One Stitch At A Time

During my bone-mending "sabbatical" from this blog I have been stitching away. Smaller, close to my body movements such as cross-stitch and piecing didn't over-reach my capabilities. I HAD to do something other than sitting still and reading! This Blackbird Designs sampler spoke to me. I'm drawn to "bee" patterns especially, maybe because my first name is actually Hebrew for bee. 

This began taking shape on the design wall at the same time. The smallest pieces are totally out of my 2.5" squares bins, and the background squares and recs are from my Low Volume stash. This is a fantastic L-E project; I love the secondary design that is emerging. I'm not sure how much farther I'll go with these 10" blocks; if I stopped now it would be a good table-topper size for our breakfast area (but will I?). These blocks grew as this, below, was being joined:

and sew it goes,

buzzing through the projects here, 

one stitch at a time...

"His labor is a chant,

His idleness a tune;

Oh, for a bee’s experience

Of clovers and of noon!"

excerpt from: "The Bee" by Emily Dickinson

Life is Good!

Removing Bricks

"Zippity Doo Dah" is all quilted, off the rails, trimmed up and ready for binding. This quilt measures 76" X 64" and removed 192 light colored 2.5" X 4.5" "bricks" from my precut scrap bin. That might sound like a big number, but I still couldn't manage to even get the top on the bin; it remained full-to-overflowing. I knew that I could do better. As I posted last week and the week before, the Potato Chip quilt took shape, leader-ender style, as I was piecing a different top. 

 

As of this morning the Potato Chip quilt (on the wall) is fully pieced and measures in at 64" X 80"; a good, usable size. This little endeavor helped to remove 640 bricks from the bin! I'm on a roll, and now, not to be defeated by my own scraps, I'm moving on to another design while still working out of the same bin! Yay! You can see the blocks on the table and how they combine; again, using light/dark contrast to make the columnar setting stand out. I was inspired here; this scrap quilt design showed up in my Pinterest feed and the time was right. I guess this must mean that I'm working on a series~ a first for me!

So, the brick removal continues and with any luck at all, the bin's contents will begin to dwindle. Another 4, 5, or 6 hundred and I should be in pretty good shape, at least I'll be able to place the lid on this bin and hear it snap shut! Oh, happy day!

Sew, what's next?

Life is Good!

Betcha Can't

What to do with a full-to-overflowing bin of 2.5" X 4.5" bricks? Grab a fistful and put together some Potato Chip blocks! I found this free pattern somewhere on the Internet, it was all the inspiration that I needed and this has become the perfect leader-ender  project, going together sew quickly I can hardly believe it myself; plus, this is so much fun! I should easily be able to get a couple of good-sized quilts from this bin alone. Scrap busting! 

Here's one block, easy-peasy.

And here are four blocks joined, for reference. The only thing that you need to pay attention to is light/dark placement and turning every other block a quarter turn to make the design come together. Go for it!

Betcha can't stitch just one.

😉

For those who asked, I had to so some searching; this is the picture that I found on Pinterest, 

the one that inspired me. I'm sorry to say that I can't give credit to the quiltmaker, that person is unknown to me. 

Life is Good!

Fun~fetti

Fun~fetti ~ 56" X 70"

This one named itself as it took form, it reminds me of rainbow sprinkles scattered into white cake batter and vintage, long-ago birthday parties. I got this top together from Box #2-- the stack of numbered UFO's waiting patiently for me in the stash closet. This box already contained a decent size stack of low volume shaded nine patch blocks along with the remains of a jelly roll left over from rug making.

The shaded 9-patch is done from a Studio 180 technique sheet and the Tucker Trimmer, the results speak for themselves. I persevered until I had enough shaded-9's to complete twelve blocks and took off from there. I was able to use up quite a few 2.5" squares from my precut "lights" bin (Scrap User's System) for that inner border and chopped up the remaining jelly roll bits into enough rectangles to complete the piano key outer border. Voilà! Almost as exciting as completing yet another top is that growing stack of emptied out bins! Almost. 😉

Life is Good!

Sweet Sixteen

Sweet Sixteen ~ 65" X 80"

My guiding word for 2020 is "VISION"; the vision to see what's right in front of me-- namely, projects already begun and loads and loads of pre-cut pieces leftovers saved from other quilts (scraps!). Little did I know that the state of the current health pandemic would offer me nothing but time at home to realize that vision. This completed flimsy is off the design wall and created straight from the Scrap User bins. I've named it Sweet Sixteen in honor (and memory of) this year's now cancelled NCAA basketball tournament. The pattern is free, found here: Perfectly Scrappy 16-Patch.

In  light of our current state of the world it's uplifting to focus on some happy colors and have some control over something, even if it's only placing squares and triangles together in a pleasing way. I'm currently sewing together scrappy pieced "geese" and watching "Anne With An "E" on my tablet as I stitch.  I suppose these impromptu blocks might signify constant directional changes going on around me, I might just call this one "Which Way Now?". I do wish you all a PIECEFUL day today, what are you taking control of in your own sewing space?

Adapting to current changes today involves complying with a government issued STAY AT HOME order locally unless traveling to work at an essential business or to procure necessities. This order will take place beginning tomorrow and will be enforced until the 16th of April.  For us, this really doesn't look any different from the way Mr. G and I have been living the last two weeks anyway, but there's something scary and unsettling in contemplating how fast this has escalated. 

Stay safe, my friends; wash your hands🧼!

"Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!" -Psalm 31:24

Life is Good! 

Up next: Fabric Shopping Frenzy

Off The Wall...

I need to re-title this, "Still On The Wall" as not as much progress happened on the Scrappy Sixteen as I had planned. I'm blaming my sinuses for this setback over the last few days. What began as a mild cold lodged itself firmly behind my eyes and resided there for altogether too long. Today is much, much better! Yay!! I wanted to bring attention this morning back to my guiding word this year, "VISION" and my action plan for 2020: to see what's right in front of me. Let's start with this bin of precut 2.5" squares. This is but one bin (of eleven) that wait patiently (all are mostly full, one is beyond full) on pull-out shelves beneath my cutting table. These are the remnants of projects past that have been dutifully (and deliberately) cut into predetermined sizes employing Bonnie Hunter's "Scrap Users System". My precut scraps are even broken up into lights and darks, the bin pictured here is only 2.5" squares of darks, it has a companion bin of 2.5" squares in all light fabric scraps. Instead of thinking of these as "scraps" or "leftovers" I have shifted my thinking to realize that these are really as good as money in the bank-- they're in my fabric savings account and they're collecting interest! If I decided, once upon a time, that these were worth saving, then they're certainly worth stitching! I began to think about just what this bin would be worth to a beginning quiltmaker, someone who was just starting out and had no scraps on hand. That was me-- a hundred years or so ago. Then my thinking swung around to considering who could benefit from these stored scraps and I realized that my hoarded scraps were actually making me miserly. Did I want to be tight-fisted with my resources, those right at hand? NO! And, sew-- (sorry, that was too easy!) I set to work to find fun and simple scrap patterns. This one is a free pattern called "Perfectly Scrappy Sixteen Patch". It goes together quickly (even more so if one remains healthy) and has great visual appeal. What scraps are lurking on your shelves?

One more thing "on the wall". Lynneligh's artwork was chosen to be displayed at school system-wide art show for the winter term. Here's the proud artist and her work, an example of pointillism, at the reception last week. There was an awards presentation following, she represented her school very well. 🥰

From the wall to the table. I made four more placemats for my son's family's kitchen table. You might remember that I posted about this a few months back. Here's the link and the pattern if you're interested. I told my D-I-L that now they can have guests to dinner, this makes a set of eight.

And, since we're putting things on the table: what could be better than a perfectly poached egg on toast? One that is easy-peasy and quick to prepare! I read about this somewhere on Facebook last week and cannot find the recipe from the original source but will share it from memory-- break an egg into a mug or cup (I use a pyrex custard cup) pour 1/2 C of water mixed with 1 TBSP of white vinegar over the egg. Place a saucer over the cup and microwave on HIGH for one minute (this is  for a medium egg, 45 seconds for runny and 1 min, 15 seconds for hard). Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and place onto your buttered toast. Voila! Have fun trying this. 🍽

Life is Good!

Up next: Getting it Together

Home Shopping Club

Inspired by Bonnie Hunter at a recent Guild meeting, I have pulled out the scrap bins and "shopped" at home. I don't know why I hadn't been shopping at home all along! Years ago, inspired and fired-up by the very same  quiltmaker, I took all of my scraps leftover from other projects and dutifully cut them up into squares and bricks in usable sizes, employing Bonnie's 'Scrap User's System'. I labeled my bins accordingly and put them under my cutting table, it's where they live. Occasionally I would get them out, the granddaughters like to create using the bins of pre-cut small squares for doll-sized quilts; but other than that, they languished-- out of sight, out of mind. I had forgotten the most basic premise of this system, the reason I spent all of those days weeks months cutting up the scraps in the first place, this is designed to be the Scrap USER'S System, not the Scrap SAVER's System!  During Bonnie's inspirational program and spectacular show-and-tell of her myriad of finished quilts she kept reminding those of us in the audience to shop our own stashes. Yes, she said, go and buy new too, mix it in; but remember: for every yard of already owned fabric that you use you are earning yourself a pass to purchase that much more. Hmmm, I wondered, how much do I have already stashed that needs to be used up. How can I earn myself a pass to buy more without guilt attached? I set out to shop at home and see what was right under my nose. The first bin that needed my attention was that of the 2.5" X 4.5" bricks; the bin was crammed full of so many that the lid didn't fit anymore! (see, Scrap SAVING was getting me nowhere!) I removed the contents and while straightening and sorting these pre-cut rectangles I grouped them into contrasting pairs by fours. I chain-pieced them together.

There were lots and lots of pairs (times four)!

Then, I cut the paired bricks diagonally from corner to corner.

I shuffled the pieces to make two Twin Sister blocks, one positive and one negative. These were then sewn together as shown and trimmed into one 5.5" block, unfinished. I did this over and over.

The results are above, a start to a charity quilt; more rows will be added to make it a nice, usable size. Next month our little mission church is beginning a quilt ministry to create donation quilts (and blankets and afghans) for disaster relief. This is but a small seed that will grow toward that effort. I am feeling quite pleased to have spent such a small amount of time, in reality, making something from what I already had. But this newly-inspired me didn't stop there, oh NO!

Gregory needs a big boy quilt on his bed to replace his tattered and thread bare Picture Play Quilt. (Nothing thrills me more than to have a quilt worn-out from love! 💗) He said that he would like one that is tan, green and blue. I designed a few layouts in EQ8 and he selected his favorite (above). My original plan was to shop for fabric when I'm at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival later this week. But then I remembered that I have my own home shopping club! Back to the bins: for squares and rectangles that meet the criteria. How much more fun will this one be? A tan, green and blue quilt made from pieces that Nana has saved (and now is USING!). I am giddy with excitement. I don't feel one bit bad about shopping outside the home for a consistent sashing and/or border fabric; not at all. What do you have in your own home that you can "shop" for? You might just be surprised!

Oh, and in case you think that this new-found excitement and inspiration may wear off; not a chance. I bought Bonnie's newest book at the meeting, I'm good for months years!

Life is Good!