Tiny Tuesday Heart Block

It's Tiny Tuesday!

I have been seeing all the cute blocks being created for the RSC Tiny Tuesday Sampler - 

I just had to join in the fun!

With January being the color red and Valentine's Day coming up soon, it didn't take me long to decide on a block to share.

So we are going to be sewing up a heart block!

From your red fabric, you will need two 5" x 2.75" rectangles.

From your background fabric, you will need two 2.75" squares and four 1.25" squares

Mark a diagonal line on the back side of the 2.75" background squares.  I like to use a Hera marker but you can use your favorite marker.

Place these marked squares on the bottom portion of your red rectangles.  Note that you have mirror image halves so position your diagonal markings like above so they come together in the bottom of the two pieces.

Sew ON the marked line  - I always like to start sewing on the side of the piece - if you start in the corner, there is a chance it will get sucked in or distorted.  I just chain piece both pieces.

Trim away 1/4" from the seam.  

(Note: Some of you may choose to use the Easy Angle ruler so you don't have the waste.)

Next, you will want to sew the smaller squares onto the top half of the rectangle using the same method.  I don't often mark these smaller sew lines but you can if you feel more comfortable.

Remember - your other block is going to be a mirror image.

Because none of the pieces overlap, I go ahead and sew all three pieces to each rectangle before going to my ironing board.  

Next, you will press the two halves.  I press to the outside edge of the block.  Then I sew the two halves together.  I do like to press the vertical seam open.

Here is a view from the back.

Aren't they cute?

But I caution you, they can be addictive and multiply quickly!

Hope you have fun sewing these blocks up.  Even if you aren't sewing the tiny Tuesday sampler, you can use these blocks for some cute Valentine's Day gifts.

Thanks Angela for organizing another fun Sampler quilt!

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

Freemotion by the River (Linky Tuesday)

Sew Fresh Quilts (Bee Social)

Oh Scrap! : Strings

If you have been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that I love playing around with string quilts.  So when I saw that both Moda and Humble Quilts were hosting Quilt Alongs that involved strings, I was all in.

A fun design has been tucked away in my brain for a while now.  It involves narrow strips of strings.  I will need a left and a right configuration and I am making them 5.5" wide.  I am going with three lengths - 10.5, 15.5 and 20.5" long.  I started with red because I already had the scrap bin out for RSC.

I am using various widths of strings and adding in a few lights here and there.

(These strips look really small but this block is 20" long.)

And once the low volume scrap bin came out, soon other blocks were soon being made!

*********************************************

It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making)

Cooking Up Quilts (Main Crush Mondays)

Em's ScrapBag (Moving it Forward)

Freemotion by the River (Linky Tuesday)

So Scrappy for RSC19 

Humble Quilts

Something Other Than A Quilt

Boy, when I don't want to work on a project, I will do anything but what I should be doing....

I am worse than a child!

I am supposed to be finishing up this Sew Kitschy wall hanging for my kitchen.  It is taking up space on one of my design walls and I won't let myself pull it down until I get the quilt top put together.  That also means the big bin of fabric for it is sitting on my cutting table in my way.

So my stubborn side, cut strips from all that leftover fabric and made a jellyroll rug to go in front of the sink.  Yes, it is a bit kidney shaped but it will work just fine!

Next time I might try the rectangular one.

It goes great with the furniture I repurposed for use in a breakfast nook.

So I am really pleased with the finish.

...and the blocks are still up on the design wall looking the same.

(Hopefully this week I will just get it done!)

Please tell me I am not the only one who plays these games with themselves.

Yeesh!

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

From Bolt to Beauty (Brag about your Beauties)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or not Friday)

*This post contains affiliate links.  I appreciate the support!

Another Trade Opportunity

I have decided that this year, I am going to clean out a lot of my stash.  Some of it might be sold, some might be cut up into scraps and some might be traded.

Today, I have a stack of fabric I am hoping to trade.

After finishing my recent fish quilt, I have decided to purge the rest of the fabric I collected.  There is a pound and 12 oz of fabric here (I think that is about 5 yards).  I know there is at least one piece that is a yard cut and a few half yard cuts.  There are fish, lures, river rocks, basket weave - all would go together beautifully in a quilt.

I really don't need any more yardage but what I do need is scraps!  (I hear some of you laughing!)  I am hoping someone has an abundance of bright turquoise and aqua scraps and would rather have fish yardage.  I have plenty of dark teal so I need the scraps to be like the tones in the photo.

I realize someone may not have an abundance of the blue, so you can add in some shades of lime if you want to offload those too.

So do I have a taker?  If you are interested, check your scrap bins and see what you have.  Then either leave me a comment here on the blog or email me at my gmail account cynthiabdesigns and let me know what you have to trade. (Just make sure I can get back ahold of you.  I cannot always respond back to commenters based on how they have their account set up.)  I will give folks until 5 pm Thursday to let me know they are interested.  If I have more than one taker, I will put names in a hat.

And sadly, I am going to limit this to US only.  I just don't have the extra funds for the expensive postage.  Sorry.

Enjoy your week!

Oh Scrap! : More RSC Blocks

I was so happy to read that Red was the RSC color for January.  I also couldn't wait to get back to making blocks for my Garden Sampler quilt.

Last year, I had already made a juicy red strawberry.  It was the first block I made for this quilt - just to try the concept out.

This last week, I added in a squat tomato.  I used 2.5" squares on this one.

I also made three little apples out of 1.5" squares.  I had seen this "eaten" apple somewhere and tucked away in my brain.  I thought it would make a cute addition.

Here are all of my blocks to date (in no particular order).  So far, I have made red, orange, blue and green blocks.  It is fun to think what I might be sewing next month!

*********************************************

It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making)

Cooking Up Quilts (Main Crush Mondays)

Em's ScrapBag (Moving it Forward)

Freemotion by the River (Linky Tuesday)

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Postage Stamp Finish

I admit, when I start a quilt I never quite know where it will end up.  

Today's Friday finish is a good one!

This quilt started out with these boring little blocks using some low volume and some gray scraps.  I think they measure about 5" square and used up some fabric that was sitting on my cutting table.

Not knowing what to do with these, I became inspired when I saw the Postage Stamp quilt made by Sally over at The Object of Design.

Rather than making each block in a rainbow color, I decided to try and colorwash the entire quilt.  I would use 1.5" squares and make 12.5" blocks.  I also thought I would locate the frame within the block in whatever placement I fancied.

I finally finished the quilting and the binding and I have to say, I am in love with this quilt!

My intent on this quilt was to not be a perfectly blended design.  I purposely placed light and dark squares to create a more pixelated effect.

I really wanted to use up the scraps I had and sometimes trying to blend something too perfectly, you end up creating more scraps than you started with!

The quilting is hard to see on this but I went with an echo quilting that followed the color contours.  So there were quite a few thread color changes.  I quilted the design right through the light boxes.  The quilt has some great texture!

I used a gray solid for the binding to match the gray frames.  And I used one of the backings I recently picked up from Connecting Threads.

I did add a bit of pizzazz on the back by adding in a strip of an ancient batik that was hiding out in my stash.  The colors perfectly matched the front of the quilt and this was a great way to use up that older stash!

Happy Friday! And have a wonderful weekend!

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

From Bolt to Beauty (Brag about your Beauties)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or not Friday)

So Scrappy for RSC19 

Great prices on Books at Connecting Threads!

***This post contains affiliate links.  I appreciate the support!