Oh, That Garlic!

 These garlic knots are picking my biscuit!

They keep getting moved around and around,

 put out on the sewing table,

but never making any progress.

That's how many of UFOs are born.

They have some sort of glitch 

that makes us set them aside to deal with later.

Well later has arrived! 

The glitch with these was choosing

fabric for the background 

that was in short supply.

When a new background came into play,

the whole project kind of got pushed aside.

So now let's dig out some low volumes,

and get this plan in motion.

Count up how many blocks are complete,

and go from there.

Here is the block with the first  

low volume background. 

I counted up the blocks and 

there are more than enough for

 a very nice stroller/ baby quilt!

No more garlic for me!

The extra strips will be used to 

shadow lattice some crumb blocks I have

waiting in the wings.

 

 

Any square backgrounds remaining

can be used as alternate blocks in baby square top

I've been waiting start.

 Amanda Jene Nyberg says it best,

" No scrap left behind!"

Stay Safe and Sew On!

 

Add it All up!

 Finding matching blocks on that Discovery table,

leaves room for lots of different ideas.

These blocks were all leftovers from Chains of Love 

that I did ages ago for my brother.

I ended up making two, a small and  a large, 

because the blocks were fun to make.

It seems no pictures exist of those two quilts. 

Here is the pattern from the book.  

Notice how most of the blocks look nothing like the pattern?

I made the plus blocks and 

put triangles on the corner using the stitch and flip method.

Then I would cut them down to

 the proper size for the X blocks.

Oh the things we learn.

Thinking back on the name of this quilt,

it was a bit of foreshadowing, 

but that is a story best told elsewhere.

Anyway, I'm going to put these plus blocks

 together as nature made them,

and use a half block as the border. 

There are 26 of the 6" blocks to start with. 

They could go into a small stroller quilt

 but there are many whites waiting for a purpose

and I'll let them shine in this quilt. 

The pattern is from this book that I've featured before.

It has beautiful quilts in it as well as the

 occasional heartwarming story. 

 It is just a wonderful book.

The X blocks went off to quilt Canada for 

the block challenge. 

Can't wait to get started on more plus blocks!

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with :

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Monday Sew & Tell

Handmade Monday

SSPS

Swimming Up Stream

 It's almost a time for the salmon to start 

Going back to where they were born.

These little blocks were discovered 

when I was packing up blocks

for the quilt Canada leftover block challenge. 

I feel good saying that 190 blocks 

are on their way to go into charity quilts

to be done at quilt Canada.

These little fishes will be starting to swim upstream

on a background of white on white.  

Ripples will be sewn into the white squares 

a water effect.

I would love to have it ready for this 

month's meeting but I'm not sure how far I'll get today!

So, here is where it lands this morning!

Some precut 5 1/2"  strips made great

background blocks and it is ready to stitch!

It will certainly be ready by next month's meeting.

And also that time of year again.

I have another retreat coming up!

Most of the prep for that is done.

I just need to recharge the sewing kit and

 verify a few projects and I'll be ready.

My little featherweight

 with the handi work tray always goes along to retreats.

Have a great week stitching!

 Linking up with: 

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Sew and Tell

SSPS

Put Your Foot Down

Wednesday Wait Loss

I Quilted This

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Patchwork & Quilting

Finished or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Oh Scrap!

 

What Goal For April?

 Well,  It's time again for some more 

stroller quilts and finishing up some

 projects hat have been waiting for a while.

Lots of Dickens (Orphans) blocks

need to be used up or shipped out.

This is all in the spirit of "Soon to be Spring" cleaning!

First up is going to be the 

Swimming Upstream fish top.

I certainly made way too many

 blocks when I did this a few years ago.

These are extra blocks?

I think I really needed more variety 

and that's why I ended up with so many extras.

This quilt was all planned out at one point in time,

But I obviously didn't take a picture, 

so I had to come up with a new idea.

The very soft colored yellow should help 

unify the delicate center and bring it all 

together. 

Lastly will be the random squares 

that were lurking everywhere. 

They all went on the wall and this is 

what came out.

Five by five colour square blocks

will be alternated with  guitar print

Squares to make a nice size stroller quilt.

The remaining larger blocks will be put 

together in columns alternating

with 16 smaller blocks.

A dotted medium brown fabric

 will be used to unify 

with alternating strips between the vertical columns

That should keep me busy

for the rest of the month of April!

Happy stitching!

Out with the Books!

 Nothing like a good fabric sale

 for a friend to help you realise

 how much extra you have in your sewing room.

The weekend found me clearing out a lot of my books.

Some I hadn't looked at in a long time,

and after a good peruse I found that 

a lot were more instructional

instead of pattern oriented.

So out they go.

There are a few places 

to donate good quilting books.

A local charity that has

big fabric frenzie twice a year,

and a few of local thrift shops

 that are in areas with many quilters

are also good outlets.

My shelves are now looking pretty tidy,

 with a lot of the books out of the way.

I even  sorted project boxes 

 that just said "scraps".

There are a few empty project boxes

on the shelves. 

Remember those pins?

More were unearthed during retreat packing. 

split pins in 2 sizes,

plain old straight shirt pins,

and scads of safety pins.  

I am a pin baster and use the 1 1/2" pins. 

There are straight and curved ones.

I find the curved ones are a bit too light. 

Smaller ones get used for labels and size tickets. 

These, however , these are not the pins we're looking for!

Have a great week stitching!

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

Monday Musings

Handmade Monday

Stitching Stuff

Wait Loss Wednesday

Put Your Foot Down

I Quilted This

Design Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday

Patchwork & Quilts

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Retreat is Over, ( sigh).

 Well, the first retreat of the season is over

It was a come and go retreat. 

We all got to sleep in our own beds every night.

The benefit is twofold. 

If you forget anything you can pick it up when you go home.

You also can take your finishes home.

Here is a little sampling of the wonderful 

creative projects from the weekend. 

 

Now I have to pack again before a retreat in two weeks!

It is a sleep over, and fully catered 

so no tables or fruit required!

Keep on stitching. 

Pins, Pins, Pins

 Wow, do I have a lot of pins!

Does anyone else have that plan when

they go into a quilt store and feel obligated to buy, 

you always leave with a little something?

Well my little something is pins.

Also sewing machine needles but 

we'll leave those for another day.

So here are most of them !

I like to use T pins to hold up 

partial works and patterns on my cork board. 

These are heat proof pins. Long, which is good, 

but the round top makes the 

iron move when you press them, so not my favorite. 

I do love novelty sewing pins. 

They seem to get misplaced, 

damaged or lost easily tho.

There are spool shapes, chicks and 

even button as well as the flower headed ones. 

Way too many traditional yellow headed quilting pins.

 

Longer than a normal pin, not heat resitant, 

but easy to see and quite strong. 

These were one of the first items I bought for quilting!

I do like the flower headed ones, 

but I think I am overstocked on them. 

Some are still in the box!

There are two boxes of these pins. They are silk pins. 

Thinner than the yellow headed pins but shorter.

These may go in the garage sale box.

These colorful pins are great mutlipurpose pins for 

for hanging things up and pinning. They are pretty and 

I do use some on the design wall. 

These are my current favourite. Heatproof and

  flatheaded  they allow for easy pressing and

 doesn't make the iron move. 

They are long enough that I can pin things easily.

Not as long as a yellow-headed pins though.

These flathead flower pins, were used as row markers, 

until I was gifted these below. 

They work great but the shape is a little awkward.

The numbers on the pins wear off very quickly.

As you can see, I've taken the writing 

over the numbers with a Sharpie.

 

This pin cushion keeps all the pins

used on the design wall close at hand.

Yes,  I fell victim to the things at the counter,

and bought the star pins. I won the blue crystally pins,

 bought the Unicorn pins, found the corsage pins in the middle and then just supplemented with yellow-headed pins 

and the pink flower headed pins.

Oddly enough, the unicorn pins are not magnetic so 

are only good for stick pincushion. 

After all that, I will try to thin out the amount of 

pins sticking around the sewing room. 

Linking up with:

Monday Musing

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

Oh Scrap

Finished or Not Friday

Design Wall Friday

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Patchwork & Quilts