Scrap Dance Tango Mystery Quilt

Last year, I did the Scrap Dance Mystery Quilt hosted by Carole at From My Carolina Home.  It was my first mystery and I loved it.

She's doing a new one this year, called Scrap Dance Tango.  I'm behind, but I am slowly working on it.  The last time my dad was here, he mentioned that he'd like a quilt.  He's the only one in my immediate family who doesn't have a quilt I've made, so it seemed a reasonable request.  He will get Scrap Dance Tango for Christmas.

Since it's for my dad, I picked a light blue, close to Carolina Blue, as the background color.  I'm using Kona Blueberry.  I'm not really narrowing down my scraps other than to eliminate batiks and solids, so the scraps will be truly scrappy and relatively unsorted.

I got all my background 2 1/2 inch squares cut today.  I don't have all my scrappy 2 1/2 inch squares yet.  I also need 1100 half square triangles.  Yup.  That's a lot.  I got an Accuquilt machine for my birthday last year and I think that's the only reason the idea of that many HST doesn't have me running.  The Accuquilt means I don't have to trim the finished units and the dog ears are already cut.  I did a test run today and now have 12 HST done.  Only 1088 to go!  Carole suggests just doing a few at a time, since you need them throughout the process.  My plan is to chain piece HST for 10 minutes each time I sit down to sew.  Hopefully that will add up to all that I need in a slowly but surely sort of way.

Finished! Growth Chart for Munchkin

I finished the growth chart for Elliot!  My husband decided on Munchkin's 2nd birthday that he wished we had a growth chart.  My first thought was a wall cling one, but he wasn't crazy about that. I looked at some panels that are meant to be growth charts, but we didn't like any that we found.  After browsing some images online, I was ready to commit to making one.

I created mine by combining 3 different inspirations.  This Moda Bake Shop tutorial by Vanessa from the Craft Gemini, this picture of charts made for twin boys, which were based on this picture that I guess originally had a tutorial but the link is now broken.

The main thing I took from the Moda Bake Shop tutorial is using jelly roll strips.  I recently hosted an I Spy swap of 2 1/2 inch strips.  This was the perfect project to use some of my favorites!  I sewed mine in groups of 4, as the tutorial suggested.  I used 4 different sets for a total of 16 different I Spy fabrics.  Each combination is repeated at least twice with two combinations repeated a third time.  It's 80 inches long, and if I ever make another one I will use one less set of strips in the construction, as I honestly think it is too long.  (The bottom is 6 inches from the ground and the numbers are set accordingly, so that is a factor, too.)

 The background is Kona Cloud.  The binding and letters & numbers are Kona Clover.  The backing is Ahoy Primatey--we find the phrase hilarious.  I ordered 3 different 1-yard cuts from Etsy a year or more ago and didn't know exactly what to use it for.  I'm glad to have found a use for one of the yards.  It's a really fun print.

The numbers are some I already had to trace from making beanbags.  The letters are from my new Accuquilt machine and the alphabet die.  I cut the thinner background stripe 3 1/4" wide, the wider background strip 6 1/2" wide, and the strip sets 5 1/2" wide. The finished product is 14" wide.  I quilted in between each jelly roll strip, so the lines are every 2 inches. I am embroidering the measurements.

This was my February goal for OMG hosted by Heidi at Red Letter Quilts--I was goal-setter 91.  This was also on my list of Q1 goals for the Finish Along; you can find my goal-setting post for the FAL here.

February: Hearts for Shari

Shari is queen of my hive in the stash bee this month, and she asked for heart blocks.  They were so much fun, and so quick & easy that I made her three.

And I had so much fun with those, I made four more for me and turned them into a mini!  It's still just a top, because I knew I wouldn't get it completed before Valentine's Day.

I also decided to crash hive 6 and make some 3/4 log cabins for Rebecca.  I hadn't really done improv piecing before, and I had a lot more fun with this than I expected.  I lost some of the wonkiness when I trimmed them to size, which I'm sorry for now, but I'm still pleased with how they turned out.  I may even add an improv project to my bucket list.

February Goal

On Munchkin's 2nd birthday, Husband wished we had a growth chart.  I thought that perhaps he should have thought of that a little sooner, but I only thought that for a moment--we had measurements from his first birth and first birthday, so there is no reason we can't add in older measurements.  :)

I'm combining a Moda Bake Shop pattern with a few pictures I've found online into my own pattern.  I've got the fun part pieced, a really long stripe of I Spy fabrics.  80" long!

Finishing the growth chart is my February goal for OMG: One Monthly Goal.  Many thanks to Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for hosting this great motivational challenge!

OMG! January

Since it happens to be the last day of the month, I think I'll do a January wrap up.  Here's what I was able to accomplish this month.

First of all, my one monthly goal.  Heidi at Red Letter Quilts started OMG to fill the void from ALYOF not being around in 2016.  I chose a circus-themed Project Linus quilt.  (I was goal setting post #63.) I finished it today!  I had just a little bit of the binding left, and I did it in the car on the way to the zoo!  We didn't get back until late, so my picture isn't great, because I missed the natural light. But it is done and ready for donation at the February meeting.

The smaller squares are I Spys, and I tried to get as many that were circus themed as I could.  Some are a bit of a stretch :)  But others are right on--there are peanuts and circus tents and lions and tigers.  I'll try to get a better picture soon.  The circus quilt was also on my list of Q1 goals for the Finish Along.  My goal setting for that project is here.  I'm also linking up with "Goodbye UFOs" at The Crafty Quilter.

I did my first month of both the stash bee and the rainbow scrap challenge.  Both were successful, and I look forward to finding out tomorrow what February has in store for me.

I'm also kinda sorta doing the UFO Challenge at All People Quilt.  I listed 12 projects that I hope to complete or make progress on during the year.  Their thing is that they draw a number and that's what you work on that month.  I'm not really doing it that way, but it happens that January's number was 2, and 2nd on my list was the Midnight Mystery Quilt.  I had been really behind, and I now basically caught up!  I have my top completed to the point of the pattern.  I plan to add a border, but I needed more fabric to do so; it's been ordered but not arrived.  So I'm stalled for the moment, but I made great strides this month.

I set some general goals for the year, and one was to complete and donate 12 Project Linus quilts.  I took three quilts to the January meeting, so one month in, I'm already at a quarter of my goal!

Hey, if I can keep up this level of productivity, it will be a great year!  I'm ready for February!

Blue!

I decided to join the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.  It's been going on a few years, I think, but I just learned about it.  The idea is that each month there is a color, and you use scraps of that color to make something.  There's not much in the way of rules, which I like.  Some people do entire projects out of that month's color; other people pick a block for the year then make one or two each month, and at the end of the year, they have a rainbow of blocks to turn into a quilt.

I decided to go for the "pick a block and make some each month" variation.  Just a few days after I saw the challenge, I had the Summer 2014 issue of Quilter's World checked out from the library and I saw a scrappy butterfly block.  It was designed to be a mini-quilt, but I thought a rainbow of butterflies would be awesome.  I made a few changes to better suit my style. 

January's color is blue. I figure I will decide how many blocks to make each month based on how many scraps of that color I have. Since I have so a lot of blue scraps, I looked for light, medium, and dark scraps and made three butterfly blocks.

I used a single background fabric for each butterfly because I like that look better than a scrappy background within each block.  But I still want all of it to look and be scrappy, so backgrounds will vary.

I especially like the dark blue block, because one of the scraps is Darth Vader's head.  Putting Darth Vader in a butterfly makes me crazy happy :)

This will be my first time linking up with Oh Scrap!

January: wreath block for Diana

This is my first time participating in the stash bee.  Diana is Queen Bee this month and she asked for wreath blocks to make a holiday quilt.  Here's mine:

I am typically not a perfectionist as a piecer, as perfectionist quilting is not my thing, but I was super careful with this one!  It's totally different when it's for someone else.  I can tell that my skills and precision will get better with this bee, which is awesome.  It's also really neat to make blocks that I normally would not consider.  I can't wait to see what the February Queen chooses!

Diana posted the tutorial on her blog:
http://www.reddeliciouslife.com/2016/01/holiday-wreath-tutorial.html