A Wednesday Wander Through My Flower Garden

I went out early this morning for a walk through my cottage garden. We have had really dry conditions so it seems that the blooms aren't as big as usual and aren't lasting as long as usual. A water conservation alert has already been issued for parts of Iowa but it has not been issued here yet. I have a private well and I've been mostly watering the veg garden and newly planted and sprouted seeds - well,I should say I'm watering the ones the critters don't devour. 

I was watching the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and saw that "weeds" are in vogue as the country moves toward more sustainable gardening and biodiversity. I guess my cottage garden is pretty trendy! One of these days I might have to take photos of all the different types of "weeds" I have. 

 

Sixteen Patch - Some Assembly Required

I have completed 70 Sixteen Patch blocks. Now I'm going to put them in my SAR (Some Assembly Required) box to put together at a later date. 

Back in late April I blogged that I received a bag of 2 inch squares.  The Sixteen Patch blocks alternating light and dark centers came to mind so I've been sewing them as leaders/enders most of May. The bag did not have enough light squares so I cleaned out a bag of mine full of ends of 2 inch width neutral scraps mostly left over from making little Spool blocks (over 600 in my collection now). 

The blocks are 6 inches finished and will go into a layout of 7 x 10 blocks for a child's donation quilt 42 x 60 inches. It might even be a fun little I Spy game.

And sew on...

 

What Was In The Box?

At the beginning of May I decided to process an overflowing box of scraps. 

You know that I'm trying to use scraps as they are made; however, I did not do that in the past years so I have several boxes and bags of unprocessed scraps. Some scraps are sent to me and don't get all sorted right away, some I get out of a scrapbag (sorted by color) and then don't all get used and don't get put back, some are made by me and pile up on my cutting mat (18 x 24) so when the cutting mat gets full and I can no longer cut anything I sweep the scraps off into a box. 

My box is now empty. 

(No, it didn't all go in the trash! Hardly anything but tiny bits went into the trash. And those tiny bits  along with the broken down box will go on some of my flower garden paths to keep weeds down)

So what was in the box? 

Nine 10 inch Monkey Wrench blocks. 

Fifteen 7.5 inch Monkey Wrench blocks.

Thirteen 5 inch Monkey Wrench blocks

Five 8 inch black/solid HST Four Patch

Five 5 inch Four Patches (complementary colors) and nine 4 inch Windmills

Nine 3 x 5 Switch Plates

Seventeen 4 inch red, white, blue Four Patches

Forty-three 3 inch Bowties 

Chunks to be put in the appropriate scrap bag by color

Strips of certain widths to go into several different project workboxes

Orphan blocks or units (like tumbler pieces) to go into the orphanage

Eight 6.5 inch squares, fourteen 6 inch squares, eleven 5.5 inch squares 

Thirty-two 5 inch squares, sixty-one 4.5 inch squares, sixty-six 4 inch squares,fifty-nine 3.5 inch squares, sixty-eight 3 inch squares 

Then I quit counting but...

2.5 inch squares x 4

2.5 inch squares x 2

floral 2.5 inch squares 

2.5 inch squares

2.5 x 3.5 inch rectangles

2 inch squares x 2

2 inch squares x 4

2 inch squares

1.5 inch squares x2

1.5 inch squares x 4

1.5 inch squares

1.5 x 2.5 rectangles

Long strings, short strings, HST parts

Crumbs

Now I've added to my block collections and project boxes and am ready to move on to the next bag or box. It's fun to keep track of the magical things found inside a box of scraps  treasures.

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

Emptying Out A Bag of Three Inch Squares

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. I really don't have many more orange scraps except for a few crumbs and a few chunks. I decided to cut off a 3 inch width strip from a couple of orange chunks. 

Back in March I received a bag (gallon size?) of 3 inch squares and started making Four Patches with pairs of complementary colors.     I've been working on them since then as leaders/enders and saw I was only 26 blocks away from my goal of 140 blocks for a 50 x 70 donation quilt.   I had pairs of blues but didn't have any orange pairs to match with them so cut my squares from those 3 inch width orange strips. 

After that....

...I only needed 11 more Four Patches and so I made those and now...

...I have 140 Four Patches and there's some assembly required. 

Then I moved on to make blocks for donation quilt #2 from 3 inch squares.    I decided to make Four Patches in blacks, whites and one other color.  Again, my goal is the same size of donation quit so I need 140 Four Patches. 

I was able to make 53 Four Patches of blacks/whites/one other color with what was in the bag. So now I'll set these aside until I come across more black and white scraps. 

There were some novelty squares in the bag so I thought I would see how they would look in some 16 Patch Stars.   The blocks finish at 10 inches so I only need 24 blocks for a child's donation quilt.  There are more novelty squares in the bag but I'm going to look through my novelty scraps for a few more squares for variety before I make more blocks. 

I made a few Nine Patch blocks with the pastel and white squares. There's a lot of white squares but not that many pastels. 

I have a small box of pastel bits and pieces I rarely use so it might be a good idea to dig in and use some now to finish up blocks for a donation quilt. 

I pulled out sets of four brown 3 inch squares for the outside of the square in square blocks. The centers are 3.5 inch squares I pulled out of my 3.5 inch squares stash.  I'm not sure what I will do with the rest of the brown squares in the bag that aren't in sets of four.  Time will tell.

The block is called Pavement Pattern - tutorial by Beth Shibley - inspired by a vintage quilt.  And it's a new block just in time for June when the them in my sewing space is "brown stuff".  I have a giant bag of brown scraps waiting to be used in some of the Pavement Pattern blocks and lots of other stuff. 

So that's what will come out of that bag of 3 inch squares and then some. And if after all those blocks are made any squares are left over they will be cut into four 1.5 inch squares because I do have a postage stamp UFO.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday