bargain basement

I have a finish - bargain basement from the book scraps and shirttails.

It was cold and windy, but most of the snow was gone, so we opted for an outside shot.

I have decided this will be for my Grandson Matthew. It has his Grandpa's shirts in it, and, oddly enough, there was a scrap leftover block from His Dad's eagle quilt over 20 years ago. It's the little gold friendship star lower left side. I guess I don't get rid of anything.

I think the border really adds to the quilt and frames it nicely.

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bargain basement

Oh my! We have -17 degrees in Indiana today with a strong wind. I don't think we are going anywhere. Good day for quilting, and hot chocolate.

The last time I blogged about Bargain basement, I had gotten this far. I still had not decided on borders. I blogged about it here in June of 2017. I had added borders eventually, but I don't have a record of that.
 One morning last week, I was waking and wondering what to do for a project that day. And, even though I have a gazillion in process projects, I thought of this quilt waiting to be quilted, and was excited enough to put it on the longarm. I think I was just tired of all the other projects and needed an almost quick finish.

I am just free motion quilting all over big swirls in red thread. It is all shirts and from the Bonnie Hunter book scraps and shirttails. I liked the pattern. Basically, if you have any 3.5 inch squares from other projects, they can combine with the 3.5 rectangles. And it makes it interesting. There were pinwheels and 4 patches and hourglasses, oh my.

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Oh Scrap

bargain basement and kittens

Bargain basement center is finished and much smaller than I expected -time for borders. I'd like to use shirts for the inner border, but I am not sure I have enough of any one shirt to do that. I may have to go scrappy.

The sherbet quilt has a back and binding all ready to go for quilting.

 In this box is 1,580  2 1/2 inch half square triangles for box kite. It sure doesn't look like a whole quilt - quilt seeds.
I had a stack of scraps that I thought would best be cut into 2 1/2 in strips, so I just used the accuquilt triangle die instead. There are 6 triangles on the die, so one pass was enough matching for one block - easy counting.

A Tale of Cats: apparently a stray cat had a liter of kittens in our barn. She hid them very well, eventually she moved them to the garage. They were more independent by the time we saw them. They were very skiddish. We just couldn't get close. Within a week of seeing them and counting them and formulating a plan, we found the mother dead on the road. Oh my, we don't want cats, I am allergic to cats, we couldn't just let them die. It took 2 weeks of bringing milk to them to get them this far. But if we moved or made a noise, they were gone like smoke. My husband is a softie. He started buying them canned food, and they ate that.

There are 5 cute adorable kitties, but I can't have a cat as much as I would like, and certainly not 5. We made a date and cleaned a cage. We put milk inside and some days we would have 1 or 2 in the cage. When we had four, we closed it and took them to the animal shelter. It was a hard thing to do. And we still have the most skiddish cat left in the garage, and we haven't even gotten close. She won't come out when we are in there with the food.

I don't know if feral cats can be trained, or if any one would want one, but I am hoping they have a chance for a nice home and lots of love.

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oh scrap
I may have a scrap problem 

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Crazy Mom QUilts

A new template

I have been working on the borders for Bargain basement ( Bonnie Hunter scraps and shirttails). I was so excited to open a template package and actually use it. And it is nifty.

cutting was a breeze with the creative grids ruler, but sewing took a bit to figure how to hold my mouth to get the points right. I started thinking I would sew in pairs first. Luckily, I didn't get them all done, before I tried putting them together. It is much better to add one at a time so that I could line them up with the triangle on the bottom. I could match three of the sides before stitching the seam.

Linda had an appraisal done for the Indiana quilt and her happy birds quilt. The Indiana quilt appraised at $1550.00 and..

happy birds at $1950.00

These results were surprising to all of us. Mostly, this is a reflection of replacement costs. Sometimes as quilters, we devalue what we do - It's just a hobby, something I slapped together. That couldn't be further from the truth. Every stitch is an expression of parts of us that no one ever sees. Our work on each quilt is a lesson in progress not perfection. I know I grow better with every attempt I make, not just in skill level, but in my heart and soul. As I read quilter's blogs, I can see how they are changing and growing with every quilt they make. I love to see that.
I am worried that the next generation doesn't realize the soul satisfaction of creating something beautiful ( or not) from inside of themselves. I know many who make it seem that it is not worthwhile to take the time to make it yourself, not with walmart on every corner. They are wrong.

Picture from Bonnie hunter at quiltville.
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templates

Does our templates look like this? ack..

Many of these templates are still in their original packaging. Why am I not using them?
I bought a new template at the quilt show

I still haven't used it. I have my favorite templates, and that is all I think about when it is time to cut.

While talking with my daughter, I added the side pieces to the bargain basement blocks. And now I have a puzzle. the cutting directions called for 3 x 9 1/2 inch rectangles to complete the block. The actual directions say to add the 3 1/2 x 9 1/2 inch rectangle to the block. I cut 3 inch hmmmm. It's measuring time!

I uncovered a baggie of twosies of red and white 4 patches. The bag had 100 written  on it. I didn't recount, but I did sew them together. I was going to do it leader/ender style, but they were so cute and addictive, I just kept sewing and sewing... tee hee they are so cute. I don't remember why they were left undone, or what they were meant to be. They are made from 1 1/2 inch strips and are 2 1/2.

another clean up job, is the leftover tumblers. from this quilt -what to do... I thought I could make an orphan block with them or, maybe, a border.  In the back of my mind, I felt that my piecing skills were not the best on the tumbler quilt, so I want to prove myself, too. But, like chips and salsa,  it never comes out even. I have to cut more light tumblers, so I am not really "getting rid" of the tumblers. sigh...
I used 2 1/2 inch tumblers and I tried a zig zag setting. This setting is much easier to be accurate. And it used a ton of little scraps.

I can see floor in my "studio" again, and bits and pieces of projects have been gathered together, and a few decisions have been made. But, tomorrow I will come clean about my string piecing mess. Does that happen to you? When you clean something, does something else fall apart?

I am linking to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap
I may have a scrap problem 

I am linking to:

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Crazy Mom QUilts

bargain basement shirts

I have been accidentally working on Bonnie Hunter's bargain basement quilt from scraps and shirttails. Accidentally, in that, I have been cutting through scraps, and I ran into a batch of shirt yokes and cuffs and collars. I didn't think I would have enough to cut out the whole bargain basement, but I could make a dent in the cutting. I had enough to make all the 3 1/2 inch rectangles I would need. so any littler pieces went toward any other pieces I would need.

I was in luck when I found, while sorting, several 3 1/2 inch odd shirting blocks that I could use for the specialty squares. I had a few 4 patch and 1/2 square triangles that I could make work. It was so easy to keep going....

I found all the 6 1/2 inch strips I would need in the 2 inch bin of strips. It is amazing how easily this quilt is coming together. Such a happy accident!

I have been working on the bonus triangle black hole. I have pressed and counted and trimmed.

I should have some options for quilt with all that I am finding int the BIG bin that I have used to toss and forget.

unfortunately, the 2 1/2 inch squares that I had nearly used up in projects has filled back up to this. I don't really want the squares. I can just use strips when I need them but when that is the last bit of a scrap it would be wasteful not to cut them. I find these velveeta containers at goodwill and they are perfect for the squares.

I am in the mood to keep cutting shirts and parts. I forget how much I love the look and feel of recycled shirt fabric in a quilt.until I get to play with them again.
I found this pattern that I think would work with plaids. Although, my inspiration board has several, and I have a couple ideas from Bonnie's scraps and shirttails books. I love these books

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boms away

yellow maple leaves

Just in time for the month of yellow and Rainbow scrap challenge in June. I love Irises.

I have 2 blocks ready for the maple leaves quilt.

Otherwise I have been cleaning up the cutting table which involves making a bigger mess.  I had expanded my actual cutting space from 4 square inches to maybe 18 square inches ( I have a BIG cutting table but I end up with just a tiny actual cutting space) And what happens when I see so much open space? I start to cut down scraps and WHAM that space is GONE. I found a parts bucket of odd shirt pieces.

Many yokes and short sleeves, cuffs, collars. I like to cut them  into scrap savers pieces and put the bigger pieces away uncut for any future project.
I have wanted to make Bargain basement from Bonnie Hunter's  Scraps and shirttails book. There are only a couple of quilts in the book I haven't made.

So I am cutting the shirt pieces to work in that quilt. The smallest unit is a two patch using 2 inch squares. I have them all done sewing them as I was working on other projects as a leader/ender. I will need 3 1/2 inch strips, which I can get from the yokes.

The bucket is getting emptier and the table fuller.

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

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Crazy Mom QUilts

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