Blue May Challenge report

This was indeed the craziest month of blue. I used TONS of blue....all the selvages are gone....and most of the bits and pieces of scraps are gone. I still have a shoebox size box of blue scraps but they are going to have to wait for another project. The tops I pieced this month are.....

Blue Madness I....

Blue Madness II....

Blue Madness III...

Blue Madness IV...

Blue 4 Patches...

Blues Moon.....  with St Louis Blues fabric

Double Boxed Squares...

Flannel  Boxed Squares...

I counted up the blue blocks I made this month for all these tops....950 blocks.  That might be a record for me. haha

I also did some embroidery. I got all the animals embroidered on these strips so I can create a top with them one day.

And, I embroidered a lot of blocks of the Patriotic ABC series. I am more than half finished with these. Here are some of them.

I did manage to quilt one top this month. It is Balloon Animals II....and it has gone to live with a little girl I know.

And I started this little project with wool ovals that I found at a thrift store. I am embroidering oak leaves in the middle of each one with variegated red/orange/yellow thread and sewing it onto a brown fabric background and sashing them with red, orange and yellow leaf fabric. So far, these 4 are finished. I have embroidered 8 more ovals but need to sew them down. It will be a slow project over several months....to amuse me between other projects. haha

Have you made any altered books? This is another project that I have wanted to try for years. I went to a couple thrift stores and found a few books to practice on. It will also be a long term project.

And, also....Blue Madness IV.....hahaha

I made more blue blocks and discovered I had enough to make Blue Madness IV. never had 4 madness quilts in one month....a first. And, actually, I still have a shoebox size box of blue scraps left. But, I am done with blue for a while. It was truly a madness month.

It's a larger one also....10x13 blocks....60x78". I decided to make a pattern of sorts with the HSTs and the 4 patches in this one.

The HSTs are going the same way in each line of them....the flowered fabric is always on the bottom.

The 4 patches with the dark squares followed the HSTs on the bottom

The 4 patches continued along the HSTs at the top, but there are no dark squares so they don't show as much...but they are there....oriented in the same direction as those on the bottom.

I put a little piece of the St Louis Blue fabric....from the Blues Moon quilt top....in here, too.

I had 3 blocks left over. They will go in the box with the other multi-colored blocks and will wind up in a quilt someday.

This is my 'pattern'. I just drew out how many blocks I wanted to use....counted the HST blocks and the 4 patches and put them in my drawing so as to use them all and make some sort of design. My coding was to tell me which block went where. Primitive....but it works for me.

Now, I am done with blue for the month. I am going to catch up on a couple of things that got kicked to the curb before white starts for June tomorrow.

Guess What????

There is a Blue Madness III.  And it is actually a bit larger than the other two. it is 10x13 blocks. Usually I do 10x12 but I had made a few extra and forgot they were in the pile. Turned out it was 10 extra, so it got an extra row.

There are several different styles in here....4 patches....crumb blocks.....strip blocks.

I keep thinking I am at the end of the blues, but not yet....but i can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I had a bunch of 3" wide pieces and i sewed them all together and put strips on the side to make them the correct size.

A 4 patch....and a strip block...

A smaller 4 patch...

I have actually used up a couple spools of thread this month, too.  and my fingers are sore. haha

But, got 2 more days to sew up blue things. 

They just keep coming

This has been the toughest month to get rid of blue scraps and selvages. I sorted yet another box of them and pulled out all strips and squares. I left the odd shaped pieces....maybe they will get used....maybe not. depends if i run out of month.

May 26 ...  19 scrap blocks made....well, I don't have a pic. but you know what they look like. haha

May 27....36 scrap blocks made....same thing....pic not here.

Then.....this morning I went to the studio. I spent a couple of hours outside trimming a tree and pulling weeds. Then...naturally...the thunder started and the rain came....so I quit and went outside. I figure God told me I had worked enough. ... who am I to argue.  haha

I was supposed to be quilting....or embroidering....but, no...I was thinking of June's color.....white.  I have tons of white selvages and scraps....just like the blue. But I didn't have a plan of what to make. I intended to switch the color to purple for the month.....I don't have much purple at all and it would go quickly.

But then....the brain kicked in....and I got not one....but two .....white block plans. So, I CHEATED ....and had to make a block to make sure the plan was a good one.

Plan A.....I have yards of white fabric that has old fashioned toys on it....rocking horse....jack in the box....teddy bear....wooden alphabet blocks....roly poly toy....you get the idea. So, I cut out a bunch of them....over 50....and this is what those blocks will look like.

I will just go around them with white selvages. trim to 6.5" and set them 7x8....my usual for this size block. that will be a child size quilt. 

Then, last night, when i was working on blue blocks....an idea popped into my head. what if..????

So, Plan B.... I sat down this morning and made these 9 blocks. all will have white selvages....with a little surprise in the middle of the block.

The center block has a pink 'border'....

Then the next round has a green border.... each block will still have a surprise in the center. I didn't worry if the green selvages met precisely where the blocks met....and I didn't worry that all the greens were the same.

My white selvages are not pure white.....any fabric whose background color is white goes into the white selvage box...unless it has a strong color in the design that overwhelms the white, then it will go with that color.

The next round will be a different color....maybe orange or purple. who knows. and I don't know how many rounds there will be....I guess till I get tired of making them....or run out of materials.  But, these were so much fun this morning....and I made 9 of them in no time at all....it will be hard to leave these alone till Tuesday ...... when it is officially June....and time to work on white.

But, I'm glad I cheated and figured these out. Now I am excited to work on them. And, like the blue....there are tons of white.

This is what 180 4 patches looks like...

I had a ton of 2.5" blocks all cut out...so I pulled out the blue ones and made 4 patches....and it became this....

It's 46x60" .... it MIGHT get a border before quilting. There are all kinds of blue blocks...even some penguins.

Lots of dots and flowers...and some birds

Some wild prints, too.

Only 4 more days to make blue blocks....I better get busy.....much yet to do.

Busy, busy day

Yesterday, May 25 was super busy.

...I made 52 more blue madness blocks... I believe if I make about 20 more....or less....i can make a blue madness III quilt top. woohoo!!   I certainly have enough blue scraps yet to do it.

Blue is my favorite color and you can sure tell it this month. This blue  month is never ending.

I sewed the last 11 Blues Moon circles down....

And I started a new project.....

I found bags of these wool ovals at a thrift store some time ago. There are a couple hundred of them probably. I am embroidering a leaf in the middle of them with orange/red/yellow variegated thread. and using a red/orange/yellow leaf fabric for sashing. Will make it as far as supplies go.

Now I have the 4 patch top to finish piecing and some more scrap blocks to finish up.  Just a few days to go. I'm about ready for June. haha

Blues Moon is a pieced top

I stayed on this one.....and today finished piecing it all together. Don't know when it will be quilted though.

This morning I sewed the last 11 circles.

Then I headed to the studio to get it all sewn together before I got involved in another project.

Thanks to all who gave me advice and helped me decide how to do this.

I figure quilting it in lines to follow the lines in the circles would be ideal.....but probably won't do that because of all the rolling back and forth.

Maybe I can do the horizontal and vertical rows in lines and then figure out something else for the corner quarters.

Got any brilliant quilting ideas? 

Working....working

We are closing in on the end of the month and I am frantically trying to finish up my blues.

May 22...18 Blues Moon circles sewn

...Patriotic ABCs....  I know these aren't 'officially' in the 'blue' program....but they are on blue backgrounds. haha

...Bell

...Opportunity

...Yankee Doodle

May 23 ... Patriotic ABCs embroidered

...Colonies.  I have to admit it took me a bit to figure out what this said. Her font and the way she sets the letters sometimes makes my eyes say....what???  haha

...United States...I think this one is way cool.

May 24...

12 Blues Moon blocks sewn. Only 11 more to sew down.

I now have the bottom half of the Blues Moon top pieced together. great progress.

I quilted 2 rows on the Balloon Animals II that is on the frame. It should be finished tomorrow.

I am making a blue 4 patch top and I have 8 of 15 rows pieced together. I hope to finish that tomorrow or the next day.

And, I embroidered another Patriotic ABC....

...Independence

That's all I got for now.

We are having serious rain and thunderstorms .... I hope we don't lose electricity...that sucks.   We are on a hill and the water is doing a number on our driveway

Stay dry....stay safe