The blue Basket block of the week is in its fourth week. The fourth week is another set of two baskets. Three of the weekly instructions have been for making baskets of different colors. All the baskets have the same pattern. I may just make all the baskets at once and be done with it.

I’m using white scraps for the background. All the fabrics for this project will come from my stash.

The third week, we were instructed to make sashing with a center white and a color on both sides. There are 48 rails that are 3 1/2″ x 11″. These were easy to make but did take time because of the number of rails. Strip piecing and cutting at 11″ was the easy way to make the rails. The center of the quilt is pieced, but the border is appliqued. That will take more time.

This week’s row on the SAHRR is a square in a square. I wanted to do an easy row, so just made four square in a square blocks for the corners.

The side brought in colors from the center. There is one more row. I already have my colors picked out. They may change when I get the hint. This has been fun. I thought that I had a handle on using up the Kauffman Japanese fabric, but along with the drawer, I have a laundry basket full. Checking out the Kauffman free patterns on the Internet, I found some scrap quilt patterns that look like stash busters

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Another round of the stay at home round robin is finished. This round was the flying geese block. At first, I made a row of geese with red geese and different colored sky.

When I laid it on the quilt, it was too busy. Four rows were made. Should I add them even though I didn’t like them, or should I go another way? I decided to cut my losses. I can use the four rows of geese in another project at a later date. I could even piece them to the back of the quilt.

This was much better. It brings in the fabrics from the center and is much calmer. I’ve enjoyed working with the Kauffman fabric line. I’ve hardly made a dent in the fabric drawer. Even making the block of the week, Blue Baskets, doesn’t make the drawer less full. I’ m a week behind on Blue Baskets. This week’s pattern was the same as last weeks. The only thing changed is the color. It won’t take too long to catch up.

I’ve been cleaning out quilting files. It’s amazing what I have saved over the years. I did find a great easy pattern that I have used before. The Guild retreat is in May. I may use this pattern with the Kauffman fabric at the retreat. I have a few months to decide. Maybe, as I go deeper into the files, I may find something that I like better. An easy, no thinking quilt is best for a retreat. I usually have all the pieces cut so I can just sew.

I found a pattern for Escher stairs in the file. The Guild quilt show is coming up. The theme is Illusions. I couldn’t resist making four blocks.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The community quilts have been put aside for a little while. I will get back to them later. I do have one on the basting frame to baste. I baste while watching TV. Then they go into the ready to quilt pile. There are still a few left to baste.

I am back on the track with new quilts.

The “Are You Crazy” quilt has over 2000 squares. That is about half of what I need to make a decent size quilt. I have piles of 1 1/2″ squares on the sewing table to put together when I want to do some sewing without thinking. The seams are all pressed to the dark side, so they go together effortlessly.

It will be an awesome quilt when finished. This may be my last little piece quilt. After it is finished, I will put all my little scraps into a flannel pillowcase. I knew there was a reason that I saved the pillowcases. It makes a very comfy dog bed.

The third row is on the Stay at home round robin. The block selected for this row is the hourglass block. At first, I made multicolored hourglass blocks. It was too much color. Then, I made navy and white hourglass blocks. I needed to pull out some white from the center. I surrounded the blocks with red fabric. Half square triangles with a red stripe in the middle was made for the corner squares. The multicolored hourglass blocks are set aside for another quilt at a later date. They will find a home sometime. My orphan block box is filling up fast.

It’s important to take a picture of the block. I thought that the piece was finished and took a picture for the blog. it was very obvious that one of the hourglasses was turned the wrong way. I unsewed it, turned it and it is fine now. It’s a much better picture.

Instructions for the second week of the Blue Basket Quilt have come. They are the same as last week, except they are made with a different blue fabric. The instructions are for making two baskets each week. Where I’m using the Kaufmann Japanese fabric, I’ll use a different fabric for each basket. They are easy to make, and I only have to make two blocks a week. Eventually, I’ll have a nice quilt.

Along with basting while watching TV, I’m hand quilting a nine-block star quilt. The blocks were hand pieced also. I started quilting by hand piecing and hand quilting. It’s going back to the beginning. I am on the fifth star. Before I started hand-quilting this one, I hadn’t hand-quilted in a while, It’s very relaxing.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The stay at home round robin 23 is in the third week. The Robert Kaufmann Japanese fabric is perfect for it. I chose one of the small blocks for the center. The first row is the spool block. I set the small block on point and placed the spools in the corners.

The second row is a star block. I made four little Ohio stars for the corners and added three strips to the side.

Between the spool and the star block, I placed an inchy. An inchy is an inch strip of fabric. When placed between two blocks, the size does not change. It is a nice accent. The fabric is the back side of this fabric. After all, we pay for both sides of the fabric.

The color is exactly the same as the background of the front of the fabric. There is no problem in matching colors. I will probably make inchys in several places during the construction of this piece.

So far, the piece is small. and doesn’t use much fabric. In order to use all that I have I’ll have to make a few more quilts before the bin is empty.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

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