RSC18 and Dresden Neighborhood

This year, I'm going to try to combine 2 quilt-alongs into one. I've done a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt for the past two years and intend on participating again this year. Persimon Dreams has a quilt along that I saw on Instagram called Dresden Neighborhood, that makes funky houses from a dresden plate quilt block.

The RSC18 color for the month of January is icy blue. I pulled as many icy blues from my stash as I could find and then added a few blues that weren't quite as pale as I would've liked, but I needed more variety.

This week, I got the "foundation" ;) of my Dresden Neighborhood in Ice Blue pretty much done.

I still need to add the center circle (I think I have some snowflakes on pale blue somewhere - just gotta find it!) and then I'll sandwich and quilt this block. I'm going to make a large quilt, but I'll be doing each block separately in a quilt-as-you-go style. There's a lot of quilting which will involve spinning these blocks around so much that it would be too unwieldy if it were full-sized.

In other news, I'll be participating in the Put a Little Love in Your Quilt blog hop Feb 5-8 at Just Let Me Quilt, with a great giveaway!



I'm linking up at ScrapHappy Saturday and posting on Instagram with #DresdenNeighborhood.

And 6 Makes Twenty

During a recent conversation with my daughter, I found out that she has 5 buses running at Head Start (I can't figure out why I didn't ask that question sooner). I had sent 12 little bus quilts to her before that. So now my goal is to send them in increments of 5, so there'll be at least one for each bus every time I send a box. I shipped 8 a couple of days ago to get my total to a nice, even 20.

She was here for Christmas and we were talking about the quilts. She told me that she opens the boxes with the bus drivers. I mentioned that the little garden applique quilt had turned out so much cuter than I expected and she paused and said "um.....was there a frog on it? I pulled one out of the box and just caught a glimpse of a frog's eye as it was snatched out of my hands with someone squealing 'I get that for my bus'!" She has no idea how good that made me feel. :)

I had finished two just before Christmas. Here are photos of the other 6 that were sent with them on Thursday:

One of the things I'm starting to struggle with is how to make non-kid fabrics look cute and/or whimsical. I have some kid prints, but not a ton. And my goal is to use up some of my stash, so I don't want to buy a lot of fabric. So now I'm perusing old magazines and Pinterest!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap! and Show Off Saturday  

Moda Countdown to Christmas

So far, I have 12 of the Moda Countdown to Christmas blocks finished. I love these blocks so much, that I've been neglecting my Christmas to-do list so I could work on them.

I'm going to try and get these caught up before Christmas. After the holidays, I always seem to lose my enthusiasm for anything Christmas-y and I'm ready to get it all put away so I can move on to spring. But I really want to have this finished now so it'll be ready to put out the day after Thanksgiving!

Best Indoor Snowballs

A few years ago, our Christmas decor was primarily snowmen. I had lots of ornaments and stuffed snowmen and figurines and wall hangings and table runners - everything "snowman". I also had fake snow to sprinkle around and the glittery felt snow table covers. I just needed some snowballs.

So digging around through my crafting/sewing stuff, I found an old piece of that white polyester quilt batting (from the days before I even knew there were different kinds of batting!). I cut a big chunk off and tried to wad it up into a ball. That didn't work at all!

But then I tried cutting it into strips and rolling the strips into a ball.  Perfect!

To make a bucket of snowballs, get a crib or twin size polyester batting from the fabric/craft store. Cut strips about an inch and a half wide by 2 or 2-1/2 feet long. (Wider strips do not work better.)  Start rolling from one end in all directions around the ball. When you get to the end, kind of stretch the batting out - without tearing it - and smooth it onto the ball.

This is one of those things that takes longer to explain than to do. It's super fast and easy. And it makes snowballs that could hit just about anything without knocking it over. Great for an indoor snowball fight!

Adding 2

I got these little bus quilts (mostly) done on Tuesday - I just had a little bit of binding that needed to be finished Wednesday. This first one is made up of a few blocks that once again I quit part way through an event. The plan was to make 20 blocks - I made 12. Nine of them found their way into this little 36" X 36" quilt:

Even though I like the blocks, I don't think they're very kid-like. Not really whimsical or bright and fun. So I added this tossed alphabet backing to try and "kid it up". Hmm...I think I like the back better than the front!

The second one I made is mostly from leftover scraps of a bundle. I added a Kona solid and came up with this simple 40" X 40" quilt:

Now I need to get back to making those darling Countdown to Christmas blocks.


Jeez, I sure hope some of those Cinderella mice are taking care of all the Christmas things that I need to be getting done!   :)


Linking up with OhScrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

Gift Tags

I printed out the sweetest gift tags a couple days ago and sat down last night and got them all cut out. Then I punched holes in them and tied a little piece of baker’s twine to them.

I usually run out of tags before my gifts are wrapped and then I end up cutting sad little pieces of scrap wrapping paper into squares and writing on those. But not this year! Hehehe!!

Here’s a link to the blog where I got them - they’re free, although you may have sign up for emails or register to get them.

The link will take you to the home page. From there, click on “printables”.

A Few More Christmas Blocks

I can't even explain how cute these little Moda Bake Shop blocks are! Their petite 6" finished size is just adorable. I have to tell you - if you can squeeze out any extra time this month, you should be making these. I'm just using scraps of Christmas reds and greens and a variety of white-on-white scraps.

Here's a photo of mine so far:

I'm already thinking and planning some different setting options. But, I won't make any decisions until I see what Moda comes up with (which is bound to be better than what I could dream up! :)

Here's a link to the first day/first block.

I've got a couple more of those bus quilts almost ready to quilt up, so I'm going to have to pull myself away from these blocks.

Thanks for reading my blog!