Got my CQ block pieced

I signed up for a CQ for ME challenge that Nicki is hosting on the HGTV quilting board. There was a catch though. We were all sent the same 2 fabrics and 1 motif that we had to incorporate into the piece. We could make what ever we wanted with it. I decided to make a door hanging for my SIL. I did have a hard time at first trying to figure out how I was going to make the teal fabric work for me because I personally like things a bit country, but turns out that the bright teal fabric made the perfect rooster tail. The other fabric was the sage green silk that's in the background. I haven't done any stitching to my block yet but plan to do quite a bit. I'm not sure if I will make the deadline of Jan 1st because I'm over 2 months behind. I'm not giving up though, it's better late then never. I do have a vision in my head of where I'm going with this but you know how that goes, once you get stitching, LOL!!! I see a sunflower in there, maybe some morning glories and some barbed wire on that fence and well we'll see...Here's a few pics of my block I finally got pieced today. I just noticed that part of the tail looks black, but it's not it's just a deeper shade of the teal. I don't know why but my camera makes most darker colored fabrics look black. Maybe I should start taking my pics outside......

More sewing

First I want to thank you all for your nice comments on the scrappy quilt. It's not exactly my pattern or anything I was inspired by a quilt I had seen on creativechicks bogspot. I just loved hers and knew this would be a great way to use up some of my scraps. I got my top finished it just needs a strip of the white sewn across the top and bottom. Usually by the time I finish one I'm sick of looking at it but this went together so fast I still love it, LOL.
Remember this quilt. I don't have a pic of the finished top. It had a wide border of the red print. I was planning on quilting some of the tops I have finished this year. I was going to start with this one but it can't be found. We looked and looked for it. I searched high and low. Practically tore the place apart, but no quilt. After telling my daughter whom I had made this for, she came over thinking she would find it. I tried to tell her I went through everything 3 times it's just not here. She couldn't find it either and it broke her heart. I guess it somehow got thrown out when we moved. I always fold my tops to where the seams are on the out side, so it probably looked like a bunch of scraps just laying around. But you know how the story goes no one knows nothing. It's just gone, at least until we maybe one day come across it. In the meantime I start her a new quilt. I have another bundle of Tula Pink's Flutterby fabrics that are pretty similar that I had saved to make a braid quilt with. They are some of my favorites but I guess I'll use them to make her another top. I found one that I really love over on interchangableparts blog. She made it using Tula Pinks nest pattern. I really like how hers turned out. I also love the merry-go-round quilt she made. I'll have to give that a try one day.
So, I gave up my great idea of quilting all weekend and decided to go ahead and piece her a new top before I started quilting all these. I no longer have room for both my big tables set up at the same time so I have to either piece or quilt. My little EZquilter has to set up on a table and I just don't have room to keep it out all the time now. But luckily it's easy to set up. When I bought it I had attached it to a big board to keep from have to put screw in my table and boy am I glad i did Now all I have to do is get it and set it on top ANY table!!! If I had of attached it to the the other table (I no longer have room for) I would have been in a pickle and had to go back to tugging those BIG quilts i like to make through the machine again. I've done enough of that to know it's not an easy task. I don't guess I've ever made a small quilt other then the 2 baby quilt I made and I hand quilted one and did quilt as you go on the other. Now I do love making mini's. But I have to say when I make a bed quilt I make it BIG, real big! I have a hand quilting frame I use sometimes but mostly I like to machine quilt mine, because it takes me forever to finish one hand quilting.
Well, I did get started on my sister tumbling block lap quilt. It's my first ever lap quilt and Y-seams. I've always been a bit intimidated by Y-seams but I gave it a try and they aren't difficult at all. Then after making some of the blocks I thought how am I going to piece all these rows together. So had to see if I would be able to join those zig- zag rows together. I used the same method of pivoting as I did on the Y-seam and it went rather well and the seams lay nice and flat so I guess she'll get her tumbling block lap quilt after all. She choose the Metro Goes green fabric line we had seen when we went to Mariette to meet up with Some of our quilting friends form the board. They didn't have enough, so I thought maybe since we were soon going to the retreat and would have the chance to go to Keepsake Quiltshop I could find some there, but we didn't find it. As soon as I got home form the retreat I googled around to see if I could find some since I knew she loved it so much and she just didn't see anything else she liked as much. I was lucky enough to find it so I got them and some of the dots for the backing and strips for the binding.

Margw, Here's a pic of the block construction. It's pretty simple. Sew two 9" squares on the diagonal to make 2 big HST. Then just add a 3.5" square on opposite corners and sew on the diagonal. Here's what the block looks like. Then here's how I layed them out to get that top.

All it took was a pep from Beck and some scraps.

I was feeling a little down on Friday, maybe even a lot down but my sister called to talk about how she needs to get in gear and work on her to do list and next thing I knew I was feeling better and motivated to tackle some of those scraps. So, I broke out all those bits and pieces you end up with after cutting those strips to swap out nickels and coins. I always have those end of the strip pieces that don't quite measure up. That why they end up in the loose change pile. I found that most of the end pieces could be cut to 4.5" pieces with the least waste. I got to cutting and in no time at all I had plenty of 2.5"x4.5" pieces. Now I like the way brights look so crisp against white so I pulled some white from my stash and cut 2.5" strips and then sub cut to 4.5". I sewed all my bright pieces to white pieces, then pressed all those while watching some scary Halloween movies. Today I sat down to sew all those together into strips. Then got to crying which made it hard to see, so I took a break and went outside which somehow seems to cheer me up. I went back to sewing and wa-la, next thing I knew I almost got all my strips sewed, only 5 more to go. This is going to be a very bright and cheery quilt. Here's what I have so far. I plan to put a 2.5" of white between the rows. I really like how quick and easy this was to make. A the best part is I'm one step closer to my scrap busting goal!!!! I'm going to call it Loose Change.