Guess What!

Guess what! 

(No, not chicken butt)

I've finished my current 20 minute challenge. I challenge myself to work at least 20 minutes a day on a UFO that has blocks that are rather boring or tedious to make.  That UFO has been Clarissa which has been inspired by a quilt made by Clarissa White Alford that I saw back in 2016 at Kathy's Quilts. 

I now have 36 twelve inch blocks that consist of 36 two inch hourglasses. That's a total of 1296 hourglasses and a total of 5184 pieces. 

I've been looking around in my stash for something to use for sashing. I don't have a lot of pieces of yardage of any length but I did figure I could use this rose themed fabric since it has some blues and pinks in it just like the blocks. I usually don't dither a lot and just go with the first thing I find in the stash but after all the work of making all those hourglasses 20 minutes each day I didn't want them to get lost in the quilt. The roses are too busy I think. 

I have a lot of pieces of Kona Snow that I  have on hand as background fabric for my 30s reproduction prints. I think I will use that for the sashing. 

Now I need to do some sashing through the snow.

What's On My Plate?

Since I finished hand quilting the quilt that was in my hoop and since it is getting warmer (well, it was getting warmer it is actually unseasonably cool today) I will enjoy some smaller hand work projects for the next few months.  I've picked up where I left off on my crocheted squares I started last September. Eventually they will be joined together like Granny Squares into a throw. 

The squares are made from rose themed 4.5 inch scraps. I have several partial spools of pink  #10 crochet cotton that I'm using for the crochet and blanket stitch.  When I run out of rose themed scraps then I guess I will have enough squares at that point. When I run out of pink crochet cotton I guess I'll move on to another color.  In the meantime I guess I can start blocking the 16 squares I have finished. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Pinks

This week I dug into the 2 inch scrap bin and found I didn't have many pink scraps in there so cut some 2 inch strips from my scrap chunks to make my Single Wedding Ring blocks that finish at 7.5 inches. Yes, I see that ooopsie too. 

Speaking of wedding rings...my husband and I celebrated 47 years of marriage on June 7. Well, we didn't really celebrate since neither of us ever knows what date it is any more let alone what day it is but I noticed the date on the computer when the 7th had passed by.  Forty-seven years seems like such a long time but wasn't it only yesterday we were married and I was a young girl? 

I also made four Sixteen Patch blocks for my collection. They are made from 2 inch scraps and finish at 6 inches. I've been making them for several years when I have the scraps and I'm aiming for a total of 130 blocks. 

Speaking of pinks...here are some of my Pinks (or Dianthus) in bloom in the fairy garden. I started these from seeds about three years ago and planted them in a ring around the fairy garden which is in a circle and has lots of low growing or alpine plants in it as well as a fairy door in the base of a sundial.  Every once in awhile I may even see a fairy or two. The Pinks are a perennial variety and have a sweet scent. They are evidently called Pinks because the flowers have frilly edges that look like they were cut with pinking sheers (if you have an imagination). 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

It's a Finish! Blind Man's Fancy Tea in the Rose Garden

It's a finish! 

Blind Man's Fancy Tea in the Rose Garden

90 x 90

Hand quilted

The block is Blind Man's Fancy. I used a free pattern by Beth Donaldson.

I used lots of rose and tea themed fabrics so that is why I called my quilt Blind Man's Fancy Tea in the Rose Garden. 

Lots of hand quilting and a scrappy binding. What are the odds that part of the scrappy binding would end up next to a Flying Geese sashing in the same fabric? That happened in two places. 

I wish I could show you some photos of roses in my rose garden but the deer must have had them on the menu this week because after rains for a couple of days  I went out and found all my rose buds gone and most of the rose bushes eaten down to the ground. I saw three little Bambis out there in the middle of the day making a bleating sound. They may be the culprits.  Usually I don't see deer in the middle of an afternoon. I didn't know deer made any bleating sounds so looked up and found that may mean they have lost their mother. If only they would lose their appetite!!

This is a Wild Rose which is the state flower of Iowa. Actually it is an invasive weed but I just let this one grow where a fairy planted it over in a shady area near the barn under some trees where not much else grows. Deer evidently don't find them as delicious as my cultivated roses. 

Well, back to the quilt. This is the pieced backing. 

Look closely and you will see women at a tea party!  I bought this fabric a long time ago when Hancock Fabrics was going out of business and finally found the perfect use for it. 

Getting this to the finish line was my June OMG (One Monthly Goal)  so at the end of the month I will link up to the finishing party at Elm Street Quilts. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Leftovers

After I finished my Dashing Through the 30s quilt top I had a bunch of five inch strips of 30s reproduction fabric scraps.  Scraps leftover from making a scrappy quilt. What to do? What to do?? 

Then I happened to see Ann's (Fret Not Yourself) post about Indian Hatchet blocks. I loved the way she arranged her blocks in streamers or ribbons and decided that is what I would make with my scraps. Ann made her blocks with 5.5 inch squares and 3 inch corners. I decided to use 5 inch squares but wasn't sure what size corners to use. 

I consulted my Block Tool and there was no block size made with five inch squares. In fact the Block Tool doesn't call for squares. Now as much as I don't like making "flippy corners" I really don't think I would like cutting that center piece at angles. 

Hey, I have a drawer full of 30s reproduction 2.5 inch scraps. I think I'll use 2.5 inch squares for the corners. 

So I made 47 Indian Hatchet blocks from my 5 inch and 2.5 inch scraps. Then I figured out how many blocks I would need for a nice throw quilt. 

Let's see how they look as ribbons. Hmmm...not sure. And there's definitely not enough contrast on those fruity blocks. Good thing I haven't trimmed anything yet. 

Well, I could always arrange them as Xs like this...

...or Os like this...

...or Xs and Os like this...

...or stretched stars like this...

And then funny thing...I started seeing versions of Indian Hatchet all over. 

I saw a wonky version at Gretchen's Little Corner and I saw a completely different layout at Diann's  Little Penguin Quilts and Diann had started making blocks because she saw Mari at the Academic Quilter making them. 

Then I moved on to the scraps leftover from making my scrappy Whirlwind top.    I decided to make a variation of Squares and Strips found at Cluck Cluck Sew.   From the Whirlwind scraps I cut fifteen 8.5 inch squares and forty-three 2.5 x 8.5 strips. And I had a few strings left that went into the string box. 

Then I dug into my 2.5 and 4.5 inch scrap bins and scrap chunks and cut pieces for more 8.5 inch squares and 20 framed squares and...

...more 2.5 x 8.5 rectangles...

...and I cut pieces for some Four Patches and Sixteen Patches.  I kept with the same color scheme I used in Whirlwind. Now I have all the pieces necessary to sew up the four different blocks for my version of the Cluck Cluck Sew quilt Strips and Squares. 

I planned this year to use my scraps right away after I make a scrappy quilt. I have not been very good at that goal but I'm working on it. 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Still in the Pink

 This week I worked with my 2.5 inch pink scraps because pink is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. 

I made three Dakota Farmer 8 inch blocks. 

 And then I made six Hourglass blocks that finish at six inches. 

 Then I cut the rest of the pink 2.5 inch scraps into 2.5 x 3.5 rectangles for a quilt that will require 800 of those little rectangles.  Then I cut squares for some unknown future project. Then I sewed the pieces that were less than a 2.5 inch square into strips for a future Chinese Coins quilt. 

Then I grabbed a couple of pink scrap chunks and made two Churn Dashes that finish at 14 inches. 

Now I need to check out the 2 inch scrap bin and see what I scraps I have. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

It's a Flimsy!

Whirlwind is my name for the quilt. 

 

Twirla is the name of the excellent quilt tutorial I found at Butterfly Threads.  (I changed the name of my quilt because Twirla is also the name of a contraceptive patch and a Umbra trash can). 

70 x 84

Hopefully I will get this finished in time for a Christmas gift. 

I was inspired by the colors in this fabric which I think I will piece with other fabrics for the backing. I always wanted to make a quilt in these colors. I didn't have enough purples, yellows (I wish my yellows were more on the goldish side) and grays to make the blocks so I also added in aqua fabrics. 

These 14 inch blocks were fun and easy to make. 

I may have to make another quilt in a different colorway.  

There were a few scraps left over and I already know how I'll use them. I'll share in a future post. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More