I have been working diligently on the Black Improv. Surprisingly it is getting quite large. Not king-sized or anything, but large for one of my donation quilts.
After having this piece languish for a long time, I thought it would be a chose to finish it. Even though I am not finished yet, I am having fun working on it. So many stripes!!
I am using the strips I cut for color strip blocks to make the quilt bigger and to make the piecing a little easier. I know I will make more black scraps at some point, so why not?
At the widest and tallest points in the photo above, the piece is 38w x 35l. It is getting to be the size I like giving to the Community Giving project.
I haven’t made much progress on this piece, but I haven’t given on it either. After I posted about the most recent Color Improv finishes, I got some nice feedback and decided to get back to this piece.
I had a couple of the strip blocks and I decided to add them to the piece so as to make it larger sooner.
I quickly completed Cosmic Crazy over the weekend so it would be ready when I went to Sew Day. I didn’t know how much time I would have to sew after my mom’s surgery.
I didn’t have the kind of gold fabric I was imagining, so I used this yellow with red dots. I hope that it isn’t too ugly.
Cosmic Crazy Back
I used some greens as the back and am calling this one done. Not a great work, but someone will like it. At least that is what I am telling myself.
Amy and I survived being MaryC yesterday! It took us longer to do the setup than it takes Mary; thank the quiltmaking goddesses that Friend Julie came early to help as well.
Beatty Cake September 2025
Sew Day for me actually started on Thursday. I wanted a piece of Beatty Cake and that meant making one. I did the baking of the layers on Thursday and frosted it on Friday. Friday was also the day I decided on projects.
I didn’t work on all the projects I brought along.
It occurred to me that I still hadn’t made v.2 of the hat I planned. The fabric and new pattern were already in the bag so that was one project. I also thought about working on one of the Patchwork Palooza blocks I need to make to catch up. In went the fabrics for that project (I need to clear out one of my project bags!). I also put my scrap bin, well overflowing scrap bin, in the bag. Finally, I put a few Half Hexie Star strips in so I could cut some Four Patch Fun patches.
Scrap cutting – Sept 2025
Of all of those projects, I cut out the Four Patch Fun units and worked on clearing out my scrap bin.
I made good progress on cutting the strips and random shapes I use for the Color Strip and Color Improv quilts. This time I toss out more pieces than I have in the past. I did this more at the end of the day as I was getting tired. I did it mostly with plain white fabrics. My white scrap bin is close to overflowing and the plain white fabrics aren’t interesting. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t know the scraps were going to fill Cubies for kids.
I also trimmed a few HSTs that I will use for something.
Scraps regular shapes – Sept 2025
I also had large enough pieces to cut some of the regular shapes I add to my stash.
I have a tidy stack of 5″ squares which replace the ones I used for a new EPP ball. I also cut some 2.5 inch squares for my use later (left) and for donation blocks (right). Between the two stacks of 2.5 inch squares are a small stack of 2″ squares for Blue Lemonade and a 1.5 inch stack for the next Scrap Dash quilt. I did cut a stack of 1.5 x 2.5 inch squares also for Scrap Dash, but I couldn’t find them when I was ready to take the photo. I need a tray or something for transport.
I forgot to bring the donation top and back that I finished. I’ll bring it to the next event, but that is a disappointment. I wanted to keep up my streak of handing in a quilt top at each Sew Day. Oh well, at least it is made.
Cyndi’s goat quilt
Cyndi stopped by with her goat quilt. She was on the way the shower, but wanted to show us all. This quilt had 50+ pieces in each block. Cyndi used some more colorful language to describe the number of pieces. LOL!
The goats are wearing pajamas and some of the pajama fabrics have motifs that are special to the couple and will have some meaning for the baby.
The Free table was also full. Peggy brought more of Rhonda’s things to give away. I picked up some more bag hardware and may have to start focusing my bag projects on what hardware I have.
It was a fun day and I talked to a lot of people. We even had a visitor, which was nice. I hope she joins.
Mostly, I am trying to stock up on Half 16 patch blocks so I can make another Sidewalk quilt. A couple are from Sew Day. I am cutting some 4.5 x 8.5 inch rectangles from larger scraps and yardage to make another Sidewalk quilt from plain pieces of fabric. I am not including those ‘panels’ here as they are not really that interesting since there is no piecing.
I wasn’t able to make the guild meeting on the 17th, but Lee Ann was kind enough to send me some photos of the recently finished quilts.
The grey looks really great. This grey improv quilt is one of my favorites. I am kind of sad to see it go to some random person. I am sure that person will appreciate it.
Since I have been using quite a bit of grey recently, I expect to work on another in the not too distant future.
Green Improv #2 quilted and bound
The recent green one is also finished. It is not a favorite, but I know someone will like it.
I really appreciate the other guild members’ efforts in finishing these. It allows me to do the parts I enjoy.
A few weeks ago, I talked about the Diamond Test project, which I turned into a donation quilt and top. When I found that project, I also found the piece in the photo.
I sort of remember getting the pack of rectangles and sewing them together because I didn’t want to cut the pieces up. The colors are incredibly vibrant. I can’t remember anything else about it. I can only think of it as Cosmic Crazy right now.
It is about 35 in x 35 in at the moment. I have it on my design wall while I think about what to do. My current thought is that I will add a gold border then another border and call it done. It will be another donation quilt.
I made good progress on Sidewalk #3 and was able to get this finished quickly. Using one patch, instead of improv piecing or Half 16 patch blocks, for the 8.5 inch x 4.5 inch units helped make the piecing go very quickly.
This is already with Laura waiting to be quilted.
I noticed after it was gone that I forgot to put a top border on. WTH? Oh well. I’ll do better next time.
I know I made a back for this quilt, but I didn’t take a picture of it. Again, WTH? Not like me at all.
At a recent guild meeting, we talked about themes for the Fair challenge. One idea was an ugly fabric challenge. Been there done that. I am not a fan.
Diamond Test Piece
When I was rummaging for the Handbag Sampler a few weeks ago, I found a few small pieces and some blocks about which I had forgotten. One of the pieces was a diamond test I worked one before I made the Fabric of the Year 2010 quilt and to test a border idea for one of the Bullseye quilts. I also found a post about it. I thought it was older, but I guess 15 years is old enough. This test was made with ugly fabrics. I think the outer brown might be a Civil War print. Yuck.
I didn’t remember making this when I saw it and knew I wasn’t going to make it the center of a quilt. I decided to make it into a donation quilt. My mantra is “someone will like it” whether I like it or not.
Diamond test with borders
The color scheme was a bit depressing to me. That is one reason why I am not excited about an ‘ugly fabric’ challenge. I decided to pull out the greens. The more subtle greens in the background of the border print are hard to see, but the odd greens I found worked very well. I used a lot of green not only to make the quilt a decent size, but also to overwhelm the brown.
Diamond test with outer borders
The piece wasn’t quite big enough, so I found some browns that weren’t hideous and added some additional strips. I didn’t have enough to put on both sides. I used two different prints that are similar colors.
The brown borders are ok. And I’ll be able to say I used some brown. 😉
Diamond test back
The back was with the test piece. it started as that beige with the stripes around three sides. It was small, so I made it larger as well.
This is a different kind of Sidewalk design. I thought of this design after cutting some 4.5 x 8.5 rectangles for another another Rectangle donation quilt. Remember the first one I made last year?
I had cut enough rectangles to make another of those rectangle quilts. However, I saw that the size would work with this design as well. While I was on the sidewalk roll, I decided to try it. It will be super easy to sew together.
We had a Sew Day on Saturday dedicated to making a group quilt that will be donated. Peggy has a pattern that uses different sizes of squares to make a quilt. I don’t know the name and I am not sure Peggy made it up. She probably found it somewhere. The directions were a bit confusing to start with, but easy once we got a few explanations and I drew some pictures.
Community Center block
We all brought a few squares that were the right size, so the quilt would be very scrappy. I made one center block and a couple of border blocks.
My center block didn’t look very nice by itself. The fabrics were scraps from various projects that were the right size. I wasn’t hopeful that my block would fit in.
The border block looked a bit better. While the motifs were quite different, I think having similar colors was better for a block.
Community border block
In general, though, the quilt went together well and the variety of fabrics worked out.
Community quilt top
The quilt looks like an HST quilt, but it didn’t go together that way at all. Unlike some methods of making HSTs, the bias was completely enclosed, so not a problem.
Peggy did a great job and the participants really stepped up.
The other day I mentioned finding some piecing. I thought I would let it languish for awhile, but I need the space on my design wall for other projects, so I quickly sewed it together.
April Cornell Poetry Collection donation top
I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I had very low expectations and was rewarded with a better than expected outcome.
I was able to use all the pieces I found and only had to add a little bit of some peach Grunge I had laying around. I didn’t have much of it left and it was about the only color that went with these soft muted colors. At Julie’s suggestion I added a small strip of Tilde pink to get a little more length. I didn’t think it went with the April Cornell fabrics, but Julie said it picked up some of the darker pinks in some of the flowers. It is a little big strange looking for a top, but hopefully someone will like it.
April Cornell Poetry Collection donation back
The back was much harder. I really don’t have fabrics in those soft colors. I picked some that I thought sort of went with the quilt top. I would have preferred a sage or muted blue.
I eeked out the last few blocks from what was left of my blue scraps. Most of the scraps went to the Blue Improv #2 donation top. Mostly they are too small for the blocks, so were perfect for an improv top.
I have also included some blocks I am making for one of the upcoming Sidewalk donation quilts. As mentioned before, they are half 16 patches. I am so used to making the 16 patch blocks that it feels weird to include these half blocks. Still, they make up really nice quilts, so I am trying to get over the weirdness by including them.
I was really pleased to see this quilt come back from quilting and binding. Lee Ann did the binding. I was pretty unhappy with this quilt when I finished it, but I think it came out really well in the end.
I used the leftovers from the Angel Family pillowcases and some scraps from Melinda. I was pleased to be able to use up as much of the fabric I bought as possible.
