RSC 15: Putting the Binding on Brown

Today is the final day of sharing brown scrappy inspiration for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I wanted to put the finishing touches on my little brown and orange Halloween quilt, so today I spent some time machine quilting and adding the binding.  

 

I might even make a big dent in hand stitching the binding as we watch the World Series in a few minutes.  Dear Husband is originally from Kansas City and is thrilled to see his hometown team in the Series again after 30 years.  

In honor of Halloween, I'll leave you with a couple of links featuring New Orleans All Hallows decorations.  The first link is to an elaborate and punny skeleton party.  The second features a myriad of spookier decorations.  Happy Halloween!

Rainy Sunday Stitching

I've missed linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching for a few weeks.  It's not that I've not been enjoying any slow stitching, it's that I haven't been doing much of it on Sundays.  Today is a perfect slow stitching day though, it's raining and the forecast is for rain for the next two or three days.  I'm about to plant myself in front of the TV and stitch to my heart's content.

 

First up is completing the binding on this Trip Around the World quilt.  I've been hand-stitching the binding on this baby f o r e v e r - 10 yards of binding!  I'm excited about finishing this quilt, for sure.

 

Once the binding is finished, I can get back to making and stitching hexies on this quilt.   It's a great go-to project for rainy Sunday stitching.

I hope everyone else has a great Slow Sunday Stitching day!

 

ATA: Alternative Textile Acquisition

As we all know, quilters never have enough fabric.  There's nothing better for the spirit and the stash than a trip to the Local Quilt Store or perusing fabrics online.  Those are pretty traditional methods for stash enhancement, but I've got another method that can be just as satisfying - maybe more so!  I'm talking about Alternative Textile Acquisition - the technique of sniffing out bargains and amazing finds at garage and estate sales, thrift shops, flea markets and even antique stores.

I recently went to a local estate sale and walked away with multiple yards of fun cotton fabric.

Plaids and stripes in 100% cotton are always useful.  Several of these shirts were still in the original packaging - never worn!  And, as they're mostly size 3 Extra Large, I walked away with yards of fabric for less than $10!

I always wash my estate sale finds in hot water before adding them to the plaids and stripes shirt stash.

The same estate sale also had a large selection of 100% cotton Hawaiian shirts.  Often this style of shirt is only found in blends (usually rayon), so I was pretty excited to find cotton.  Again, several of them were in unopened packages and all were size 3 Extra Large.

I've been saving ideas for quilts using Hawaiian-themed fabrics, as well as ideas for Hawaiian shirt memory quilts, so these were a great find for my stash.  If you want to see the prints a little closer, click on the picture for a better view.

I also had a lucky run with finding some vintage calendar and tea towels when I visited my mom in Florida last week.

 

The flower power calendar towel in the center was just too much fun to pass up!  I can see the dogs as the center of a medallion quilt with lots of bright curved piecing and maybe some orange peels for the borders.  No specific plans for the others - I just couldn't leave them behind after finding them.  The Holly Hobbie calendar on the top right is from 1976 - the American Bicentennial.  The bottom right towel is a Waverly print.  The chicks and bird houses on the bottom left look like they could've been printed last week.  And the blueberries on the top left are full of saturated color.

I think the joy of the hunt is what makes these so special.  It's not difficult to find vintage textiles via eBay & Etsy these days, but it's a lot more fun to track them down for yourself!

RSC 15: Variations on 2 Inch Squares

Two inch squares and strips are great building blocks for scrappy quilts.  I have a box full of 2 inch parts that I use as a starting point for all kinds of scrappy projects, including RSC quilts.  I did some digging in the 2 inch scrap box last week to start a 4-patch mini quilt.  I was able to finish that up this week with a variety of 2 inch squares and strips in orange, brown and cream fabrics.  I even found a perfect border fabric in my stash - I just need to cut the borders and attach them.

 

I also went digging in the brown 2 inch squares to assemble 2 Scrap Jar Star blocks.  These came from my burgeoning supply of reproduction scraps.

I'll be digging in my scrap boxes looking for more brown RSC inspiration, as the month is only half over.   In the meantime, check out Angela's Soscrappy blog for more Rainbow Scrap ideas.

UFOs Just Wanna Get Done

I took a quilt class with Kaye England several years ago.  OK, it was 10 years ago.  Class participants were to choose a quilt from Kaye's latest book at the time:  Vintage Gathering. 

The class was a lot of fun (Kaye is a hoot!) and I learned how to use the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers. 

I made a decent start on the blocks for my quilt, but I quickly stalled out due to limited fabrics for the scrappy Sawtooth Stars in the quilt.

Hurricane Katrina happened a few months after the class.  My options for fabric purchasing became limited and my quilt project got put away.  I knew I eventually wanted to finish the quilt, but I had to wait for some additional fabrics to come my way.

A few weeks ago, I went digging through all my drawers and boxes, looking for examples of Lancaster Blue fabrics for a Stars in a Time Warp block.  I laid my hands on the Kaye England project and it emphatically told me it was time to "get me finished!"

From that point on, I worked obsessively to finish the quilt.  I found plenty of fabrics - now in my stash - to finish the Sawtooth Star blocks needed for the quilt.  I needed some additional fabric for setting the blocks, and my LQS, the Quilted Owl, had a perfect fabric from one of the Downton Abbey lines.

 

I used the rest of the focus fabric, the pink chintz, for the strippy part of the setting.

 

I added an additional dark green border.  It looks a bit dark in the photo, but in person it makes a nice frame for the quilt.  It hasn't told me how it wants to be quilted yet, so I guess I can wait just a little longer to completely finish.  I'm just happy it's out of the UFO drawer and all the fabrics are back in the stash or scrap boxes!

 

RSC 15: Scrappy Brown + Orange

As I was putting away the orange scraps from last month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color, I came across a bag full of 2" orange squares left over from another project.  They were bugging me to get used, so I started playing with a combination of brown and orange 2" squares. 

 With a little inspiration from the current issue of Quiltmania, I got this pinned to my design wall.  I still need to make the horizontal sashing, but I'm happy with it so far.  And all of it is from scraps!

 

I got last week's Sawtooth Star blocks finished, too.  I'm going to go back through the brown scraps and see what else I can find that will lend itself to some more of these 4" stars.  

I'm off to visit my mom and sisters in Florida for the weekend.  I didn't have a hand applique project at the ready to take with me, so I pinned up a small applique wall hanging and will try to do some hand quilting during the quiet hours.  I usually try to do some antiquing when I visit Mom, but maybe this time I'll succumb to the siren song of one of the nearby quilt stores.  

If I can get my iPad blogging program to work, I'll be linking up with Angela's RSC linky party on Saturday.  Hope everyone enjoys their brown scrappy stitching this week!

RSC 15: Scrappy Sawtooth Stars

October will be a month of brown and gold scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge participants.  I don't have a lot of specific plans for how I want to use up my brown scraps, but several ideas are percolating in my head.  I hope I can make the time to do lots of scrappy sewing this month!

 

I started out the week with a few more orange Sawtooth Star blocks.  It was fun to fussy cut some University of Florida fabric scraps for the center block. 

 

And I cut parts and pieces to make some more 4" Sawtooth Stars.  Just need to cut the white background fabric and these will be ready to go.  In case I haven't mentioned it before <g>, my favorite method for making Flying Geese blocks is "Speed Piecing Method B" in this tutorial from Quilters Cache. 

I'm about to head out with Dear Husband to enjoy the gorgeous Fall weather that has finally arrived in South Louisiana.  I'm hopeful there will be time for some stitching and RSC blog reading later today.