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 

 

Not UFO's - Slow Works in Progress

I have started creating a textile book for April but work has stalled. I'm waiting for delivery of some special supplies. While I wait some old needlepoint projects have resurfaced. And I've been enticed by a new hand painted canvas. 😉

You may remember this one if you've been around for a few years.

 I'm thinking I will overstitch a spiderweb to liven up the background. Just haven't had the courage to attempt it yet. 

Then there's this canvas.  

 There are still a few detail stitches to put in. I'll need to do something about the background around it as well. 

The canvas I just bought fits right in with these two. 😁

 So someday I (or our children more likely) could have a triptych to display in the fall! That's assuming my eyes hold out long enough to get al three completed. They are all 18 mesh canvases, meaning 18 stitches to the inch. My eyes have changed in the last couple of years. One improved, the other got worse! So now in order to see what I'm doing on these canvases I'm having to remove my glasses altogether and hold the canvas right under my nose. 

Except that I haven't been working on any of these Halloween theme images. I've been stitching this one:

 This is another 18 mesh hand painted canvas. The black areas have been particularly challenging to see. When I purchased the chandelier canvas the seller gifted me a card of bamboo thread that was the perfect blue for the darker areas in the background. That's actually what got me started on needlepoint again. Since this photo was taken I've filled in the patch on the dog's face and on her body (more than once - I couldn't find the right color brown to use) and put a bright green in the light areas of the lower border. I have a feeling I'll be finishing this one up before I move on to either of the Halloween canvases. And then there's the book for April to get back to... 

 

Scrap Happy in December

Whew! This almost didn't happen. We live pretty close to a river that tends to flood during the extra rainy season of winter. It's not been a worry in the past as there are multiple precautions in place. It was different this time. We were eating dinner when our phones went off with undeniable alarms. The message was that it was GO time, time to evacuate if you live within the 100 year flood plain. We hadn't prepared as we live just inside the flood zone. And frankly, we didn't realize the situation could be so dire. So we spent the rest of the evening frantically searching for somewhere I could safely evacuate to and packing up essentials. Fortunately, one of the families in our church use a lot of safer chemicals in their home and had plenty of room for us. It turned into a long day, longer than I am accustom to. I had a headache the whole time we were with them but it could have been so much worse. We spent the whole of the next day there. By the following morning the river had crested and we were able to return home. Our street was dry, the water nowhere near our house. We're in for yet more rain in the coming days and will be under a flood watch for the duration. The powers that be don't seem to expect to have to issue evacuation orders again however. Let's hope!  

I have been making more scrolls - or what will be scrolls when I find something to wrap them around. In the days before the evacuation notice I created a Christmas themed scroll and put some finishing touches on one that had been in the works for a while. 

My plan is to have the Christmas scroll unroll from the left so you will see the elves carrying the baubles first, then the reindeer and the tree, then Santa, and so forth. The bottom scroll may unroll in the opposite direction. I haven't made a final decision on that one. 

Here are the detail shots:

 

  

I patched yet another scroll while we were monitoring the flood situation. You'll probably see that one in January. And since I have not been a prolific or consistent blogger of late let me wish all my readers the best that the holiday season has to offer. 🎄🕎 🎉 ❤️

 Here are the other bloggers who regularly participate in Scrap Happy Day. Go see what wonderful things they have done to repurpose or use up scraps!

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,
Hannah and Maggie

 

Scrap Happy Follow-up

 I've continued to sew my 2.5" scrap squares into sixteen patch blocks. My tin looked like this when I began:

And this is what it looks like today:

 The stacks at the top had four or more patches of a single print in them. The stacks in the middle were two or three of a print, and the bottom stacks were single squares. 

And now this is what my design wall currently looks like:

That's fifty blocks that will finish at eight inches each. They are on the wall in the order in which they were made, not arranged in any specific way yet. I want to see how many more blocks I can get out of the patches that are left in the tin. After that we'll make a decision about how to use them in a quilt top. 😊

Some of the blocks are very controlled while others have a wide variety of prints in them. Mostly I let color drive my placement decisions. The two blocks below have a variety of prints but read and red, white, and blue on top and black drives the lower block. 

This pair of blocks are more controlled: blue and yellow, then green and yellow. 

 

This may or may not make assigning block placement a challenge. That remains to be seen!

Scrap Happy Day in June

 It's the 15th of the month again which means it's also Scrap Happy Day, the day we share something we've made (or are making) out of scraps or repurposed somehow. 

Last month I shared the flying geese I'd been making and the quilt top that resulted. Since then I've decided to make about ten more flights of geese to make the quilt top a bit bigger. I haven't made those geese yet. I got distracted by the 2.5 inch scrap patches that have been accumulating. 

This tin measures about 9" x 11" and is 3" deep. The stacks of squares came right up to the top when I began. Generally I try to make 6" Shoo-fly or Barn Door blocks out of my patches that finish at two inches. After setting up as many of those blocks as I could this is what was left over. I'm still not sure what I'll do with the triangles. After the Double 4 Patch quilt I shared last month four patch units were on my mind. But instead of four patch blocks I chose to make 16 patch blocks.

This is what I have on the design wall at this point. You can see that they are the same size as the star blocks I also make out of scrap fabrics. 

 

This is only the beginning. I also have a stack of strips 2.5" wide from which I can cut more squares. In fact, I've been wondering what to do with those strips. Some version of Log Cabin blocks is an obvious choice but somehow I'd rather cut the strips into patches. So we'll see how much progress I make between now and Scrap Happy Day in July! 

Go have a look at what everyone else has been doing with their scrap materials by clicking on the links below. 😊

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,
Hannah and Maggie

 

A New Addition to the Parts Department - Scrap Happy in March

 Now that I've lightened the load in my Parts Department I have turned my attention to using up more of the leftovers and remnants hanging around. I began with flying geese. This seems to be my Flying Geese Period. 😉 If you remember, recently every scrap block was a variable star!

3" x 6" geese

 Anyway, I found myself needing another block to use up certain size scraps. I landed on one called Big Dipper. 

I can't figure out why or how it came to be called that. I don't see a connection at all. If anyone knows of an alternate name please let me know! I may just refer to them as Hourglass blocks since they are made up of four hourglass units. The ones I'm making will finish at eight inches square.

 This is what I have so far. At the moment I'm thinking I will just keep making these until I have enough for a whole quilt top. I don't think they will play nicely with other blocks unless I use sashing between them. I prefer to just run my blocks together as often as I can get away with it.

Meanwhile, the geese continue to accumulate too. My smaller scraps get cut for 6" Shoo-fly or Hole in the Barn Door blocks and Lego blocks. The scrappy quilts I make go to local kids in foster care or are sent to Wrap the World With Quilts for distribution elsewhere. 

Scrap Happy Day is an opportunity to share projects that have been made out of scrap materials or something you've repurposed somehow. We post on the15th of each month. Kate is the organizer of this blog hop; you'll find her at the top of the link list below. Leave a comment on her blog if you'd like to participate in the future. 

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,
Hannah and Maggie

Peaceful Sunday Morning

I went across the street to our mailbox yesterday to discover that the birds had planted a blackberry bush nearby. It was laden with fruit ready for the picking. I went back to the house, got a small bowl - because I'm probably the only one in the house who will eat these berries - and returned to the bush. It was more extensive than I realized at first. I filled my bowl but could easily have picked more. So, when the air quality and the temperature were at delightfully low levels again this morning I went back and picked another bowlful of blackberries!

 There are still more berries on the bush. Some are not quite ready for picking, some are out of reach. That blackberry bush has thorns that are more vicious than the ones on my roses! Speaking of which, the Charlotte rose has been producing abundantly this year.

This is a very minimal view of what Charlotte has on display.

 

 Which is not to imply that the Queen of Sweden has been a slacker. She's just not as abundant at the moment. And what there is is hard to photograph. 

I'm going to take full advantage of this day of rest to take a breather from the quilt I've been building. This will be my interpretation of a junk journal. It began with some panels from a line of fabric that is called Art Journal.

 I've been collecting text prints for years now. This has been the project to bring them out to play.

 My plan has been to build up the panels and then other bits and pieces into blocks that will finish at twelve inches square. Four of those across and five down would create a quilt 48" wide and 60" long. I wanted something a bit larger than that but didn't want to make more 12" blocks. I've suffered a series of minor toxic exposures while this has been underway and that makes thinking difficult to impossible. So, during a lucid moment, I figured I could make 4" wide sashing strips to go between the blocks in rows and then 3" sashing to go between the rows. That will give me a top that measures about 60" wide and 72" long. 

This is where I am at the moment:

There are a few more 4" sashes to make, and then the 3" rows. I'm on a September deadline. The quilting won't take long as I imagine a simple meander will be all it needs or wants to hold it together. I just need a few more days of good air quality and energy to get it done!

Feedsack Follow Up

 Well, the feed sack quilt top from my previous post didn't turn out quite the way I expected. No real surprise there. The fortunate thing is that I'm quite happy with the way it did turn out. 😊 

I knew I needed sashing between the columns, the question was which of the remaining fabrics to use. A couple of them were just the wrong colors. And of course, there wasn't enough of others. I began with the narrow sashes between the Churn Dash columns.

There was one print I'd been saving to use between the flying geese the and Churn Dash blocks. Those two vertical sashes would have been wider than the pink ones. Sadly, it turned out to be too light in value. The pink worked again, but it left me short on the width I wanted. The obvious next step was to add narrow sashes to the two long sides on the flimsy.

And then I was delighted to discover that I had enough of the rose print to go all the way around the quilt top. I'd wanted to use that print but up to that point I wasn't sure where it would fit in. 

I was able to make a back for this small quilt (about 52" x 62") from yardage I had on hand. I used new quilter's cottons in hopes they would provide strength and stability for the loosely woven feed sacks. Now I'm faced with the conundrum of what to do with what's left of the feed sack fabrics. For the time being I'm just going to put them away again. Other scraps are calling my name. 😉

 

Scrap Happy in March

 It's time once again to share anything we've repurposed or made out of scrap materials. This blog hop is hosted by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden on the 15th of each month. I've been very remiss in that I've not kept up with the efforts of the other bloggers. I'm guilty of a degree of laziness, but for the most part it's just my health issues that keep me from visiting everyone. My sincere apologies. And my deep gratitude for those who visit and leave kind comments. 😊

I wasn't sure I would have something for this month, having just completed the quilt top for my husband (see previous post). However, I was prompted to pull out the small selection of vintage feed/flour/sugar sacks I acquired somewhere along the way. I maybe had fabric from four whole sacks, the rest are pieces that have been cut or ripped from sacks and even a couple that were taken out of old quilts. The stitching lines are still visible on those pieces. I washed most of the fabric but left any stains that didn't come out. 

You probably can't see it, but there's a very fine, brief line of feather stitching on one of the half-square triangles in the red gingham Churn Dash block. The blue stripe I used for some backgrounds is not feed sack material but scraps from previous projects. In fact, anything that did not come from a sack is scrap material. I did try to stay with prints that would be similar to the era from which the sacks came. Mostly I think that would have been the 1940's or 1950's. The yellow block below is more likely to be from the 1930's. 

Because my source materials are limited I knew this would be a relatively small quilt. And it will need to be handled gently. I made as many Churn Dash blocks as I could and then managed to cut some pieces for flying geese units. I've been designing as I go, in the spirit of "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." 

I liked this layout but needed to figure out how to make the flying geese and the Churn Dash blocks come out to the same length.

My solution was to use some recent scraps and add a couple more geese. At this point I will have 54" in height (finished). Now I get to figure out how to go about adding width. I think I have a workable plan; you'll have to come back in a few days (or longer!) to see how it turns out. In the meantime, please visit these other folks who may have something to show you. Amo and Alissa are joining us for the first time this month; we offer them a warm welcome!

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

Yellow & Black

It seems a long time coming, but I've finally brought the yellow and black quilt top to a completed state. 

I began with 12" blocks I'd made some years ago. I surrounded them with 8" blocks from the Parts Dept. that fit the color scheme.

Then I set out to make additional blocks to bring the top up to a more useful size. You can read about that in this post. Once I had enough blocks to go the distance it was holiday season. Too many distractions to get much done then! I finally had the time and energy to audition block placements to create border sections the other day. Taa daa!

Those 10" blocks bring the top up to finish at about 60" square. The next step will be to create a back. 😊

Folowing a MAP to My Happy Place

Mid-November I mentioned that I was setting up a new stitchery project for 2023. I'm calling it my Monthly Art Project: MAP. I know that hand stitching calms me, soothes my soul, but I don't do enough of it in the normal course of events. I surprised myself by doing the first installment during December. I chose the red spiral out of my collection of focal elements, thinking the color was appropriate for the season.

 I thought it would be the focal point of a stand-alone piece. Things don't always go as planned! The foundation I created for it turned out to be too busy. Around that time I also ripped a 3.5" strip (width of fabric) off of a yard of a Tim Holtz print with the intention of starting a new scroll. The red spiral found a home at the beginning of that scroll.

I did simple running stitches and back stitches to secure the fabric to a strip of scrap batting. I do like the feel of the cloth and batting in my hands. Generally the batting is pretty easy to stitch through as well. Not as nice as wool perhaps, but nice enough. 

The little text print square is a pocket, and so is the green patch.

I carried on stitching and embellishing well into December. Of course, the holidays eventually got in the way. And to keep the foundation print from repeating too frequently I ripped an additional strip the width of the fabric, cut off the end of the first strip, and then added the second.

Sorry, what a terrible picture!

The scroll is now longer than I will probably want it to be in the end. I'm leaving that decision for later in any case. It's time now to choose the focal element for January. I'm thinking I will choose something else that will be appropriate to add to this scroll. I had a lot of fun working on it before the holidays set in, and I could really use something to rejuvenate my creative flame right now. 

Hmm, what will I choose?

 

Definitely Not Red and Green!

 The project I've been working on this December is anything but seasonal. (Honestly, I thought I'd already posted about this but maybe not.)

 I've long been intrigued with the idea of making a yellow and black quilt. I had a small assortment of blocks in that color scheme in the Parts Department so I pulled them out last month to see what there was. There were only five 12" Ohio Stars, a couple of 9" Ohio Stars, these 8" postage stamp stars and the two blocks I know as Crosses and Losses. There were a few 6" blocks as well but I quickly discarded them from the mix. The fifth 12" Ohio Star and the 9" versions didn't make the cut either. When I realized I could use the 8" blocks to surround a medallion made up of the 12" blocks I knew what to do. 

However, once I had this 40" square flimsy constructed I hit a wall. Leave it a square? Make it a rectangle and closer to 60" x 80"? Either way it needed to be at least a little bit larger. I added 3" wide whole cloth strips to the top and bottom edges thinking I would try to make it longer and then wider. The flimsy sat on the design wall, mute. In retrospect I think the print I used for the potential sashing was too busy for one thing. This was also about the time I had the meltdown about my sewing machine. 

I've used the new Janome Skyline 5 once since we brought it home. I think I'll be happy with it once it off-gasses more fully. There were oil or grease fumes coming off of it when I tried it out. That set me back for a couple of days. Once I'd made the decision to bring this project up to a 60" square it didn't take long to find a block to use for that purpose. In my block book it's called Butterfly at the Crossroads. It looks like a bunch of tulips to me. They finish at 10" each, which makes the math easy. Twenty of them will go around the medallion I have perfectly.

While I still really like this color palette, I have become slightly bored with it. And my variety of yellow prints is actually running low! I have one more block to create and then I can audition them for placement around the central medallion.

Black binding will finish it off. I don't have any specific plans for what quilt to tackle next. Whatever it turns out to be, it will be multi-color and multi-print. 😁 In the meantime,  

Happy Holidays Everyone!