Scrap Happy in August

It's been a struggle to get anything done around here lately, scrappy or otherwise. However, I found that sewing my tiny waste triangles into Half-Square Triangles and then sewing those into tiny Broken Dishes blocks was a good way to cope.

I would sew one day and then press the seams the next morning while it was still relatively cool in the house. There are 40 little blocks in that picture, each of which would finish at two inches square. I found a bag in my Parts Department that held another 130 such units. Who knew?! 

The next step was to figure out what to do with all those little blocks. Or how to use at least some of them! I played around with possible arrangements, setting the units side by side. I like the look of a star four of them together can create:

It helps when the colors/values in the units are the same. When you're working with scraps that's not always possible. By the end of day yesterday I had this on my design wall:

I'd also had my fill of trying to get points to match to an acceptable standard. (You notice I did not strive for perfection.) Most of them turned out pretty well. The effort kept me focused on the work and not on how poorly I was feeling. 

But now what? I had 19 of those little stars. I was not in the mood to sew more of them to each other so I took that first pair and surrounded them with scrap strips that finish at 2" each. My goal was to create a top for a cat mat for the animal shelter. 

It will be about 20" x 26" when complete. It was fun to include strips of a dog print (the dark brown strip at the top in the photo) and this print down one short side:

I will back it with something that's been in the stash for too long and use scrap batting between the layers. I'll probably quilt it myself on my domestic machine, just stitching in the ditch. Or maybe I'll get brave and do some diagonal lines. Only time will tell. Our temperatures are supposed to return to what's closer to normal for us at this time of the year. We might even get some much needed rain. That will help considerably. 

Scrap Happy Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden. To see what others have been doing with their scraps you can click through the link list below. Not everyone plays with fabric! 

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, 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, Bear,
Carol, Preeti, Edith and Debbierose

 

Coping With the Heat

 We've been enjoying a brief respite from the unusual heat and dry weather in our corner of the world. The temperatures have been closer to what's normal for July (even though it's now August) and we had about three days of sporadic rain showers. It was heaven, and my roses have responded with a new flush of loveliness.

Unfortunately, the rain has ceased and the temperatures are predicted to climb back above what's normal and comfortable. I really ought to be using the iron while it's still cooler but at the moment I don't have the energy. During my radio silence of the last week I've been searching for something to use between the Crown blocks. I found this in my stash and quite liked the way it looked with the blocks:

It wasn't until I'd cut sashing strips to go between the blocks (not the long horizontal strips I'll need) and had three-quarters of them sewn in place that I realized I didn't have enough of that fabric to go the distance. It's an older batik - of course - and I couldn't find anything in my local quilt shop or online that resembled it in the least. When I gave up on that hunt I went back over the same ground looking for an alternative. This is what I bought, with my fingers crossed that it would work:

A quick audition makes me think it will work for sashing and possibly an outer border as well. We shall see. While I waited for this new yardage to be delivered I reverse sewed the 18 seams I'd sewn with the white and blue print. I've done a bit of reorganizing of my embroidery supplies in the interim too. I have a feeling there's going to be a good bit of needle play over the next several days as it will be too warm to exert myself for much else!