It's A Top! Orphan Horatio

Orphan Horatio

It's a top!

40 x 48

A long time ago someone gave me a bag of parts - 4.5 x 12.5 Brick and Stone blocks.  There's probably enough parts for two kiddo sized quilts.  A long time ago I divided them into two piles and started sewing the blocks together but before I got very far I noticed that not all of the Stones were 4.5 x 4.5 squares. So...I put all of the Bricks and Stones back in the bag to deal with another day. I guess Another Day finally arrived. 

I added a 1 inch strip of fabric to all the Stones that were short and then sewed the Brick and Stone blocks together. 

Not sure when I will get to Brick and Stone quilt #2. 

And sew on...

 

It's A Top! Orphan Gertrude

It's a top! 

Orphan Gertrude

42 x 54

Continuing on from September the theme in my sewing space this month will also be "Orphans".  I may also throw in a few WITBs (What's In The Box) if I get tired of "Orphans". Of course I can always stray from the theme and do other things if I feel like it. 

The traditional name for this block is Arrowhead Puzzle. Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville) made the block more well known as Garlic Knots.   Someone gave me 45 of these 6 inch blocks and for this orphan block quilt I made 18 more blocks from some 2 inch scraps. 

And sew on...

 

What's In The Hoop?

During the summer I usually put hand quilting on hold because without a/c it is too darned hot to have a quilt on my lap while hand quilting.  It has cooled off a bit although yesterday made it to a record high I think.  Well, anyway, a couple of weeks ago I finally pin basted a quilt and got it into the hoop so I have something to do while sitting with a very sick and weak hubby who now has a feeding tube. Like a newborn baby he certainly requires a lot of attention right now but after 50+ years of living with the man I think he is definitely worth it. 

So anyway...I have been big stitch hand quilting on Smitten with red perle #8 because that is what I have on hand.  If I stitch long lines I run several needles at one time in a hoop of fabric. That is particularly helpful at this time because I had to get a new hoop because the other one not only had cracked clamps but one of the base pieces had snapped. The clamps always seem so tight on new Qsnap hoops so it's not that easy to get them off and on.  But now they are starting to loosen up a bit, thank goodness. 

Smitten is one of three quilts I ended up making with three big old Castle Wall blocks. This one is inspired by a vintage quilt and has a couple of my favorite things...hearts and roses.   If you would like to know more of the Smitten story I blogged about it back in February. 

I 💓 this one. It said "Be mine, valentine" to me. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

 

Aqua Scrappy Stuff

Aqua is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. 

This week I made some 3 inch finished Old Italian blocks. These are made with a stack, whack and shuffle method using a stack of six 5 inch squares.   

I did not get all my stacks of aqua/another color squares all turned into Old Italians this week but will continue to work on those in October. I've been making these for a long time so I'm kind of thinking I should take count and decide what size quilt I want to make.  

I also used up a bunch of 4.5 inch width scraps of aqua this week and depending upon length I made Broken Dishes blocks or...

Wonky Windmills (stack and whack method using 4.5 x 5 inch pieces) or...

Four Patches.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

It's A Top ! Orphan Fred

It's a top!

Orphan Fred

42 x 60

12 and 6 inch orphan blocks from here, there and everywhere.  The top left and bottom right blocks (Split Stars) are mine. I had to add a border around them so they would measure 12 inches.  I made those a long long time ago for one of my first swaps. At the time that seemed like a difficult block to me . As with all swaps I sent in the best blocks and kept the less than perfects. 

For some fun there is a little ice cream treat hidden in there. That's my orphan block too.

The September theme in my sewing room has been Orphan blocks. I got off to a late start this month and I have lots of orphan blocks so I will continue the theme into October.  I've been naming the orphan block quilts like they name hurricanes. 

And sew on...

 

Old World Quilt Blocks

Someone with the Stashbusters Group posted a link to  (1) Make an OLD WORLD quilt | step by step sewing - YouTube

When I followed the link and saw the block I was in love at first sight. Although I rarely watch Youtube videos because my laptop and phone are too old for videos to load properly, I did manage to watch it and take notes on making the block. 

I felt like a little challenge and felt like using up some aging civil war repro scraps and short pieces of yardage. So I made 6 blocks to see if I wanted to continue.   I do. 

I figured I would like to make 30 of these 13.5 inch finished blocks. 

So for my next step I went through my little baggie of 2.5 inch scraps and cut center squares and sides for 24 Square in Square (SIS) blocks -- the centers of each Old World block.  I will sew those as leader/enders. 

And sew on...

 

Streak of Lightning

It's a finish!

Streak of Lightning

52.5 x 73.5

It is mostly made of 14 quarts of warm scraps that came into my possession a couple of years ago.

  I finished the top way back in May 2021. 

Finally this quilt made it to the top of the quilting pile. 

I had a sort of woven look red and yellow piece of fabric to use for the binding. 

I quilted it on my DSM with a variegated thread in colors of a sunset. I only quilted in the dark streaks of lightning. I don't know what you call that quilting -- scribbly lines? 

I added the last of the popcorn fabric I've had forever to the yellow mix of fabrics. Wonder if anyone will notice there is popcorn here and there throughout the quilt. 

It was starting to rain the other day when I was taking the clothesline photos so I snapped them in a hurry. This morning when I went to post about this finish I noticed I didn't take a photo of the backing so just had to do that this morning. Someone gave me that fabric for the backing and I just had to show how perfectly it matched with the front full of scraps that came from someone else. And now the quilt can move forward to yet another person to enjoy. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework