Rick Rack Nines

I get to teach Leaders and Enders in my quilt guild on Wednesday night.  I am in the process of sewing up this quilt to show one of my leaders and enders projects...Bonnie Hunter is truly the scrap goddess guru...I love her traditional patterns that allow me to use up my scraps.

Block Jack and Leader Enders....

 Quilt Guild started back up in September and we are doing Block Jack this year...

 Each month we have an assigned block with assigned colors...the blocks are 9 1/2" unfinished...

 The month of September, the block was the Maple Leaf to be done in fall colors...I did not win...maybe sometime this year!!!

 I have been trying to do Leaders and Enders while I am working on my other projects...I have decided to do Rick Rack Nines from Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders book.  It calls for 3 1/2 yards background and I have 4 yards of navy...I think navy it is for the background.  I had to lay out a few blocks to test it out...

The more I work with Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders, the more I love it!!!  I am 1/3 of the way done with my blocks for this one!!!

Texas Braid...

Back in January, I taught a class in our quilt guild how to do the French Braid quilts.  I found this really fun

scrap quilt in Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders book.  You can find it here. It is made up of 2" x 5" pieces of fabric and 2" pieces of fabric.  You use light and dark fabrics for the contrast.  A very fun technique and this quilt is entirely made from stash (most of it small pieces).

 

A close up of the quilting.  I had it quilted in feathers.

Use it up...

This past week, I have been working on sewing 2" squares together.  I've been on Operation Use it Up--trying to use up all my scraps.  I will probably keep sewing scrap quilts together until this happens.  This  pattern is from Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders book, called Happily Scrappily Irish.  I've decided that it is too long and I will shorten it a couple of rows.  Then I would like to do a pieced border to use up more fabric.  I'm thinking about just doing 4 patches around.  That would bump up the size to a queen.  If you have a better idea, please comment....

Block 2 Little Birdie Stitches

 I have been piecing 12 1/2" blocks of 2 1/2" squares to sew with the Little Birdie Stitches.  This is a great project to make a fun quilt and use up all those scraps that I have boxes and boxes of.  I have been really enjoying this in between other projects.  I'm trying to incorporate Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders.  It saves on thread and it is amazing how quickly they sew up.

The February block for Little Birdie Stitches.  If you haven't been stitching these and would like to, it stiches up really fast and it is a fun take along project.  The finished block is 12 1/2" and the demo is done with Sunkissed, which is beautiful.  The button for this project is on my sidebar.

MIA

I was asked by the Patchwork Friends Guild President to teach a class in January on French Braid Quilts. I thought I would try a scappy version first and then do a more planned version. If you don't have Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders and you love scrap quilts, you need this book!!

I am cutting up scraps and assembing the braids for this Texas Braid quilt. It is quite addicting and I am chain piecing it as there are a lot of start and stops...

The scrap bin. It takes 2" x 5" pieces of fabric with a 2" square of red solid that ties it together. I'll check back in when I have some progress to show you!!