Tuesday, December 31, 2019

sand castles

I have really been encouraged by the comments from my post yesterday. How lovely to know that there are others like me, loving scraps and fabric. Thank you so much. Now, I need to figure out a way to get it stored better, and keep it off the floor, because, I am getting clumsy enough, I could break myself. tee hee.
I have developed a system for sewing the sand castles blocks together, that I am surprised when I have one done so quickly. Here is the last batch.



sand castles is a Bonnie hunter pattern in the book string frenzy, I started it here and here and here.

Last week's To do Tuesday
1. cut new spikey pieces to go with what I have already cut. I have been sewing these as leaders and enders for sand castles quilt. I cut a bunch of them awhile ago to use a new block loc template, but, now that I am making them, I see I need more light outsides. Did not get done and I have had to get creative with the leader enders.
2. cut small shirt pieces into useable sizes. Did not get done, I was busy cutting frolic
3. Christmas hooray - it was nice but too quiet
4. Quilt one of my quilts - I didn't like any of my options for the back, so I ordered one and it hasn't come.

So I was great at making the list, but my follow through needs a little adjustment.

To do Tuesday
1. finish cutting frolic
2. sew frolic clue 4
3. quilt one of my quilts
4. start January one monthly goals

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to do tuesday

Monday, December 30, 2019

2020 quilt goals

I have been thinking and thinking about next year's goals. I have spent at least two years working on ufos and I have finished more than I thought I could. But, I am wishing to do something new. I've noticed I went crazy with new, so we will see. I was trying for a top 10 for the year, and next thing I knew, I had 20. I am going to leave it that way, and see how I do. It is 2020 after all.

1. editya sitar baskets - new -I bought this in Utah after my daughter - in - law's passing.

2. double wedding ring - ufo - I think I have one maybe two more seams to do.

3. houses from swap - ufo
4. jamestown landing - ufo
5. circa 1880 - ufo
6. stella cyranna - ufo
7. portage lake - new
8. blue ridge beauty - ufo
9. 1/2 square x mas tree 2012 - ufo
10. hanging lanterns - new
11. just for fun - new
12. black sheep - new but last year's goal
13. gobble gobble - new
14. swinging checkerboard - new
15. scrappy sandwiches - new
16. fairy tale - new
17. ode to joey - ufo
18. big sky bear - new
19. impressionist - new
20. norwegian snowflakes - new
21. show off - new
22. radio waves- new

8 out of 22 are ufo

Yes, I have added two more. sigh....
I want to do more charity quilts this year and I have two new rainbow quilts, and two, that I need to do again this year.
I had 16 finishes last year and all but 3 were ufos.
341.50 yards used.
I need to severely limit fabric and scraps coming into my house. But, I don't want to do that. sigh... I can't think of a goal that I think I will keep. I have thought about saying no more scraps, but I like them more than fabric. Fabric is so expensive... but, there are some great deals that are hard to resist. How do you manage your purchasing. I have enough fabric to make quilts until I am 200. I plan to give away fabric, until I start sorting, and once I touch it, I am smitten. sigh...

I am linking:

planning party 2020

PHD

Friday, December 27, 2019

half a basket

I have the baskets quilt in to 2 pieces.  One more seam and it will be a top. Then, I will need to make finishing decisions. More here and Here and here is about my project.


I have clue 3 finished for the quiltville mystery, frolic.


Clue 1, Clue 2

I haven't started clue 4 and clue 5 came out this morning. Christmas has me a bit topsy turvy.

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rsc19 super saturday

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Thursday, December 26, 2019

scrap bag 2

Last week, I worked on cutting a bag of scraps that I had found, I planned to make a crown of thorns - wedding ring quilt. I chose this pattern because it took a large quantity of matching pieces. When I work with scraps, most of the pieces are too small for matching. I have them all cut in groups of 4 squares and 12 hsts. I haven't cut the neutrals, yet.


The best part, was discovering there was enough of the piece to cut the smaller 2 inch hsts too. I didn't plan to use them in this quilt. But, maybe, it would be part of the border. In any case, I have bonus triangles.



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Tuesday, December 24, 2019

merry christmas



youtube video about 16 minutes.
Merry Christmas

spikey template

Surprise, it is almost Christmas. We had the grandest time last night watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas specials on you tube. My favorite was - all is well with my soul - with Hugh Bonneville. It was deeply touching. I am so grateful for the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

I thought I would try an actual list for to do tuesday. It might be too organized for me.

To do Tuesday
1. cut new spikey pieces to go with what I have already cut. I have been sewing these as leaders and enders for sand castles quilt. I cut a bunch of them awhile ago to use a new block loc template, but, now that I am making them, I see I need more light outsides.

Before trimming

all trimmed


2. cut small shirt pieces into useable sizes.
3. Christmas hooray
4. Quilt one of my quilts

I am linking to:
to do tuesday

Monday, December 23, 2019

weekend strings

I have this pile of scraps, on the floor, near the treadle sewing machine, again. I wanted to get it sewn up and gone before the end of the weekend. I don't think it will make the room feel Christmasy at all.
I have started another wonky courthouse steps from Bonnie Hunter. I think I could make 10 with my collection of strings and crumbs. My first one isn't quilted yet.


Even after a sewing spree, the pile didn't go away until I threw what is left in a bag and hid it in a basket. sigh.... but I did sew a few blocks together.


I have 20 more blocks sewn, pressed, and trimmed for a total of 50.


I have another 5 ready to trim.





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Saturday, December 21, 2019

red sand castles

I like to make at least one sand castle block each morning before I decide what else needs my attention. They are built a little differently and I like it being different. When I cut my strips into sets of squares and hsts, I figured I would need 64 and I have basically 7 colors so I would need about 9 strips of each color. I have 2 1/2 inch strips sorted by color, so finding them was easy. I find that since I cut them that way, I make them in a color grouping. Here are 4 new red ones.


I am trying to make sense of the scraps again. I found this bag that doesn't look familiar. It must have been given to me at some point. The bag is the regular grocery bag size and it is about 2/3 full. The plan was to work through it one piece at a time until I have it emptied.


Boy, was I surprised when I started pulling out clumps of squares. They filled a shoe box plastic box. I had found another scrap bag of squares earlier- here- and had decided what I was going to do with them. I need to do that again. They are not all the same size and will need trimming. The squares are about 3 inches. Any ideas?


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rsc19 super saturday

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UFO busting - I am featured this week










Tuesday, December 17, 2019

accuquilt

An exciting day - my accuquilt order has arrived. Accuquilt had a 60 % off sale for the black Friday shopping days. I have all the main dies I want, and, I use them all the time. And it did seem that they marked everything up 20% to start. But, I spent a little while shopping, putting dies in my cart, and, then, taking them out of the cart. To be honest, I think I confused myself , LOL. I waited a day to think about it, and then ordered these goodies.


It was a big, heavy box. The top die will cut 1 1/2 inch squares from a 6 inch scrap. I don't normally cut squares this small. I prefer to leave them as strips. But it might be fun. The second die is 2 inch finish at 1/1/2 inch quarter square triangle. I have up to 4 inch quarter square triangle dies, but not this little one. Isn't it cute?


I always order back up plastics when I have an order being shipped, especially free. I use my plastics to death, but I had some almost broken, so it was time.


This was an interesting die called fractured. I see a lot of empty space on the die. It is 36 inches long.


They have a pattern using it, and, it looked like a good scrap buster and quick donation quilt die.


I ordered the 1 3/4 inch strip die. I think it will come in handy on those projects that I want to cut bigger and trim. I had a couple projects last year, and now that I have the die, I will probably never do that again LOL.

And there was a free ruler that didn't make it through the shipping process - a little corner was broken.


I ordered late and most of the dies I ordered were backordered, but, I have been patiently waiting for this to arrive. I wanted to order the pineapple die, but it was bigger ( and more expensive ) than I wanted, and I do have the templates so I didn't order that one. Merry Christmas to me!

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Monday, December 16, 2019

frolic 2

We had a beautiful fluffy snowfall last night. I may not be so happy with it when I go to physical therapy this morning, and drive in it, but, it is a treasure to see.


The rows are starting to come together for Lucy's basket. It takes a little bit as I feel the need to pin it at every junction, and, there are many junctions. It is such a wonderful feeling to use swap blocks and revisit the memories. More here and here.


I have clue one and now, clue two finished for the frolic mystery quilt. The clues have been very easy, which is not very quiltville like. We may get socked with it later. Clue one here. If you haven't seen the other 18 quiltville mystery quilts I have made, they are here.



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#frolicmystery
#quiltvillemystery
#mysteryquilt

Friday, December 13, 2019

friday sew

Last week, our Friday group met together. Everyone was busy with their projects. I really enjoy this time together, but only recently started taking my sewing machine again, after the restrictions for my back surgery were lifted. I have a rainbow crayon quilt I wanted to put together.


I had made the letters, along with the crayon, according to the color of the month for the rainbow scrap challenge. So, if you wondered what the letters were meant to be, this is part of them. I was really interested in letters for 2019. It seems I made letters for everything. I decided on this layout.


Maris was working on a red, white, and blue soul searching.


And Linda was working on a complicated block of the month.


I am so inspired by the quilts my friends are making.

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I am linking to:

rsc19 super saturday


Thursday, December 12, 2019

scrap bag

Sometimes, after cataract surgery, the eye will still make a film at the back of the new lens. I am one of those. I had the first cataract surgery last fall, and another in January. By now, my eyes had healed well enough, that, I could have a lazer treatment of the membrane behind the lens. I did one last week and one yesterday. There is nothing to it except the fear of the unknown. It was quick and painless, but the eye is dilated for most of the day and that is funky.

One of my favorite purchases at a quilt show in the fall, was a sack of badly cut squares. The bag was $2.00 and I liked that there were many of the same fabric.


Once I opened the bag, I realized they were not exactly square. They were almost 2 1/2 x 3. I wonder what they were cut to make.
I couldn't decide if I would cut triangles with them or squares. I didn't have a plan except to make them into a useable size.


I know anything would be fine, once I had committed, but, I thought I would look in my "maybe someday" file and see if it fit the needs of a quilt I knew I already liked.



I found this here at sane, crazy, crumbly quilting only I will make mine 2.5 inches.


There were enough of each fabric to cut sets of matching for this wedding ring block or crown of thorns. I think it will be just perfect for this quilt, and, I will get to try this block which I wanted to try ever since I saw it. I love making something from cast offs.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

mini template round 2

I went to a geneology workshop last night and feel motivated to try a little harder to search through my family history. I know it can be important to my Grandchildren who never knew my family. They were all gone by the time they were born. That is what happens to a late in life daughter of a late in life daughter of a late in life daughter. And Yes, I had a late in life child, even though I swore I wouldn't. It's a blessing and a curse......
Playing with the new mini pineapple ruler is addictive. I can make it with the smallest scraps. And I have a shoe box full of little triangles from the quilt wild and goosey.




The size difference doesn't seem so great while I am working on the small one, but when I put them next to each other, wow.


Here is how I started with the mini template.

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to do tuesday

Monday, December 9, 2019

instagram frolic

I don't like instagram, but everyone else does. The new quiltville mystery quilt, frolic, will be linking up on instagram instead of blog today. When I look at instagram, I feel like I am looking at someone's vacation slides - boring. There is no substance or information to make it interesting.
I did find myself unmotivated to even start this mystery. This will be my 19th quiltville mystery quilt. I have a page of all of them here. I am glad I broke into it.  I have clue one finished. I had all the blue strips already in the scrap user bins, but, I had to cut the raspberry strips.


I have wonky courthouse steps put together as a top. And I have started another one, since it was so much fun. more about this here and here.


I am linking:


#frolicmystery
#quiltvillemystery
#mysteryquilt

Saturday, December 7, 2019

rsc rainbow

Just in time for the rainbow scrap challenge check in, I have a rainbow top finished. It was so fun to see the chain come together as I sewed the rows. Each of the color parts are strips and crumbs sewn together to make "fabric". It is called end of the rainbow.


Rainbow quilts take a whole year to percolate. Every month, it takes one color, and, then, after many colors, it is ready to reveal itself.


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Thursday, December 5, 2019

rug class

Our little rug hooking guild is part of ATHA ( association of traditional rug hooking artists ). During the biennial gathering in Cleveland Ohio, we made contributions and received a monetary stipend for education as a thank you. Recently, we had a Bev Stewart from southern Indiana present a class for us. It was fun.
We each received this little project. I finished everything but the background in class.


In this project we learned beading with 2 colors of wool, proddy, crochet, and stem stitch, all with wool. I like the look of proddy ( flower), but it is tough on the hands. I am not at all sure what I want to do with it.



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Wednesday, December 4, 2019

more sand castles

I really like that I have gotten to the block part of the sand castles quilt. I started making the string blocks, and, then, making a million 4 patches. Each one is different and looks different and feels like a new surprise every time I finish one.


I still need to cut several more kits. I need a 2 1/2 inch strip that is at least 21 inches. I am cutting the 5 -2 1/2 inch squares first, and, then, I can use an accuquilt die to cut the triangles. I enjoy making one or two in between other sewing.


sand castles is a Bonnie hunter pattern in the book string frenzy, I started it here and here and here.

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Tuesday, December 3, 2019

mini template

This just arrived in the mail, and I am really excited to try it. It is the mini version of the pineapple template I have been using.


The center square is 1 1/2 inches.


And round one is 2 1/2 inches. I don't really have time to work on these right now, but they are a fun distraction. I haven't even started the mystery quilt, yet.


I had no intention of ever going smaller with the pineapple block, until, I saw this quilt at the Indy quilt show. It said it was made with the mini ruler. I came home and ordered a mini template.


I am linking to:
to do tuesday