A Scrappy Quilter

Design Wall Friday

Beauty Pageant

RSC 2024

Patchwork & Quilts

Getting Things Done!

It is almost time for another retreat weekend.

Perfect timing to review the leftovers from the

last sewing holiday!

The little flannel teddy bear still needs

to have his head attached.

I will have to find some more flannels for him.

Number five on the list from the last retreat

is the curved nine patch.

It was at the end of my work list.

I did get a layout done. Now I just need to decide on an

inner border or not and then join it together so that one

will be second on the list for the next retreat.

The other items left over were basically filler items.

I always take a few extras!

I had a big bag of crumb blocks and

stars I was going to join together.

They are actually still in the retreat

bag so less packing for me!

I had also a bag of pre-sorted

three and a half inch block

supplies to make a colour wash quilt.

They too, were still in the retreat bag.

It looks like I will add in some

Halloween fabrics to cut and compile.

I'm sure there are some other projects I can take along.

I like that I've almost got my next retreat ready to go!

The format for this retreat is a come and go.

We go and sew all day.

Then we all leave to sleep in our own beds

and return the next morning for more sewing.

This really seems to cut down on the amount of packing,

clothing and bedding.

When you forget sewing supplies, you have

that night to pick them up!

It is definitely a win-win for everyone involved!

Stay safe and sew on!

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Fall Has Arrived!

October is upon us so all things fall
are out and about and now acceptable!
No, I don't mean pumpkin spice lattes.
Pumpkins galore are perfect. I made a
great score at the grocery store today,
Large pumpkins and 2 bags of mini pumpkins.
There were also large pumpkins for $4 each.

Some of each came home with me.
A little stitching was done during the run up to fall .
The leftover rainbow scrap/stash buster bits
were put together into a top on the last
afternoon of retreat. It was a little
square ( 60" x 60") so popular vote
won and the size was increased to 60 " x 70"
using some more leftover twosies .

I still have a considerable number of pairs remaining
so I see more of these tops in my future!
The visiting dog approved.

He did move when the small pre Halloween
ghostie came through!

We had family visitors and when our

sparsely filled freezer was inspected, we had

just enough for a lemon pie!!! I do love

it when the kids can bake!

Another picture of the rainbow Stash buster top.

The blocks are monochromatic in this top

since they are extras from the two-color Irish chains.

The rainbow assortment of squares left over

will lend themselves to a random rainbow top soon.

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up with:

Put Your Foot Down

Patchwork & Quilts

Binding quilt ahead!

Do you all have as many binding ends as I have?

I came across a quilt recently

that was made from binding ends.

( I will keep looking for the maker.

If you find it first, let me know!)

There is an extensive library of binding bits

underneath one of my shelves in the sewing room.

Hmm, it doesn't look too bad when it is out on the table.

Many of these are used up when I make scrappy bindings

but they are not all the same width.

So the next project I have will be to measure and

sort all the binding strips.

Then, I'll stitch them together end to end

with their like fellows.

Next joining them side by side should make

something like a 1800 or jelly roll race quilt.

Here is a free pattern over a Jordon's Fabrics.

To avoid the dreaded "too busy " look,

I will sneak in a unifying dark or light!

Wish me luck!

Linking up with:

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Retreat Success!

Well, after a whirlwind holiday, I am back.

Fatigued and tired but ready to jump back into my quilting.

The beautiful Bahamas were a wonder to behold.

It is a must on my future bucket

list of a place to revisit.

We stayed at a beautiful rental property on

Grand Exuma. The top of the list for

crazy things we did is:

swim with pigs

and visit an island inhabited only by hundreds of iguana.

The clearest water I've ever seen and also the

cleanest pigs!

We had a 10-hour delay returning

to the country but now that

we're back in Canada it's time to face the music.

Do housework, get into quilting and

shop for my own groceries.

Living this the life of a spoiled tourist

is fun but not realistic!

Upon return, I was scheduled to go to a weekend quilting retreat.

I managed to make it but was a bit fatigued.

I did have to excuse myself for an afternoon nap or two.

All my quilting goods were packed before I left

so I trusted my planning and just loaded the car.

Here is what I worked on .

Since I was tired from travelling,

I chose something simple for the first night.

I made binding for five Irish chain quilts . The tops are

almost ready and most of the backings are already chosen!

Now they need to be pinned and quilted up.

It was a very good night's work.

The next morning, after consulting my retreat notebook,

I jumped right in to finishing a years old project.

Once again I discovered why I have UFOs.

This poor project had a few errors

The first was my use of fusible web to put

a bunch of small squares together.

The original pattern from Quiltmaker March 2014,

called for 1 1/2" squares.

Way too small for my clumsy quilting

at the time, so I used 2" squares.

This required a bit of adjustment for the sewing.

Since this project was done over a time (years)

by the time I got to the final blocks,

I had forgotten that each row should end with a white square.

The large center squares were fine but the

smaller alternate blocks needed fixing.

Then I assembled the top and realized

the outside corner squares had

interfacing showing through also, so more fixing there.

Now all it needs is an interesting border treatment.

The top already measures 84" square.

I usually work between 84" and 88".

The border for this quilt needs to be very narrow so

I will put either a 1" zinger or use 2" cut

square on point all the way around.

Here is a picture of it so far.

As I am not a fine machine quilter and

this will have a lot of seams,

this will be professionally

quilted at one of my local quilt shops.

There are still four quilting credits on my punch card

so this will be one of the four to use up that card.

Here is a picture of the water bird that

visited daily while we were on vacation.

He was just looking for a sip of less salty water.

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with :

Put Your Foot Down

RSC 2024

Oh Scrap

Off the Wall Friday

Patchwork & Quilts

Bolt to Beauty

Monday, September 16, 2024

Everywhere Inspiration

Still on vacation but there are design ideas everywhere!

No change in stash report but lots of fun is happening.

The heat doesn't seem to slow down my cerebellum so ...

here we go!

First up the beautiful colors of the world around me.

The depth of the water changes the intensity of the

blue. From deep dark indigo to the almost milky

pale green we often see by our Canadian glaciers.

It is no wonder people of the southern hemisphere

delight in vibrant colors!

The patterns in building material are always

fuel for design ideas.

Tiles,

grates,

windows

and even non slip flooring,

make me think of Chinese coins,

scrap busting tops and black bordered glass window blocks.

Having exhausted my current environment, I went to relax

and rethink and found some old familiar patterns on

a textured quartet of wall prints.

Leaves,

webs,

and my current favorite , zig zags!

I think a few of these

will definitely be showing up on

my next quilt tops!

Stay safe and sew on !

Here is a gratuitous food picture.

Linking up with: