A Melange

 A few weeks ago I was chasing five deer away from my heirloom roses for the second evening in a row and I slipped in some mud, fell and ended up with a herniated disk and pinched nerve. The deer and rabbits have severely pruned my fruit trees, roses and hydrangeas, darn it.  I'm not sure which varmints have been eating my strawberry plants and hollyhocks.  I read that Irish Spring is supposed to keep deer at bay so my husband went and bought some and put it around in areas of the flower and veggie gardens and hung some in the dwarf peach trees. It must work because the next evening I saw them pause at the edge of the garden and proceeded no further to browse. They stood there for the longest time looking confused. I guess the stench of Irish Spring was too much for them since I haven't seen them since. Its also deer hunting season so they may  be hiding out. 

Needless to say I have not felt like doing much sewing with that pinched nerve and herniated disk but I did take the opportunity to browse through a lot of old quilting magazines. I pulled out any quilts I thought I would make and pitched the rest of the magazine.  Now that I'm all better, thank goodness, I've started a few of those quilts.   

Above is a quilt called String Fling from American Patchwork and Quilting August 2012 designed by Glenn Dragone.  I have been on a red, white, blue quilt kick lately so this appealed to me. I also thought it looked rather vintage and liked that I could use some strings.  I'm not following the pattern because I decided to make smaller blocks (8 inch instead of 9) to use the size of scraps I have to make those HSTs.   I've made all the HSTs I need and have sewn them into four patches and now just have to make the string blocks.  

 I've picked through my strings for red, cream and blue ones and ended up with a large flat rate box of them. 

 This one is from American Patchwork and Quilting April 2016 called Plus Postage. It is designed by Susan Ache.   I thought this one looked rather vintage to me too and I decided it would be a nice Rainbow Scrap Challenge project to make from my 1.5 inch scraps.  

Pattern calls for strip sets but I just cut 1.5 inch squares and sewed them together. 

 Speaking of Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects...I found this Dakota Farmer block designed by Bonnie Hunter in the November/December 2013 issue of Quiltmaker that I will add to my projects to use 2.5 inch scraps. Bonnie's version uses 2 inch scraps but I already have several RSC projects that use 2 inch scraps in the works that will roll over into next year. 

I'm also going to make Nine Patches from 2.5 inch scraps as a RSC project next year. 

One other RSC project I'll add to be made from 2.5 inch scraps is the six inch Hourglass block that happens to be this month's Block Lotto block. 

I made four blocks for the drawing.

 Speaking of Block Lotto...in October I won 22 six inch Maple Leaf blocks. 

 I came across two different table runner patterns in the magazines that use Maple Leaf blocks. The one on the right is probably the one I'll make but I will have to make one more block. While I'm making one more block I might just make five more and then make both table runners. Actually, I'm not sure what size blocks the two runners call for.  I guess I'll read up on that before I make any more blocks. For now both patterns are in a baggie with the blocks.  The pattern on the left called Autumn Breeze was designed by Darlene Zimmerman and appeared in American Patchwork and Quilting August 2012. The one on the right is called Pressed Leaves and was designed by Tonya Alexander. It appeared in McCall's Quilting September/October 2015. 

 I was given a layer cake...at least I think that is what it is. It's a package of about 40 or so 12 inch squares of fabric. I don't buy pre-cuts so I'm never quite sure how to use them effectively with little or no waste. This package of fabric has been around awhile so thought I should use it to make a nice donation quilt. I ran across this pattern in the February/March 2010 edition of McCall's Quilts called Celebrate the Day that uses a layer cake of 10 inch squares. It was designed by Bonnie and Brenda Bailey. I like the name so this pattern got my attention. It is now in the bag with those squares and I'll start on it soon. 

 I'm always looking for ways to use my 30s reproduction fabrics and this colorful pattern called Stash Dash really appealed to me. I've actually been trying to decide if I should use 30s reproductions or some fruit themed fabrics to make this. Maybe I'll make two quilts and use both. My quilt or quilts won't be square, though, so I will probably have a layout of 3 x 4 blocks.  This pattern  was from McCall's quilting May/June 2010 and was designed by Julia LaBaune and Tammy Silvers. 

Minnie's Hummingbird appeared in the July/August 2011 issue of Quiltmaker. It was made by Minnie Jacoby Schultz c. 1930.  I liked this pattern because it uses templates and is pieced. I've seen versions of this block that are paper pieced but don't really like paper piecing so this really appealed to me as another way to use 30s reproduction fabrics. I'm going to make a throw size not a large bed size. I have about three yards of Kona Yarrow I was thinking of using for the background but that is not enough. I may just piece the four parts of the block that use the 30s fabrics and save the curved background piecing that finishes up the blocks for later.  Then I can decide if I want to buy more Kona Yarrow or use some other color.  There is also an updated version of the quilt by Peg Spradin in the same article that uses four patches and then appliqued curved pieces to form the block. I still prefer the template with piecing version. 

And finally I pieced a couple of six inch Hearts for a woman who recently lost her husband.  Members of the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild shower members who lose a loved one with hearts in colors of their choosing.  Sue requested light yellow and turquoise on any color background. I really don't have that many "light" fabrics but I guess "light" is relative.