Scrappy Sunday

This post was supposed to be Scrappy Saturday, but I forgot yesterday!  Better late than never, right?

I've decided I want to try the Rainbow Scrap Challenge that SoScrappy is hosting.  I don't know how long I can manage to actually do this, but I figured it's time to start doing something with all the scraps that are accumulating around here!  Even if I'm not 100% successful with playing along, I hope to at least be able to make a dent in the scrap pile.

This month's color is blue, and boy,do I have a LOT of blue scraps!  I tried to narrow down my choices of what exactly I want to do with scraps this year.  So far, my list is about 5 quilts long!  So I started with 2 different blocks.

Here are my first 2 Tic Tac Toe blocks.  These were a Block Lotto block back in January 2010 (see the directions here), and I really liked the quilts that the winners made with these blocks.  So, time to do some for me.  I'm trying to use tone-on-tone fabrics.  The one on the right that looks black is actually a blue and black marble.  I'm not sure this block is going to work for this quilt, but it was my first attempt.  I like the block on the left better.  But, I'm trying to turn off the critic in my head and just sew.

I'm also trying some "made fabric" a la Bumble Beans.  I have no idea what I will use these for, but they at least use up some of the smallest scraps.  They are great "therapy" sewing too.

You can see what others are doing for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge by clicking here.

I've decided that this year is the year to start putting together some of the projects I have started that are this close to being a quilt top.  You know, the blocks are all done and are waiting for me to do something with them.  I'm tired of having all these almost-done projects nagging me.  They get pretty insistent sometimes.

Santa (my DH The Potter) gave me a free-standing design wall for Christmas and I love it!  We put it up in the mostly-unused living room, and I had to christen it right away by putting some blocks on it, of course.  *grin*

These are some 16 Patch blocks that I started way back here in 2011.  Wow, didn't realize it had been that long!  I've made some here and there along the way.  I'm trying to use only the bright plaids, but some read a little darker.  I think that will be OK.  I have 34 blocks in this photo.  I've made another 3 since the photo was taken.  Now I have just 11 more to make and then I can start finalizing a layout.  I have all the plaids cut - I just need to cut some more black fabric.  

These were the result of a demonstration that I did at our quilt show in 2011.  I use a method that is sooo easy and fun to make these blocks.  I'm thinking of doing a tutorial for this method.  Any one interested?  I've never seen this method anywhere else on line, so I thought you might like to know it too!

After getting those blocks sorted out, I decided to pull out a project that I haven't touched in years.  The blocks are ready to put together.

first half of the blocks

I made these Disappearing Nine Patch blocks from some random charm squares that I had hanging around for years.  Well, when I put these on the design wall, they just screamed "Yuck!" at me.  Dull, boring and UGLY.  Oh my.  What to do?  So, I put on my thinking cap and came up with this:

second half of the blocks

Better, definitely better.  Now to find something for the sashing.  I was planning on this being a charity quilt.  But it's too big to have them all together, and a little small to make two lap quilts.  

all the blocks

So, I haven't decided yet just what I'm doing.  First I'm sewing all the block quarters together, and then I'll see what size it is, play some more and see what I can come up with.  I'll keep you posted.

Hooray!

My first REAL blog post of 2014!  I hope I can keep up more frequently this year.  My poor blog was so neglected last year.

We got through the holidays just fine this year.  No one got sick, which is a nice change from last year when DH and I both had a nasty virus.  DH was on a business trip to China for most of the month of December, so guess who did most of the shopping?  (I LOVE shopping on-line!  It's way too easy.)  He arrived home one week before Christmas, and managed to be mostly awake for all the festivities.  Jet lag is so terrible, but fortunately it didn't bother him too badly until Christmas was over.

I didn't get much sewing done, but did manage to get 8 pillowcases made for presents!

These are the ones for K. (who is A.'s mom), my dear DIL A. and DS #1.  

Here is a close-up of DIL A.'s pillowcase.  I found this fabric with names of places in Paris and knew it would be perfect.  A. has been to Paris 4 or 5 times (they were stationed in Germany) and Paris is her favorite city in the world.  

Pillowcases for the granddaughters.  The older one is really into ballet (3rd year of classes), and the younger one loves kitties and puppies.  She got kitties last year, so this year it had to be puppies.  *grin*

I somehow managed to NOT get a photo of the pillowcase I made for DS #2.  Bad Mom/blogger.

And these are the pillowcases for my DH, The Potter, and myself.  I'll bet you can guess whose is whose!

I also made some Winnie The Pooh potholders for my DIL's birthday, which she LOVED!  It used up the very last of my Pooh Bear fabric.  And I managed to NOT get photos of those either.  But at least I got them done in time!  Now I need to make some for myself (not Pooh Bear though).  I somehow managed to lose my selvage potholders, and am missing them.  Since I have an abundance of selvages, it shouldn't be too hard to do.  

I also managed to make some blocks for the Block Lotto.

These are the December blocks, called "Stripes".   It was surprisingly difficult to be 100% accurate on these.  Maybe I was distracted??

blocks finish at 7 inches by 14 inches

And these are the Chevron blocks for January.  Sophie had a fun, new-to-me technique to make the HST's for these.  You just cut one big square (9 inches in this case) from the background and the featured fabric for each chevron, and based on how you sew and cut that square, you get 8 HST's.  You can see her directions here.  Because you're cutting slightly larger than you need, you then trim to an accurate size (4 inches in this case, 3 1/2 inches finished size) and they're so accurate that everything goes together just slick as a wink.  Easy-peasy!  I love when I find a new technique that is easy and accurate!

I haven't had a lot of time to sew the last couple of weeks, and am trying to decide what I want to work on first.  Finish a quilt that is in-progress, work on a charity quilt or start a new quilt??  Of course, I could clean the quilt studio first, but that's not as much fun.  *wink*  

Have a creative weekend! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers, friends and family!  I wish everyone a healthy, fun, creative 2014, filled with all the fabric and quilty goodness you desire!

More later.....

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a jolly holiday!

This & That

I know . . . long time, no see.  Again.  I've been a bad blogger this year.  I guess I need to step up my game here.  I keep meaning to post, but it just never quite happens.  I hope next year I'll do better.

Here is my latest "creation".  I made myself a new apron since I was hostess for Thanksgiving this year.  I used batiks, and it's a two-sided apron.  Pattern by Mary Mulari - The Church Ladies Apron.  It was pretty easy to do, but I simplified it too.

close up of fabric

I made the neck piece simpler and also made the apron ties skinnier and only used one fabric for them.

side 2

I didn't add the pockets either.  I never use the pockets on an apron.  They just seem to catch crumbs and things.  Who's got time to put their hands in the pockets when they're cooking anyway?  I've always been mystified about pockets on aprons.  Besides, that leaves more fabric for me to play with another time!

side 2 closeup

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Everyone in the family was here, except for my niece who's in graduate school in Vermont.  My sister and nephew came, and that was a lot of fun.  It was fun to see the cousins talking and having fun together.

My sister brought me a gift when she came.  Well, actually she brought all my birthday presents as this was the first time we'd seen each other since my birthday.  But this one was very special to me.  She brought me my late mother's recipe boxes.  The one on the right was her original one.  I "enhanced" it when I was in high school by decoupaging some cut-outs from a magazine or something.  It doesn't look very good and I was always sorry I mucked it up.  The one on the left was one DH and I made for her a number of years ago.  We bought the box, he stained it and made the stencils and I stenciled it.  I think I'm going to ditch my old, sad plastic recipe boxes and start using my mom's.  I just need to sort through her recipes that are still in them.

This was a 'make & take' project from my LQS, Heavenly Quilts and Fabrics last month.  Now I need to get it done in time for Christmas!  My friend K in CA did blanket-stitch stitching around all the appliques for me (not included in this photo), and now I need to quilt and bind it, and then sew buttons on for the eyes and mouth.  We'll see if I can actually get it done in time for this year.

Last week I took a class at Heavenly Quilts.  Lisa taught us the braid quilt.  This is what I have so far.  I think I need 2 more braids to make a lap quilt the right size.  I have lots of strips cut and ready to go.  My guild gives the lap quilts to a couple of the local assisted living facilities.

At the guild's Christmas party last Friday, we drew for our next year's challenge.  The Ugly Fabric Challenge.  I think these fabrics are waaaay beyond ugly - they're in the "Hideous" category!  We had to got to pick a stapled-shut brown paper sack.  Then we had to write our name on the back of the index card that had swatches of the fabrics stapled to it, so that when it's done, people can tell which fabrics we were working with.  The finished quilts will be shown with these swatches at the quilt show.  Each fabric is about a fat quarter in size, and we only have to use a recognizable piece.  How big do you think that would be?  I'm thinking an inch square should do it.  *grin*  The challenge is due in July.  

I have no idea what I'll be doing with these, but I was assured that over-dying or using the wrong side of the fabric is allowed, so that definitely opens up more possibilities!  These fabrics just make me shudder!  Ewww!  The sad part is, I recognize that middle fabric from (I think) the 80's.  I think I may have even had some of it.  I do find it the least offensive of the three.  Just saying . . .

We've been having very cold weather for here.  Two nights ago was our coldest, when we got down to 14 degrees!   Brrr!  I spent all weekend inside, trying to stay warm.  We've been very dry too.  The static electricity is getting pretty wild.  We've had no ice, except in the pond, which is quite frozen.  Most days there hasn't even been any frost on the cars.  It's too dry!  So the power has never gone out.  Yay!  The furnace has been working overtime.  We even had sun for a few days, which was nice.  We're clouded over now, so it's starting to warm up. That's a relative term.  We made it up to 32*F today.  And  now there's a  possibility of  snow.  

It's been so much fun seeing other bloggers' homes all decorated for the holidays.  Our tiny tree is up and decorated, and DH put some lights on the front of the house.  I still need to put up my Christmas wall quilts.  And that's all that's going on.  I guess we're kind of humbug here - the kids are grown up and it just seems like too much work anymore.  I'd rather be sewing!  I love getting the decorations out, but I really hate putting them away.  So I don't do it anymore.  But I LOVE seeing how other's have decorated and admire them for doing it!  I have to say, my Christmas quilts do make me happy.  And that's enough now.

Another Random Post, I'm Afraid

First I want to say "Thank You" to everyone who left me birthday wishes!  I had a great day and it turned into a great week!  Lots of phone conversations with family and friends, and a few birthday lunches as well. I had loads of fun!

I've been busy with all kinds of things lately, including getting some sewing done.

Today I finished two new place mats.  I still have two more that I need to sew the binding down on.  I went to my LQS for the Tuesday Sew-in and got to visit with other quilters while I worked, which made it lots more fun.  This was a free pattern for Amy Ellis' Graphic Patchwork Table runner that I got from Quilting Daily here.  I got started on it and then thought "But I don't have a table that long!".  So I made the runner into the place mats, which I needed.  I like them!  The tan fabrics in there show up a lot more in the photo than they do in Real Life.

Last Friday my quilt guild had a workshop and Donna taught us how to do Seminole Piecing.  It's been many years since I did that technique!  She gave us directions for making the strata ahead of time, and no idea of how we would use them.  I would have made some different color choices had I known.  Oh well, it's all good.

my first three pieces, in order from the top

my next two pieces, with my color inspiration fabric at the top

All of the pieces with the fabric.

Now that they are done (I still have one more to finish), I don't like them with the fabric I used to decide colors.  The Seminole Piecing colors are so bright and strong that they overwhelm the fabric.  So, now I need Plan B!  It was fun to re-discover Seminole Piecing.  Back when I first did it, I did it all with scissors - no rotary cutters then!  This is muuuch easier.

Went to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and did a little damage.  But only a little!  I got 6 yards of fabric for only $30!  Everything I got was on sale for $5 a yard.  Whoo hoo!  No plans for this, except the two pieces on the left will become a pillowcase for me.

Recently, I went to see P., the lady that is the keeper of the fabric for my guild's charity quilts.  She was going to get rid of a lot of fabric that she didn't like for one reason or another.  I opened my big mouth and ended up with a pretty good haul.  Above are two pieces of older tropical prints.  The red one is an Alexander Henry print.

And here are 3 pieces of vintage fabrics.  I don't know yet what I will do with these, but I couldn't pass them up.  The bottom piece is feedsack.

I said to her "Oooo, you have pindots!", so now I have pindots!  Those orange-y ones at the bottom of the stack are really true red.  The camera just insisted on seeing them as orange.

And here is a big pile of men's shirt-type fabrics.  P. didn't want them, and I have a quilt on my Wish List to do that uses that kind of fabric.  You can see it on my Pinterest page here.  I'll bet I have enough here to do almost that whole quilt!

Lastly, here is a String X quilt that I got put together lately.  I was tired of working on these string blocks, and tired of the fabrics I was using.  I've used them quite a bit in other string blocks the last few years.  And I figured out that I had enough blocks to make a charity quilt the size that my guild uses.  Well, it needs a little more to be the exactly the right size, and to me it seems to need a border.  But everything I tried with it didn't really work.  There are so many colors in the blocks that no one color is the right one.  And, hard to tell from the photo, but most of the fabrics are bright.  It's hard to get a good photo when it's dark and gloomy here.  Now I'm considering a pieced border, as I have more squares of the blue print background fabric.  But I'm not sure.  I'm open to suggestions!

Have a quilty week!

Happy Birthday . . .

to me!  Today is the big day. I'll be celebrating rather low key - just going to see the movie "Gravity" with my DH The Potter and DS The Kid, and then we're going out to dinner.  Should be a fun day!

Here is my big birthday gift - a new Brother sewing machine!  About a month ago, I heard from a friend about a Really Good Deal on Costco, so I had to get it. (Just checked out Costco.com and it seems that this machine is no longer available!)  It only weighs 13.5 pounds.  It's so easy to more around, and easy to use.  I even figured out the auto needle threader!

The other gift I received is an art quilt!  I found this at the local art gallery that The Potter has his pottery at, and I fell in love with it.  My DH loves it when I do the shopping. *grin*

"A Favorite Path" by Bertha Moore
12 in wide by 14.5 in high

Bertha's favorite subjects for her quilts are landscapes and wildlife.  She is a local lady and a native Washingtonian.

I am as fascinated by the techniques Bertha used as I am by the actual image.

A detail shot.

Here I'm showing how most of the image is constructed and quilted on a piece of black felt, separate from the main body of the quilt. 

The back, showing the stitching Bertha did to quilt and to join the felt piece to the main body.

Here's the new home for the art quilt - in my upstairs hallway so I see it every time I go up or down stairs.  It fits right next to the piece I made - a silver-embossed birch leaf.  I think they suit each other nicely.

sneak peek!

Got my latest quilt back from my long-armer Shari the other day.  Gotta get the binding done on this before I show you any more!

Happy Halloween!

ceramic pumpkins by my DH, The Potter

Wishing you a Halloween that's all treats, no tricks!