Loose Ends: QSTs

 

I ironed and trimmed a few QSTs!!

I use a variety of things as leader/enders. I toss them in boxes for ironing and trimming but never seem to get a lot of ironing done. I figured since the theme in my sewing room this month is " loose ends" I would try to empty a couple of those boxes of leader/enders. 

Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs)-

 also called Hourglass

Most are around 2 inches. A lot of them are wonky. Some are from binding joins. Some are floppy corner cutoffs or waste triangles. I iron and twirl seams and cut off dog ears but don't trim them up to any size.

After ironing and trimming they go into a box with others. 

I have a medium flat rate priority box almost full of them. 

I have been making them since 2021. 

Competition Quilt. about 1895. hand pieced cotton, silk, linen; hand quilted; machine stitched backing. Neusteter Textile Collection: Gift of Guido Goldman. 2008.406.

(Picture from Denver Art Museum)

I just love love love to infinity this quilt and decided I would make something similar but use my wonky QSTs instead of HSTs. As I mentioned, I'm not squaring up my QSTs. I will just make "made fabric" out of them for the borders and not worry so much about points matching up. Then i will trim the  "made fabric" border. My version of the vintage quilt is definitely NOT going to be a competition quilt like the original. 

I have had the center block made for my quilt for quite awhile. 

And sew on...

Cleaning Up

After finishing 29 quilts last month I was left with some piles of scraps to clean up. 

I started making Trip Around The World (TATW) blocks at the end of August. At that time I used most of the dark 2 inch width scraps I had and mentioned that my next step would be to look through the box of quilt back trimmings for dark strips, cut those into 2 inch widths and see how many blocks I could make. 

With what was in the quilt back trimmings box including what was added to it after my quilting marathon, I was able to make 10 more TATW blocks.  I do still have the lighter quilt back trimmings and wider width quilt back trimmings to go through but I hope to empty that box very soon. 

So, now I have a total of 22 TATW blocks that finish at 9 inches. I am going to set those aside for awhile until I decide what fabrics to use next for these blocks. 

Some of the quilt back trimmings or yardage ends from cutting bindings or backings that are mostly less than 1.5 inches or wonky cuts are now in the string box. The string box is getting pretty full again so I've decided on two new string projects...

...#1. a kaleidoscope quilt similar to this one where the strings run vertically in the wedges. I've made one with strips running horizontally but never one like this. I have not figured out how much background fabric I need, size of the blocks or color of the background yet. 

#2. I will make a string star quilt similar to this one. 

I had a lot of waste triangles from all the binding joins last month. I made those into Wonky Hourglasses.  They can now join the bags and boxes of Wonky Hourglasses I've been making since the beginning of the year. 

You may or may not remember that at the beginning of this year I decided to make Wonky Hourglasses out of all the waste triangles I have around here. When I feel like it I use them as a leader/ender project.  I trim the dog ears but I don't care if they are wonky. I don't like the process of trimming or squaring up especially when there are hundreds and hundreds of the little buggers. I'm going to use them as is in made fabric to make my version of a vintage quilt I just love. 

So, anyway, I cleaned up the waste triangles from the binding joins. 

I used a lot of different colors and brands of quilting thread last month. I'm not a thread snob and just usually buy whatever I can find on clearance or on sale wherever. Well, anyway, leftover bobbins with thread on them was becoming difficult to match up with the proper spool of thread so I started keeping the spools in a snack baggie with the bobbins which will make it easier to start quilting next time. And those 20 baggies or so of matching spools and bobbins are now stored away in a drawer in the desk where my sewing machine sits. 

Now that most of my quilting mess has been cleaned up I'm ready to move on to garden clean up and on to some piecing.  

Feeling Chipper

Dark Blue is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC). I'm not going to make many blocks this month because I made most of my blue blocks when the RSC color was light and bright blue. BUT I did get around to making a few BIG chip blocks (4.5 inch finished)) to use in a free Alison Glass pattern called Sun Print. 

Then I made some small blue chips (3 inch finished) for who knows what reason. Then I trimmed the purple chips I made last month. Then I made some Wonky Hourglass blocks from the BIG Chip corner trimmings. 

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

And So It Begins

Last month I was trying to decide on a background fabric for an eight pointed star I had made for the center of a medallion.  I finally decided upon a background fabric and it has been applied but not without a struggle.  

For a long time I've had a quilt called Blueberry Farm from the book Scrappy Fireworks Quilts by Edyta Sitar. That quilt consists of several different smaller Lone Star blocks. So I thought I would give one block a try for this center medallion. Arghhhh. It was no problem to make the actual star. The problem came when adding the background to the star pieces. Arghhhh. I tried and retried, tinkered and re-tinkered, read and reread, ripped and re-ripped, cussed and re-cussed but there was no way in heck (wherever that is) that I could get a setting triangle to work with this star. Then I went in search of errata. I searched and re-searched and finally found some corrections at the publisher's website.  Background corners were supposed to be 6 1/4 inch squares and not 6 inch squares and the triangles were supposed to be cut on the diagonals (X) from a 9 1/4 square and not an 8 3/4 square. Arghhh. I was glad that I had just enough of the orange background fabric after I finally made a background choice. 

I usually only buy books or patterns with quilts that inspire me but quilts with templates or more complex directions that I can't figure out for myself. So I expect that the quilts in the books have been tested for accuracy before publication. I really feel sorry for beginning quilters that encounter errors. I was shocked when I saw so many books with corrections on the publisher's page. Several of them dealt with "the basics".  And that was just one publisher. 

Ok. Well, off that rant and back to my Star which has finally been made to my satisfaction...

I was inspired by a vintage (c. 1895) quilt at the Denver Art Museum so decided to make my own version except instead of using HSTs (half square triangles) in the borders I will use QSTs (quarter square triangles). Well, actually, I will use Wonky QSTs made from waste triangles I have saved for years and years. 

For months now I've been sorting through boxes of waste triangles and so there are QSTs in various stages in my sewing room. Some are leader/enders. 

Some are ready for seam twisting and ironing. 

Some are ironed and need to have dog ears trimmed off. (And remember I said these were wonky so they won't be squared up. )

After trimming some are stored in bags...

 ...and some are stored in boxes that used to hold waste triangles. 

And so it goes. 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Odds And Ends But Mostly Odds

This is a new project...4 inch (finished) Indian Hatchet blocks.  I had researched this block last year and came across a vintage Indian Hatchet quilt I loved so decided to use my scraps and make some blocks. The centers will be the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month and the corners will be secondary colors if the RSC color is primary and vice versa. So the colors for both pink and yellow ended up to be greens, oranges and purples.  If interested there are cutting instructions for five different sizes of blocks at Generations Quilt patterns.  

I made a few Wonky Shoofly blocks with waste triangles, a Plus Postage block and a PSP20-21 (Postage Stamp Pandemic 2020-2021).  The Plus Postage project is an old one and I only need a few more blocks. I cut the postage stamps in a variety of colors last year when I cleaned out my 1.5 inch scrap bin so will make Plus Postage blocks in the prepped colors when the RSC color comes up. I already have quite a few PSP blocks in yellow solids but came across a solid yellow scrap enough for a block so went ahead and made one. I think I'm aiming for 121 blocks for a big quilt. This old farmhouse gets really cold so I keep three quilts on the bed in winter. 

Three six inch Buckeye Beauty blocks. I'm using shirts and dark multicolors and a few dark metallics to supplement the RSC color of the month when I make these blocks. I started making these late last year and already had a few blocks made with yellow but made a few more this month to add to the pile. 

Then I made some Big Chips and some Little Chips for two different quilts. 

And with the trimmings from the Indian Hatchets and the Big Chips I made some Hourglass blocks that need some trimming. Those little Hourglasses finish at about 1 inch. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

I've Been Thinking...

Last year I decided to sort through years and years and years worth of waste triangles. Some I've been making into Shoofly blocks but most of them I sew into dinky little Hourglass blocks. When I get a cigar box full I trim them in the evening. When I say "trim" I mean I trim off the dog ears but I'm not squaring them up. 

I keep a little pencil box of waste triangles all sorted for the Hourglass blocks next to the sewing machine and use them as leader/enders. 

Now the trimmed little Wonky Hourglass blocks are mounting up...

...and almost every week I end up with a cigar box full that needs to be trimmed.  There seems to be no end in sight.  And there was no plan in sight until I saw....

 Competition Quilt. about 1895. hand pieced cotton, silk, linen; hand quilted; machine stitched backing. Neusteter Textile Collection: Gift of Guido Goldman. 2008.406.

(Picture from Denver Art Museum)

I originally saw a blog post about the quilt on day 5 of Mary Elizabeth Kinch's 12 Days of Christmas posts. 

I just love love love to infinity this quilt and decided I would make something similar but use my wonky hourglass blocks instead of HSTs. As I mentioned, I'm not squaring up my Hourglass blocks (because I don't like to square up) so I will just make "made fabric" out of them for the borders and not worry so much about points matching up. Mine is definitely NOT going to be a competition quilt like the original. 

On that note I decided I should make my center star and have it handy. I made all my Lone Star wedges but then ran into a snag because I couldn't decide what to use for the background. I'm still dithering. 

Gray background????

Blue background????

Pink background???

What say you???

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

Triangle Tuesday

I'm still sorting waste triangles every day and I've been making hourglasses every day. 

The waste triangles are wonky and so are the hourglasses. I'm leaving them wonky. I use an old 18 x 24 cutting mat with batting on it for a place to take photos. I probably have enough waste triangles now that would cover that area three times. I have lots more waste triangles to sort and sew so I'm thinking I may have enough of these little things when all is said and done for a quilt. 

I've also been making a few Wonky Stars with waste triangle points. These will be made into Double Nine Patches. 

I'm having fun with these. I'm glad I decided not to waste the waste triangles. 

And speaking of not wasting...

I took advantage of the nice weather to play in the leaves. I took a piece of old wire fencing and made a couple of little cages for leaves near my herb garden. I'm going to add more leaves to this and other cages of them and hope to have some nice leaf mold for the garden next year. This is separate from the compost piles which are at the edges of the veggie garden. 

I also kind of added leaves and small brush to paths I've been trying to mark out through a previously overgrown area I spent all summer  slowly clearing of wild black raspberries, small trees and shrubs and invasive weeds like Stinging Nettle and Pokeweed.  It doesn't look like much now but I'm hoping to turn it into a native wildflower area.  I'm kind of excited about it and so far I have planted Camassia (wild hyacinth) bulbs I hope to see in the spring.  A lot of the wildflower seeds I will winter sow in January or February. More on that later. 

 

Tuesday Triangles

Last Wednesday I posted about how I'm waist deep in waste triangles. I really want to use them but feel I need a little plan for how I'm going to use them. Now I kind of have some plans.  

As I've been sorting through the triangles each evening for a half hour or so I've pulled out sets of two matching triangles and paired them up with another two matching triangles and have been making little hourglass blocks. I don't really care if they are wonky or all the same size because I don't really like squaring up or trimming.  I don't know where I'm going after this but for now I'm making some little Hourglasses. 

I have two pencil cases of pairs stacked and ready to sew together for a few minutes each day in between projects. 

I keep an old cigar box for units that need trimming.  I just scissor trim off the dog ears each evening while in front of the TV. 

Then some of the triangles get sorted by color. I actually enjoy sorting because it is fun to look at all the different fabrics. 

Last week I started making Shoofly blocks using solids as a background. Now when I have solid scraps I know I can cut 8 two inch squares and have them ready to go to make these blocks. It doesn't take much time now that I have a lot of triangles sorted by color. 

For years I made Little Wonky Stars off and on as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. I sorted those last week and decided to pull out those with white backgrounds. Now I've decided to turn them into Double 9 Patches and I had enough for 3 blocks that finish at 13.5 inches. 

Like the Shoofly blocks I know I can now cut any white fabric scraps into 2 inch squares and grab some triangles to make Stars when the urge strikes.  I'm aiming for a twin sized quilt and have written down somewhere how many Stars and how many 5 inch squares I need so I can cut those from scraps. 

 And that brings me to the rest of the Little Wonky Stars I have on hand that finish at 4.5 inches. My November OMG (One Monthly Goal) is to turn these into a donation quilt top approximately 40 x 60.  There's not enough Wonky Stars to just use Wonky Stars in the quilt but I think I have a plan. 

One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quits.