The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is A Happy Handful. We were to make something small, that would fit in your hand.

I tend to have a hard time keeping my projects small and simple, so I thought it would be nice to make a hanging, Something like a row of prosperity hens but maybe something else.  Since I have a bunch of elephants in the house, I figure I could just make those. The picture is a set of elephants I already own, but I wasn't planning on making anything that elaborate. And I am only making one elephant for this challenge, not the whole row.  It can be a bowl filler or a hanging, depending on how it goes with one.

So I dug up some directions and made one.  There are lots of directions; this one had a nice visible pattern that I liked so I printed the template and got to work.  Some of them, like this one, doesn't quite explain everything for someone like me who has trouble sewing straight lines and hasn't made a lot of three dimensional stuff.  I also didn't read the directions as carefully as I should have, because the tail is on the wrong side. I didn't know it at the time I took this photo, but I sewed the other side of the legs wrong.

I fixed the tail and some seams that were too small and turned it right side out.  The curves are really tight and needed to be reinforced.

I stuffed it with batting scraps.  This piece uses a lot of batting, which is a good thing.  Although the supply isn't technically unlimited, it does replenish itself pretty often.  I do have some batting that I cut up in small pieces so it wouldn't be lumpy, I decided this scrap was soft enough that I would just use as is, and it worked out just fine.  At first I didn't want a really fat elephant, so I used less, but eventually I kept adding more.  There is probably room for more, but I didn't want to overstuff it. I don't trust my seams. :)

I hand sewed the opening and since I didn't sew the legs right, I didn't wind up with four separate legs as the pattern indicated and therefore it doesn't stand on its own.

Here are some glamour shots.

The tail is from some packaging and the ribbon was in the room already so I didn't have to hunt for just the right thing.

This was my week off from the Project Quilting challenges. The new one was announced today. So hard to believe that this is the last theme for the year.

The theme is Happy Handful in which we make something small enough to hold in your hand. My Pocket Hugs would work for that. 

Marsha Cooper wanted more information about these, but she may be a no-reply blogger, so I will answer here. It is not a formal organization or anything, so they can be any size, or shape. Pocket Hugs are little things you can make (or buy) to give to someone as a remembrance of your love and support. You can give it to someone especially when they are going to do something like a trip, getting married, job interview, etc.  Or you can just surprise someone with it in their lunch box, pocket, etc. for a random act of kindness.

I am working on a video tutorial for it, and will make some printouts that can explain its purpose and be attached to them for gifting.

There is a related thing which is more formal called I Found a Quilted Heart, where you make little hearts and hide them around the world for strangers to find. You put a note on it so people know it is for them, and not something that has been lost or stolen. There is a Facebook group where people can post the ones they find or hide.

Anyway, this challenge makes me excited. Although I could easily make another Pocket Hug (and I still might do that), I have a glass cookie jar I got from the thrift store several years ago. My plan was to make little bowl fillers, and this challenge is a great way to start on that challenge. I have also been thinking about making those hanging chickens (prosperity hens) that I saw in a tutorial. I was about to make the hens, but then I didn't want to start anything new, and I started about thinking about other shapes to make instead of hens.   I hope this is a good start to make those little stuffed things.

15 Minutes to Stitch

 I have continued to make progress on my week away from the Project Quilting challenge. I felt like I should be continuing at a speed pace so that I could make good progress on my off week, but then I decided that I needed to rest up so I could be successful next week.

Also, sewing is supposed to be fun, and productivity is something for the job, and not for quilting.

In my relaxed snake, I made the "snake" I made for my Dots and Dashes quilt a little bit bigger and sewed it around the quilt, log cabin style.  It is now about 30 inches across, and I think I want about 10 more inches, so I have started another snake. A snake, in case you don't know is one and a half inch strips sewn end to end. They are from scraps so they can be long strips (dashes) or super short ones (dots).

Apparently, part of the sentence I wrote in my last post was deleted while I was editing it, so I completed it.  I continued to make progress on the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt, and it is now looking more like the intended quilt than just parts and pieces. Although I have seen posts from people who made their quilt scrappy, I think I will probably win the award if there was one for the most scrappy. I hope it will look okay in the end.

• 15 minute days / March = 14 / 14 days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 73 / 73 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

 This week was Project Quilting Challenge week, with today being the submission date. But since I submitted a quilt earlier in the week, I felt like my "off week" started early, and I have been busy relishing my time off.

I finished a bonus quilt.  I showed both of my quilt finishes in my last two posts.  Then, I worked on making progress on already started quilts. 

 I added some more patches to repair the bunk bed quilt my mother made. counted what still needs to be made for my Lupine and Laughter quilt.

I made more "snake" for my Dots and Dashes quilt.

I did some sorting in the sewing room and made a pile of quilt tops that need to be finished.   I even found backing and batting for most of them, so they are all ready to make more progress to the completion line.

I trimmed some half rectangle triangles, made some half square triangles, and counted how many more blocks and parts and pieces I still need to make.

• 15 minute days / March = 7 / 7 days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 66 / 66 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

 

When I went to the sewing room to make the Orange Complements Blue Flower for the Project Quilting challenge, I saw a pattern I had printed out of a hot air balloon. I thought it was a great pattern to use and was hoping I could manage to find a way to make it fit whatever the upcoming theme was.  

I think it would have been great to use for the challenge, but I had already thought of the flower, and wanted to make that.  I realized with the small scraps I have, that I could cut out the zig zags out for the balloon, I could use the scraps for the flower. Then I wouldn't have to choose which quilt to make. I could make both.

So that is what I did. I managed to make both of these early in the week. I could have made them the same day, but I did make them a few minutes a day.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to cut the zigzags perfectly to make them fit with each other.  I was afraid I would wind up with places there may be background. I thought about using a darker background, but instead of cutting zigzags of both the yellow and the blue, I cut the yellow zigzags, and made the blue into larger pieces. This gave me more peace of mind and worked well to avoid any gaps.

The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is "My Complements". We need to use complementary colors in our project. 

My last project turned out to be much bigger than could be completed in a week, I decided to make a potholder quilt, and managed to finish one "potholder" in time for the challenge, but that left three more to finish in my off week. (An off week is the week between the challenge weeks). I already had projects to work on during the off week, so this just added to the load. By the way, I consider the potholder that I finished to be successful because it was started and finished during the week, but I didn't get it posted in time, so please do go back and take a look at it. I think it turned out nicely.

To avoid that problem, I decided to make sure I chose a project that could be completed in one day, and uses only scraps from the scrap box. I found an art deco quilt that uses a rounded flower. It was a tiny part of that quilt, which is perfect for my project.  

I found a six inch square of blue, some leftover binding strip and some smaller scraps. This is from the Heart and Arrow Quilt, which if you remember, is blue and yellow.

So I made this, fusible applique. A nice quick project and completed and posted on time. I kept it simply quilted in that I didn't quilt the background. That is a look that I like but I have a hard time leaving things alone. I did add some machine embroidery stitch at the bottom, which I didn't like, so I switched to straight stitch for the rest of the quilt. I even remembered to put a label on it though.

I don't usually use a color wheel, and know that green and red are complements, and for some reason I was thinking that yellow and blue go together.  I'm sure I knew at one time, but I didn't care enough to retain that information.  Once I figured out that the complement is orange, I found another scrap and added the orange over the yellow. 

I entitled this Orange Complements Blue so that I would remember this lesson. I needed to add Flower at the end in case I wind up making another orange and blue quilt, and need to know which one is which.

 

 

Continuing more of the same may sound boring, but it has been a fun and exciting quilting week.  I have continued making little pieces of art on index cards.

I have chosen background fabrics and finished sewing down the Dresden Plates. I've chosen the backings and bindings for each of the plates, which I needed to piece. 

I still need to decide whether I want to use the sashing fabrics. I thought about appliquing the sashing to the quilts, but that might be a lot of work, so maybe I should just sash two blocks, which will be a similar look. I still need to think about it.

The Project Quilting challenge theme was announced and I found a short quick project to meet the theme, so hopefully this theme won't carry onto future weeks. The Dresden plate was done in a week, but since I decided to make more plates, it is crowding into my free weeks and slowing down the progress on the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt. I did take a day and sewed some of the pieces so it wouldn't feel abandoned.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 9

100 days

Today marks the first day of the #the100days challenge on Instagram. My plan is to decorate index cards. I already have a box, and this will give me a tangible way to show the results for 100 days. I was initially thinking of incorporating the 100 days to the 15 minutes to stitch, but since I work on different projects which are in varying states of completion, the results aren't as easy to identify.

Also, an index card is quick to do, even on days when there isn't much time and energy. It also doesn't require perfection or a pretty result.

Project Quilting

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 8