December Color Challenge

 I can't believe it's December and we are sharing the last of our 

2020 Monthly Color Challenge blocks.

This month's color is Red

and the bird is the Cardinal

For the pattern and block instructions, 

head over to 

Jen's Blog - Patterns by Jen

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I am thrilled that the featured bird this month is the Cardinal, 

as that is the state bird of Ohio, my home state.

The picture above shows both the male (left) and female (right) cardinal. 

As with many other birds we've learned about this year, it is the male who has the most vibrant colors. 

The male cardinal is a brilliant all-over red, while the female is a pale brown with reddish tinges in the wings. Both the male and female have a reddish/orange bill that is surrounded by a black face. (My grandchildren say that these birds have a black mask.) 

Both the male and female have a very thick bill and prominent crest. The thick bill and strong tongue allows the birds to extract seeds by crushing or cutting the shell. It's quite interesting to watch, and this video is awesome. 

Cardinals can be found in backyards, parks, woodlots, and shrubby forest edges. They often visit bird feeders, but frequently perch a little bit away from them and swoop in inconspicuously to grab their food and go - a fun grab and go technique to watch. 

We are very fortunate to have the right habitat for cardinals, and enjoy them frequently. I have to admit that winter is my favorite time to see them, as their bright red color contrasts beautiful against freshly fallen snow. I've been known to take a lot of bird pictures and love to share them here on the blog. Here are a few of my favorites.

This special cardinal spent the winter of 2017 with us. After sending off some pictures to Cornell Lab of Ornithology we were told that this is a partially leucistic female cardinal, or one lacking pigment in the crest feathers. 

Every morning, as my husband and I drank our coffee in the back room, discussed our daily schedule and watched the birds, this one would eventually show up. She was quite skiddish and didn't dilly dally around too much. Before finding out the real story about her colors, Jack and I created some interesting ones of our own. My favorite is Jack's theory that she's just an old lady cardinal who, like him, is full of wisdom and mystery for the other birds to enjoy. :-) 

Scientists have identified at least 16 different calls from the cardinal, but the one most often heard is a loud, metallic chirp. This call is made when warning other birds of their territory, when predators are near, when females approach their nests, or when both genders are approaching the nest with food for their nestlings. 

Gee, do you think I am enthralled with cardinals? 

I guess since I like cardinals so much, it's not surprising to know that I use a lot of red in my quilts.

This is one of my favorite red and white quilts. It's Prairie Star - a Judy Niemeyer pattern.

This is one of my favorite patriotic quilts - 

Freedom Rings 

This was made for the Blank Quilting American Honor Contest in 2017. 

I make a lot of Quilts of Valor and there is always red in those. 

Heart and Soul 

is another favorite, and it was also made for the American Honor Contest. 

Being from Ohio, I feel obligated to show a "Big O" scarlet and grey quilt. 

This very bad picture is one of my favorite one block wonder quilts.

Here's another favorite quilt that used a lot of red scraps.

This scrap buster was fun too.

I was just a little short for the binding and threw in a little bit of red. 

It was perfect and I have intentionally used this technique multiple times since. 

Of course there is always red in Christmas quilts. 

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I guess I should get back to the the Color Challenge blocks!

Here are my fabrics. Of course I purchased these from Once Upon a Quilt. I LOVE that red and wish I had purchased more. 

Here are my pieces - cut and ready to sew.

The completed blocks!

These look much more complicated than they are. 

For block instructions, go to 

Jen's blog - Patterns by Jen 

Be sure to check out the other featured bloggers this month.

Patterns by Jen

Pretty Piney Quilts

Kathleen McMusing

Create with Claudia

Quilty Creations by Fawn

Kathy's Kwilts and More

As Always, thanks to our wonderful sponsors! 

Be sure to send some quilty love to this quarters sponsors who have donated some awesome gifts.   

Thank You Sponsors! 

Sponsors October thru December

Color It Red - My Turn

It's My Turn!

I am excited to be a part of this Hop! Thanks for all the organizing Carol, and for inviting me to join you. 

Be sure to check out all of today's participants and their wonderful creations. The list, with links, is at the bottom of my post. 

I started with these fabrics and had high hopes for a wonderfully fun quilt. The plan was to have at least one square from each of my red stash fabrics in this quilt so I could use the finished project as both my blog hop quilt and my inventory quilt. 

Sadly, this is the status of that project - packed up and put into time out until I can get it to play nice and look like the quilt that's in my head. 😒

When I packed up this quilt on Feb. 5th, I realized that I had scramble to come up with a project to show for this hop and that I can always figure out what to do for my inventory quilt later. So I went with Plan B - finish a UFO! I had already made this fun top, but had not quilted it.

I put it up on the design wall, trying to decide how I wanted to quilt it and it didn't take long to decide that simple straight line quilting was the answer. 

I quilted a line straight through the middle of each the 1" strips and am very happy with that choice. 

The next question was on how to bind this. I was going to go "safe" and simply use scraps of red, but my husband Jack was not thrilled with that idea. He wanted a completely different (and stark) color, so I started pulling fabric. When I pulled out this blue, he said he liked it, but it wasn't quite right. When I suggested the red flange, we knew we had a winner!

If you've read my blog much, you know that I love to take pictures of quilts from an angle. So here they are.  :-)

I hung the quilt on the shop to get pictures and left it up, knowing that Lynn and family would be stopping by. I thought it would be fun for the kids to see it.

It took a little organization, but Ty got the kids ready for a picture.

They like the quilt and I love this picture!

Of course I couldn't just finish the Love quilt and call it done for this hop!

I still wanted to make this project as an inventory quilt, so I got to thinking about what I wanted to do. In the mean time, the clock was ticking. Inspiration struck when I saw a Modern Fans quilt by Suzy Quilts. 

I went back to my stash and cut a rectangle of each my reds (I had to cut a few duplicates), and started playing around. 

I auditioned quite a few options for the solid colored blocks and was thrilled to find this aqua in my stash. I think it's perfect!

Here are the obligatory side views...

Simple quilting works for me.

And of course I need a picture from the back.

Did you see the little touch of red on the bottom right side?

I wanted to add something special to the binding. I like it!

I put my label on the back, at the same spot. 

Taking quilt pictures is always "interesting" for me, especially in the cold weather. I always struggle to find a place to hang the quilts, especially to change up the background. About a year ago, I stumbled upon a blog post (I can't remember the blog though, which makes me sad!) about taking fun quilt pictures. I was surprised to read that she uses Scotch Rough Surface painters tape. I skeptically tried it and was pleasantly surprised.

It is especially wonderful when it's not too cold; but it works great most of the time. I think it looks kind of funny though. :-)  

Check out the rest of today's bloggers. They have some awesome projects to share.

February 19^th

MooseStash Quilting

Quilted Delights

Everyone Deserves a Quilt - This is ME! :-)

Storied Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Kathy’s Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

Seeing Red

I am participating in the Color It Red Blog Hop next month so I'm playing around with some red squares today. 

I've got a couple of UFOs that "fit the bill," but of course I decided that I also want to make something totally new too. 😏 

So....here's what's on my cutting table right now.

The funny thing about pulling all these red fabrics is that some don't look red once you put them next to another red square. I'm using them anyway, because I just really want to use up these pieces and it really won't matter in what I'm making. 

Do you see that little piece of grey dot fabric? That's the only other color/fabric that I'm using for the quilt top. 

I don't even have the top half together and Jack is already talking about the binding. He wants something other than red. We'll see....

I'm not quite sure when I'm scheduled to post yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do. 

This is going to be fun! 

Design Wall Monday

 I have a number of "in progress" works that are sharing time on the design wall, but this is what's up there right now.

 This is being made using the Yellow Brick Road pattern by Terry Atkinson Designs. I'll be using this pattern for a beginners' class and since I haven't made one in quite a while, I decided to pull some fabrics and whip one up real fast. (It really is easy and a wonderful project for new sewers!)

I wanted to make this larger than a baby quilt which takes 6 fat quarters; and I didn't have a border fabric I liked to make a lap size, which takes 12 fat quarters. So, I found 15 fat quarters that I like together and adjusted the numbers a bit to end up with a 6x8 layout, rather than the 5x7 layout with a border. So far, I'm happy with that decision. We'll see if I still feel that way when the blocks are all sewn together. I may have to go shopping.  

Anyway, a sample is already made for the class, so this will be nice to show the students how adjustments can easily be made to patterns - a good teaching moment, right?

I said I have a number of other "in progress" works and I'll take some pictures of those to post here soon. But, just to pique your interest...

I'm almost done making a large bag and a 46" x 58" quilt using just one Jelly Roll and 2.25 yards of an accent/lining fabric. That 2.25 yards includes binding. I'm loving the fact that I am making two projects with just these fabrics!

There is a another strip quilt in the works, (almost ready for binding), a special order quilt for a local school baseball team to raffle off as a fundraiser, and a couple of donation quilts. 

Whew! I've been a bit busy.

What are you working on today?

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times