Using bonus pieces

When I paper-piece quilt blocks I always cut my pieces oversize.   I'd rather lose a bit of fabric to trimming than I would have to frog-stitch because I tried to cut the needed piece exactly the size needed and having it turn out to not cover the section of the pattern.    With the wedding quilt this means that I've ended up with piles of bonus triangles.  With the wedding quilt that has added up to a one-gallon bag filled with the extra solid triangles, and a quart-sized bag filled with the triangles from the striped flying geese blocks.

At this point I'm making two different versions of 3.5" blocks with the pieces of leftover green fabric and will complete the blocks by using the leftover background fabric as well.    Will have to add to the background fabrics, but that is doable with my stash.

Many of my quilt designs come from having leftover pieces such as these.   this is no different and I have several design possibilities floating around in my head for these.

What do you do with your leftover bits and pieces like these triangles?

More progress

Blocks completed yesterday have been pressed and trimmed to the proper 6.5" size.    Am thankful that I put the ruler I'm using for the trimming with the quilt because the blocks are going together w/o any problems.  =)

I've now got 7 rows sewn together and all but 23 blocks made - that's 157 blocks made out of the 180 I need for the quilt top.    Pic shows what it looks like so far.   =)   The top for the wedding quilt is now half done.

Getting this done quickly is starting to look doable - something I'm thankful for.

Gratitudes -
1. Time to sew once again.

2. A stash that I was able to pull most of the fabrics for this quilt from making it much more affordable for me.

Wedding Quilt Progress

After finding out that the intended recipient of the wedding quilt that I started back at the first of the year got married earlier this week (totally unexpectedly....), I decided I'd better get to work on it again.   Thankfully school is almost out, so I'll have more time in the coming weeks to get it done....hopefully before they have their reception sometime later this summer.   In the meantime, i've finished 20+ blocks today and have finished off another 20-25 blocks.   Next up is to start putting more rows together so that I can figure out how many more I need to make in order to finish up this quilt.  

Here's a pic of the first three rows put together.....the top of the quilt is at the right side of the pic.   Blocks are 6" square and are paper-pieced so that I can get the accuracy I want for them.  

Gratitudes:

1. For those in the military who have made the ulimate sacrifice, w/o complaint, so that all in the US may be blessed by the freedoms that we have today.

2. 6 more school days till summer vacation!!!

First Setting Block Pattern Uploaded

The first setting block for this years quilt has been uploaded for you.    This block can be made with scraps, like I'm doing, or three fabrics.  

Yardage has been given for three fabrics, and for those that are planning on using scraps the number of squares in each color is given.

You can find the pattern here  http://thequiltedsnail.com/bom2013-14.html

Gratitudes -
1. Only 17 more days of school to go!

2. My coming summer vacation

And the winner is.....

Used a random number generator to pull the winner of the pin cushion - and that person is Nancy!    I've sent an email off to Nancy and am waiting to hear back from her.    If I don't hear back then I'll draw another name for the pincushion.

Gratitudes -

1. 17 days left in school till summer vacation!

2. My mama who is still living, even tho I'm not living near where she and my dad are.

200th Post - Thinking about the next year of designs and a giveaway

This last week I've been working on getting the next two blocks made for my BOM and getting the patterns written so that I can send them to my pattern tester with plenty of time.

And in realizing that I'm now half way through the year for the BOM, I started to think about what I want to design next.   Current options include the following:
           1.  A new Block-Of-Month, but a smaller version - maybe a toddler sized quilt.
           2.  A Mystery quilt that would be completed over 3-4 months
           3.  Maybe some other choice I haven't thought of yet, lol

I'd love to hear back from anyone reading my blog to hear which of the options that I've listed, or other ideas that you might, would be most interesting to you.   So if you'd leave me a comment letting me know your thoughts I'd love to hear what you have to say!

And in honor of my 200th post, I'm going to be giving away a pincushion made with a couple of orphan blocks to the winner of a random drawing from all those who leave comments on this post.   Leave me a comment by May 10th to enter the giveaway.  And be sure to leave me an email if your blogger id does not have a means to contact you!

Gratitudes:
1. For the opportunities I have to work with my quilt designs and all the fun I have with it.
2. For the possibilities to have my designs published.

Block-of-the-Month Block 6 is up

Block 6 of this years Block of the Month is up and ready for you to make.  You can access it on this page -
http://thequiltedsnail.com/bom2013-14.html

This block was made as a nod to Memorial Day when we honor those in the military and all they've do to keep us safe.   May we never forget their sacrifices.

I hope everyone who is following along enjoys making the block.   Please let me know if there are any questions.

Gratitudes:
1. Living in a land where we still have the freedoms in the Constitution and Bill of Rights even though they are under attack.

2. For the service men and women who give their all that all may live free here.