Friday, January 29, 2021

All done and ALL DONE!






 The hearts are here! 
The first ever, entirely pink quilt top is 
now a flimsy !  I got to use my 
currently darlings, wonky stars,
 to compliment the sweet, pieced hearts .
It was a great process!







And now  the little heart quilt top is complete !
The block columns were 
joined with a 2" cut sashing. 
 This quilts finishes at 56'' X 64". 
Each block is 4 1/2" cut. 





The pieced hearts cascade across the top with 

wonky stars to keep them company!  




You may notice that a few of the hearts seem to 

disappear against the white sashing. 


The hearts  show up well in person

 so there is nothing to worry about. 

This little quilt will get a minky or 

similar soft backing for a toddler to enjoy.


Linking up to;

The Inquiring Quilter

Oh Scrap!

TGIFF

Finished or not Friday 


Stay safe and sew on!

This quilt was featured!



Binding Library. Save them but USE them!


 I actually have one!

Many people have mentioned how a

 " binding library " is a great idea and it is !

  I realized recently that I actually have one!   

I carefully place (stuff)  all my partial and 

left over bindings into a space on a shelf!

  Binding library!

It was a huge mess so I measured up

 the widths, and lengths , labeled and here it is! 







 I have to be honest and reveal

 that someone sparked the project

 by giving me binding pieces labelled 

 and folded so I just completed 

the work and it was born! 

 


Oh and I do only keep " significant lengths", 

about 30 inches or what ever 

 feels comfortably long enough to join 

with another piece to make a scrap binding. 

I have even used a few binding right out of the bin! 




 NO NEED to CUT , FOLD or IRON! 

 It was a great feeling. 

Notice in there a box of commercial binding.

 Those get used for tying up gift quilts ,

and binding pot holders or placemats.

 Sometimes, I just cant find a good color

 so they are my backups. 





 Going to the library and just picking out a piece,

 works great for a smaller quilt. 

There are even a few large pieces!  

So start stuffing those significant pieces 

of binding in one spot and

 make your own binding library.

 The little short pieces?

 Stuff those in their size strip drawer!


Sew on and stay safe!


Friday, January 22, 2021

Big, bright and beautiful

Finishing out at an impressive 84 x 90

this bright quilt is sure to perk up the day!








It is made of  "Bonus Blocks" . 

Bonus block  is my name for any block

made of scrap pieces since they are 

found fabric. 

This quilt was a design as you go and 

the pattern of colors in a shifted wave down the 

block was very organic. The brightness was 

great to work with in the dead of winter

and certainly made at home time more 

enjoyable. 



This post was a bit delayed since

a new family member is complete 

also and came into the world this week. 

Stay safe and sew on!


Sunday, January 17, 2021

Hearts are coming along!

The first ever PINK quilt!


The heart quilt is coming along well!  


The rough design started out like this. I keep
a small coil notebook labeled " Quilting Scrap" 
on my tool table.  It has a log of 
my sewing activities so I never misplace
a measurement  or musing !  It has 
really saved me remeasuring all the time!
I even jot down the location of small 
projects so they don't vanish into 
the museum of lost things!

 

!

Then I cut the 4 1/2" pieces for each heart half.
What a great display of pink!





Here are the proof of  concept blocks
 on the design wall. 
They turned out well but the corner
snow ball definitely gets tiny!
I hope it is forgiving!





And then I got sewing some more hearts. 
It is always an adventure when the design 
is "organic"!




Soon , there were more!
  Now, how to put this together.



A quilt of hearts all together might 
look too congested so 
I arranged them with a gap
 for a lattice between. 
Then I went to the
 " old cd rack of cool items", 
and TADA  star blocks!


I needed a nap one day so turned on 
MSQ and saw a wonky star tutorial. 
THEY ARE ADDICTING! So
after I made a bunch, I showed my 
walking buddy , 
and she made a bunch , 
but larger!  

Hers turned into this!




I kept sewing them up and 
really had a pleasant time.  Eventually,
they turned into this wedding quilt, 
that went off to GA, USA.


But I had sewn so  many that I 
had a stack in the 
"rack of cool items"







Unfortunately , not only are they
too large for the diminutive hearts 
in progress, the backgrounds are 
stark white. 

Sewwww, off to make some beige or tan 
based heart blocks!





They are petite but oh so adorable
 as spacers 
for the heart sets. 









A plan is forming for the stars 
cascading down diagonally
 across the rows. 









Nearly there! Just to figure
 out sizes and positions . 

It shouldn't be long. 

Sew on and stay safe!




What a cute little fella!

                                 



                        This little owl keeps track of my row pins!   


                        


Flower headed pins are great for labeling
rows and ironing directions.
Just draw numbers or arrows with a sharpie!

This little weighted owl
is a perfect place to keep them!
Easy to craft:

cut three curved triangle shapes,
join , turn right sides out.
stuff, add a heavy washer ,
fold in and stitch the bottom shut.
Sew down the top point and
stitch with pearl cotton
for beak.
Add yarn or fringe
and cute button eyes!

Friday, January 15, 2021

Love those squares!



 


This is one of my favorite quilt tops!

 The border on this quilt 
was also so much fun to make!
 
I absolutely love the effect created by color
family blocks.
 It works very well in random 
scrap blocks. 



So when I needed a special occasion quilt, 

this came together!

Since I am often an inconsistent sewer
 ( I blame this on my wandering mind),
 I use quilters fuse to 
help achieve nice, square  piecing.




I snip the rows so the seam lay flatter. 

The  interfacing adds a bit of stiffness, but the 

final quilt is not stiff at all.  The quilting seems to 
alleviate it.






I always have a few rectangles of the fusible on
standby for when I just want to sew and get 
quick and satisfying results. 

Stay safe and Sew on!

2020 review!

 


A look back at 2020 completed projects!
A Score of finished quilts for the year 2020!






 4 little Pincushions from beautiful 
embroidered  pieces



Added a Purell pocket to my travel bag!


Denim  quilt protector for when the Rent a Dog visits!


Jean leg scrap bag!










1 - Blue lattice   strip





2-Bali Strip


3-Pineapple




4- Log cabin


5- Beige Log Cabin


6- Red lattice strip


Back of #6


7 - Black lattice Strip


8 - Green lattice strip



Lattice quilts ready for gifting!!


9- Star wedding. 




Back of star wedding.



10- Summer strings


11-  Summer strings #2


Backs of # 10 & # 11



36 face masks


12- Thick and thin Congratulations quilt



Matching Baby quilt for #12




13- Winter warmer




14- Sampler for SIL




Back of #14


15- Cornerstone string




16-Lap comfy quilt




17- third big string winter warmer



18- Relocation Celebration!






19- Birthday flannel 65 years young




20-  Baby mountains


21 Repair, re-bat, rebind wool tailors quilt.