Clarissa

Clarissa

It's a new flimsy!

86 x 86 

I started making blocks back in July 2016 after I saw a blog post at Kathy's Quilts about a c. 1886-1890 quilt made by Clarissa White Alford.   You know I just love to make my own version of vintage quilts that inspire me! 

There are 1296 QSTs (Quarter Square Triangles) in 36 twelve inch (finished) blocks. 

I've had all of the blocks finished for awhile now but I just could not decide on a fabric for the sashing. Then a few weeks ago I received a surprise package of WOWs (white on whites) from a friend and in the box was the perfect sashing - a muslin like fabric lightly printed with what looked like Queen Anne's lace or maybe Yarrow.  And after I figured out how much fabric I needed for the sashings I was pleasantly surprised to find there was just enough. So I immediately set about sashing my blocks before I forgot what I was going to use for the sashing and used it with some other quilt. 

This will now go into the hand quilting pile so you may not see Clarissa again for awhile. 

 My January OMG (One Monthly Goal) was to assemble at least one top from the large box of complete block sets.  This is top #3.   The first to be assembled was Dakota Farmer (Stars).  Quilt top #2 was Blue Economy Blocks. 

OMG at Elm Street Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Double Irish Chain

This week I made a few Double Irish Chain blocks with pink and brown scraps. 

I started making these 9 inch (finished) blocks mid year last year and had previously made four pink blocks as well as a few other colors. I've been using light browns for the background and dark brown for the chains.  Here's a few of last year's blocks. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Out of the Blue

I have a new top!

60 x 72

I made these Economy Blocks last year when I noticed I had a lot of blue scrap chunks. I also have a 16 quart bin of little 3 inch nine patches so picked out a bunch of nine patches with blue fabrics to use as the Economy Block centers. 

You know I usually sew blocks together randomly but this time the layout was a kind of planned random.  I divided up the blocks into three piles based on the last round of the blocks - dark blue, light blue and aqua.  Then I counted up what was in the dark and light blue piles and then I added wild card aqua blocks to each pile until there were the same number of blocks in each pile. 

 Then I sewed them together alternating one from the dark pile and one from the light pile. 

This is assembled top #2 toward my OMG (One Monthly Goal). I wonder how many more tops I will get assembled before the end of the month. 

Wednesday Wandering : Winter Sowing

It's Wednesday and time to wander off the beaten quilty path and on to another path. 

A few days ago I had a wonderful time sowing some seeds and dreaming of gardens to be. 

You may or may not remember that last year I cleared an area here for a native wildflower garden. I did some research on wildflowers native to this area that would do well in part sun/part shade, were different heights and had a variety of flower colors. And most importantly I wanted seeds that had similar germination requirements.  Most of these seeds germinate after a 60 day period of cold, moist stratification - perfect for winter sowing. 

I've been winter sowing seeds for years and first found information at WinterSown.Org.  Now there is a lot of information out there about winter sowing if you are interested. 

I've used a variety of different containers from milk jugs to ice cream buckets to quart sized zip lock baggies to start seeds but for this batch I used old plant pots and covered them with plastic wrap held in place with rubber bands. I did punch holes in the saran wrap with a sharp scissors. 

This batch of wildflower seeds include Prairie Smoke, Western Indian Physic, Wild Quinine, Columbine, Pearly Everlasting, Hoary Vervain, Cardinal Flower, Meadow Blazing Star, Prairie Blazing Star, Yellow Coneflower, Foxglove Beardtongue, Rattlesnake Master and Sweet Black Eyed Susan. 

Now they are outside on the deck.  It was actually difficult to get them out there because the deck is covered with deep snow and ice that I could not shovel off. In fact, I walked on top of that snow and ice and did not break through and I'm no light weight. 

 Here you can see the ice covered snow is mounded up all the way to the bottom of a deck chair. And you can see mounded snow in a plastic planter that will probably later be sown with pansies or petunias. 

I used the bag of soil starting mix I had on hand and was a little depressed thinking I might not be able to find more at this time of year but my husband ventured out and found me a few more bags so I'll have a couple more batches of seeds to winter sow.  Not all seeds can be winter sown. Some get started under lights in a corner of my sewing room which I guess could also be called a sowing room. 

Dreaming of gardens to be. Are you? 

Little Wonky Stars Finish

Little Wonky Stars 

40.5 x 58.5

It's a finish!

The Back.

Actually the backing is pieced with this striped fabric making up most of it but there is about a 9 inch width of fabric of stars on top. 

The Quilting 

Echoed wavy lines in light gray quilted on my DSM. 

I finished the top back in November. It consists of lots of little Wonky Stars that finish at 4.5 inches that I made several years ago.  It's now ready for donation. 

 

Squares in Squares in Pink

The free pattern for this quilt is called Sun Print.  I'm using up some black on white scraps and Tone on Tone (TOT) scraps in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. After I make 140 Square in Square blocks a half frame will be added to them like the top and middle left blocks. I've been cutting those frame pieces as I go along but they will not be added until later to make x and y blocks. 

Well, I am not really fond of the method in the pattern for making those blocks with "flippy corners" but I started down that road so I'll continue down that path. In my effort this year to use scraps as they happen I made those Hourglass blocks on the left with the trimmed "flippy corners".  They are in my trimming box with some Hourglass blocks on the right for my Log Cabin centers for Julie's Log Cabin Loonies SAL (Sew Along).  (That's another story for another time but I'm using civil war repro scraps to make that quilt.)

Then I made some 3 inch (finished) Square in Square blocks because I thought Gayle's were so cute. I'm calling them CHIPS...you know...paint chips, potato chips, chips off the old block...but not cow chips, chips on your shoulder, chip of fools...

I was tempted because I have a large shoe box of 2.5 black/white strips left over from a long ago swap. Time to put those to use.  

Then all this black and white business made me think of my Moon Garden medallion quilt started as a QAL.  I dropped out when the measurements given by the hostess were not correct on one of the rounds. Anyway, I thought before I used up all of my black/white fabrics I should assess what needs to be done to this UFO to move it forward. 

Looks like I was making some Spinning Star blocks which look like little flowers to me.  Instructions, pieces and parts and some finished block were in a plastic bag. Time to continue on. FYI, the Spinning Star blocks were one of the Tiny Tuesday RSC Sampler blocks. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Rail Fence Finish

Rail Fence

It's a finish!

90 x 90

I just draped it over the clothesline because it is covered in hoarfrost and the clothespins are little ice cubes. 

I started making little 3 inch rail fence blocks from 1.5 inch scraps back in 2017 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I made a few each month from actual scraps in the color of the month from 2017 through 2019.  Sometimes there weren't very many scraps in a particular color and sometimes I had lots of scraps of a particular color. Sometimes I just had to wait for scraps to happen. I just worked with the scraps until I had 900 little blocks.  Then I assembled the top in November 2019. It has been waiting in the quilting stack ever since then. 

It's not exactly easy to wrestle a big quilt through the dinky harp on my DSM but I finally decided I might as well get 'er done.  I quilted vertical and horizontal lines through the centers of the blocks. 

A scrap catalog.  Blocks were sewn together randomly. 

I made a scrappy binding. A lot of the pieces came from the leftover binding shoebox. I tried to use multicolor geometrics on white. 

 The backing was a wide piece of bleached muslin. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More