Tales From The Scrap Yard: Top #4

Double Four Patch

42  x 54

This is top #4 made mostly from some of the green scraps given to me a few weeks ago. 

As seen previously on Tales from the Scrap Yard: 

Backstory and Quilt Tops #1-#3

I made this one to use some precut scraps in the bag that were 3.5 and 2 inches wide. 

I supplemented those scraps with some 3.5 and 2 inch wide scraps still sitting on my cutting mat left over from making last month's green Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks. 

I also had a few scraps of green left in my 2 inch scrap bin that went into the quilt top. 

 And I also used some precut 3.5 inch lime green and bright green squares I received last year from a quilty friend. 

More tales to come!

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Dove In The Window

In the past I used to make my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks from scraps in bins stored by fabric width. I've emptied most of those by making quilts and now I'm working from scrap chunks sorted by color. "Chunks" are larger than a 4.5 width of fabric and less than a Fat Quarter (FQ). 

This month's RSC color is light and bright blue. But I used all shades of blue floral scraps to make my Dove in the Window blocks. I started making these late last year so I'm hoping I'll have enough of these 10.5 inch finished blocks in a rainbow of colors by year end for a nice big vintage-y looking quilt.

A few blocks each month from scraps and before you know it...a quilt is born! 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

It's a Finish!

It's a finish! 

64 x 80

I finished the top back in June 2020. 

I made it to use up scraps left over from making Whirlwind (aka Twirla) and I also added in scraps from the 2.5 inch and 4.5 inch scrap bins that have since been emptied making quilts. (I also finished the Whirlwind top back in June 2020 but it still has not been quilted). 

I had some purple variegated thread on hand so used it to quilt in some swirls. Oh, the quilting goes so smoothly on my new DSM (Brother PQ1500SL)! No tension problems, no tension headaches, no skipped stiches, Oh, joy!

I had just enough polka dot fabric left over from the backing to make the binding. 

I picked up the backing fabric quite a few years ago at Hobby Lobby. It was in the clearance bin for $4 per yard so I bought all that was left to use as backings on donation quilts. Well, I think in the past I used about 1.5 yards on the back of a small donation quilt and put the remaining fabric back on the shelf I keep with a few backing fabrics. I saw this in my backings and noticed it had some of the same colors as the quilt...purple, yellow, aqua, gray. Perfect! When I took it off the shelf I thought for sure there would not be enough of it. But, lo and behold, there was just enough for backing and binding. It was meant to be!

And now it is ready for giving or gifting! 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

 

Working On It!

This time of year I spend a lot of time in the garden. On garden breaks I do some sewing and on sewing breaks I do some gardening. 

Some days on garden breaks I'll cut a bunch of pieces for a bunch of different blocks. Then the next day I might chain piece all of those blocks. I end up with a giant pile behind the sewing machine. Then the next day I sew all of the rows of the chain pieced blocks together. 

Then I end up with a big pile of ironing so that is what I will do on garden breaks tomorrow...iron. 

Then I will end up with several days of blog posts! I think there are about five different projects in there. 

And so it goes...

 

Wednesday Wandering

Well, it's finally time for some blooms around here. I have about five different kinds of Daffodils scattered here and there throughout the flower gardens. These clumps need to be divided this year. And those old canes sticking up out of them are from some Marshmallows that have become invasive no matter how many of them I dig out each year. 

I should cut some and bring them inside. I'm always too tired at the end of the day when I think of that so they probably won't make it inside to a vase before they quilt blooming. 

A rusty old fairy watches over the Bloodroot so I don't forget where it is. 

I want to dig some up and put it in the native wildflower garden I've been working on. After reading about the best time to transplant I'm not sure I want to move it anymore. Touching it can cause a rash and supposedly burn and erode the skin leaving scars. Yikes! I don't know how I managed to plant it ages ago without any problems. 

I used to have a bunch of Hyacinth but they seem to have disappeared. I found a couple of sickly looking ones near the Bloodroot. 

There's a sea of Scilla in the flower gardens. They are rather invasive but they don't hurt anything, keep the weeds down and look wonderful in masses. They are always covered with little bees or maybe they are hover flies. I don't really know because I don't want to poke my nose down in there to take a good look. 

Species Tulips. 

Remember all the seeds I winter sowed back in January and left out in the snow and ice? 

They are all starting to sprout now. Well, not all, but most of them are up now and I've already planted that Flashback Calendula and the Old Spice Sweet Peas. I usually plant my Sweet Peas right into the ground but the last few years I think something has eaten my seeds before they even sprout. I think that is probably ants carrying my seeds away because there sure are a lot of ants in the ground around here. Then any seeds that do sprout seem to get eaten by deer or rabbits. So, I tried winter sowing them in containers so maybe I will have sweet peas again this year. Stay tuned. 

Some of the flowers will go into my new native wildflower area, some will go into the herb garden and some will go into the old flower gardens. 

I'm so excited! 

Over 30 years ago I read in an old Farmer's Almanac that potatoes should be planted around Good Friday. Don't ask me why. But ever since I read that I have planted my potatoes around Good Friday. It is kind of a tradition around here.  Each of those red flags represents a potato hill. Yes, I LOVE potatoes! 

Well, this doesn't look like much and it's a little weedy right now but this is my Strawberry patch. I noticed something (deer, rabbits, squirrels?) eating the new leaves as they sprouted up. Well, I read that maybe putting plastic forks here and there in the patch will keep the varmints out. So, it may look weird but I think they are working. Stay tuned. 

These three rows are the Onion patch. Some will be keepers and some will be green onions. I buy onion sets. For green onions they get planted deep and right next to each other. For keepers they hardly get buried and are set about 3-4 inches apart. The birds like to pull the onion sets out of the ground so I have to check every day and replant whatever they have pulled up. Yes, we eat a lot of onions. 

The Rhubarb is growing and needs to be weeded. It looks like I need to water it too. The ground is very dry and we have not had any April showers yet. Maybe today?

Hope all is well in your world. Have a wonderful day!

 

Tales From The Scrap Yard

On March 24 I met up for the first time with a fellow Stashbuster , Candra, who also lives in Iowa about 1.5 hours away from me. She had sent me an email asking if I wanted some scraps. Seriously?? I LOVE scraps. Candra even offered to deliver but a friend went with me and we drove west to meet her at a quilt shop and then we went to lunch. I had a delightful visit with Candra and stuffed the back of my friend's car with several bags of Candra's scraps. I couldn't wait to get home to the Scrap Yard and sort through them. I kind of analyzed all of the bags of the scraps first in order to figure out the best way to sort through them. In the past I used to sort through scraps I received and throw them into bins I stored by scrap width. But I emptied most of those scrap bins last year.  I sorted Candra's scraps into bags by color and then within those bags I sorted by fabric width. I also ended up with a bag of orphans and another of oddly shaped scraps because I think Candra made a lot of masks and surgical caps in the past year. There was also a plastic jar of bonus triangles not yet sewn together. 

When all was sorted I started with the bag of green scraps. I thought it would be fun to document what all will be made from this bag of scraps. My goal is to make donation quilts roughly of the size 40 x 60. 

First I took out the biggest piece of yardage and put it in with my camping/wildlife themed fabrics. I also took out some 1.5 inch pieces with roses and put those with my rose themed scraps. 

Then I took out the pieces that were at least five inches in width. On the right hand side are some of my own scraps that are 5 inches wide. I decided to add those so I would have enough scraps to make some large Churn Dash blocks - real scrap eaters. 

I made twelve Churn Dash variation blocks that finish at 13.5 inches. 

I added a 3 inch border to the top and bottom with my scraps and ended up with a quilt 40.5 x 60. 

The next scraps that came out of the bag were a bunch of 1.5 inch width scraps...

...some 2.5 inch width scraps and some 5 inch scraps left over from making Churn Dash blocks that I cut into 5 inch squares. 

I first framed the five inch squares with 1.5 x 5 inch  and 1.5 x 7 inch scraps...

...and then added a frame of 2.5 inch width scraps. I made 24 blocks that finished at 10.5 inches. 

In a 4 x 6 layout the quilt ended up 42 x 63 inches.

So...I made a mistake when I cut the 1.5 inch scraps for that previous quilt. I was thinking my center square was 4.5 inches instead of 5 inches so I cut some lengths at 6.5 inches instead of 7 inches. So, I decided to make another quilt to use those 6.5 inch pieces. Along with the 6.5 lengths of 1.5 inch width of scraps I found some 4.5 inch width of scraps in the green Candra scrap bag and cut those into 4.5 x 6.5 inch pieces. And in the brown bag of Candra scraps I remembered there were a whole lot of brown 1.5 inch strips. I cut those into 6.5 inch lengths. 

Then I made 32 blocks that consisted of four green strips bordered by two brown strips and I made 31 blocks that consisted of a 4.5 x 6.5 inch scrap bordered by two brown strips. 

I alternated blocks in a 7 x 9 layout and ended up with a little quilt 42 x 54. 

So, so far that makes 3 little green quilts from a grocery bag of scraps. But wait! There's still more green scraps in the bag. I'm not going to move on to another color until the green bag is empty so there will be more tales from the Scrap Yard coming soon!

Oh, Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

 

Some Assembly Required

Sixteen Patches made of homespuns and old shirts. 

I now have seventeen blocks that finish at 12 inches. That's enough blocks for an alternate block for some 12 inch Sawtooth Stars. 

Now both Sawtooth Stars and Sixteen Patches are in the "Some Assembly Required" box of complete block sets ready to be assembled into quilt tops. 

The last several months my OMG (One Monthly Goal) has been to assemble at least one top from the "Some Assembly Required" box. And so far I've completed my OMG. So no reason to change a good thing goal. So once again...

In April I hope to complete at least one quilt top from the following block sets in the "Some Assembly Required" box: 

Sunny Lanes

Animal Crackers II

Pastel Roses

Peacock Feathers

Wedding Rings

16 Patch

Sawtooth Stars and Sixteen Patch

Plus Postage

Eclectic Flower Garden

So now to get on with it. No time for April foolin' around! 

April OMG at Elm Street Quilts