Wednesday, July 31, 2019

An Old UFO

During the summer months, I find I like to have some portable hand work available to work on.  I recently dug out an old English Paper Piecing project and made a bit of progress.

It appears I haven't worked on these since August of 2015!



I finished up another hexagon star.  This piece measures about 12" across.



So that means I now have a whopping 9 blocks finished.  I should probably come up with a better plan for color placement so I can assemble the blocks needed for completing the quilt.  And remember to put that plan in writing and place it in with the blocks.  I think my plan was to use the darkest gray blocks as an outside border with the orange stars in the center.

I have a long ways to go!
But maybe I can make a bit more progress this summer...




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Sunday, July 28, 2019

Oh Scrap! : Some Scrappy Progress

It has been a bit too hot to be outdoors this last week, so I have been spending some time in my sewing room.



I have been sewing quite a bit on my Improv Garden quilt.  I have been making some purple flowers lately.  I am still struggling a bit with all the shades of green but I am becoming a bit more adventurous with mixing them in a single block.




I also started another rainbow scrap challenge quilt (these garlic knot blocks will now make four quilts in the works).  I have decided each block will have two shades of black/white fabric and the block backgrounds will be low volume prints that lean more taupe or yellow.



It didn't take me long to sew up the four pink blocks I need for this month's RSC color.  I am glad a new month will be here soon or I am likely to start more quilts!


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

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! 
Quilting is more fun than Housework
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter





Linking Up:



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Friday, July 26, 2019

A Special Finish for my Nephew

Why do I always wait until the last minute!




My only nephew graduated from high school this year and will be going to Creighton University this Fall.  He is going to be pitching for their baseball team and I am so very proud of him.

He has known he was going to this university for over a year, but I decided to wait until a few weeks before he was leaving home to work on his quilt.  And what I thought would take me only a day or two ended up taking me forever!




But I have to say, I am quite proud of how well it turned out.  Of course there was nothing team-themed I could purchase that I could use for his quilt so I ended up drawing and appliqueing his school logo to the center of his quilt.



I used a raw edge method using fabric mod-podge.  The detail you can get from this method is simply amazing.  I would certainly do it a bit differently if I attempt something like this again.  

(Which I will admit is probably not likely - certainly not at this large scale!)



My initial plan was to make the quilt more like a whole-cloth but the bright blue was just too much for me.  I ended up cutting a whole bunch of plaid and chambray yardage I had in my stash that I actually purchased for some shirts.  I must really love this guy!

I did quilt his name directly into the patchwork.




I kept the quilting fairly simple and tried to make the quilt as durable as possible.  I put a silly text bubble fabric on the back.  Most of the bubbles are filled with "Zzzzzz".  However, I might just have to hide some other words in there just to see if he finds them.



The quilt is 72" x 88".  The center piece is 40" square.
It is a relief to get this one done and shipped!






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Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Finally Giving In

In the past, I have only kept scraps that had at least one side that was 2.5".  Thanks to some of the scrappy bloggers I follow, their inspiration has now caused me to change my ways.

But I am not quite ready to put those tiny scraps in my color bins.  Instead I set up another scrappy system to use these small bits.



I used a couple plastic containers that previously held cookies to put together a scrappy storage system.  I dug out a small mat, a 2.5" square ruler and an extra rotary cutter from my tools.  Now I can collect up these small bits until I am ready to trim them into 1.5" squares (yes, it travels quite nicely!). 



I try to stack the squares by color and when I get an inventory built up, I get out my design boards and lay out some 9 patch scrappy blocks - that I can now sew as a leader/ender as I work on other things.




Now all of these tiny scraps are contained and easily managed.  I think to date, I have only made 15 blocks so it will be a loooong time before these will become a quilt.  The design?  I have no idea.  And I figure if I find keeping these smaller bits isn't working for me, I can send all the bits and blocks to one of those bloggers who inspired me :)

So what is the smallest scrap you keep?




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Sunday, July 21, 2019

Oh Scrap! : It Has Been A While

One of the downfalls of working on a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt across two years, is there are months where you have already made your blocks in the chosen color.  And sometimes your quilts go untouched for months.



This is what happened to my RSC garden quilt project.  I don't think I have made any blocks since March.  But I did need some pink blocks so I made a juicy plum and a pretty flower (downsizing a block from my Summertime Blossom pattern).




I put them up on my design wall with all of the blocks I have completed to date.  It was then I noticed that the flower block probably wasn't going to work well in this quilt.  It is a cute block but it does  not have a white background.
This can be happen when lots of time passes between blocks!




 So I grabbed four 4.5" squares I already had cut in my stash and made another 8"  flower block.
This one is going to work oh so much better!


 This project will be coming to close soon.  I think the only block colors I need are purple, gray and brown.  I may just decide it finish it up soon.  
I am really looking forward to putting this one all together!




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

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! 
Quilting is more fun than Housework
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter




Posted by at 13 comments:
Labels: , , , ,
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