NOT in the Hoop

I've been doing some hand quilting with perle #8.   I'm quilting through the middle of the 1 inch squares moving around and around the square.  I started out with the 80 x 80 quilt in the square pvc hoop but had to move it too often so opted not to use a hoop and now I'm moving right along with the quilting on...

...Plain Brown Wrapper. 

(I counted cream and ecru as brown for this quilt). 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

I'd like to get this completely finished as my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for October. 

Those Crazy Ladies of the Lake

I have finally completed all 81 of the ten inch Crazy Lady of the Lake blocks.

This has been a RSC project for a few years. Each month I made a few blocks from scraps in the color of the month.  Here's the ones I just made that use blue scraps. 

And here's the final six blocks. 

Now I'm ready for assembly. The quilt that inspired this was a vintage one and when I was looking at it again a few days ago I noticed it was set on point.  I'm not sure I'm going to do that. There are many ways to set the blocks in regard to the orientation of the dark and light in the blocks.  I may actually have to use the rarely used design floor and dither a bit before I decide what to do. 

A lot of the centers (six inch HSTs) for Crazy Lady of the Lake are leftover HST halves from this 2014 Basket Bounty (Cake Stand blocks) quilt I made.  The rest of the Crazy Lady centers came from the scrap chunk crate. All of the smaller HSTs were made from 2.5 inch scraps. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Vintage Thingamajigs Monthly Update

Vintage Thingamajigs

This month I've added 17 more 6 inch blocks to my pile of what now consists of 63 blocks. 

I've been working on them each day for 20 minutes since July 1. It's just a fun way to see how long it will take me sewing only 20 minutes a day to make this quilt.  The 20 minutes includes cutting pieces and trimming dog ears. It's not all just piecing time. 

 I'm aiming for a twin size quilt so I think that means I need about 154 blocks. 

You may or may not know that I'm inspired by vintage/antique quilts. The blocks that inspired these I saw on Flickr and I'm calling them Vintage Thingamajigs. I'm thinking I may set these on point but not sure yet. Now I need to figure out how many that setting would take.  I don't want to make too many blocks!

Log Cabin Lunacy

Since last week I have made 47 more little four inch log cabins. Lest you think I've been showing the same picture of log cabins each week I decided to show piles of them this week. 

I have 255 out of target of 320 so maybe I'll have enough to start assembly soon. 

These have been a nice easy mindless thing to work on when I haven't felt like doing much else. I've been busy with end of garden produce processing and cleanup and have been battling a nasty ear infection, spider bite and hopefully the last case of poison ivy for the year.  

Sewing along with other Log Cabin Loonies at JulieKQuilts. 

It's a Finish! Zig Zag Nine Patch

 Zig Zag Nine Patch

92 x 92

Actually I think it is one inch shorter on top width and one inch shorter on the left side. I measured all four sides several times and got different measurements each time so am just using the largest number and calling it good.  I have to confess I don't square up my quilts. I don't have the space or the tools and they serve my purpose whether they measure the same on top and bottom and on each side.  You can tell if a quilt has perfect measurements when a quilt is on a bed or on a person. 

 I like to find pictures of vintage quilts and try to figure out how to make them. 

I saw this one from the Darwin D. Bearly collection of Antique Ohio Amish Quilts at Plaid Portico and knew I had to make one. 

 I had a lot of three inch nine patches on hand. Some were from swaps over the years and others I just made when I felt the urge.   I also had the solids on hand so it was meant to be. 

I hand quilted it in different colors of perle #8. The quilting really shows up well on the solid red backing. I took some pics of the backing but they turned out pretty blurry and I don't feel like retaking any so you will just have to use your imagination. Even though I haven't washed it yet the hand quilting has made it all soft and crinkly already. 

This was my goal #1 

for 

Q3 Finish-Along

It's a Flimsy!

It's a flimsy! 

64 x 80

Eight inch Depression Blocks

I've been making these blocks out of my 2.5 inch scraps since 2014 so it's about time I put them together into a flimsy.  It has been a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project and I would make a few blocks each month from the month's chosen color.  Sometimes years I had no scraps in those colors so no blocks got made.  I sewed blocks together randomly. 

 I love this block because it forms a secondary pattern plus all scraps play nicely together in the finished top.   From far away the blocks look a single color but up close you never know what you will find. 

I've previously made a quilt as a wedding gift made of sixteen inch blocks in autumn colors. The four inch HSTs I used were from a swap.  Then I made one out of twelve inch blocks in patriotic themed fabrics and sent it as a Quilt of Valor to my husband's friend.  This one, when finished, I will probably donate locally or save for gift giving. 

Depression Blocks make me happy!

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

From the 4.5 Inch Scrap Box

 Last year I depleted a lot of the 4.5 inch scraps but I still have a few in the scrap box.  Last month I decided to make some sixteen inch Fractured Rail blocks.  I am making them in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month plus its complement. I really didn't want to use white as a complement for black so used gray instead. 

Last month I also started making HRTs from 4.5 inch scraps.  I had a lot more black scraps than dark blue.  And that's okay.  I just go with the flow of the scraps. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Log Cabin Lunacy

The total count of little four inch log cabin blocks is now at 208.  The target is 320. Only a few more to go!

Sewing along with other log cabin loonies at JulieKQuilts. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Boho Roosters Revisited

Bohemian Roosters

80 x 80

hand quilted

Sunburst pattern is from the book Making Quilts by Kathy Doughty. 

The rooster fussy cut centers were cut from a fabric in my stash  - Bohemian Rooster Click by Susan Winget. 

I then found enough stash fabrics that I thought were boho-ish  enough to coordinate with the centers.  All sunburst points are yellows from stash. 

The quilt was started in November 2017 and finished April 2018. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Pumpkin Peels Revisited

Pumpkin Peels

78 x 78

made with small scraps in autumn colors

peels are appliqued to the background

pieced backing

hand quilted

templates and quilt instructions from:

Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts  - Patterns Inspired by Antique Quilts 

by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms

Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side

From the 1.5 Inch Scrap Bin

 This month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is dark blue/dark neutrals. This week I dug into the 1.5 inch scrap bin and made some blocks I call Whatchamacallits. They are a version of Coins. The pieces are 1.5 x 2.5.  This is the second year of making them. 

 I've been making little Rails for two years also from 1.5 x 3.5 inch scraps. 

 I made a lot of them this month from what was in the scrap bin. 

After I use the scraps in the 1.5 inch scrap bin to make the two different blocks...

...I've been putting them in a shoe box with some Spider Webs. 

I'm not sure why the 1.5 inch scrap bin isn't empty yet. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

A Flimsy and A Smiley Face!

Fractured Rainbows

96 x 96

It's a flimsy!

This quilt was released as a free FreeSpirit pattern called Garden Mosaic.  I used just rainbow colors so changed the name to suit my quilt. 

This quilt has also lovingly been referred to as Totally Demented by Sally who previously finished a quilt top maybe because she used bat wings and eye of newt, and Gayle , the original temptress who sent us a link with photo of the quilt and who still has a work in process.  Thanks, Gayle!

 The Totally Demented Garden Mosaic with Fractured Rainbows consists of 2048 two inch unfinished HSTs. 

 At the beginning of the process I didn't really have many 2 inch scraps ready to use. That's not a size I usually save in a bin because I have made very few quilts that use that size of pieces. So I went through my scrap chunks to find scraps to use.  I think that took me longer to sort and cut scraps than to actually make all the HSTs.   I used an Easy Angle ruler to cut pieces for my HSTs.   I used muslin as the neutral. I was going to use scrappy neutrals but when I skimmed the instructions I saw that it required 7.5 yards (if I remember correctly) of background fabric I decided I didn't want to use my quickly dwindling supply of neutrals on such small pieces so I used muslin that I had on hand instead. 

My OMG (One Monthly Goal) for September was to finish up sewing together the rows on eight 24 inch blocks.  I mentioned in that post that I'd give myself a smiley face bonus if I completed the top. 

😊😊😊😊😊

I really wasn't sure I could make this one! 

Ticky Tacky Town Additions

Schools, colleges and libraries were added to Ticky Tacky Town this week.  

Schools and Colleges

Grades 1- 8 I went to Catholic School.  I actually did walk a mile to school every day rain or shine, sleet or snow. Our school didn't have school buses.  Funny thing is that there were two Catholic church and schools a couple of blocks away from each other. When they were originally built one (St. Joseph's) was for the German folks and the other (St. Mary's) was for the Irish.  I went to St. Mary's. 

I couldn't wait to go to school. I loved learning. (Still do). 

The classes were small so one teacher, usually a nun, taught two grades that occupied one classroom.  My favorite subjects were Math and English, Composition, Spelling, Reading...well maybe I should just list my least favorite classes - history and geography.  History seemed like it was all about studying wars and memorizing dates and I have to admit I am still geographically challenged. I really loved diagramming sentences but not many others did.  I think those exercises helped me learn a few new languages later in life. I don't think they teach that anymore. I got a puzzled look when I asked my grandkids about that. 

 I couldn't wait to learn cursive writing. We used fountain pens with cartridges that sometimes leaked all over the place. We had to use blue ink, not black.  Not sure why.  I remember practicing loops and curves on lined paper. (Kind of a bit like practicing for FMQ, don't you think?)  I'm not sure that they teach cursive writing anymore either. Now they learn keyboarding at an early age. I wonder if future generations will be able to decipher any cursive writing.  And speaking of writing...I also loved to write stories that made the class laugh when I read them out loud.  I loved writing research papers too.  That was before you could quickly research any subject at a computer.  Research involved libraries and card catalogs and writing things out in cursive.   

They didn't have keyboarding back when I was in school...they called it typewriting and I didn't have a class in that until high school.  It was recommended if we were going to go to college that we take a typing class. So I did.  We learned to type on manual typewriters and for one week we all got to use the newfangled electric typewriter. When I went to college I bought a manual typewriter from the Pawn Shop and the hard case had someone else's initials painted on it.  It is still up in the attic somewhere and I still wonder about the story behind that pawned typewriter.  When I took my first computer science courses in college I keypunched my programs on to cards that a teacher's assistant would insert into the computer mainframe.  Hardly anyone had a computer at home. 

It took me forever to get through college. I couldn't decide what I wanted to be when I grew up so changed my major many times- education, Spanish, psychology, computer science. I did have a couple of scholarships and tested out of a few classes but otherwise I paid as I went because I didn't want to go into debt. Sometimes that meant I would not take classes for a couple of years, took correspondence courses (remember there were no online classes) or night classes so I could continue to work at a paying job - usually at minimum wage which was an incentive for me to carry on and some day finish college.   In those days except for cars and houses we saved up for things before we bought them.  We didn't have credit cards; we had bank savings passbooks and visited the bank each week to make a deposit. 

Libraries

If I wanted to go to the library I took a bus downtown.  If I remember right it cost a dime to ride the bus and the buses were always full of people. I was always afraid I would not pull the cord at the right time so I could get off in the right spot.   Later the library bookmobile stopped on Saturdays about a block away. I read every Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew book they had and wondered when I would be lucky enough to have a mystery to solve in my neighborhood. Now I'm glad I was never that "lucky".  I still love mysteries but read them on an old version Kindle now. 

I'm not exactly following the free pattern instructions but the houses do finish at 3 inches. 

Log Cabin Lunacy

Here's this week's batch of little four inch (finished) log cabin blocks.  I now have 154 toward my goal of 320.  And I'm sewing along with other Log Cabin Loonies at JulieKQuilts. 

All Creatures Great and Small

This is another project I've been picking up and putting down all summer.  These are the latest hexies.  Now I have a total of 102 so should probably decide how many I need.  One of my granddaughters thinks she wants to be a veterinarian so I've been making this with her in mind using all the creature fabrics in my stash. When finished I'll put the quilt in the hope chest so I'll have it to give to her if and when she actually does start studies toward that goal. 

Embroidered Tablecloth Finish

 Embroidered Tablecloth

45 inch square

This was a nice easy project to pick up and put down this summer when the days were too hot to do too much of anything.  It was a stamped embroidery I picked up from the thrift store a few years ago.  I was going to use it as a quilt back but now I'm thinking I might use it as a table topper and make some napkins to go with it.  I have some turquoise gingham in the stash with 1/4 inch squares. 

I followed the simple instructions that came with it - two strands of black embroidery thread, chain stitch and back stitch where indicated.   Not bad for 95 cents. 

I still have a few other thrift store embroidery projects to work on as the urge strikes but since it is getting a little cooler I've finally got another quilt in the hoop that I can work on for a little bit each evening after dinner. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts