String Stars

String Stars

12 inch finished blocks

"Strings and Things" has been the theme in my sewing space this month to move UFOs and scraps forward.  I started making these String Stars last year to use the shortest and skinniest of strings left after using longer and wider strings in other quilts.   Now that I have finished these 5 Stars I have my goal of 12 and need to go make some wild and crazy sashing to go with them. 

And sew on...

Finished OR NOT FINISHED Friday at Alycia Quilts

 

Strings In Another Wonky Log Cabin

Strings and Things 

is the theme in my sewing space this month.

I'm working on moving three UFOs with strings forward as well as reduce my boxes of strings.

Wonky Log Cabin Blocks

9 inch finished

I'm aiming for a set of 48 blocks for a 6 x 8 layout. Yesterday I made 12 blocks but I'm putting wonky log making on pause for a couple of days to work on some other things. 

Not sure which log cabin layout I will use when I assemble the blocks.  Here I'm showing them as Sunshine and Shadows but I'm thinking I'll probably end up with Fields and Furrows. 

Why 9 inch (finished) blocks?

I like to square up the Wonky Log Cabin blocks with a square ruler and as my blocks get bigger I can lay them on the square and see what size string I need for the last round.  I have 4.5,6.5,9.5 and 12.5 inch square rulers.  So 9 inches is what I chose for this set of blocks. 

I'm using 2.5 red scraps with stars for the centers. 

These blocks will use most of the neutral strings I have and most of the rest of the strings except for some shorter ones that might join the crumbs for some crumb blocks some day.

And sew on...

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Finished a book! Cold Hunt  -- Ellie Kline Series: Book Two by Mary Stone and Donna Berdel. It is a psychological series thriller. Immediately after I finished Book Two I started the third in the series of fourteen. Ellie Kline is a Charleston PD detective who investigates cold cases. She is the victim of one of those cold cases!

 

Strings in a Wonky Log Cabin Top

It's a top!

Wonky Log Cabin

48 x 60

"Strings and Things" is the theme in my sewing space this month.  For this top I used novelty and bright long and wide strings.   I was looking through my squares bin to see if I had anything fun to use for the Log Cabin centers and found twenty-one 3.5 inch polka dot squares. I only needed 20 for my 12.5 inch unfinished blocks. 

I suppose some folks might get a headache from looking at this kitchen sink quilt but I've found my eyes don't need a place to rest. Kids usually like to look around and play "I Spy". 

And I still have strings. Hmmm...what will I do next? 

And sew on...

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Finished a book! Cold Truth  -- Ellie Kline Series: Book One by Mary Stone and Donna Berdel. It is a psychological series thriller. Immediately after I finished Book One I started the second in the series of fourteen. Ellie Kline is a Charleston PD detective who investigates cold cases. She is the victim of one of those cold cases!

 

Still Pulling Strings

"Strings and Things" is the theme in my sewing space this month. I started these Spider Web blocks last year so I started out the month with 14 blocks. My goal is 35 and I'm almost there and might be able to assemble a quilt top before month end. 

And sew on...

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Making do.

It is so very cold. Right now 3 with wind chill of -13. Its 64 in the house.  I go grocery shopping every 2 weeks or so but I guess it will be 3 weeks or so before I get to the store this time. I'm not going out in this cold. I can make do with the food I have on hand. I still have potatoes and onions from the garden as well as some canned tomatoes and frozen garden veggies. I always stay stocked up on pastas and dried beans and rice. And so I can always make different soups to get me through a week's worth of lunches and dinners and I can always make bread to go with if I'm in the mood although since hubby is unable to swallow and doesn't eat meals a whole loaf of homemade bread is a bit much for me.  I guess I could freeze half a loaf.  And using the oven might warm it up a bit in here. I usually eat oatmeal with dried cranberries or raisins for breakfast and I have enough of that for a week or so. And I can also make pancakes. So, anyway, I'm going to make do with what I have on hand because I'm not going out in the cold!

Update - Tuesday, Feb. 18, 7:30 a.m.

Temperature is -11. Wind chill is -28. Temperature in this old house in the country is 59.

 

Big Stitch Hand Quilting

I've been doing some big stitch hand quilting on my "Roses in December" quilt top I finished back in December 2021.  It's a big 86 x 103 so it is nice to have on my lap keeping me warm while I'm quilting. I'm not using a hoop for this one. For now I'm stitching an eyeballed 1/4 inch or so on each side of all the very long seam lines. 

The Dec. 2021 blog post with a pic of the whole quilt if interested.  

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. " - J.M. Barrie

Singing The Blues - Verse 3

Sixteen Patch

6 inch blocks

I now have 99 out of a goal of 120 blocks or 130 blocks if there's enough scraps for that many. 

I started making these last year (or was it year before?) to use up a lot of 2 inch width strips as well as a little pile of chunks of green.  So I've been making them a few each month with scraps in the color of the month alternating with greens. 

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for February is blue. I have a lot of  blue scraps to use this month. I actually use scraps to make my RSC blocks and usually have blocks going for any width size scrap I come across. I have a few folks who share their scraps with me and when I receive them I usually sort them by width size if smaller scraps that are less than a fat quarter. If larger than a fat quarter they are sorted by color and put with yardage of same color.   This week I worked mostly with scraps in a bin of 2 inch width scraps. 

Going where the scraps take me!

 Easy Breezy

6 inch finished

Using 2 inch width scraps in RSC color and one other plus neutral scraps. 

Bonnie Hunter Tutorial

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

I received a box of treasure yesterday from Sherron. It was full of some of some orphan blocks and fabric. I have to say most of the orphan blocks are hand appliqued and very beautiful. Won't they make some gorgeous comfort quilts! 

SAHRR Round Four on Five Row Quilts

I am participating in the 2025 Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR).

As I mentioned in a previous post...

I am going to use the weekly prompts to make 5 kiddo sized row quilts. 

The prompt this week -Add "Slice and Insert" blocks.

To this quilt I added 4 inch squares pulled out of my 30s reproduction scraps.  I sliced the squares into 2.5 and 1.5 pieces and inserted a 1 inch x 4 inch strip between the two pieces. I know that a 1 inch strip inserted into any size block will keep the block at the original size. In this case that is a 4 inch square. 

I added a row to the top...

...and to the bottom and now this quilt measures 40 x 57 inches so I think I'm finished with this quillt since I was aiming for close to 40 x 60 inches. 

I kind of cheated on this one. Instead of "slice and insert" I added a "slice and shuffle" block - Wonky Windmills. 

Each six inch (finished) Wonky Windmills is made with 4 rectangles 3.5 x 4 inches - 2 each of 2 different fabrics.  Then stack two rectangles on top of each other, slice from the 4 inch side to the other 4 inch side then move the top piece on the right side of the pile to the bottom. Sew the two sides together to yield two units of the 4 needed for the Wonky Windmill. 

I used a chunk of road sign fabric to make the Windmills. 

The Elephants got a row of six inch finished Wonky Crosses on top. 

I used the same scraps I used in the Friendship Stars in the bottom row.  I cut 6.5 inch squares and made horizontal and vertical slices and inserted 1 inch strips. 

The Construction Zone quilt got some "Do Not Enter" signs added. 

At first I made 5 blocks all in yellow and red - 8.5 inch squares sliced on the diagonals with 1 inch red strips inserted.  But all of that yellow kind of overwhelmed the quilt. 

Then, in with the bits and pieces I collected to add to this quilt, I found two 9 inch squares that had the words "construction and work" plus some vehicles on it. I cut the two squares down to 8.5 inch squares and did a slice and insert on them.  

You may or may not remember that last week I added some 10.5 inch Friendship Stars to this quilt and then I declared it finished at 56 inches.  Well...now I'm declaring it unfinished. I took off the Friendship Stars. I didn't like the addition of those Stars to the top and bottom of the quilt. They just seemed too big and dark to match the rest of the quilt.  I will use those Friendship Stars in another quilt. 

So I kind of took this week's prompt and added a top and bottom border. Someone had given me four 6 inch wide strips of that red polka dot fabric that I used on each side of that center border. I took one of those strips and cut it into two 3 inch strips. Then I cut (sliced) each 3 inch strip into two 1.5 inch strips and inserted a 1.5 inch strip in between.  I added those strips to the top and bottom of the quilt. 

Then I made five 8 inch finished Sawtooth Stars to replace the Frienship Stars I ripped off the quilt. 

I made the Stars out of Scottie Dog and green plaid fabrics to sort of echo that center border.  Right now I'm not going to add my Star row. I can add 8 inches to the top and bottom of the quilt and reach my desired size.  I'm going to wait and see what prompts 5 and 6 are and see if I can make other 8 inch blocks out of Scottie Dogs and plaid to mix in with the Stars for my top and bottom rows. 

I'm ready for round 5 on Monday!

And sew on...

See all the other SAHRR quilts in blog land at the Round 4 Linky Party

And this post is for the "not finished" category of 

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Finished a book! - The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. While mudlarking a woman finds a small bottle with a bear inscribed on it. She researches the bottle and learns it came from a very old 1790s apothecary shop that dispensed poisons to women who wanted to do away with the men who wronged them.