Oct.16….. more scraps…

A quick update on the blocks for the 70,273 project. I have a picture of Leona doing a block in red crayon. Sad to say I didn’t take any that I did. I mailed them in a hurry as we were leaving town for the weekend.

Now for the scraps…. I have been working hard on getting the scrap pile down. I had it down to one box full when Mr. Issac once again brought me his left overs.

So I went to work on some more log cabin blocks, a whirligig block,and a buzzsaw block.

I think they will all look nice in a quilt top.

I also put together two tops for a ladies church sewing as they were wanting some.

These tops were made from yard sale buys where some pieces were in a few yards to larger scraps. I love a yard sale where I can buy a few yards of fabric for $1.

Also took time to work on some more rings for the double wedding ring quilt,which I’m half way done with.

Have a great week ,Deb

Advertisement

Aug 22……the meaning of scrap..

Scrap…
A small piece or something left over from use of a greater piece . (Noun)
Discard or remove ( verb)
Words that are similar in uses , fragment,snippet, shred

I have this problem of discarding little pieces of fabric,also accumulating from others their rejects…I so enjoy the colors of a scrappy quilt while the last quilt top I put together was pretty, it isn't a delightful display of colors like the log cabin….

Here are some scrappy knotted quilts that are finished.

I have been having some back issues 😟 ,puts me in a chair for a few days. I don't mind a chair for an hour or two but after awhile I get really disgusted with sitting… so I put my office chair at the table ,got the scraps out that I found,cleaned and ironed, and started cutting these strips into little fan pieces. I need to decide if I want to use the cream fabric or the barn red..

I like both .. although I think the red brings out all the colors of the shirting fabric, where some of the shirting gets lost in the white. What do you think?
The weather wasn't perfect for seeing the eclipse ,as the storm clouds kept getting in the way. I found that it was still beautiful. I needed to always look though the camera on my iPad as I didn't have glasses . Love the reflection of the sun ,moon in this photo.

Take care friends.

July 15th ….. a box of scraps

I received a pile of scraps. Ok, so your thinking what’s new ,that poor dear always has a pile of scraps.  And boy are you right!!

Last weekend an older gentleman from our church ,who to keep himself busy, cuts up fabric into 6″, 5″and 4″ that people give him. He does this to support a program that helps poor widows support herself and her family. The widows will receive these blocks with batting and backing, they then will make quilts to sell. To make a long story short… He brought me his scraps to put into quilt tops for Christian aid ministries. Of course.. I can’t say no. Here’s the big bag of scraps,which I dumped into this box.

The type of box… my daughter likes lightening McQueen.. so instead of wearing princess pull ups she wears these😁

I want to go through to sort the big pieces from the little . I made a few blocks like this to see if I cared for them. I believe it will make a nice top.

This is what I’m going to work on this week, the weather is to be hot  for awhile now.. time to keep myself in except for early mornings.

I was messing around in my fabric closet,digging down under looking for an old briefcase that I wanted to put my art stuff in to keep it all in one place. I got a surprise…. the old case wasn’t empty.  Guess what was in it!! No not a mouse nest!😜 an unfinished double wedding ring top.

There are two rows of four blocks to a row. It is in vintage fabric except for the navy blue . Plus there are lots of little pieces ready to be pieced.

I want to make this into a throw for at the end of a bed,then use the rest of the pieces in this top

I had the life scared out of me Saturday… I went out to do some watering , I have some small oak tree starts that needed a good soak, well.. when I first grabbed the hose to fill up some pails I  thought heard a raspy noise .. looked around .. saw nothing ,continued to work ,when all of a sudden Wiggles ,our Jack Russell came unglued!!!! Not more than 3 feet away was a rattler!! Needless to say it’s history.  Can’t say I care for a rattlesnake right outside in my front yard.

 

We had a storm pass through this evening ,the clouds were beautiful!

Take care ,Deb

March 15 th .. a few scrap quilt tops

I’m doing a short update on a few scrap tops that I put together . I want to get a few more done ,that way when hubby goes out of town here soon, I’m going to use the dining room table to knot the tops. When hubby leaves ,Leona and I just eat whenever,as the other children, ages 22 and 24 ,at home often have their own plans.

I was surprised at how the different creams and whites came together, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like using so many different shades of cream and white. Had to use a few other light colors to finish out the light out around the dark. 

Another log cabin that I messed up on in the far left zig zag. Lesson here .. never wait to sew a layout several weeks after laying out your pattern cause you forget just exactly what the plans were.

Working on a stack of these blocks now

Oh yes,I found the neatest way to quickly learn knitting online.

I must say that this tickled my funny bone😂

Break time over,back to sewing. Deb

Feb 15 … vintage scraps

I have this storage box full of old vintage scraps..

 
I want to make something special with these scraps,but I’m having a hard time deciding on which pattern I want to use. I want to use an older pattern like a grandmothers fan or the double wedding. Is there an older pattern that you think would be great made with these scraps? I’m open for ideas.

I did get a scrappy top finished. The idea for this pattern came from a lady off Flickr,who makes lovely tops  Linda Miller is her name if you are looking for some inspiration.

A few blocks cut ready for sewing.

I would really like to try this pattern with these blocks. It would be more scrappy then this picture,but if I use light ,dark ,medium ,dark and light again … let’s see what happens.

Again look at the vintage scraps and tell me what quilt pattern comes to your mind. 😊

Feb.4 th.. another sewing post

But first it is good to say that the pecans are all picked up.. while I enjoy picking up pecans it is good to see the end. So goodbye pecanpicker upper until next year. 

I took a better picture of the first finished scrappy quilt after washing it.

And a top finish with these blocks…

Then I decided to play around with appliqué 

All was going nicely….

Until something felt different as I was sewing .. I couldn’t believe I did this..

I was sewing on top of this block!😳 so out came the seam ripper…. after careful ripping and more sewing I was able to finish this baby quilt. Hubby and daughter say my teddy bear has wings, which is supposed to be a pillow but I guess it won’t hurt to have an angel bear watching out for baby. 😊

I got some hand quilting in…long way to go though.

And now I need to go find my coffee cup,and watch “Annie” with Leona. 

Jan.16th.. jeans and fleece

My daughter hasn’t been doing so good this last week,she has a nasty  cold,when she gets sick  like this I need to be within sight to help her with everything. So being in the sewing room was not an option,no problem… Just need to do something close by on a table near her. Off to search….. this is what I found..

Some of my dads old jeans with a small remnant piece of denim…

Some fleece strips that was in amongst mom’s scraps.. I cut the jeans up into 6.5″ blocks ,also the fleece.

Had enough blocks to make two crib size blankets. I then pulled out my treasured old girl ,she was up to a good warm up. This is the end result of one of those stacks of blocks.

 
Front.                                                                             Back

 I have 88 of the log cabin blocks made.. I slipped into the sewing room a few times when Leona was napping.
When out getting some fresh air while second daughter LouAnn did the caretaker duty.. these cows were very curious about the old lady walking down the road. :))

 
Have a good week…Deb

Jan.8th…. scraps,and more scraps

And the boxes of scraps that turn into a storage tub,then two storage tubs…. you get the picture .

That’s what I’m looking at.. I have scraps of my own that have piled up ,scraps from my Mom when we had to rehome her,and more scraps coming from a elderly church lady who called ,saying she has some scraps for me.

So what am I going to do with all this fabric that would take ages to cut up into blocks,then there would be so many little  sizes.. (that thought gives me a headache.)

I went for my pencil ,paper and ruler. I’m not an artist but with the help of a ruler I can draw some lines. I made two block patterns that I liked that used little pieces.

I am also going to use the log cabin one again for I really like it. I once again removed the thread from my machine ,then stacked ten news printing paper under the copy pattern that I had made. I copied off 10 copies of the white copy paper as my guide to sew the lines on the thinner news print. You can see the lines where to sew ,also it makes tearing the paper off easier.

I use the larger pieces for the log cabin ,then put aside the even smaller ones for the little 4.5 inch blocks.

I have fifty five blocks done of the log cabins

Then this block

Fifteen of these done… then the last block pattern.

These are using little shapes of all sizes..

The blocks look like this before you trim them

Trim up the blocks and you had a lovely block full of color.

I have twenty of these done. I have many more to make as it hasn’t even made much of a difference in the scrap stack. I will decide later how I will use them .

I have put in a quilt top back in my frame again,it will keep me busy quilting all winter.. and maybe into next one. It is the fire hosta island quilt top that measures 100″by 100″.

This is the quilt that I just took out.. now to bind it. I really procrastinate when it comes to binding.

Keep warm friends ,for even the south is cold today. I have ice on my porch even in the middle of the day.. Deb

Dec.12th… a few more tied quilts,and an experiment

I finished up some tied quilts,some were from scraps that were in Mom’s attic. Some were old knits that were in great shape!

I put fleece on the back of the knit,it is so soft.

Then I had some heavy fabric, I think it is upholstery fabric . It is one heavy quilt!!

Then a few more scraps put to good use!

I received the cutest little gourd ornaments from my oldest son.

Now the experiment.. many years ago I used to make friendship cake which my hubby loved ,somewhere along the line I last the recipe. I love the Internet when looking for a recipe,it’s amazing what you can find. I found this fruit cake recipe that has a starter that needs to set for 30 days. It won’t be ready for Christmas like I wanted but it just might be for the New Year! Here the starter in its jar.. if it is a good recipe I’ll post it.

Have a lovely week! Deb

Sept.4… A old trunk

My second daughter  LouAnn was up in Va helping, first daughter,Lynn and the family with moving to their new home in south Boston,Va. Lynn then gave her this lovely old trunk for helping out. LouAnn was delighted !! Here it is..

It is in good shape , the lock is missing,needs some saddle soap on the straps and the green canvas needs a little clean up, other than that it is a nice antique treasure.

It is a flat top trunk, a common trunk made in the late 1800’s to earlier 1900’s.

Some details ..

This is what was found inside,would be interesting to know what was purchased from a Sears and Roebucks catalog. The little piece is a pin.

And I have the log cabin quilt top sewn together. I think the old trunk and quilt were made for each other. What do you think?

 
Here’s the top opened up.

.

We had a topical storm go though Friday, we were blessed in that we only have a messy yard to clean up and a few trees to trim .

 
No big limbs just lots of little limbs,twigs , leaves and trash from who knows where it came from.

Have a great week ,Deb