Scrap Happy in November

 It appears that if it weren't for Scrap Happy Day this blog would go dormant. My goal is to keep it current until next spring as that will mark 20 years of blogging. We shall see. 

Speaking of decades, I recently pulled out what is probably my oldest UFO. It was a round robin project that our quilt group did when we first began meeting regularly. That would have been about 1995-96. From what I can discern there were a dozen of us who worked on each other's quilt projects. Everyone started with a block of their choice. The block was passed to the next person and she added a border or applique or another set of blocks or some kind of embellishment. Then it was passed to the next person and so on until it ended back up with the originator. Many of us were pretty new to quilt making. Which is one reason my flimsy has been in a box in the closet for so many years. I didn't have a clue what to do with what I'd ended up with. It wasn't close to twin size. It was too big to hang on any of our walls. It had also taken an Oriental turn I didn't expect. There were 3D elements I didn't know how to cope with. Still, it was pretty fun to see how it had developed. 

 This began with the basket block left of center. I'd put a strawberry print in the basket; one of the ladies had a new machine that did embroidery and she embroidered flowers falling out of the basket. There's hand and machine applique, folded fabric flowers and yo-yo's with buttons and a bit of lace trimming the fan at the top. 

 

 

I don't remember now what prompted me to pull this project out finally. I had it pinned to the design wall when my son the long arm quilter walked in. I doubt he'd ever seen it before. He got all excited about quilting it because it isn't my run of the mill scrappy quilt that just needs meander quilting to hold the layers together. We consulted a bit and decided to take off and add some borders.

I removed the original dark blue border that was along the bottom edge. It was a different width than the one at the top. I also added the narrow light blue side borders. Now it looks more balanced overall. It's still on the small side, measuring about 48" x 58." It will work as a couch quilt though. 😊

The next step was to find something to use for the back. I don't have much in the way of Oriental prints. I couldn't find any significant yardage in house that felt appropriate either. I did find a panel and a few other pieces that coordinated in terms of color at least. The result was a giant Courthouse Steps block! 

I'd cut what I'd had of a small Asian style print thinking I would use it early in the process of creating the back but it didn't work. So I used it to extend the purple yardage I chose to achieve the length I needed overall. 

 It's not the same color palette as the quilt top (which would have been my preference) but it got the job done. Now it's James' project to finish! 

News flash! James has talked me into letting him have what was supposed to be the back for my round robin quilt as a quilt for himself. We have purchased extra wide backing fabric - in a subtle neutral print - to back both the round robin top and this new creation. I think it's fair to say that it is possible to be too frugal sometimes. 😉

Scrap Happy Day is being hosted by Kjerstin on the 15th of each month. It's an opportunity to share what we've been able to repurpose or create from scrap material - not necessarily fabric. Enjoy the journey!

Kjerstin, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan,
Moira, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Sue L, Vera, Kate,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy  
 

Scrap Happy Day in October

I've got another textile book for you. This one is just a tad larger than the last few at about 4" square. I took a vintage hanky, folded it in half over a piece of batting, and randomly quilted the layers together.  

Eventually I added the vintage yo-yo and button to the front cover. 

The pages were kept within the lace trimming of the handkerchief. This book was made for my SIL. She is suffering from macular degeneration, slowly losing her vision. My goal was to make high contrast pages with a variety of textures that would give her pleasure to see while she still can and hold and stroke when her world goes entirely dark.

I cut a heart template out of a 3" square and used it for every page. This first one is a flannel heart on denim. All the hearts are raw edge applique, blanket stitched in place. 

The second heart was cut from a piece of kantha (a type of quilt made in India). The white stitches in the heart were done by the maker of the kantha. The background of that page is a dupioni silk. The next page foundation is cotton damask. The heart is another silk that came with chain stitching lines on it. 

On the left page of the center spread we have a heart cut from Guatemalen woven cotton fabric. The right hand heart was cut from vintage feed sacking. The foundation is a quilter's cotton. 

On page six we have a wool heart on the other half of the cotton damask. The floral heart opposite was cut from a precious piece of baby wale corduroy. The foundation under the corduroy is the dupioni silk again.

Page eight is denim ticking on blue jean denim. I used the corner of another vintage hanky to create a pocket to hold a piece of paper with descriptions of what I've done someone can read to my SIL.

That just leaves us with the inside back cover. 

We share something we've made out of scraps or repurposed materials on the 15th of each month. Scrap Happy Day is currently being hosted by Kjerstin. Having a deadline has helped me more than once to get a project made or finished. If you'd like to participate too just leave a comment on Kjerstin's blog. 😊

Kjerstin, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan,
Moira, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Sue L, Vera, Kate,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy  

Scrap Happy Day in September

 I've started another little textile book. For this one I've used a piece of denim from jeans my son discarded for the cover. It's about 8" wide like this and 4.5" tall. I expect the finished book to be about 3.75" x 4.5"

 The floral elements I've appliqued on what will be the front cover came from a linen doily that had also been discarded.

 I'm using strips of vintage grain sack for the page foundations.

 So far I have used more bits of grain and flour sacking to lay the groundwork for two signatures or what will ultimately be four pages. (Each of these signatures gets folded in half to create two pages.)

I purposely left a bit of the plain gran sack visible on this first signature. We'll see if it stays exposed!

 Nothing brand new will be used in the creation of this little book. Which is the premise for Scrap Happy Day after all. 😊 To see what others are doing with their scraps or recycled materials click on the links below.

Kjerstin, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan,
Moira, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Sue L, Vera, Kate,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy  

 

Textile Treasures Book I

I enjoyed making the six books for the Roxy sister's Journal of Stitchery Volume 9 so much that I decided to carry on making little textile books. From this point forward they may not always be exactly the same size but for this first one I kept to 3.5" wide and 4.5" tall. 

 The cover for this book is a piece of a quilt I bought in a little kit from a gal who was destashing on YouTube (Uniquely Yours by Dawn Marie). I've been collecting bits of crochet and lace along with vintage handkerchiefs from various sources. The focal point on this cover was cut from a corner of one of those hankies. I outlined stitched it with a size 12 perle cotton. 

On the inside front cover I have raw edge "pieced" around a feedsack patch with other prints of a similar type. The yellow strips were once part of an apron. The selvedge edge is attached along the left edge but loose on the right hand side. 

I hemmed the bottom strip to turn it into a one inch by 2 inch pocket. I have a card in there with my name and the date for future reference. 

Turn over the piece of wide white lace to find one of Cicely Mary Barker's flower fairies. They were available as small panels on quilter's cotton some years ago. The light pink at the left side is the folded edge of a handkerchief you'll see later in the book. I decorated it with a strip of lace and left it loose as well. I seed stitched the background with some tiny upright crosses with a Sulky 12 weight thread. 

The next page is another corner from another hankie. I added a few embroidery stitches around the perimeter with a size 12 perle cotton and did some random quilting in the interior. There's a piece of batting between this page and the flower fairy to give the hankie some substance. The embroidered flowers on the right were on a vintage hand towel. I fussy cut them, raw edge appliqued them in place, and then couched a lightweight trim over the cut edges. 

 For the center spread I cut a piece of a fairly new cotton print. The large flowers were cut from one hankie and the smaller ones from a different hankie. The butterfly is wooden. It has a low profile and is lightweight. The patch is from snugglymonkey.com.

 Most of the violets on the left hand page of this spread came from one hankie. The darker violets came from another hankie. The right hand page is the pink hankie I referred to earlier. I folded it in half (using only half of the whole square hankie) to create the base for this page, lining up the crochet edges as closely as I could. The big pink rose is a commercial applique, the flower next to it is from yet another handkerchief. There's another dark violet and a strip of wedding trim along the top. I seed stitched this page with more tiny upright crosses. This page has batting between the two sides as this hanky was also very thin. It began life as a plain white handkerchief; Dawn Marie hand dyed it for me. 

 Here you have the other side of the pink hankie, more wedding trim, and more flowers cut from vintage handkerchiefs. The background areas are quilted with a pink Sulky12 thread. Opposite the hankie we have the other half of the white lace. 

Turn the lace over and you have another of the flower fairies on the inside back cover of the book.

And on the back cover I've applied another bit of crochet with a raised center. 

I

I love having the crochet edges peeking out on the sides and bottom of the book. And it's so soft and squishy; it's lovely to hold in the hands. I'm quite pleased with the way this turned out. There were many times I wasn't sure what I was doing. When I hit upon the fact that I'm trying to showcase the prettiest parts of the embroidered vintage hankies and find places for the short strips of lace and trims and such I realized that I'm trying to save textiles treasures. Thus the beginning of what I expect to be a new series of little books. 😊

Bogging Hiatus

 A couple of days after my post for Scrap Happy Day in July I had outpatient surgery. Recovery from both the surgery and the time spent in medical facilities (highly toxic to my body due to chemical sensitivities) has taken longer than anticipated. Now I'm on antibiotic and antibacterial medications. They are making me very lethargic. I've slept more in the last four weeks than I remember ever doing before. Frankly, there have been moments when I've wondered whether I will ever regain my energies. 

I can't say when I will be up to taking pictures and blogging again. I've done a little bit of stitching but nowhere near as much as I'd like. I appreciate my faithful visitors to this blog and am grateful for your comments in the past. I wish it were easier to respond to them. 

It's doubtful I will have something to share for Scrap Happy Day in August. Please be sure to visit the other participants to see what they've created out of scrap materials. 

Kjerstin, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Sue L, Vera, Kate,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin, Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy