Diamonds In the Rough

My year of making string quilts started out

with these lovely color family isosceles triangles.

The blocks are coming along nicely.

Smaller amounts of lovely greens and purples,

and yellow, blues and oranges.

Surprisingly, a large amount of browns, 

and the same amount of beige/white units!

Red seems to be the big winner!

They will end up in a few different tops.

It is possible that one will be completely blue,

with maybe a hint of yellow or green thrown into spice it up.

Maybe even black, which always makes the colors pop.

Blue is my largest scrap color 

so there are a lot more scraps to be sewn up. 

There weren't any gray strips lining up

to go into the triangle blocks.

The gray drawer in my storage bin,

has an abundance of strips so I may revise that,

 in order to add gray to one of the colors 

that's a little short on blocks.

That was my initial plan but a 

color wash top would be fun too!

The color piles were moved in to storage bins in 

the workroom to present a bit tidier look for zoom meetings . 

The tidy lightens up the mood too!

Stay Safe and Sew on

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Wednesday Wait Loss

Sew & Tell

Handmade Monday

To Do Tuesday

SrSPS

Are Buttons a Stash?

 Stash -/staSH/   a store or supply of something, 

typically one that is kept hidden or secret.

So, does this meaning describe a supply of buttons?

How many of us have a goodly supply of buttons?

Do we keep it secret or hidden?

Time for confessions is now. 

Here is a tour of my button stash.

I am not a "buttoner" as  button collectors are known. 

I have buttons because people give them to me,

I find them, I put them all in one place. I have a weird

frugal idea that I could use them for something worthwhile,

be in  clothes or crafty items. 

Recently, my button supply has increased due to 

legacy buttons, and estate donations.

I even get some as surprises among sewing scraps!

There are many superstitions about buttons.

An odd number of buttons on a wedding dress, 

were supposed to mean good luck.

Sewing a white button with black thread was bad luck

and finding a button is lucky.

 The oldest button is about officially 5,000 years old!

I like to display some of my buttons

and every so often I need one.

Many of mine are kept in antique canning jars like this one,

or decorative tins.

More antique jars,

and some are hiding away with other items.

I have green ones, pink ones,

big ones and small ones. 

More in jars, 

and lots are in bags.

Some look like bones, and some look like bees.

Some look like cups!

Many are are hiding on shelves in little containers.

 

I don't count these, they're more like beads.

These are from Scottish highland costumes, 

so they have lots of memories.

This one is more like a bone than a button.

So, do I have a stash or a collection?



It is surprising how many I have

 when I track them all down.

There is even a Legacy Collection

that should get sorted and dispersed.

Have fun with your buttons!

Stay safe and button up!

Sew Along Tops Complete!

 Well, the time has come to show off

my two quilt tops from the

 Conquering Mount Scrapmore spring string sew along.

The total project was going to finish 96" square,

 which is a bit large for my liking.

When I halved the larger plan,

I had to make one extra square,

and redesign the border.

My goal was to end up with two rectangular 

quilts instead of one very large square quilt.

I finished off the sides with the 9 1/2" half snowballed rectangles.

This rectangle finishes off the secondary pattern of 

the light background square and 

closes in the second block of the set.

Two rectangular quilts were the goal so I elongated

the ends of the tops with some of the blocks 

produced in the sew along.

The piece diamonds looked good but I 

wanted to finish off a bit of the

Chevron pattern so the hourglass blocks were 

substituted out with a 3 1/2" half square.

All four corners received the solid colored square 

as per the original design.

The outside edge will get a yellow-gold binding or

the 2-in gold strip that I inadvertently cut too soon.

I should always remember never to cut 

the borders until the top is complete .

Final designs are always fluid.

Fall is definitely among us and sitting outside,

I managed to pick up a new lifer for my bird list.

A flock of Greater white fronted geese flew over.

(Stock photo by Derek Rogers NY , USA)

I wasn't quick enough to get a picture 

but they are pretty interesting and

their peeping type honk really gives them away. 

They seem to be a bit farther south than their normal range, 

but with changing weather patterns and an abundance of fires in

northern parts of Canada, it isn't surprising.

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with :

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

SRSPS

Handmade Monday

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

Needle & Thread Thursday

Free Motion Mavericks

Put Your Foot Down

Off the Wall Friday

Friday Beauty Pageant

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Patchwork & Quilts

Oh Scrap!

Stitching Stuff

Sunday Stash

A Thousand Years

 Wow, I still have trouble waiting!  

It feels like forever when I am looking forward to an event. 

Well, another retreat is around the corner and we 

have an additional Grandson!  Yay us!

I've snagged two more projects for the 

retreat to do list. Both are itsy pieces. 

The first is a border for the "Square Dance"

center I have already  made.  

The center is a good size (79") so the border 

will be a row of 2 1/2" squares with 

a strip of white on either side. 

Last weekend's retreat produced 

a portion of joined squares for the border.

I used the stop and go method to get them sewn. 

One pair at the start and end of another block and 

some piecing done instead of cutting threads! 

Bonus all around! I'll work on more next retreat!

It should finish almost  84" square 

which is my go to size. 

The other project is another border. 

 This one is for a SAL from APAQ 2019. 

The center is 62 1/2"complete but  

a late night sewing produced a pieced border 

that is 14" too wide, sending the project into

driveway covering size!  

I will make an 8" or 10" border to finish the top at around 84".

Now I have a beautiful, "Border" quilt top to make from 

the too wide border strips! 

 

It will get a mottled-reads as solid-colored vertical sashing, 

to finish about 66" wide for a great twin sized quilt. 

Both of these projects will tag along to the next retreat. 

Looks like I'll have to find some more pins, 

or maybe do some quilting!!!

Finished or Not Friday

Retreat and Stash Increase

 Another fantastic retreat!

My first in a hotel and the venue is wonderful.

Lots of room, comfy beds and fairly reasonable pricing!

A few things on my list were accomplished,

and a few things that weren't on my list were completed too!

The after retreat pile looked nothing like the one I left with!

Border pieces for the last of the crazy log cabins 

were all stitched up.

Last year's mystery was completed and just needs 

a fancy back.  There is even a back widening

strip made with a few extra blocks!

A cute little owl quilt was made with 

grab bag squares and gifted strips.

The weekend finished up with two more bags of 

wonderful scraps and fabric coming home with me!

I may have to revert to counting the scrap yardage coming in. 

Until  then I've had no movement in the numbers. 

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with : 

Sunday Stash Report

Do I Have Enough Pins?

 The pinned pile is getting bigger!

I have to admit it is a great feeling to 

have a nice bunch of layered quilts 

waiting for the needle. Now the 

challenge will be to choose quilting patterns

Continuous patterns make the process 

smoother so I will pull out my two

 favorite reference books to help

in the search. 

I like a vine pattern,

 but I have to be careful because 

they tend to take on a coffee bean shape

toward the end of the top!

A clamshell would be nice on the 

two filmstrip edged quilts and the 

back and forth of the form will keep the 

top moving. 

The thousand pyramids will get 

a diagonal pattern to emphasize the 

beautiful triangle piecing. 

The squares might get a diagonal grid 

for the center section and a stitch in the ditch 

square grid for the colorful border.

Spirals reminiscent of a nautilus shell would 

work on the Sea Glass quilt. I didn't 

realize I had so many options in mind!

The hopscotch & twin 8s & 10s re good for 

an all over design.

Yet another pinned string quilt is hanging on the rack.

There a few pieces left of this style quilt so I'll have to

Have a sewing night to finish it up.

This one might get a different style from the other two quilts.

I'm thinking the Great Big Sea or some gentle ocean waves.

I do love continuous line quilting.

The last on the pinned rack, 

is a row by row from a past sewing group.

It will just get some shadow quilting around

each item in the rows  done by the members. 

It should be a great memento.

Finally, here is a picture of the quilt rack right now.

It looks amazing and so tidy!

I can't wait to get into the quilting!

Stay safe and Sew on!

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

SrSPS

Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

Needle & Thread Thursday

Free Motion Mavericks

Put Your Foot Down

Oh Scrap!

Patchwork & Quilting

RSC 2025

Stitching Stuff 

Design Wall Friday

Friday Beauty Pageant

Retreat, Retreat!

 Five days and counting to the first retreat of the season.

This is new to me since this retreat is held in a hotel!

We've got a block of rooms, and one of the larger 

guilds in town  is hosting.  It should be a great time!

My pile of retreat projects is growing, and 

the featherweight is all oiled up,  but a 

few more are needed to keep me occupied!

So far I have 2 childrens quilts to stitch. 

Blue and pink strips will be trimmed 

and surround some colorful owl prints. 

The second project is a garlic knot top. 

Thirty nine blocks are complete and I 

need sixty four to complete a nice sized twin top.

A few more projects will round out the 

bunch. Diagonal string blocks are always 

a good filler project and  we're even 

 playing a game with them!

There are a group of Halloween fabrics

waiting to be sewn into shaded four patches

that would fun and very seasonal. 

I even found a banner to add in!

A mystery from last year is waiting for  

final assembly so that may come along 

to round out my list! 

All my bags are packed (almost)!

It should be a great weekend of fun!

Stay safe and Sew On!