Friday, February 5, 2021

Where Did That come from? Stretched stars!


 At a loose end, and wondering what to work on 

when I spied  a box labeled. Stretched Stars. 

So what was in there?  A 60 " x 60" flimsy!

So much fun to find my own surprise!  

Can planning my own Easter egg hunt be next?!?



It is a duplicate of one I made years ago.

That quilt had a long and useful life.

When it was done , 

it finished out as a warmer for

 baby farm animals and barn cats!

This pattern is fun to make so I 

had planned to make another.

I have been making 

bed size quilts for a while now and  

as wall space is at  a premium, 

out came the charms and 2 1/2" squares to add

5 more rows and columns to this top.

 


The charms I started this quilt with

 were a bit undersized

The blocks were finishing at 4 3/4" cut. 

I see why it ended up hidden in a box!

Sometimes precuts are funny!




My charm squares are mostly 6" .
 A real blast from the past .
So I am trimming down or using some
10" layer cakes to make the blocks. 



It should finish around 80" square . 

Always an adventure in the sewing room. 

Linking up at

UFO Busting

Stay safe and sew on!!




 

Little ones finding homes.


 I have a large and sometimes unruly

 pile of flimsies of all sizes .






They have been sorted out a few times

 during our current stay home and sew time.

 I find I have a lot without designated homes!!

 So when my sister called and

 wondered if I had a few small quilts ,

 I knew the answer! 

 Get sewing! 

So , I sent her pictures of the options. 

















A few of these small treasures 
appeared in scrap bags
that I have been gifted. 
 A few are fun projects
 that were made 
but never quilted. 
Some just seemed 
to end up in the pile . 


Inspired by the need, 
I dug into the store
 room and found some 
cozy backs that were purchased as 
throws at the local bargain store. 

The first one I chose to complete ,
 is a little snuggly, pink square.
 I thought this one would make a nice comfort
quilt for a little girl.



I backed it with a white ,
 warm and fuzzy back  with no batting.
Straight line quilting and it was ready to go. 

Since I had some white cuddly backing left, 
I tackled the purple mini next.
 
This, I recall, was a sample
demonstrating adding to 
a crazy patch square.
 It sewed up very nicely into 
a little baby cuddle blanket. 





I was really getting on a roll on
 a very cold and windy winter day!

The next day I was still so inspired by my 
accomplishment on the 2 minis that
I tackled the top that was hourglasses. 
Upon a closer look, 
there are friend ship stars
 at the top of the piece!
 Maybe the maker thought
they weren't bright enough,
 but they really compliment the quilt. 
I found a very nice red print , and 
used it for the border and the binding. 
The quilting was great fun on this one!
Zig zagging across the top
was a blast!
 And the stars really pop!




I found a beautiful 
blue flannel for the back .





The red border fabric
 held out and I had just 
enough left to piece 
the binding together to finish it!



Not much left for
 the scrap bag on this one!




That quilt took a few days, 
what with washing the backing
quilting to a great series,
 ( Yes I re-watched my geeky Mandalorian).


I chose a lattice block top for my next ,
" sister needs" item.





This block is one of my "go tos".
 I love the constant variety. 
It is such an interesting look every time!

It was designed by Ann Weber and showed
 up in an old MaCall's Quilting 2007.

I keep an ongoing " block box " 
of these parts on the shelf. 



Again I zig zagged thru 
the center lattice and 
it quilted up fast and fun.





 It got the remainder of a
soft , cream flannel for the back. 
 I had to piece in some
 flannel layer cake bits to get the size.


 
While digging in the bins for 
flannel, I found this lovely panel!
So , I use the major portion of the
cream flannel piece for this little charmer.
I really enjoyed the process 
of choosing what to accent with quilting. 
So much fun with 
a poufy 5 oz. poly batting!





Still pretty inspired and
 the weather still in the sub 20s 
( that is minus 20 degree Celsius here in Canada),
I got one more ready to go. 

This little top was hidden in a 
bag of scraps 
someone ( a Quilting Buddy) 
dropped off for me.


It got a cuddly flannel back
and quilted up like a dream. 










Then of course I had to ship all of these!

 I folded them to the size of my box. 
Then I hauled out a kitchen bag and
 the vacuum! 






                        


They shrunk down gloriously!

All 6 fit in an 10" x 12" x 8" box!

Big save on shipping!  




The weather channel says we are 

in for a cold stretch 

and I still have more tops needing homes.

Cant wait for my next productive

" sister needs quilts" 

sewing marathon!

( Not sure what to do with the purple and orange one!)


Stay safe and sew on!!!