BluePip Designs

It's the second week of 2025 and I'm here with my first finish of the year, a mini quilt for the newest round of Project Quilting !  Last year was my first year joining in on this fun challenge and I've been eagerly awaiting the start of the new season.  I was actually on vacation when this challenge was announced, and our flight home was ultimately delayed for 18 hours so I had plenty of time to mull the challenge over before I was able to get into my sewing room and start my project.  I didn't want to do anything cutesy and I knew I it was going on the windowsill in my sewing room, which meant I wanted it to be purple. I ultimately decided to make a dragon-scale mug rug.  I did a google image search for inspiration, then made my own quick FPP pattern for the scales using EQ8.  If I was going to make this again, I would edit the pattern pieces to reduce bulk at some of the seams, but as a one-off project I think it turned ou...

Cheers to another year!  I can't believe it's over!  Let's take a look at my year in crafts: Quilts Started in 2024: 23 Quilts Finished in 2024: 22 WIP List on January 1: 12 WIP List on December 31: 13 Number of current, active QAL projects:  2 Oldest WIP Finished: Mother (Started February 2021) Fastest Quilt Finish: Waiting for Saturday Morning Cartoons (2 days!) Number of WIPs without any progress: 4 Number of Cross Stitch Finishes: 5 Number of Other Craft Finishes: 10 As always, I'm disappointed that I somehow cannot shrink my WIP list down below ten quilts.  This is an unofficial goal that I always have and that I always fall short on.  Of the thirteen unfinished quilts, three are very close to being done (see goal number 3 for 2025 below).  Finishing those would bring me down to ten, but I have lots of new quilts planned for 2025 so I won't stay there long! A quick list of my "To...

I love a good sewing surprise - I've done swaps, subscription boxes, and Advent calendars in the past - but last year I was intrigued by a new premise: Sugaridoo was going to send a project packaged as an Advent calendar.  Each day, we'd open the package to get the supplies and instructions for the next step.  This sounded like much more fun than a bunch of random notions, plus I'd get fabric! I breezed through the traditional and paper piecing sections, but then hit a wall when it came to the applique - not my favorite technique.  I put the project down in January when I cleaned up my Christmas decorations and didn't pick it up again until last week.  The remaining applique only took a couple of hours (of course).  And then it was time for the fun part, quilting it!  The pattern called for a cross-hatch over the entire thing, but I love playing with thread and FMQ, so I did my own thing.  Adding to my dislike of appli...

I did it!  I finished my last "deadline quilt' of the year and I've been sewing for fun the past couple of weeks!  Balancing a small business as a hobby can be tricky so I like to take December "off".  I am sewing samples for my newest pattern, but I'm not pressuring myself to finish them next month; if I do it will be a happy surprise.  I've been looking at my WIP list for all my crafty projects and deciding what I want to finish up now instead of carrying over into 2025, as well as working on a rough plan for next year.  Finally, if you are interested in any of my patterns, my 25% off holiday sale (applied automatically in cart) is active until December 4th (this will be the last sale until I release the next pattern).  I also joined BlueSky - give me a follow if you are over there too! Quilt Tally WIP List at beginning of month: 14 WIP List at end of month: 14 Untouched in 2024: 4 Active QAL Projects: 1 Quilts Finis...

If you're been following along with my  Pebbled Prairie   QAL , then you know what I've been working on for the past several weeks.  Today, it is time for the big reveal! This quilt was a fun trip through my stash of Ruby Star fabrics that I've accumulated over the years, from the initial collections up to some new fabric that I bought for a project I'm planning on doing next year.  I also went far scrappier with this one than with any other Pebbled Prairie quilt that I have made; aside from the centers, each motif doesn't have a single repeating fabric. Here's a close-up of the fabrics that are in each block - do you see any favorites?  I love looking at this because I see so many of my old projects in there.  There's also a fair bit of fussy cutting, which is fun when you only need to cut nine squares from each fabric.  The only fabrics I bought for this quilt are the sashing, binding, and backing because I t...