Framed Squares Top

It's a top!

Framed Squares

54 x 72

I said I was working on "oldies and biggies" this month and this is one of the oldies. 

I won these Block Lotto blocks back in January 2018.  Although Block Lotto has disbanded the instructions for making the block are still online. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Nov. 20 - I am so thankful for the time you all take to comment. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I learn more about you, sometimes you give me a big head and sometimes I learn something new. On my last post I mentioned I had a burning rash on my face and thought it was from spider bites. A couple of comments mentioned the possibility of shingles. Well, I did not know you could get shingles on the face but when I read about it I figured out that's what I had. My husband told me the "spider bites" were swollen lymph nodes. I've been to the family doctor and opthamologist and am on the road to recovery thanks to a couple of comments. Thank you! 

FYI -- I've been asked if I got a shingles shot. The answer is no. I have a history of Guillaine Barre Syndrome (GBS) and evidently a shingles shot can trigger GBS so I opt out on the shingles shot. I don't want GBS ever again. So far shingles is a breeze compared to GBS. And even so the shot is only 90% effective in preventing shingles. 

 

It's A Finish! Diagonal Bars

It's a finish!

Diagonal Bars

65 x 85

This is one of my oldest UFOs. I won a May 2014 Block Lotto. I don't remember how many Diagonal Bars blocks I won that month. I think I might have won all of them in this quilt and just decided to add sashing to make it large enough for a twin sized donation quilt. 

I made the top back in August 2021.

I quilted it on my DSM (Brother PQ1500) with swirls in bright blue. 

This one finally made it to the top of the quilting queue because the theme in my sewing space this month to move UFOs forward is "Browns and Blues".  I used monthly themes last year and they worked pretty well so am using them again this month. 

I had a piece of wide backing that fit this quilt perfectly. And I had just enough of that blue and white fabric for the binding. So I guess it was all meant to be. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts.

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Jan. 25 - Speaking of Alycia - I won one of her recent giveaways and it arrived yesterday. On the right is the contents of a kit of Asian fabrics and template for making 12 inch butterfly blocks. And on the right is a few more Asian fabrics.  I do love Butterflies (almost as much as I love roses) so while I am celebrating I'm celebrating butterflies too. The strange thing is that I usually do not do much applique; however, it seems that now quite a few things on my long list of projects have applique in some form or other. I'm thinking this will be a new needle turn applique project. 

 

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. 

Cavorting With Elves and Fairies

Behind the blooming Bluebells you can see a sundial...

 ...and in the base of the sundial is a fairy door.  The fairies and some very small elves live in the sundial and tend the fairy garden ...

...within the fairy ring of little species tulips and pinks. 

 Some fairies guard the patch of miniature lilies and hostas. 

 Little elves sometimes tend to miniature lilies too. 

Some elves just sit in the shade of the grape hyacinth and read. 

 Old ma and pa frog have been guarding the miniature columbine for ages and yet it appears the rabbits still take a nibble off of it now and then. 

 The Lamium fairy was knocked off her pedestal a long time ago by some wild animal like a raccoon or deer. 

 The fairies and elves tricked my daughter one year with their fake cement morels. 

 The bird house marks a little honeysuckle that the fairies and elves are going to try to keep small like a bonsai tree.  

 Meanwhile I'm doing the real work. My sewing room shares space with seedling flats this time of year.  I save a lot of my annual flower and veggie seeds from year to year. 

After seedlings get their second set of leaves they get planted into paper cups and pots also saved from year to year.  Each day they get carried outside to harden off and are brought back in again at night if we think the weather will get too cold for the tender seedlings. 

 I also winter sow seeds in plastic bags - little individual greenhouses. 

 I've been practicing winter sowing for years.  Certain flowers, veggies and herbs can be sown in containers and left outside all winter. They will sprout when the time is right. If you are not familiar with winter sowing then WinterSown.org is the place to start reading.  A lot of my seeds have sprouted and will be ready to plant into the garden soon. 

 The elves and fairies do NOT help with the sewing. There are piles of chain pieced blocks behind the sewing machine. 

And there's piles of blocks to be ironed and trimmed. 

 And sometimes blocks actually get made like this month's Block Lotto block - Modified T

You Win Some. You Lose Some.

 Periodically I play the Lotto. There's no money involved - just fabric. 

One of the Lottos I participate in is one at the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild.  Each month there is a theme and if you want to join in you make 12 inch blocks with your interpretation of the theme.  The blocks are made in multiples of two. One block goes into the drawing and the other goes to the lady who runs the Lotto to make quilts for Wrap-A-Smile or Quilts Beyond Borders.   If you are a winner you are free to do as you wish with the blocks. 

The October theme was Sunshine and I won 16 blocks. 

 I made 20 Flying Geese and used 15 of the Sunshine blocks to make this quilt top 42 x 60. 

 The other Lotto is Block Lotto.  There's a block of the month and if you participate you can make as many blocks for the drawing as you wish up to the maximum. 

A Nine Patch Star was the block of the month for November. I wasn't a winner so I now get to send them to the ladies who did win. 

December's Block Lotto block of the month is a scrappy six inch Sawtooth Star in blue or purple.  I made the maximum of nine blocks.  Do you think I'll be a winner or loser in December?  I think I'll be a winner. You know...the power of positive thinking...

Both Lottos give me an opportunity to try new blocks and new color combinations and very often use scraps.  Every once in awhile I win some blocks and have fun figuring out how to set them. I also have fun looking at all the fabrics everyone used in their blocks.  

From Orange 2.5 Inch Scraps

 In past years I haven't really had that many scraps to play with when the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color rolled around to ORANGE.   This year I do have a lot of 2.5 inch orange scraps since I made a quilt that used a lot of it. 

So this month I dug into those 2.5 inch orange scraps and made a couple of ten inch Crazy Lady of the Lake blocks. 

 And I made a couple of orange eight inch Depression Blocks and three brown ones. I've been making these from scraps for a couple of years and I think I only need 5 or 6 more for a twin sized quilt. 

 I made a few sprouts.  I've also been making these for a few years and probably should take a count of them.  

And then I made a couple of these Whatchamacallit blocks.  The pieces are 1.5 x 2.5 so I usually use 1.5 inch scraps to make them but I looked ahead into my 1.5 inch scraps and found I only had two orange pieces in there so this month instead of using the 1.5 inch scraps to make these I used the 2.5. 

And while working with 2.5 inch scraps if any scrap gets smaller than a 2.5 inch square I sew them into a strip like on the right side.  

Then I saw that this month's Block Lotto block, a sixteen patch in California Poppy colors including orange, could be made of 2.5 inch scraps I whipped up four of those. 

And on break times I enjoyed watching all the butterflies that visited the orange Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) in the flower garden. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday