I Spy A Sixteen Patch Star Finish

Sixteen Patch Star

It's a finish!

40 x 60

In 2023 someone gave me a large bag full of 3 inch squares. For this quilt I pulled out the wild and novelty fabric squares. 

I started making 16 Patch Stars. All of the Stars have white centers and points.  I made several Stars then waited to come across more scraps for more Stars. Finally in 2024 I had enough Stars to make a top. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with vertical lines on each side of the vertical seams. 

The binding is a diagonal stripe. I had to piece together several smaller pieces of that backing fabric.

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

This is the view from my couch of the first of seven Amaryllis to bloom. Gosh, it has two stalks with four flowers. It got top heavy and the plastic pot that came with it was too light weight to hold up the stalks and flowers so I put it on the floor inside a larger terracotta pot. 

 

WITB #5 -- Hooray For Red, White and Blue !

It's a top!

16 Patch and Stars

in red, white and blue

60 x 80

The other day I posed the question WITB? 

(What's in the box of 3 inch width scraps)

This is comfort quilt #5

These are red, white and blue 3 inch width scraps from the box. I had to add in a few background fabrics because there were not enough in my box. I took most of them from my box of patriotic print scraps. 

For the star centers I used squares I found in my Parts Department - 5.5 inch squares and when I didn't have enough 5.5 inch squares in red and blue I found some in the 6 inch squares and cut those down to 5.5 inches.    I made the 16 patches in half red and half blue with neutrals on the diagonals.  I did not use any pattern. I made a rough sketch of a layout I had in my mind based on the scraps I had in each color. 

In case you are wondering how I made the made the Flying Geese for the stars from 3 inch width scraps...

...I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut the geese wings and I use the Companion Angle ruler to cut the geese bodies.     When I cut the bodies I first use the Easy Angle ruler to cut a HST at the beginning of the strip otherwise that piece would be wasted fabric. 

I also use the Easy Angle ruler to cut an HST at the end of the strip after I've finished cutting my geese bodies.  And then I cut the squares needed from the star corners from the rest of the strip.  I will make HSTs with those orange pieces later on. They will not be used to make the Sawtooth Star. 

The geese wings are also cut from a 3 inch width strip. 

So when all is cut and done I have pieces for four Flying Geese and four squares for a Sawtooth Star and I have four HST orange parts that I will make into HSTs later.  No part of the 3 inch width scrap went to waste!

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Sept. 7 - Finished a book! - The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen.  I have read quite a few books by Rhys Bowen  so thought I would give this one a try. An investigation into a missing girl leads to a mystery of two missing girls during WWII.  By the end of the book no girls are missing - mysteries solved. The book was okay but not one of my favs by Rhys Bowen. 

Sept. 8 - A little birdie (a stork) told me another baby girl, Ellison, has joined our large family. She was born to my nephew and his wife. I mentioned the other day that Scarlett just joined our family. Since I used to keep track of the family tree and did research before there was an internet and microfilm readers were hand cranked everyone usually gets around to asking me how new members that join the family are related. Scarlett, born a few days ago, and Ellison are second cousins once removed. 

Sept. 9 - I like oatmeal. I eat it for lunch at least once a week. (I don't eat for breakfast because that usuallly consists of yogurt and fruit and cinnamon toast with my coffee. Well, anyway, I have been reading about overnight oats and looked at a few recipes for it. Most call for chia seeds to be added.  I went grocery shopping and couldn't find any chia seeds. I figured there were not many demands for it at our little grocery store out here in the boondocks so was going to skip the chia seeds but an older store employee saw me looking around and asked if he could help me. I asked for chia seeds. He laughed. I said they are not just for chia pets anymore, you know. He asked another older store employee who was stocking the aisle where the chia seeds were found and he had no idea what I was talking about either. I told them about overnight oats and said I wanted to try them out and eat healthy...says the woman with a cart full of ice cream because it was on sale. More laughing. Finally a younger store employee pointed out the chia seeds. Ch...ch...ch...chia! He even knew that I was probably going to use them in overnight oats.   So, anyway, lots of laughing with strangers went on that day because of chia seeds.   I still have not tried any overnight oats. One of these days...

Sept. 10 -- Beautiful weather again. I've been working outside for several hours each day. I've cleared patches of stinging nettles and black raspberry brambles and trimmed some scrub brush.  I also ran into several big patches of poison ivy each day. Strangely enough I have not yet broken out with a rash. And I have to say a lot of times in the past I have had rashes all over my body and had flu like symptoms to go with it. No poison ivy rash? Definitely cause for celebration!  I also received a seed order. And I have started dreaming of future gardens.   Gardening is kind of like quilting but the garden patches are 3D. 

Sept. 11 - Finished a book -- The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph by Kate Braithwaite.  Historical fiction set in 1790s. I agree with what some other reviewers have said:  "A compelling historical retelling of the first great scandal to shake America." "The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph" is a compelling work of historical fiction that brings to life a pivotal moment in early American history. Its blend of meticulous research, imaginative storytelling, and complex characterisation makes it a must-read for fans of the genre and newcomers alike."

 

WITB Top #2 - I Spy

I Spy

16 Patch Star

40 x 60

It's a top!

I started on this one last year after someone gave me a big bag of 3 inch squares.   Since then I have received other 3 inch squares and 3 inch width strips in various lengths from other folks and I have been accumulating them all in a box. Normally I have a block going for every size scrap I encounter; however, I have really not ever generated many 3 inch width scraps of my own and in the past if I received some 3 inch width pieces I cut them in half for two 1.5 inch pieces because I usually have a lot of blocks in the works that use that size of scrap. When I received that gallon bag of 3 inch squares last year I decided to start making a few quilts with those scraps and start saving those scraps in a box instead of cutting them smaller.  

The other day I posed the question WITB? 

This is comfort quilt #2 ! 

For this top I used all of the I Spy pieces in the box.  For the wonky star centers I used novelties with white backgrounds.  

I didn't have enough novelties for the quilt so I also used multicolor wild and crazy squares mostly in the pieces with star points.  I'm trying to use up pieces in my 3 inch width box so didn't want to go outside the box for more novelties. 

The grandkids used to love their I Spy quilts. We played many a game of I Spy and the kids learned their colors, body parts, etc. playing the game. As they got older I would ask them to find things that fly or are sweet or live in water, a fruit...or find something that rhymes with goat, pen...  and sometimes we would walk through the squares and each kid could pick a direction to go for the next square and tell that part of the story and so on.   Most of the time the stories had silly things happening to grandma like a bat in my hair or I stepped in dog poop or something like that. Oh no!

I'm the oldest of five siblings and my hubby is the oldest of 8. When our siblings started having grandkids I made the proud grandparents I Spy quilts to keep at their house for when grandkids visited so they could play too.   It is difficult to believe that now that generation of grandkids are now having kids. Summer's (our grand niece) baby girl Scarlett is past due!  

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

August 31 - I finished a book! - Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber. One of the last books I read was classified as being of the magical realism genre. I had never heard of magical realism before that but I thought it was a nice easy reading happy sort of genre and a good way to take a break from some of that historical fiction I usually read. I decided I needed a little more magical realism in my life. I read on my Kindle (so I can enlarge print and have backlighting for reading at night) and have a Kindle Unlimited subscription so looked up some magical realism books and Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is one of the books that came up.   It was light easy reading...reading that was the equivalent of watching a Hallmark movie.  All of the characters in the little village found happiness, the pies at the cafe always sold out and the blackbirds were magical.  And now I'm finished with magical realism for a little while. 

 

Emptying Out A Bag of Three Inch Squares

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. I really don't have many more orange scraps except for a few crumbs and a few chunks. I decided to cut off a 3 inch width strip from a couple of orange chunks. 

Back in March I received a bag (gallon size?) of 3 inch squares and started making Four Patches with pairs of complementary colors.     I've been working on them since then as leaders/enders and saw I was only 26 blocks away from my goal of 140 blocks for a 50 x 70 donation quilt.   I had pairs of blues but didn't have any orange pairs to match with them so cut my squares from those 3 inch width orange strips. 

After that....

...I only needed 11 more Four Patches and so I made those and now...

...I have 140 Four Patches and there's some assembly required. 

Then I moved on to make blocks for donation quilt #2 from 3 inch squares.    I decided to make Four Patches in blacks, whites and one other color.  Again, my goal is the same size of donation quit so I need 140 Four Patches. 

I was able to make 53 Four Patches of blacks/whites/one other color with what was in the bag. So now I'll set these aside until I come across more black and white scraps. 

There were some novelty squares in the bag so I thought I would see how they would look in some 16 Patch Stars.   The blocks finish at 10 inches so I only need 24 blocks for a child's donation quilt.  There are more novelty squares in the bag but I'm going to look through my novelty scraps for a few more squares for variety before I make more blocks. 

I made a few Nine Patch blocks with the pastel and white squares. There's a lot of white squares but not that many pastels. 

I have a small box of pastel bits and pieces I rarely use so it might be a good idea to dig in and use some now to finish up blocks for a donation quilt. 

I pulled out sets of four brown 3 inch squares for the outside of the square in square blocks. The centers are 3.5 inch squares I pulled out of my 3.5 inch squares stash.  I'm not sure what I will do with the rest of the brown squares in the bag that aren't in sets of four.  Time will tell.

The block is called Pavement Pattern - tutorial by Beth Shibley - inspired by a vintage quilt.  And it's a new block just in time for June when the them in my sewing space is "brown stuff".  I have a giant bag of brown scraps waiting to be used in some of the Pavement Pattern blocks and lots of other stuff. 

So that's what will come out of that bag of 3 inch squares and then some. And if after all those blocks are made any squares are left over they will be cut into four 1.5 inch squares because I do have a postage stamp UFO.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

And Even More Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) Projects

Wishing Rings 

These finish at 3.5 inches so it will take a lot of blocks for the big quilt I have in mind. I haven't counted how many I have now but from the looks of the ziplock bag I know there's not enough so these blocks will continue as a RSC project into next year.  I cut the sides from 1.5 inch scraps and the center and corners from 3.5 inch scraps (and have a set of postage stamps left over) but that may change next year and I'll use scrap chunks. 

And speaking of scrap chunks...I've been making these Cats all year and now have 48 of them for an 8 x 6 layout. If I don't add any sashing that leaves me with a nice little quilt about 40 x 54 inches. 

 Sixteen Patch Stars

12 inch finished

from the 3.5 inch scrap bin

 I now have 16 blocks. I have been concentrating on making mostly twin sized quilts this year so figured I need 30 blocks for a 5 x 6 layout (60 x72 inch finished). I scraped the bottom of  the scrap bin barrel and cut enough squares for the rest of the blocks minus the center star pieces. I'll make these up in between other projects so this will not continue into next year as a RSC project.  And I intend to cut up the rest of the 3.5 inch scraps into squares for who knows what. The goal is an empty bin. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

What Happened To Those Purple Scraps?

 From the 2.5 inch scrap bin...Garlic Knots aka Arrowhead Puzzles. 

 I cut some gray and black squares to make the rest of the blocks next month that I'll need for a twin sized quilt. 

 I've been making HRTs from 4.5 inch scraps for a couple of years. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them but maybe it is about time I make a decision. In addition to the purples I sewed together some pinks I had cut out but had not gotten sewn together in the pink month.  Hmmmm...before I put them away I may see how these blocks might look assembled into diamonds. 

 These 12 inch blocks came out of the 3.5 inch scrap bin.  Again I think my target is a twin sized quilt. Not sure how many blocks I have right now. This may be a Rainbow Scrap Challenge I continue into next year or next month I may assess what colors are in the 3.5 inch scrap bin and make up the rest of the blocks I need. 

And finally I made ten little 3 inch finished Kitties that I'm thinking I'll match up with some of the little Nine Patches from the big bin of little Nine Patches in the Parts Department.  I'm thinking a baby quilt of these will be the goal. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday. 

In the Pink!

Wishing Rings that finish at 3.5 inches. 

(Blocks are also called Church Window Hexagon Variation, Buttons, Doughnuts) 

Cut and weed. Sew and weed. Cut and weed. Sew and weed. And repeat. 

 This week in between garden weeding I dug into my pink scraps and managed to complete most but not all of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. 

 Four inch Double X Variation and Snowballs inspired by a vintage quilt. 

 Wedding Rings that finish at 7.5 inches. 

(Also called Single Wedding Ring, Odd Scraps Patchwork and Crown of Thorns). 

 Six inch Sixteen Patches. 

 HRTs (2 x 4)

 3 inch Rails. 

 A couple of six inch Broken Dishes and a 12 inch 16-Patch Star. 

And a bunch of eight inch Garlic Knots (aka Arrowhead Puzzle). 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday