Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Every Once in Awhile A Girl Needs a Quickie


On my UFO tab I have "box of various themed Happies and orphans for donation quilts" listed.  I probably have enough bits and pieces for about 20 quilts in that UFO box alone.  

Since I signed up for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge I hunted around in the box for the makings of a quickie quilt or two.  I found about 25 Owl themed 8 inch Happy Blocks in there and some 4.5 inch strips of Owl fabric for the makings of a few more blocks.  (Blocks are 4.5 inch centers and 2.5 inch strips for sides)


Ten additional blocks later I had 35 blocks in a 5 x 7 layout for a 40 x 56 quilt top.  I also found some dotty  fabric in the stash suitable for the backing but after I took this picture on Sunday I found a piece of Owl fabric big enough for the backing and was too lazy to take another pic.  Whoooo knew that with this quickie I could kill two birds with one stone...I'll soon be able to mark another UFO off my entirely-too-long  list and I'll soon have a quilt ready for Happy Chemo. 


Monday, March 30, 2015

I Kind of Spaced Out for a While


I'm making an Attic Windows quilt for my grandson. 
I felt the urge to work on a quick, easy and whimsical quilt. 
These are nine inch blocks and I need several more. 


Sunday, March 29, 2015

Miscellany


My hand hurts after all that hand quilting on Wild Thing so for hand stitching projects  I'm working on a variety of different projects and won't be hand quilting any quilts for a while. 

I just finished the embroidery on a dishtowel.  This one will probably be for me and not make it to the Christmas gifts box.   A couple of cherry themed hot pads and a red crocheted dishcloth should complete the set. 

I'll probably stamp a few other dishtowels to work on when the urge strikes.  I think I need to wash up a package of towels first.  The transfers work better on laundered fabric. 


And in my bag of crochet I have a shawl I've been working on for one of the granddaughters for Christmas.  Sometimes I take it to work to work on during lunch break.  When this one is finished I'll be making a pink one for the other granddaughter.  


And finally, I'm going to start working on my version of the The 1718 Coverlet.  I want to make it all by hand like the original.  I thought it might be a good summer project for many summers to come. 



Saturday, March 28, 2015

Yellow Stuff


This is the last week of yellow for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 
I'm finishing up with four 9 inch Wonky Log blocks sewn together into an 18 inch block...


... four 8 inch string blocks using scrap paper as the foundation...



...and two Vintage Butterfly (Beggar) blocks as well as several 3 inch spool blocks. 

All of these projects are from last year continued into this year. 

Got scraps?
Use them up and show them off each ScrapHappy Saturday. 

Friday, March 27, 2015

Wild Thing is Now a Finished Thing


Wild Thing
80 x 80





The blocks and layout were all designed last year by Sophie of Block Lotto in what she called a Modern Modular Quilt Along (MOD MOD QAL).    (The very talented Sophie also blogs at Sophie Junction). 

 Every month at Block Lotto there is a block of the month.  Last year Sophie would tell us how many of each block we needed for our sampler and at the end of the month she would show us where in the overall layout our blocks would be positioned.    When I would see any of the 16 modules  completed I would go ahead and sew blocks in the module together, then module to module, column to column always hoping the colors would be evenly distributed. 


Last year's Block Lotto blocks were either 7 inch square, 7 x 14 or 14 inch square.   I chose to make my blocks in complementary colors and used scraps and stash (and some fun and weird fabrics). 


The blocks were also geometric and varied from very easy to challenging. 


I did big stitch hand quilting with red, green, blue, orange, yellow and purple perle cotton #8. 

And I quilted blocks in different ways...sometimes with stencils and sometimes following the lines of the blocks. 


I've tried to get a pic of the crinkly goodness of Wild Thing now that it has been washed and dried. 




But I can't get a picture that shows you how very soft Wild Thing happens to be. 





I used solid colors red, green, blue, orange, yellow and purple for the binding. (Wish the blue had been a little brighter but...)
And at the end of the month I will link up to Julie's Binding Blitz. 


For the back I used a solid green wide backing so the big stitching would show up since it wasn't always apparent in some of those wild fabrics. 




And since this UFO, WIP or what-have-you is now finished I'm linking up to



Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Blind Man's Fancy (continued)

 
 

I've made a few more 15 inch Blind Man's Fancy blocks. 
Not sure how blocks get their name. 
I first saw the block and quilt in the book I love called History Repeated 
which I purchased a few months ago. 
But I've been making the blocks according to a pattern I found on line. because I felt it was a little easier to construct. 

(to be continued)

Friday, March 20, 2015

Kaleidoscopes !!!


Kaleidoscopes
80 x 92

Made from lots of scraps and crumbs.

Each 12 inch block is made up of wedges (cut with a kaleidoscope ruler) made up of six 1.5 inch strips...


...and the corners and borders are made of crumbs.  For the binding I used binding leftover from other projects. 


I ended up quilting each kaleidoscope block with some wobbly circles...they weren't really supposed to be wobbly at first...but my hands are sometimes shaky and my eyes sometimes don't see well so I said the heck with it and went where the quilting, shaky hands and bad eyesight took me.  After all, this was made from SCRAPS. 


Where the corners of the blocks meet and in the crumby border I quilted some squares, rectangles and wobbly squares and rectangles. 

...

The quilt is a result of  last years Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 


Each month last year I made a block in the RSC color of the month, color of the month plus its complement and color of the month plus the previous month.   That way I figured a color-challenged person like me couldn't go wrong. 

From the start I had always intended to add a crumb border since I used crumbs for the kaleidoscope corners but I wavered back and forth on it several times.  I thought it might look like little kaleidoscope pieces before they form a design...and I guess they do. 



This was truly a Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 


It's not perfect but its all mine and it makes me smile.  
(It made my husband smile too...or was that a laugh?)
Anyway...I'll give it two smiles. 



The back. 
The end. 

Linking up today to:

so at the end of the month I will link up to 

And, also at the end of the month I'll link up to 

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Thirties Thursday - On the Road Again. Are We There Yet?

 


I finished the last 8 fifteen inch Road to Lampasas blocks made in 30s reproduction fabrics.  (Well, they are in my 30s  stash bin but not might officially be 30s repros but what I thought when sorting stash was 30s repros). I have the 30 blocks I need for my quilt so I'm that much farther down the Road to Lampasas. But...are we there yet?   NO!

Monday, March 16, 2015

Trees of Life or Family Trees?


There are four new Trees of Life on my makeshift design wall today. 

Since I'm also the family genealogist I was thinking of making sashing or border or backing  with some family tree names and dates of birth and dates of death...     I think all my family will be centered around that tree with nuts on the bottom. 

Design Walls at Patchwork Times (makeshift or otherwise). 

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Still Big Stitching on Big Quilt


I'm still big stitching in perle #8 on my big full/queen sized quilt. 


Blocks are made in complementary colors and stitched in the same complementary colors. 


I started my stitching in the middle of the quilt and have worked outward. I'm stitching on blocks along the outside edge now so hopefully I will have this quilt finished up by the end of the month. 


Here's some of the stitching on the back side. 


And a little more back side...


...and just a little bit more.   That wrinkle isn't quilted in...it will come out in the wash...I think.  This is a wide green muslin backing so there were no seams but I guess I didn't get all the wrinkles ironed out. 

Slow Stitching today? 

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Yellow - Version 2.5


From some 2.5 inch strips you can cut some approximately 22 inch pieces and end up with eight 8 inch kaleidoscope blocks and one leftover kaleidoscope block (upper right) ...


...and with the other 18 inches of the 2.5 inch strip (plus white strips)  you will end up with some 6 inch Cracker blocks. 

With some other 2.5 inch bits and pieces I combined with some neutral scraps and made some HSTs that I then made into 8 inch Depression blocks.


I made a few more lozenges from 2.5 x 5 inch pieces.


And finally, from 2.5 inch scraps...I made some 6 inch Twinkler blocks and some miscellaneous 4 inch blocks that will probably be made into some donation quilts at year end. 

Got Scraps? 
Use them.. Then show us what you've made each ScrapHappy Saturday