Another Case for the Books

 Some time ago I picked up a Stitch & Zip kit that's a duplicate of one I'd stitched previously.

Ha! I see that even back then I didn't follow the design as indicated. In fact, I might have handled parts of it better that time than I did in this newer version.

Which makes me wonder if I've ever stitched this the way it was designed! I used hand dyed floss this time around. It's possible I did that the last time too but the variations in the floss are more pronounced in this version. I'm pretty sure I had more trouble stitching the black lines this time than two or three years ago when I made the first case. I had to put a sketchbook open to a blank page on my lap to highlight the unstitched areas to finish this one up. 

Now I am left with two blank-faced cases to stitch. One is this smaller size, perfect for credit cards, business cards, and coins. The larger case is the size of a typical cosmetic bag. That's the one I've been fussing over what design to use. I won't be able to avoid making that decision very much longer!

Three Little Quilts All in a Row

 The first of the three baby quilts I've committed to making is off the long-arm and ready to be bound. 

This is was taken when it was in the flimsy state.

I've just added borders and made the back for the second baby quilt:

I was finally able to utilize a few prints I'd had in my stash since my daughter was little in the crazy blocks. The border is a brand new print from the Anne of Green Gables line. I didn't know those prints existed until I went looking for something to use for this border treatment. The colors blend better with the colors in the body of the quilt top in person than it shows in the photograph. I have fallen completely in love with this particular print in this colorway and have tracked down additional yardage to use in future. How, I don't yet know. All I knew was that I had to have more of it! 

The third baby quilt will be built around this panel:

 The panel will be trimmed only slightly. No doubt it will still be a bit off-kilter. That's the way of panels most of the time. Hopefully I'll be able to manipulate it into shape down the road. It's also much larger than I realized it would be (it was an online purchase). Right now the plan is to make sawtooth or variable star blocks to surround the panel. That will bring it up to the 48" x 60" range all three of these quilts fall within. I already have a flannel to use for the back in an allover Mickey Mouse print. Just need to get busy making stars!

Scrap Happy in May

I thought I might pull together a small quilt for a cat in our animal shelter for this month's Scrap Happy Day. That didn't happen. Instead, I went through the most recent off-cuts from quilt backs and cut 3" strips for scrappy trip blocks. 

I was able to make five more blocks for my Parts Dept. from those and a few other strips I had on hand. 

There are probably enough now for a personal size quilt top. We'll have to wait until next month to find out however. There are baby quilts to be made in the meantime!

I came across a few other scrappy blocks that must have been made fairly recently too. 😊

Those greens are not quite so bright/neon in person!

Scrap Happy Day is held on the 15th of each month and is open to anyone who wants to repurpose what might otherwise end up in the trash, fabric or otherwise. Below are the links for those who regularly participate. If you'd like to join us just leave a comment on Kate or Gun's blogs. 😀

Kate, Gun, Eva, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Noreen,
Bear, Carol, Preeti and Edith

Resolution

 I've come up with a solution for the last six inches of my Time Flies quilt top. In the previous post I had a 6" x 12" hole to fill. I was able to make two flying geese units out of the scraps from the quilt I was working on at the beginning of November 2020 (which I don't seem to have shown you as a finished top! It's still waiting to be quilted; maybe I'll think to photograph it and show it to you then 😏).

So here's what I have now:

And here's what I did:

In case you can't tell, the black "goose" features a watch face. The blue patch will be where I inscribe the legend for this quilt. It won't be very detailed as there isn't a lot of room. Still, it will afford more room than the triangular patches I normally put in the corner on the backs of my quilts. This project has always been Time Flies in my mind. The more official title might be Time Flies Whether You're Having Fun or Not. I believe this flimsy is calling out for a border before being declared ready for quilting. However, it's time to round up some scraps to see what I can do with them for Scrap Happy Day on the 15th!

It's About Time!

From the end of October 2019 through to the end of October 2020 I made a "flight" of flying geese every week to create my second version of a diary quilt. You can see the flimsy of my first one here.  (Apparently I still have not taken a picture of the finished product.) Most weeks I chose two prints that somehow related to the experiences of that week and sewed the flying geese units in a string. Once in a while the geese were scrappy rather than consistent. When I sewed up what I thought would be the final flight of geese I turned my attention to other projects and pretty much forgot about it until recently. I have decided the time has come to bring the top to completion. 

The first step was to lay out the geese again to try to figure out how I wanted to arrange them in the quilt.

It's a good thing I kept track of what was significant each week.

A couple of blocks got misplaced during the auditioning process.

And then I sewed half the columns opposite to the way I intended them to be.

The idea is to start at the top left and follow the geese downward. At the bottom of the column you "turn the corner" and follow the geese back up to the top. You will notice there's a gap at the bottom of the rightmost column. Just room enough for another four geese. I've already made two out of scraps from the quilt I was working on in the first week of November 2020. I'd like to use one or two of the remaining spots as a label. First I have to figure out how to word said label so I know how much room it might require. A comprehensive listing would be ideal of course, but I'm not going there, even using the computer and printer. In the end it will probably be short and sweet. A reference to the little guidebook would be helpful but I don't quite know how I would accomplish that either. I've thought of a pocket into which a paper legend could be inserted. Not entirely sold on that idea though. Suggestions are welcome. I'd like to get this off the design wall as soon as possible as there's yet another baby quilt to be made!

Temporarily Caught Up

 So far I'm doing a pretty good job of keeping up with the #52tags project hosted by Anne Brooke. I seem to need almost a week to decide how I'm going to handle each new prompt. Since there's a new prompt every Friday it would be easy to fall behind. There have been a couple of times when I've skipped one prompt to tackle the newest one but as of this writing I'm all caught up again. 😁

The prompt for week 15 was to make a tiny 'scape, land or sea, noon or night. I struggled with this one. It took almost two weeks to get it done. The moon and clouds were easy, even fun. Creating the landscape was another matter.

Anne encouraged us to try to create depth or perspective through the use of value changes. She also encouraged us to create curves, like hills and valleys. I just couldn't get into it. In the end my goal was to just complete the tag somehow.

The following week was to use seed stitching to create negative spaces.

I had fun with this one. I find it delightfully mindless to use a variegated thread to put random stitches in cloth. 

The next prompt was another that was pretty straightforward. I didn't get to it right away though. Anne asked us to review the colors we'd used so far in our tags to see what hue might be missing. My ATC's are all over the color wheel. Finally I realized that I hadn't used any true red yet. Once we'd determined what color to use the plan was to roll up little sausages of fabric and couch them onto a base piece.

Rolling up the fabric was fiddly. They didn't always stay rolled up in spite of pins. I used a couple of strings of yarn and sari silk ribbon amongst the fabric. I tried to use different types of threads, perle cottons and stranded floss, as well as a variety of stitches. 

But before I even started the that ATC Anne revealed the latest prompt, English paper piecing teeny, tiny hexies. When I saw that my first reaction was, "No way!" Anne did say we could just make a single large hexie if we so desired, and I figured that would probably be what I would do. But some spirit of rebellion and determination took over instead. I used the folded circle method to make hexies that finish at about 5/8" across. Anne sewed hers together to create a mini panel. She laid that on top of a piece of an old quilt and boro stitched over the whole thing. I sewed seven of the nine I'd made into a flower and appliqued it on top of a piece of fabric I'd quilted. Then I added the single hexie just to fill in the blank spot. The ninth hexie was just too wonky to bother using. I may even toss it out!

 I had some vintage baby rickrack in my stash that worked well to frame out the piece. 

That takes us up to week 18 of this year. And now I have what's left of this week to rest on my laurels!