A Finish! Grandma's Apron Strings

Grandma's Apron Strings

(Wheel of Fortune)

75 x 87

It's a big stitch hand quilted finish!

I started making these blocks called Wheel of Fortune back in 2015 so this is almost a vintage quilt! 

The block pattern is found in the book History Repeated by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. 

I used kitchen themed fabrics. I used to make sets of potholders, embroidered dish towels and crocheted dish cloth as Christmas gifts and liked to use kitchen themed fabrics for the potholders. I usually bought 1/2 yard of those fabrics and a potholder didn't take up much so I thought I might as well make a quilt of them with a few leftovers. 

The blocks are a bit fiddly to make and finish at 8 3/4 inches.  The blocks are a bit fiddly so I must have set them aside until 2017 when I started making more. 

Also in 2017 I decided to do chicken scratch embroidery on gingham for the sashing.  It is inspired by chicken scratch embroidery I used to see on old aprons. That old blog post shows a few I have in my little collection of aprons I used to use as my kitchen curtains. 

In August 2020 I finally assembled the top. 

The silly (stupid?) thing is that I just ran off and made blocks out of whatever kitchen themed fabrics I had and did not give any thought to colors or values. So when it came time to put it all together I kind of kicked myself because I never thought of that during the whle process. I made the best of things and moved forward...the quilt is for me, reminds me of my paternal grandmother, I like the kitchen themed fabrics, the whole thing was a little self challenge,  I won't be putting it on a wall, I won't let the quilt police near it. I decided on kind of alternating dark and light blocks and ended up making a few more blocks just to make a layout like that all work out. You know I usually sew blocks together randomly but this time I had to arrange them on my design floor. 

This month I started hand quilting. 

There are seed packets on back. I bought this a long time ago when Hancock Fabrics went out of business and have been saving it as a backing for this quilt. 

Unfortunately I didn't have enough to match up the seam on back. But like I said...it's for me and I don't mind. I probably won't spend much time staring at the seam. 

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

 ***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Veg Garden:

I planted a bundle of Patterson onion plants from Dixondale Farms a week or so ago. Several years ago I went from planting onion sets purchased locally to planting onion plants. I've been getting better results and longer storing onions so I'm glad I made that decision.  (All that white stuff you see are heavy plastic water softener salt bags.) I put them on pathways between rows. I read a long time ago that

raccoons have sensitive paws making them uncomfortable to walk on surfaces that feel slippery or unnatural like plastic bags.  I think the raccoons around here have mutated and are no longer uncomfortable but I still put them down in pathways to help smother weeds.   I did make the mistake one time of also putting down cat food bags (we have a lot of barn cats) but the raccoons thought there was food in those bags so dug them all up to have a look-see. So I don't use cat food bags in the garden anymore. 

One thing about planting onions...the birds like to pull them up and leave them laying there so I have to go out every day and replant a few.  The big flocks of Grackles have made an appearance. When they fly overhead the sky is dark and they cast a big shadow passing by. They seem to fly in unison then stop and rest and chatter away in the trees. Then when they all fly off to gather seeds at the same time there is a loud swooping noise.  I tried to take a pic of them in all the trees butthey chose to fly off right then. 

Grandma's Apron Strings

Grandma's Apron Strings

It's a top!

75 x 87

How time flies!  I can't believe I started making these blocks back in May 2015. 

The block is called Wheel of Fortune and can be found in the book History Repeated.  Grandma's Apron Strings is my version of that Wheel of Fortune quilt you see on the cover but my quilt has more blocks. 

I used kitchen themed fabrics. I used to make sets of potholders, embroidered dish towels and crocheted dish cloth as Christmas gifts and liked to use kitchen themed fabrics for the potholders. I usually bought 1/2 yard of those fabrics and a potholder didn't take up much so I thought I might as well make a quilt of them. 

I had a pale yellow for the background fabrics in my stash because I had bought that color by mistake when I needed a little darker shade of yellow to finish off a different quilt. And the crazy thought went through my mind that I should use yellow with kitchen fabrics because most of the kitchens I could remember from my younger days were yellow. Sometimes even the appliances were yellow. 

And then we come to the sashing. Somewhere along the line when I was remembering kitchens I thought of grandma (who also taught me to quilt and embroider and all sorts of other useful things) and apron strings and then my mind wandered off to chicken scratch that was on a few of her aprons and I knew that I had to somehow incorporate chicken scratch into the quilt so into the sashing some chicken scratch went.  And you know I love gingham too so it was meant to be. I did have some turquoise cotton gingham with 1/4 inch squares in my stash that was intended for a backing that I ended up using even though I wasn't sure it was the right color for the quilt but in the back of my mind I heard grandma telling me to go ahead and use what I have. So I did. I chicken scratched off and on for a few years on that sashing and just when I thought I had done enough and was ready to assemble the quilt I found out I was only about 2/3 done and had to do more. And that's how time flies, I guess.  And another time while the mind was wandering I thought those X cornerstones looked kind of, maybe a little bit, like crossed apron strings in back. 

The silly thing is that I just ran off and made blocks out of whatever kitchen themed fabrics I had and did not give any thought of color or value. So when it came time to put it all together I thought I should have thought about that but now it's too late so move forward, you silly girl. So I decided on kind of alternating dark and light blocks and ended up making a few more blocks just to make a layout like that all work out. You know I usually sew blocks together randomly but this time I had to arrange them on my design floor. 

And you remove that quilt top from the clothesline and you can see that after several days of clean up after the derecho we still have some clean up to do. But some things we cannot do. Those are low hanging branches that almost reach the gound from...

...that branch on high. 

Hopefully there's blue skies and sunshine ahead! 

I'm off to have a great day. Hope you are too. 

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

 

Wednesday Wandering

Today I finished the last of my 35 Selvage Stars.  I hope to have the top assembled by the end of August. 

The Zinnias are starting to bloom. They are annuals and I save the seeds from year to year. I sow the seeds outdoors in early spring. I have several patches of them and I like to cut some all summer to bring into the house. Zinnias are sometimes referred to as Cut and Come Again - if you cut the flowers they will usually keep producing well into autumn.  I'm hoping that outside  they will be filled with butterflies soon. 

Some Strawflowers will be ready to harvest soon. They are one of many flowers I grow for dried bouquets and to make wreaths. I used to grow a lot of dried flowers and sell them at Farmer's Market. 

I was happy finally to see some Foxglove sprouts. I sowed the seeds in May and they sure are slow growing. My husband bought me a whole box of tags for me to use this year so I could remember where I planted seeds in the flower gardens and what I planted.  The funny thing is that a raccoon or something removes the tags and throws them down elsewhere. Rascals!

I finished the rest of the chicken scratch I need for my Grandma's Apron Strings quilt. I ran out of Blanc embroidery floss when I only had one more strip to finish.  I took another look through all my different threads and found four more skeins of Blanc floss mixed in with some white Glow in the Dark embroidery floss that was in a project box with a Glow in the Dark crazy quilt project started long ago.  This is another top I hope to have finished by the end of August. 

Just when I thought I would have to go out and hand pollinate the squashes, zucchini, cukes, cantaloupe and watermelon I found some pollinators at work in the blossoms. 

So I hope to see some results soon. 

The watermelon are doing just fine. I tried two different varieties of mini watermelons (6-8 lbs) this year and I think this is one called Yellow Doll. I'm not sure I'm going to like a yellow watermelon but the description made it sound delicious and the vines are compact. 

Books

I do a lot of my reading in the middle of the night on my Kindle. Most of the books I read are free with Prime but from time to time I do follow up and read what I see recommended on some quilting blogs I read. So I decided I might as well mention my reading list.  The following is the list of books I read in June and July. I enjoyed them all. 

1. Emerald Horizon (book 2 of Star & Shamrock) by Jean Grainger.   WWII historical fiction. 

2. Almost Home and

3. Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse.   Both are nice stories. 

4. Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson.  I learned for the first time about the blue people of Kentucky and the WPA packhorse librarians. 

5. Chase the Wild Pigeons by John J. Gschwend Jr. - a novel about the adventures of two boys, one black and one white, during the civil war. 

Last night I started reading The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. 

I've webbed together all twenty of my rows of  30 Half Rectangle Triangles ((HRTs).  I started making the 2 x 4 inch finished HRTs back in September 2018 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project to use up 4.5 inch width scraps. Now I just need to sew together the rows and since I think that is a very boring task I will probably just sew together a few rows a day. So this should be another top finished in August. 

While I was sewing together the rows I was thinking that I still have a 16 quart bin of 4.5 inch width of scraps and I don't currently have a RSC project in the works that will use up those scraps. This year I wanted to empty all my bins of scraps so...

I started cutting parts and started making these coin type blocks of five 2.5 x 4.5 inch scraps.  

I will alternate blocks with the D-L-D-L-D configuration with blocks of the L-D-L-D-L configuration.  I've been pressing seams toward the darks. 

I hope to have sixty blocks of each configuration in no time and hopefully an empty bin too. 

Broccoli heads are starting to form. This variety is new to me this year and is called Blue Wind. I just thought the name was funny so that's why I picked it. I start seeds for these inside under lights in a corner of my sewing room. 

This year I'm also trying some sprouting broccoli for the first time. Instead of one big head and then several side shoots like most broccoli these just send out lots of side shoots. I thought they would be good for stir fry and broccoli cheese soup as well as broccoli au gratin. I started these under lights too. 

Cabbage heads are starting to form. I have seen lots of white cabbage butterflies lately. Their larvae love to feast on cabbage so I hope they leave some heads for me. Last year I found a little nest of baby rabbits in a hole under one of the big cabbage leaves. That scared the heck out of me to see big eyes peeking out of a hole and moving when I picked up a cabbage leaf that looked like it was being eaten.  You know I really wanted to just take a hoe to that hole but I let them and the cabbage be. And one day they were gone. They are probably the rascally rabbits doing the destruction in my flower gardens this year. 

 I started the cabbage under lights too. This is a variety that is good for making sauerkraut. I never really liked sauerkraut until I tasted homemade. My husband always liked it and requested I try to make some one year when we had a surplus of cabbage. Now I make some every year. 

And that's it for this Wednesday's wandering. 

Chicken Scratch

I dug out an old UFO, Grandma's Apron Strings, that I started back in 2015, I thought all I had to do was finish piecing the fancy chicken scratch sashing, assemble the blocks and I'd have a top (and an empty box). 

But the other day when I went to assemble the blocks I realized I had SEVEN rows of six blocks (42 blocks total) and evidently I thought when I did the original chicken scratch that I had SIX rows of six blocks (36 blocks total).  

Darn! I have to chicken scratch 13 more sashing pieces. Darn! Darn! Darn! I knew this was not going to be quick and easy. 

 

Ok, might as well start so I can finish.  (Don't throw it all back into that box, please).

I'm not sure I have enough Blanc embroidery floss and I think the little card of floss is mislabeled (gosh, I thought I never made mistakes 😇) as Blanc.  But, I'll never find out if I don't get started. (Don't put it all back in the box, please). 

Just a little FYI - chicken scratch embroidery is also called depression lace, Amish embroidery and snowflake embroidery. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Keep Going

Almost exactly a year ago today I worked on the sashing of Grandma's Apron Strings.    I found that all the pieces of chicken scratch sashing I made were a little short.  Darn! Thank goodness at that time I had only stitched 17 of 84 sashing pieces and had decided to see how they looked.  And in that post last year I mentioned that I felt a little discouraged and said it might be awhile before you saw this quilt again. 

Well, time has passed and I've ripped out those short pieces and given them a little fix plus I've made a lot more chicken scratch pieces that are the right length. 

And I thought I would do another trial run to see how the sashings looks this time.  And I feel encouraged and excited again about this quilt.  You can't even tell the sashing pieces that were fixed from the newer ones that are the right length.   And it looks kind of like the vision I had in my head all this time of Grandma's Apron Strings. 

 And so I'll keep going. 

And when I see the Japanese Beetles in my roses and feel my skin crawl and a feel a little discouraged and depressed...

...I see a Monarch Butterfly on my Tithonia and it keeps me going and makes my day!

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Maybe next year at this time Grandma's Apron Strings will be finished!

Time will tell...

The Sashing of Grandma's Apron Strings

I finished the last of the 42 blocks I need for Grandma's Apron Strings (previously called Someone's In the Kitchen with Dinah until I decided on sashing and changed the name of the quilt). 

I had decided to try some chicken scratch for the sashing and so embroidered enough pieces for 17 sashings.   This morning I decided before I went any further with the embroidery that I should try it out and see if I like it. 

I like it but unfortunately my chicken scratch shrunk up the gingham piece a little so my carefully planned 9.25 piece of sashing is just a little too small.   I tried to starch and stretch it into submission but I think it will be a little too short the proper 1/4 inch seam allowance when I go to sew rows together.   And I'll hate myself if I don't do it right. 

So now I'll be ripping out this chicken scratch.   Then I'll see if I can save the other pieces I haven't cut apart yet because they are a little longer but the piece is frayed a little on each end.   Boohoo.   It takes a long time to embroider one of these strips and a lot of white embroidery thread which is running low and I need sashing enough for 42 blocks.   I also get bored after doing the chicken scratch embroidery for two or three pieces of sashing. 

So I guess I need to buy more white embroidery thread and get busy.   I'll take it as one of my hand work projects next week when we have a family reunion camp out.   

You may not see this quilt again for awhile!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Oh Scrap! 

Chicken Scratch Fever

I've been working on some chicken scratch.  I think I'll cut these strips apart to use for quilt sashing.   They will go into a quilt I'll call Grandma's Apron Strings.  I think I have about 12 or 13 more quilt blocks to make for a twin sized quilt so thought I better get moving on the chicken scratch sashing because I need a lot of it.  It's a nice summer project.  After I get enough strips completed for a row of sashing I'll  test it out with the blocks to see if I actually like my idea. 

In re chicken scratch: 

I used to visit the thrift stores weekly and I felt sorry for any hand work items that I found so I usually purchased them and gave them a good home.  I know the makers went to a lot of work to create the items only to have them unloved and unwanted and hanging out in a thrift store.  Over the years I picked up several aprons with chicken scratch.  I used to use them as a valance at the kitchen window (tied over the curtain rod) but when we remodeled the kitchen we put in new windows and moved them to a spot with a nice view so I got rid of the curtains/valance. 

The chicken scratch on the aprons runs all the way from elegant like above ...

...to very simple...

...and all sorts in between. 

Sometimes the chicken scratch looks like cross stitch.  

Back when I used to make clothes I chicken scratched on a purple gingham blouse I made and on a little pink gingham sundress I made my daughter when she was around 2 years old - both items long gone.   Years ago I made a project bag crazy quilt style from old blue jeans and chicken scratched on the yoke of the bag.   

I've also seen chicken scratch called depression lace or amish embroidery. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.