There's a Hole in the Barn Door and other Tales from the Scrap Bag

 I've got two quilt tops ready for donation but won't be able to get to finishing them until the new year. I have some Christmas gifts to finish up first.  Last year I donated quilt blocks to Heartstrings Quilt Project  during their challenge and this year I will be sending quilts to both Wrap a Smile and Wrap Them in Love.  I have a lot of scraps so hope to make at least one quilt a month for donation just from scraps although I will have to buy some batting and probably some backing fabrics.

 Hole in the Barn door was made from some 6.5 inch blocks I had left over from some swaps on the I Spy Yahoo Group.  Some of the backgrounds were old calicos I've had around for a long time.

 You will find all sorts of things going on if you peep through that hole in the barn door.

 I especially like the disco frogs ;-)

 The other quilt top I've shown before as blocks. I have them sewn together now - string blocks with gray centers.

And those are the tales from the scrapbag.

Grandma's Sewing Room (Spools Block) - It's a Flimsy

I've hand sewn together all the points I didn't think met right, ripped off the border and added a think black inner border and now my UFO is a flimsy that I think will go back to being a UFO until after Christmas since I need to get some more Christmas gifts finished.

 And, this Grandma's sewing room (notice I don't have a "studio") is full of other things besides spools like jars of buttons, peanuts...

...jars of M and Ms and, I don't know if you can see them or not...but this Grandma even has a few spiders and spider webs in her sewing room.

I'm not sure of what to use for the back and was contemplating bow tie blocks made of black and sewing themed fabrics for the back to make it a reversible quilt but these look kind of blah but I could make a separate quilt out of them and maybe embroidery sewing related items in the center. Hmmm... decisions, decisions...

And since this is a UFO turned flimsy I'm linking up at Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project - UFO Sunday.    This is the second UFO I've been motivated to work on. And thanks to the UFO Sundays I've got one UFO finish (Spider Web Quilt)

I'm also linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

Telltale Hearts

I believe pieces...

...unite to make a whole...with a heart. I believe this is a quilt before the final stitch has been taken and a label attached.

Who are these women who want the right to silence the beating heart?  And after the silence do they hear the beating of the telltale heart?

Looking for Fun and Feeling Groovy (and Nostalgic).

Remember the '70s? Long hair, no bra, flowers in your hair! 

 Did you drive a VW bug like I did? My first car - a 1969 VW beige beetle. Remember "slug a bug, no return"?

 Peace, love, and flowers...

 And even more peace, love and flowers.

 Happy block quilts aren't just for kids. This one is for my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas. Peace, baby. I'm feeling groovy. Can you dig it? I think they will think it lots of fun.

And the local thrift store had a perfect backing. It's been here in a pile for about 2 years waiting for the perfect quilt.

I have fond memories of the 70s. We had two children in the 70s, got married (yes, in that order), bought our first house (3 bedroom, 2 bath for $32,000.00) and lived in Florida at the time just a short walk from the beach. Ah, to be young again! (I still have long hair and prefer to go braless ;-)

Linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion Quilting by the River. 

Grandma's Sewing Room

The UFO I've been working on a little bit here and there for the last couple of weeks has been my spools quilt aka "Grandma's Sewing Room" .   I didn't have enough blocks to complete the top but now I'm glad to say I have a lap quilt flimsy.  Spools are 6.5 inch and all are red, black and aqua.  There's a few other blocks in this quilt so I don't want to show the entire flimsy just yet. 

Unfortunately, I'm my own quilt police. It bothers me when things don't come together quite right. I can live with a little wonky, but not much. This quilt is just for me and I know I will always look at it and know where the "bad spots" are.  So, I put a pin at those spots (see below) . I will rip and hand sew these spots back together again until it meets my own standards.

 And speaking of ripping...I added a border of sewing items. I've added the border to the two sides. I think I should have added a thin black border before I added the border seen here. So, I'm stalled for now.

I have to figure out how to quilt my Attic Windows now. I don't want to destroy the 3D effect. Any ideas??? 

Linking up at Sew Many Ways, Sew Darn Crafty linky party and UFO Sunday at Free Motion Quilting. and Patchwork Times' Design Wall Monday. 

There's a Hole in the Barn Door and other Tales from the Stash Pile

Today I sewed on quilts for donation and am trying to use up scraps and stash.  Easily bored I switched back and forth between 3 different quilts.

I made 7 (13 to go) Hole in the Barn Door 12 inch blocks using some 6.5 inch squares I have on hand from various  I Spy type swaps.  These blocks will go to either Wrap a Smile or Wrap Them in Love. 

I also made 5 more crumby stars and...

...I also made 42 - 12 inch Rail Fence blocks (white, gray, blue)  from scraps and stash that I will probably assemble for the Hurricane Sandy quilt drive started by Victoria Findlay Wolf of Bumble Beans.  

Tomorrow I need to work on some Christmas gifts.

Feeling Crumby

As much as I want to follow along again with everyone quilting one of Bonnie Hunter's (Quiltville)  mysteries, I won't be participating this year. I still have the last two mysteries, Roll, Roll Cotton Boll and Orca Bay still sitting on my UFO table unquilted.  Instead I feel this urge to get rid of some scraps. Small scraps. String scraps. Really small scraps. Big scraps. Cute scraps. Ugly scraps. I really can't bring myself to waste anything, especially fabric (yes, I'm a hoarder).  So, instead of starting a new mystery which I will leave sitting unquilted for years I'm going to use that time I would have spent using scraps. And, the results will be donation quilts.  I have various places to send them now.  I wonder how many quilts I'll get finished and donated that are made from scraps.

Today's 4.5 inch crumb blocks - 20 of them. 

 And some crumb stars. 

Feeling crumby.

Linking up at Sew Many Ways...Sew Darn Crafty