Off the Rack!

 Having a lot of quilt sandwiches made

has helped me finish up outstanding projects

by getting me to the quilting machine easier.

When I have a few hours free,

I can sit right down and start stitching.

Here is the first of many  finishes.

Looking at my recent posts,

I see that a few finishes have snuck into other posts 

but haven't really been highlighted.

So let's back up and look at these beauties.

Both appeared in a stash report earlier in the month.

The Thousands Found top, was found in the stash

of  no longer quilting woman whose 

fabric piles had gotten out of hand.

An exquisite piecer, each of the pyramids has beautiful points.

and the range of fabrics appear to span decades.

The quilting ran around each pyramid to maintain the classic shape.

 

Although smaller than my normal keeper quilts

 that are usually queen sized,

 this one will make a lovely addition to my  cozy collection.

The second quilt that had a sneak peek

 in the stash reporting post,

has a history too!

This quilt started out as  a green and white 25 patch.

It just seemed to be too green for  me, 

so it was put aside.

It was  reimagined when I came across

a stack of leftover colour coded  

"near postage stamp" blocks 

from a guild turn of the century  swap.

It turned out to be quite dazzling.

It will be labeled,  2000 Colors.

A checked green back seemed just perfect as an 

homage to the history of its making.  

More finishes to follow!

The rack is looking lighter!

Stay safe and Sew On!

Linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

TGIFF

Off the Wall Friday

Home Matters

Beauty Pageant

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Patchwork & Quilts 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff

  

Ready for a Trip!

 The Crumbs Surrounded  is almost ready for the quilter!

I worked on  it for a good long evening and got most of it ready, 

then started doing the rows. 

A bit of excessive  ambition at the start had 

me picking out the border around the corner stones. 

Since the grey sashing goes into the upper 

part of block, I had to a bit of reworking to make it all fit.  

Once I got a process 

in line, it went together well. 

I added the grey bits to the ends of 

the  pieced low volume beige sashing rectangles 

and it really started to come together!

 Now all it needs is the two center halves joined, 

and the side borders added. 

The outer edges of the border are

stay stitched.  All the seams at the 

edges tend to separate with  a bit of 

handling.  I know tighter stitching would

keep them together but picking that out is 

troublesome. 

This will go off to the quilter 

along with the larger 8s & 10s. 

There is not a lot of backing yardage 

in my stash so I will take 4 -1m+ bits

and join them up to make the back.

I did see a larger piece of yellow batik

in the stacks so that might become the 

main backing. There is not enough

grey remaining to bind this quilt but 

I have some other grey that could slip in 

to fill the gaps.  

It is complete!

The top finishes up at 85" x85".

There is  a nice sized stack of 

pieced 4 1/2"  x 9" strips so they 

will go together with the remaining 

crumb blocks to make a top of some sort. 

It should be interesting!

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with :

Monday Musing

       Design Wall Monday

   SrSPS

     Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Finished or Not Friday

Design Wall Friday

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Patchwork & Quilts

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff

Alberta in the Summer

 Every morning before starting my day,

I join a friend outside for a walk

around our small Alberta community.

Our province has a lot of varied topography,

and I've seen two small quilts lately

 that illustrate this wonderfully.

The first one, you may have seen before 

as it hangs on the wall of my sewing room.

It is a small 26" x 7" depiction of Alberta 

done in 1" finished squares.

If you look closely you can see, 

starting at the bottom:

Green fields, 

golden fields (wheat),

yellow fields (canola),

green (forests) , blue  (lakes), 

green ( old timber) , grey, brown

and purple( mountains ), then big blue sky!

This was part of an estate clear out and 

I treasure a fellow quilter each time I look at it. 

These little mug rug "Albertas" (6 "x 12") are made 

with 1" strips and depict our ripening 

canola fields of late summer. 

They are very interesting and backed with 

Canadian trivia fabric. They are perfect host gifts 

that are traveling off to Europe with a friend. 

They are made by ER and BK. 

Enjoy this quickie tidbit 

on some beautiful quilting. 

Stay safe and sew on !

What a Week!

 

Well it's been a very busy week.

All the units for the sew long were completed.

They managed to get stitched up during

the visits with family,

a bit of yard work,

some sewing workroom cleaning,

and a lazy, rainy afternoon with small visitors.

We had a dinner out with one offspring.

a golf tournament with another,

cat care for a third, and the lazy rainy day

with the last. 

Looking back, it was quite productive week.

All the sew along units are done.

It turns out there are two blocks for this quilt, surprise!

Block A used the pinwheels,

and the blue peaky and spikes,

as well as a large stack of four patches!

A few sashing blocks were thrown in for good measure,

The small diagonal string units

finish up block A as cornerstones.

I did a lot of catching up over the past two weeks,

 and some of  the units I've been making,

went together nicely to create block B.

 There were some small challenging pieced kite blocks,

and even more peaky and spikes.

The center feature block is a

commonly used scrapbuster block,

a small square surrounded by strips.

Put them all together with a 

few inverted sashing blocks and 

they spell anything but mother.

Whoops!

There's still a few pieces left.

A complicated pieced diamond rectangle,

four solid blue squares, hourglass units and and some two inch

strips of accent fabric. There are also some sashing 

units and some diagonal squares. 

I think a pieced border was mentioned

 so unless I over-sewed a lot,

these should be the components to finish  off the top.

In the midst of all that, I won spool chicken!

I managed to sew up my block and 

still have a few inches left on my upper thread.

Tada!

I also got to experiment with a different layout

for those prize winning blocks from last week.

Very fun!

We even picked some early cherries.

Have a great week stitching!!

Stay safe and sew on. 

Linking up with:

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

SrSPS

To Do Tuesday 

Wait Loss Wednesday

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Finished or Not Friday

Off the  Wall Friday   

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Patchwork & Quilts

Oh Scrap!

Stitching Stuff

Stash Report

8s & 10s Together!

 This adorable stashbuster was started a few weeks ago,

after a sample shown by a friend and 

a visit down the rabbit hole of Pinterest.

Here is the beginning of the project.

Strings of assorted sizes have collected over last a little while

and many have come in the door from other quilters.

I had a some enjoyable days stitching up 

lots and lots of strip sets. 

Sometimes, it feels good to just get the machine humming!

The strip sets were trimmed to roughly 11" in in length,

and exactly 8 1/4" in wide.

Then one and a half inch wide strips of the unifying colour, 

in this case black, were added to each side.

A final trim  to 10" X 10 " and the blocks are ready to assemble.

I made 57 blocks for each of the twin quilts I'm assembling,

Each quilt will be seven blocks wide by eight blocks long .

The twin a nice size and will make great gifts or donations.

Fortunately, or unfortunately I still have lots of strings left.

I ended up with enough strip sets and blocks to make

three twin size quilts! My gift closet will be a restocked!

Here we go! 

I'm at the joining phase. This stack is alternated in 

direction and should sew up quickly!

Stayed up late and here is the first top!

It finished at 67" x 77".

It is quite dramatic and gave me a few challenges

A few of the blocks were 10 1/4".

It sounds like a very small variance but it did add up.

I ended up fixing a few issues by getting out the ripper

and trimming off that extra quarter inch.

The next set of blocks will be verified before I start stitching.

Only two more tops to go!

Have a great week!

Sew Along Stitching!

 Things are heating up with the sew along and 

the end is just around the corner.

Step 8 is finally finished, and wow,

 there were a lot of pieces to do!

Brown half squares were added to each

 corner of the 9 1/2" beige units. 

The cutoffs were used to make small hourglass units.

This process didn't use up all the cutoffs!

There were still bunches of cutoffs to deal with.

I sewed them up into the half squares 

before they were cut off of the parent piece. 

There is about 1/2" distance between the seams.

This just seems a little easier to me

and keeps the pieces out of the scrap bag.

Now I have a goodly stacks of half squares 

to do with as I will.

You'll notice there are two different sizes.

Sometimes my stitch width isn't as accurate as I would like.

"No scrap left behind",

 so I cut 2 1/2" as well as 2"inch squares

 out of the bonus half squares.

There's actually an unfinished top behind me,

that could really use some half squares

to finish up another block.

So that is Step 8 of  

Conquering Mount Scrapmore.

I'll get to work on steps 9 and 10 and keep you posted.

If anyone is wondering about that race I was in last week,

Look at this!

I won! 25 string blocks in two hours!

Stay safe and sew on.

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew and Tell

SrSPS

Wednesday Wait Loss

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Off the Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday

Patchwork & Quilts

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Oh Scrap!

Stash Report

Stitching Stuff