Feathering a Nest

 In my ongoing effort to put older prints from my stash to good use I recently pulled out a set of four panels intended for pillows - or so I assume. 

These were printed by the Rose & Hubble Company. I think the birds are meant to be an English variety of finch or sparrow. For simplicity's sake I'm calling them sparrows. The first decision I made was to separate the four panels and then only use two to begin a new quilt top. Of course, when I trimmed the panels they wouldn't fit dimensions that would be easy to work with. That made my first step framing them to a more comfortable size.

I chose to keep to yellow and blues for this project. My intention is to send this on for the benefit of Ukrainian refugees when it's complete. It was hard to match the colors in the panels given that they're from the 1990's. My hope is that in the end all the blues and yellows will work together harmoniously.

I spent time making flying geese to surround the panels. It seemed appropriate to stick with a bird theme. 😉

That lighter blue isn't quite so bright in person. I got a bit stuck at this point, wondering what to do next. I didn't have much of anything in the Parts Dept. that would work. Eventually I hit on the idea to make yellow and blue 6" Shoo-fly blocks.

But they weren't enough on their own. So then I cut some strips of more blue prints - some old, some new - and built the blocks up to 9" chevron log cabin style. 

This was the setting I originally thought to use. It didn't really make me happy so I made some changes.

The next step will be to surround the whole thing with a new print I purchased specifically for the purpose. It's a blue ground with tiny bouquets of flowers with accents of yellow. Three inch wide border strips will bring the top up to 60" square. I just have to get the fabric laundered and cut now that it has arrived. 😊

In Support of My Sisters in Iran

 I don't watch the news anymore, it's more than I can handle. But I do scan the headlines in an effort to keep abreast of what's going on in the wider world. So I was aware of the death of Mahsa Amini and subsequently, other young women in Iran. Then I saw this post and free pattern.* I had to take up needle and thread in solidarity.

 I don't think I interpreted the design lines as they were intended, and I chose to use a scissor charm in place of satin stitching the scissors, but the design still works. Amazing what a few simple lines can accomplish. 

As I scanned through the list of tags I've used on previous posts it has occurred to me that I might turn this into a prayer flag. I wasn't sure what to do with it until now.

*Thanks to Susan at Desert Sky Quilting for sharing the link originally.

Spooky NIghts

We are gearing up for Halloween here in the States. 🎃 

Some of us have been at it more diligently than others. This has traditionally been one of my more favorite holidays to decorate for. I love the colors of the season and enjoy the whimsy and even the macabre elements. I do not do horror or anything remotely demonic. Our decor this year has been seriously lacking however. The smokey air has had a lasting impact. There have been other distractions as well. Daughter discovered that the Halloween themed pillowcases I'd made for the members of her family in years past had been ruined in storage. So the energy I might have spent in getting out our Halloween decorations was put toward making replacements. 

For Mom and Dad I made a pair of cases in this print combination:

Steampunk Halloween

 For the daughters I made a selection, not sure who would choose which.

I did have one of the grands in mind when I purchased the gnome print and, sure enough, that's the one she chose. 😁

 I had other fabrics that had been set aside for pillowcases but had never been sewn up. I took the opportunity to make up a couple of those while I was sewing this bunch. In the end I made 9 pillowcases! (Didn't think to take pictures of the others though.) 

Historically we didn't get many trick-or-treaters on Halloween. The last few years we've kept our porch lights off to discourage the attempt. I just can't handle the scents, even to hand out candy. 😢 I do miss seeing the kiddos in their costumes.

Scrap Happy Follow-up

 I meant to post this sooner, but we've had very poor air quality around here for the past week. It's been so bad that even inside I had to wear a mask. Drift from wildfire smoke, coming from nearly every direction. I brought a small air purifier into the studio and stayed in there as much as possible. That helped, but I still didn't have it in me to accomplish much. We finally had some rain the last two days and things have improved significantly. On the other hand, I've been forced to purchase a new iron and the fumes coming off the first use are not doing me any favors. 

In my last post I showed the quilt top I created from scrap strips. 

A three inch border has put a calming frame around the busy flimsy.

I'm very pleased with the way this turned out. It will be about 60" wide and 78" long after quilting. Now I just have to create a back for it...

Scrap Happy in October

I wasn't sure what I would do for this Scrap Happy Day - hosted by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden every month on the 15th, in our respective time zones. Then I remembered some liberated log cabin blocks in the Parts Department. They were made to finish at 6" each. I pulled them out and counted them up. Not enough to do much with on their own but...

I also had some 12" (finished) Lego blocks in the Parts Dept. There were enough of the 6" blocks to create four columns of twelve blocks with only a handful leftover for some other project. Two columns of the Lego blocks smashed together made for a nice wide center section. All I had to do then was figure out what to do about sashing those columns together.

I was tempted to use a single fabric for the sashing, but what color amongst all those bits and colors? In the end I decided a scrappy sashing treatment was in order. Why not go for the whole hog after all? I'd run across large scraps of various green prints in the process of hunting up the right thing. This seemed a prime opportunity to put them to good use.

At this point the flimsy would finish at about 54" wide and 72" long. I'm thinking of a 3" border all the way around to help control the busy and add a bit more territory to the completed quilt. Not sure what that will be yet.

Sorry about the corner of the table obscuring the bottom of the quilt. Until I get all those seam ends secured I don't want to hang the quilt top from the top of the wall where my quilt hangers are. 

I suspect this will be another donation for Wrap Ukraine With Quilts once it gets quilted and bound. 

Scrap Happy Day is open to anyone who wants to share what they've done with scrap materials. Just leave a comment on Kate or Gun's blog as you make the tour of those who regularly participate with us. 😊

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