Scrappy Sprouts Finish!

Several years ago I started piecing scrappy sprouts blocks using the color of the month with RSC. Earlier this year I sewed the sprout blocks into columns but I was undecided about what flower to use. Not everyone adds flowers to their sprouts but I wanted flowers.

This summer Preeti hosted 2023 Positivity Sew Along on her blog then designed a flower for the stem blocks. That is the flower I used for my sprouts. The flower pattern is no longer available on her blog.

I did modify the flower for my blocks adding a pointy part to the bottom of the flower to set into the stem. It's not perfect but I can live with it. I also had to add spacers to the sides of the flower blocks to be the same width of the scrappy sprouts.

Since the quilt is going to hang on a white wall, I used a black floral for binding. I cut the binding at 3" so I would have 1" on the top for a nice frame.

I'm not that good at machine quilting larger quilts with my sewing machine but I decided I was going to quilt this quilt myself.

I taped a large piece of plastic to the garage floor, (after blowing it off several times) then layering the layers like normal except I used spray adhesive. I also pinned those layers to help to make sure it stayed together. I should have used more adhesive but there wasn't as much in the can as I thought there was.

Scrappy Sprouts is based on a 2" grid so I thought I would just stitch 1/2" from the edge of the vertical seams. I didn't like it, I thought she looked baggy so I ended up stitching more seams which for the most part are 1/2" apart.

The quilting on the left side of this picture is 1/2" apart. The right side is 1" apart.

My stitching rows aren't perfectly straight but this quilt isn't meant to be viewed closely. You need to stand back several feet then look at her.

For the backing fabric, I used sheets from a sheet set I no longer need or use. I did have to piece the top sheet with part of the bottom sheet.

I've got a curtain rod and hangers for display purposes but she's not installed yet. This quilt will be hanging in my basement sewing studio where I will get to see her every day. I'll show you a picture when she's displayed. Flowers in the winter always bring a smile to my face.

Since I had used spray adhesive to hold the layers together, I was concerned about what effect this might have on the cotton fabric fibers. I washed the quilt and set the washer control to add an extra rinse beside the normal rinse. After washing then drying, my Scrappy Sprouts now measures 73" wide by 75" long.

Here is a link to instructions for the Scrappy Sprouts quilt.

The best things about this finish is that an UFQ is finished! Now there is just one unfinished project from the RSC, Dancing Stars! The problem is I know they are in the sewing studio somewhere but I don't know where somewhere is! I'll work on another UFQ until I find them.

I'm still having a problem downloading photos, I don't know if I'll have a Sunday post or not.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday

Scrappy Sprouts

The flowers for the Scrappy Sprouts quilt are pieced. I took the pictures outside so the colors are more true looking.

Here is the first arrangement.

Or they could arranged like this.

I'll probably move them around a dozen times before this quilt is finished.

I wasn't sure what to use for the green flower so I used this coleus as my inspiration. It has been my surprise plant for the summer. I had no idea this would grow to be so huge, I love it!

The flower pattern came from Preeti. She provided the pattern as part of her 2023 positivity quilt sew along. In an earlier post I had provided a link to the flower but that link no longer works. I knew when I saw the flower it would be perfect for my scrappy sprouts. Thank you Preeti! 

The next step is to fill space with neutrals to make all the columns the same height.

Here is a link to the pattern for Scrappy Sprouts.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday

Star Dance

I started piecing the original blocks for Star Dance way back in January 2017 in conjunction with the RSC. I had thought this would be a 2 year project but it's been 6 years and she is finally finished!

I requested Lori Null use Raindrops on Water for the quilting design and it is perfect! She set the curves 1/2" apart.

Star Dance finishes at 94" by 105" which I consider a large queen sized quilt. She's a little small for our king sized bed but we're using her anyway. I think she makes a lovely quilt for summer.

I know the border looks green but it's not. It's a soft white but there are very faint light green ghost leaves in the background and my phone pulls out the green.

I decided I would use brighter fabric for the binding. I looked in my brights box and found these strips from a jelly roll. I thought they would kind of give a striped effect. There were 5 different colors of the same design with 2 strips of each color. I was concerned there wouldn't be quite enough length so I added 2 short strips of yellow/orange fabric.

You can see in the above picture that the background of the border is white and not green. See the ghost leaves?

The backing fabric is a very subtle white floral on white fabric. I can't capture the flowers with the phone. The fabric reminds me of the tablecloths my mother used to use for holiday meals.

It feel good to have a long time UFQ finished. 

Here is a link to the Star Dance pattern.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party,  Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

Scrappy Sprouts

One of the projects I want to finish this year is my Scrappy Sprouts quilt which I started piecing several years ago.

The pieced blocks have been sewn into strips. Now I need to get the flowers pieced for the top of the strips. I've changed my mind several times  about which flower I'm going to use. I had settled on hexie flowers but I'm not sure about that anymore. 

I want to get Blueberry Pie pieced then I have some UFQ's to finish before making the flowers. There is plenty of time to decide that but I do want this quilt finished before the end of the year.

Here is a link for a general pattern of Scrappy Sprouts. Here is a link to a picture of Scrappy Sprouts with interesting flowers. I've also seen scrappy sprouts made with Dresden flowers. And sometimes scrappy sprouts is made with no flowers.

Several years ago there were many scrappy sprout quilts in progress on the RSC link ups. Here is Kathy's start. Here is Sue's quilt. Vireya was piecing one too. Animated Librarian made her sprouts with tulip flowers, very pretty! I know there are a lot more scrappy sprouts out there but these are what I could find right now.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down,  TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday.

Pink Shoo-flys

I intended to piece pink shoo-fly blocks for Star Dance at retreat. All the HST's were pieced but when I went to sew the individual blocks, I had forgotten the squares for the center!

Here are the pink and red shoo-fly block even though they were supposed to have been made in April. Better late then never! I'm only showing half of the blocks made, 30 in pink . . .

32 in Reds. I don't want to take a whole year to finish Star Dance so I'm making the color of the month along with a related color.

Green and teals have been pulled to make the shoo-fly blocks for May. The blocks will finish at 4". 

This is a link to the Star Dance pattern. My Star Dance quilt won't look exactly like the pattern. 

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap.

Star Dance to be Finished in 2022!

My goal for 2022 is to finish up RSC projects already started.

Back in 2018 I finished piecing a flimsy called Star Dance. Here is a link to the last post I wrote about Star Dance. She has been waiting to be quilted for several years.

Every time I decided she was next on the hand quilting frame, she said No!, she wants to be made larger. In 2022, I am going to finally add size to this flimsy and make her into bed quilt. Of course she'll be hand quilted.

She measures 60" by 70" right now.

Here is a link to the Star Dance pattern.

I'm envisioning a border of sawtooth stars. I took the time to sketch out my plan and made measurements. I need forty 6" stars but that works out to only 4 stars a month for 10 months. I want to move faster than that. 

Pink is related to red and since the pink fabrics are stored in the same box as the red fabrics, I made both colors this month. 

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap