BluePip Designs

Whew!  I like to try and stretch myself with my monthly goal , and this month was no exception.  I needed to make eleven more blocks for this top, then sew them together and add two borders.  Sounds easy, right?  And it should have been, except that for some reason I thought September ended on Tuesday and we had company over the weekend, which severely limited my sewing time (in a good way!). Mondays are normally my "no sew" day, but I managed to rearrange my afternoon to get most of the sewing done.  Then it was off to swim lessons and making supper, all the time knowing that I just needed that last floral border.  I may have been helping a fourth grader with fraction homework while I sewed it on, but it got done!  Unfortunately, it was both dark and raining when I finished up, but a basement picture is better than no picture! This one will be going into hibernation for the next month or so because I want to piece something from the new Farm Girl Vintage 2 book for

If you've been following me on Instagram, you know I've been participating in the Ultimate Beginner Quilt Along, hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop .  I started with this bundle of Alison Glass Holiday fabric. And then I sewed the first six blocks.  You can tell that not all the pictures were taken at the same time of day - oops! Today I'm going to be walking you through the newest block, Zig Zag Flying Geese .  My Almost No-Waste Flying Geese  tutorial shows how to make a bunch of geese quickly, but for this block I wanted to fussy cut my geese so I am making them in the traditional manner.  You will need to use the pattern in the link to get the dimensions of each piece. Quick vocabulary lesson: The goose  is the main fabric of the flying goose; in this case, the piece with the people on it. The sky  are the two small triangles that are sewn onto the goose to make it into a triangle. My secret weapon for doing this is my. Small Flying Geese Ruler , but

The great clean-out continues!  I told my mother-in-law that I was hoping to finish nine quilts by the end of the year and I'm off to a good start - Paper Round is done , I just got word that the quilting on my Sweet Treat is starting, and I'll drop off the Sleigh Bell Sampler when I pick that one up next week.  It will be wonderful to start 2020 with a much shorter WIP list! Keeping up with that WIP list, I made a few random blocks this week.  First, a mint ice cream cone (my favorite!) for my Rainbow Blossom quilt. Next, I saw a beautiful scrappy project on Instagram and was instantly smitten, but then I reminded myself that I am working on a scrappy trip around the world quilt so I don't really need another project like that.  As a result, I sewed a new block for that quilt - that's 9/16! My Summer Sampler got a block. And there are only 28 blocks to go in my Kinship sampler !  I'm too lazy for a big picture, but here's my most recent

I'm still in full "clean-up old projects" mode, and I have another success story to share!  In addition to the two finished quilt tops that got moved to the quilting stage, I also found the Christmas quilt that my son and I were working on last winter.  As of July 2018 , we had the center and the top and bottom borders on, plus all the elements for the left and right pieced borders made.  However, being a kid he had lost interest and refused to work on it again. With only two weeks left before school started, I challenged him to finish his top before starting 6th grade.  This was a stretch because he had a long weekend with his grandparents planned, but with a little Labor Day push we were able to get the top done! Next up is piecing the back and sending it out for quilting.  I will do the hand-binding for him, so there's no reason this shouldn't be finished by Thanksgiving!