Little Blue Pills

Blue Lozenges 

2.5 x 5 (2 x 4.5 finished)

I think I just made 54 of them. 

Tedious work if you are not a leader/ender personality type. 

Lozenges remind me of cough drops. Cough drops remind me of horehound. Horehound reminds me of bitter pills to swallow. Pills remind me of "don't be such a pill" which reminds me of tedious and monotonous.  

These lozenges are tedious and monotonous to make so I shall call them Bitter Pills. 

I started making these maybe in the middle of  last year. They are a good use of 2.5 inch scraps and they are kind of a fun fabric catalog. When I don't have anything better to do I guess I'll count all the Bitter Pills and see how many I have. Surely there's enough for some cute little quilt.  Hmmm, I don't see any Pink Pills in the pile. Maybe I'll wait until after next month to count. 

Got Scraps?

Join us each ScrapHappy Saturday and show us what you've done with them. 

Depression But Not

I finished up the last four 16 inch Depression Blocks I needed...

...to complete a flimsy 80 x 80 - 25 blocks consisting of 16 - 4.5 inch HSTs.
That's 400 scrappy HSTs! 

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? (at Confessions of a Fabric Addict)

I finished a flimsy and it's Friday so going over to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

And soon I think this WIP will soon be gone  so heading on over to link up with

 WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Readers Garden. 

And, as someone suggested in comments...linking up to:
Oh, Scrap (at Quilting is More Fun than Housework) 

And finally, to completely finish this up  with some quilting and binding will be my
  February goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

Thirties Thursday - Seeing Stars

This week for my 30s reproduction fabric bin bust I made four 12 inch star blocks to add to the "birthday star" pile.    Last year I belonged to a birthday club and requested any 12 inch star block with a blue background  in 30s reproduction fabric.  I received 11 gorgeous blocks. Since then I've been making other star blocks.   I want a total of 42 different stars and I think I'm over the halfway mark. 

This week the blocks are:

Top row L to R: Four Patch Star, Winged Four Patch

Bottom row L to R: Eight Pointed Star Variation, Brasstown Star

All can be found at Quilter's Cache. 

Let the Sun Shine

Sunny Lanes blocks (block instructions at Quilter's Cache)

I've made 15 of these 12 inch blocks in civil war repro scraps, a golden tan and Kona Snow.  Twelve of the best blocks will go toward a swap with some lovely members of the Block Swappers Yahoo Group. The gracious hostess (and self-proclaimed cw fabric snob)  is none other than Vic of Park Hill Farm.    

(It's already on my UFO list...I made one block last year). 

Crumb Bum

My original thought was to make a crumb border for my Kaleidoscope quilt. I used crumbs for each of the kaleidoscope block corners why not extend that into the borders.    I thought crumbs would look like those  little pieces in a kaleidoscope before they form those beautiful designs.  Before I got too far with my crumb making I decided to pin it all to the wall to see how it looks.  I'm on the fence but I think I will go with my original thought and go ahead and add the crumb borders...

...to my Kaleidoscope quilt.

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Apple of My Eye

Big stitching with red perle #8 on the Apple of My Eye quilt in 30s reproduction fabrics. 

A lot of the 6 inch blocks came from two different swaps. 

Slow stitching today?

Join us at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. 

Moody Blues

Nine  inch Vintage Butterfly blocks for a quilt similar to a vintage one I saw at Nostalgic Cafe. 

I made these last year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and probably will still be making them this year. I now have 31 blocks and want 56.  This  is also called Beggar's Block.  

From the same 1.5 inch scrap I made 3 inch spool blocks.  I've made these during the last couple of Rainbow Scrap Challenges and have hundreds. After this year I might have enough for a large quilt. 

I made scrappy Wonky Log Cabins last year too but need a few more for a twin sized quilt.  I make these from my short string scraps. I first make 4 nine inch blocks and the join them into an 18 inch block.  I just finished a child sized  ( 40 x 58) Wonky Log using blue and black scraps. 

I made some HSTs from 4.5 inch scraps and joined them into a chevron block and a block of HSTs. 

Got scraps? 

Use them up and join us each ScrapHappy Saturday to show us what you've done. 

Guess What!

It's Finished!!

Pickle Dish

67 x 67

A Wedding Quilt

For the Hope Chest of my Granddaughter, Kayla, age 10

Hand Quilted 

 I enjoyed every minute of making this. It's an old friend. 

I hope I'm around when my granddaughter gets married and receives this quilt. But, if not, I'll be there in spirit. 

This is my second wedding quilt for one of the grandchildren. The first was a Double Wedding Ring for Isabelle.  Now I need to work on my Jack's Chain quilt - a wedding quilt for my grandson, Jacob. 

This was my goal #4 out of 11 for 2015 Finish Along

Also linking up to:
Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

And, finally, linking up to Julie's January Binding Blitz. 

Wonky Log Cabin

40 x 58

Wonky Log Cabins

 From Scraps

For Donation

Machine quilted  on my Plain Jane DSM with some wonky squares - my first time trying these. 

I guess I didn't botch it up too bad all things considered.  I don't think a child somewhere is going to inspect the quilting so it's kind of fun to practice something new. 

And it did add a nice cuddly texture when washed.   I sewed the binding on by machine too. I don't really like the look and I'm not good at it but it is recommended for kid's quilts by the places where I usually send quilts (Wrap-a-Smile or Quilts Beyond Borders).   I think it took me longer to sew on the binding than to quilt the darned thing. My top thread kept breaking every 8 inches or so. I used the blanket stitch on the machine. Never again. 

The backing is some happy polka dots. 

This was my January goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes (#170)

It is also goal 3 out of 11 for the 2015 Finish Along

Also linking up to:
Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

And, finally, linking up to Julie's January Binding Blitz. 

Thirties Thursday - Road to Lampasas

Working on busting the bin of 30s reproduction fabrics so I made four more Road to Lampasas blocks. 

Looks like I was in the pink. Not feeling it, though. 

Up Next in the Hand Quilting Queue

Very soon I hope to start big stitch quilting on Apple of My Eye.  I've got it all pin basted. (Oh, my aching back).

54 x 66

These blocks are from two separate swaps of 6 inch blocks - Apples in 30s reproductions, nine patches in 30s.  The apples were to be apple colors - red, green, yellow and I picked out nine patches in the same colors. I made the border in the same colors - three 1.5 inch strips. 

I will quilt it with red perle #8. 

I'm thinking it will be another hope chest item...a baby quilt for a great grandchild.  I've been told I probably won't have any more grandchildren so it's on to the great grandchildren, I guess.  Just planning for the future.  I may not always be sane and healthy. 

But before I can work on Apple of My Eye I have to finish Pickle Dish.  I posted the other day about it being almost finished and I've worked on it a little since then.   The binding is ready too.  Maybe I'll finish up the hand quilting later tonight or tomorrow after work or the next day after work. Maybe...

It's Slow Stitching Sunday and Kathy wanted us to post a photo of our stitching hand and so I have- complete with thimble and needle and Pickle Dish in the frame I use.  That might be my saggy boob over on the top left. 

Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder (er, I mean Hither)

Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month (medium blue), blue plus complementary color, blue plus black, blue plus white. 

I made a few Dresdens at the end of last year's RSC just to see if I'd like to make them this year as an RSC project. I guess I do.  My rules...use scraps, polka dot centers, gray rick rack around center, all appliqued on to gray background.  Oh, and, as you can probably tell...I don't agonize about layout. I just cut and sew.  Agonizing decisions are for paying jobs, not playing jobs. 

Got scraps? (I sure do)

Grab some RSC color of the month scraps, do something with them and then join us each ScrapHappy Saturday and show everyone what you've done. 

(Note: oh, and if you comment you can always expect a reply from me but it seems lately not all of the comments are reaching my mailbox so I don't even know you've commented. Weird. )

Almost

The Pickle Dish

I've finished hand quilting the "pickles" and the centers.

I guess you can see the (attempt at hand) quilting better from the back. 

And I've finished hand quilting the hearts in the 4 patches.  (It is a wedding quilt). 

The hearts on the back. 

All I have left are the borders! More hearts! (It is a wedding quilt). 

On the back. (That's a stray little thread over there on the left and not a long stitch in the middle of nowhere. 

I'm almost at the finish line! 

And when I'm finished this will go into a hope chest...a wedding quilt for one of my granddaughters who just turned ten.  (Hey, I'm not getting any younger!! Just planning ahead!)

WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden

Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Thirties Thursday - Apple of My Eye

Sheesh...just last week I boasted I was going to post every Thursday about my journey into the 30s reproduction fabric bin but I really didn't even start a journey and thought last night I wouldn't even have a thing to post. 

I did finish up 14 six inch 9 patches after I got home from work today...all I needed in order to put together...

...some 9 patches and apples...8 x 10 layout for Apple of My Eye. 

And a few days ago (Sunday?) I did make a 12 inch Ohio Star for my Birthday Stars collection.   I THINK I want 42 blocks and have 21 different 30s Stars on a blue background.  Some were from a birthday club swap. 

Out of the Depths...

Out of the depths of the box of 2.5 inch scraps...

...and the bin of 1.5 inch scraps...

...and the pencil boxes of 1.5 inch postage stamps...

...arose a bunch of 5 inch Little Monkey Wrench blocks.   The Old Lady Who Sews thought there were 288 blocks and so she sewed and sewed rows and rows of on point blocks of Little Monkeys until she noticed the box of Little Monkeys was getting low and she still had rows to go before a flimsy.   The Old Lady Who Sews did a recount and found she was 44 blocks short and so she was sad. 

But she dug deep into the depths of the scraps again and made...

...22 more Little Monkeys and now The Old Lady Who Sews only has 22 more to go. 

Digging into the depths of your scraps? 

Share your story with the rest of us on Scraptastic Tuesday.