This is Bonnie Hunter’s pattern Playing with Jacks.  It went together very quickly (started 1/15) from my pre-cut strips.  I recently took a que from Bonnie and sorted my strips (and bricks and blocks) by color in their appropriate bin, so it was easy to grab the red, blue and neutral strips to cut what I needed.  The red sashing is left over from my Texas Braid quilt.    The backing is Bugs Bunny from my mom’s stash.

Tomorrow it goes into the mail.

This past week I quilted and bound Playing with Jacks and I made the alternate blocks for the next section of Ocean Waves.  I even worked on the purse, but now I can’t find the rest of the fabric….  I should have pictures of the quilt either later today or tomorrow for Design Wall Monday.

Here’s this weeks results:

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 4.25 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 2.485 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 12.989 yards

Net Used for 8.739 yards

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.

The bottom half of the quilt is one row of blocks larger and then there is that pinwheel border.  A little over half of the pinwheels are made, but I’m not counting them yet as they are not sewn together.

This morning Ocean Waves is back up on the wall, as Playing With Jacks is being quilted.

My guess is I’m halfway through the quilting and will get the binding on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Then I really need to work on finishing Frog, the purse and Diamond Links.  Ocean Waves will continue to be a work in progress for a while.

Friday, my brother-in-law told me he wanted my Autumn Splendor quilt.  I dug through my yardage to see what, if anything I could come up with for a backing.

I think this brown fabric will be great for this quilt.  Now to get some of the other stuff done first.  And while I was digging I found 3 yards of a neutral/background that I can use for my Scrappy Irish Chain.

Sometimes I’m surprised at what I find and/or can make work in my stash.  When I finally cut into the background I’ll list this on my quilts in progress tab.  Until then those 4-patches are simply orphan blocks.

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times for other design walls.

It was another good week busting fabric.  The Scrap Bags group on Quilt With Us has a quarterly challenge.  This quarter it is  Boxy Stars, Playing with Jacks or any Bonnie Hunter pattern.  How fun.  I love Bonnie’s patterns, and have my scraps pre-cut and sorted by color in their boxes (I did not press them, just rolled the strips up).    Anyway, it was easy to see what colors of squares and strips I had enough of and picked Playing with Jacks, which I finished the top of last night.

As I worked on Jacks, I kept sewing HST Squares for Ocean Waves.  I’ve sewn all I have cut – 1550, I need another 38 pairs, not to mention a slew to use for wings.  I’m going to pull my 2″ brick box and cut from there — it will give me greater variety than cutting from 2″ strips. Also made this week were more blocks for Ocean Waves. I think I have enough competed to assemble the second section.

Since I can’t sew without leader/enders, I’m stitching the pinwheels for the border.  I wish I had though of this earlier,  I just have 48 pinwheels left – of course that 3 leader/enders per pinwheel, so maybe it will get me further along until I figure out what I’m going to use as my next leader/ender project.

Here’s this weeks results:

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 4.25 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 3.013 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 10.504 yards

Net Used for 6.254 yards

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.

I’m calling Playing With Jacks a top.  It measures 42″ x 55″  just right for a 9-year-old I think.  But admittedly, my backing fabric has played some part in this.

Yes, that’s Bugs Bunny.  I have just one length of this fabric, and since it’s an older fabric (from my mom’s stash) it’s actually a full 44″ wide.  Now to quilt it.  I’m thinking something basic — cross-hatching, but I’ve got to decide on the thread color.  I really don’t want red going through bugs, so I think I’ll see if I have a gray and if not, I’ll go with white on the bobbin.  I’ll probably go with red on the top, but I guess that will depend on what I find in my box of thread.

I might be able to get something finished if I would just pick one project and focus on it. While waiting on the roast to be done, I sewed another partial row together for Ocean Waves, made a few of the alternate blocks and cut the rest of the turquoise I need for the center of the quilt.

After dinner I managed to get the 6″ blocks sewn into 6 – 12″ blocks before getting distracted.

Then I watched a couple of episodes of NCIS and did a bit of hand quilting.  After listening to the first 4 news stories all about someone missing or dead, I decided I had enough of that as well.

So, I’m back at the sewing machine.  My goal is to finish the other 6 blocks and maybe get the sashing attached before I had to log in at work.

The 6″ blocks are made.  Now to let it simmer until I’m certain they are in the correct place.

In July 2008 I ‘started’ these two quilts – Monterrey Medallions by Terry Atkinson and Milky Way by Glad Creations.  Actually, I started sewing light and dark 2″ squares together as leader/enders with the intention of making these two quilts using the “same” fabrics so they would be “twins”.  Two or three years ago I finished 260 4-patches (the # I needed for the two quilts in my modified size).  They’ve been sitting, waiting for me to pull the rest of the fabric ever since.

I didn’t get very far, as I was having trouble with my color palette – or lack there of.  In my mind, I knew what I wanted, but my stash wasn’t working for me.

So, today, I’ve decided to let these two projects go.  I still want to make them – perhaps even as “twins” — but I need to think the color palette through.   The 4-patches won’t go unused.  I already have plans to use them in a Scrappy Irish Chain – not that I’ve added it to my Quilts in Progress tab.  I need to get the background and border fabric.  Once I cut into it background fabric, I’ll add it to the tab.

Paraphrasing the Wizard – pay no attention to the new blocks on the wall, that’s not a new quilt you see.

This week I made a bit of progress on the Ocean Waves – primarily in the form of stitching the HST squares.  I’ve now have 1400 of the 1584 that I need.  And yes, I did make a few blocks.

The frog is still waiting for inspiration.  DH cut out construction paper legs.  He says this looks like a top view looking down on the frog.  I thought the frog was facing the viewer.  I guess I’m going to have to get out my own construction paper and figure this out before too long.

As for those other blocks on the wall….Those are the first blocks of Playing with Jacks from Quiltville.com.  A few weeks ago I sorted my 2 1/2″ Bricks & Blocks box by color, as well as my strip box so I could get the boxes closed.  It made it very easy to start this new quilt.  I have blue squares for all but 10 blocks and I’ve got the HST squares cut for all but  12 of the blocks.  I guess I’m about 1/3 of the way through stitching the HSTs.  Working with the 2 1/2″ strips seems huge after working with the 2″ for Ocean Waves.

I’m off work today, so I hope to get most of the blocks finished before going to Guild tonight.

Don’t forget to check out the links over at Patchwork Times.