Several Small Stitcheries

 It's been a minute since my last post. I have not been idle however. I've been working on these little pieces of slow stitch off and on.

3" wide x 4" tall

The flat pink rock is actually a bead meant for jewelry making. I did a series of two of these with stitches, sequins, and more beads. The one below has some wool yarn pulled apart for additional texture and interest.

4" wide x 3" tall

The birds and the tiny orange flowers are buttons.

4" wide x 3" tall

This one (above) was a way to use some scraps of the feed sack prints I used recently in a quilt top.

3" wide x 4" tall

Another one begun with mere scraps. The circular medallion is a Tim Holtz product. It says, "in every walk with nature one receives far more than they seek." The butterfly is a button, the feather is a charm.

3" wide x 4" tall

This one began as a study in purple scraps. It was a little harder to move forward and sat as a blank canvas for a while. Eventually one stitch led to another, I found the scrap of lace,  and the Trust charm finally found a home. The bird is another sequin.

3" wide x 4" tall

Here's another one that began with feed sack scraps. Red flower-shaped buttons from my collection, a couple of little crocheted flowers, and a faux postage stamp button.

4" x 4"

This one also sat for some time before I could see what to do with it. In the end I just feather stitched between the hearts that were in the print on the top, seed stitched around the flowers in the strip of binding tape below, and then just added the clothing label and the charm to the bottom.

2.5" wide x 4" tall

This little tag shape was fun to create. Nothing but embroidery and a strip of lace for embellishment. 

These will all be going to the Disabled Artist's Foundation Inc. for an upcoming fund raising auction. It feels so good to be able to make things to contribute to a worthy cause!

Scrap Happy in May

 If you've been here in the last two weeks you've seen the scrappy stars I've been making of late. I sort of burned out on the process when I hit 52 of them. And what with one thing and another they just sat there. Finally, a couple of days ago, I sorted through the lot and started auditioning them on the design wall. 

I'd come to the conclusion that the easiest thing to do would be to choose 25 of the stars and set them 5 x 5 to create a 60" square quilt top. I can deal with the remaining 27 stars later. They may need to be sashed or used in some other layout. I think these work well set side by side. 

We're having an unusual heat wave for this time of year. It's acting like August outside, not May. Which means my quilt building efforts may be curtailed until it cools down again. I've been doing some needlework between making these stars. With luck I'll get pictures taken and a post about them written up for you. In the meantime, here's the link list for the other folks who have used scrap or recycled materials to create something new and wonderful. Hannah is joining us for the first time so be sure to stop by her blog. 😊

Kate, Gun, Hannah, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo, Alissa, Lynn and Tierney

Shoo-fly Stars

I've been pairing up the background patches and star point triangles I cut from remnants with the most scrappy shoo-fly blocks from the Parts Department. A few other blocks have been assembled along the way as well.

The shoo-fly stars will finish at 12", the smaller stars 8", and the Hole in the Barn Door blocks will be 6" finished.

 

I've continued cutting patches for backgrounds, star points, cats, and the smaller shoo-fly and barn door blocks.

I have over just over 35 shoo-fly stars made so far. It's not out of the realm of possibility that there will be well over 50 stars before I run out of patches to use.

At this point I have no idea what size or how many quilts I may make with these blocks. Since the backgrounds are all so different it will be a great temptation to just set the blocks side by side. It might be a challenge (for me) to find something to separate the stars. Nevertheless, it might be worthwhile to see what I can come up with - when the time comes. Possibly one quilt will get sashing and another will not. I tend to prefer busy quilt tops personally but the stars may benefit from a bit of breathing room. Thoughts?