BluePip Designs

Today was a sewing and laundry day, with a little time loped off to take advantage of actual fall-like weather (we've had way too much rain and cold and even a little SNOW this month) and go for a run - a very welcome addition to my lazy day!

I had set quite the to-do list for myself, and I actually managed to get all of it done!

First, I made the plaid blocks that I need for my newest quilt-along, Modern Fans.  I've been wanting to sew curves again so when this quilt-along popped up I was all in!  Here's the first of my big blocks - untrimmed because my laptop was upstairs and I couldn't remember how big it was supposed to be.


I also caught up on my temperature quilt - we had company over the weekend and I didn't spend any time in my sewing room.  See all that purple?  I told you it's been cold!  Low 30s at night!


Lastly, I started off my October goal project by making this lightning bolt block.  I'm aiming for an eclectic mix of fabrics I like, but how I …

It's a big day today: the 100th day of the 100 Days 100 Blocks 2018 Quilt-Along!!  It wasn't all smooth sailing, but I successfully posted all 100 blocks on the correct days, ending with this sweet little panda block.  The panda butts are my favorites of all the pandas!


My initial reason for joining this quilt-along was a vision in my head of two patchwork quilts, one in all blue and one in all green.  These tops have actually been sewn together and are ready for basting and quilting.


The panda fabric was an impulse buy.  I wasn't sure how I would like the blocks, but I needed something to do with the other sixty blocks in the book.  And then I ended up liking them more than I liked my original vision.  Happy accidents are the best kinds!  I'm not 100% sure how these are going to get sewn together yet, but it will probably involve some sort of sashing so for now they are just going to hang out in my sewing room.


I am so happy to have finished all of these blocks and ha…

I'm going on my first retreat next month and I really want to have a handmade bag to haul my stuff in.  So this month I want to make myself a quilted tote bag from the Totes Amazeballs pattern in the Fussy Cutter Club book.  This has been on my list forever and keeps getting pushed back, but now its day has come!  So far all I've got is the pattern and a pile of fabric - hopefully making this my goal will make this bag a reality!

Wish me luck!  I'm linking up my goal at Elm Street Quilts.

I'm pleased to present the first Quilt Block Summer graduate: Ricochet!!  My quilt holders were all at school, so I had to do the best I could on my own to get a picture.


This is my second all C+S top, and it's a lot more restrained than the first one.  I used Sprinkle in Jelly Bracelet as my background fabric, and then stuck to all blue and green fabrics to make my blocks. The fat quarters I used span the entire life of the Cotton + Steel line.  You can see all of them together in this patch I made for the back of the quilt - it's all the extra centers from the blocks on the front.


My original plan was to make the back scrappy with different pink fat quarters, but then I realized I had almost enough Lucky Strikes Dime Store Dot Navy for the whole thing.  It fits so well with the front of the quilt that I decided to just use it all.  It wasn't my intention to make a double-sided quilt, but I did and it's one of my favorite backs ever!

The quilting is just a simple …

My quilt block summer is over!  I was a little too ambitious with the number of projects started, but I made good progress on all of them so that's just a lesson learned.  I have 143 posts on my #quiltblocksummer hashtag and my actual block total is 301!

Temperature Quilt 2018
There were 127 days in Quilt Block Summer, and I made a temperature block for each of them!  Sometimes a day or two late, but they always got done.  This added just over seven rows to my quilt.


And the stragglers who aren't attached yet:


Harry Potter Bookcase
I added 12 blocks to my bookcase, doubling it in size.  I also got everything joined together!


Here's the row I'm currently working on:


2018 Summer Sampler
Another success and the backbone of the Quilt Block Summer timeline.  The last block is called Fish Rack and was the easiest and fastest block in the whole quilt.  I made the legs of my fish rack two-tone just so I didn't have to match the prints on the diamonds.


Here are all eighteen o…

Look, look, look!


It's finally, actually finished!  This was one of my oldest works-in-progress and had been put away several times due to mental block. I still don't agree with all my choices but I'm so glad to have it off my list and done!

I experimented with it by adding some hand-quilting.  I love the texture it gives the quilt so I'm adding "hand-quilt an entire quilt" to my "someday" list.  My favorite piece is still the rainbow.


Another first for this quilt is the permanent hanging sleeve I put on the back.  This is going to be hung up over my cutting table (as soon as I find a rod I like to do so with) and it's a little too big for my normal process of safety pins and command hooks.  Putting on the sleeve was easier than I expected - please enjoy the artistic shot of the back my aspiring photographer took for me (we were shooting between rainstorms so I couldn't have him reshoot).


The pattern for this is My Small World by Jen Kingwel…

Welcome to this week's Quilt Block Summer Summary!  It's just about a week into the school year, and I am flying through my projects!  I am surprised at how quickly all my days are filling up though.  Not nearly as much free time as I thought I'd have, but that's okay - I'm definitely not bored.

Temperature Quilt 2018
The nights feel like fall and we are sleeping with the windows open again, no matter how warm it gets during the day.


Harry Potter Bookcase
This is a double block - Crookshanks and the Sorting Hat!  The Sorting Hat's face is there but hard to see, exactly how I imagined it in my head when I first read the series.  Like trying to find a picture in the clouds.


2018 Summer Sampler
Block 17 is the Chrysler Building in New York City.  Only one more block to go - this whole quilt-along has been so much fun!  I was using scraps for the center of my block so the diamonds don't match up in both halves, but just like last week, it's good enough to go …

Welcome to this week's Quilt Block Summer Summary!  The kids are back at school, the air feels like fall, and I'm declaring the next two weeks my "mom vacation" to do whatever I want!  After that it'll be time for my annual fall decluttering and cleaning (less fun, but satisfying when it's over).

Temperature Quilt 2018
I was hoping to use my red pencil fabric for the first day of school, but temperatures are falling here so I had to settle for some pink scissors.


Harry Potter Bookcase
A big week for Harry Potter!  I only had to piece a potion bottle and a book, but those two pieces finished off the fourth bookshelf!


2018 Summer Sampler
Block 16 is called Maois and fits in perfectly with the stripey blocks I'm making for #100Days100Blocks2018 this week.  I realized that I assembled it wrong right as I finished trimming the last side.  Grr.  I still think it looks good so I'm leaving it for now.  If it bugs me when I do the final assembly I'll fix it …

My kids go back to school on Tuesday and I have so many ideas of what I want to sew!  I'm letting myself dream a little bigger than normal, just because the time I have seems so endless (don't pop my bubble of happiness quite yet, please!).  But amidst all the new stuff I also want to finish up some of my lingering projects.  I'm actually hoping to get two of them done: the My Small World quilt that didn't quite get finished as part of my May goal (my only failure so far) and the first of my Quilt Block Summer project graduates, the Ricochet Quilt.

I don't have an updated picture of the My Small World quilt, but it just needs a hanging sleeve (I intend to hang it permanently), binding, and a few small areas of hand quilting.  I can do it, right?

But the actual goal I'm linking up for this month is to finish the Ricochet quilt.  I've got the top pieced already.  I need to piece a back from my collection of Cotton + Steel fat quarters, quilt, and bind this.  …

Welcome to this week's Quilt Block Summer Summary!  It is the last week of official summer vacation for my kids, but I'm going to keep these posts going until I finish up the 2018 Summer Sampler (aka the official end of summer at the Fall Equinox).

Temperature Quilt 2018
Still plugging away!


Harry Potter Bookcase
Very little progress this week.  I was going to make a bottle to end this row, but my printer won't print my (black and white) paper-pieced pattern because it's out of blue ink.  So all I did was add two book blocks to the slug block and then sew them to the row.  You can see them in the background of my ricochet picture below.

2018 Summer Sampler
Block 15, Petra, is a block I've been looking forward to making since I first saw the mock-up of this quilt.  I think this would look great as a full quilt by itself!


Ricochet Quilt
I've got half of the rows sewn together (that just sounds more impressive than saying two!) and I'm admiring the cornerstone fa…

My goal for this month was to put together my pirate ship prototype blocks into a baby quilt.  I used my quilting village to decide on a final layout.  My mother-in-law convinced me to do the snake path with the dotted line and my best friend told me I needed to have "curved" lines at the corners; as always, their advice was excellent. 

I'm in love with this backing fabric that I found - it's the gray Shark Attack design from the Riley Blake Pirate's Life collection.  The binding is an old piece from stash.


I'm tweaking the pattern now and hope to have it ready to go soon.  In the meantime, I'm linking up my finish at Elm Street Quilts.

Welcome to this week's Quilt Block Summer Summary!  It was another travel week for us - my sister got married in my hometown and then we visited a nearby water park.  It was a great week even though not a lot of sewing got done.

Temperature Quilt 2018
First, a close-up of my vacation blocks.  They are a little more subtle than the Boston blocks I made earlier this summer, but they represent the trip well.  I especially adore the little waves on the pink block for our water park day.


And then today I finished row number 13!  My little quilt holders distorted the top a little, but you can still get the general idea.  I'm so tired of picking out red fabrics!


2018 Summer Sampler
I had two of these blocks to make and I got to it as soon as I finished the temperature blocks.  I didn't follow the directions very well for either of them!  Block 13 is Pisa.  I rotated my quadrants so that the big part is the center and the stripes are outside.  I like how it looks and there were few…