Scrap Bagging and a Tumbler

Awhile back on the 15 Minutes Play blog,  I participated in a scrap swap.  I boxed up a bunch of my scraps and sent them off to Chris so she could play with them.  In return, I received a nice large bag of scraps from her.  We were then instructed by Victoria (the owner of the blog) to play and make something using those scraps.  I pulled them out and really enjoyed making this pillow cover with the scraps.  I blogged about it here.  (now off to another subject, but I will get back to this one, eventually.  Just hang in there with me)

 

 

This week I have kind of been in limbo on my quilting.   I know that I really need to make some quilt backs so I can get them ready for the quilter.  I know that I need to finish organizing the studio.  I know that I need to put some binding on some quilts and make their labels so they can go into the "finished" category.  However, I didn't want to do any of that.  I really didn't know where I wanted to go so I took some time and cut up some scraps.  Then I received an order from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I know I told myself I couldn't purchase anymore fabric, but a charm pack for seven cents? { 0.07}   I had to bite and since I can't just get one - what am I going to make with one?  A Schnibble usually takes two.  I of course had to order another one and then some fabric for the back so it would all match - I am working on getting backs made for my quilts and my Schnibbles don't have the same fabric on the back as it has on the front since I never think about the back.  So I am trying to think about that pesky back fabric.  Then of course I found a boo crew layer cake I needed.  I discovered this fabric collection on the recent shop hop and thought it was really cute.  (This picture of the layer cake is off the Missouri Star website.)

 





 

Of course, the last thing I had to have - or so I thought at the time was a little tumbler template.  (again, the picture is from the Missouri Star website.  The reason it looks backwards - well, is because the picture is taken of the back of the template - the front is protected with paper until you get it home and remove the paper yourself.  Jenny's daughter, Natalie Dawn,  designs these templates herself and her signature is on the front)  Anyway, this template is only 2 1/2" square.   The best thing about this template is it already includes the seam allowance so all you have to do is cut and sew. 

 

 Since I was cutting up scraps, I thought it would be fun to make a mini tumbler quilt and began cutting some tumbler blocks.  I thought I would cut about 30 blocks and make a little 5 X 6 setting, but I kept coming up with little bits of fabric where I could cut one or two tumble blocks so I increased my setting to 6 X 7.  Not much larger, but that was more blocks than I had originally planned.  However, I quickly sewed some light and dark blocks together and had a nice center section.  I dug through the 1 1/2" strip box for just the right little border fabric and auditioned several of them, but I didn't have enough of the ones I liked the best.  I could have made the border scrappy, but since the middle is so scrappy, I didn't want to do that.  I pulled out a strip from the box and the light bulb went off .  It was of a fabric I had recently used and not put away.  It was right next to the sewing table so I could easily cut another little strip to complete the border.   Perfect.  That border fabric is a light yellowy/green print that I love and will be sad it is all gone.  However, it will be in wonderful quilts so I can still see it.  Back to the quilt in progress.  I thought it needed a darker outer border since a bunch of the tumblers were dark blue.  So, I looked in the box of fabric that I have been scrounging out of for a couple of weeks and found this perfect fabric.  I cut a 3 1/2" strip for the outer borders and voila!  I now have a finished little quilt top that is ready to be quilted.  Hmm, that means it needs a back. . . .

  



 

So, to avoid having to find the perfect back for this lovely little quilt, I decide it's time to play again with that bag of scraps I received from Chris (see, I told you I would get back to this)  I pull a few fabrics out of the bag, press all of them and begin cutting and sewing, sewing and cutting.  When I like what I have done, I decide it needed some circles appliqued on top.  All of the fabric in this pillow cover are from Chris except for the turquoise and white circles.  That is from a scrap I received while at Quilt Con and I had just trimmed it up for the scrap boxes.  It was the perfect color for this block so it had to be in there.  I quickly appliqued the circles and quilted the top and finished it up to this stage all last night. (well, early, early this morning)  Then tonight I added the back to make it into a pillow cover.  Of course, I added it on wrong the first time and had to remove the back, turn it over the correct way and add it all again so that is all that got done tonight.  I don't even have a pillow form to put in it - well, not without stealing it from the first pillow.  That may be on tomorrow's shopping list of things to do.  well - - - probably not since tomorrow is the last day of my summer.  I have to go back to school on Wednesday. 



 



Scrappy Triangles

I am thankful for all the great publicity my culinary program has gotten this year.  My friend Liz, just e-mailed me that we were on the front page of the ECISD website again.  That link will take you right to the story - which is what you really want to see - and not the front page of our school website.  I have also had someone from the newspaper call about this story and we had a TV photographer come and video all morning while Roy was presenting and speaking with my class. It was a truly awesome experience.  I plan on using my resources better next year and bring in more chefs and restaurateurs in the area next school year.  Even though I would love to win the lottery, I really enjoy teaching this class and think that I would stay here until I can't do the work anymore or am old enough to retire.  (It's a lot of hard work - like tomorrow night's event for 200 people - and the students don't always help out like they should or I wish they would, but it's really truly a lot of fun. 

Speaking of fun, my mother sent me a link to another string project that she is working on.  I was not smart enough to look through the quilt tutorial tab so I just searched the entire blog for the scrappy triangle blocks.  I found a picture of a pillow and thought - hum, I can do that.  I pulled out my string box and sewed several together in rows.  Then I went to my rulers and found my equilateral triangle and cut me some triangles, sewed a few together and this is just the start.  Then, a couple of days later when I called my mom and told her I was working on the triangles, she said she was using phone book pages to piece hers on.  HUH??  I went back to the website and searched a little better - still not seeing the tutorial tab - and found that, yes, she did use paper to piece her triangles.  OH, well.  I am still going to do these like I have been and will probably only do enough to be a part of a pillow cover.  This time I have taken pictures along the way - not totally along the way - forgot to take pictures of the strips all sewn together so now, there are a few in-progress shots.  Yea, me!! Now to download them from my camera and get them on here.  Just a sec.  whew - my batteries held and I got them downloaded.  I thought I had a picture of the strips and was so excited.  I had it on here at first and then realized it was scraps from my scrap exchange - working on a second project from those scraps - and that it wasn't a part of the triangles so I deleted it off here for another blog posting.

 

Okay, I can not get these two pictures - the one above and the one below in the correct order.  Every time I move it the right way, I stays for two seconds and then goes back to this.  I don't know what is in the air with this one.   

 

 

The triangles are sewn into two rows and they are then laid out here just to see how they look.  I have made a few more triangles with other fabrics to break it all up just a touch more.  These are probably larger than the ones on the blog.  I am cutting them at the 4 1/2 line on my ruler.  I will try and get a picture of the ruler next time.  wait - you can see the edge of it in the picture below. It's that purple thing with the point almost touching my rotary cutter.  I picked it up at Tuesday Morning along with an orange ruler that is a different shape - can you tell I have no clue what shape it is?  I think it may be hexagonal, but I don't know right now.  I have never used them, but since they were on clearance at Tuesday Morning (= cheap and worth the splurge even if I didn't know if I would ever use them or not - If nothing else, I could gift them to someone else)  The major problem with this purple ruler is that it is so dark it's hard to see the lines.  The next pictures I take, I will include both of the rules so you can see.  For now, it's late and time for me to go to bed - busy day tomorrow.  Hope this inspires you. 

 

Scrappy Trip and Strings

I finally completed my scrappy trip around the world quilt.  I am sorry to include a picture of one of my students in this one, I couldn't get it to crop out.  I guess I don't have the right programs to do that on my laptop.  So, just ignore him and the arm of the other student on the other side.  I don't know what the deal is with the two blocks in the second row.  I think they may have been too light or something, but since I didn't put the blocks up on a design wall, but rather just picked them up and sewed them together, I guess that is what I get.  It's kind of interesting and once you get past that, you can see that a few more blocks stand out also.   This was a lot of fun and the majority of the blocks were made while my students were elsewhere taking their state mandated tests.  I probably made half of the blocks at school.  So, I need to come up with a name for this quilt that reflects it's origins. 

 

I think if I do it again, I will make a concentrated effort to make that diagonal line more pronounced.  Instead, I let it be the fabric I liked the most or that stood out the most in that set of 6 fabrics.  So,  it could be a very pale fabric, a bright fabric or a dark one.  Then, I think I would make the two fabrics on either side be a major contrast to the main diagonal fabric.  That would make it stand out even more.  It was a lot of fun, but this quilt is HUGE!!  about 72 X 96.  Okay, not so huge, but still quite a large quilt.  I love seeing all the greens in there along with the pinks and reds.  Fun, fun, fun.  If you haven't tried making a block I highly suggest you make at least one.  The pattern comes from www.quiltville.com and I blogged about making the block way back here.

 

 

I just finished this pillow cover.  This is made from the scraps I received from Chris.  I am working on samples using strips and in the scrap bag were some wonderful strips already cut in various sizes so I just pulled a few out and started sewing them together.  Once I had them sewn up, I had to determine the shortest length and what size I could cut them into squares.  Then I decided I wanted something else, so I sewed on corner triangles.  Well, I sewed one on the wrong corner so I just made those two blocks have double corners so I could get the middle the way I wanted.  With the leftover sewn strips, I cut them into 1 1/2" strips to use around the outside.  I dug through the bag again and found the black and white print and just had enough to go around the outside of my four squares.  However, I wasn't going to have enough of the strips to go all the way around the block so I dug through the bag again and found a large piece in some of the same colors and VOILA!!  I have an almost 16" square (15 3/4" or so) I added some batting and quilted the top in straight line stitching - don't look too close in the center - that was the last little bit I did and I went too fast and it's not straight, but I am not taking it out.  Then, I dug through some of the fabric I took with me to Quilt Con and found enough to use for the backing to make an envelope opening for this pillow.  I can't wait to put a pillow form in there and see what it looks like all "blown-up".  This was a lot of fun and went together really, really fast with very little thinking on my part.  Which makes it so relaxing, I think.  Anyway, now I have one for two - a project from the scrap bag and a strip project for a class on strips I will be teaching in a few weeks.   Now, I need to post this over on 15 minutes Play blog so everyone can see it. 

 



Retreat Quilt 2012 - first view



Here is my quilt top so far.  I finished my 9 blocks and just couldn't go any further.  I tried, I really did, but my mind just said STOP!!!  Yes, it was almost that loudly.  Once I put these blocks together, I felt better and have been able to work on other things while auditioning fabrics for borders.  Sometimes it's good to listen to your brain when it tells you something.  Or at least it is for me.  I did nothing for a couple of days because I really thought I needed to make 20 blocks for a lap quilt, but this quilt had something else entirely in mind for itself.  The fabric that is on the right side trying out for the role of outside border has since been replaced by another fabric that works much better.  Once I have that fabric on, I will take another picture of the finished top.  This is the quilt I will be teaching at our retreat in February. 

I have made a couple of blocks for the Blogger's BOM.  After the first block, I have decided to change the background fabric and need to re-make that first block along with the other two blocks.  These are 8 inch blocks so I may be making two of each pattern.  I may need to make more or come up with a way to put them on point.  I guess I will wait until the end of the monthly blocks to see how they set them before I make that decision.  I have 8 more months for that. 

I have also made 4 burp cloths and have another 4 cut out and ready to sew together.  It seems like almost everyone I know is having a baby!!  (or at least 6 people I know.  Actually I know of 7 at this time that are preggers and one that delivered early - before Christmas.)  I used to have a stash of baby blankets, etc. on hand to give as gifts, but I guess I sold most of those a couple years ago at the Bazaar and now I don't have anything!!  It has been on my brain to make some more blankets, but, you know, it was stalled by that quilt at the top of this posting!!  Now that I have it all cleared up, I am up and running on the other things I need to get done.  Now, off to do some sewing - until next time.  

Scraptastic!

Our Bee Friends Quilt Group got together this past weekend for our third quilt-in of the year.  It was decided several months prior that whoever wanted would cut 149 light and 149 medium/dark - 6 inch squares and trade to make  really scrappy 1/2 square quilts.  I signed up to do this project.  Well, we all know how busy my summer was and I got my lights cut before Thursday night, but not my med/darks.  I took that fabric with me to the quilt-in knowing I had a few hours before we had to trade and I might just get all my squares cut.  Thank goodness one of my friends was a little bit late getting there that night because I finished right as she was walking in the door.   WHEW!!  Just by the skin on of my teeth I got all my squares cut and ready to trade.  However, before I even went that night I had decided that I didn't even want to make another 1/2 square quilt.  I have made one or two of them at other retreats and even though I like the looks of those quilts, I was ready for something different.  I was sitting at the computer working one night and knocked off a stack of papers that really, really need to be filed.  After I picked them up and stacked them again - what?  I don't have the energy or time to file them now!  I have other more important (and fun) things to do - like playing games on the computer or reading blogs - which is probably what I was doing when I knocked that pile over.  Anyway, in that stack was one of those patterns you get in the mail along with a solicitation for a quilt book or new magazine or to join something quilty.  I had saved this one sheet because I liked the look of that quilt.  I wasn't sure I would actually make it, but I could use it as an inspiration.  All it needed were 6 inch squares in light and medium/dark fabrics - hey, we are trading those at the quilt in.  Also, I needed 1 1/2 inch strips.  I have a large box of those since several of my recent quilts needed  that size strip.  I am set!!  In brief, easy terms here is how you get these blocks.  Cut your 6 inch square diagonally once.  Sew your 1 1/2" strips to the cut edges of your block.  Square up your block.  Now, the pattern says to square them to 5 inches, but I have been able to square mine back to a 6 inch block.  Here is what I have put up on my design wall so far . . .

There are a lot of repeats in there since when we exchanged, I picked up two of the same fabric blocks (we went around the table several, several times before we decided to pick up more than two - we were tired after going around about 6 times!)  This will look even more scrappy as I put in more fabrics.  I may have to make a couple of smaller quilts rather than a large one.  We will see how this all pans out later.