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! 😊

 

Embellished Tags

My shoulders, arms, and hands are finally feeling better. Not what they once were, but at my age I don't guess I can expect anything to be what it once was. The trick now will be to ease back into my needlework and quilt making activities without going overboard. To that end I have chosen to make a few more textile collages that I can mount on tags. The tags I have were bought several years ago from our local Office Depot. They were labelled as shipping tags. They measure 2.25" wide and are 4.75" high. That gives me about 2" x 4" to play in. I have two to show you. This first one began with a cloth napkin that had a rose bud stitched in one corner. It was awfully neutral so to give it some color  I wrapped the stitches of the rose bud with a silk floss and the leaves with cotton. 

I love to play with charms and beads in my work so I have quite a collection to choose from.

I also had a play with a skinny strip of some mysterious striped fabric, creating a ruffle with some of it and just stitching the rest down flat.

That tag has layers of textiles but they are all secured to the napkin base. This second tag developed in a whole different way.

 I actually started with the scrap of lace and built downwards. I liked the lace over the William Morris repro print that ended up being the bottom layer but it blended in too much. I needed a bit of contrast. That's when the chambray scrap turned up. I decided to do a bit of feather stitching to dress it up a bit, with size 12 perle cottons.

Then I felt the Wm. Morris print needed dressing up too.

The script print, button, and dangling fibers at the top were added at the end to hold everything together. I've used Scotch brand double sided tape in strips to mount the textiles to the tags. I find it interesting that I've been able to embrace raw edges at last. The perfectionist in me would not have allowed that in the past. 😉 

These will be sent to the Disabled Artists Foundation Inc. for an upcoming fund raising auction. I may even get one or two more made before I send anything off! 

Itty-Bitty Scrap Happy Day in January

 Kate (in Australia) and Gun (in Sweden) host Scrap Happy Day on the 15th of each month. It has been my habit to participate with quilt blocks or quilts made out of scraps, with a few exceptions. This month will be an exception. I've been really good, not using my hand and arm that seem to be suffering from carpal tunnel or something, for what feels like forever now. It's actually only been weeks, but possibly as many as six. I have not been a happy bunny. I feel bad for the members of our household; they've had to endure my short temper and nervous energy. 

To help pass the time I've been watching crafters on YouTube with an eye to what I might be able to do when my arm is more fully healed. Not quilts, but small projects. Embroidery, if I can manage it. One thing I've learned about is clusters. Journal makers assemble them from the smallest of their paper scraps and then use them to decorate the pages of the books they make. Some folks combine fabric, lace, and paper. Thought I would give that a try with a few of my smaller scraps. 

I layered a strip of quilter's cotton on top of a chunk of homespun cotton and then layered them onto the remnant corner of a vintage table linen. A few rows of running stitches didn't seem to bother my hand - what a relief! Then I found the slip of polyester and a button I thought would work well to top it all off. I was concerned about giving the button something sturdy to support it.

A scrap of denim from my husband's really old Levi's worked well. I sewed it with the back of the denim facing the front. I'm thinking I want to have the option to have this be visible from both sides in whatever it ends up in. Overall it measures roughly the same size as an ATC (2.5" x 3.5"). I can't even describe how happy it made me to be able to do this little bit of play with fabric and thread. 😊

There are participants in Scrap Happy Day all over the world, and everyone publishes at some point on the 15th in their own time zone. I'm generally one of the last to get a post up. If you haven't been to see what others may have done with their scrap materials (not all play with fabric primarily) now would probably be a good time to do so! 

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