It's A Finish! HRT Ragout

HRT Ragout

60 x 80

It's a finish! 

600 Half Rectangle Triangles (HRTs)

1200 pieces

I don't pre-cut any scraps but way back when I first sorted boxes and boxes of scraps I ended up with a 4.5 inch width scrap bin that never seems to get used up even though I have finished several quilts made entirely of scraps from that bin. In September 2018 I started making HRTs as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects hoping to empty out that bin. (That didn't happen but I'm still working toward that goal.)

Some months I barely made any HRTs in the color of the month because I didn't have any scraps in that color.  Other times I had lots of scraps in the monthly color. 

Most of the neutrals I did have to cut from scrap chunks. Anything goes into this type of quilt. I've found that this kind of quilt is a lot of fun for someone who is in a hospital, extended care facility or nursing home because it's a great conversation starter for visitors when they are at a loss for words. Even adults like a good I Spy game and everyone gets a good laugh over what they find in the quilt.  Sometimes memories are triggered too. 

 

A simple quilt calls for simple quilting. 

The scrappy neutral binding came entirely from the leftover binding bin. There was just enough. I think I had about two inches to spare. 

Getting this to the finish line was my August One Monthly Goal (OMG) so later in the month I will link up to Elm Street Quilts OMG. 

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

It's a Flimsy! HRT Ragout

HRT Ragout

60 x 80

It's a flimsy! 

I started making these Half Rectangle Triangles  (HRTs) in September 2018 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project to use scraps from the 4.5 width bin. 

I used a Tri-Rec ruler and cut a few pieces facing the wrong direction but I included those anyway. 

There's quite a mixture of prints, colors, neutrals - all from the 4.5 inch scrap bin which I hope to have emptied by year end. 

Since the start in September 2018 I just made a few HRTs each month using scraps from the 4.5 inch scrap bin in the RSC color of the month. Sometimes there would be lots of scraps in a color and sometimes hardly anything. I just used what scraps were in the bin only. 

I sewed the HRTs together randomly. 

I hope to finish this quilt this month so I'll declare it my 

OMG (One Monthly Goal) at Elm Street 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. 

Table Scraps Part III

 I've been cleaning off my cutting mat and table this week.

Part I - Good Grief!
Part II - Table Scraps 

This is Part III
I found that little pile of 2 inch width scraps on the table.  I have a few UFOs that use 2 inch scraps that I usually sew along with each month as Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. I've been working on one of those UFOs, Sixteen Patches that finish at six inches as you see on the right, off and on for a couple of years. I had 64 out of a total of 130 blocks.   I sorted through the scraps from my cutting mat as well as...

 ...the 2 inch scrap bin and...

...made 14 more Sixteen Patches. I now have 78 little Sixteen Patches.  I will continue to make these from scraps as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project until I have 130 of them.  Only 52 more to go! 

And I had a little pile of 2.5 inch width scraps on my cutting mat. 

And this is my box of 2.5 inch scraps. The bags hold scraps sorted by color. 

So between the scraps on the cutting mat and the scraps in this box I cut and made...

....blocks for a quilt similar to one at Cluck Cluck Sew.   This has been a UFO since last year. The quilt consists of four different blocks and I want 20 each of those four blocks. (Instead of 8 inch squares like the one at Cluck Cluck Sew I am using four patches).   Anyway...with the 2.5 inch scraps I bordered the nine 4.5 inch squares I cut a few days ago (Table Scraps Part II) and made 10 more Rail Blocks.   I also sewed together the pieces I cut a few days ago from 4.5 inch scraps and made 11 more Four Patches.  I now have my 20 blocks of each of these three blocks. 

The fourth block for the quilt is a Sixteen Patch and I need 16 more of those. I didn't want to cut the squares for those yet so I'll make them later.  I was making some blocks with primary colors and some blocks with secondary colors. 

 In Part II of Table Scraps I  these 20 sets of four 4.5 inch squares for a new small donation quilt.  Now that I was working with the 2.5 inch scraps from the cutting mat I also cut...

...four 2.5 inch squares to match up with the 4.5 inch squares.  I need to cut some more pieces from some gray scrap chunks I found then I will make the blocks and flimsy. 

Finally that left me with a pile of crumbs on my cutting mat. 

I sorted those into baggies by color. I want to finish making some big crumby hourglass blocks to add to my collection and now it should be pretty easy since I've got my crumbs sorted. 

Now guess what!!!! 

Take a picture it will last longer!! 

 Oh, and I now have met my goal of 600   2 x 4 inch (finished) HRTs!!  I cut the pieces a few days ago from the 4.5 inch scraps on the cutting mat and 4.5 inch scrap bin.  I cut and sewed 152 HRTs in the last few days just because I found a bunch of 4.5 inch scraps on my cutting mat.   Now I can start sewing these together.  About time!

 I also now have 130 six inch Broken Dishes blocks and can start assembling a top. About time!  I cut these forty-four blocks from 3.5 inch scraps on my cutting mat and in my bins as I blogged a few days ago. 

 A few days ago I also cut pieces for Wishing Rings. I've sewn together some of those parts and made 26 more light corner blocks but not all are ironed yet.  This brings my total of light corner blocks to 190 toward a goal of 312. 

I've sewn the borders around the dark corner blocks but haven't added the flippy corners yet.  After these are finished I'll have 205 toward a goal of 312.  I'll continue to make these as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. 

 Well, now that I have finished cleaning off my cutting mat I think I'll link up to

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts. 

Table Scraps Part II

 Yesterday I blogged about cleaning the scraps off of my cutting mat.  That was Part I and I cleaned up my 3.5 inch scraps as well as some 1.5 inch scraps.  Today I worked on the 4.5 inch scraps I found on my cutting mat as well as...

 ...a bin of 4.5 inch scraps. 

First I found a UFO that needs some 4.5 inch parts. This UFO will be 64 x 80 and consists of 20 each of four different 8 inch blocks as seen here - 16 Patches made with 2.5 inch scraps, rails made with 2.5 inch scraps, happy blocks with 4.5 inch center and 2.5 inch sides and four patches made with 4.5 inch squares.   I found I needed centers for nine more Happy Blocks and 11 more Four Patches...

 ...so I cut those. 

 Then I have a new donation quilt in mind that consists of 20 ten inch blocks that will be made of 4.5 and 2.5 inch scraps.   So I cut the four 4.5 inch squares I need for 20 blocks. 

Then I found a bunch of HRTs made from 4.5 inch scraps. I made these parts one year as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  As I made them I didn't know what I was going to do with them - I was just using scraps.   I decided I will make a quilt 60 x 80. I need 600 HRTs for that. I counted what I had and the total was 452 so I need only 148 more HRTs. 

Using 4.5 inch scraps I pair colored scraps and low volume scraps stacking them all face up then I use a Tri Rec ruler to cut the pieces. 

 I make two cuts. 

 I'm not sure how many HRTs I cut but I'll sew them together then count. I used most of the green, blue, orange scraps  (already called RSC colors) and all the scraps on the table for these HRTs. If I need more I will follow along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors to make them until I have enough for my quilt. 

 Then I finished up by cutting 4.5 inch squares for a project to be determined later.  I'm trying to clean out all my scrap bins I keep by width by cutting all the scraps into squares this year. 

Any pieces less than a 4.5 inch square and wider than an inch will get sewn into strips and combined with other strips for a Chinese Coins quilt at year end. 

Now I think I will go sew for a few days before I move on to those piles of 2 inch scraps and 2.5 inch scraps that were on the table and cutting mat. 

Stay tuned for Parts III and IV 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt