Soha and Frogkisser

Me: I avoid cleaning and organizing.  
Paul: Of course, I clean only when it is absolutely essential. 
Me: I am glad you agree. 
Paul: Let sleeping critters lie
Me: Exactly. When I do clean/organize, I get attacked by squirrels.  

At this moment, Paul lost the thread of conversation.

In anticipation of the second shipment of Island Batik Ambassador boxes, I had to clean house, get rid of some scraps and make room for the new supplies. 

In doing so, I came across some star blocks, that date back to 2015, I think. Who knows? It was so long ago. Seven blocks were made. I dropped everything and whipped up two more and completed the flimsy.

Lost and Found

Meet Soha.  Soha is an Arabic name meaning Star of a hidden constellation. These stars were in hiding for long but now they have found their purpose. 

Soha

I received this backing fabric from Julie, when she was destashing.  Love the tightly packed houses. 

Backing

I have been tempted to color some of these houses using fabric pens, but that is a separate post/project!

Color me, please!

Soha finished at about 40" square, and will join other quilts (from my quilt guild) going to the Inova Fair Oaks Hospital's Premie Graduation. These quilts accompany the premie babies when they "graduate" from NICU to go home.  

Stars on a Cloudy Day - Oh Yes :-)

Light-hearted star centers radiate color outwards.  All colors except yellow. Yellow does not show up well against a white background and I wanted each of these stars to pop!

Green & Glowing

Radiant Rainbow Colors

Labelled

I will be sharing with Angela's Linky party.

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I made the next quilt for my former boss' handyman's apprentice's two-year old son, named Leo. I was visiting my former boss, when she mentioned the hardworking men in the front yard.  She also mentioned how Claudio, her trusted handyman of many years had taken the young apprentice under his wing. "He has a two-year old son," she added.

Well, then he needs a quilt. Doesn't he?

Do you remember Meanwhile? Scroll down to the second quilt in that post. Since Meanwhile was such a fun modern take on a scrappy concept, I had saved some flannel strips for making a quickie quilt.

Flannel Strips

Right after I completed Soha, I dived into my bag of flannel strips and started sttiching.

Flannel is stretchy, so precision was too lofty an idea to pursue. I just stitched strips and soon enough there was a flimsy.

Frogs Live Long & Prosper!

For the backing I pieced a transportation themed fabric with yellow borders. No-fuss quilting with squiggles and binding with some newsprint fabric left over from Aurora. 

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Bound

It finished at about 44" by 52" and I have named it Frogkisser. Because I may have kissed (or lovingly caressed) the cute frogs.  No, I don't mind being a Frogkisser because it is a magical ability to turn random scraps into cozy and snuggle-worthy quilts :-D

I kiss Frogs :-)

Frogkisser

Love it!!!

Have Quilt, Will Travel

When Frogkisser was gifted to Leo's dad, he beamed with delight and I was just glad that some scraps found their purpose.  I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties. See full list on the sidebar.

For Leo

Here are my two Dreami (Drop everything and make it) projects.  Will be sharing on Sandra's blog when she posts the next Dreami Linky Party.

I have two more fun quilts ready for prime time and I am dying to show them to you but must wait till July 28 for my turn on the "Covering the World - One Quilt at a Time" event co-sponsored by Accuquilt and Island Batik.

Linoleum Plus

Here is my first finish of 2020.  I am calling it Linoleum.

First Finish!!!

Try saying "a roll of linoleum" fast if you can :-D
How did it go?

Once upon time, a long time ago I wrote this tutorial.  Some of the resulting blocks became a part of Have a Minty Day quilt.  And yet others waited patiently to become something.

When I saw the Cross Plus Block, I had an idea. What if the colors are reversed?
Then my leftover tutorial blocks can be made into this!!!

All I had to do was find coordinating print fabrics.  Mystic Dawn from Lily and Loom was just perfect.

Block 1

Block 2

Finished Flimsy

Seams Pressed Open

Quilting in Process

Once again I added a skinny white border to protect my points from being eaten up by the invading binding.  A bright orange flannel backing with little rockets makes the perfect contrasting backing.
A striped black and white binding looks sharp with both the front and the back.

Can you see the skinny border?

Cool and Warm

Labelled

Linoleum finished at 41" square and I am very happy with it.  I hope it will make some baby squeal with joy.

Linoleum Front

Linoleum Back

I will squeal with joy when I read your sweet comments :-)

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I was about seven or eight years old when mom took me to an eye-doctor.  I don't remember why we were there. My eyes were fine and she didn't seem to need glasses either.  May be because she wanted to consult with the doctor about her father's appointment or surgery.
As we waited patiently in the waiting room, I saw a person emerge from the doctor's office with a green colored eye-patch over one of his eyes.

Why is his patch green, I had asked.
Because green is the most soothing color, mom answered.
Why is that, the non-stop questioning machine rattled.
Mom replied, because earth is covered with green. It is the most prevalent color in nature and is therefore most soothing to the eyes.

Although I do not know why this seemingly insignificant memory has stayed with me, it is abundantly clear why this memory comes flooding back today when earth is on fire.
Whether the world burns figuratively with war and strife or literally with bushfires, we cannot have enough green to counter that.

It may be just a coincidence that Angela chose Bright Green as the color for January in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2020, but the universe works in miraculous ways.

I started with this block.

Initial Block

Me: What do you think?
Paul: That is a big block.
Me: Yes, it will finish at 17"
Paul (attempted singing): I like Big Blocks and I cannot lie.
Me: Really? Do you like it?
Paul: It looks like a blob.  So solid in the center!
Me: I had the same feeling. I could snowball the inside corners.
Paul: Huh???

I showed him with folded squares. He approved.

Me: Snowballing is a pain.
But wait. I have a special tape, which can make the whole thing a breeze.
(By now I am talking to myself and Paul is no loner part of the conversation)

Diagonal Seam Tape - Gift from Mari

Thank you Mari.
Because of you my RSC blocks will be light and airy as a souffle and not dense like a fruit cake :-)


Here is my Refined Block, with internal snowball corners.

Refined

I made two more.

RSC Green Block 2

RSC Green Block 3

Although I only need 12 blocks to make a lap size quilt, 30 will make it queen size. 

Where do you think I am headed?

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I was engrossed in making and refining RSC blocks.  Meanwhile, my flannel scraps were up to a whole lot of mischief behind my back. 
I do not remember how many baby blankets I have made. You know the self-binding, flannel ones that Jenny (Missouri Star Quilt Company) taught.
Those blankets need two flannel squares - one 40" and one 30", resulting in some scrappy strips that are too small to use and too large to discard.

I had collected those flannel leftover strips in a fabric bag and while I was distracted they conspired to become a flimsy. It was a Christmas miracle.

Meanwhile

Flannel Strips

Soft and Cute

I used the same backing as Linoleum (Blast Off from Connecting Threads) fabric, combined with leftover strips from Paulitiks' flannel backing (that were suffocating in another bag somewhere).
An orange binding made perfect sense.

Orange Binding

Labelled

Happiness

Joyful

I am calling this one Meanwhile.  Meanwhile finished at 43" by 45" and it is so snuggly.
If you have been saving your flannel strips, take a look. They may have miraculously turned into a soft and soothing bundle of love.

I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties as well as with Angela's So Scrappy Linky Party.
As usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts.