Stop the Presses!!

... and don't believe anything I say

I know I said I was only going to use my stash to finish off the shoofly baby quilt.

But a local quilt shop is going out of business ... and I felt compelled to show my support one last time ... and everything in the store was 20% off ... and, well, I found the perfect border fabric.

BasicGrey - 25th and Pine for Moda

Don't you agree?

I bought enough to go on the back, if I'm so inclined. Or I might be able to eek out a third quilt from the Scrumptious scraps.

Linking with Angela at soscrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday.

Why Is It? Wednesday

Starting a new thread here with Why Is It? Wednesday

Why is it we use words in day-to-day conversation and, suddenly, one just sounds weird?

Take SHAMPOO, for example. Where did that word come from?  Wouldn't hair soap make more sense?

If I've aroused your interest, the answer can be found at Wikipedia ...

Please feel free to share your favorite weird words.

... and a WIP

And on to my Work In Process (WIP):

I got this far with the baby quilt made from leftovers from Scrumptious Stars.

At this point it is about 32" x 39".  Big enough to cover an infant or use in a car seat. But if I added borders, would it be more useful?

Here's what I'm considering (bear in mind I don't plan to purchase anything):

Funky squares

Jelly beans

Please advise.

Out of the Remnants ...

 ... A Baby Quilt

Or at least the beginnings of one.

As I said in an earlier post, I had a bunch of bonus half-square triangles leftover from this last project:

Scrumptious Stars

Not wanting to have any leftover/orphan parts, I thought about what I could do with HSTs. Shoofly seemed to be the easiest option. 

My original intention was to incorporate the HSTs into the border of Scrumptious Stars.  In the end, I nixed that idea, so they may go on the baby quilt. OR I might build a few more shoofly blocks. Hmmm... stay tuned!

I was able to squeeze 20 blocks out of the leftovers, but I had to bring in two other colorways of the background from a Layer Cake and Charm Pack.

Red background colorway

Pink background colorway

I think this will add a little interest, along with an odd block in the teal colorway.

Orphan block

The twenty shoofly blocks will be sashed with the same pink diagonal stripe I used as the flange in Scrumptious Stars.

I'm off to stitch some sashing. In the meantime, I'm linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.

One Monthly Goal - September

DONE!!

Even though I declared a very easy One Monthly Goal (OMG) it has taken me over three weeks to get this flimsy done.  I blame Quilter's ADD ...

Scrumptious Stars (a/k/a Star Gazing - design by Margot Languedoc

I have named it "Scrumptious Stars" because the Scrumptious (by Bonnie & Camille for Moda) background was the inspiration for my color selections. The pale teal star looks much better in real life.

I added a diagonal pink stripe (also Scrumptious) flange inside the border just for something different from the traditional inner border.

I love this star pattern; it looks so much more complicated than it really is.

I did sew-and-flip corners for most of the star points. It was just easier since every star is a different fabric -- less thought involved.  As a result, however, I have a lot of bonus half-square triangles, so you may see more of these fabrics show up in  a baby quilt sometime soon. ;-)

This will probably be my contribution to the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church youth auction next year so it will be going to my LAQ very soon to get into her queue.


Heidi at Red Letter Quilts is the host for One Monthly Goal (OMG). Be sure to check in over there to see if other quilters met their OMG.

Conveniently, this top includes rosy reds, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for September so I will be linking up with Angela at soscrappy to report my progress.

WIP Wednesday -- on Thursday

Out of the Depths

Sometimes I am amazed at where my mind wanders. I've been sticking to a plan, methodically working through UFOs, with a little bit of cleaning/organizing here and there lately.  This crept out in my latest cleaning binge. No, really, it pretty much JUMPED out and shouted LOOK AT ME!!!

Stars of Summer - by All Through the Night

I'm glad I did because, even though several elements had already been cut, there were some pretty nice fabrics in that project box that could/should go back on the shelf.

I don't know when I started planning this one; the pattern is dated 2012.  I think the pattern preceded the fabric, or maybe it's the other way around.  I was probably in one of my 4-patch posey phases.  Or maybe I was in my Jacobean phase ....

I had these lovely panels that looked like a cross between Jacobean tiles and kaleidoscopic posies. And they were the right size for the pattern.

Harvest Spice by Nancy Davis McMurtry

My original plan was to use this background.

Ick!

Kinda made me think of worms.  And it didn't really compliment the panels. So even though I had all the strips and squares cut, I put it back on the shelf and chose this marble dot, instead.

Using the pattern picture as inspiration, I chose black for the star points.

But after making a couple of sample blocks I realized that the black simply blended with the purple of the panels when I really wanted contrast in the star points. So I put all that cut fabric back on the shelf, as well, and chose a red, instead.

I'm not sure I will have enough of this red to do both the large stars and small stars so my plan is to cut and kit all the large stars first, then see if I need to bring in another--possibly different color--fabric for the small stars points.

This quilt was nowhere on my radar at the beginning of the week! Now it's migrated to a higher priority. It might be something I take to an upcoming retreat. Or it might go back in the stack. But this time it will be ready to pick up and stitch when I have time.

And the Winner Is ...

The Orphan Adoption event here at Life on the Hill

closed at Midnight Wednesday night.

The winners have been notified.

Recipient of the Jubilee blocks is Diana @ Red Delicious Life.

Jublilee - Design by Margot Languedoc

Recipient of the Bright Beginnings panel and pattern is Karen @ Tu-Na Quilts.

Bright Beginnings - Design by Sandy Brawner and Sara Tuttle

The response to my orphan offerings was fantastic. Unfortunately, I had a great number of "No-Reply" comments. I did everything I could think of to find contact information for those individuals but ultimately had to eliminate them from competition. That saddened me because many of them had really solid ideas of what they would do with my orphans.

Thanks to Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for organizing this event. She does this twice a year, so be watching for more orphan adoptions next Spring.

I Like Rose, But ...

Tragedy Averted

Last week, during my severe ADD episode, my attention was diverted to some 45-degree diamonds that I thought would work nicely in a minimalist setting.

I know, the photo is not the greatest, but I felt like the jewel tones could benefit from a dash of brighter color. So I looked in my solids drawer and came across some hand-dyed fat 8ths that I think I bought for my Hunter Star quilt (I'll have to go to the laptop to get a photo of that quilt).

While steam pressing the fat 8ths I noticed this on my NEW ironing board cover.

Hmm, did I spill some wine? Or did one of the fabrics bleed?  Time to do some scientific research!

Uh, yes, the fabric bled!  What bugs me is that I had washed all of these bits once.

Good thing I discovered this before putting those fabrics in the quilt. Tragedy averted, so far! But now I have to go look at Hunters Star and see if I actually used any it that one because it hasn't been washed.

Cross your fingers !!!

Linking up with Angela for Scrap Happy Saturday.