BluePip Designs

While finishing a quilt is always a happy day, finishing a quilt that has been sitting for a long time is an extra happy day!  Under the Sea is a fully paper-pieced quilt.  The pattern was designed by Kristy at Quiet Play and I started it when she first released it as a monthly quilt along back in February 2023.  Over time, I fell behind - sometimes when I'm waiting for the next block of a QAL to be released I start something else and don't feel like immediately transitioning back when it finally arrives. This year, however, I've been on a real "clean up my WIP list" kick so I decided that before I started any new QAL project I had to make a block for an old QAL quilt.  And because I like starting new projects, that was all I needed to get it done.  I had a set of solid colors that I used to make all of the blocks, and most of the print fabrics are from Kristy's fabric lines .  The background is Spotted by Zen Chic , but...

One of my enduring goals is to catch up on all my old quilt-alongs (QALs) - they are so fun to start but hard to finish.  When I talked about my double-digit WIP list, most of the items on it were QALs that I had lost interest in.  Last year I really buckled down, finishing three QALs and starting zero!  2025 QAL Finishes: Marble Mystery , The Rest of the Quilt Back , Pooh Corner My WIP list currently has two old QAL projects on it and both of them are almost finished: the 2019 Summer Sampler (1 block and a lot of setting away from completion) and Under the Sea (3 main blocks and some finishing blocks).  However, there are several new QALs I want to start in 2026 so I made a deal with myself: one old QAL block before I start a new QAL project. One Under the Sea compass block down, one new QAL started guilt-free!   Farm Fresh  is a new QAL from Lori Holt featuring her old books, Farm Girl Vin...

Welcome to the 100 Acre Wood, and the friendliest place in it: Pooh Corner! Winnie the Pooh is one of my favorite pieces of IP - I still have my babyhood Pooh bear and my oldest son's first movie theater movie was the 2011 animated film.  So when Art East Quilting Co announced that their 2025 character project was Pooh Bear, I immediately joined the quilt along and purchased enough of the Riley Blake fabric to back the finished quilt (Pattern not currently available directly from Art East , but I found it on the Riley Blake site ). I bought the background fabric, and the rest is scrappy-from-stash-ish.  I started each block by shopping from my stash, then visited local quilt shops to find the absolute perfect fabrics to finish each block.  I think my favorite might be the woven fabric I found in my stash for Christopher Robin's shirt, but I also adore every single thing about Eeyore!  This was my first time embroidering on a quilt top and it was far less painfu...

It's summer again!  It was snowing out when I published my Q2 goals and today it was sunny and hot!  I'm spending time outside biking and walking and time inside bowling.  I didn't work on a lot of different projects this quarter, but I finished two old WIPS which is always a joy. Quilt Tally WIP List to Start the Quarter: 10 WIP List to End the Quarter:  11 Active QAL Projects:  1 Untouched in 2025:  5 Finished in Q2:  4 quilts, 1 cross-stitch project, 7 small projects A look back at my goals for Q2 : 2025 Q2 Goal 1: Start a New Leaders and Enders Project I started a new one and it's also blue! Instead of a  four patch design , I'm doing a coin layout with blue and low volume scraps.  I'm currently piecing them into sets of four, then planning on turning them into blocks of eight before sewing the whole top together.  This one isn't worried about unique fabrics (I'm cutting as many rectangles as possible...

I did it!  I got my WIP list down to ten!  Even more exciting, one of the quilts on that list is currently being quilted so there is a chance it might dip down even further.  I have been writing monthly recap posts for a long time now and I cannot remember it ever being this close to single digits before.  The first three months of the year have flown by, so it's already time to see how I did with my  goals for Q1 and make some new ones for Q2. Quilt Tally WIP List to Start the Quarter:  13 WIP List to End the Quarter: 10 Active QAL Projects:  1 Untouched in 2025:  7 Finished in Q1:  9 quilts, 4 cross-stitch projects, 6 small projects 2025 Q1 Goal 1: Switch Over to Quarterly Recap Posts Done. The best kind of goal - I accomplished this by not doing anything!  I hope you haven't missed my monthly check-ins too much as I tinker with how to spend my quilty time. 2025 Q1 Goal 2: Project Quilting I kept it ...

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...