Hands 2 Help Challenge Progress

 This post is short and sweet as its after midnight and I am going to a quilt show tomorrow, so I need to get off to bed. 😊

I'm making good progress on the quilt top I am making using Bonnie Hunter's free Bricks and Stepping Stones pattern.  Doesn't it look so different when you use all the same coloured bricks in the rows? I am really loving it!

The top will be donated to Victoria's Quilts Canada through one of their local Friends Groups. Victoria's Quilts Canada provides these quilts to people living with cancer in Canada. 

Happy Friday!

Linking up to: Confessions of a Fabric Addict Hands2Help Challenge Check in

Hands 2 Help - Speed-piecing 4-Patches Tutorial

I am so excited to be participating with Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge 2023 hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and my very first guest post! 

I love to make scrap quilts, making something from the leftovers and castoffs. (Ok, I love making scrap blocks. Finishing the quilts is another story, ha!) Sometimes though, I want to use a speedier piecing method rather than sewing individual scraps together. 

Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville.com makes the most wonderful scrap quilts and generously shares many free patterns. One that I especially like and have made before is her Bricks & Stepping Stones pattern.  Here's the flannel quilt I made using this pattern. You need a lot of  4-patches.

I’m going to show you how to make a bunch of 4-patches (quilting term for 60!) with less measuring / cutting steps, and fewer seams. If you have ever made a Trip Around the World quilt, this is a similar method.

Please read through all steps before starting. Piecing accuracy is really important! Use a scant ¼” seam allowance.

These instructions will make 60 (yes!) 4-patches that finish at 3 inches (3 1/2" unfinished). I’ve also included cutting measurements to make other sized 4-patches at the end of the post. 

You can use just two colours of fabric, or go scrappy, and use a variety of lights and darks.

From yardage, cut:

•  3 strips – 4” x WOF* (dark)

•  3 strips – 4” x WOF (light)

*width of fabric minimum 41" 

1. Sew the strips together in pairs, alternating light and dark. Measure your strip set. It should be 7 1/2" wide. If it is too narrow, fix your seams now, otherwise your 4-patches will be too small. If it is wider than 7 1/2", you can leave it if you don't mind doing a bit of trimming to square up your 4-patches, or fix it now if you don’t want the extra work. Personally, I don’t mind the little extra. 

2. Sew the pairs together. Press seams toward dark fabric.

3. Square up one edge. Cross-cut the strips into 4” segments (pieces will measure 4” by 21 1/2”). You should end up with 10 segments. 

4. Flip every second segment and pin the segments together to make a checkerboard. Sew and press seam to one side.

5. Align the 1 3/4" line on your ruler with the first seam to the right on the short side of the checkerboard . (If you are left-handed, you can measure and cut from the left side). Make sure the ruler line is lined up from top to bottom, adjust if necessary (a little tug here and there may help). Cut. 

The segment will measure 2".

6. Flip the 2" segment around and sew it to the opposite side of your checkerboard. Press the seam to one side.

7. Turn your checkerboard on your mat so the long side is on the right (left if left-handed).
Align the 1 3/4” line on your ruler with the first seam in from the right edge. Make sure the ruler line is lined up from top to bottom, adjust if necessary. Cut.

8. Flip the 2" segment around and sew it to the opposite side of your checkerboard. (You may need to press seams so they nest together). Press the seam to one side.

Your checkerboards will now look like this. Now comes the fun part!

9. Make sure your checkerboard is laying straight on your cutting mat. Align the 1 3/4” line on your ruler with the first seam in from the left edge this time. Make sure the line is lined up from top to bottom, adjust if necessary. The 3 1/2" line should be lined up along the left edge of the checkerboard.  Cross-cut into 3 1/2” segments.

10. Continue aligning the 1 3/4" line with the seam line, and check that the 3 1/2” lines up to the left edge (right edge if left-handed). Cut into segments.

11. If you can move around your table, keep the pieces lined up on the cutting mat, or cut each segment individually. Repeat the steps above. Align the 1 3/4" line to the seam and cut into 3 1/2" unfinished 4-patches. 

Congratulations! You just made 60 4-patches!! Were you counting seams? If my count is correct, there were only 16 seams sewn! How cool is that?

If you make another set, you will have enough to make your own Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt (with a few 4-patches left over)! 

4-Patch Finished Size	Cut Strips
2”	3”
4”	5”
6”	7”
8”	9”

Remember the sneak peek I mentioned in my To-Do Tuesday post? This is what I am doing with it. 

1. I followed steps 1 - 10 above. I then sewed a 6 1/2" wide strip of bright fabric to the segment. Press seams to bright fabric. 

2. I straightened the edge, and then cut 3 1/2" segments, aligning the 1 3/4" line with the 4-patch seams. 

And here are some of the blocks up on the design wall. 

I hope you will give this method a try.  Please let me know if you find anything confusing. I will be making my quilt top for Victoria's Quilts Canada. At the retreat I attended in early March, I met a local representative so I'll arrange to drop off the quilt top to her when it's done. 

I hope you consider joining the Hands 2 Help Challenge, too!

Sharing with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilting is more Fun Than Housework Oh Scrap!

March’s One Monthly Goal is a Finish!

I did it! I completed my March One Monthly Goal which was to finish my Scrap Snap quilt! Binding and label, too! I love it! 😀

I spray-basted the quilt yesterday afternoon before I left for retreat and started quilting it this morning. I used the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff to stitch three horizontal lines across each row of blocks. I changed thread colour to match the colour of the row and used white on the back. I used up most of this black and white dots fabric I just love. Perfect for framing all the colours. 

I finished at 10:40 pm March 31st, so I completed my March One Monthly Goal. Hmmm, what goal shall I set for April? 😊

Linking to: 

Elm Street Quilt One Monthly Goal (Oops, I’m too late for the link party 🙁)

So Scrappy Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023

To-Do Tuesday #5 and Retreat

Life happens when you make other plans

I have so been looking forward to a 4-day retreat Monday to Thursday this week. I’d been planning what to sew, cutting fabrics, preparing kits, and anticipating with excitement the chance to meet 19 other quilt enthusiasts and future friends.  Unfortunately, life decided that I should come down with a cold. I was hoping I would be over it and all would be well, but alas, it is sticking around😥. Yup, life happens when you make other plans.

I stayed home yesterday, but not to be defeated, I played in my sewing room and began sewing one of the prepared fabric kits all day yesterday.  I’ve shared my progress on the retreat FB group. I was there in spirit! 

I was feeling better this morning, so I packed up and headed out for the day. Since I still have a bit of a cough (I wore a mask all day😷), I came home to sleep and I'll head back out again tomorrow morning. It's a bit of a trek (just over an hour's drive), but I don't mind. I had a wonderful day meeting some lovely ladies and seeing all the quilts and fun projects they are working on. It's my first time at this retreat centre, and it is so spacious and bright, and the food is really good. Yum! 

I had a busy week last week and got lots of prep work done for my retreat and made some progress on my To-Do Tuesday list. Yay!

• Choose backing for Scrap Snapper quilt  Pieced and ready to go.

• Make binding and label for Scrap Snapper  Binding is done. 

• Cut solid fabrics for the 15 Zipper blocks to take to retreat - not quite. I changed my mind and cut 15 blocks in browns (from tan to dark brown) and 15 blocks in blues (light to dark) I’m excited to sew these up and see how they turn out. I’ll call it .

• Gather supplies for some Taggie blankets (a guild initiative) to take to sew at retreat. I had to go shopping for ribbon and I just couldn’t resist buying a bit of these adorable Minky fabrics   

• Find backing and cut batting for a guild member's two community quilts and deliver to her 
• Pack for retreat!!  
• Set a timer for 30 minutes each day to sort, put away, put for donation or throw out "stuff" in my sewing room. Track my progress! I managed to do this 3 x this week, so that is 3x more than last week. 😂 Ha! I’m going to keep this as a weekly goal, but be more realistic (for me) and try for 3x week.

To-Do Tuesday #5 (March 7-13)

• Sew blue and brown zipper blocks and assemble into a top - I started on these yesterday, and sewed the rest of the blocks at retreat today, except I was short one block.  
• Sew one set of 30s repro bricks and stones into a top
• Sew the rest of the pink/grey blocks (I have 43, I need a total of 80 blocks) 
• Sew scrap snapper blocks (3 x orange), etc. 
• Make at least 3 Taggie blankets
• Sew quilt blocks for community quilt top (brown, red, blue, gold)

Linking up to: Quilt Schmilt To-Do Tuesday

February One Monthly Goal Moves to March's One Monthly Goal and The 350 Blocks Project

My one monthly goal for February was to finish my Scrap Snap quilt. Well that just did not happen. I did manage to get it to the Flimsy stage. At least it has moved forward. You can read more about this quilt and find the link to the tutorial in this post. 

So, my One Monthly Goal for March is to finish the Scrap Snap Quilt. 

I've been procrastinating because it is such a chore to drag out the box and wrestle out the batting to cut for just one quilt. I just need to do it, and cut batting for a few other flimsies while I'm at it and it will seem like its worth the effort.

February 1st, I signed up to participate in Prairie Moon Quilts The 350 Blocks Project, which I found through another blog. Its a fun little challenge where you keep track of and report the number of blocks you make each month and then submit your total to the blog host. At the end of the year, if you meet the 350 yearly total, you'll be entered into a grand prize draw. Fun! And it is achievable, since all you need to do is keep track of the number of blocks you make. Easy-peasy!

Since I started in February, I checked with Shelly, the host, and she said I could include the January blocks I made in my February total. This may help explain (not excuse, 😉) my distraction from my one monthly goal. Counting up the blocks really shows you the progress you've made, even if I don't have any finished quilts to show yet. 

From January 1st to February 28th, I have sewn: 

• 87 - 30's Repro Bricks and Stones blocks to add to the 215 blocks I made last fall (more than enough for two good sized quilts!)
• 45 - Windmill blocks
• 43 - Pink 16-patch blocks
• 41 - Puss in the Corner blocks (assembled into a top, I just need to add some borders)
• 8 - H blocks (Cathy @ Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting calls her finished quilt Animal Crackers. Cute! I get so much inspiration from her!
• 2 - 4-patch blocks
• 2 - 9-patch blocks
• 1 - Bento Box block (6" finished) (Cutting instructions for the 6 inch block can be found here and alternate assembly method tutorial here)
• 1 Celtic Twist block
• 1 Zipper block (finished to the wrong size, its missing two teeth 😏)

A grand total of 231 blocks in two months!! Yay!  Shelly has announced March's goal is 30 blocks. Since I have lots of sewing dates in March, including a 4-day quilt retreat, I'm pretty sure I can meet that goal 😃.

I couldn't resist sharing a picture my husband took yesterday of one of our Fur Babies, Bella. She was overlooking the stairs, out the front windows at the snow falling. 💚

I am linking up to:

• Elm Street Quilts March One Monthly Goal
• Prairie Moon Quilts The 350 Blocks Project
• So Scrappy RSC 2023
• Quilting is more fun than Housework Oh Scrap

To-Do Tuesday #3 and a Flimsy!

I definitely think making a list and posting it to my blog is helping me. I can misplace a hand-written list, but the blog is always handy. 😊

Here’s a look at my progress on last week’s list:

• Sew together Scrap Snapper quilt top ✅ Its all pressed, and stay-stitched, too (lots of seams on the edge).

• Choose backing for Scrap Snapper quilt – I still need to do this.
• Prepare binding and make label for raffle quilt ✅ I made a 6 inch Bento Box block to add to the label.

• Iron pink scraps - Some progress this week
• Keep sewing 16-patches with scrappy 2 1/2” pink and gray strips (until I run out of scraps) I've finished five blocks, and have 10 more pinned to sew. To be continued...

• Keep cutting fabric for Zipper blocks for retreat - No progress. 
• Sew bindings on at least two guild community quilts - I finished binding one quilt.

I knew this was going to be a push to do, so I did what any smarty-pants quilter would do. I picked the smallest quilts in the pile 😁. I have a container overflowing with bits of left-over bindings. 

I looked through it and found the perfect colourful binding made up of strips of yellow, orange, green, red and blue. It was leftover from a topsy turvy quilt I made a few years ago. The piece wasn't quite long enough, so I dug some more and found another piece that used the same blue. Pardon the lousy picture. 

I joined them together and bound the quilt. And this is what is left of the binding! Talk about playing binding chicken. Whew!  

Since I did not make the quilt, I'm just sharing a picture of the binding.

And on top of the list, I also wrote a tutorial for making a 12 inch Bento Box block and provided cutting instructions to make a 6 inch Bento Box block.  So I am happy about that. 

This week's To-Do List:

• Choose backing for Scrap Snapper quilt 
• Make binding and label for Scrap Snapper
• Sandwich, quilt, bind and label Scrap Snapper (my February OMG) #1 priority
• Keep sewing 16-patches with scrappy 2 1/2” pink and gray strips (until I run out of scraps)
• Keep cutting fabric for Zipper blocks for retreat
• Sew bindings on at least two guild community quilts
• Gather supplies for some Taggie blankets (a guild initiative) to take to sew at retreat

Linking up to: 

Quilt Schmilt To-Do Tuesday

My Quilt Infatuation NTT