Wordless Wednesday

 

July Stars

Have been wanting to make this quilt for some time now--it's Cluck Cluck Sew's pattern called July Stars. All red, white, and blues. I like the nice, fresh look of it.
 

 

Made three blocks yesterday. Not sure whether I'll go for a bed quilt or just make a nice table topper. We'll have to see!

A Little Finish

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from more complicated stuff and just make something little and easy. Like this cute little mat. The pattern was free on Martingale's website. Although they called it "One-patch Garden", I think of it as "Easter Eggs in the Grass".  Don't those bright little squares remind you of those colorful plastic Easter eggs?

Today's Finish

At our quilt meeting this morning, I finished sewing on the binding to this string quilt. I think the quilt was pieced somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago. Technically, I guess this pattern would be called Roman Stripes. The strings were stitched onto a backing of muslin, something I haven't done since I started using deli paper for foundations. Some people don't like tearing off the paper after the block is finished, but I really enjoy it. I even like the sound of the paper tearing. (some people are crazy, I know.)

The quilt was in my UFO pile until recently, when I finally got around to quilting and binding it. The quilting was done using the walking foot, in a pattern I call "drunken cross-hatch". I was a little afraid to try it, but once I got used to quilting free-form like this, I started to enjoy it and it was actually quite liberating. You can double-click on the photo to see what it looks like.

Am making a lot of progress on my UFO pile. Maybe one day soon I will be brave enough to put the whole list of my unfinished projects on this blog...or maybe not. Would you be brave enough to do it? How many UFOs do YOU have lying around...or hidden somewhere in the bottom of a closet? Tell the truth now!

The Joys of Housekeeping

Or I should say "the joys of NOT housekeeping". Ever since I broke my foot 7 1/2 weeks ago, I haven't done too much of anything. My main activity has been lying on the couch with my foot elevated. And moaning. A little bit of moaning. Somehow, we have managed to survive 7 weeks with a mother lying on the couch moaning and doing next to nothing. It helps that our local supermarket takes phone orders and delivers the groceries to the house. Because I haven't seen the inside of the store in 7 1/2 weeks. (I hope that means we have saved some money, but that's probably just wishful thinking.) But really, folks, the dishes have gotten done (almost every day), the garbage has gone out, and the clothes have been washed. Once in a while I even get up off the couch and cook something. So it hasn't been all bad.

But I knew things were going to have to change when my daughter remarked this morning that there was a bad smell in the vicinity of the couch (not the one I am lying on, the OTHER ONE.) Indeed, when I came a little closer to check it out, it did seem as if something may have DIED underneath the couch.

After she left for school, I took my broom in hand (it had been so long since the last time I did that, it felt like a new experience) and very gingerly moved the couch. And there he was, a nice little lizard, dead as a doornail and emitting a rather peculiar aroma. The fact that he's missing his tail means that the cats probably played with him before killing him. I don't know how long he had been under there, but am taking it as a sign that a little more frequent floor-sweeping and furniture-moving are in order.

Moving on to a different type of housekeeping. You all know about how those scraps multiply in the night when we're not looking. Kind of like those wire hangers, you have no idea where they came from and how you got so many of them. Well, I have no idea where half of these scraps came from, but it's time to organize them and do something with them.

A little cutting and pressing, and I have a nice little pile, ready to be used for some scrappy project. (Etty, you can see a scrap from your bag right on the top. Thanks again for all the scrappy love.)

Of course there is still lots more to do to get through that big pile, but in the meantime I decided to start sewing some of the scraps together. I can see another Crumb Quilt in my future.

Do you have a mountain of scraps that needs to be tamed on a regular basis? How do you manage to keep it organized and usable? I would love to hear any ideas you have on this...it seems to be a common problem. :) 

Have a pieceful weekend!

Turning Two

Guess who is having a birthday in May. Our two rescue kitties, Fester and Wednesday. Fester is the cat in the picture. Wednesday looks pretty much just like him. (Their sisters, Morticia and Gomez, don't live with us anymore.) All four of them were found abandoned under a garbage dumpster when they were little tiny things whose eyes hadn't even opened yet. We bottle-fed them every two hours until they were old enough to eat on their own. They have grown up to be very loving cats, and their favorite thing to do is burrow under a quilt when they take their nap.  
Their second favorite thing to do is mess up play with quilt blocks that have been arranged on my design floor. I don't think I've put a quilt together without a mistake since they came to live with us.
But we love them anyway.

Busted!

Well, apparently word got out about my out-of-control stash. And all of those rumors, well, they were true. I guess when you have so many scraps, they just start to take over.
I had to go to a meeting last week at an office not far from our local fabric shop. After the meeting, I debated whether to hop on the bus and go check out the fabrics...then I thought better of it. Too much walking, and my broken foot isn't completely better yet. And maybe, just maybe, I have enough fabric at home?  Decided to go home and take a look at what I have. Tidied up a bit, took stock of what I have, and then I started to make the Ultimate Scrap Quilt. Titled "Sunshine", it's a pattern by Karen Griska, whose quilts I love. Karen was the one who brought us the Asterisk Quilt that became so popular in the the quilting world. Her blog is Selvage Quilter. The piano key borders--and there are many of them--are made with 2" x 7" strips. I have two of the borders on already, and a third is ready to go. And two more Sawtooth borders are coming too.  My daughter says it is hideous, more hideous than anything else I've ever done, and she may be right. But this pattern sure does eat up scraps! And there isn't a single fabric in there that I would ever buy again. In fact, I have no idea how I got the majority of the fabrics in this quilt. I would never in my right mind have paid someone for these seriously ugly things. Some of them definitely snuck into my scrap bins during the night!
So here we have it. A new quilt being made entirely from very ugly, very old scraps. Well, from a distance it doesn't look too bad. Or does it?
(As Bonnie Hunter put it the other day on QuiltCam, "No fat quarters were harmed in the making of this quilt.")

Some Artistic Recycling

At the top of the volcano, we were treated to a unique art exhibit. All of these fanciful creatures were made from recycled metal junk.
Too cute!  

 

 

 

 

Where I've Been Lately

For the Passover holiday week, we were up north in a beautiful hotel. Situated at the foot of the Golan Heights, the whole area is full of history and natural beauty. One day I went on a group tour which included a visit to the top of a dormant volcano. From here we had a fabulous view of Mt. Hermon, with some of its winter-time snow still showing.
The bus continued on, taking us to one of the most beautiful spots in Israel, the Banyas falls. As the winter snows are still melting, the water went crashing down the falls and roaring into the stream below it.

Heading back to the bus, I couldn't help but notice the lovely wildflowers which are everywhere now.

 

 

 

A Little Finish

Over the Passover holiday we don't do any sewing, so the quilting wasn't finished on my Periwinkle Star until this morning. It measures 11 1/2" x 11 1/2". This was just a little project I decided to make, as I don't feel much like working on anything big at this point. I paper-pieced some blue and white borders for it, but in the end decided to leave them off and just to go with a single-fold blue binding. I love how a handful of scraps can turn into something so delicate and sweet. This one makes me smile!

(Christine, some of the scraps are from you. Thanks again.)