Little Red and White Patchwork

I recently came across a bunch of red fabric for a bargain price in my thrift-store shopping.

Looking for a simple/fast pattern to make, I found this pin on Pinterest.

So, here's the beginning of a little quilt top (un-ironed, and photographed with my phone) ...

I'm not sure if I have enough contrast between the "reds" and the "whites" in some cases. And also, some of the solid reds are maybe a little too intense. 

But for now, I'm going with it. It's a fun, fast design ... 4-patches made from squares cut at 4.5", and 16-patches made from squares cut at 2.5" -- my favorite sizes!

I started off doing these Leader-and-Ender style, then spent a little while putting these few blocks together.

UFOs: These quilts are happening!

My UFOs have been coming along! 

Here's the short version: 

Finished Quilt Top: Hopscotch Butterscotch. This turned out big (75" x 88"), since I used mostly 2½" cut pieces, instead of the 2" in Bonnie Hunter's pattern. I love the organized randomness! I REALLY love the fancy piano-key border.

Still in the works: the quilting on my great-great grandmother's Dresden Plate. Haven't worked on it since last week; more details about this one in last week's post.

Up for border & quilting soon: the 1008 checkerboard.

Got a few stitches in this week: My modern Double Wedding Ring. I've almost got the 5-circles by 7-circles main section done. I last mentioned this quilt top in my initial UFO "goals" post here. Before that, it had been a while since I worked on it. Actually, I started this gorgeous thing about 3 years ago (2013: see this post and also this one), but then I didn't blog about it for another year (2014: see here). For whatever reason, I blogged about it one time a year ago (2015: see this post.) Who knows ... maybe this will be the year this one gets done! I'm not pressuring myself, but it does feel great to get these projects worked on!

Finished & Given away: Baby Happily Scrappily Irish. I blogged about it last Friday.

Got their portrait painted: A couple of quilts ... Two of my quilts served as inspiration for a friend's beautiful painting! See that post here.

 

I'm linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge update at Jo's Country Junction ... lots of other quilters are working on their "Un-Finished Objects", and a weekly link party helps remind us to keep up the good work.

UFO Challenge Update

Last week, I posted about the UFO Challenge that's sponsored by Jo's Country Junction, one of my favorite quilt-y blogs.

Thanks to the motivation of doing SOMEthing about some of my Un-Finished Objects, I got something done!!! During the past week, I decided to finish the one that was closest-to-done: The Hello Kitty Quilt. It was sitting in the closet, nearly-done, just needing its edges bound.

 

I got the binding done, and again admired the fun details. This quilt was supposed to be done this past Christmas, as a gift. I had it almost done, and then time got away from me. So, now, it's done, and ready to pop in the mail!

It's made of T-Shirt fabric squares, with Hello Kitty heads (also cut from T-Shirt fabric) stitched on top. Fleece backing, simple straight-line quilting. Super-cozy, and about twin-sized.

Also, since Jo's UFO Challenge is her own personal challenge to make progress on her several in-progress quilts that are designed by Bonnie Hunter, before Bonnie's new book comes out ... I thought I'd pull out the ONE Bonnie Hunter quilt that I'm working on. 

Last year, my family got me Bonnie Hunter's awesome book Adventures with Leaders and Enders as a gift. I started "Hopscotch Butterscotch", one of the quilts from the book, soon after receiving the book, but then I didn't have time to work on it.

Since I had some pieces already cut from scraps, I altered the pattern a little, to use sizes I had already cut ... I'm using 2½" squares and bricks, instead of 2". But this works out well, because my quilt will be bigger. 

Earlier this week, I got out what I'd started on (months ago!), to see how far I'd gotten. All the rail units are stitched and trimmed (20 sets of 4). All the (232) little squares are sewn into "twosies" and need to be sewn into four-patches.

I haven't cut any sashings or cornerstones. I love the piano-key border, but I haven't cut that yet, either.

Looking forward to working on this a bit at a time, among my other UFOs. (See my post from last week for a pictorial list of the other UFOs that are up for finishing!)

I'll be linking this post to this Wednesday's UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction. 

One Thousand Eight

As of right now, this quilt top has One Thousand Eight little squares!

This one started out as a Leaders and Enders project, but once I got excited about it,I got busy getting it done.

I'll probably add a border or two next ...

Leaders and Enders

The leaders and enders are making an appearance again ... They may someday become a finished product after all! This one is still in progress ... More pictures soon, when it's done!

Leaders and Enders Milestone

This week, I reached a milestone on an ongoing project that I started a few years ago ...

In between, and among, other projects, I've been sewing together blue and white squares and rectangles ... (More pictures in previous posts here and here.) 

The milestone: I've got as many squares as I need!

A long time ago (in this post), I mentioned the inspiration and explanation for my Leaders and Enders project ... here's what I said (way back in 2011):

"A few weeks ago, I came across a neat concept at a blog called Jo's Country Junction ~ Her post about Leaders and Enders caught my eye ... and she linked her post to her inspiration at Quiltville ... fascinating stuff.

"Both of the links above have great, lengthy explanations ... but the short version is, if you sew together a couple of tiny squares, in between each seam of what you're really working on, the tiny squares keep you from having all those long threads at each end of what you're really working on. You sew straight from one piece onto another, then afterward, you snip the tiny thread between ... So, what you're really working on gets sewn, and the little squares you're sewing together for something else also get done."

So, my little hand-drawn chart says I need something like 260 blocks ... and this week, I counted them up, and I've got them!

The next step? Trim them all square, and then they'll be ready to assemble! 

I have no idea what I'll do with this quilt when it's done, but it'll end up being about twin-sized, which is a very versatile size, so I'm happy about that.

Leaders and Enders Again ...

A couple of times on my blog (here and here) I've mentioned my ongoing "Leaders & Enders" project. Surprisingly, a lot of progress is happening.

I've had a lot of these ...

 

... becoming a lot of these ...

... which should (with a trim?) end up the same size as my stack of four-patches so that they can all be combined into a quilt. 

So far, I'm liking this process! I mentioned a layout idea for these in this post ... I'm still liking that layout idea, and I'm still thinking that I could make this quilt huge!

Leaders and Enders ...

Progress is happening on my stack of Leaders & Enders (I mentioned them here)

After sewing blue (and purple) squares to white (and cream) squares, I stitched them into four-patches.
So, I'm getting quite the stack of blue-and-white four-patches.

To keep things interesting, I'm also working on some square-in-a-square pieces that will be about the same size ...

For an eventual layout that will look something like this ...

It's a work in progress ... more to come ...

Flannel Squares ... and Leaders and Enders ...

Lately, I've been sewing flannel squares ... Making a cozy flannel rag quilt ...

A few weeks ago, I came across a neat concept at a blog called Jo's Country Junction ~ Her post about Leaders and Enders caught my eye ... and she linked her post to her inspiration at Quiltville ... fascinating stuff.

Both of the links above have great, lengthy explanations ... but the short version is, if you sew together a couple of tiny squares, in between each seam of what you're really working on, the tiny squares keep you from having all those long threads at each end of what you're really working on. You sew straight from one piece onto another, then afterward, you snip the tiny thread between ... So, what you're really working on gets sewn, and the little squares you're sewing together for something else also get done.

I have to remind myself often how much little bits do add up. Little bits really do add up! A while back, I mentioned the first denim quilt I made. I decided that since there was "no time" to make something that big, my only option was to worked on the denim quilt every Sunday afternoon, even if it was only for 15 minutes. Sometimes I only worked 15 minutes on it. But it got done!

So, I decided to try the Leaders and Enders idea ...
I cut some little squares ...

And started sewing them before ...

... and after ...

... and between ...

... the pieces of the project that I was really working on ...

So, afterward, I just snip that little thread between the pieces, and I don't have to give everything a "haircut" afterward from all those long threads ...

AND, I end up with not only my stack of these sewed ...

... but ALSO my stack of these:

So far, it sounds like a win-win!

While working on my "Made Fabric" circles the other day, I also stitched some of the Leaders and Enders ... Here's how the whole stack of blue-and-white is looking after being pressed ...

As for what the Leaders and Enders turn into, I'm not sure yet ... I'm thinking about trying for something like a {small} version of the blue-and-neutral quilt shown at Quiltville ... The power of suggestion is strong, and that quilt looks awesome ... so stay tuned for more on the Leaders and Enders project.

The flannel, though, is looking promising ... here's the layout I'm looking at for the rag quilt. It's probably going on eBay when it's done. We'll see.