Oh, Baby! Another Top!

Mother Goose

It's a top!

43 inch square

Hmmm... guess I should have done a little better job of ironing!

Funny how this one came together...

I received this vintage-y looking piece of fabric with Mother Goose on it back in January. I set it aside to use for a backing fabric for a small quilt. 

In January I also received a box of stuff from a different person and it had some 2 1/4 inch squares in it. I thought that was a weird size of square - one I don't save when I process scraps - so I just sewed them together into four patches as leader enders thinking I could add some 4 inch squares to the mix and do something with them for a child's quilt. 

This month I have been trying to match up backings to tops  - prepping for a March Madness Quilting Marathon - and I measured the Mother Goose piece but it was only 36 inches from selvage to selvage. Gosh, that is not only vintage looking but it is vintage fabric! I remember making clothes as a younger girl when sewing patterns included pattern piece layouts for both 36 or 42-44 inch fabric. With a little bit of quick research this morning I found that the standard for dressmaking fabrics in the early 60s was 42-44 so I guess that Mother Goose fabric predates 1960s. 

Ok. So since vintage Mother Goose was a little short in width for my tops and I didn't want to cut it up because the motifs are large I set it near my sewing machine to deal with later.  Then I had an aha moment as I was sewing those four patches as leader enders. I thought they looked rather vintage-y too. And they were in the colors that were in the vintage Mother Goose fabric. And at 4 inches (finished) nine four patches would fit perfectly on each side of a 36 inch square piece of fabric. It was meant to be! 

Now to iron out those vintage wrinkles and find a backing! 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 29 - Oh, an extra day this year! 

"I just want to celebrate another day of livin'

I just want to celebrate another day of life"...  lyrics from Rare Earth song.

 

Orphan Block Top

Blue Orphan Blocks

It's a flimsy!

40 x 48

I've been trying to clean up some PILES this month. These orphan blocks have been in a pile near the sewing machine since January when the theme in my sewing space was "Blues and Browns".  Now the pile has turned into a quilt top.  Only one of the blocks in the top was made by me. I framed four blocks to finish at 12 inches. 

And now maybe it will get quilted next month when the theme in my sewing space will be "March Madness Quiltathon". 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 28 - My grandson is 15 years old today! My how time flies! I was present at his birth and it seems like that was only yesterday. Wish he didn't live at a distance. I hardly see him anymore and he used to be out almost every weekend when he was younger. 

 

Stay At Home Round Robin Round 6

Stay At Home Round Robin

50 x 68

The final round has been added. I probably won't get around to finishing it for awhile. I think it ended up a nice size for a comfort quilt. I did not set out to make a blue and white quilt. I'm surprised I had enough bits and pieces of blue and whites for the whole quilt. 

The prompt for round 6 was "letters and/or numbers". I made some X blocks and depending upon how you look at them they are also O blocks.   This round was added to the top...

...and bottom of the quilt. 

And sew on...

SAHRR Round 6

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 26 - Finished a good book!  I seem to do most of my reading in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. The book?  - The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin.  I've downloaded to my Kindle another WWII  historical novel by Madeline Martin. WWII historical fiction is one of the genres I like to read. 

Feb. 27 - I've been working out in my gardens the last few days because it has been so warm. It is 72 this afternoon; however, we have an inch of snow, high winds and plummeting temperatures predicted for tomorrow. So anyway, I happened to notice a few Iris Reticulata (Dwarf Iris) in bloom. Not sure what they will look like in a few days if we do get snow. 

 

Hummingbird? Periwinkle? Arkansas Snowflake?

I spent some time the last few evenings working to applique a few Hummingbird blocks to add to my collection.   I'm using the Periwinkle Block Made Easy tutorial from Susie's Scraps  except I'm ussing 3.5 inch squares and 9 inch background squares to make my blocks.   

Most of the squares are scraps leftover from making Rolling Stone blocks but some squares came out of my 3.5 inch squares box.   I think I have used three different pieces of solid yellow for the background squares so far and I may have to buy a piece of yellow solid to finish up enough blocks for a throw. 

My Hummingbird quilt was inspired by a quilt that appeared in the July/August 2011 issue of Quiltmaker that was made by Minnie Jacoby Schultz c 1930. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb. 24 - Crocus!  I had one tiny bunch pop up a week or so ago and then that clump disappeared when we had a snowfall. But now they are everywhere in the lawn near the clothesline where they have naturalized over the last several years. In the language of flowers crocus represents cheerfulness. Indeed! 

I don't know if you can see all the little purple clumps in the lawn. 

Each little clump looks like this up close. 

Feb. 25 - I already celebrated a little bit when I woke up this morning and found a hibiscus flower in bloom in my living room.  Several years ago my husband brought home a hibiscus full of blooms that he found on clearance. Oh it was beautiful but he did not notice that the huge plant was not hardy in our zone. So every year we put it out on the deck when the weather warms up and then in the winter I take it inside and try to find a spot for it.  This year it is in the living room right inside the deck door. Seems a little early for it to be blooming.  In the language of flowers hibiscus symbolizes delicate beauty.

Red Scraps Chapter IV

Twilight Flock

6 inch (finished) blocks

This week I worked mostly with 2.5 inch width red scraps. 

Twilight Flock

From the book From the Cover (Quilter's Newsletter Magazine Editors and Contributors)

Monkey Wrench 

5 inch finished blocks

Uses both red 1.5 and 2.5 inch scraps.  

10 inch blocks inspired by a picture in a Connecting Threads catalog. 

9 Patch Blocks

6 inch finished

for a Snowball and Nine Patch quilt.

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 23 - I said in yesterday's blog post that I was celebrating early in the day with the Dawn Chorus. But I also celebrated later in the day when I received a beautiful handmade Valentine card in the mail from Linda, an amazing and very thoughtful lady who blogs at Art in Search.

 

Stars Like Spaghetti Is No Longer A Mystery. It's A Top!

Stars Like Spaghetti

60 x 72

It's a top!

And I love it! 

It is oh so full of scraps.

Stars Like Spaghetti was a patriotic mystery by Quiltygirl Alycia.

Her version has a little border around but I don't have enough of any one fabric to add that and right now I don't feel like sewing together scraps for a border so more than likely my version will just stay as it is. I'm not a "border person" anyway. 

And I have been trying to clean up PILES this month (no not those piles that are a real pain in the booty but those piles of fabric and scraps and stuff all around the sewing machine) so now I can put all the bits and pieces of fabric I got out for this mystery away. 

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb. 22- I got up at around 11pm to get a drink of water. Everything outside was aglow with moonlight. And I could see a full moon high in the sky. And I remembered adults asking me when I was younger if I could see the man in the moon. (Never could).  And the love song " By The Light of The Silvery Moon" went through my head. And then that was enough celebrating of the moonlight so I went back to bed.     This morning I did a little research to see if it really was the full moon but found that doesn't happen until the 24th and it will be the Snow Moon and it will also be a micromoon - the smallest full moon of the year since it is farthest from the earth. 

Feb. 23 - I already did my celebrating early today. I went outside at first light this morning to take pics of Stars Like Spaghetti and was serenaded by the Dawn Chorus - bird song at first light.   I have never been able to identify birds by their songs but I don't need to know the singers in order to enjoy the chorus.  Sunrise here today was at 6:47 and I was out at around 7:15. The Dawn Chorus...what a beautiful way to start the day! 

 

Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) Round 5

Stay At Home Round Robin

after round 5

50.5 x 62.5

The prompt for round 5 is "4".

So I made 4 -- 4 inch Sawtooth Stars in a 4 inch border to add to the top...

...and bottom of the quilt. 

I was kind of wishing I had enough of one fabric for the star background and rest of the border but I didn't and sew it goes.  The strips at the top and bottom of the Sawtooth Stars looks white but it is a very pale mottled blue.  And so for this round I used 4 fabrics in total to make the round 5 top and bottom borders - 1.Stars, 2.Star background, 3.floral in border with stars and 4.strip above and below the stars. 

One more round to go! I'm hoping to get it to at least 70 inches in length for a nice sized throw.

And sew on...

SAHRR Round 5

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb. 19 - Celebrated a good book and a great author. I finished the fourth and final book in a series ---The Gem of Ireland's Crown by Jean Grainger from the Cullen's Celtic Cabaret series.  I got to know the characters almost as well as some of the characters I've come to know through blogging.  

Feb. 20 --Five packets of free seeds came with my seed order! 

Feb. 21 -My husband John was discharged from home visits for physical therapy! I help him run through his lists of exercises every day and they are pleased with the progress we are making so we just need to continue with our daily routine of exercises and don't need anyone to come visit and check on his progress each week like they have been. Our goal is for John to use a cane or nothing instead of the walker.  That means he needs to continue to improve core strength, balance and posture. And we still have the problem of a very leaky gtube stoma whenever he does a lot of exercise but we are learning to deal with that. 

 

Seven So Far

Seven Little Monkey Wrench Tops

For a couple of years I made three different sizes of Monkey Wrench blocks from scraps as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project with the intent to make donation quilts.  It is always fun to see how many quilts I can get from a pile of blocks. 

This week I worked with the pile of 10 inch (finished) blocks and made 7 tops. If I make a few more brown blocks I can make a brown top and if I make a few more multicolor on black blocks I can make another top.  Then I have a few oddball orphan blocks I will combine with other orphans later in the year. 

All Blues

40 x 60

and

Purple/Lime Green

40 x 50

All Greens

40 x 60

Warm Colors

40 x 50

Orange and Pink

40 x 50

Cool Colors

40 x 50

Pastels

40 x 40

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 18 - I finally got around to cleaning off my ironing board so I could iron the Monkey Wrench tops and so I can iron some backs I have ready for other quilts I want to get quilted next month when I have a little quilting marathon.  Before cleaning I barely had enough space to iron a six inch block. 

 

Currently Cross Stitching

I didn't have anything prepped for my many applique projects and I did not feel like working on my crochet socks so I started another one of the cross stitch kits I picked up from the thrift store a long time ago. 

It cost me 95 cents, was never opened and the best part about it is that the cross stitch chart is giant so I can actually see what I am supposed to stitch! 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb 17 - Celebrating blackberries from my summer garden.   I had a bountiful blackberry harvest last year and ended up freezing a lot of them so we could enjoy them all winter long on ice cream, in smoothies and in cobblers. (We used to make wine with them mixed with wild black raspberries and mulberries).  Now that hubby can't swallow and gets his nutrition via formula and a gtube I have not been using many of my gallon bags of blackberries. I decided to make a small blackberry cobbler for myself.  I think I will probably make some blackberry jam with the rest of them and share it with family and friends at our next family reunion. 

 

Red Scraps Chapter III

Windmills - 4 inch finished

I continued on from last week with my 1.5 inch width red scraps and made a few Windmill blocks.  Earlier in the week I made a few Lil' Basket blocks with some red 1.5 inch width scraps.   

I only had enough of one red 1.5 inch scrap to make one 3 x 5 inch Switch Plate and I sewed together pieces for a Boo Boo Patch block that I found on the floor under the table. 

Scrapbuster Blocks

9 inch finished

I've been making these from some 4 inch squares that had accumulated. 

Happy Critters

8.5 inch finished

I cut enough small animal print squares for a child's quilt (30 - 5 inch) and decided rather than dig through scraps for border pieces I would just dig through scraps in the color of the month for border pieces  - mostly solids or tone on tones (TOTs).  

Happy Rainbows

8.5 inch finished

Someone gave me some Happy quilt border pieces cut for five inch centers. A lot of them were mulitcolored so I picked those out and cut some of my rainbow looking bits and pieces to add to the gifted pieces so I would have enough for a Happy Block quilt. Then each month I find 5 inch square TOTs  in the color and border them with Rainbows. 

Clue 5 of Stars Like Spaghetti Patriotic Mystery

12 inch finished Wonky Log blocks

I used a lot of red scraps in these! 

And also this week I finished some Crow's Nest blocks and used some red scraps to make those. 

And I still have some red scraps to work with this coming week. So I will be making a few blocks from 2.5 inch width red scraps. And I don't think I have done anything yet with a few 2 inch width red scraps. 

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Feb. 16 - My husband John was discharged from Visiting Nurses Home Health Care. He will still be receiving home visits for physical therapy for a few more weeks.  A nurse was coming once a week to monitor his vitals and weight (he needs to gain it) and to make sure he was tolerating his tube feedings okay and not aspirating. Basically the health system wanted to keep him out of the hospital for at least 60 days since he had previously had two inpatient stays less than 60 days apart.  So anyway...celebrating husband's progress! 

 

Table Scraps In The Crow's Nest

Table Scraps In The Crow's Nest

It's a top!

40.5 x 54

I made four Crow's Nest blocks last year with some small scrap chunks of food fabrics and then set them aside when hubby got sick. This month I have been trying to reduce some of the piles that have accumulated --- the result of moving my sewing machine upstairs to the dining room table while hubby recuperates.  Since the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month is red and I had red scraps out I found a few red tone on tone (TOT) pieces to use to finish enough blocks for a child's donation quilt. 

Crow's Nest quilt pattern.

The blocks finish at 13.5 inches. 

I think I may have enough bits of the bits of food fabrics left to make a few potholders - maybe scrappy 16 patches?

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 15 - For the first time this year I was so busy doing this that and the other thing that I didn't take time to stop and smell the roses or celebrate anything.  I suppose I did celebrate that I reduced a pile of stuff and turned it into a top. 

 

Stay At Home Round Robin - Round Four

The prompt for round four of the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is Square in Square or other on point block. 

For this round I made 36 five inch finished Square in Square blocks. 

I had to go kind of scrappy with the inner squares as well as the outer corners in order to stay with the blue and white color scheme. 

I also added a two inch finished coping strip of blue on white. 

So now my quilt is a 50.5 inch square. I think I will stay at that width and the next two rounds will be added to the top and bottom. I'm aiming for maybe a quilt 50 x 70. 

And sew on...

SAHRR Round 4 at Songbird Designs

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 13 -- Celebrating happy endings. I just finished the book Ration Book Baby by Ellie Curzon. It is WWII historical fiction. 

Feb. 14-- Celebrating LOVE, of course!