A Scrappy Quilter

Put Your Foot Down

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Happy Holiday!

Well there's nothing like being off the grid for a

month to recharge your batteries and inspire your creativity.

A tropical trip with many adventures, both culinary

and active really sparked some

interesting brain activity and memories.

A lovely tropical cruise provided

beautiful vistas,

fantastic flora

and many animal encounters.

These nectar loving birds, Purple-throated Carib,

were delightful to watch.

I hope you all missed me and now

it's time to get back to blogging.

One of the highlights of the trip,

was a stop at the Caribbean Boutique Factory.

It wasn't actually a factory but a storefront and

shop with demonstration area where

visitors could peruse a wealth of beautifully

artistic batiks and learn about the

process used to create them.

All the designs are individually drawn

using straight edges and freehand together

to create unique views of the islands.

Then, sequential alterations of dying and wax applications,

create the intense buildup of colors,

culminating in unique artistic pieces.

There are many all over patterned fabrics as well as

thematic art pieces suitable for framing.

It was a delightful visit.

Stay tuned for some more tales of

our tropical adventure.

Linking up with :

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Fabric, fabric everywhere!

Wow, I see this year is

really slipping away from us!

I am finally ready to make a sash report.

My goal was to not buy any fabric,

but I did end up with 2 m purchased for

donation into a raffle basket for the quilt show.

Does that even count?

I also ended up with about 2 m of free fabric

from the give and take table at retreat.

It's teally ambiance was just too much for me to resist.

So my total for the year so far:

Fabric Purchased: 2 m

Fabric In to date: 4 m

Used to date 2024 : 2 m donation

6 m twin log cabin

Scraps in : .5 m

Scraps out : 0 m

Net Fabric In: -1.5 m

I've more stash than I can actually count

so this year's goal is to:

Sew it up, quilt it down or pass it on.

Sure sounds good to me!

Now, what to do with these buttons!

Stay safe and so on!

Linking up with:

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Sea Glass is Rolling

This found quilt is taking up a lot

room on the design wall.

Last week's layering created a big wind and

took most of my laid out design down.

Back up and working, it is about at the halfway mark.

The first corner finished up was

really a boost in enthusiasm!

It was lost in the archives for years

so any bit of progress is a finish!

Getting back to it after the Log Cabin finish,

brought to light a few variations,

and you know how I love variations!

It turns out that I started my rows with the

wrong colour squares. That calls for just a little bit of reworking

of the layout for other rows. It also makes it difficult to

work from the lower right corner,

without making the same mistake again.

It seems that there are a different number

of rows across the quilt from one side to the other!

That will result in either another added or

one taken away somewhere. This is definitely turning to

a little bit of an adventure.

I guess that's a bit predictable because

sea glass rolls all over the ocean before it

ends up on a beach to be admired.

Wish me luck and calm currents

while I finish up this greeny-blue beauty.

Updated!

Here it is all finished and ready!

It is in Scrap Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up with:

Put Your Foot Down

Beauty Pageant

Monday, March 3, 2025

Tower of Power

Organization is so empowering!
I was gifted a big tower of drawers.

It precipitated a reorganizing of the sewing room.

The question for now is to what to put in the drawers.

I think I will reevaluate the chunk piles

that I have in my stash closet. My BB

recently took all her chunks and

cut them into workable strips,

and I think that might be the direction I am headed.

To start off, though, I'm getting projects ready for a retreat.

The chunks will move to the top of the list

if I get done with that.

My most popular size of scrap is 2 1/2".

I used up a goodly supply last year making

the stash buster Irish Chains.

There are still copious amounts of strips remaining.

Organization is great, but I feel that being

organized won't help you get anything done if

you don't spend time in the sewing room.

One particular blogger I follow, Kate over at

Life in Pieces

encourages us to track how much time we spend sewing.

A small goal will encourage us

all to make some time to get some stitching done.

When we do that we often find that getting a little

stitching is good for our soul and ours psyche.

I think I will sort some more chunks

by color to ease up some of the stress

in my sewing room.

The center section is already color sorted,

but the two sections to the sides are

a jumble of recently acquired chunks from various sources.

I'll also may start storing 2 1/2 inch strips by color.

It would make for easier and

tidier set up when I'm ready to sew.

I will let it happen organically when

I'm working on projects.

Stay safe and sew on

Linking up with:

Design Wall Friday

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Last of the Logs

The final Log Cabin quilt is complete

and ready for viewing.

It was moved to the top of the heap

when I needed a quilt to bind for a workshop.

This new style Log Cabin, with a 1/4 colored block

edging turned out very well.

It holds pride of place as the first finish of 2025!

The multicolored binding enhances

the 1/4 colored sections in

the border blocks.

I used straight line quilting across the entire width

with many, many rows. My new sewing room partner,

the grand Bernina, made quick work of the straight line sewing

and zoomed through all layers of the top, binding and backing.

Since this quilt is multicolored,

it received a multi-colored dinosaur back which is really

suitable for all ages.

I am sad to see the last of the log cabins,

but since they are so conducive to sewing with strips,

they will probably crop up again in my sewing room.

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

Bolt to Beauty

Off the Wall Friday

Thank Goodness It Finished Friday

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Into the Scrap Stash

A little trip into the wonderland

of Pinterest and a lovely new

scrap burner has been discovered.

We are in the midst of a cold spell here

so it is a good day to start a new project!

Windchill of -42 is nippy!

This design lends itself very well

to strips and is turning out to be a

very good time!

Made up of isosceles triangles set

end to end form diamonds,

the big piles of colors surrounding

my sewing machine makes me

feel like the miller's daughter!

This triangular block uses up

lots of strings of all sizes.

Each top will use about 100

blocks. There are 60 in the

stack so far but there are still

four colors to go!

The design boards are getting

put to good use. Piling up a

stack of blocks laid out

makes the stitching fast and fun.

The goal is to sew thru the piles completely

without returning them to storage!

I will make a good run at them,

and there will definitely be more than

one top made out of this wealth of scraps.

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

RSC 2025