Scrappy sewing!

For once this year, I have a very good excuse for not getting much sewing done - it's the Olympics...  Yes, I'm totally addicted to watching the different sports - things that I'd never watch throughout the year, but for some reason, I'm hooked on them now!  Well, maybe part of the reason for that is that the TV happens to be in the only air-conditioned room in my house - and WOW! have we needed the A/C this summer!  I'm not complaining - I've been waiting for summer since those cold days back in January and February; now that it's here, well...  Also, my garden has been producing like a house on fire!  Which means lots of picking, canning and freezing.  I'm SO thankful though!
But, back to the sewing...  I've been doing a lot of cutting - parts for on-going projects, parts for new projects - because I can cut fabric and watch the Olympics at the same time.  I need to cut pieces for my Quilty 365/366 blocks, and, while I have the fabrics out, I may as well cut block parts for a new project.  Katy over at KatyQuilts designed this block, and shared the pattern.  I fell in love with it immediately, and I've started cutting fabric for it every time I cut fabrics for my daily blocks.  I've got quite the stack of fabrics ready to sew.
As well, Kat posted her August block  for her Covered In Love charity block drive.  She wants black and white fabrics to make Disappearing 9-Patch blocks, using either lime green, bright yellow or Caribbean blue for the center square.  I have LOTS of black and white fabrics, so this is an easy one for me!  I grabbed the box of B/W fabrics, found some lime fabrics, as well as a suitable blue and started cutting.  I had to go shopping for a yellow fabric (what a hardship, right?), and quickly assembled these blocks:

  They're ready to be sliced up and re-assembled into D9P blocks.  I actually have about 8 more blocks ready to cut up.  

One last quick project was for a wedding shower at church.  Our church life coordinator is getting married next month, and we showered her with love and gifts earlier this evening.  Her fiancee has honey bees, and they enjoy "creating" honey and honey-based products, which they sell at our town's Farmer's Market.  She also sews, and I was sure she'd enjoy these "bee" inspired coasters - all of the fabrics either have bees in the print, or have bee-striped influences.  The coasters will be put to good use, I'm sure!

I'm linking up with Quilting is more fun than Housework's Oh Scrap! post, and she can quilt's Scraptastic Tuesday post.

My July finishes

July is behind us now, thankfully!  It ended up being much busier than I had anticipated, and that impacted what I could finish.  It's almost embarrassing to show the few blocks that I got done, but at least I got a few things accomplished....
Kat asked for patriotic red / white / blue 'star' blocks for July's Covered In Love quilt block drive.  I pulled red / white / blue fabrics and found a pattern for a great star block designed by Judy Martin.  I cut enough fabric to make a few blocks (quilt rule #11 - cut enough fabric to try out one block - if you like it, cut out more, but if you don't like it / have trouble making it, you've only committed to one block).  How many blocks did I make? None...  I found another star pattern in an older quilt magazine, and I liked the story behind it, so I cut enough fabric to make 5 blocks (remember quilt rule #11?)  How many blocks did I make?  Parts for 5 blocks, but none of them got finished, because I found another even better star block!  Cut enough to make 7 blocks (remember quilt rule #11?)  I did persevere with these blocks though, and managed to finish all seven of them - at least a week later than I should have....  But they're done! and in the mail!  (And Kat has posted the pattern for the Aug. block drive - so guess what I did last night?  Yep, cut enough fabric to make at least 10 blocks...  But I've done this block before, and I love making it!  (I already have 4 blocks partially sewn).
AND, I worked diligently on my Quilty 366 blocks - I did keep up with this challenge - even though I managed to sew one block half right side up, and the other half wrong side up.  I even pressed it, and didn't notice....
So, pictures of all of these blocks - first the star blocks:

And the Quilty 365 (366?) blocks - some of my patriotic fabrics showed up here, including a very Canadian maple leaf print.  

See the red block on the far right side?  It's covered in hearts, and is my July 1st block - I love living in Canada! and am so thankful for the blessings and freedoms we have here.

I'm going to link up with Quilty Folk and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework's "Oh Scrap" posts.

Thanks for stopping by!