Strings!!

My string drawers were so full that I couldn't fit in another string. Really. I mean it. So, instead of making a backing for Easy Street I decided to sort and organize strings. What I discovered was an overabundance of red black and white strings.  After fiddling around with graph paper I decided I'd make a red white black heart quilt.  These little string blocks finish at five inches and so far I've made about 100 of them.  The drawer closes now and I'm pretty happy so far with what I've got. What do you think?

Design Wall Monday 6/25/12

 As further evidence of my frugal quilting, I present you with exhibit #1,973 - a quilt to which I contributed not a single piece of fabric that I purchased!  It's true, this entire quilt was constructed of fabric that would otherwise have been thrown away.  The large HSTs were part of the largess from June's estate sale.  The 16-patches were made from bits that other people love to give me, "We know Chris will make something with this."  I still have enough HSTs and 16-patches to make at least two more quilts.  Right now this one is about 54 x 64.  I think it needs some sort of borders.  I'll get around to auditioning some after I get the rows sewn together. 

I rather like this utilitarian thing because it is the sort of quilt that can get drug around and used to death.  I think that would make June and I both very happy.

Check out some other design walls over at Judy's blog.

Birthday Gift

It was my birthday a few weeks ago.  Yea me!!  My very good friend Patti gave me this super sweet quilt that she made especially for me.  It is about 18" X 24" made from "bonus triangles" and all hand-quilted.  I love love it. 

I've spent the last several years convincing my guild members that they can make really nice little quilts from the triangles you cut off when making flying geese or snowball blocks.  For the last few years they've just been giving the bonus triangles to me - thank you very much!!  Lately, however, I've been seeing some cute quilts made from these leftovers.  I can't wait to show it off at the next guild meeting.

What do you do with those triangles?

Fabric Swaps

I love fabric swaps.  I used to participate in them frequently when I was making my Dear Jane.  It was the best way to get a big variety of fabric.  Since I have a great love of very scrappy quilts, I've gotten involved in swapping fabric with the Quiltville Swap group.

The theme this round is black and white.  They are also having an additional red swap.  I signed up for 10 sets of Black and White and 5 sets of Red.  That means I send in 10 sets of ten different strips of B&W and 5 sets of ten different Reds.  I will get back 100 different B & W strips and 50 different Red strips.  YAY!!

Have you ever participated in a fabric swap?

Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all its flavour.

-- William Cowper

I've been a little impatient

Impera Magna and I decided to do a little Quilt  A Long that is supposed to start whenever she finishes the Floribunda Quilt she is currently working on.  She estimated some time toward the end of October.  I just read on her blog and she has kicked it off! 

I was a little antsy about it so I already had all my blocks cut and waiting to go.  They are all neatly piled in a cleaned out tray that used to hold ground turkey (good way to recycle).  As soon as I finish up all the crap UFOs on my sewing table, I will add these in to the Leader/Ender rotation.

I went with a yellow-gold fabric for my background/constant.  I think it's going to look really pretty and I will finally have used up ALL my floral scraps!

September UFO DONE!!

TaDa!!

It was a challenge to get this finished this month because I have my boy here!!  More on that in the next post, I want to talk about this quilt today.  This quilt was begun as a leader/ender project about, I don't know, SIX years ago!  I began by using  2-inch squares of dark fabric and sewing them into 2-patches.

When I got a HUGE pile of those, I started L/E (leader/endering) pairs of 2-inch squares of muslin.

When I got a HUGE pile of those, I started L/E 1/2 square triangles.  I did this by pairing larger muslin and dark squares (about 3 inches each) and sewing on both sides of the center diagonal line then cutting them apart to make two 1/2 squares that I trimmed to 2 inches. 

When I got a  HUGE pile of those, I started sewing them to the two squares of muslin or two of the dark 2-patches to make strips of 3. 

When I had a HUGE pile of those, I sewed a single muslin square to two dark squares.

Soon (a relative term), I had three piles of strips of 3-patches that looked like this:

FINALLY, I started sewing these strips together into 9-patches.  I sewed and sewed and sewed until I had 192 of them.  I was finally ready to lay out a quilt top and the playing commenced.  I decided to sew them together into the blocks you see by sewing 4 of the 9-patches together.  I wanted a zig-zag effect so I sewed an extra bit onto the end of each column of six blocks.  Looking at it now, I would probably end each row with a half block. 

Those of you who are very clever will have figured out that I could have accomplished this same effect by sewing 4-patches into 16-patches and then adding the 1/2 square triangle thingy that looks like a flying goose.  OR, I could have sewn... well, there are many ways to skin a cat, this is how I did it because I wasn't sure about the final layout.

The thing I like about this block is that it can be used in MANY layouts as you would use a log cabin block.  The advantage, as I see it, is that I can make them easily as a L/E project while making other quilts.  I see L/E quilts as almost making themselves.  The blocks just get sewn together while I am making other quilts.  The only direct attention I spend on them is when it comes to putting all the blocks together into a top.

The other thing I LOVE about this quilt is that I consider it almost free.  The only fabric in it that I actually purchased is 1/2 of the backing.  I pieced the batting from leftovers of other quilts and all of the 2-inch squares are scraps from my other quilts but mostly from my quilt guild friends who know how I will use any tiny scrap that they don't want to be bothered with.

Big decision is where I will donate this quilt. 


Hop over to Patchwork Times and see the other FINISHED UFOs!

Design Wall Monday

 

Someday I am going to remember to take photos for my blog during daylight hours.  These photos are of the same quilt.  I can't figure out how to make blogger rotate the lower one but there ya go!

I decided to go with a 1" black inner border and found these four potential fabrics for the wider outer border.  All the fabrics are the same in both photos, but they look very different.  I am leaning toward either of the fabrics on the left or right in the upper photo (top or bottom in the lower photo).  What do you think?

Hop over the Judy's blog and see the loveliness others have posted.

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More strips and strings

When we were going through my friend, Audrey's, quilting stash following her death a few months ago, we found a great tin full of 1-inch strips all bundled into various groupings by some plan known only to Audrey.

You know how I love a scrap challenge.

 Here are a few of them separated into two piles: lights and darks.  On the right are some of them after I cut them into 6-inch lengths.

 

Then I just started paring light with dark and got busy sewing strips together.  I repeated this step about a gazillion times.  Then I paired twosies with twosies and  sewed till everything was stitched into 4-strip patches.  Next I paired 4-patch to 4-patch until they were all sewn into 8-strip patches.  I trimmed all of these to 5.5" squares and went to the design wall.

Oh, how cute is this from a bunch of "scraps!"

 

Now I need to find a fabric for a narrow inner boarder and another for a wider outer border.  Any suggestions for colors?  I figure something that reads solid for the inner border - maybe black or red - and something with a small to medium size print for the final border.  Right now it measures about 30 X  40 and I'd like for it to be 40 X 50.  I think that would be a nice lap quilt size that I can donate to the VA Hospital for wheelchair-bound vets.

Every good act is charity. 

A [wo]man's true wealth hereafter is 

the good that [s]he does in this world to his [her] fellows.
 

                                             - Moliere

 

Who feels compelled to fix old-fashioned, sexist quotes.

Does that make me militant?

Design Wall Monday 7/12/11

I have been busy sewing and not blogging!  Obviously.

Here is what is on my wall today:

This is only 16 of the more than 50 blocks I've made in the last few days.

I went a little crazy.

Here was the impetus behind my frenzy:

This is just a small part of my strip stash.  Read that again: "A. Small. Part."  As in I must have at LEAST three times this amount of strips.
I started with the strips in the wire basket.  I separated them into lights and darks, putting aside most of the mediums because I like a high contrast in my scrap quilts.  I paired a red strip with a dark strip, sewed them together and sliced them in to various widths, most about 1.5 inches wide. Then I just continued adding lights and darks as in any traditional log cabin block.  I just couldn't stop.  Keep checking back, I'm sure I will be well over 100 soon.

Send help.

Be well.

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April UFO DONE

I finished this little quilt instead of my assigned quilt because I couldn't find it!!  I did finally find it and I will complete it before the end of the year.  I will.  Really.  Stop doubting me.

This little cutie top was made with the 1/2 square triangles that my guild friend, Audrey gave me a few years ago. Check out Judy's blog to see what other people are doing to clean up their UFOs.

You all go out there and finish something!

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February UFO Challenge

I DID IT!  I finished February's UFO.  It was  #10 on Judy L's Patchwork Times UFO Challenge.  It has actually been done for a week but I wanted to wait and post it at the last minute.

 

Despite the rather poor photo, I am very proud of this quilt.  With the exception of the narrow purple border, I didn't purchase anything for this quilt.

I came home from work one day to discover a xerox-sized box of fabric scraps on my porch.  The scraps were jammed in there so tightly that when I dumped it over, the scraps retained the shape of the box!!

My sister and I spent many days and nights pressing fabric scraps.  I made this quilt by pulling all the light and dark floral scraps that I could find.  I stitched string blocks on a paper foundation.

I hope everyone else is having success with their UFOs.

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Blue Ridge Beauty

Road to California was excellent again this year.  The quilts were beautiful, the vendors were plentiful and the classes were fantastic.

Bonnie's Blue Ridge Beauty that Blogger insists on posting sideways.

Of course, the best class one was the one I took from Bonnie Hunter.  I was so lucky that she was teaching Blue Ridge Beauty on the only day I could take a class.  I have been lusting after this quilt since the first time I saw it on her website.  BUT, like most of Bonnie's quilts, it involves a gazillion units and I just never seemed to make time to make the quilt.  I thought this sounded like fate: meet Bonnie, make The Quilt.

Here I am with Bonnie Hunter

 It's a two color quilt so I dug out all my red and neutral scraps and started cutting.  I sewed ALL DAY and got this done:






 I sewed some more and we played some more and Bonnie came up with this:

I think this is the version I am going to make. It's sweet.  Now I just need to figure out how I want to make the center blocks so the heart looks good.  I'm thinking just 4-patches without the 1/2-squares.


Since Valentine's Day is coming up and I have a heart-shaped quilt on my blog, I thought this might be an appropriate thought on which to end:

 "Love is the condition in which the happiness of

another person is essential to your own."

                                Robert Heinlein