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 

Scrap Happy in July

My latest scrap busting effort involved making what's called Big Dipper blocks in my reference book. I see hourglasses personally. Or time turners maybe? That may not be totally appropriate in terms of the Harry Potter series of books but it makes sense to me. Some of the prints are new-ish while others have been in my stash for many years. Time Turners it is. 😁 

 The individual blocks finish at eight inches. I made 64 of them so I could set 63 in 9 rows of 7 each. ('Cause you know I'm not into sashing. 😉) That gives me a flimsy 56.5" x 72.5." With a two inch border down the long sides and four inches across the top and bottom I'll have a quilt top that measures 60" x 80." 

As I went through my fabric collection I couldn't find enough yardage of anything I was willing to part with to make the borders for this flimsy. So I ordered yardage. I also ordered some extra wide fabric for the back. They haven't arrived yet. But right now the flimsy qualifies for Scrap Happy Day! 

This blog hop has been hosted for 11 years by Kate at Tall Tales from Chiconia. Unfortunately, Kate has developed some physical issues that will curtail her making and blogging for the immediate future. Kjerstin has kindly volunteered to take over hosting duties. Thank you Kjerstin. ❤️

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

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

Independence Day 2026

 In honor of the 250th birthday of the United States of America I have put together this vintage 500 piece puzzle from Milton Bradley. I love the image. It wasn't as challenging a puzzle as one might expect at first glance. Or maybe my puzzling skills have improved since I've been doing jigsaws more frequently of late! 

I have posted a No Kings flag along with a pair of small-ish American flags for passers-by to view. Hubby and I will be watching the movie 1776 and then trying to sleep through the fireworks after dark. Pretty low key but that isn't a reflection of our gratitude for the founding of this nation, more a reflection of our ages. 😉

I will be back very soon as I have finished my Textile Tales book for June. I have a scrappy quilt top under construction too. See you then!

 

Scrap Happy in June

 This Scrap Happy Day I am sharing my start for my Textile Tales book for June. These little books are great for putting small scraps to use. This time I'm using Janet Kime's book Quilts to Share as my inspiration. 

 

This is an older book, published in 1991 by That Patchwork Place. It's one of many in my library I've had to have taken apart and individual pages put in archival sleeves to protect myself from the particulates/fumes that emanate from the ink or paper. It's the source for the cat block I've used for quilts in the past. 

 Most recently I've had this quilt from the book on my mind:

 What if I made the cover for my book like that?

 I didn't get as much variety in strip widths but I was also working at a much smaller scale. This cover piece measures 8.25" x 4.5." I worked strictly out of my bag of scraps that are less than 1.5" wide. 

I used the sew and flip method to secure the strips to batting and the piece of fabric for the inside of the cover. 

 This is a Mary Lou Weidman print. A major part of the book is dedicated to sharing how to organize the making of scrappy community quilts (quilts to be donated to a charity) within a quilt guild or group. So I felt the print of "quilt ladies" would be most appropriate to include. 😊

I have also constructed one half of one signature for my book. Out of scraps of course.

 This 7" x 4.5" unit will eventually make up two pages in my book. I have an idea for the center spread based on the little house quilt blocks in Janet's book. After that I don't know what will come next. The cat block will not work at this small scale or the square format of my pages. The Textile Tales books are not meant to be exact replicas of the inspiration volumes by any means. Just a jumping off place. 

I try to keep a stack of scrap patches near the sewing machine to sew together inbetween the seams of other projects. These are the blocks I've built over the last month or so:

 One of these days I really need to do something about the drawer FULL of 6" Hole in the Barn Door blocks (also known as Churn Dash blocks). It's getting so I can't easily put any more blocks in that drawer. 

Scrap Happy Day is hosted by Kate of Tall Tales from Chiconia on the 15th of each month. We have a new participant joining us this month. Welcome Wizzy!  

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

 

Textile Tales #5

I'm a little slow to share my May textile book with you. Better late than never I hope. 😊 

I didn't have a specific book to use as inspiration this time around. I might have had if I hadn't thinned out my library before now. Suffice to say I used my collection of African prints for this one. I'm calling it African Tails and Textiles.  

 

On the front cover I simply did a bit of outline stitching around the warrior and the shield.  Then I couched a chenille yarn around that patch. 

 

The inside of the cover is a single piece of fabric. It's pretty tightly woven, making it less fun to stitch through, so I just put some tiny upright crosses in the sky area. A lot of the stitching in this book is very simple.

 

The black lines on the print behind the cheetah were stem stitched with black floss. I used a green perle cotton to overstitch the green markings in the print in the lower right corner of the right hand page. 

 This is the center spread. The background is a single print. I didn't bother with any stitching other than what was necessary to applique the animals in place. 

 

Again, I only outlined stitched the face in the center of the upper half of the left page then put some straight stitches in the orange background behind the rhinoceros. African trade beads were strung to dangle from the button in the top corner of that page. On the left are a few more beads and another button (lower right corner). 

 

The final page has four more buttons and a few Colonial knots. There are some straight stitches in the yellow area at the bottom of that page. Opposite that is the rest of the blue print from the inside front cover. Then a string of African trade beads separates the blue from the next patch. The light batik print is folded over the edge from the back cover.  

 

The back cover probably has the most stitching of any page in this book. It was no easy feat to stitch with a black thread on that black background around the figures in the central patch. At least, not for my aging eyes! It's basically echo quilting. There is a layer of thin batting between the cover pieces. 

 

Here's the outside of the book open flat. I had more trouble stitching up the spine of this book than I've had with previous volumes. Not sure why. There are some tightly woven fabrics, and it's possible I ran into knots or stitches in some of the pages. I'm happy to have it done finally and am pleased with the result. Now it's on to my Textile Tales book for June! 

In case you weren't aware, I've been making one book per month since January of this year, following along with the Roxy sisters on YouTube. Their project ends with book six. I may very well carry on for the rest of the year as I'm finding this a great way to use up little pieces of favorite prints and treasures that I can stitch in place.