Black and White

 I just found out a co-worker is expecting their first baby.  You know what that means, right?  Yup, dropped everything else and started a baby quilt!  Inspired by a photo I saw on Pinterest, I got my first nine blocks sewn up today.  Blocks are 6.5" unfinished.  I don't think I'm going to add a border, so this will likely end up around 36" square.

Working on this also made it easy to complete a black block for my scrappy bear claw quilt.

In other sewing news, I also sewed two buttons on today.  I've been putting it off forever (literally for years with the pajama top) and it only took about seven minutes.  Why do I hate mending so much?

Yesterday and I finished knitting my first mitten and made sure to cast on the second right away.

And since it has been so cold, I curled up on the couch to continue hand quilting this Starburst quilt so the quilt could warm me while I worked.  I have yellow, pink and blue finished with purple, green, red and orange left to go.

It looks like we are about to get more snow, but since we are a boarding school, there's no chance of a snow day.  Oh well, I'm just not ready for this crafty weekend to end!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Other people's scraps

 No sooner did I finish cutting up scraps from one friend,

than another box of scraps arrived from someone else!

I've been in SCRAP HEAVEN, cutting for my modified rail fence, 

my 2020 Scrap Buster Challenge quilt,

and my scrappy bear paw quilt, and cutting all leftover scraps down to my precut sizes.  I've also been knitting some mittens as part of a #mmmittalong on Instagram.

Irish Hiking Mittens on Ravelry from mystery yarn

Man, making makes me happy!  I don't so much mind being confined to the house when I have fabric and fiber to play with!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Minor change, but it makes me happy :)

Wow, the resumption of school REALLY cuts into one's sewing time!  I feel like I'm going through withdrawals!  But I did find a couple moments to sew this week, and used that time to make an alternate block for my modified rail fence quilt that I'm making.  Do you notice a difference?

Before - all blocks the same

After - half the blocks w/ HST flipped

I didn't like the way the neutrals switched sides as you followed the HST zig zag trail, so I am making half of the blocks with the HSTs reversed so that the neutrals stay on the same side (bottom and right) throughout one zig zag.  It probably isn't even that noticeable, but I like it better so I'm going with it.

Other than that I did cull some more yardage out of my stash this week to add to my ETSY shop:

because I knew I had a box of scraps coming my way!  

Yippee!!  I'm so much more inspired to sew with scraps than I am with yardage.

Here's hoping I can find some moments this week to sort these scraps and get to sewing!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Lots of stitching going on!

I had hoped to get lots of creating in during my winter break from school...and I did!  It started with a mad dash to make a memory quilt for a friend who lost her beloved dog.  I had six pages of printer fabric sheets, so I found some photos of her pup online and made a quick quilt for her.  She is TALL and I wanted her to be able to cuddle in it, so it is pretty large, about 65"x 98".  I can't make a quick quilt that big using my usual little pieces, so the blocks are huge, each finishing at 31.5" square.  What a departure for me!  Probably not something I'll do again, but she really appreciated it so mission accomplished.

Preparing to baste for quilting...

After that, my desire to sew was gone, so I spent a lot of time knitting:

RBG Ornaments

Christmas crowns for my nieces

Socks for my sister-in-law

A Shoulder Cozy for my mom

More progress on my Excavation Blanket

Using up more sock yarn scraps in my Coziest Memory Blanket

And then, just like that, I wanted to sew again!  I joined a Block Exchange and have already completed and mailed January's blocks:

Mother Hen Block

I made two blue Bear Paw blocks  - this is the year I am determined to finish this quilt and give it to my stepfather.

I've been working on this since October 2019 - what's taking me so long???

I've been chipping away at my scraps.  With this bag of scraps and this tin of HSTs,

I am making this modified Rail Fence.

Hmmm...might reverse the HSTs on half of the blocks to see if that makes them all seem continuous...

And making blocks based on the 2020 Scrap Buster Challenge from Border Creek Station.

Haven't decided on a layout yet, just playing around as I add blocks

I'm sad that vacation is over but I'm glad I had so much time to create, create, create!  Now it is back to work, work, work.

Happy New Year, everyone!  I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.