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

The Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Blues

My scraps are getting smaller and smaller; itsy-er and bitsy-er;  teenier and weenier! 

This week I worked with 1.5 inch scraps mostly in blue since that is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. 

Last month I started some Double Irish Chain blocks (9 inch finished). Backgrounds will be light browns and center chain will be dark browns. The rest of the chains will be in the color of the month. I'm thinking 100 of these blocks will make a nice big bed quilt so what better way to achieve that goal than make a few each month from scraps. 

I started these Plus Postage blocks (10 inch finished) in December 2019.  Blocks are inspired by an American Patchwork and Quilting 2016 pattern designed by Susan Ache.  I'm thinking about 81 of these will make a nice big quilt. 

I don't have many solids but I did find enough pieces of different blues to make some PSP20 (Postage Stamp Pandemic 2020) blocks (8 inch finished).  Blocks aren't ironed yet. I'll wait until assembly to iron them so I can nest seams. 

I caught PSP20 last month so I've been catching up on blocks with solids in the RSC colors already called if I have the solids. I could only find one lonesome green piece to use but enough orange for three.  I'm not sure what size this quilt will be...maybe twin sized. That might be 80 blocks. 

I've been making Wishing Rings (3.5 inch finished) for a couple of years now. I cut the 1.5 inch sides from 1.5 inch scraps. I think last time we had a blue month I made blocks with blue centers and corners which are cut from 3.5 inch width scraps.  This month I made the blue blocks with light corners. 

I've almost cleared out my 1.5 inch scrap bin which was one of my goals. So from now on most of my 1.5 inch strips will be cut from scrap chunks. 

And finally, the Double X and Snowballs use 1.5 inch scraps. These blocks finish at 4 inches and I've been making these for a couple of years. They are inspired by a vintage quilt. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Now With Borders

I now have a 4.5 inch border pieced of greens all around on The Farm. 

First I added a dark one inch green tone on tone border all around. 

I then pieced together a variety of different lengths of 3.5 inch width pieces of green leafy fabrics. 

I'm not usually one to add borders to a quilt but this one seemed to need one. 

I like the quilt much better now. 

Getting this border on was my July OMG (One Monthly Goal)  hosted at Elm Street quilts. 

It's still early in the month so let's see if I can earn some bonus points and a smiley face. I'm going to try to piece the backing, pin baste and quilt. I said TRY! 😉

A Day in the Life of a Daylily

I took a camera with me this morning (about 6:30 a.m.) on my walk through the gardens. I love this time of year when the daylilies are blooming. I started my collection over 30 years ago and over the years have divided them and divided them and divided them.  The flowers usually open early in the morning and wither by the next day. 

One of these days I'm going to make a whole cloth quilt of my flower garden with embroidery, applique, stumpwork, broderie perse and whatever else suits my fancy. So I've been taking lots of pictures for reference. I will probably start on it this fall. 

More later. 

Rose Petals

Back on June 14 I posted about an old UFO I pulled out to work on - crochet around 4 inch rose themed scraps later to be joined together into something.   I started on these back in September 2019 to use up both scraps and crochet thread.  When I picked up this project again last month I had 16 blocks. 

Now I have 42. 

They are reversible.  I start with two 4.5 inch square scraps right sides together and sew 1/4 inch seam all around leaving a little opening for turning right side out. I turn right side out and blind stitch the opening closed. Then I blanket stitch around the outside edges and finally crochet shell stitches around.   I do have more rose themed scraps but as you can see I have already used up two balls of pink crochet thread and both of those were different shades of pink. 

I do have more partial balls (spools?? things???) of thread but it is pink and white variegated. I'll use that next. You know...make do and all that.  Using up what I have was why I started down this road. I was originally going to make a throw but someone else  in blog comments suggested a tablecloth. Now I think I'm going to make a table runner to top the buffet. I just need to figure out how many squares that will take. 

I do love roses. But you may or may not know that I have been battling deer this year who seem have the munchies more than they have in previous years. The deer around here and the rabbits love to eat rose bushes to the ground. And if any roses bushes escape their jaws then they feast on the rosebuds.  

I do have several rose bushes so once in awhile I find a sweet smelling rose. 

Now these Seven Sister roses are being devastated by beetles (not shown here). Since I'm pretty much an organic gardener I pick the disgusting beetles off and throw them into a bucket of soapy water. 

It wasn't me that nipped off the end of the stem there. 

Last fall my husband bought me four Burgundy Iceberg floribunda roses after I showed him a picture of it and said I dreamed of owning one of those. The bushes are supposed to get 5 feet tall and blooms are supposed to be 3-4.5 inches and dark burgundy and smell like honey. 

All four of those bushes as well as most others have been eaten almost to the ground several times but I'm determined not to give up on growing roses. (Yes, I'm stubborn).  I've been trying several things to keep critters at bay. I've planted racambole garlic bulbils around my roses. That's a top setting garlic  and those are the heads you see in white. I have a stake with one of my old gardening gloves on it ( as well as my sweaty scent) in front of this one. That bag you see tied to the cage has some Irish Spring soap in it. I don't like the smell of it and deer are not supposed to like it either. I also put shavings of it on the garden paths.  Then you can't see it here but there's a zucchini plant growing up some of the cages since deer evidently don't like them.   Well, something must be working now. 

I do love roses!

I love scraps too so I'm hooking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework. 

And I love hand work so I'm going to go visit all the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts. 

Into The Wild Blue Yonder

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for July is dark blue. I think we previously used bright and light blues in April. 

Baskets of Flowers

These finish at 9 inches.

I started them last month because I want to use a pile of scrap chunks. I cut a 3.5 inch piece for the HST and a 2 inch strip for the other three basket pieces. I could have used just a 3.5 inch piece to make the baskets but I'm making another block that uses 3.5 and 2 inch pieces so nothing will get wasted and nothing will be left over. 

I'll make the baskets out of the RSC color of the month and use scraps from the 2 inch width bin for the "flowers".  I found a teeny tiny picture of these baskets in a Google search for "flower basket quilt block" but I was warned by my antivirus program not to click any further.  Unable to find any more information about the block I figured out how to make it myself. I'll set these on point and I'm aiming for a  twin sized quilt. 

I'm using some neutral scraps for the backgrounds.  I didn't have enough of the polka dot for three blocks so substituted a few bees. During the block assembly process I grabbed a few of the wrong pieces so some of the backgrounds are a little mixed up within some blocks. I think that will be okay since the backgrounds are scrappy anyway plus I don't really like to rip. 

Hey, wait a minute! Something is wrong with this picture. I thought I made seven blocks. 

(I later found it mixed in with another WIP of partially completed blocks. So this one gets its own photo.)

Then with some of those same 3.5 and 2 inch scraps I used to make baskets I made some Buckeye Beauties that finish at six inches.  I started these last month too. 

I started those Buckeye Beauties because they will use some of the same 3.5 and 2.5 inch scraps as the baskets and I'll also use some shirt pieces as well as some red and black chunks.  I had three bags (yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full) like the one shown here full of shirt scraps left over from making a couple of other quilts. I've been going through those scraps and I've been cutting squares or 1.5 inch strips or 2.5 x 3.5 pieces for some other quilts. Two bags down and one to go!! 

I also made a few dark cornered Wishing Rings. I have been making these for a couple of years. They finish at 3.5 inches. I want 312 of these blocks with dark corners and 312 with light corners and have over 200 of each so I'm hoping this is the year I make my goal.   I have been cutting the center and four corners from 3.5 inch scraps. I cut a 2 inch piece and two 1.5 inch pieces. Then I cut 1.5 inches off of the 2 inch piece and square it up. The 2 inch piece is the center of the Wishing Ring and the 1.5 square goes into the postage stamp scrap box. Then I cut the two 1.5 inch pieces into four 1.5 inch squares for the four corners. I then have very little waste from a 3.5 inch scrap.   The sides of the Wishing Rings are cut from 1.5 inch scraps. 

So, as you can see I got three different blocks from each 3.5 scrap and two of those blocks used the 2 inch scrap. 

Then this is what happened to the rest of the original 3.5 inch scrap. I have some HSTs for the Parts Dept. because when I cut my HST for the basket I used an Easy Angle Ruler and cut two HST parts rather than leave a slanted cut on my scrap.  I then cut off a 2.5 x 3.5 piece to go into a bag of pieces that size I'm saving for a quilt. I am aiming for 800-2.5 x 3.5 pieces and as of today I have 400.  Then I cut the rest of the scrap into 3.5 inch squares for who knows what.  I'm just trying to turn almost all my scraps into squares now.  And if there was not enough for a square it was sewn into a strip. I have a box of those strips in various widths and colors now and at year end I'll make a Chinese Coins quilt. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

The Farm (aka Down and Dirty Gardening)

My July OMG (One Monthly Goal) is to put a green pieced border around...

...The Farm (aka Down and Dirty Gardening). I thought I finished the top back in February 2019 (can you believe I started it back in 2014?) but it has never really seemed finished to me so I put this UFO in a box along with some green fabrics I thought might be good for a border. 

A few days ago I was looking for some green leafy fabrics to add a skinny sashing between my Four Patch Posies and couldn't find any. I knew I had some then I looked at my UFO list and remembered I had some tucked away with The Farm (aka Down and Dirty Gardening).   

So that led me to my July OMG, which like I said, is to add a border to The Farm (aka Down and Dirty Gardening) with some of those green leafy and floral fabrics.   Then after that with those fabrics freed up I'll reward myself with some bonus points and a smiley face if I get some green sashing added to my Four Patch Posies. 

And then I MAY even get The Farm (aka Down and Dirty Gardening) pin basted, quilted and bound because I already have a backing fabric although I'm not sure there's enough now that I'm adding borders to the top but we'll see how it goes. First I need borders! Sounds like a goal to me! 

OMG (One Monthly Goal) at Elm Street Quilts.