What a Difference a Week Makes!?!

Is your head spinning over every thing that has happened over the past week?

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!

A week ago, we were being "urged" to take precautions here in the USA and now we are being "ordered" to take precautions.  Today, I am suppose to be on the Platte River in Nebraska enjoying a "bucket list" birding experience but I'm home doing laundry, figuring out what to fix for supper, and puttering in my sewing studio.  Thank goodness I have a lifetime supply (really, maybe a couple lifetimes) of stuff!!

I finished and washed this little quilt to donate to a local veterans facility (though that may be delayed at this point).

I machine quilted this funky piece of scrappy patchwork I showed you last week. I am so surprised at the response it got on Instagram -- really, it's just leftovers?  

And I didn't even like it while it was happening.

I decided to finish it into a pillow cover and while I love the finished look of a piped edge, I hate the actual task of adding piping to anything.  It would be whimsical to use ball fringe -- but a bit too funky for me.  So as I was poking through the trimmings stash looking for inspiration (without leaving the house), this wide rick-rack caught my eye -- insert that in the edge seam???  

No, too much like adding piping. 

But (light bulb moment), what if I stitched it to the patchwork like a border.  

Perhaps it will distract the discerning eye from an easy (but common) knife-edge finish.

Yep!!  

That works!!

(Make a note if you also hate inserting stuff to make a pillow cover more whatever.) 

One pillow down!!

In January, I set a goal of "eliminating" 10 UFO's.  I "only" got to 7 in January but I have been continuing to reach for that goal.  I decided to finish this color exercise sample from an old teaching workshop into a large floor pillow.  So while the motivation from finishing one pillow was high, I set to machine quilting this piece.  It took two evenings, nothing fancy, a simple grid with fuchsia thread!! 

There was even a nice big piece of black and purple corduroy in the stash for the backing!

Ta-da -- UFO #9 eliminated!! 

But as if often the case, almost as soon as I eliminate one UFO, another appears to take it's place.

When I pulled out my "drunkard's path" teaching box to use a template to curve the corners of the pillow cover, this little block was lurking inside.

The greens were part of a 2 1/2" square charm pack.  I must have been bored and stuck with no sewing machine when vending with a friend at a quilt show because it's hand pieced.

Cute block -- the rest of the charm pack was there, too -- maybe I could make a few more of the blocks?!?

It took less than a minute to squelch that impulse because there wasn't enough of anything to do much except create a bigger UFO.  

MUST NOT DO THAT!!!

 I put the rest of the charm squares into my 2 1/2" squares scrap basket and decided to make the block into a potholder.

Well, this morning when I decided to stitch some of the leftover squares together to make a potholder back, this little block happened -- I may be intimidated by "improvisational" piecing but I am a master of "spontaneous" piecing.

It occurred to me that someone else might find this little block useful.

It uses sixteen (16) 2 1/2" squares.

Nine laid out in a 9-patch grid.

Six squares cut in half - 1 1/4" by 2 1/2" for the "sashing". 

One square cut into fourths -- 1 1/4" squares for the "cornerstones". 

All laid out and ready to stitch together!

And here's the back of the first block I made to show you how I pressed it.

Then while I was eating lunch, I sketched the block out in EQ7.  It finishes at about 8 1/2".  I also set it into a simple layout with sashing (cut 2 1/2" wide) for a small quilt that will finish about 32" by 42".

Since I always have a stash of 2 1/2" squares that need using up, I think I'll piece more of these blocks in bright colors for an easy, pleasing quilt to donate or give away.

No hurry -- just a quick little block to piece now and then until I have a dozen.

(Did I just create another UFO or is this a WIP?)

Those two blocks are still destined for potholders for my impromptu gift stash!!

Let me know if this block inspires you to use up some scraps!

Staying inspired and cheerful is the thing that is going to get each of us through this weird and scary time, isn't it?

Using up more stash for now, Mary

Linking up today with NTT, Needle and Thread Thursday HERE.

and with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop HERE

and TGIFF, Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday HERE!

National Quilting Month Scrap Challenge

I got all my English paper pieced blocks appliqued to the backgrounds over the weekend and now that I'm home with them up on the design wall, I'm hesitating.

One quilt with all twelve, two quilts with six, three quilts with four -- twelve big pillow covers?

So the best strategy is to leave them up there staring at me and do something else.

Let my subconscious work on it for a bit!

It's National Quilting Month here in the USA and so lots of quilters are gearing up for that with special projects, sew alongs, and retreat days!  Meg, @teaandbrie on Instagram, is leading a "Sew the Scrap out of March" and her first email got me all wound up to tackle my scraps, too!  She had lots of ideas to share and the hashtag #nqmscrapchallenge on Instagram is full of inspiration!

Getting quilt fabric scraps under control and using them up is a universal form of entertainment, don't you agree?  There must be hundreds of blog posts and tutorials out there for how to organize and how to use fabric scraps.  For at least 25 years, perhaps more, the 2 1/2" strip stash has been my main "go-to" strategy.  When the box is full, it's time to do something with them.

(The box is full . . . . again?!?)

There's also a 2 1/2" squares stash which actually pre-dates the strip box.  I put a big dent in this basket last fall with the Scrappy Triple Irish Chain quilt I made -- you can revisit that post with a brief tutorial on my strategy HERE! 

I just came down from my studio (I yelled down but Willie, my cat, wasn't willing to bring lunch up to me) where I've been sorting and chopping and stitching for half the morning!

Bright scraps are going into this cute box.

They are destined to be stitched into little slabs for cat faces! 

I made a cute quilt to donate in 2018.  The blocks were so much fun to make that I've wanted to do another little project for myself -- perhaps a couple pillows?  The pattern was designed by Elizabeth Hartman for the Janome Sewing machine website -- HERE is a link to it.

This was a seriously cute little quilt and a bit hard to let go but I did in the end! 

As usual, if I'm in the studio, I can't stay away from the sewing machine for long -- either "I just have to sew this together to see what it looks like" or the cutting is getting boring!?!  

For the past couple months, I've been stitching the leftover triangles from the hexagon quilt I cut last summer from a layer cake into pairs. The triangles were just "chopped", no template used.  I've sewn them into pairs of light and dark.  There wasn't a plan and it got tedious more than once but they were just sew-offs so I persisted.

Here's where they came from -- I chopped the "hourglass" leftovers in two to get the triangles.

Once I started to join the pairs into rows and put them up on the design wall, "chevrons" started to appear -- now I'm glad I persisted!! 

Today, I stitched the rows together as sew-offs while I assembled some old teaching hexagon blocks into a quilt top.  It's fun!!  I'll set it aside to quilt later and I'm thinking it will become either a pillow cover or a tote bag front?

Scraps busted!!

This is the quilt I'm piecing -- it's destined for donation to a local veteran's project.

Then it was back to the pile of scraps -- all pressed and ready to chop up.

2 1/2" strips or squares are always first.

For some time I've been cutting colorful squares for this block -- there are several tutorials for it floating around -- I'm using the one from Purple Poppy Quilts (link HERE) because it uses lots of  2 1/2" squares and strips which I already have cut! 

I have enough of the colorful squares to start but need lots more light 2 1/2" squares so those are a priority with the scraps I'm busting these days!  I'm anxious to get started on the piecing this one so it's up next and will start as sew-offs while I finish up a few more UFO's -- still finding teaching samples that needs to be eliminated one way or the other!!

So go check out the @teaandbrie feed on Instagram and follow the hashtag #nqmscrapchallenge -- be inspired and make another assault on your scraps -- you won't be done with them, but it will be fun!!

The triplets are 9 months old!!  

Lots of smiles, sitting up and starting to move around on their own!?!

Hope your weekend is full of good things!

Mary

Linking up HERE with TGIFF and OhScrap HERE