Scrappy 4 Life!

 My favorite kind of quilts are scrappy quilts - and I have a new favorite quilt to share with you!

I present my version of Tonya Ricucci's Lego quilt, which I call Scrappy 4 Life!

Scrappy is made from 1.5 inch scraps of various lengths, stitched together into rows and then blocks.  I spent many soothing hours piecing scraps together with my trusty Singer Model 15 treadle.  

I'm not sure when I started assembling these rows of scraps, but I believe it was in 2015.  There are years and years of scraps in this quilt, and every time I examine the fabrics I get a smile on my face!

Last year I decided the quilt was at a good stopping point, measuring about 70 inches x 80 inches.

I sent it off to Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting for some long-arm magic.

The quilting is gentle swirls, which softens all the lines and angles in the piecing.

The blue binding with gold stars was made years ago for some other project and then never used.  Thanks to my newfound skill at machine binding, the quilt was finished in record time!  I did do a little hand stitching to add a label  to commemorate the quilt's inspiration and construction.

This is no quilt to hang on the wall and admire.  I plan to use it heavily (and maybe even let the dog sleep on it), and enjoy all the quilting memories!

Is 2020 Really Almost Over?

Here it is, the last day of 2020 - and I think most of us are wondering (anxiously?) what 2021 will hold in store.  I feel optimistic in general, but only time will tell if 2021 turns out to be better than 2020.

On a personal note, Dear Hubby and I have been left unscathed by our brush with the Covid-19 virus.  DH never had more than very minor symptoms, and his second Covid test (at the appropriate interval) was negative.  I never had any symptoms, and since he tested negative both times, it's safe to assume I was never infected.  DH's colleague - who was infected - has recovered enough to return to work, although he's still reporting fatigue.  The best news:  the hospital where my husband works got their shipment of vaccine, and DH has already received his first dose!

After sewing up a batch of 25-patch blocks at the beginning of our quarantine, I didn't have much sewing energy.  I came up with a mindless sewing project that took a few days: 

Yes - seven more Lego quilt blocks - another row!

These went quickly and I added them to the Lego quilt flimsy.  Now the quilt measures 70 inches by 80 inches, and I'm happy with the size.  Time for quilting. 

We had a very quiet Christmas.  Dear Hubby gave me a copy of Barbara Brackman's new edition of The Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  I look forward to many hours of study.

Sometime after Christmas, I started having dangerous thoughts about a post-holiday T-shirt Quiltathon.

I had the makings of at least three large t-shirt quilts stored away in various bins and baskets.  

Some of the shirts have been waiting a long time for their day in a quilt.  I decided now was the time to get these UFOs crossed off the list.  This batch of dark/bright shirts were already cut and ready for fusible stabilizer to be ironed on.  I need some sashing fabric and I can start assembling.

The next batch of shirts still need trimming and stabilizing.

Some aren't in great shape, but they have happy memories, so they're going in a quilt anyway!

The third batch of shirts are from my youngest son.  I haven't even looked at them yet. 😱

I'll be happy when the quilt are finished - and when they're done, I don't plan on making any more t-shirt quilts! 

I decided it would be a good idea to organize my quilting thoughts for the coming year.  Life has a funny way of interfering with our plans, but I'm hoping I'll at least make a dent in the list!

Wishing everyone a healthy and uneventful 2021!

Dawg Daze of Summer, Chapter 2020

This is the time of year I'm usually the headmistress of what I lovingly call Doggie Day Care.  

My two sons rely on me to help them care for their dogs in August, while they are traveling for work and/or recreation.  In addition to their dogs, we had two dogs of our own, so there were frequently four large dogs at my house for several weeks.

This year, there is only one dog - McKenzie, our lab/golden mix.  Covid-19 restrictions kept my sons' dogs at home with them, and my older dog, Bailey, died last December.  It's been a quiet month so far, but McKenzie does love having all the undivided attention!

After putting the final stitches in my Grandmother's Choice quilt, I found myself (temporarily) without a hand-stitching project.

Out came the flamingo hexagons!  I've been using Barb Vedder's Hex Vex pattern to make flamingo-themed hexies for a couple of years now.  I'm getting close to having enough hexies for a wall hanging, so maybe this is the year this project will get finished.

I had a half-dozen blocks already prepped for stitching, so I finished those up and cut some additional blocks.  The fun thing about making these blocks is the more you play with the fabrics, the more ideas you get for fussy-cutting and fabric placement.

Another quilt project came out to play this week:  the "Lego" quilt.  This has been an on-going project for several years - a way to use up lots and lots of 1.5 inch scraps.

I needed four more blocks to be able to construct a 7 x 7 quilt.  I already had enough strips pieced for the blocks, I just needed to assemble the strips into blocks.

Then assemble the blocks into rows, and the rows into a quilt top.  I posted a picture of my progress on Instagram, and my sister said, "That's a lot of sewing!"

The flimsy measures about 70 inches by 70 inches at this point.  One more row would make the quilt a rectangle instead of a square, but I don't have it in me right now to make seven more blocks.   Maybe I'll feel differently at some point in the future.

At the beginning of the month, I changed out the quilts on display in my house.  It's difficult to get good photographs, as the interior of my house doesn't have a lot of natural light, but I did want to show of my newest quilt hanger, built by my Dear Hubby.

This quilt is a sentimental favorite, with friendship blocks from members of my Florida quilt guild.   The blocks date to 1997, but the quilt wasn't finished until 2006.  It was the subject of my first blog post!

  

Meandering Through June

Just like the Mississippi River, I feel like I'm meandering through the month of June.  

I've worked on this and that, but no big sparks of creativity (or energy) seem to be flowing.  I guess I'll just keep meandering and see what turns up - something always does!

One recent project was mastering the art of the Lone Star block.  After inserting the background pieces - which required using Words of Power - I decided maybe I don't want to make Lone Star themed gifts for Christmas this year.  I'd still like to make a large Lone Star quilt for myself, but the thought of lots of Little Lone Stars now gives me a headache!

I'm still planning to turn this star into a pillow.  I did some basic straight-line quilting, but I want to make the pillow with a zipper, which requires a trip to the fabric store.

This small quilt (30" x 30") was just a bag of four patches a few weeks ago.  The fabrics were left over from Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOM from 2012.  Once I had the double four-patches pieced up, I found a nice hunk of Brannock & Patek (circa 1997) fabric in my stash to use for the outer border.

For quilting, I used straight lines through the four patches, and pumpkin seeds in the border.  Since I suck at free-motion quilting, I did the pumpkin seeds using the walking foot feature on my sewing machine - feed dogs engaged.  It was fun figuring out the best way to make the design without having to start and stop the line(s) of stitching.

The backing also came from my stash - an antique map print.  You can see the quilting a little better from the back.

And every quilt deserves a label - even the leftovers!

BTW, I got brave and used my laser printer to print the label.  First, I ironed the label fabric to an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of freezer paper.  I wrote out the label using my word processing program, then played with different fonts until I found one I liked.  The font is called "She Persisted" - which I thought was perfect.  After printing the label in the printer, I also heat-set the design using my iron.  This has been through the wash; it may have faded a tiny bit, but not enough to matter.

Meanwhile, at our camp, I have a new pressing/storage table!  Dear Hubby built the shelf unit, then added a removable, expanded top.  I covered the top with padding and cotton canvas.  I love it!

I put the new pressing table to good use last weekend making more "Lego" blocks.  I only need a few more blocks and I can start assembling the quilt.

In between quilting projects, I've been pickling goodies from our garden.  The garden is small, but prolific this year!  I can't keep up with fixing cukes in fresh dishes, so I made a batch of refrigerator pickles this week.  This is two 4-cup pyrex storage containers full of pickles (graced with a few pieces of red jalapeño).  I've also pickled more banana and jalapeño peppers than I can count.  

I'm going to meander on to this project next.  I think some creative energy might be starting to flow!

Scrap Life

Angela of Soscrappy has been hosting the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for quite a few years now.  The challenge behind the project is to use up fabric scraps from prior quilt-making efforts.  Despite several years of RSC participation, my collection of scraps has not diminished.  Honestly, that's OK with me, as I don't participate to use UP scraps, but because scrappy quilts are my favorite type of quilt!  

In fact, this month, I decided some new "scraps" were needed, so I pulled lots of fabric bits (which were clogging up the fabric storage drawers) in the RSC theme for January:  light and bright greens.  I sliced everything into standard scrappy sizes:  3.5 inches, 2.5 inches, 2 inches, and 1.5 inches.  I keep all my scrappy strips in plastic bins, ready to be pulled for future scrappy projects.

While I was digging through the bins, I noticed my 1.5 inch strip bin was getting really full.  

That inspired me to start making new blocks for my Lego quilt.  I put this project aside two years ago because I thought my scraps weren't providing enough variety.  

Maybe the scraps of 2020 will be the boost needed to finish this quilt!  I'll keep slicing up new 1.5 inch strips in each monthly RSC color and working them into the Lego quilt blocks.

I started making Carolina Chain blocks last year as a leader-ender project. 

As I was cutting green strips, I sub-cut pieces for some green blocks.  I'll continue working on these blocks in 2020, too.

These Sugar Bowl blocks have been an ongoing RSC project.  My plan was to set the blocks in groups of four, with narrow sashing and a cornerstone in the center of each block.  I assembled a couple blocks in this manner, only to realize the cornerstone drew the eye and the blocks got completely lost.  Out came the seam ripper!

Instead, I opted for a traditional, on-point setting with alternate plain blocks.  I found the perfect fabric for the plain blocks in my stash - and I had enough of it for the entire quilt!

It's a fun fabric, and I'm so happy I found a great use for it!  Now comes the fun of stitching all those pieces together.  

If you love the Scrap Life, be sure to check out the RSC weekly link-up!

Multi-color Moves

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month is to use up multi-colored scraps.  Multi-color scraps can be difficult to use in "rainbow" projects, because they don't always have one prominent color.  I've made multi-color blocks for some of my past RSC projects, but this year's blocks don't really lend themselves to the multi-color theme.  No worries, I've got several ideas for finishing multi-color projects that are already underway.

There was not much time for sewing this week, but I was able to get in some fabric therapy last night.  I pulled some multi-color brights from the selvage box and made Rail Fence blocks.  I had to add one not-bright block to make my design wall layout work...

Today we're hanging at our camp.  It's been a perfect spring day - probably one of the last days of wonderful weather before we start with the high temps and high humidity of summer.  All these great multi-color strips were also hanging out at the camp, so I assembled some more lego quilt blocks.  

Tonight my Dear Husband is making Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk for dinner.  It's a new recipe for us - I'll report back.  A little Radio Margaritaville and a bottle of bubbly - celebrating the first week of April is a long-standing tradition!

While dinner is cooking I'll be reviewing all the multi-color inspiration at Angela's Soscrappy link-up.

 

Aqua Bits

It seems this may be my year for really using up small scraps.  Two Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this week involved finding uses for some of the smaller scraps in the scrap boxes.*

 

I have a lot of two inch strips and squares left over from various projects or just cutting up scraps into usable pieces following Bonnie Hunter's Scrap-Users System.  Last month I pulled a lot of purple squares and started piecing 4-patch blocks.  I did the same for aqua squares this month.  I don't have definitive plans for these right now, but 4-patches are a versatile quilt building block and I'm sure they will find a happy use eventually. 

 

This is a small portion of my very large collection of 1.5 inch strips.  Several years ago, I decided to start piecing 1.5 inch strips in anticipation of making a "Lego" quilt (tutorial by Tonya Ricucci).

 

Piecing bits of 1.5 inch strips into longer sections is great mindless sewing, and before long I had a laundry basket full of pieced strips ready to be assembled into blocks.

 

I finally stitched up some blocks last summer.  I came to the conclusion this was going to be a very long-term project, because assembling the blocks was just not that much fun.  Those pieced strips are going to age for awhile longer.  And in while they're aging, I'm going to attempt to use  up some of the un-pieced stash of 1.5 inch parts and pieces.

 

I pulled the shortest bits of aqua 1.5 inch strips I could find, sliced them into squares and arranged a 49-patch block with white squares on the diagonal.  Despite the number and size of squares, the block went together quickly.  I decided to go back and repeat the process for last month's RSC color.  Once I use up the short bits of 1.5 inch strips, I can do some speedier piecing by sewing longer strips together and slicing them up.  

For more scrappy aqua inspiration, check out the link-up at Soscrappy.

*Disclaimer:  I don't really like working with scraps smaller than 1.5 inches, so my version of "small" may not be the same as yours!