Scrappy Monthly Wall Hangings -- Starting off and a Snowman

Have you ever seen the set of calendar wall hangings designed my Kim Schaefer?

If you follow Honey, Bunny, and Doll on Pinterest, Our Finished Projects board has the pictures of the ones that my mom made. 

Since my scrap boxes are overflowing and with no particular scrap project in mind right now, I've decided to start making my own to hang in my dining room. I decided to change up the dimensions of the squares so that the finished size will fit better between my windows. 

The original set is rather dusty/country/dull colored, so mine will be much brighter like the ones that my mom made but with my own color schemes. I started working on putting together the background squares for about half of the wall hangings with my own color schemes. 

Here's February, August, November, and December's backgrounds:

Since none of the months had a significant amount of purple and a lot of them had blue, I decided to use all purple for August, which will have bees and a beehive on it.

Here's January with the start of the snowman put on it:

I decided not to do the black background for this one and decided to go with a full snowman instead of just his head. I need to get myself some buttons for his eyes and "chest". There will be lots of satin stitching to do for this project! I need to assess my thread colors and see what I need to add. I'm trying to decide what else needs to be added to the snowman. Such difficult decisions!

Happy Thursday! 

PS. The voting for Block #12 in the QCQAL is WAY TOO CLOSE and we need everyone to keep voting!

Click here to vote!

July ALYoF Goal -- completed!

My goal for this month (and last month, which I failed at) was getting my blue batik star quilt top all together.

After multiple quilt shop stops and lots of ironing, it is complete!

Here's after all of the blocks and pieced sashings were together and I realized that I actually hadn't made too many square in a square units -- they were also the cornerstones of the sashing. Duh.

Here'st he finished product:

I think that I've decided that I am not going to put a border on this one and potentially give it as a baby quilt. Those white stars really pop out at you don't they?

Happy sewing and don't forget to vote for Block 12 in the QCQAL!

QCQAL Block #11 -- Missouri Star

This week we are making Missouri Star blocks!

This is a pretty traditional block but a fun one nonetheless because you can integrate quite a number of different fabrics. Check out pin-spiration here!

I've developed a way to make this block using fast flying geese and I found that it worked GREAT. You don't have to cut the tiny triangles at all! I'm planning to post another more in-depth tutorial on this new method later this week.

Cutting:
One (1) 7 1/4 inch background square for fast flying geese
Four (4) 3 1/2 inch background squares

One (1) 4 3/4 inch square -- this is your center square -- fussy cut if you so desire!
Two (2) 3 7/8 inch squares -- cut each in half diagonally once, yielding four (4) triangles
Two (2) 4 3/8 inch squares in one color
Two (2) 4 3/8 inch squares in a second color

Using your 4 3/4 inch square and your pre-cut triangles -- sew long sides of triangles to the 4 3/4 inch square making sure to trim dog-ears as you go. Trim to 6 1/2 inches if necessary.

Using your four 4 3/8 inch squares, draw lines on two of the squares and make four half-square triangles. It is helpful for these blocks to press the seam open. Trim to 3 7/8 inches.

Draw diagonals on the backs of all four of your half-square triangles perpendicular to your seams. I did not draw over the seam itself.

Line up two of your half-square triangles atop of your 7 1/4 inch background square, just as in a typical fast flying geese method. You'll want to have one color at the corners (like my pink) and the other color at the center (like my yellow).

Sew 1/4 inch on each side of the line and cut apart on the line and press.

Line up your remaining two half-square triangle units with the last two background corners with colors oriented in the same direction -- "pink" at the corner and "yellow" at the center.

Sew 1/4 inch on each side of the line, cut apart on the line, and press.

Lay out your block as shown below.

Sew together, press, and trim if necessary!

Aren't you happy you didn't have to sew all those little triangles?

July Stash Bee Block

This month Francine requested a wonky pinwheel block. I'd never made one before and it was very fun! I only had one section that I had to redo because it wasn't big enough.

Here's each of the blocks with one of the spokes sewn on each one:

Here's all 16 of the units trimmed and pressed:

Here's the finished block all put together:

Aren't these colors great?

Happy Thursday to you!

Not-A-Finish Friday

It's been a crazy long time since I've had a finish and an even longer time since I finished a quilt. Things around here have been a general fail zone.

I did get all of my blue batik star blocks sorted into 12 blocks and started sewing the first one.

I'm so happy with how the first one turned out! I also really like using this paper plate method for sorting my blocks ahead of time!

Silly me doesn't know how to count and I made 6 extra center square in a square blocks and about 10 extra star point squares AND THEN I cut my blue/cream/grey yardage into squares (at least 30 of them) and then I looked at my pattern and realized that I only needed 12 of them. I don't know what the kerfluffle is going on with my brain right now!

Maybe I'll have enough to make another row of blocks so all that fabric that I cut and block parts that I made won't go to waste! If worse comes to worse, they can always go on the back.

Anyone else on the struggle bus this week?