Taming the Scraps

I have decided to tackle my laundry basket of scraps. At one time it was well organized and easy for me to get everything out and organized for sewing. Not too long ago I was looking through what I have and realized that it is a mess. Over time I cleaned up in a hurry and shoved what I had left over for the scrap bags into a plastic bag. I meant to go back and sort it all out into colors when I had time. Right now I have more unsorted bags (10 bags) than bags that are sorted by color.  So I am taking time out from sewing and I am going to put this in order.

The laundry basket is 16 inches across at the top and 17 inches high. Here is oneshot  from the side and one from the top. You can see that the basket is over stuffed.










 This next photo is a few of the bags opened to show what is inside, all colors, unsorted. I have started by making piles of scraps by colors as I go through the unsorted bags. I will probable do some sorting by size after I get the color sorting finished.









This is a reason that I have decided to get this  done now. My grandson's wife wants to learn to quilt and she wants to use my scraps. She is going to make a Disappearing Nine Patch.  She is a very accomplished busy young woman, working full time as an ER nurse and going to school. This quilt will take some time but little by little I am pretty sure she will see it through. 

Jenna working on and showing off her first block.

A Finish

I finished the Disappearing Nine Patch today.

I spread it out on my bed for a photo shoot and Jack said, "This is our quilt for the bed for the rest of the summer".  Well......OK; it really does look  good in our bedroom. The white background print lightens up the room.











 I never thought about using it in our bedroom until I put it on the bed and saw how well it goes with the curtains. And, how could I not have thought about how well it would look with the "Red Flowers blog banner" quilt that hangs on the wall above the bed? I have a plain green coverlet on the bed and the quilt will go across the long way and just curve over the edges on the foot and sides. I have a little bit smaller spiral log cabin quilt across the foot of the bed now and I need something different to cover the pillows. I know Jack will say what I have on the pillows works fine. It does NOT so I am rolling it around in my mind.


 This is the back of the quilt. I had 6 blocks left over  and used them in 2 sets of 3 to make the backing longer.











No matter how I angled my camera I wasn't able to get a good photo of the quilting. Maybe it will show up if you click on the picture to enlarge it. It is pretty simple, quilting in the ditch around all the 6 inch blocks and then using the #4 Bernina serpentine stitch across all the squares

I did the binding on the machine; arthritis in my hands makes it a long drawn out and  painful process by hand.
I stitch the binding to the front and press it away from the quilt.  I then pull it around to the back to cover the stitching and press with steam. I use 1/4 inch Stitch Witchery to fuse the binding to hold it in place and stitch in the ditch on the front. When I come to the corner miter I stitch along the edge of the miter fold to the point and back and then continue on down the next side.
These next 3 photos show the binding and stitching. The true color is closer to the corner photos.

Binding - Corner front

Binding -  corner back

Binding - along the edge

I am minus Lucy's company today. She is at the vet's today getting spayed.  I can't say I will miss her "suspicious" behavior. We have had 2 separate weeks of her rolling on the floor making sounds that bordered on singing. Oh, and then there is her unusual posture. One of the 9 year old great grandsons asked his cousin what she was doing, the other 9 year old looked at her and said " She's catching mice". I'm glad he didn't ask Jack!

Quilting the DNP

I rearranged my sewing room for machine quilting on Friday and started quilting the Disappearing Nine Patch. This is the first machine quilting I have done that needed a rearrangement since we relocated some of the furniture. I spent most of the afternoon and early evening fooling around with different configurations. My original plan would have blocked the 3 drawers on the left side of my desk.

This is the arrangement I settled on. I turned my sewing machine around in the table to give me 2 less inches on the left  so I can sit closer to the table and small chest that is supporting the quilt. It is a little more difficult changing the bobbin but all in all it is working well.

Lucy has turned out to be a very self possessed, independent, friendly little cat. Likes to hang out with her people and she seems to have a need to inspect EVERYTHING.

She was fascinated with the moving parts of the machine.
















She crawled inside the folded over corner of the DNP quilt I am working on and thought she was going to settle down there. I had to banish her from the sewing room so I could move the quilt around.

Pinning and HST Blocks

 I am giving my back a break from pinning the Disappearing Ninepatch quilt.  It is about 1/3 of the way pinned and bending over the table isn't as easy as it used to be.
I  am going to have to do some cleaning up and rearrangement of  furniture to get set up for the quilting.
Wow! I just noticed that the angle  from which I shot  this photo distorted the squares that are flat on the table top. The are really square as in the forefront where they hang off the table.




















I have this back up on the design wall again. The six blocks on the right are not sewn on to the rest of  the quilt yet. They are blocks I just made and I have 3 more to put together and then either 3 or 9 more to make. I am mulling it over in my mind; I am not sure how big I want to make this one.

Here's Lucy again. She had a big morning, watching the birds, chasing her shadow,  laying under the bed and grabbing toes as we walk past, tearing around the house like a streak of lightning and slipping out the door when I went out to the garden and I couldn't get the door closed fast enough. I caught her easily because she is more interested in inspecting everything than she is in running away.
I had to shut her in the bedroom while I  spread and layered up the quilt. She thought it was a game. I hope I can get it done before she wakes up and Jack opens the bedroom door.

Disappearing Ninepatch

The ladies I have been quilting with are working on Disappearing Ninepatches. I have made several DNP quilts over the past few years but it is new to the other ladies. It is a nice easy pattern and it works up fast and looks like a lot more work than it is. There are also so many variations that the quilts don't all look like the same pattern.

These are two of the original nine patch blocks. I made 19 of these. The red dots and the white background prints are the 2 "constants" in all the blocks. When I put the blocks together I mixed up the corners instead of making them all the same. I wanted to make sure I that I used some of all the fabrics. I knew I would not have enough of the light background if I miscalculated what I would need from each of the corner prints.

I had to make 6 half nine patch blocks because I didn't have enough of the light fabric to cut enough 5 inch squares. I thought I would have to get more fabric but from each 5" strip there was a leftover piece that was big enough to cut a 2 1/2 inch rectangle.

I bought a bundle of Moda fabrics ("Strawberry Fields" by Figtree) when I was shopping for a yellow fabric to use in place mats that I was making. When I decided to use the bundle in the DNP I went back and bought yardage of 2 of the fabrics in the bundle to use as the "constants" in all of the blocks. Anymore, it is a big deal for me to get out to the quilt shop so when I get there I always have to look around and make sure I do not miss something that I can't live without. I found another bundle of fabrics "Farmhouse" by Figtree that works perfectly with "Strawberry Fields". I had some leftovers of "Fresh Cut" from the wedding gift quilt that I made last year; they work well too. All together they make a nice variety.



These are blocks that that I have cut from the ninepatches. I am not sure yet how I will  lay them out. I have worked out a layout in EQ but I will make my decision when they are up on the wall.

Today when I get together with the other ladies I will cut the 9 patch blocks in quarters and square them all up to the same size.

Quilt top finished

I finished this baby quilt top today. It is 53 x 43 and my backing fabric is only 40 inches wide and not quite 54 inches long so I will have to piece the back. I am not going to piece the batting I will be going out in the morning to get that. I am usually not fast but I really wanted to see this one all  put together.
It seems that no matter how  much rearranging I do when I am putting the blocks up randomly there are always some that are the same fabric side by side. No matter, the rule is..... random is random! These blocks look wonky in the photo  but they are not, Maybe it is  an optical  illusion or maybe it is just my eyes.

When I do a border like this one, I sew the strips to the outside blocks instead of sewing them together and then sewing a long border strip to the quilt it is easier for me to get it right this way. I will quilt in the ditch around the blocks and I will  just run the quilting right to the edge of the quilt.It makes a nice sturdy quilt that will hopefully get a lot of wear and tear.

I have to thank my friend Fran for getting me interested in getting this one started. I had only finished the other two DNP quilts because I had a stack of 9 patch blocks but I was not really interested in the pattern anymore. This is really a good "go to" pattern when you want to do something simple and fast.
I have been thinking that this would be a great pattern to use for our "Caring Quilts" at church. If we  all made 9 patch blocks using 4 inch squares we could make up quilts in no time when we need them.

We had some other blocks that we were going to all make but they are more fussy and take longer and they are smaller and almost nobody makes them. That was one of my not so hot ideas, seemed like a good idea at the time .