted, it will be easier to dip in there is I do get a case of the blues throughout the year. But in the meantime I have made the two sampler-in-blue blocks for the RSC15 feature challenge quilt.

I have made a few 16 patch for a second RSC15 challenge quilt (and clearly sewed ahead - my bad). There is another idea brewing here.

I have made a Blue Slab Quilt that is ready for quilting. There should be a picture of that completed happy quilt in a few weeks.

Over this past week I needed to concentrate on the skinny strings and odd bits in the blue bin and create a few (!) string blocks. These are 6.5", but if I set them in a Sawtooth Star Block as well, and played along with the colour of the month then I would have another RSC15 Challenge Quilt. This time making the Sawtooth Star block in corresponding colours, ie: light blues for backgrounds for blue strings and light green backgrounds for green string etc etc...????? I should have a sample ready for next week...so many ideas so little time. Oh, and look it appears that pink is already playing along, and ummm another yellow block snuck in.

I mean it not like I am going to run out of fabric, and this is what we call working in a series.
However, now it is time to turn our thoughts to using up the pinks. Such a lovely colour to be bringing into the mix. I have long loved Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll, and jumped right in and made all of the neutral string blocks, er...a few years ago.

And made 250 of the required 600 2" hst's. So that is what got me going on it again. As I am making my hst's blue instead of her red. And now mercifully the colour pink is required in 120 hst's for the center medallion of each block. Out come the pinks in earnest.

The start of another rug. As I prepare my fabrics I trim off the selvedges and roll them into a ball awaiting the take along project time and crochet another rug.

I had made one complete block and set it in it's corner presentation. I am loving this quilt.

3 1/2" strips of pink ready to meet their brown other-half in the production line of 120 hst's.

To see what other lovely blue to pink scrap happiness is going on at SoScrappy, check this out. Warning, it is getting more exciting each week...just sayin'.

Happiest in my studio

Love and hugs
Kathy