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. 

Sprouts

It's a finish!

Sprouts

64 x 72

This was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project started way back in March of 2016.    I finished the flimsy in February of this year. 

I quilted it on my DSM. First I did straight line stitching in green down the length of all the stems.  Then I switched to a neutral thread and free motion quilted flowers and leaves in the background. I left the sprout leaves without quilting so they stand out from the background somewhat. 

The binding is also scrappy. 

Lots of scraps were used in this one! 

I thought the backing fabric looked like a garden of pink sprouts. 

From far away you can see the impression of sprouts in the backing. 

This is now in the stack of hugs to be given as needed.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

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It's a Finish! Irish Chain

 Irish Chain

It's a finish! 

66 x 78

 I made this quilt top in April 2019. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month then was aqua and I noticed I had a lot of aqua scraps so I turned them into an Irish Chain. 

 Most of the black pieces were from a swap of half width of black and white fabric strips cut at 2.5 inches.  That provided quite a variety of different fabrics and I emptied a small shoe box that held those black white fabrics. 

 I quilted it very simply with diagonal lines on my DSM. I used aqua thread in the aqua spaces and black  thread through the black squares.  I made a scrappy black and white binding. 

I used a black and white paisley print with pink accents on the back. I didn't have quite enough so I filled in with an aqua scrap. It's a weird big print - a mix of butterflies and steam punk, I guess, with a few roaches thrown in.  I think I bought it as a remnant and it was all rolled up so I didn't see it in all it's creepy glory. 

A Flimsy Has Sprouted

 Sprouts

It's a flimsy! (finally)

62 x 74

 I started this back in March 2016 according to an old blog post. 

 It was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. 

 Lots of scrap seedlings grew into a scrappy top. 

Now I hope it doesn't take me several years to get it quilted. 

And speaking of sprouts...my orchid is in bloom. The orchid and other houseplants share a corner of my sewing room in the winter. Now I feel like sewing something with yellows and purples. 

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. 

It's a Flimsy! Crazy Ladies of the Lake

 It's a flimsy!

Crazy Ladies of the Lake

90 x 90

 I made a few of these ten inch blocks each month from scraps from October 2016 - July 2018.  It was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project so I used light and dark scraps in the color of the month or scraps in the color of the month plus another. 

 Most of the 6.5 inch center HST parts were left over from making a basket quilt several years ago and the 2.5 inch side HSTs came from the 2.5 inch scrap box.  The 2.5 inch scraps determined how many blocks would get made each month. Sometimes I hardly had any scraps in the color of the month and barely could make one. Other months I ended up with several blocks. 

 When I start making blocks I usually don't know the size of the quilt I'll end up with or how many blocks I'll need. I just make blocks.  I like looking through scraps and combining colors and making blocks. 

 In this case I decided 81 blocks was enough.  And then they sat around for awhile taking up space. I loved the individual blocks but feared I would not be able to combine them into a quilt top without looking like a jumbled mess.   Several times I got the blocks out and looked at them and put them back in the box afraid I would be so disappointed if I sewed them all together. 

 Then one day I told myself to stop procrastinating and just do it. 

So I did! 

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