Fun with bits and pieces on WIP Wednesday

I've had a bit of sewing time three days in a row - yeah!!! These are blocks for my newest project the quilt, Alpha Bits and Pieces, from the April 2014 issue of BHG American Patchwork & Quilting.

So far this is what I've accomplished, but its not the final layout. I'm calling those little 6" blocks donuts and barbells - do you see them?

Here we have 2 donut blocks and a spacer strip which has assorted fussy cut whimsies - a dot to dot sunshine and some vintage tape measures - love them! Oh and I got a cute teddy bear there as the filling in a donut block. (Don't bother to question my sanity - it has already been established that I'm slightly cracked - LOL!)

And here are two barbell blocks done in the wonderful Pezzy print and I worked in a old time-y telephone and a rooster -- ain't he handsome?

This yellow barbell block is one of my favorites so far. I love those vintage items and that elephant is too cute. The background is from what I think was one of the first American Jane collections called Peas and Carrots. Oh I wish I had more from that line.

The pattern calls for an outer border with those donut blocks having a center which is a letter of the alphabet. You can see it here in this post. This is one of the features that drew me to this quilt originally but now I'm not sure. I really love that tape measure fabric and want to use it as the border. Still mulling this over, and there are lots more blocks to make and time to think.

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced again this Wednesday. Go check out all the awesome projects over there.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Additional Coleslaw Assembly Required on Design Wall Monday

I had some sewing time yesterday and got the sashing on all 60 blocks of the Coleslaw quilt. However, I didn't get the rows sewn together as I still need to cut the outside setting triangles and by the time I thought to do that my brain was mushy. I'll cut them tomorrow.

I am loving it. It is turning out just as I envisioned. The sashing has made it quite yellow and you know yellow makes me very very very happy! After I get the setting triangles cut and the rows sewn together, I'm planning on an additional inner yellow border, and then the outer border will be the cabbage fabric and I want to bind it in the same fabric as the cornerstones.

And in continued saga of great Phillip Jacobs fabric for SNW I have these two wonderful fabrics in my sewing room. This first one is Cactus Dahlias in Blue.

And this is Moon Flower in the Sky colorway.

The flowers are HUGE... the Cactus Dahlias are about 8" across and the Moon Flowers are 7". Now both of the beautiful fabrics belong to my BFF Stephie. Stephie is going to have to surgery on her shoulder in a few weeks and while I don't think she could cut the fabrics I think she can push them through the sewing machine. I'm going to stack and whack them for her. She want triangles out of the Moonflowers and something with 8 repeats with the Cactus Dahlias. I'm thinking maybe the diamond for the Lemoyne Star or there is another 8 repeat I did that I need to find my pattern for but it is an elongated triangle that makes a block like a Mexican tile. Very pretty.

So I have my work cut out for me this week (ohhh... bad bad pun). I want to get the Coleslaw quilt assembled so I can hand it off to my long arm quilter at the next guild meeting. And I have a project to help with for my younger son. Looks like I need to get off the computer and get to work!

Happy stitching-
carol fun