Pink

Last Saturday, I went to our quilting group at church where some of the ladies were sorting through a very large shopping bag of donated scraps.  I hadn't brought anything with me to work on so I went to work helping them. The fabric donor has given us an enormous amount of fabric before this and it is all wonderful quilt shop fabric, some large pieces, some half yards, some fat quarters; it is all washed and pressed. This bag was an assortment of colors and sizes, all jumbled up together. It was like digging into a treasure trove. One of the ladies was looking for "I Spy" pieces and found  a lot of them; the pink scraps caught my attention. I had finished with some orange and yellow improv scrap blocks from my own scrap and was ready for another color. PINK!! 

I started sorting the scraps I brought home and at one point I had a little pile that called out to become a block.

This is the block I made. 

Everything else I was doing got put on hold as I trimmed and cut squares from the scraps and then going through my bins and cutting squares from smallish pieces.

So, I have been energized to tackle  the bins of pieces and parts that are taking up space I am focused on cutting for a few specific patterns that use random scraps.  I  have stacks of cut squares, random strips sorted, by color, into my scrap bins, a big bag of dog bed scraps, and a few empty boxes.

Maybe one day 

I will have a sewing space 

where I can work  without frustration.  

We'll see.

Orange

I cleaned up my cutting table and put all the yellow scraps away after cutting some 4 and 4 1/2 inch squares to add to my box of squares. Those are the sizes I use most often.
I decided to make some improv blocks with orange scraps when I was rattling around wondering what to do with myself.

I didn't make them all the same size this time. I stopped when I couldn't find another fabric that I wanted to add to a block. I trimmed the edges so they are straight and I when/if I decide to use them I will either cut them down  or add to them.  I had some "starters" that I put in a separate ziplock bag; I will add other colored scraps to those.

The orange scraps are back in their bin and I plan to cut pieces for another pinwheel baby quilt.  I need to do something more intentional than working with scraps.

Improv Blocks and Given Away

After I finished the Jamaica quilts and the baby quilt for the church giveaway closet I thought I would get right to my own quilting.  Other things kept coming up to keep me away from my sewing machine.  I finally got some time to make some yellow scrap blocks.

I worked only on the yellow pile of scraps and I am happy that I didn't dump out all the other colors; just the  yellow made a big enough mess. The 3 blocks in the top row on the left are from my previous improv sewing day and the other six are from yesterday and the day before. That is not a lot to show for the time spent. I am not liking these blocks so much either, so..... I am rethinking what to do with all the scraps that I sorted a month or so ago.  For one thing I think I would be happier with them if I made them an inch or two smaller.  I am also thinking of cutting 4 1/2 inch squares from anything large enough. Maybe I just need to put it all away for awhile and work on something more intentional.

I have started divesting myself of the quilts living in closets and chests that never see the light of day. I change out some of my quilts with the seasons but there are some that only come out to be shown to someone or to be refolded.

My grandson and his wife took 2 quilts on Wednesday.
This is from the Quilters Playtime series when the The Basement group was working through Diane Hires book.

 This is Musical Chairs.






























This is "Reticent Stars" another from the Basement challenge to use something we bought but never used. I had a 60 degree triangle ruler and Sarah Nephews book "Quilts from a Different Angle. I am not sure anymore if  "black and white and another color" was one of the challenge rules for this challenge or if it was from a different challenge and I combined the two in order to kill 2 birds with one stone.




They plan to hang it over their bed where they have a  black and with and red Disappearing 9 Patch that I made for John some years ago.

My other Grand daughter in law took 2 quilts last Sunday and my daughter took a stack for her self and her children. I have to find the photos for those quilts and will show them another time. I told her to take photos of the quilts with the people who take them.

And that is another thing I have to do. I have to get all of the quilt  photos together in one place. I have them all over the place on CD's and USB disks. When I started looking for photos I realized how many I have forgotten.

A Finish or 4 and Lucy

I just finished his group of wall hangings for my bathroom. Before we moved I had a large wall hanging in my bathroom with similar blocks. You can click on the link to see it. I gave that one away when we moved because I would have no space large enough to hang it. I also had a Flimsy the same size with the same kind of blocks, which I came across recently. I have no idea what I originally intend to do with it and it seemed like a good idea to take it apart and make something for my present (colorless) bathroom.
The six block piece is below some shelves that are over the toilet in  little alcove. I quilted in the ditch on all the seams. There was a spot on the light area of the center star in the bottom row, probably from goo on my iron. I found some tiny colored buttons in assorted colors and shapes and put 2 red buttons to cover the spot. It's seemed that the rest of the quilt should have some buttons as well so I added some tiny buttons in some of the larger patches that could have used some quilting.

These three pieces will go on the wall with double sinks. There are mirrors over each sink and the 3 block piece will hang between the mirrors and the 2 block pieces will go on the other side of each mirror. I did not add any buttons to these as my hands were not working well today, maybe later or maybe not. I did add some prairie points to the bottom edges for a little interest. That made it necessary to use a facing on the bottom edge instead of binding because of the bulk. All of the pieces have a mottled yellow binding to go with yellow hand towels on the two towel rings that are just below the two shorter pieces. I hung the 6 block piece with Velcro Command Strips and I will do the same with the rest.

I had a small furry companion while I was working. Sometimes I had to banish her from my sewing room. You see her laying on my machine table here and in my drawer where I keep my sewing machine accessories and seam rippers etc. She delights in burrowing under anything, clothes, paper, throws,blankets etc. We sometimes find a lump in the middle of the bed between the spead and the blanket. Here she decided to burrow under the piece of backing fabric from which I was cutting trying to cut the backing for the six block piece.

Yesterday I had moved my Ott light and had failed to shorted up the cord and tie it and put it out of sight, BIG mistake. I found it in two pieces. Fortunately Jack was able to repair it.

She likes to hang out with me and after she wears herself out she takes a nap in anything she can find to settle into. She likes the basket on my cutting table where I toss odds and ends. She is especially fond of my collapsable laundry basket.

It's a good thing I like her so much. 

It is even better that she likes me so much.

Giraffes coming along

I started this early last week and I worked on it on and off as far as actual sewing goes but I had it percolating in my mind all the time. This has been improvisational all the way so there has been a lot of stopping and thinking with each piece I cut and stitched. All of the borders are different widths and the border fabrics do not follow in a four sides the same order. Many decisions here, I guess that I what improve is.
The spotted fabric borders on the top and left are going to be trimmed  to about 3 inches (I think). I cut them 5 inches  but that is too wide. The bright fabric shows up true to color here but everything else looks washed out which is not how it really looks.

After I got his far I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for the binding. I have to know what I want to do before I cut it all up as there is not enough of the bright batik fabric to experiment. I scanned all my fabrics and sent them to EQ7 and worked out the quilt in EQ the way I had put it together. This EQ version looks a lot more straight than the piece on my design wall looks although it actually is nice and straight.

I decided that I am going to use the right batik for the binding on two sides and black on the other 2 sides and add some prairie points in the lower right corner to brighten up the zigzag stripes.
the colors all show up better here in the fabric that was scanned than in my photo of the quilt. The prairie points are too small to show up the other colors in EQ but I will make sure I cut my squares to get the purple and hot pink as well as the orange. I do not plan to add any prairie points in the upper left but I colored a couple triangles there to see how they look and forgot to change them. Who knows though, I have changed my mind from one addition to the next several times. I am ready to layer this and quilt it right after I decide on a backing;  I can save the decisions about the binding and prairie points till last.