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!

Crowns of Summer

 Back in 2012 I tried my hand at a traditional block that was new to me. It's called Four Crowns in my block guide. Probably there are other names for the pattern. There are more pictures and information about it in this blog post.

 I don't even remember when I decided to have another go at this pattern. I suspect at the time I was trying to use up some batik remnants. Just playing around, making blocks for the Parts Department.

This time that straight set didn't work as well, at least not in my eyes. So I tried out other arrangements and decided to do something along these lines:

There weren't enough blocks for a quilt of any size so I've been making more. Rummaged through the batik scraps to see what might be left over from the first session. I found a few but had to introduce new prints along the way. Now I have enough 6" units to make sixteen 12" blocks.

With some sashing - probably finishing at 2" - and a border all the way around I could have a nice lap quilt about 60" square. I haven't a clue what that border and sashing might be at this point. It's been fun to make the 6" blocks (most of the time; I have to be careful about how those half-square triangles get placed!). Who knows, maybe I'll just keep making more. 😉

That Was the Week That Wasn't

 Life has a way of getting in the way of your plans, doesn't it? I wanted to write this blog post on Monday and here it is Friday. I know this sort of thing happens to everyone at some time or other, I just wish it didn't occur so frequently in my own life! 

I completed the scrappy Ships quilt top over two weeks ago. (see post here) I was given yards of a lighthouse print for the back. The lighthouses are directional so, being who I am, I looked for a way to keep them right side up on the back of the quilt. There were a couple of prints in my stash I'd had a hard time implementing in previous projects. This provided a great opportunity to put them to good use.

This project has since been quilted and is simply waiting for the binding to be applied. I have not been idle since it left my hands however. I pulled out the collection of 12" (finished) Lego blocks I've been making with 2" scrap strips, just to see how many there were and whether I could do anything with them.

 I started out thinking about using them as a central medallion. Nope, not this time. I put those away and got out my 6" (finished) Sticks blocks. I use six 1.5" scrap strips to make the 6" blocks. Both the Lego and the Sticks blocks are made from the scrap strips I sew between seams like leaders and enders. Turned out I had enough to make fifteen 12" (finished) blocks out of them. Putting them in three columns gave me 60" in length and 36" in width to begin a new quilt.

If you know me at all you know I then turned to my scrappy Shoo-fly blocks to audition between the columns. A couple days later I'd made my selections and found some leftover 2.5" strips to use for sashes between the blocks.

 Unfortunately, my math was a bit off.

I lacked two inches in each of those alternate columns. Time to go through the 1.5" scrap strips...

One above the center Shoo-fly block in each column, and one below, and problem solved. 😁

I was delighted to discover that I had enough of the leftover 2.5" strips to piece together for side borders. I called it quits at that point, figuring a dark binding will do the job of giving the quilt a finished look.

 This will be about 52" x 60" when it's done. It looks awfully busy to me now but I enjoyed it while I was working on it. On to the next one! 

Scrap Happy in July

 It's been too hot to do any patchwork. The excessive heat has passed - for the time being - but it's still too warm for me in my studio space most of the time. I have determined a plan for making a back for the scrappy Ships quilt in the previous post at least. Until it cools off a bit further however, patchwork is on hold. Instead I have turned to working with needle and thread in hand. 

You may remember that I've shown some of the ATC's I've made in response to the #52tagshannemade project on IG. There are more I haven't shown here yet. And most of the participants are following Anne's lead, mounting their creations on kraft tags. I'm happy with my ATC format for that project so I'm sticking with it. But I've been watching paper crafters on YouTube a lot lately and they are having an influence. I finally decided to try some little textile collages that would fit onto manila shipping tags I happen to have in my stash. And by little I mean 2" wide by 4" long. So the scraps that I stitch onto my cotton batting to make up the foundation are pretty small! This is the first one I made:

And a couple of close-up shots:

I made that one with someone in mind and sent it away so I did my best to make another one along similar lines. It really isn't anything like the first one! I find it impossible to make the exact same thing twice.

Today I completed this tag:

 

 

I have a feeling there will be more of these. 😁

Scrap Happy Day is hosted by Kate and Gun on the 15th of each month. Anyone is welcome to participate, using any scrap material they choose. (Granted, my charms are not scraps but they have been in my stash quite a while and need to be put to some kind of use!) We're welcoming Debbierose to the circle this month. Not everyone in the list will necessarily have a scrappy post to share but their blogs are worth visiting at any time. 😊

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, Bear,
Carol, Preeti, Edith and Debbierose