Starring William Morris

 I have been working on a new quilt in bits and pieces lately. It's been hard to stop in time to keep the pain at bay. On a couple of occasions I have regretted not stopping sooner. {sigh} When I first undertook to make this quilt I thought it would be my fairly standard 60" x 80." I have since decided it will be a little over 60" square. The intended recipient is taller than me but I think even a 64" square will be sufficient for naps or just keeping warm. I'm working to her color palette - as best I can. It's been a challenge to make a more controlled design when I really want to go nuts with scraps. Still, I think it's coming along nicely.

I chose to fall back on the Variable or Sawtooth Star block. Originally I thought I would make some with 16 patch centers but when I found a couple of prints that could be fussy cut for the 4" center squares I decided to go whole cloth all the way. 

 The first one is a William Morris reproduction print, the second has that same feel but I believe must be a new design. It's called "Orkney" by Morris & Co. from Free Spirit. These two prints gave me color clues as to what I could use to flesh out the overall design.

I debated about the number of blocks to make too. It looks like 36 is going to be the final tally.

I bought some Fossil Fern in shades of green and blue that I hope to use for sashing and maybe the outer border as well. 

I am committed to getting this top completed before I become embroiled in some other quilt project. I sure want to get into the Parts Dept. to see what I can come up with though! Cutting has to be kept to a minimum for the time being but I ought to be able to pull enough blocks out of the Parts Dept. to get something else well under way. 😉

Scrap Happy in February

It's time for the link party hosted by Kate (in Australia) and Gun (in Sweden) wherein the participants share something they've made out of scrap materials. I've actually been able to do some cutting and sewing since last month, for the first time in what feels like forever. Even so, I'm having to pace myself. It's frustrating. 

Long-time readers may remember that I paired up my scrap 3" (finished) HST's with no particular purpose in mind a while back. Well, I decided to go through my 3" squares as well and sew them to the HST's in four patch blocks. There may be a name for this block but I don't know what it is. The unit is frequently found as smaller patches in larger blocks. To me they look like butterflies. 

I made some of these last year or so with 2" (f) patches. I didn't find those 4" blocks particularly inspiring but I can see using these 6" versions in my scrappy quilts. I have a few more ready to be assembled but had to stop sewing when my hand started complaining. 

Meanwhile, James has quilted up the Welcome Blanket I showed in my last post. Once he had it loaded on the long-arm he only spent about 15 minutes doing the quilting, just a simple meander. It only required a small amount of binding too and I was able to use a scrap piece of fabric. James ended up sewing most of the binding down for me once I'd applied it to the quilt.

The photo isn't great because it was hung so close to the ceiling. Below you can see the stripe that I used on the back.

This house image seemed especially appropriate for a quilt welcoming a family to a new home. 😊

Here's the link list for others who regularly have something to show made from scraps. Not everyone will have a scrappy post every month but their blogs are still worth a visit. Also,we are all around the world, and everyone posts on the 15th in their time zone so it's worthwhile to check back a day or two later.

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

Welcome Blanket Start

 Welcome Blanket is a platform for engagement that transforms the abstract concept of immigration into a tangible crowd-sourced artistic action. We ask you to use your head, heart, hands, and histories to craft the country we wish to see. Handcraft makers (knit, sew, quilt, crochet, weave, felt, etc.) are invited to make Welcome Blankets.  (Lifted from their website.)

The Welcome Blanket project started some three or four years ago here in the United States. The idea is to provide cheerful tokens of welcome for the newest immigrants and refugees to a nation that has been built by immigrants and refugees from its' inception. I made and contributed one quilt in the beginning - but don't ask me to look for a picture of it or to remember anything about it at this point. I'd sort of lost track of the project, the way you do over time. Just received an email announcing the extension of the deadline for new submissions: they need to be in Atlanta by 1 March. Parts Department to the rescue! 

I pondered how I might go about creating a 40" square quilt as quickly as possible. Six inch blocks set 6 x 6 plus a 2" border all the way around would do the trick. But what if I began with a 12" block? That would eliminate four blocks and speed the process up a bit. That's where I started. Then I auditioned some of my many Shoo-fly and Hole in the Barn Door blocks.

I decided to change things up for the final round of blocks and went for my liberated log cabins. Hmmm. Let's try something else, a little less busy...

I like this better. And with one exception I had just enough of these rainbow blocks to make it all the way around. I hadn't a clue what I would do with those rainbow liberated log cabins when I was making them. That phase didn't last long either. I'm delighted to be able to put them to this good purpose. 

I will look for something to use for a whole cloth border once I get the top assembled. Fabric for the back will not be a problem, and batting scraps can be pieced together for the innards. James says it won't even take him an hour to get this quilted. He offered to sew down the binding for me too, to spare my hands. We might even make the deadline at this rate! 😊